Just the Way it is...

Soothing my mind with potholder craze...How fun is this one with Sara Watts selvedge.

Twelve tops ready to quilt...I think I live in potholder city.. I am stressed and it so therapeutic.

My DIL loves to bake...Look at the lemon trifle she made for mother's day with her own grandmother's recipe!!!

My girl is a great photographer...sending lovely pictures of Aoife as she goes with her mommy who plays in the all women Irish Ceili band in Portland.  I made each of my grandchildren a bag like this with their name on it...

Love a child who can care for themselves...Tired???  Just go to sleep!!! Yay Aoife.

Going to sleep is on my agenda too...Think I might just sleep in my clothes tonight too..

On Mothers' Day, I heard from all of my family and friends too...Joy and lucky me.

 

A Bump, or Two

Aoife in Portland picking wildflowers.

A bird on my fence.  It had white and brown speckles on its tummy.

What is the name???  I do not know..

The extent of my sewing:  potholder beginings with some scraps.

Monday, I fell in physical therapy.  He had the safety belt on me and was setting the timer, when impulsive me took off without permission and fell.  My  PT softened the fall by grabbing my arm.  He felt terrible...It was my fault. No one can save me from myself!!!

I injured my tailbone...Pain..ugh, light headedness

Monday, I was supposed to teach a rope bowl class, but had to cancel it as I cannot twist and focus on my sewing machine in order to make samples for the demonstraton.

In order to fight against Pearl, I have been going to play cards with other old people...God help me, it has come to this.

What in the world is my grandmother thinking as she looks down on me????

Also weight gain..jeeze louize....I say, I am the largest person here.....But my grands say I am perfect and that no one likes a skinny grandma.

Love....I have love..xo

The MIracle

 

With her permission, I share the miracle of today.  The mother of my grandchildren...my DIL invited me to an open meeting of recovery today.  In  tears of joy, I watched her pick up her 10 year chip of sobriety from alcohol and drugs.

I am  humbled and so very proud of her.

Celebrating the miracle with the delight of sunflowers.

Gratitude

Yesterday and Thursday were great days with Lynsey's visit...so grateful I have a grandgirl like her.

Today I was supposed to go to a sit and sew, but only one other person signed up...I did not go...Ennui set in..I felt like I wasted my day...All my fault for staying up until  1:30 am last night sewing away like a  youthful soul. The result of that faulty thinking was feeling  blah today.

Tonight I got a grip.  After reading outside on this splendid day, I finished the 16 washcloths for donation.  They are all done with cute fabric like below.  A finish...good feeling.

A friend picked up this Nelly Moser Clematis for me...Someone will plant it tomorrow.  My very favorite one.

Next small finish:  extra triangles from a snowballed project.

I almost decided not to spend the time, but now....glad I did.

All cut and ready for ironing.

So I got things done after all...and two support group zooms....and lunch with friends here.....certainly letting me know that I have tons to be grateful for:

The maturity of my 15 year old granddaughter.

The one day turn around for my broken machine.

The sunny day.

A call from  my son saying not to worry about him as he was fine.

My daughter who is always in touch and with pictures too!!

My supportive DIL.

My mother who taught me to think of others when I was sad and blue.

My grandmother who taught me to sew.

And lots and lots more...as I accept that every day cannot be stellar!!

Yet still, a grateful day.

Grateful Grandma

 Lovely Lynsey is 15 now...We went out to dinner last night and had a great time...My friends were all delighted with her beauty and her poise...(I am NOT prejudice...not at all)  She  has taken to spend Thursday nights with me. I am so grateful I had the strength to raise my grands for 8.5 years..and  more than grateful their healthy mom can do such a great job now...Gratitude...sigh...a wonderful thing.

Lynsey did not like the food at my house.(no teenage food she said)   She offered to go shopping at Aldi for  me...Aldi without Lynsey is a very sad thing.  She told me to stay in the car and she would handle it all...She took my credit card, did the shopping, loaded it in the car and into the apt and put it all away.; It was just like we used to do when we were living together.

A couple here has befriended me...She is 89 and a half years old.  On occasion, she invites me to exercise in the pool with her.  OMG, after this last time, I could barely walk the next day... Her husband turns 95 on May 1st.  I made him this "Happy cloth".  They are fun to make and give away.  I figure that cleaning things like kitchen counters, car dashboards, or cleaning anything...is a boring job.  A cloth decorated with fun fabric should cheer the day .   He will get a kick out of this one.!!

With my arthritis, gardening seems impossible for me...Such a fall risk!!

There are friends here who have no gardens and wish they did... I have offered up mine for them to do with what they want...Such a win-win...Charlene and Lucy started last week cleaning and organizing the small patio garden.  Already I feel more peaceful and grateful.  I like gardens wild and busy; they like gardens tidy.  I do not care. I am grateful.for the friendship and the help.

At Wednesday's Women last week, I tried to attach this African fabric trim to my online sale jacket.

It was a disaster.  Somehow, I hit a hidden part of the zipper with my needle.  I destroyed the bobbin case and put the needle casing out of alignment.. OMG, Sherry put my sewing machine into the car for fixing and finished my shirt.on my second machine

..THANK YOU Sherry!!!

I was in the shop at Quilt Patch fabrics the next morning by ten thirty am and back home with my machine  by 3 pm.  There is a new repair man there named Bill who is very very nice...TBTG  He cleaned my machine too.  He said it was very dirty????  Hmm , it has only been 9 months since cleaning....Every day sewing makes dirty happen.  I do not care....Sewing makes me happy.

More things to be joyful about:  My cleaning lady came today...wonderful..

It was a bit chilly here today at 65..., but Friday week it will be 90!!!!  Spring is here...Nothing better than that...

Grandma Stays Sunnyside Up

 Joy from Portland:  Almost hard to choose which is more beautiful, the lilacs or Aoife...Almost!!!  But, the choice is clear.

Mary Jerz has finished quilting my plaid hourglass quilt.. Plaids collected from forever ago.

The shot cotton on the back shows off Mary's great longarm quilting.

In other quilty process:  my latest scrap top effort

Bored with it all, I found some batik cuts...enough to start a baby quilt top.

Sally Catoe lives down the hall from me.  She has a small jewelry business making earrings.

I do not wear large earrings like these.  But, with a small ring, I can wear the quilty ones as a pendant.

Grandma O'Quilts turned on the TV news for the first time since she has moved here.. Although the news often gives me a stomach ache, I now have Peacock.

As you can see, I have turned it toward the sewing machine area so I can press and be informed all at the same time.

I love using bag bags like this...but have never  thought of  using these...old linen calenders!!! From the "Sewing " blog.

Life seems to be like a rollercoaster.  I received a text from my son the other night saying he loved me and he was OK...A huge relief!!

A cold storm came through last night....in April...as usual...the storm before the calm??

Since I am full of arthritis, I am a fall risk.and can no longer safely putter outside.  Friends came by today to revamp my patio garden.  I gave them full range to do what they wanted...Well...almost full range...They love gardening and I love being taken care of.  Win-win.

Today, I celebrate the good stuff 

Nine Years Ago.....

 

Lynsey and Grandma

A true scrap  quilt finally finished...First I made the HSTs...they sat a few years...then I put the  yellow in and it sat.for months..I must be getting better as this is the first quilt I have quilted in three  years, albeit a baby size.  I really had a struggle with the little bit of free motion quilting...finally I just did it with the feeddogs up.

Quilt backing is a 15 year old batik from my stash...a sale from a long defunct quilt store in Black Mountain.

Love comes in a selfie of 15 year old Lynsey and her grandma.

Of course there is a difference in energy between 76 and 15 !!!

She is so good to her grandma.

Kind and talented stain glass maker, Betty McConnell made for me a spring tree.  In December we can call it a different kind of tree.'

It is just what I ordered...Thank you Betty!!

BTW, it is not jewelry....However, I wear it on a funky chain.

Last week Lynsey came to visit....at 10 pm she announced ...Oh, no..it was her mother's birthday and she needed to make a present..

I told her  to go pick out some laminate and a zipper...and google a tute...I hovered behind her...15 year old attitude said...get back grandma....I know how to sew!!!  She put in her first zipper and boxed the corners...Her mother loved it!!  Success!!

Our Evan will be 19 in June.  This was his first beach trip with just the boys...

Where did the time go???  Our Evan is the one in blue with the palm trees on his shirt.

A windy , nippy day today.  We went to the  house library where my girl worked on past assignments for school.

She got stuck on math...looking for a math genius who understands Slope intercept form...OMG....that is so not me!!

My girl and I took a walk today, ate in the Bistro and talked and talked and talked.  Love!!!!

We decided that we have not spent enough time together...so every Thursday day and night would be our new future time together...

Ok...bed time, once again at 1:15 am.... A nice day that has to end.

 

A Crisp and Sunny and Lovely Day

 First up...my steal from Trader Joe's.  There were tons of these Hyacinths with three stalks.  Lucky me found one squished in the back with NINE stalks...love!  (stars in the background from Blue Elephant Stitches)

Aoife in Portland at an Irish pub...celebrating Cork...where her daddy is from

Aoife has dual citizenship as do I.

The Wednesday Women got together at Marie's house in Waxhaw on Wednesday

I  made this rope trivet last night for her...using the Accuquilt electric, I cut the flower which was ironed on to Wonderunder.

I pressed the flower to the finished rope trivet and stitched around it...the blue trim is rope wrapped with a checkered batik

Marie is from London...so it is perfect!

The result of three days of pool exercise is a happier and more focused me.

Time to practice a little free motion quilting...Has it been a year already or more???

Quilt under the presser foot, gloves ready:

I am a quilter....so of course I need an attached measuring tape on every single surface!

Under my computer is a piece of fiber art from New Delhi, India when  I visited back in the day.

My very brave DIL has taken three children to the beach alone.

Here we have 15 year old Lynsey with her new puppy., Henry...so much joy!!

The bewitching hour has me craving Butterfingers...jeeze.  I am eating oranges instead.

An Attitude Adjustment

Thank you Dylan for underplanting tulips in the fall..and thank you Lisa for the stunning Columbine plant.

My son has been missing for a year and a half  now..I have had no  idea where he was.  I still have no idea, but he did call two nights ago.

So grateful to know he is still alive.  I shared the family news and that we all love him so much.

It is all so hard.

Our Aoife getting into the St Paddy's Day tea.

I think that Aoife is the only grand still interested in dying eggs for Easter

It has been a very difficult few days.  However Grandma O'Quilts is up and at 'um...back at the pool, sewing away and sitting outside in the stunning, sunny, breezy day, reading.

My neighbor here is in her 80's.  She loves to walk and walk and walk. Last week or so she was walking when a lady living across the street, decided to let her lab off its leash.  This dog knocked my friend down, knocked off her shoes and broke her arm.

She is a stoic one...still carrying on.  But, she is a ghost writer for extra money and can no longer type.  She is crazy about ducks,,,They are displayed around her bird feeder in her front yard.  I put  this on her door to honor her bravery and good  heart.

The Journey

 A big thanks to patient Mary Jerz for quilting my latest flimsy: I am calling it, "The Journey".  African fabric scrap strips in the Railway pattern...bold blue, my sister's idea...perfect.!!!

Next:

I am almost finished with  my Hour Glass plaid scrap top...then off to Mary again...

Today, I walked for exercise and read: The Women,  by Kristen Hannah.  I could not put it down.

Great historical novel...bringing back cursory memories of  my Vietnam travel.

I was a flight attendant for Pan Am, based in NYC.  I volunteered to fly in and out of Vietnam during the war, bringing soldiers to  Hong Kong or Bangkok for R and R...(rest and recuperation)  The airline gave us dog tags and told us that if we were captured by the enemy, we were to tell them that we were American and they would send us home.  I was 22 and believed every word.  I have my dog tags hanging on my apartment wall. The bombs went off as we took off and landed, but naive me was not scared.  Young GIs took us on a little tour of their barracks....a  tent with a stick Christmas tree., two  cots on the ground.  I worked those flights for months, going through Saigon and Danang.

Last year I told a grocery store manager here in Charlotte that I was parking that day in the veteran parking spot because I had been to Saigon and Danang.  He asked, "Where is that"?

This brings back even more memories. A few years later,   I was based in Los Angeles , working on a big 747 filled with bi-racial babies and toddlers coming from Vietnam to America to be adopted.  Each baby had someone with it....most children were vomiting because of the food difference and the travel. It was a long, long flight from Asia to LA.

I have not thought of this for years,  until now, reading this book.  I must say it is one of the best books I have ever read.