Snow Day...AGAIN

Ugh... Snow day again. Actually, more like ice/sleet. I love having both boys home from school-it just stinks that the weather isn't nice for "playing in" IYKWIM. Where I grew up, a snow day was truly a snow day! We could have my dad take us around the neighborhood on the snowmobile or go to the fairgrounds and take off from the "ramp" to tool down the hill and make a crazy attempt to try and propel ourselves far enough along long enough to make it to the ice skating rink where one could further their wild ride. Such great memories I have of snow days like that. Just wish I had some of it captured in pictures. Sigh.
So, today we did some schoolwork (algebra, geography and more) and then Ian asked to make a quilt. What? Well, I said that would be fine-but that perhaps we should start with a small project; like a quilt block. He wasn't too excited that we weren't going to make a full quilt. I then began to explain to him all of the planning and measuring and work that goes into a quilt. I told him about his GGM on my dad's side who was always making a quilt of some type andwho would often get with other ladies for a quilting bee where they would gather at someone's house to work on one quilt together and they sewed it all by hand! (At this point Ian's mouth was on the floor). It is pretty amazing when you think of all of the time invested, effort and detail that went into these works of art, these pieces of comfort and warmth, these articles of history that mark an era that is completely different from today. A slower time. A time where people wouldn't plan weeks in advance to get toegether, but who would stop by for a spell and sip some sweet tea or lemonade on the fronch porch or on the breezeway (depending on where you lived). And yet, as I think of it, things have really changed since my grandmother's days of quilting bees...today many sew quilts by machines, and sew alone and not in a group. but, a new type of "bee" has evolved for my generation. It's called a scrapbooking crop...and I think it quite resembles the quilting bee of old-just a different mix of mediums-some which crossover to sewing and some that don't as well as the community of friends getting together to fellowship and talk about the latest news,, about family, about memories and about creating a bit of art that will be a great gift to one's family for years to come.
So, anyways, Ian and I began to make a 3x3 block with a border and he managed to get several of the squares cut out and sewed together. Should said project actually attain the title of "Completed" I will post a picture of it here! :)