Category: quilting

I finished something….and I can not get my act together

I finished the dinosaur quilt.  Well, that is easy when you get laid off and have no job. 20180917_133908 Right before the holidays.  Yeah.  Ugh.  Oh please, let me add some more crappy ass news (sorry for that).  My favorite uncle died on Thanksgiving day.  He was the last bit of my Mom that I had.  He had the best sense of humor.  He loved to tease my Mom (when she was still here), which us kids found hysterical.  He lived in Germany (that is where my other was from).  I loved when he called me.  He always made me laugh and it reminded me of Mom.  I will miss him dearly.

The picture is my Uncle Uwe, my dear sweet sister Kellie and my cousin Holger (who is coming to visit in August.  Very excited about that).  It is a great photo.  Holger and Kellie were about a year apart.  He came to live with my parents for a year and went to High School as a teenager with Kellie.

So, while job hunting, I am sewing, which is sort of good.  Helps to keep my mind of my super crappy life.

About the Dinosaur quilt (rant over)

It came out cute.  I really like it.  No fancy quilting, just meandering, which seemed to work fine for this quilt.  I pieced the back, which came out pretty good.  I find this adds personality to the quilt and takes way less fabrics.  I can use up random one yard pieces that I have.

I feel guilty for not reading everyone’s blog, I need to get back to that.  it is one of my happy places.  I really love to see what everyone is doing.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your loved ones.

 

The Hand Quilt Along and My One Monthly Goal

WaterMark_2018-10-28-20-46-25Honestly, I did not get much hand sewing/quilting done.  THe only thing I can truly take credit for is the binding on the back of this baby quilt.  I find the hand sewing on the back very relaxing.  It just so happens that this also Mo One monthly Goal Project. So to see all the fabulous project where people actually get stuff done, please visit all these lovely ladies who make way more progress than me on a regular basis.

Kathy, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette, Sassy , Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

I did manage to complete my One Monthly Goal Project.  Not the best photo, but I like the quilt.  It came out pretty good.  Simple but cute.  My manfriends sister is having a baby, so this will go to her.  I am also working on a dinosaur quilt for her, since that is her watermark_2018-10-28-20-37-26-1-e1540775539573.jpgtheme.  I pieced the back.  This was my second time attempting this.  It was supposed to have an orange piece at the bottom also, ut that did not go as planned.  It is still OK, just a little odd, but tolerable.

So, what lesson did I learn this time????? WHen you are hand binding and it is raining outside, do not forget to put the doggy door in, because the Moka Monster likes to stand in the rain and get muddy.  Then she runs in, down to the family room and jumps on me with her muddy paws, which means watermark_2018-10-26-23-57-13.jpgshe just jumped all over the quilt I was binding.  The things that came out of my mouth. I will not repeat here.   So, yes it has been washed.

Kellie – This has been hard.  I thought it was supposed to get better with time.  Not so much.  For me the image of her laying in the casket is stuck in my head.  I constantly see it.  That is not how I want to think of her.

I have not dreamt of her.  I finally had a dream last night that I remembered.  We were living in my Old condo and it was burning down.  Have no idea what that is supposed to mean.  She was not there.

This was the one time I remember Kellie having short hair.  She had such beautiful long hair.  If I remember correctly, the dog on the right was stuck in her bag (by Mom) when she went on her honey moon.  It was her favorite.  Happy Sewing, Happy Quilting, Love the ones you are with.

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Block #11 and a big DUH…..

Only one more block to go.  This one is sort of OK.  My color choices were a bit ugly, but it is a barn, so I guess it is OK.  Only that pesky owl is left.  I am doing quilt as you go, so I have no idea what it will look like.

WaterMark_2018-10-20-18-30-51What is this photo?  Well, this would be a group of 4 inch square blocks that was somewhere on my table and I managed to quilt it into the quilt I was working on.  Lesson learned – TOTALLY CLEAN OFF YOUR TABLE WHEN YOU QUILT SOMETHING.  Duh.  SO I picked out some stitching after mumbling under my breath quite a bit.  This was the second oops while quilting this quilt.  The first one was when I tried to use a silky thread on the top and in the bottom and crazy stuff started happening.  Loops and well…just plain crazy stuff.  Once I went to a cotton on the top, all craziness ceased.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Love the ones you are with

 

A little more progress…

So These are my jars for the fall quilt along.  At least I got something done.  I am still one behind.  The final one came out this past Tuesday.  I am hoping this weekend that I can get the rest of them done…just to get them done.  I have embarked on yet a another project to go along with the 15 others.  I need to make a dinosaur baby quilt.  I have the fabric and have begun some of the cutting.  It has a bunch of , so I better get moving.

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I had been saving this photo to send to my sister when she felt better.  I found it hysterical and very true.  I hate that I can never send it to her.  I remember sitting in the hospital and showing it to Matt (her husband) and he said “Man, I sure hope you get to send it to her”.  I never thought in a million years that I would not have my chance.  sigh…..

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Love the ones you are with….like there is no tomorrow.

 

My turkey from He!!….

OMG, this turkey for the Fall Quilt Along gave me such grief, but it is done, ahhhhh.  Never to be repeated again.  It is cute, but I could go a lifetime without completing that activity.  So, some of it is my fault.  I fail to read instructions well (or at all sometimes).  I went right to cutting and did not Label anything.  Susan at DesertySkyQuilts mentioned that there were labels.  How about that?  I had no idea because I did not read the instructions.  For an educated woman, I sometimes feel really stupid.  Needless to say, when I went to sew, I could not figure out what was what and spent multiple hours sorting them out and figuring out what fabric I had assigned to sections and counting and re-cutting.  I also did this in the middle of things with my sweet sister Kellie, so my mind was not right either.

I am not going to tell a sister story today.  While sometimes it makes me happy, sometimes it also makes me sad.  I am still waiting to dream about her.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Love the ones you’re with

Hand Quilt Along

So, I have some hand quilting progress.  It is a great way to keep my hands busy and the mind sometimes.  Quilting and sewing are my therapy.  They are  helping me deal with the loss of my sister.  It gives me something else to think about.  This fish may be my favorite so far.  Although, the farting seahorse is a close second.  It was my dear sister Kellie who dubbed it the farting seahorse.  I may end up naming this quilt, the farting seahorse quilt, just for her.

Please visit all these wonderful women and see what they have been up to.

Kathy, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette, Sassy , Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

Kellie

You can tell Kellie had a sense of humor, I mean, really a farting seahorse?  Leave it tohHer.  I searched high and low for a picture from my wedding, but could not find it.  It would have made this story so very appropriate.

When I married my first husband, Jerry, all my sisters were in my wedding along with

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Kellie and Mom

my long time friend Kim. I chose a sensible dress that could be ordered from J.C. Penny.  It was Jade in color.  I will never forget waiting at the church and in walks my older sister, Karen.  Kellie immediately broke out into song (Sesame Street).  “One of these things is not like the other one, not like the other one, not like the other one.”  Karen’s dress was a different dye lot.  It was much darker than everyone elses.  She was very upset.  I was just laughing.  Kellie proceeded to sing under her breath at the altar.  I miss her sense of humor.  I want to talk to her.

The other night for the first time in my life, I saw a shooting star.  I wished for a dream about Kellie where I could talk to her.  I am still waiting.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Love the ones you are with.

One Monthly Goal – October

For my One Monthly Goal, I am going to quilt and bind this baby quilt.  I have made this quilt for Kevin’s (man-friend) sister who’s  pregnant.  I kind of did my own thing.  I really liked the center baby pin fabric, so I did not want to cut it up too much.  I plan to use my heart ruler for this one.  Not sure of thread color, but it will likely be something multi colored.

Kellie, another story…

You may have seen this photo before.  But I need it to tell my Kellie story.  This is my lateFB_IMG_1503081791295 husband Derrick and Kellie.  We were in Las Vegas together because Derrick was in a Pool tournament.

So, when I married Derrick, Kellie was the only one in my family that did not have something negative to say about it.  Whether she liked it or not, she kept it to herself.  She was always kind to Derrick, which is more than I could say about anyone else in my family.  Yes, I met/knew him in an odd unconventional way, and yes he was younger than me.  But when my first husband took his own life and left me with 2 kids, he was the only one that stepped into a really ugly, messy situation and was willing to do whatever was needed. He was coming to town to visit his sister for the holidays.  He asked if he could stop by to check on me.

He never left.  He did not feel like he could.  Things just went from there.  I know Kellie and her husband, Matt, talked about it.  He told me when we were sitting in the hospital by Kellie’s side.  They decided if he made me happy (which he did) that was good enough for them.  This is just one of the many many reasons I can’t imagine life without her.  She stood by me, always.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Love the Ones you are with

When life throws you a curve, quilt

This is my One Monthly Goal Project.  I actually finished it.  It was completed before my sister died.  I think I needed something to do rather than sit around and wait for something to happen.  I actually finished the binding on the evening before.  I needed something to do with my hands.  It is a cute baby quilt, even though my fire fly looks like it has mated with a bee.

For the first time, I pieced a back.  Nothing fancy, but I did it.  Learned a few things.  If watermark_2018-09-24-19-02-24.jpgyou can piece your back, you can save a lot of fabric.

I used my heart-shaped ruler for my quilting.  It does not look watermark_2018-09-24-19-02-49.jpgto bad. I find quilting with shapes and rulers relaxing, which is why I probably got this completed.  I needed to do something that was sort of mindless. For some weird reason, the color looks goofy in this photo.  Maybe because it is a close up

I hope you don’t mind….for a while I will likely add pictures of my sister Kellie.  I think honoring her helps me a bit.  It has only been a week and there were many time I said oh I will ask Kellie, burst in to tears when I suddenly realized I could no longer do that.

KELLIE – When, I had issues with my first husband, My sister drove down and picked up Haley for

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Kellie and Lori

the weekend so we can try to sort out what we were doing.  Unfortunately, that same weekend, my husband Jerry took his own life.  Kellie kept Haley for a couple of days so I could make arrangements and then brought her home.  She wanted to protect her for as long as she could, from how hard life was.  Haley was only 4.  I was so thankful that she did that.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure those you love like there is no tomorrow

I am overwhelmed with gratitude….

When I started my blog a couple of years ago, I was thinking about what I would like to do when I retire.  I had no idea that I would wind up creating such awesome friendships with some of the most kindest caring people.  I had no idea that would happen, yet it did.

I lost my beautiful little sister on September 19, 2018.  It was something unimaginable to me.  She was my best friend, pal, travel buddy and confidant.  SHe accepted me for who I was and never questioned my judgment, even when she probably should have.  She stood by me during a time in my life when no one else did.

So many of my blog friends reached out to me.  I was overwhelmed by their kind words, While their kind words brought tears to my eyes, they were not all in sadness.   I had made friendships with people I had never met, yet they knew me and wanted to comfort me.  I was humbled.

When I received the news that Kellie had left me, I knew I needed to do something that meant something to me and Kellie.  I knew Kellie would be cremated and taken to the beach. She was an avid dog lover, like me, but her husband was very allergic to dogs, so she spent a lot of time at my house, “Getting her dog fix” as she used to say.  I had a dog quilt.  Nanette had sent me the top and I had quilted and finished it.  I loved that quilt.  I called Nanette, like a blubbering idiot and asked her if she minded I sent that quilt with Kellie.  She, of course told me that she was perfectly fine with it.  While it may seem odd to cremate a quilt with someone, I found comfort in knowing that a part of me would forever be with her.

I love you all dearly and thank you for your words and kindness throughout this difficult time.

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I will give it a try….

So, I am going to try and participate in the One Monthly Goal. I have missed two months. I am not sure I am going to be successful in any way. This is the lightning bug block I turned into a baby quilt. Decided that I did not want to make 15 more of these. My goal is to get it quilted. Not sure if I can manage this goal or not, it just depends on what happens. I may need to quilt to keep my mind off of things. I will at least give it shot. I do wonder what color I should use for the quilting. I am thinking maybe a pale yellow, but I am not sure.

Sadly, My sister has taken a turn for the worse. She is currently in a coma and on life

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support. I spent 5 days in Cleveland and returned home yesterday. It was a heart wrenching time, sitting, waiting and thinking. The prognosis is not good. I now, just wait for my phone to ring and panic every time it does.

The picture is the day she got married to her wonderful and caring husband Matt. She is walking with my Dad, who I miss terribly, especially now. They are two of my most favorite people in the world. Dad is smiling and Kellie is so beautiful. I don’t want to lose my best friend, yet it is so hard watching her suffer. I want her to have peace, whatever that means. My sister has 2 children, they are 18 and 21. My heart hurts for them. Her husband, Matt, is so wonderful with her. He does not miss a day or a doctor. He keeps everything straight and knows every detail of what is going on. He has had to make some very hard decisions. He is a wonderful man.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family