The Chaotic, Hilarious, Scary and Fun...Family Birthday Party

.....The Occasion.....

Evan turned 8...a cause for celebration for sure...He decided to decorate his cake with great, great Grandma's vintage animal candle holders.  His mother used the vintage frosting recipe, for the first time ever,  with yummy success.

 From fun to....Dylan, age 3, deciding to ride his bike down the steep driveway right into my car.  One bloody nose and one puffy face and mucho blood...Being my son's son...he wanted a re-play...Not.!  Here is  his sister with the tomatoes she picked from Granddaddy's garden.

 Again....again...jeeze louize...again.... Thank goodness my son was here...He insists it was a Copperhead.  Lynsey, age 4 found it while picking the beans she had planted.

 Some found the excitement too much...Here they are...including Zoey....what ever!!!  on the bench waiting for the snake to be taken care of.  You notice that this photographer is snapping the picture from inside the house.

My daughter-in-law is a piece of work...actually so is my son...a relationship made in heaven.  I taught her to   sew when I first met her 10 years ago.  She was 18 and took to the machine like no one I had ever known.  In 4 hours she had her first quilt made.  And, in 40 some years of quilting, she is the only one who has ever made me a quilt...Then she had children...many..three..and did not look at the machine for years.  

Today, she brought a pregnant friend to the birthday party.  The friend really wanted me to make her a bag with her child's name on it...so I told her to pick out some fabric.

Amazing.....I overheard my darling daughter-in-law giving the fabric choice instructions...."You need a dark, medium and a light", she said.   As for how you pick all that out...."You just squint your eyes and that's how you tell".  Ha ha....Here they are glimpsed through the glass door picking out the fabric...Sigh...my heart!!  PS...our Stasi is in the green shirt with the shamrocks on it.

 .Friends are such a good thing!!! 

The condition for making the bag is that the girls get together and each made me a four patch....we will see.....

 The confession.  Do you notice anything unusual about my new office decor....do I relate to Beth's post or do I not????

Happy Birthday Evan.  Your grandparents love you and they are early to bed...way early....age is upon them.

The Room and the Great Divide

Today was finally the day.  Workmen gone, both office and sewing room done...sigh...Today was the day that Marie sent her man, Mr. Doyle to put up my shelves and my lamp and my small design wall and my antique quilt in the office and my vent, etc.  Good men come from Iowa!! I claim this room as my own....again!!  

A wonderful thank you to Marie and Doyle for the help. 

 Below I spray painted my two thread holders.   Yellow.  Yellow for a brighter day.  Yellow for the sun still shining.  Yellow to complement the walls and Yellow just because I felt like it.  Make my heart sing!!

 The great divide.  My love...Aurifil thread....and then ...the other kind....

Oh, Happy Day!

Friendship

The unbelievable mammoth undertaking by friends.  Life can still be good, because of them.  Just look...at the most awesome fresh sewing room in the world....new floor, new windows, new paint!!!!    XXOO to my great friends!  How will I ever thank them??

Take a good look, it will never ever ever look so clean again:)

Ha ha ha ha, this is how it used to look..Old studio....How will I ever get it all back in...or is it time to simplify? There are 50 years of fabric collecting here...do I really need it all???????  Really?????  Sigh.....

PS.  A big thank you to Marie for sending her beloved over here with his sander.  OMG, did our Doyle ever do 4 months work in 4 hours on that wallpaper paste.  Thank u Doyle so very much.

I Defer to the Needle and Thread.....

OMG...You know how I really love Pat Bravo!!!  She accepts all kind of women with love...she is an artist in every way...She is the best...Check out her latest Vimeo!!!

And then there is my sister...an artist in her own right...She has been working on this consignment piece forever.  This pix does not give it justice....and even this top is not finished.  Each of these baby dresses are vintage from the 30's...a collection of a friend's mother.  Painstakingly and artistically, my sister has put them on the quilt.  Borders are coming.  No one would make this quilt but my sister...so much work and such a family heirloom...Just sharing.

My man and I had a terrible day today.  Day two of neurological testing, exhausting.  Then the doc ordered a medication that at the end of the day costs $1000 a month out of pocket pay.  For once, I am speechless...going to bed.

It Was One Hexie of a Day......and more...

With my Dear Mr. O'Quilts on day ONE of the neurological clinic from 7:30 to 3:30.

The pulmonary therapist..Hexies

 The 2 hour big doctor specialist visit...Hexies

The occupational therapist...Hexies

The physical therapist...Hexies

The speech therapist....Hexies

The pulmonary therapist..again...Hexies...again..

Hexies go with everything!

  Probably even on day Two...tomorrow...

Mother's Day Love

My girl is so good and so very clever...These cute things were in my Mother's Day package from her.

 Just a clever and darling card:)  Just like she is....

 AND she knows me so well....in the package from across the pond came a Groupon for house cleaning:)  xxoooxxxooo   How did she know.???   I did not even show her how the new shredder works.......yet....

My Watch Dog Zoe....

Our Zoe is a wonderful dog and a wonderful watch dog...However......She is choosy...She only hunts for squirrels, cats and other dogs....

 So Zoe...Why is this the second snake that has scared me to death in the yard while you are sunning yourself on the bench???????

FINE...so Eric Stine says it is an Eastern Garter snake...not dangerous...guess you knew that Zoe....

My girl

My girl has a way about her.  Today my Mother's Day present arrived...Among other treats came this cute package of bay leaves from the yard of the old homestead of her man, Brian.  Can you imagine home grown bay leaves!!! ...All the way from Cork, Ireland..... Such a treat...Thank you Em:)

The Comfort of Friends

Took a trip today with a special friend....Little Blue!  We went for some R&R to the Charlotte Quilters' Guild Sit and Sew for some relaxing sewing.

Nothing like some solace sewing to ease the mind...I grabbed some random 2.5 inch squares from forever ago and my bag of 1.5 inch strips...I headed right for that old fashion log cabin comfort!!

 I know that under stress, we all regress...so this button fits the bill.

 On a lighter note....here is the tag we saw on the way home from our retreat a few weeks ago...ha!!!  Some of us could totally relate!!

The Gifted Scraps

Once upon a time, I gave MP a bag of scraps...You know...the ones that multiply and leave no room for anything else.  Visiting her lake house a few weeks back, I found them.   Here on her $5 Goodwill chair.

Here on her place mats for the porch!!!

 And here on her tea cozy!!

I am totally impressed...You go MP!!!

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The Big Fat Mess!!

New floors are going into my sewing room.   My friends moved ALL the fabric from my sewing room..to all over the house...It looks quite like a very disorganized fabric outlet store..ha ha...  They said that they would paint my sewing room a bright, pretty color to cheer me up.

 The wonderful Mr. O'Quilts is sick.  He has a drop foot that keeps him struggling with walking...goodbye tennis, goodbye walks with the dog, goodbye mobility.  It is all getting worse...More evaluations on Monday and Tuesday.

 My mother reports that she cannot be a support for me.  WHAT???She said that I have to look deep into my core and find the strength myself...MOM!!!  I know that she is 92 and I am 65...but really.... Guess it is true though, because the Parkinson's seems to be sapping her strength.  She says that she gets weaker and more fatigued by the day.

I have not had a concussion symptom in two weeks.  It will be one year July 3.  Cross my fingers, my eyes and my toes...I am afraid to print this.. lest it come back.

So that is why there have no posts in a week....PS.....My friends say that I should not buy more fabric???   I thought that they were my friends!!  Ha...I think I had better look in the trunks of their cars after Wednesday night's move....but then...here it all is....

 On my roll top desk!!!!

On the computer table!!!!

In the dining room!!!!
OMG

Joy in my heart..

Oh, my girl..... She has been living in Europe almost three years now with her man. Seeing her so happy brings joy to my heart!

Dr. Seuss top for Dylan finished this morning.  Grandchild number three got lost in the quilting shuffle... I am going to put flannel on the back so he stays warm and toasty for his nap at daycare.

Dylan's Daycare Quilt....process

Getting a Grip....again...

Today's self care included going to my water aerobics class even though it was raining outside, meeting my oldest grandson at his school for lunch, reading on our screened in porch with Mr.O'Quilts while it was raining outside and starting my youngest grandson's daycare quilt.  At our retreat, I worked on 7 quilt processes.   Sooo wonderful because now I can finish them..a great part of quilting!

 Also.... I dropped by Hancock's and found some $3 purple zigzag.  They helped me put the Hancock's email on my smart phone and I got an immediate extra 10% off...now that is really self care!!

Misc....getting my post on....finally..

 A cool fabric story by Creative Bug.....

And..... Just a little braggin' on my son and his children.

A few well needed laughs from a new Scooter video.

And I guess I have to say that I claim O'Quilts on Bloglovin...Guess I will have to try to figure it out now...like how to put the button on my screen, etc...just ugh!!  Change online is just not my thing.

Above pix of MP Lake house view...A wonderful retreat and a wonderfully generous MP!  Sewing and laughing and crying with friends...Lucky, lucky me!