Motivation

Impromptu picture of my dad and I on his 98th birthday last June.  A childhood friend of mine stopped by to wish him happy birthday.

Living with and caring for my dad for almost 4 years has been a blessing and a trial.  I love that I can spend the last years of his life with him and that, while his body may be failing, his mind is pretty much there.  I definitely miss my home...it holds my husband, my horse and my longarm!!  For most of the time I have been with my dad, I have been umpiring adult slow-pitch softball.  It's fun, gets me out of the house and I get some social interaction.  For all but the last year, I was umpiring 6 nights a week.  All that changed this year as my dad's health made him less independent.  I umpired 2 nights a week this year and I had a companion to come in and care for my dad while I was gone.  He is now using a walker and couldn't microwave his dinner and get it to the table any more.  I don't think I will be umpiring any more, so to avoid the deep pit of depression, I need outside motivation to get me sewing.  I always feel better when I play with fabric and create something.

Sherri, who blogs at A Quilting Life, is having two challenges per month.  One challenge will be sewing/creating with our scraps/stash and the other will be organization of our scraps.  I'm going to jump on board and see if I can work on both.  I don't have much of my stash here, but there has been stash enhancement since I got here!!

If you would like to join in, you can find her post here.  Jelly rolls...you will be made into something!!

Mystery QAL - Block 5

Have you joined the fun of creating a Mystery quilt along with Kim of Persimmon Dream?  Today was Clue 5 - you can find it here.  This is a new-to-me block and yes, I messed up the stripes again but I was able to use my seam ripper and correct the problem.  I also introduced a new color because I didn't have enough of 3 of the colors to make it work.  So I'll be putting the same color into at least one of the next two blocks, but probably both, because I love this fabric!!  It is orange (a color I really don't like) but it is ombre and tone-on-tone!!!

And with all my other blocks

I was inspired by other quilting blogs I follow to put out a suet block for the birds over the winter.  There are many birds that stay here, even though it temperatures are usually below freezing every night.  It took them a few days, but numerous birds are visiting every day!  I love watching them and so does my dad.

I hope the video comes through...this is the first time I've tried this!

Happy New Year!  May this year bring you the blessing of enough!

Mystery QAL - Block 4

The clue for block 4 is available today from Kim at Persimmon Dreams.  I'm sticking with the four fabrics I started with.  I still don't have the hang of getting the stripes going in the right direction, so today, my stripes pinwheel and that works for me!

I can't wait to see how this goes together!!

I really enjoy Brian Crane's comic strip Pickles!  I had one of his daughter's in my class the first year I taught...sweet girl.

I think many quilter's spouses and children can relate to this!!

Mystery QAL - Block 3

Flying geese were the order of the day!!  So excited that I have no headless geese!!!  This is the third block of the Mystery Quilt a Long hosted by Kim of Persimmon Quilts.  Just one block a day for 7 days...if you would like to join us, you could easily catch up.  Block 1 can be found here and Block 2 can be found here.

The gander is at the top and mama goose is making sure the goslings stay in line!  Those stripes bit me again, but I rather like the idea of mom and dad keeping the kids in a proper line.  Works, right?

These are my "oops" block portions - I obviously don't work with stripes that need to go in a specific direction and the little HSTs are from the geese...pressed and squared up, ready for me to make them into something!!  I love saving and working with orphan blocks...they make a quilt come together so fast!

Thank you, Kim, for this fun Mystery QAL that is getting me to my sewing machine every day!!

2019...Highlights

It has been a year!  I made 5 of the tummy time quilts and gifted them to a new granddaughter born in May, new grandson born in July, new great niece born in September, 2-year-old grandson for Christmas, and new-to-me 3-year old granddaughter for Christmas.  I have 2 others completed, 2 pinned and ready to quilt and one top that needs pinning and quilting.

Besides the pink and red Minky backing, I used pale green, turquoise and gray.  I love the dot Minky!

I also made a quilt similar to the tummy time quilts, but for an adult who is a friend of my youngest daughter.  I also made her a purse with some extra squares I had cut.

She likes purple and I couldn't find dot Minky in purple, so her Minky had more of a corduroy texture.

I made a big boy quilt for my 2-year-old grandson and he loves it!

I made some stuffies for 3 of my grands from a panel.

Newest grandson does like chewing on the giraffe's legs and nose, so that's a win for me!  The zebra and elephant went to my granddaughters who lost their father on the 19th of December.  Because I am the sole care-giver for my father, I cannot travel to be with them now, as I would like!  Twelve and six is way too young to lose their father!

I also made table toppers for the 2 ladies who come weekly to see my dad for hospice, a candle mat for a girlfriend (she was actually at my first birthday party and we have been friends forever), and for a dear friend in England I made a reversible table runner.

The table runner has to be the most difficult pattern I have ever made!  Every single seam was ripped out at least once and I had to go back to the fabric store twice because I messed up the cutting!!  She has lots of red in her home so I hope she can use the red side most of the year and the red and green side at Christmas - she always decorates her home so nicely at Christmas!

I'm going to try the table runner pattern again, because it is so cool that it twists at the end to make it a braid!!

Not a ton of stitching or quilting, but certainly more than the prior year.  I joined a few hops that that helped me by having a deadline to get something done!!  I'm trying new things in the coming year...3-D stuff is so hard for me, but I want to do it (and do it well), so I'll keep trying.  Perhaps the next stuffies won't be bowlegged!!

May 2020 be the year of enough for us all.

Blessings and thank you for reading my blog/diary, and for commenting!!  I really appreciate the friendships I have found through blogging!

Mystery QAL Clue #2

I know, two posts in one day!!  I missed that Saturday was Clue #1 (thank you Bloglovin'), but I hunted down clue #2 and finished it as well!!

If I can do two blocks in one day (where's my fainting couch??), so can you!!  Join Kim at Persimmon Quilts and find Clue #2 right there!

Working with stripes is not something I have done much with apparently...I'm creating orphan block pieces, so I'll be getting something else pretty made at the same time!!

Mystery QAL Clue 1

I am doing a short Mystery QAL with Kim of Persimmon Dreams.  It is one block a day for a week...I think I can do this!!  Today is the first day, so if you want to join us, please head over to Kim's blog for the instructions to this simple Clue #1.

My colors aren't the same as Kim is using, but this is a scrap-buster and I'm using what I have!!

@persimmondreams #PQMysteryQAL2