Friends and Fabric..the Very Best

Today's  potholder!! Sew cute with Accuquilt starflower. 

My repo scrap doll quilt wet on the design wall for blocking...even though this picture does not show it well.

Every once in awhile my husband in heaven thinks I need cheering with fabric.

He knows how much I love Marcia Derse....Hancock of Paducah sale table had a bunch.

They arrived today...already washed and patted by me!

Lovely lunch today with Ellen and Sherry.  Look at the treats Ellen brought me from the dollar store...fun fat quarters.  xoxoxoxo   Love you Ellen.

Six days till my two robotic surgeries.  Seven days till my daughter comes in on the red eye from Portland to help.  Tomorrow I have set up lunch with two nice friends from here, one a stain glass artist and, one a jewelry artist...So need folks around to cheer me on.

Then my grands and DIL come for a few hours for hugs and small visits.  All to celebrate my very first grandchild turning 18.  Amazing...so very amazing...My Evan is an adult.  Doing a fine job interning with his step father...learning the trade. 

 I have managed to busy myself every day but Sunday...Good for me. No staying in my apt catastrophizing. Praying for my own bravery..

 

Accepting the Life I Have Now

The gift I give myself of stress and worry....all about what I cannot control.

My surgery is Wednesday week...Most everyone is going on vacation...friends, DIL, more friends, etc.  My son is not here to help....and so I heard a snotty  noise come out of my mouth, under my  breath....I guess God is going on vacation too!!!!!Wooooow...!! Not so good Mrs. O'Quilts. You sound like a petulant child.

Dealing with stress the O'

Quilt's way:

Make Rice Krispy Treats..hmmm

Make more potholders to give away.

Order fabric that I love but do not need...who cares about need anyway???

It cheers my day.

Now, a new obsession:

Reading glasses!!!  If I am going to be old, let it be eccentrically old. Let me not change my style!!

Amazon Prime being  quite the good friend.  I must have 30 pair by now...all cheapies of course.  Some lost under fabric, some in the car, some lost in drawers, some in the kitchen, some in my bathroom...some in my chair and some in my bed...AND some on my head!!! Some absolutely everywhere...except where I can find them.

I mean, how can a woman create without being able to see.????

This arthritis holds me back...way back. 

Just cannot seem to trust GUS (Great Universal Spirit)  I am trying....sigh...trying..

my ego gets in the way.

Thank you all for all the tips and support and love you have sent my way xoxox

The New Season Upon us....

 Another  rainy, sunny good day in the Carolinas.  Great pool exercise and fine dinner with friends.  Then I made this door rug mug for the season.  In the spirit of co-operation!!  Sometimes this is hard to do, but....a start  here...and it hangs on my door.  So much fun to make.  The center is from Spoonflower at the last year 50% off sale.

Isn't the backing adorable...patriotic  masks.

Meantime in Portland, Oregon, my girl and her family are intertaining Brian's best friend.  They took him mountain climbing and cherry picking.  Of course Aoife loved it too.

It is  very nice to report a lovely day.  My sister has taken some time off to relax and to help me when the operation time comes...Can  you believe, two doctors are doing two operations back to back while I am  under anesthesia!!!!  They are outpatient procedures done by robots....My grandmother would be aghast...By the way, today is her 127th birthday..Too bad she died in 1996 .  I miss her so much.

She would have a very hard time with my mother gone and me being 75.. She would deal with it however, and find someone else to play canasta with......

My Life Today

Today was a rope bowl day...Way too relaxing!! And, satisfying..

Staying up  till 2 am...sleeping till noon, going to the pool.  Making the rope bowls.

Meeting neighbors for dinner.  Not too shabby for a retired old lady.

The newest sign for my door has already attracted notes....notes on how wonderful I will find them!!

Exciting addition to my table.  Four bookends for support to keep my sewing supplies from falling off the table.  They came in PINK....sew wonderful!

The cute card of  encouragement that came today.  Linda does not want me to be a chicken when I go for my  operation....hmmmm  The die may already be cast!

Call from 14 year old Lynsey tonight....reason...???  Why her mother got upset when she told her "no" she would not get the empty garbage can...Back peddling in the nicest way she  tells me that there are many types of "no"....She did not say it in a snotty way, it was just in a tired way, but her mother did not like it and Lynsey wondered why...hmmmm  I said, usually a mother or a teacher think "no"  is "no" with no qualifiers..A sign of disrespect from a child.  .Hmmm  Lynsey has millions of reasons to be angry...That is what doctors and therapist are all about.  She did go to a volunteer position today....So wonderful!!!!

Tomorrow might be potholder day....again...fun to make and fun to give.  I might start them tonight as it is not 2 am yet !!!!  Or, it could be binding day....Mary Jerz has given me back 7 quilts so far for me to bind, but I am lazy...Do you think I should get to be lazy at 75????

One of my favorite pictures: twenty some years ago when my children still loved each other.

It was a mother's dream and a sweet memory.

We are in the middle of a big weather alert here in Charlotte.  It has been raining for days with 72 degrees.  A very cozy time to quilt and blog.

 

Working on it.....

Lovely card of encouragement from Linda.

Tonight's potholder...so love African fabric.

Linda's lovely quilt.  I took this picture awhile  ago and it just surfaced in my pictures tonight.?????

Karen helped me put the new cover on my ironing board!!

Coming back from the drugstore tonight, I found this color study:  the first fallen colored leaf on Spring Equinox.

Found tonight in a bag, my Spoonflower 2020, Pandemic prints.

I had cut the fabric below for a mask..TBTG we do not need these for now.

Hand washing away the Coronavirus germs.

Cats in scrubs and masks.

Below:  Big thank you Anna for this awesome fabric.  TBTG there was a lot of it, since it was waaay off grain.

When I ripped it for a backing,, it was so  not straight...long time since this happened.  I guess I forgot to rip first....Oh, well...This will be OK...another lesson remembered.  At least I have enough.  It is for the purple wheelchair quilt donation.

 For some reason, today was  tough....It was made  oh, so much better by visitors...Two out of three of my mini quilting group:  The Wednesday Women. And a friendly neighbor.

Once my surgery is over (two more weeks) and I am all fixed up, maybe I will have a small open house so friends can see my apt...my sewing apartment with no sofa and no dining room table....Just walls and walls of fabric, big lovely windows, four sewing machines and happy me.

 

JOY

 Joy in flowers from a newly discovered relative xooxoxox   Probably the most lovely flowers I have ever received.

Aoife and her daddy at a birthday party.

On the potholder scene:

lovely and fun backing!

Backing from Ruby Star..found in my stash...so grateful for a huge stash.

I am low on potholders.  I am giving them away like crazy cuz everyone here is soo kind.

Found this on Pinterest .  Hilarious.

Practicing accepting life on life's terms and counting the 15 days till my operation.  So hoping that what the robot is removing weighs a lot....hmmm.

Tonight's joy, dinner at the Chophouse with lots of laughs and comraderie with floor friends....like in college...a senior one...a senior dorm.!

A trip to Trader Joe's for essentials before the torential rains.

My house cleaner finally showing up and making my apartment look like new.

Life humming along without  my direction!!

Such a relief!! xo

Sew Very Random

Tonight's potholder...detail from an Accuquilt flower die.

Fun, of course!  I am going to put it on the door of a new friend in great grief.

Pulling out a few odd blocks.....from forever ago

I.had added another layer to them and recently the purple...But, what do you know....they are odder than I  had imagined.  Usually I like to mess with this sort of thing, but  I was so not in the mood last night.  On another glance, I think I will just make a few more blocks..

These initial triangle blocks were left over from my work by Sujata Shah.

It was great fabric fun  working on this and it hangs now over my bed.

In cleaning up, I found this adorable address from my girl when they took 5 months traveling across the country looking for a place to live.  They found Portland, Oregon and never left.

That is it...a bit down today, all this  operation stuff....

At least I was able to  swim for 30 min before the thunderstorm.

I feel a sense of urgency to finish things...yet  I only want to chill and do nothing.

Interesting below:  Shame I am 100% right brain...wish I was a mix 

Left-Right Brain Comparison

LEFT BRAIN 

I am left brain. I am a scientist. A mathematician. I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear. Analytical. Strategic. I am practical.

Always in control. A master of words and language. Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers. I am order. I am logic. I know exactly who I am.

RIGHT BRAIN 

I am right brain. I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion. Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter. I am taste.

The feeling of sand beneath bare feet. I am movement. Vivid colors. I am the urge to paint on empty canvas. I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel. I am everything I wanted to be.

Look what I ended up doing to calm my brain.  I made some square in a square  blocks

And our Aoife picking some raspberries from their  own back yard.

This picture of her lifts my heart.

Hoping my brain and my heart have a peaceful day tomorrow.

 

Just Checking In

 In June, unheard of....Carolina blue skies with puffy white clouds...relatively cool for the season!!!  Oh, Canada...Thank you.

Her mommy found this dress at the pre-owned store.

It needs a bit of alteration.  Evidently Aoife thinks it is perfect!!

Working on borders here...scrap quilting...so much fun.

That is why it takes forever!

Of course, everyone, it seems has gone on vacation from my  hall...Me, I am waiting out time till my surgery.  It is now scheduled for July 5, a Wednesday at 5 am...OMG

I am not feeling so well....so surgery is not so scary.

Scrap quilting and color is my favorite part of sewing.

Usually I can see in my minds eye, the border.  This case, not so much.

Maybe it is because I did not want to cut out one of my favorite fabrics..sigh:

Below the finished top.

My friends suggested that I not quilt so much anymore...With my shoulder arthritis and my awful balance and my upcoming surgery et. al....I should focus on what I do best, which is color and scraps.  That makes me happy.  The actual quilting does not.

Aoife almost 3...heavily involved in the two day and night camping experience.

Even though sleeping is tough camping with a child and dog, everyone loves to camp...

That I do not have to do it, is so on my gratitude list!!

So hard to believe that our darling Aoife will be 14 some day...