Dying

I am amazed at what dying brings out in those that are living.

 

What should be a joyful remembrance of life becomes 'what am I getting when they pass'.

 

CELEBRATE. 

 

Remember the passing of stories.

Acknowledge what they have created.

 

Know the joy they have for the future generations that have come and are on the horizon.

Affirm witness to the fact that life is a journey that goes forward with each generation.

 

Live life fully and enjoy.

 

Just love your family and know they are special!!!

 

Tell them as often as you can.

 

To Jim, Rachel, Brad, Kelsey, Mike, Hagen and Rylie

I love you.

You are the best.

I am proud of you.

Remember that always.

 

 

 

 

Dear Jane Progress

 

Lately I've been rather monogamous working on my Dear Jane quilt.

 

 

Yesterday I finished the bottom triangles and have only the left side pieced triangles to finish.

 

 

 I do still have six blocks to go and there is extreme applique involved with all of them.

 

New Show Title

 

 

  Extreme Applique - Get Your Thimbles Ready To Rumble 

 

 

Okay, okay. I know I just need to suck it up and finish them but I do like the idea of an applique show.

 

Tonight  I started to sew the rows together and noticed this.

 

 

 

Not sure if this is from starch or what but not happy.  I am going to soak this block and if the  yellow doesn't go away I guess I will be redoing its center.

 

ARGHHHH.

 

 

 

 

Recall

When I lived in Texas and was schlepping  children (I enjoyed EVERY minute. It really is a great time to visit with your children and catch up on their day. They are a captured audience.) to here and there I drove a Chevy Suburban. The vehicle of choice when having more then one child and in Texas.

I drove four wheel drive Chevy Suburbans.  We had horses and it was wonderful hauling a bale of hay, feed or tack for a show.  I could also transport up to six children where ever was needed.

Towards the end of the time I lived in Texas I was down to one child who needed a driver.

During that time there was a natural gas boom and I was able to profit selling the natural gas rights to property I owned.

I bought a car.

A very impracticable car.

A two seater convertible 2008 Chrysler Crossfire in red.

The very last year they were made.

It is VERY cute.

It bugged the salesman I didn't care to drive it fast, I liked it for its cuteness.

Very impracticable. 

 



I have loved driving it here in California.  We have the BEST convertible weather.  Jim not so much.  He is not able to put the seat back far enough so his foot does not fall asleep but it's not his car and he doesn't drive it on a daily basis.

Anyway, today I received a recall notice on the airbags.

Apparently my airbag "might"
 be defective.

 

 

But there are no parts to fix it at this time.

 

 

Basically they are saying my cute car that I love to drive should stay in the driveway until it can be fixed.

Not happening.

I wonder how long they want to give me a rental before the parts come in.

I'm sure they really don't want anything to happen to me out there on the road.

I think it would have been smarter to announce the recall when they actually had parts to fix the problem because I don't see a positive in announcing it early.

 

 



 

 

 



I Won!!

A few Fridays ago my friend Liz and I attended the Sacramento Quilt, Craft and Sewing 2016  held at Cal Expo.

As you can tell by the name it has vendors from all over selling items to help you quilt, craft and sew.

One of the first booths we visited was Sharp Sewing Supplies.

 

 

If you filled out a slip with your name and email address for their drawing they gave you this great bag which was perfect to put your show purchases in.  Being that I live in California I never pass up a free bag.  I filled out the form for the drawing not really paying any attention to what you would win.

I do apologize for being so cavalier but I have enjoyed using the bag for my groceries.

 

Imagine my surprise last week when I received this email announcing I was a winner!!!!!

 

Congratulations! You won the $100 Raffle at the Sacramento Quilt, Craft & Sewing 2016 Show!

 

A hundred dollar winner!!!!

 

Today my winnings showed up.

I had a real quandary deciding what to get.  Sharp Sewing Supplies has a great selection of rulers, needles, sewing notions and even parts for most sewing machines.

I finally decided I would get a new rotary cutting mat.

 

 

My old mat has seen better days.  I have had this mat over 30 years.  Yes people THIRTY years.  My three children, now adults, used my mat for many school projects, hence the interesting paint and ink spots.  My mat was made before they put measurements on them.  I'm not even sure the maker of the mat.

Recently I have noticed bits of green on my rotary cutter and thought maybe it was time to replace it.

 

It will be hard to say goodbye to my old friend.

Actually I'm just going to put the mat in the guest room and test the new one out before really saying goodbye.

 

So in the mail today I received a new Clover 24" x 36" mat.

 

I also decided to splurge for new rotary cutters. 

They are kind of like scissors - you can never have too many.

I normally use my 45 mm rotary cutter for everything but thought it would be nice to try a 28 mm cutter. 

I know, I've been sewing and quilting my entire life and just now trying a 28 mm rotary cutter.

We'll see if it revolutionizes my sewing life.

 



 

I added the pack of sewing machine needles just to get as close as I could to $100.

 

Thank you so much Sharp Sewing Supplies

 

Jim thinks I should start playing the lottery!

A Little Obsessed

This past December I was trying to find different ways to avoid decorating our Christmas tree that Jim had brought home.  I made appointments, tried extra cleaning the house (I had to get ready for the kid's visit) and looked for any option that I might have an excuse to not put ornaments on the tree.

 

One of the local quilt shops near me (I am blessed to have several close by) Fabric Garden was offering mini demo's for quick and easy projects on a Saturday. 

I signed up and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon smelling fabric fumes.

One of the projects demo'ed was Sweetpea Pods by Lazy Girl Designs.

Using two 10" squares of fabric, a 10" piece of fusible pellon and a zipper you can make two of these pods.

Each pod uses one side of a zipper.

Fortunately the good people at Atkinson Designs make colorful zipper pulls so you can use both sides.

You also don't have to match your zipper pull colors to your zipper

 

Or you can.

 

I might have gotten a little bit carried away today making Sweetpea Pods.

I probably would have made more but I ran out of zippers.

And I can report I didn't have to decorate the tree.  I only had to put the lights on.  The kid and his girlfriend did the rest.

 

 



Dear Jane Continued

Back in 2013 I started my journey of the Dear Jane Quilt.

I have now been working on it on and off for several years.

This is the year I would like to maybe finally finish it.

For clarification I said that last year.

This year I have hoped to finish up several ongoing projects.

But as always I seem to get sidetracked.

I'd like to think its part of the job.

I have every week my personal shop hops in California, Nevada and Oregon and it really is so hard to resist that fabric temptation.

But I am trying.

This is currently where I am on my Dear Jane.

 

 

 I now have 22 blocks to finish, 32 triangles and the 4 corners.

I have collected all the purple batiks I need to finish so it's only a matter of staying focused.

 

 

 

And not yielding to the temptation of all sorts of the possibilities of all the quilts out there in the universe.

 

 

 

 

Going To The Dogs

I'm not sure what this says about me as a parent but after spending a wonderful long weekend with the children I only have pictures of the dogs.

 

Jim and Ella

 Ella and I went for a walk.

 

Murphy supervising our game of chickenfoot.

 



George.