A visit by Mister 8 year old

Must be time for another post before the week is gone again. The week after the Christmas retreat went so fast with Mister 8 here for part of his school holidays. He was kept very busy and in no time at all it was time to go home. (This little man is Grandchild number 5, so maybe I need to refer to them by number, as the ages will change each year.?? Some of them I refer to by name, but not all.)

Some of the retreat ladies were still here when he arrived, and he had the attention of lots of "grandma's".  Raylene helped him to build his lego truck, complete with a helicopter on the back.

He told me he wanted to make a quilt, and he came to the right place to do that, didn't he?
I thought that a rail fence would be a quick pattern for him to make, and told him to choose 4 colours, which did not take him long. Pat set up the quilt pattern in EQ and he rotated the blocks to see different layout designs.

And he wanted racing cars on it. But there was no racing car fabric in my collection, so we went shopping to find some.
I cut the strips for him to sew, and after a bit of practice he was off to a good start. Of course, the 1/4" foot does help little ones, (and big ones too!!) stay on track.

Woopsie, I think one of these might be upside down??

All the strip sets are cut and a few squares of car fabric, and time to lay them out. And this is the design he came up with, all by himself.

 The centre is sewn together, including a black border.

Time for the quilting, and Max is busy, doing an allover with a pattern called Broken Glass, which was his choice.

This was the progress on Thursday morning, and it was patchwork day. Our President, Pat, knew he was making a quilt, and phoned him to ask if he would come down to the meeting and show his quilt in the Show and Tell session. He did not need to be asked twice, and very proudly showed his quilt.

There was more show and tell by the members, including this hexagon quilt,.......

........................using Beatrix Potter fabrics.................

..................... and this quilt is amazing using lots of tiny (1" finished), halfsquare triangles........

.....................and some more zippered bags in progress.

On Friday is was time for Grandma to put the binding on, and then it was time for a trial run.

We managed to fit some baking into the week, and he was a great helper with the cake icing and the biscuits. I cooked a big batch of soup as well, and was delivered to family members on Saturday.

On Saturday morning we headed up the highway, while it was still dark. I delivered a quilt to a customer, and then Mister 8 year old was reunited with his mum, (DD1), after 6 days away. This is the first time he has stayed with me on his own, and we had a good week. I had thought about getting out into the garden for some much needed weeding time, but the weather brought very cold, stormy and wet conditions for most of the week. (He was quite happy not to do any weeding!)

My next stop was the home of DD2 and family, and then a visit to Miss Bridie and her parents. She has a birthday in a few days, and we had birthday time as I won't see her on the day. And then I called into see my mum and dad on my way through, and found that Dad was looking good. 

By the time I was home, it was dark again, and I soon lit the fire and headed to bed. Sunday was a very slow day, and after attending church in the morning, I took time out, and sat by the fire, and did nothing, except some sleep.

I have a few other things to blog about, but will do those in separate posts, so stay tuned for more.

Blessings, From Jude