Tag: Life

I could have waited a year…but I didn’t

Sometimes, life gets in the way of life. That is the only thing I can say. It has been nearly a year since I have written a blog post. There are a host of reasons. I haven’t stopped quilting. I don’t think I would ever stop doing that. It is likely the only thing that keeps me sane.

This quilt top was made during the guild retreat. It was a lovely retreat back in March. Much fun was had by all. It is a lovely design by GE Quilt designs named KIRA. Looks complex but super simple.

This was a wintery table runner I did. I liked this, except for the end where there are 2 od the same snowflakes together. Poor planning on my part there. I did the sections separately. Did not work out as planned. Oops. Still pretty though.

This is my Kite quilt. It came out cute. It has some shirt 3d kite tales. The back has grey fleece, so super soft. This was just me entertaining myself. Nothing special and I did not have anyone in mind when I make it.

I finished this quilt that I started so long ago and gave it to my sister for her 70th birthday. I had actually hand sewn a few of these blocks together

My quilting Godmother, Nanette sent me a few orphan blocks (purple and white) along with a half yard of the purple and I made as many additional as I could. This will be a donation quilt to one of the Guilds charities. I hope to get it on the long arm this week. On the list, but we will see.

There are many other things that I have done. As I find picture I will share.

The Non-Quilting stuff

It’s been a year. If you don’t want to read this nonsense, feel free to stop and move on. A very wise person tells me to write stuff down. So, I am. Not sure if I am supposed to share it or not, but some I will, some I won’t.

So many changes this year. I spent a long time recovering from spinal surgery only to learn there are quite a few things I will never recover from. I added another auto immune disease to my list of stuff that totally sucks. I turned sixty. Not a whole lot different from 59, honestly. I said goodbye to a 10 year relationship that I should have said goodbye to 9 years and 10 months ago, but I didn’t. More on that later.

I am a widow, twice and honestly it totally sucks. Once was bad enough, but come on, twice. The second time, he was my person. the one you read about in the romance novels. The one you think only exists in fairy tales. It can’t be real. That kind of thing. He was someone that looked at me, not the outside, but me. To him I was the most beautiful woman on the planet. Well, that is how he made me feel anyway. He did not see what I saw when I looked in the mirror.

So now what? I read dark mafia romance novels and dream of him. No, he was not in the mafia, but all these books talk of tall, chiseled men with tattoos, which he was. Funny, I never found tattoos even remotely attractive and used to get mad at him every time he got another one and now, I find it extremely attractive. Odd. It is all very confusing to me. I want him back. I miss him. It makes for sad days and nights for sure. More quilting is needed.

Happy sewing

Happy Quilting

Ho hum.

Life

Where to start?

I often feel I am nearly a shell of my former self.

I have heard these words come out of my mouth at a doctor’s office “You ruined my life”

I know there are people that are suffering far worse than I am.

I was just served a big old piece of not what I expected and not what you told me.

I agreed to have the second spine surgery because I still had some spinal issues. The main one was that I have no feeling in my bowels. Use your Imagination on that one. It was my main reason for doing it. My only reason for doing it. I could manage the pain. As a woman, I feel we are predisposed to managing pain in general. I didn’t care about the pain. I cared about that one thing that often kept me confined to my home and sometimes kept me confined to a room in my home.

Besides not solving my main issue, this last spinal surgery gave me a few additional bonus issues. I have ridiculous shoulder pain. I cannot lift either arm over my head. My entire spine hurts with the exception of my neck. Pretty sure they cut all the nerves in my neck so I couldn’t complain about that. I have constant debilitating headaches. I have random whole-body weakness, I never know what I am going to wake up to. My body is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.

So, I got some medication to help with the headaches. Took away 80% of them, which is good. The bad part is, it makes all carbonated stuff taste bad. I love my coke zero and now I can’t have that either.

Poor Poor Me……

Life goes on. I truly do understand why some people give up though. It would certainly be easy to do.

I am not the give-up type. Too many people depend on me.

Quilting and Sewing – Yes I do manage to do some. I am not super fast these days. I made all the blocks in the quilt in the photo on a retreat I went to in March. I am glad I went. Got them all put together a few weeks ago. This was in a jelly roll book that Nanette gave me. I find it an interesting-looking quilt.

Working on a few other items.Some new and some old. I will try to keep up better, even though I am super grouchy most of the time. I will do better.

Happy sewing

Happy Quitling

I am still MIA

I don’t want to be missing, I just can’t find my way back. Recovering from this surgery and spinal cord injury is much harder than I anticipated.

There is name to my pain and it is hardware. This visual of my neck and all it’s lovely hardware puts that into perspective. On a positive note, I am back to my original heights of 5’9″ post surgery.

I think the part that is making this so difficult is the spinal cord injury. While I had some of the same issues before the surgery, my expectation was that these things would get better after surgery. While some things have, many have not. I did get most of the feeling back in my arms and legs, but am having a difficult time gaining any strength. I have very little stamina. So, I don’t sew much or in very small increments. This is very frustrating. It is my therapy and without it, I am not a very nice person.

I did make the gnomes. They did not take much effort. My daughter has claimed the pink one and named her JaGnome. JaGnome oversees her homework.

A Useful Tool

I have several binding tool makers that I never use. They are the metal ones that make binding like the premade binding you can buy at the store.

The one in the picture helps make binding like I make for my quilts. It is helpful because I don’t burn my fingers. It makes the binding that is folded in half. I bought an entire set of these on Amazon for like 6$. My local quilt store sold one (not an entire set) for 10$. They were all manufactured in the same place.

I would love to post more often, but I don’t have much to post, since I don’t sew that much at the moment. I know many of you understand that quilting is therapy (no one at my home gets it). Without it I feel a little lost.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

A Quilt Challenge and a very sad sad loss

So, lately, I have been a  big whiner about the fabrics in some charity quilts I was making.  However, once they were put together they were not nearly as bad as I thought. On the other hand,  the plaid fabric challenge is killing me. This is a guild sponsored challenge.   Everyone who wanted to participate in the challenge had to bring in 1 yard of plaid fabric and 5 or 10 dollars (can’t remember).  The top three winners will divide the money, everyone gets to vote for their favorites.

You have to use some of every single fabric in your quilt.   That is the only rule.  It can be any size or a runner.  I see only one fabric repeated.  But, holy cow, when you put them together they are a scary bunch of fabrics.  The one-yard was divided up between everyone who was participating.  The result was about a 6×8 inch piece of some of the ugliest fabrics.  It may take a miracle.

I have somewhat of a potential idea of something, but I am scared that I will hate it and then not want to work on it.  thoughts anyone?

I want a do-over on 2020.  Besides the stuff happening in our society.  The saddest thing I can ever recall happened.  My daughter’s best friend called on Thursday afternoon, hysterically screaming.  Once we got her to speak so we could understand, she told us that he just found her little brother hanging in the woods behind her house.  I told her to call 911 and we were on our way.  We flew there.  Beat all the EMS and police.  Haley was checking the house and I took off to the back of the woods.

There I saw beautiful sweet Savannah and her little brother holding up their other brother.  The sheriff drove to the back near the woods, flew out of the car and I pointed to them.  He ran up with his knife and cut him down.  Paramedics arrived and carried him out of the woods and began trying to revive him.  I asked my daughter to please not look.  She says she did not.  We hugged Savannah and her brother as hard as we could, while they worked to revive him.  No one knows how long he had been there.  We got to the house in less than 10 minutes, which is still too long.

They did get his heart started and flew him to Children’s, but he died a few hours later.  My heart is broken for this family.  I love sweet Savannah.  No note, so outward signs, and a 14-year-old boy is gone.  It is unimaginable.

I can not get the picture of Savannah and her little brother holding Gaven up out of my mind.  It won’t leave me.  It is a heartbreaking image that wakes me up multiple times at night.

Please, please hug your children, no one knows what tomorrow brings.

Say a prayer for the family.

A Finish and other fabulous news…..

Yes, I finished something! This is my Zipper quilt. It is a Missouri star quilt pattern. I think I chose to do this quilt becasue I had a couple of charm packs and it is charm pack friendly.  Had to wash this quilt, why?  Well, My little Ruger AKA, Polly Pissy Pants, felt the need to mark it as his because it was hanging off the edge of th table.  Super annoying but I still love him. 20191117_155339

I did long arm this quilt, just some swirls, nothing fancy.  But it was easy and was much quicker than doing it on my domestic.

The back was something I had in my stash forever.  It works!

The news – So the past year has been super trying for me.  The loss of my sister, the loss of my job etc.  So, I took a new job last April that I knew that I was way over qualified for.  I hated it.  Met some really good people, but just not for me.

I started interviewing for a different job about a month later.  It took from May until now.  I start tomorrow.  So, while I have always worked on Columbus, I now have a job 5.5 mies from my house, paying more money.  Honda North America is right around the corner and I have wanted to work there.  Finally, I got a job in IT for them.  I had interviewed for a few other jobs there, but finally got a good one.  I was driving 50 miles to work, and now it will be less than 6 miles and I am not overqualified.  In comparison my benefits are leaps and bounds better.  There are way more and they cost less.  Please be the dream/last job I will have.  Gosh I hope so.  So, I am hoping that this is one more step in the right direction of me feeling like me.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

OMG…A blog post

Yes, I know it has been a while.  Just when I think I have my act together.  The S**t keeps rolling downhill and I am in the path.

Life goes on and I will survive.  I wont’ t bore you with all the details.  Just life crap I was in no mood to deal with.  It did not however, totally stop me from quilting/sewing, or you would have read about me in the paper LOL.

I hope you all had a lovely mothers day.  I did.  Spent the day making pillow cases for the guild charity.  Went to dinner with the family and they surprised me with a Ninja Foodie, which I have used every day since…..  I had an electric pressure cooker, which I loved, but this thing is the bomb – pressure cooker, air fryer and slow cooker all in one.

This quilt was an experiment.  I liked this pattern, Baby Bento Box, which can be located at Ronda’s creations.   Super cute and fast.

Anyway, I wanted to make this top with just fleece or Minky on the back without batting.  I ended up using fleece, because it was an experiment and less expensive.  Honestly, I WaterMark_2019-04-24-20-35-08don’t think I like the no batting part.  What I love is how the quilting looks on the back.  It looks good even when I am not.  It seems that fleece will hide a lot.  Honestly, it looks even better in person.

I am working on another one, which I will use with batting and Minky (already have it put together) to see if I like it any better.  It is the lightweight feel that gets me.  This would defiantly be a summer quilt.

Positive notes – New job is going well (or at least I think so), and I will have some exciting quilt news soon.  Hard to keep in, actually.

I have missed you all.

Happy Sewing

Happy quilting

Treasure your Family

 

Ohhh Happy Day…and the Hand Quilt Along

I got annoyed with the scales on the fish on my last block and had to set it down.  The Octopus was much more fun anyway.  This is part of the someday under the sea quilt I have planned…..in my head…..

Please visit all the lovely ladies of the Hand Quilt along and see what they have been up to.  They never disappoint.

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

So, why happy day?…well, I got a job.  It has been 5 long months of me feeling sorry for myself, which does you help you get a job.  And…I got a job I wanted.

You would have thought that I would have spent 5 months off sewing up a storm, but I did not.  I did sew, but I did not get much accomplished, and I mostly ignored my blog.  Now I look back and feel stupid.  Kevin (AKA man friend),  never wavered.  He said I he always knew I would get another job.  He only wanted me to have one I liked, not one I took to pay the bills, like last time, and then I was miserable.  It is a good distance from home, but that is OK.

I am up to a 25 lb. weight loss, but am currently celebrating, so I don’t plan on losing anything this week.  Hopefully the weight loss plan will get back in swing with the new job.  Having a routine will make it easier for me.

It is birthday week at our house.  My oldest daughter had her birthday this past Thursday and my youngest (and my late husband Derrick) is on Tuesday.  We had a lovely birthday dinner , champagne chicken and red velvet cake.

I hope I am on my way back to myself.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

Mom’s adventure to the Quilt Show (Circa 1993)

I mentioned in a post last week about a trip my Mom and Dad went with me to a quilt show 20170224_184935_resizedmany many years ago.  I talked about the picture Mom painted on fabric, but failed to post a picture of it.  I realized this as I stared at it lying in bed yesterday.   She certainly did not want to go to a quilt show, but found that she really enjoyed herself.  It is a memory I will always cherish.

Happy Quilting

Happy Sewing

Treasure your Family

Finally, some progress…but what a pain

So, I finally was able to work on a bit of quilting.  However, things did not go as planned.  I never like my quilting.  I wanted something very specific for my Dog Bone Dresser scarf, mainly Dog Bones, duh.  So, I decided to use that sticky saran wrap “Glad Press and Seal”.  There were good things and bad things about it.  So, I don’t exactly hate the quilting.  Dog 20170128_205041bones actually look like dog bones.  However, now that I am done with the quilting, I am pretty sure I have spent more time picking out that “Press and Seal” wrap than I actually spend quilting the entire piece.  The other part was that while doing the quilting, I found that the “press and Seal was not easy to re-position.  Once you start quilting and compress your quilt sandwich, I found that the “Press and Seal: needed adjusted and it was not possible.

I put the entire design on, including sqiggely lines.  I found it difficult to follow.  Most of the time I did my own squigglies until I got to the dog bone.  Then I follow the pattern.  I have three other pieces to make for our bedroom.  I think I will make a dog bone template and use a Frixion Pen.  I don’t need a template for squiggely lines.  That I have under control.  The hands are getting better, so hopefully I can get back into my routine and be less cranky.  If anyone has had luck using “cling Wrap”, I would love for someone to tell me why it was so difficult and if there is an easy way to remove all that plastic.  I am curious how everyone else marks their quilts now that I becoming more adventurous with my quilting.

Happy Quilting

Happy Sewing

Treasure your family

Fat Girl Falls Down (come on laugh, I am talking about myself)

I though hard about my title.  Didn’t want to offend anyone, but I am talking about myself.  So, this past Saturday, I was taking my daughter to her “Power of the Pen” writing competition.  While they were scoring the essays, they put us all in a theater to watch a movie.  Haley and I went to the back so she could sit near her friends.  At some point I needed to answer my phone, the closest door was about 8 feet away at the back, so I decided to use that door.  Somehow I was now on a 1 and half foot platform in total darkness.  I didn’t step up onto anything when I sat down, but I certainly took a swan dive off this mysterious platform I never stepped up on.  My gut is always to protect my artificial knees, so I fell on…….my hands.  I hit the right one hard enough to bruise it clear to my elbow and open up and bleed.  My only saving grace…..it was so dark no one saw me.   I eventually had to go and have them x-rayed (I put it off as long as possible, but my bruises were scaring people at work).  Fortunately, nothing is broken.  I did compress all the bones in cartilage in my left had (not sure what that really means.  They used a big long medical name).  They put braces on both so they could heal (which I am). Oh, and I found a goose egg on my forehead.  I didn’t even realize I hit my head….Duh.

On a positive note, while Haley did not get a trophy, she is moving on to the semifinals at Wittenberg College.  I will make sure not to sit in dark theaters….or just watch where I am walking.

So, there has been very little quilting/sewing (actually none), which tends to lead to crankiness on my part.  I am thinking that I should be able to get back to it soon.  Ugh.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

It’s dangerous to walk around in the dark