How hockey ate the quilter...

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, though sometimes it does feel that way.  You see... my son plays ice hockey.  Some of you may already understand, and those of you with kids in other organized sports, I'm sure understand as well...  my life is now defined by which ice rink he needs to be driven to on which night.  Gus is 11, and is currently working out with two teams. He plays for his local travel team and is practicing on the development squad for one of the elite teams in our area.  By some stroke of luck, not sure if it is good or bad yet, the practice schedule worked out this way:

First Goal of the season, caught Mom by surprise!
Less than 30 seconds into the game, I was still testing camera settings.

• Monday - Travel
• Tuesday - D Squad
• Wednesday - D Squad
• Thursday - Travel

And the rinks are spread across three cities.  Weekends are mostly spent at hockey games. And I've learned, that even if the first game of the day is 7:30 a.m. and the last ends at noon, well the day is pretty much shot - what with driving and recovering from the 5:00 a.m. wake-up to drive all over creation.

I am new to hockey - never thought much of it. More like "we went to a fight and a hockey game broke out." However, watching Gus play has turned me into a convert and now I can appreciate the elegance of the game. And the sheer power and grace of my son flying across the ice.

One of these days, I'm going to make this quilt - Center Ice by Glendora's Girl available at  Quilt Crossing.  Right now the pattern is sitting in my drawer, waiting for my skills to catch up - this one involves complex angles as well as applique.

So for the time being, I'm snatching bits of time, like on Monday as Gus waited for me to head out to Cub Scouts, sewing the 4 strip sets I need for the double Irish Chain, maybe I'll get a few minutes to press them tonight and cut so I can finish the blocks and assemble the quilt top this weekend.