Behind the Scenes

Having made a classroom quilt once before, I knew what to expect with a household full of kids. Lots of fun, laughter and learning. But blog photos only tell a partial story. Making a quilt is also about building community--from our grandmothers who came together to stitch quilts for betrothed couples to the activist AIDS Memorial Quilt that has voyaged all over the nation. Even Portland has jumped into the foray. At City Hall, Mayor Hales unveiled a quilt made by local artists and businesses in honor of Decemberists Day.

Here are some memorable events that happened while making our quilt:

(Beneath this hard demeanor, exists triangles and triangles of puppy love.)

--The girls can eat! As in they polished off an enormous casserole dish filled with five-layer bean dip.

--The same number of boys only picked at theirs. And all their leftovers made two nights worth of dinners for the three of us.

--The faces the kids made when they hand-whipped the cream for their hot chocolates.

--Nerf guns were the universal toy, and in between quilt duties, the kids ran everywhere in the house engaged in Nerf gun wars.

--Whenever the girls arrived, one of the first questions asked was, "Where are those Nerf guns?"

(A short break to snack on grandma's treats.)

--Full disclosure:  one kid got shot in the eye with a Nerf bullet. The accidental perpetrator apologized profusely, however, the wounded had to go home. Sweet treats were delivered the next day and thankfully the eye was much better.

--Since the majority of the quilt making occurred during the holiday season, the kids discovered a Christmas gift from the cousins:  fart bombs.

--Fart bombs are more wretched than boiled cabbage and their rotten egg smell stays in the home for hours. The kids weren't allowed to play with fart bombs indoors.

--One boy detonated two fart bombs inside a bedroom. In his excitement, he grabbed the exploded packets and tried to chase a couple of kids--the terrible fart bomb juice flew all over the carpeting and the walls.

--One girl liked the fart bomb smell. A lot.

(Steadfast and fierce: the joy of making whipped cream.)

--Full disclosure, again:  after showing one kid how to use the rotary cutter, her mind wandered for just one second when--zip!--the cutter shaved off the skin and nail at the tip of her index finger. The wounded had to go down to the office for a band-aid to stop the bleeding. My hands are marked with all sorts of scars from this hobby. The lesson: sewing ain't for sissies.

--One evening after a group of quilt kids had left, our son said the day had been fun, but there was one problem: every kid had a crush on someone who was there. "They were all acting weird," he said.