Cha-Cha-Cha and Winter Ice on the 4th of July

I found this on Facebook a few days ago. It fits me perfectly! I've definitely been cha-cha-cha-ing for quite a while now.

The back and forth dance stepping began two weeks ago when I was trying to decide on a theme for the next pattern.  Cha-cha-cha.

  

Pumpkins ... ice skates ... pumpkins ... musical notes ... pumpkins ... sunflowers ...  There were stacks of fabric everywhere!! Stacks and stacks. I had several piles for every single one of those ideas lined up across my cutting table, and I was running into a brick wall with ideas. It was back and forth for days! Then, suddenly ice skates scooted to the front of the line, and everything fell into place.

I've stitched a wall hanging (or table topper) and a mug rug to be included in the pattern, and here I am today - writing a pattern for ice skates on the 4th of July. I'll publish the pattern later in the week.

There's a story to go with this.

If you happen to be walking across the grass or standing by my front door, my sewing room is clearly seen through a large window just above my cutting table. My neighbor and I share a flower bed under that window. She was working on weeds when she happened to glance into the room and see the ice skate projects I was ready

If you look closely, you can see fabrics on my cutting table. 

She rang my doorbell. "Anna would love these!" she said. "Could I bring her over to look?"

Anna is eight-years-old. I knew she was taking ice skating lessons, but I didn't know that she was rapidly progressing from one level to the next and had already collected three badges. The child is obsessed with skating and I definitely understood. Ice skating was my favorite winter activity ever.

I learned to skate when I was exactly Anna's age. I didn't have lessons, but I became an avid skater. In Sioux Falls, where I grew up, the baseball diamond a couple of blocks from my school was flooded for skating every winter. It was kept smooth and clear of snow for skating until the weather became too warm. There was no charge for use of the rink, so we could skate to our hears content. All winter long our skates went with to us school and from school straight to the skating rink. There was a warming house with a wood burning stove where we could buy hot chocolate and candy bars, but who had time for that when the days were short and we had to get on home before dark? We wanted to skate!

Back to Anna. It turns out she needs a place to display her badges as she acquires them, so I'll soon be working on another project for the ice-skate appliques. What should it be? A bulletin board? A skating tote? A pillow? Anna has chosen her fabrics, but she has more decisions to make.

The skates HAVE to be pink! With blue blades!

Oops, the timer on my stove is binging and I hear potatoes calling. They seem to think that the 4th of July is a potato salad kind of a day. 

Happy Independence Day!!