A Lovely April

 

In Portland...the family, backyard hen house..

For Easter, my girl delivered eggs from her own hens, the hens' names written right on them...I mean, credit as due!!!

In Ireland....our girl, the farm hand...with an attitude...and baby lamb!

 Baby Bok Bok from a few years back.

Big Bok Bok!!!!

Here, in Matthews, our Ann painted her shoes with acrylics....She is so new to painting...wow...

Today's visit from my grands...I love them so!!

They fixed things for me, gave me hugs and ate dinner...They are so wonderful.

Now I do not know who the old lady is???  Looks a lot like my own grandmother at this age..

Where does time go???

My favorite picture of my DIL and me...taken 4 years ago.

Tonight MC showed me her Amaryllis from last year...It grew so much that it broke the bowl it was in.  I have never seen anything like it..

Beautiful days in Charlotte now...walking by the lake, reading a book and enjoying the wild life.

I do bring my arthritis with me... we are quite used to each other  by now.

Tuesday will be 11 years since my husband died.. Unbelievable...I miss him so..He was great on giving to others...So I guess I will donate to the Food bank in his name.

Life is good.

xoxo

Crazy Life and Age is Upon Me....

 Dear me, I am so out of touch.  Big thanks to Sherry for restoring my blogging button to my screen...I still so struggle with technology.  Age is upon me with issues...darn....How could I struggle with my blog after so long.

Below is a gifted jar opener backed with drawer liner.  It is for a friend who loves Chinese symbols and  just returned from the hospital.. I stuck it on her door last night.  This fabric was found  years ago at IKEA. I have yards of it.

  

Boxes made...guess I just could not stop...This one is for a new couple just moving in:

This one, for a birthday gift to a gardening friend

I have a blue one too...but lost the picture...age is upon me!!

Buttons are my newist craze...The 11 th anniversary of my husband's death is coming up on April 14th...My son still struggles and my last hip replacement has left me on a walker...Jeeze ....so my movie star days are over, but that does not  mean that I like it!!!! 

Below is my O:Wabi-Sabi One....scraps ironed on fusible fleece, quilted and bound...very fun!!

And, so it goes. I am sooo grateful to live in this wonderful retirement community.  If one of us gets sick, we just go to the next level of care at no additional cost....No one gets evicted because of money. It feels so safe...I have wonderful new friends, a new quilting group, a lovely side garden to read in...and when my leg cut mends, a wonderful swimming pool right next door to my apartment.  I am so very lucky.  I have been making small things to share with friends in trouble:  key fobs, tissue holders, bowl cozies, little boxes, covered "happy" cloths (washcloths with color) or jar openers..etc.

These can be  used anywhere:  faces, kitchens, bathrooms,  etc...Just covered washclothes to be pretty.

My today"s practice is gratitude and small things given with great love...You know:  Me and Mother Teresa....OK  not really, but the idea is sounds good, as I bloom where I am planted xo

  

Middle March

 St Paddy's Day is done...fun and done.. Last night they had a line dance here with Irish music. Four old ladies fell...OMG...no one hurt, just feelings I assume.

My hallway decorations:..cloth embroidered by my grandmother at least 55 years ago...Nice combination....the Swedish and the Irish.

Irish music makes me miss my dear man...sigh!

My friend Betty lives here...She is in her mid 80s and still doing stain glass in her apartment.

Lucky me was blessed with this shamrock:...

Suzie was making boxes  Tute is on blog "Seaside Stitches"

Julie upstairs lost her man  a few months ago..She gave me his silk hankies from his suit pockets...I made a box for her from the yellow silk and butterfly buttons.

In the mail came a chicken, made by my girl in Oregon. It is the best.  Today I added eyes.

A card to say Happy St. Paddys Day!! (A Spoonflower print)

Remember when Emily bought 7 baby chix for their home  in Oregon?  As they grew, one morning, one of them....Sunshine. woke up saying: "Cock-a-doodle-do".  Oh dear!!  He was the favorite chicken...but Portland does not allow roosters in the city.

  Lucky for Emily, she had a friend who was willing to take him.  Aoife visits him monthly at his farm with other chickens.

Look what has become of fortunate Sunshine....Amazing...

Crazy weather here in Charlotte...freezing cold, warm and sunny, thunderstorms, and perfect. all in one week. It is so like the  month of March.

Today was a delightful day....full of friends and sewing...However, dysphoria hangs around me....the world situation??  family grief???  or just an ordinary down moment or two???

My grown wonderful grandboys came by the other day to help old grandma with some chores.  We had dinner and  they filled my car with gas, moved some items and fixed my computer.  Dylan filled some bobbins for me and then the boys were gone, but not after lots of hugs.  

Life just speeds along!!

Looking forward to tomorrow.

So Many Things to Love

A stunning day in the Carolinas...80 degrees...my garden is delightful...reading on the porch, sigh!!  The Best!!!

More potholders finished..I love to have a selection to give away.

A new day, for sure.  Dylan got his first job...At 16, he is at a mechanic shop doing part=time work.

Below, my darling grands: She is 17, he is 16, a year apart..My joy!!

My new outlook....dump or recycle??

A comfy shirt with food stains.  A random  used shirt with logo...

Wonder-Under and me...a jersey needle and voila:

My new Chinese New Year shirt ...no more stains.

Year of the horse.  2026..and the year of re-purposing.

Calming my Soul with Needle and Thread

Aoife is in kindergarten, age 5 and a half.  She has decided on  sewing, like her mother and grandmother.  Using the family transport machine and sewing away, loving every minute of it..  She told her mother to stop showing her how because she knows what she is doing as she asked her mother not to touch her scissors, etc... and to keep her distance.OMG

Aoife showing off her first quilt top  check this out!!!  Click on the link.

Doing it all herself, Aoife refused to let her mother near her as she worked....Jeeze  5 or 15???

A few potholder tops from scraps.  Below using my daughter's scraps...These are her colors, not mine..

Calming my soul with sewing and fabric, as usual..

My garden's first daffodils...

A potholder gift for a new friend.   Loving Spoonflower...

Beautiful spring day in Charlotte.  In the sun, having lunch, playing cards, in the sun again, reading and visiting.  What could be better than that...Oh, yes...a resident here gave me her old sewing machine with table...a gift for Lynsey's friend...Love...and generosity. 

The world rages around me...I have peace in my sewing room.

A Windy February Day in Charlotte

Happy Birthday, Dear Dylan....Wow...16 years old...my love.... 

Another boro box...crazy fabric, for Lynsey's 17th birthday last week!!

The Christmas Amaryllis keeps on giving...along with Linda Swanecamp's lovely Valentine card.

Creative sponge making...squishing netting from avocados and oranges...onto fusible fleece.  Then I just wiggle stitched over and over until the netting lay flat...Perfect recycled sponges for my kitchen

Peter, down the hall had a birthday...His present...a jar opener...easy and fun.

My friend upstairs lost her husband to cancer 6 months ago.  She had gifted me his silk pocket scarves from his  suits.  I made a tissue holder for her..pulling the tissue.

My wonderful beautiful daughter came to visit for a few days. from the west coast.  Gone now, she lovingly left packets of her homemade tortellini soup in my freezer...sigh...We had a wonderful visit.

Now Grandma O'Quilts is happy and peaceful..Lucky, lucky me..

I also voted today...so proud of myself for doing what is right.

Enjoying my Passions

 Aoife...kindergarten Valentine party....love..

Family Valentine

Small bowl covers...perfect for leftovers.

The very best part of quilting...sharing scraps!!

What I am doing on a cold and rainy day:  Making rope bowls for presents:

Making a boro box for a long left out birthday in November..not my best work, but made with love.

This Amaryllis was gifted to me in December...It showed a lovey 4 blossom display for a week or two...Now, look....four more blooms....and I see on the edge another growth coming.  I put it in our hallway for Valentine's Day.

More rope bowls for gifting...I love that I found colored rope online...Utube the directions.  I only use batik for the accents as I do not have to worry about a wrong side of the fabric.

This time I added labels to the bottom of the bowls...Very fun!!

My daughter would like us all to read this!!!!!

The Startling intelligence of the common chicken

Wonder if  the artlicle means that Bok-Bok will soon be sewing??

Grandma O'Quilts Still Lives On

Did I ever mention that age is upon me??

Here is the potholder I made for my physical therapist...He was born in England, but has been here since high school...On the back in small letters is: "for the meanist nice guy ever".  You will understand this if  you have ever been to PT

Below, I am sharing my collection of compression socks...Crazy Compression socks out of  Hickory, NC.  I cannot tell you how much wearing them all day helps me sleep more peacefully with fewer trips up at night. I love Crazy...I have Halloween ones and Christmas, etc.

We have a lovely lady here whose joint replacement went wrong.. She is now in a wheelchair with a pillow behind her back.  I ordered a small pillow online and covered it with pretty fabric.  She  loved it..So glad....

And these great tags from a place in Malta..

random potholders:

Thank you Janet!

I have a basket of treats for gifts that I have made ahead of time.  These below are small potluck bowl covers.  Pretty on the outside, Rip Stop on the inside. (Utube has many tutes)   Perfect to cover small leftovers especially at my retirement community

Relaxing here, ironing on scraps to fusible fleece.  After quilting I will run it through my Accuquilt...a bird??  a cat??

The winner is so far, 7 inches of snow in Charlotte, North Carolina...An amazing day to relax in front of the fake fire watching the snow.  Even now, it is still snowing!!

Nice to be warm and safe and alive xo...

And, of course sewing.