Washington D.C., my last kid fix

Day 1, a trip to the butterfly garden.
There were quite a few I had never seen before. Some were resting and some were on the flowers and many were checking out the admirers.

There were way too many to show them all.

Day 2 was an outdoor concert for kids in Strathmore. I got a refresher course in Spanish which I haven't used since the Tokyo Olympics ... about 48 years ago.

After sewing five rows of the + and X blocks, we laid them out on the design floor and picked out some corner-stones. Not only is my son good at this arranging, he brought out his stash so I could cut pieces for the five blocks that were lost on the first flight.

Now, I would like to know how many of my blogging friends have a son with a stash to share ... or would be that concerned about five lost blocks!

Dinner celebrated on the quilted tablecloth made for son Jon's birthday two years ago.

Day 3 ... a trip in the afternoon, past the White House, to the DAR museum to check out the quilts. Many were on slide-out panels. The lighting was quite dim but the quilts were lovely.  A collection of the DAR quilts can be found at QuiltIndex.org at this link (http://www.quiltindex.org/search_results.php?collection=DAR) .

The Museum was closing for the day so we didn't have lots of time to look but the shop had a wonderful book of Quilts of Lancaster that practically jumped off the shelf into my bag and will follow me home.

Day 4 ... I got my "Fox Fix". I spent the day with my good friend, Steve Fox, who I have known for many years through Boy Scouting in Tokyo, and his mom, Marion, who has been responsible for many of my quilting projects. Probably a good percentage of the pieces in the + and X blocks have hopped in from her stash and the quilt that I have been working on for the last two years was her offering to keep me out of trouble when the tablecloth was finished.

I took along the five rows I have managed to sew together since leaving home. (Just so my friend would know that I am not without a project for the road)

This is row 2 - 6, row 1 waiting for the five new blocks. Son Jon is behind, holding the side edge. It is very interesting to see how the blocks go together with cornerstones in place. A whole new look is beginning to emerge.
Having come this far, I look forward to adding more rows. Too bad I can't take Jon with me to add the cornerstones as I go.

(Also, as my computer guru, he has managed to rescue all my photos from the dying computer I brought along ... and don't ask me how those three pictures got lined up above, because he did that with a few taps on the keyboard.)

Somewhere in these pictures, too, you can see my grand-chicks Kaiea and Maile. Of course that is a bonus part of the trip, happy companions for my last few days of vacation!