Change and Finding Your Way Back to You

Many of you know I have been spending the last 4 years caring for my father, states away from my husband and home.  Yesterday my dad was reunited in heaven with my mother and brother.  I now have so much I need to do, but I can't get in touch with the attorney or CPA I was depending on to help me through this.  It is overwhelming and I am so exhausted.  I don't know where to start, really.  I dealt with the mortuary and wrote the obituary for the paper today.  This is a time when being an only child is difficult, especially with my husband and children scattered between Washington and Georgia.

Life has changed and now I need to figure out how to find my way back to being me.

This picture was taken on his 94th birthday when we went out to dinner with friends.  He would have been 99 in June.  I love you, daddy, and I miss you so much.  

 

Quilt Qwazy Queens Making Us Laugh

Did you enjoy hopping around the blogs yesterday and seeing what qwaziness has been going on??  What was your favorite yesterday??  Didn't Joan at Moosestash Quilting arrange a great lineup of blogs to participate in all the qwasiness??

Today the blogs participating are:

 Just Let Me Quilt

Beaquilter

Patchouli Moon Studio

Selina Quilts

Scrapdash

Den syende himmel

Karen's Korner

Hop on over and be sure to leave each of the bloggers a sweet comment on their project.  You know how much nice comments mean to you!!

My day in Monday, so hop on!!!

Quilt Qwazy Queens Making Us Laugh

This is the first day of the QQQ Making Us Laugh!  With all the problems and disruptions to our lives caused by the COVID-19, this is the perfect time to do a little hopping and see what your fellow quilters have created to make us laugh, or at least smile!

These blogs are sharing their talents with us today, March 18:

Life in the Scrapatch

The Darling Dogwood

Words and Stitches

Webster Quilt

Bejeweledquilts by Barb

Creatin in the Sticks

Podunk Pretties

Check out all the great projects the bloggers have been madly sewing the last month or so, and smile!  Thank you, Joan of MooseStash Quilting for arranging this blog hop.  My day is Monday, so I'll see you then!!

Project QUILTING 11.6 Vibrant and Vivacious

This is the final challenge of  Season 11!!  I'll admit, I look forward to these challenges every other week.  The have been so much fun and have pushed me out of my comfort zone and I've found how much fun it is to get out of self-imposed box!  Thank you so much to Kim of Persimmon Dreams for running the show, getting so many cool prizes and encouraging us all to stretch ourselves in ways I, for one, would never have thought of!!

Vibrant and Vivacious is definitely something we all could use in our lives right now as COVID-19 sweeps across the globe!  So, with that in mind, this is what I came up with:

I just couldn't resist!!  I found a pattern at Craft Passion and since I couldn't print it out, I used her measurements to create my own pattern.

I used a bit of my fusible fleece which gives an extra layer of protection, since I don't have any sort of filter.

I had to put some psychedelic lips on my mask and added a frog and a monkey for a bit more whimsy.   I did a blanket stitch with my machine around the lips and frog...the monkey just got straight stitching close to the edge as his arm and tail were a bit thin.

I did an X of quilting so the lining didn't bag and get funky.

I used stretched out ponytail holders for the stretchies that go around my ears.  I use these pony tail holders just about every day as my hair is at my waist and I want it out of my way!  I'm so glad I saved them and found a use for them!!

I used scraps for everything, except the gorgeous lime green fabric.  Do you think this is Vibrant and Vivacious?  I'm loving the lips and the lime green!!!

Thank you again, Kim!!  I have had a blast with this since December!!!  When does Season 12 start???

Monthly Color Challenge March 2020

Thank you to Jen at Patterns by Jen for the monthly color and block challenge!  This month's color was my favorite color (to not use), orange!

The bird inspiration is the oriole, which is a beautiful bird.  In the last 4 months, I have been using so much orange...is someone trying to get me to like it??

I used a couple of fat quarters I was given by my Shoebox Swap partner (thank you!!) or I would not have had any orange to use.

I received

I like the hand of this fabric, but I didn't like this:

Every piece of this beautiful fabric was stained by the tape they used to create the rolls in the box.  I'll still use the fabric, but I'll be cutting around the 3" by 1/2" stains.  I did contact the maker and they said I should return it to the fabric shop I bought it from.  Since it was a gift from out of state, that won't work.  I can't say their response won't color my purchases in the future.

Here is my March block, along with January and February blocks (I love how they look together):

Thanks again, Jen!!!

Project QUILTING 11.5 Give It Away

I got my project finished - I made a Tummy Time quilt for one of my daughter's friends who recently had a baby.

Hunter is inspecting it and making sure I did everything right.  Well, the tummy time quilt was just fine, but because I don't want the extra weight, I don't use batting in these quilts.  Well, that doesn't fit the parameters of the challenge...I have to use batting, so...

Email to the rescue!!!  I received an email from Bernina's We All Sew with a pattern for tortilla warmers!!  This cute little warmer uses Wrap and Zap batting (the kind you can put in the microwave), mostly batik fabrics, and all in my daughters' favorite colors!!

I didn't exactly follow the directions for making this...I chose to sew all my layers together and pull them right side out so I didn't need to make binding for the top half.

Batting on the bottom, then the black fabric and teal on top.

Press the "inside" fabric over the batting and then press the outside fabric seam allowance on top of that.

I pinned them closed while they were hot and let them cool because I know "hot forgets, cold remembers" and sewed them about 1/8" from the edge all the way around.  I then picked a pretty stitch I had never used on my machine to quilt an X to hold the layers together.

I now know why the directions used binding all around all the edges...it is really hard to cut a good circle using my regular rotary cutter - my wonderful circle rotary cutter is at home in Washington - and my edges don't all match up real pretty.  So I picked the two sides that match the best for the top, open part of the tortilla warmer and used bias binding to hide the messiest parts!!

Hunter had to check them out as well.  I used another decorative stitch to stitch the binding down.

Since my middle daughter's husband cooks authentic Mexican food and they don't fry those tortillas crispy, they will use these often!

I am linking up with Kim at Persimmon Dreams with my finish!

March 2020 Color Challenge

Today Jen announced the March 2020 Color Challenge on her blog Patterns By Jen.  March is celebrating

Orioles!!!

We have a month to make a single block, so go on over to Jen's blog and get the pattern for this month's block!!