Quilt layout

I played around with the layout of quilt squares last night. Can you find one of yours?

Aunt C suggested I place the darker-colored squares on the edge of the heart so that the design stands out. I still need to do some shuffling to get similar colors together. Now, just plop it all on a beige/pink background and put some pink stripes around the edge. Should be done by next week, right? (Just kidding...)


Oh yeah, see the bright pink post-it note in the upper left-hand corner. Just ignore that - it's a placeholder for Mom and Dad H's embroidered panda...I haven't trimmed it to size yet.

If you're counting, I think there are more than 100 squares included. As I mentioned, I received about 135 different fabrics. I want to make sure that I include as many as possible in the quilt. I think I'm going to remove the four in the middle from Aunt B and Uncle H to the four corners of the quilt, since they tell an interesting story. That will let me squeeze in a few more! And remember, extra squares won't go to waste - they will become lap quilts for the baby in the car and pillows!

I won't eat it!

Yeah, I know it's 6 A.M., and I didn't even go to bed until midnight, but I have been awake since 5, so I figured I might as well get up and do something productive. My mind was racing with everything I want to do this weekend...guess it's going to be a long 3-4 weeks, huh?

Last night for dinner, we made broccoli-cauliflower quiche. EJ doesn't care for it, despite the fact that she loves both veggies and scrambled eggs, but there's something about them all together and baked in a pie crust with cheese that she finds completely repulsive, even when we give it a fun name like Eggie Pie! I mean, this is the girl who tells everyone that asparagus and brussel sprouts are her favorite foods.

Being the super parents that we are, we insisted that she eat a few bites. I mean, how is she going to learn to like new foods if she doesn't at least TRY them? Actually, trying quiche isn't a new thing. We make her do it about every 6-8 weeks. She doesn't like it any better today than she did three years ago, but on the other hand, it hasn't killed her yet either.

This is her defiant "I'm not going to eat it" look:

Swallowing the first bite is always the worst:

But she recovered nicely...


And just so you know, she didn't go to bed hungry or anything. She also finished off some leftover Chinese food from the night before.

Official update from our agency

Someone at work asked me today about official confirmation of the cutoff date from Monday's matches and I realized that I never posted it! The cutoff on the website for the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) does say 10/24/05. Our agency's message only confirmed through 10/14, as they had no one with applications dated between 10/15 and 10/24. However, we know that they have at least sixteen applications dated 10/25 and 10/26, so we should be part of a pretty large travel group!

Our agency had matches for six families this month, all girls from the Sichuan and Hunan provinces. The ages of the girls were between 11 and 15 months. There are eight families from our agency in China now. They received their children on Sunday evening and report that everyone seems to be adjusting well. The families who were matched in early February got their travel authorizations, and they may leave as early as next week. They are traveling a little sooner than expected, as there is a LARGE trade fair in Guangzhou in April that apparently causes havoc with travel schedules (think no flights, no hotels, etc.)

Quilt Update

I'm sure you're all wondering why you haven't seen a picture of the completed quilt! The truth is that I haven't sewn a single stitch on it yet. Just keeping up with all of the fabric collection has been grueling. As you know, I scanned each piece of fabric and posted it here. Then, I had to wash and dry it all so that it would pre-shrink. And since some of it did shrink so much, I ended up trimming the 6 inch squares to 5.5 inches. And some folks sent larger pieces of fabric so that I could cut the square myself.

And then, there was the selection of the background fabric (two beige fabrics with pink accents that will be laid out in checkerboard fashion), and two shades of coordinating pink fabrics for the edge strips. Hmmm...let's hope we really are getting a girl! These fabrics had to be washed, dried, ironed, and cut into long 5.5 inch strips. Many thanks to Aunt C for showing me a few shortcuts on my cutting!

I've lost count, but I think I received something like 130-135 unique fabrics for the quilt! Wow! I never expected that many. Many people sent multiple patterns, so I'm trying to make sure that at least of each person's squares are included in the quilt. The extra squares will be made into small lap quilts for in the car and pillows.

The 100 squares that I use in the quilt will be laid out in a heart shape. I hope to lay them all out on the floor and have the design ready to go by Saturday. Perhaps I can capture a photo of that to update you all this weekend. I need an excuse to play with the new digital camera K bought today for our trip. He also picked up a new videocam at the same time. The videocam (digital tape) is smaller than our old digital camera. And the new digital camera is the size of a deck of cards. Gotta love technology. Anyway, we're taking them both for a test drive, as either can be returned within 10 days if we're not satisfied, so I need to focus on that over the weekend too, I guess.

The last of the fabric?

I received two more fabric swatches this week from my cousin M and his wife R in PA. I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, I think they picked this fabric with grapes because they were married (on my birthday in 2005!) at a vineyard.



This next fabric must be reflective of M's exotic travels. He has visited some amazing places, and rumor has it that he and R are on their way to Africa soon. Is it true?!?!

ARGH...We missed the cutoff date!

Well, it's officially another month of waiting. The adoption matches came in from China today, and as I predicted, we missed it...BY ONLY TWO DAYS!! The cutoff date was 10/24, and we're 10/26.

The good news is...WE ARE NOW CERTAIN THAT WE'RE IN THE NEXT ROUND!!! The next matches should be in in 4 to 6 weeks, so stay tuned. That means we would depart for China somewhere between mid-May and early-June.

Pics from winter vacation

How we spent our winter vacation:

First, we went tubing at King Pine. Sorry, no photos this year, but I can share this one from last year!

Later that night, we went to Moat Mountain Smoke House and Brewing Company. We highly recommend the curried crab and corn chowder, the chili, and the longhorn nachos (barbecued beef brisket and cheese). Yum.

We stayed at the new Hampton Inn in North Conway, NH. It has an indoor waterpark! We even saw our former next-door neighbors there, so EJ had a friend to play with.

Here's EJ coming down the slide:

And here she is under the raining mushroom:

On Friday, we had a whopping 12 inches of snow. It snowed ALL DAY LONG. So, we went over to LLBean and the other outlets. It was great - no crowds at all! Friday night, we went to another great restaurant, Bellini's, for some delicious pasta. My dish literally had a half pound of homemade fettucine and two meatballs the size of baseballs.

This morning, after breakfast, we ran into C-More the penguin from the Cranmore ski resort.

After lunch at one of our favorite spots, Horsefeathers, we drove down to our favorite campground on Lake Ossipee and did some snowshoeing around their property. We saw lots of snowmobilers zipping around on the trails. We ventured out onto the lake, which looked to have at least 12 inches of ice on it, topped by yesterday's 12 inches of snow!

EJ was a little exhausted and decided to collapse on the snowbank to rest.

And then, a nice woman came along and offered to take a family photo for us. It was a great weekend!