Life, the Craziest Activity I Have Ever Been Part of.....

 Today, I was excited about a Sit and Sew....I was packed and ready.  The morning light brought a disgruntled me who decided to stay home and pout..However, .I made myself go and had a great time.

Below are the results of my day. I had brought a bag of African scrap strips, fully planning to give them away.  Not!!!...Selfish me sewed them together instead.  Great relaxing fun!!

All these strip sets are fodder for creativity.....

At Christmas, I bought myself three Amaryllis plants.  One bloomed once and I gave it away in disgust.

One bloomed several times, I keep it on the mantle in hope.. This one is a winner...keeps on blooming until almost March...way to go.

Aged insecurity soothed with gifts.  From Lucy came a bouquet of roses; from Susan came a little Easter gift because she knows I love orange; from my DIL, a text that she is thinking of me...

Lucky, Lucky me. At Sit and Sew, friend, Suzie calmed my soul and friends gathered round to help me lift my bags and to laugh in quilty comraderie..

Meanwhile, in the Oregon mountains, near Mt.Hood, Aoife and her daddy built an igloo

At 3 and a half, Aoife learns the fine art of snowball throwing.

The valentine I received from Aoife....she stamped her name on the back.

A God thing.... a great read by Dr. Edwards from right here in Charlotte.

How to live the last part of life...with eyes wide open...

Very grateful I found this.

Now, as the night went on...poof, a blown fuse or something.  I had to get security up to unplug things. Silly me had the iron and fireplace plugged in too long at the same time.in the same socket.

This crazy life:  I never know which way is up and which way is down.

Tonight I went nuts trying to access the Quilt Con awards online...only to be told it was tomorrow night...Dear me...

The Many Turns

Not too crazy about Valentine's Day without my dear man...April 14, it it will have been 9 years..OMG

Alas, someone left these by my door this morning..with a note:  'You are loved!!'

 I guess someone found out the I fell the night before...so embarrassisng.  I slipped in some water on the way to the bathroom at 3 am.  And, I could not get up...Jeeze Louize.  My trusty old lady button on my wrist was pushed and in 5 minutes two big security guys showed up...Boom, I was up and back in bed...so embarrassing...like a freaking baby.  So grateful I am at senior living apartments. So grateful nothing broke....but, my ego and my spirit....ugh!!

Today was a pool exercise day and a two short walk day

Also visitors for lunch...My DIL and two darling adolescent grands.

We did a quick Happy Birthday song for them both.  Lynsey turns 15 tomorrow and in a few, Dylan turns 14. I gave them a money limit and told  them to pick out their presents online and I would buy them.  Whew...so easy peasy for old Grandma..  Lynsey is so not happy  that her  younger brother is now taller than she is.  Looks like Lynsey is  ending up at 4'11" like both of her great-grandmothers on her mother's side.

Nothing fazes Dylan...Mr Charming,  just like his father.

linda and Sherry came for lunch on Wednesday.  In this cute box I found baker Linda's awesome heart chocolate cookies...the best!!  Here she is with a background to die for.

It took the three of  us to work on the obstinate African layer cake quilt top.

It is still not done, but on its way...stay tuned.

This quilt started out as red, white and blue for Black history  month...but it did not seem to work.

Next I added color and movement....alas, too much color and too much movement with no place for the eye to rest.  This is the fourth try before the garbage bin....Looks like it does have some possibility..However....no red, white and blue!! 

The many turns of the quilting process!!

The End...not really...because tomorrow is another day.

Another sewing day and another sunny day!!

PS:  More

I finished the above top, sans border...I do know that border and quilting will make a  big difference.

I am still crabby....to spend so much time  on something that usually comes  easy to me is frustrating..and at the end of the day, it was  just sewing big blocks together...Jeeze Louize

It is also bigger than I had planned....So, I know once the border is on and I put it away for awhile, it will be ok.

Then this disappointment:

I bought this because of the great color combination.  Upon  closer look, it has Bob Marley and marijuana on it...nothing wrong with Bob Marley,.......but.....OMG

AND, my great, wonderful African fabric store is now sending out fabric that is much poorer quality  than  before...I sent them an email....have to wait and see...

OK...Just sharing xo  

It is like life...not turning out quite as planned, but we make the best of it.

Again......Joy in the Little Things

Of course Aoife's handmade Valentine is for her daddy...Daddy's girl...of course!!

I bought this sweatshirt on sale, as my others were lost in the move last year.

When it arrived, it had some unknown ugly lettering down one sleeve.  This was a perfect chance to try out my new iron on quilt block applique.  It may be a bit much, but it had to cover the letters...The instructions suggested that I follow up with hand or machine stitching...I  used a Jersey needle and a tight knit zigzag stitch. (the one with the dashes between the zigs..)  My first time ever doing this, but my teacher was excellent!!!  A fun shirt for hanging around my place.

I even added my cool and awesome sunflower pull that my girl got me for Christmas.

Dinner tonight was Mardi Gras food...

In Portland, evidently the tradition is Pancake Tuesday.

My friend Lucy brought me tulips....one of my favorites.

Here they are in front of Susan's painting...I just love color.

Charlene brought Valentines for us all at dinner.

A 2.5 hour dinner...we laughed and laughed...

This morning started out as usual with this old lady crawling out of bed at noon... I hurried down to the foyer where an event was happening...registration for absentee ballots ....Yes!!!  It was so crowded...many stations to register folks, even a camera set up for picture taking as NC now needs a picture ID to vote.

I think over 200 people signed up for the absentee ballots..amazing.

That is one third of our residents.!!!! Get out that vote!!

Next item of interest:  The boss here told me that a new quilter from Maryland just moved in yesterday and she was so eager to meet up with other devoted quilters....Yay!!! a good life!

Hopefully, as she gets settled, she will come visit Grandma O'Quilts and her free,  in-house fabric store!!

Days Gone in the Blink of an Eye

 

The above quilt process is driving me crazy.  Maybe it is because I am up too late listening to podcasts while I sew

..(I can thank Sherry and Lisa for that)!!!

Fooling around with 10 inch African blocks and not finding solace!!!

I still hate it.

So...hot iron is out, ironing these 2.5" strips that I made in sewing yesterday.

Also ironed these old plaid blocks already sewn into  hourglass...

Yesterday I sewed them into two patches.  Now ironed, soon to be four patches...sigh all edges on  the bias...One more challenge!!  

When it rains icky all day long.  When arthritis hurts me and headache hurts my sister. When exercise is sitting in front of my fake fire, taking a nap, then the weather is in control and not me.

Well...here is a new bud on my Amaryllis.  Not too many blooms  this year...but hope exists when one shows...nice...

This morning was quilting in my community..We  tried to plan the year.  I will teach the rope bowl construction.  Miriam and I together will teach needles and machine feet...Stay tuned.

Hope is a bright light in an often dismal world. 

Oh, dear, midnight again!!!!  So fast goes my life..so fast!!

Rainy on the Outside, Sunny on the Inside

Pouring rain as sleep deprived me headed out to Quilt Patch Fabric's Super Bowl sewing day.

Of course new friends, of course wobbly me on my cane had everyone bring in my machine, etc.

Laughter and Super Bowl food...everything but the game.

Finally, I was able to finish the above quilt binding..."Done" in many languages brings joy.

My Accuquilt cutter cut more African fabrics into 10 inch squares..

Aoife shopping for essentials at Trader Joe's

Aoife checks out the Crocus in Portland, Oregon.

Below my charms all organized into those boxes  I showed you yesterday . So much better than hundreds of them thrown into two huge hatboxes, willy nilly.

Some of these are self-cut; most of them gifts.

Voila!!!!!  Neatly stacked in this drawer...amazing..all of them.

Blues, Kaffe's, Derse, Childrens...etc.  etc... Happy me..

The boxes stack so nicely.

Yesterday was a fun day at the library with CMQG.  Friends, show and tell and sewing.

Today, Sit and Sew at QPF, Tomorrow at my complex a quilting show and  tell and project planner.

Three days of quilting in a row????

Three  days of friendships in a row???

AND, sewing even once home...

Cannot beat that kind of day.

All doctors should be made aware, that quilting  helps to relieve joint pain!!!

New Things

Emily spent $48 for Aoife's first  hair cut...and she hardly even had hair then...Forever more Aoife will have...the bowl cut by her mother, just like my grandma did for me.!! Aoife's new  haircut:

I found these advertized on Instagram for charm packs...Mine arrived today.  I have had a great time organizing two huge boxes of random 5 inch squares...now so much easier to select and sew.

New to me clear organizers.

Clear organizers for charm packs

My west coast cousin asked me to send a valentine card to a school who wanted cards from all around.

Here is mine...mailed off yesterday. It is a  remake of the card I recieved yesterday...Several people now to love it.

Christine's one patch.  One of many she made for family members (from his shirts)  to remember her dear love. He died almost 8 years ago, one year and one day after my husband died...We are fellow travelers..

Missouri Star had a warehouse sale the other day...This woman of  excess decided due to the great price, that I needed to add new, more modern zippers to my huge zipper collection...Voila!

Now I have a quilt collection, a fabric collection, an Aurifil thread collection and a zipper collection... Proud Grandma O'Quilts!  I am buying some things for myself now.  Nothing, I mean nothing, compares to the money I spent raising 3 grandchildren for 8 years nor the cost of  my husband's catastrophic illness, ALS.

Tonight at dinner, there was no place to sit, so I sat next to someone new.  A great move...She was a retired university English professor, a published poet and an artist.   Very interesting.  After a fun dinner, she told me she had been diagnosed with Alzheimers...I could not see it at all...Crazy life.

Here is her apartment..She has a two bedroom, one of which is a painting studio.  Wish I had taken a picture of that...so awesome.  She told me these lovely rugs had been purchased in France where she still owns a home.

Lucky me was the recipient of one of her books and one of her paintings.

Lucky new friend was the recipient of my mother's books and a potholder!! What fun!

In case we did not remember, life can be so very hard.

Now waiting for our Sherry to come and hang the picture for me.

She has helped me sooo much.  I hope she does not start charging $30 an hour like the maintenance folks here do.

Here is the adorable  bag Sherry made for her granddaughter's birthday:

Since there are no secrets at Grandma O'Quilt's house, here is a picture of my old lady legs in my new compression socks.  With a sock helper, there is no problem getting them on and they stay on...Is it too much to ask that my legs will soon look  18 again?????

Bright Compression Socks

I have not sewn in two days...so busy organizing.  Of course organizing is a messy thing.

Wondering how my cleaning lady will get  into my place...

The Process

I worked on this tonight...adding in some Marcia Derse...Still so dull... I plan to snowball the corners of the blocks...still..I guess I just prefer bright colors.

I might just switch out the plan for red/white/blue and opt for raging range of colored ones..

Although sometimes tedious, this is indeed the fun part.

Going to bed early tonight.

 

Joy is Spelled, F A B R I C

Tonight is way different from last night...crazy life...(sleep is the answer)Tonight I got into the African fabric.  At first, I pulled out everything (of course)  Now I have chosen some red, white and blue...It is African history month...Lets see what I can do here... It is a bit dull like this...Maybe I should not have  fussy cut it..hmmm..Just a beginning. TBTG for design walls. I am so happy with the fabrics.  I so love to play like this. Maybe I will check out some of my Marse Derse for some spark.

As I spread them to iron for the Accuquilt cutter, JOY!!..

More JOY....One third of my fabric studio.  One bedroom apartment with no sofa, no dining room table; fabric in the kitchen, fabric in the closet..and out for all to see...I just love it like this.

Lynsey turns 15 in a few weeks...Look what the family bought her...

Named, "Henry" after some show about dead something..jeeze..3 month old Cocker Spaniel.

Now, my country family has 4 children, 4 cats, 3 dogs...motorcycles, dirt bikes...and 18 year old Evan has his very own tiny house in the back yard.  He works everyday with his step father learning a trade and bought this tiny house himself. Their mother is doing a wonderful job as is their step-father...  Grandma here, is so graterful.

Up at noon, went to the pool, went to knitting group.  I do not knit, but brought my EPPs to glue.  The only quilter there...but welcomed..

My sister has three days off...every one of those days she takes Alexis to a doctor...today, blood work, tomorrow scans, the next day, the cancer doctor appointment..  I looked up on Dr. Google how ovarian cancer gets cells in the duodenum.  No one there seems to know...it is  very very rare..of course it  is...and an ovary is so far away from there ...sigh...They are not calling it metastisis, but my niece is on a very heavy amount of chemo that is making her quite sick...Stay tuned.

I hate the cancer stuff....much rather moan about the huge orange juice spill in my refrigerator.  Now I have to pay my cleaning lady an extra $40 to clean it up next time she comes...

Since I plan on staying up till two am tonight, I invited a friend from upstairs to join me...

She said NO....I guess  very few friends want a glass of wine and a fabric preview and a few laughs..at 2 am... Old people....they are just not that much fun.

This Dark Night

Tonight I finished selecting the parts for this baby quilt/ wall hanging. Color is my very favorite part of the quilting process.  The batting is now spray basted to the top.  I did not dare spray baste to the backing as it is so late at night and the night demons are arriving...I can feel them at my window...The ghost of that stupid Pearl  trying to get to me.

As  you know my daughter in Portland is crazy about dogs...especially her own dog.  She did ancestry for dogs and found her Rosie's litter mate just 30 min away.  Em has bonded with the owner and the two dogs.....well...I think this picture shows it all.

I am sleep deprived...I cannot sleep at night and then I sleep all day.  What a waste of my precious time.

That gives a thin sliver for Pearl to rise...and not shine.!!!!

With the excitement of the pastel solid quilt above almost finished, of course, I am  looking around for something new...instead of finishing what is almost done.

Tonight I received an email from fabricsonsale.com ...Re: African fabrics...etc.  In my snit, I chose not to ignore it..and could not say no once I was on their site....sort of like chocolate...OMG

Having done that deed, I pulled out some of the African fabric I have already...I am ready to cut some layer cakes with these and maybe snowball them for still another African quilt.  Again it is color that brings joy to my heart.  The folks on my floor think I am nuts...with the studio I have already full of fabric, why in the world would I buy more...and at my old age...I could konk out any day.. (says Pearl)

Let me tell me that tonight's African fabric deal was half the price of 45 min with a psychotherapist. and the warm fuzzy feeling lasts for me, quite awhile...

Tonight I watched a silly  movie...however, one of the messages it left with me was perfect

"Remember that the sun is shining behind the clouds."