My mom came for a visit this past weekend from Southern California. She was here with my dad and adopted brothers and sister for Goen's party last month, but this time was all about doing grandma stuff with Goen and mom stuff with me. She taught me how to make three of my favorite dishes from when I was a kid: lasagna, sweet and sour chicken, and potato salad (that last one handed down for generations, and changed just a bit each time). The other big thing we did together was start a sewing project. A quilt seemed like the classic mother/daughter project. We started with a charm pack of Rhoda Ruth I had in my fabric collection from a swap last year. Since a charm pack by itself isn't nearly enough to make a quilt, we made them larger by making on-point-star blocks (inspired by Blair Stocker's beautiful scrappy version). We only had a few short hours to get it started, but we did make some great progress. And now I have a simple project I can do on my machine whenever I have a few minutes to spare, which I love because there is something very satisfying about machine-sewing a few blocks and seeing so much progress. I haven't laid it out yet, though, so I don't know if I'll need to buy another charm pack to get the look I want. But it's all about the process on this one, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. But best of all is that it will always hold the memory of sewing with my mom.
