Quilting Class and Hurricane Irene

Saturday at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ.  I made this!  Start to finish in one afternoon.  It's going to be on its way to my mother so she can have an indoor pumpkin without worrying about when it will turn to mush.  Thank you, Eva, who taught the class and who has the patience of a saint and many, many little tips and tricks that I hope I will remember.

The classroom at OCQ was crowded today.  While the Glorious Fall class was sewing away on one side, there was a group making quilt tops for Quilts of Valor.

My light-bulb moment for today was that quilters are nice people, I have met any surly, evil or mean-spirited people (with the exception of me and my classmates in the Learn-to-Quilt class the night we did machine appliqueing, but we came to class in  good moods) at the quilt shop.  Everyone tries to help each other, share and offer encouragement. 

The tide going out in the backyard.  The water was all the way up to the patio wall Sunday morning.

The far backyard swamp.

Checking out the backyard as the tide goes out.

What bored people without electricity do, manscaping.

Thea's watercolor rendering of her guinea pig, Gallileo

Sunday afternoon walk, something else to do when the electricity is out.

Thea's shot of the backyard Sunday morning, the sliver at the center back of the photo is the seat of a concrete bench.

Saturday night Hurricane Irene took our electricity sometime after 11 pm.  Kids were in bed, I was in the family room with my flashlight (still in its packaging) was on the stairs.  Nothing to do but put the batteries in the flashlight and go to bed.  In the year we've lived here, the power has never been out for very long.  Until now.  We were without power until the early hours of Tuesday morning.  Monday I went off to work with all my devices and their respective chargers.  Electricity, it turns out, is my Achilles heel.  I have a Kindle (with great battery life), laptops (so-so battery life), a Blackberry, an iPad and a camera and I love them all.  No more East Coast hurricanes, for this year at least, please.

No matter, we survived, give or take a few shreds of sanity or a few brain cells hear or there.  Overall we're lucky, I would not want to be living in Vermont right now.  Camp is over, we had a week at work with only two or three providers working, time to welcome the Labor Day holiday weekend.