First, of course, we have to acknowledge that our hearts and thoughts have been in Newtown, CT these past few days.  As a retired teacher (and mother), I could visualize every bit of it, and it was really tough.  My DH is a retired teacher and a current first responder, so we’ve been thinking a lot.  We drilled for something like this.  Where I worked, we sometimes had emergencies, but they never turned tragic.  I know exactly what it’s like to gather children against the coat cubbies in a locked room and read to them while listening for unknown danger in the hallway.  It’s what teachers do, but they’re supposed to go home again afterward, and so are the children.

So many people in our quilt blogging and Twitter community have shared so much recently, and we all know each other a little better.  Thank you.

In all the terribleness, it is good to see people come together and to see all the gifts that have been given to these people from around the country.  I stitched some pillow cases today and mailed them off for the surviving Sandy Hook children.  It felt peaceful and constructive to work on them.  Then I stood with the Christmas package mailers in the Post Office of our small, friendly, quiet town to mail them.  Here is info on the project from Jaye’s Artquiltmaker blog.  This is the tutorial from Mama Spark I use for making pillowcases, but I discovered that I have learned how to do them without looking back at the site.

Here are a few odds and ends while I think of them.  In no particular order:

Lily’s Quilts:  Do you follow Lynne, from Lily’s Quilts?  I really like her recent post about straight line quilting.  Besides the chance to see some of her great quilts again, she gives really good ideas about the quilting.  I especially like the part about not ripping out small baubles and The Waltons.  Kind of the running horse thing.

Pattern on pattern:  So, we are lovers of pattern and we often use various designs together.  We do this well, we hope.  Not like this motel room I encountered on my Texas trip (I think this was in Louisiana).

I was stunned when I opened the door.  My camera came out before the suitcase went in.

It was nice and clean, but I couldn’t have stayed more than one night.  Ooooh.

Map:  While I’m at it, here is a map I made of our Texas travels.

Thanks to Diane and others for following along and keeping me company on that long journey.  We had a very nice time, but those are a lot of miles.  And miles.

Chex Mix:  I didn’t get much reaction when I posted this picture of the cereal aisle in my local grocery store, but I think it’s pretty funny.

This is the America I want to think about at this time of year.