Lisa of the beautiful stamped sterling jewellery did a post where you open your photo files, choose the 6th folder and the 6th image in that folder.  I couldn’t resist following her lead and found this picture.

Fireman took it last fall, on one of what became our regular walks, getting to know each other.  Did you know then (as I did) that we’d be married within the year?

Then, the sweetie, he  had it framed for me as a Christmas present.  That’s Jax and I on Crescent Beach in the late afternoon, one dry Sunday in November 2007.  One of those rare, cold, windy and sunny days in Vancouver where everyone (and their dog) has to get out and enjoy it. Crescent Beach is a dog-free zone (booo) from May to October when all the fair-weather folks come out, but the rest of the years is ours!

My darling husband, who I here shall call Fireman, is a motorcycle rider.  In all but a few weeks of the year, that can be a cold trip.   He’s always had a neckwarmer to try to ward off the wind a bit, but it’s never done a great job.  It was simply the neck cut off an old turtleneck – good idea but not as effective as he’d like.  Knowing that I don’t need much encouragement to sew things, he asked if I’d make him a new one. 

Perhaps he had no idea what that simple request, with it’s lack of specific direction, did to me.  I figured it out on paper. I cut it out of muslin and modified it some more. Then I cut it out of some leftover Lightning McQueen fabric and backed the quilt sandwich with rip stop nylon.  And then, just because I was having the urge, I quilted it with my new walking foot. Then bound it in flames fabric and set up some velcro to fasten behind the neck. 

Now perhaps he was expecting something made of denim or tough camo fabric. Not red or cartoon-ey, but he loves it. He wears it with pride and has shown it off to his riding buddies.  He didn’t say it shouldn’t be quilted!

Just jump in and pretend I wasn’t away?  I’ve spent my time reading other blogs, sewing, and meeting the man of my dreams. and getting married. So just because I’ve not been here doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy – just the opposite in fact.

How do you explain how the day you met this new guy you knew he was the one? Never mind that he had creds you know, friend of a friend and all. What made me decide that this guy was worth an entire Saturday date, a lovely sunny fall day (and how rare are they?)  All the previous dates were low risk drinks-after-work, and each of them fell under the category of ninety-minutes-I-won’t-get-back.  

But new man, I somehow decided without real awareness, was worth an entire day.  Coffee at Tim Horton’s to start, then a walk with my dog around the lake. Then (really) my idea, the annual collector car show (I think that’s when he realized how truly great I was 😉  From there, back to his apartment so he could get changed for our dinner date… Then back to mine so I could get changed. On to an authentic Greek restaurant by the ocean, and a stroll down the seawall afterwards for our first kiss.  We’ve hardly been out of each other’s sight since then.

That was one year ago today… Oct 13 2007.  You’ve wondered where I’ve been?

Although my Facebook time has slowed (slightly) I am still tickled every time someone finds me, or I discover something new about one of my friends. Like today… I have reconnected with my grad date (from 20 years ago, yes) who was one of my best friends in school but not a boyfriend. He is now married with a beautiful daughter and lives fairly near me here in BC.  His wife owns a long arm quilting business. HELLO!?!?  Could that be more serendipitous? Now you may have noticed a lack of quilting posts on my blog recently. That is only because it is summer and I just can’t stand the volume of material all over me when I’m quilting in the heat… so it’s on a bit of a rest. 

So if you’re searching out a place to send your quilt, definitely give Karen a call. She’s not far from the border if you are making the trip up from Seattle.  You can find her website at Farmer’s Daughter Quilting. 

I am so excited that I’m looking foward to the cooler weather to get quilting again.

I am a recent inductee in the cult of Facebook. My brother finally persuaded me that I needed to create a profile and as soon as I did I was inundated with all sorts of friends linking to me. Friends from elementary school, Sunday school, high school, old jobs etc etc.  I resisted for so long, now I am calling my friends – “you’ve got to get on Facebook”.

It is the neatest thing to find these old friends. The people my age who sign onto Facebook are the ones who are most interested in reaching out to people so I have found it a very inclusive process.  As I keep updating my profile, I wonder just who is interested in the fact that I like Collective Soul and if I wouldn’t just be better off picking up a book. But I would never had that soul-affirming email from a young woman who remembered the 22-year old me as “as one of the coolest and sweetest women in the world “.  Nor would I have found out that the lovely guy who was not happy when his affections were not returned (14 years ago) is now married with a little one on the way.

Now I have to build the intestinal fortitude to not check Facebook ‘one more time’ before I go to bed/work/wash the dishes.  Step away from the computer. And I thought blogging time was getting out of hand!