WATERCOLOR FUN

I enjoyed my last book so much,

 I ordered this one of different landscape scenes!

Yup, it is so wonderful to just savor the joy of color!

 

A LITTLE HOP

While I had plans to meet Mary for our send off for the shop hop, things got rearranged a bit.  The antibiotic I am on has decided to make me so nauseous  I could barely hold my own head up!  Bill drove me to our local shop where I met Mary for a brief shop.

This is the quilt I picked out for this year and I bought the fabric I needed.

A quick hug and Bill whisked me back home!  My body is over all the meds, too, I guess but it sure has a nasty way of letting me know!  So grateful for Bill to give up his Saturday morning to haul me in to town and back!  Mary is a good friend to be so flexible with my health ups and downs! (mostly downs)
 

ANOTHER ACCOMPLISHMENT

I designed and executed the corner blocks using foundation paper piecing which I drew--it proceeded pretty well, considering! 

 Now I need to sew all of the outer blocks to the center panel, load it onto the quilting frame and stitch and bind it--that's all.  

I had hoped to have it done before today because today kicks off the beginning of the All Florida Shop Hop 2025! 

 At least I am closer than I was last week!

 

A LITTLE VISIT

My quilting buddy, Mary, invited me into a trip to the soon-to-close JoAnn's store, about an hour away.  I didn't really feel like going but I did want to pick up a few backing and background fabrics

 so I pushed myself per doctor orders. 

 Off we went-I haven't been there in more than 6 months!  

On the way, we saw this sight--very unusual for us--it's a rather grand pile of rocks!  Some company much closer to the coast must've been doing some construction (digging a foundation) and needed a place to store it before they resold it.  Where I live, you can dig more than 100' and never run into a rock but along the coast it is a different story.  The pile is 100' long and about 50' high--

a really big pile of very large boulders!

The fabric supply was fine at the closing store. I found just what I had written down to purchase but as for notions; very slim pickings!!!  The lines were atrocious--easily and hour and a half of our visit was waiting for the cutting counter and then again to cash out!  Yikes!  It was good to be with my friend but I was exhausted and glad to be back to my bed, too!  Let's be honest.

 

THE NEXT STEP

I stitched the last churn dash block 

and now I have to decide what to do with the corners. 

 I will use some more of the navy fabric for spacers on the sides.  It's getting easier to think and work on the piecing.

And then I get a text---Ethan's school planted an oak tree in his memory and his fellow students all painted rocks to decorate the ground around the tree. I'm so glad they care enough to do this and to help the other 3rd graders grieve. 

 

A BRIEF WALK

The azalea bush is beginning to glow with color!  This bush is always the first because it gets the most sunshine!

I've been picking some carrots from my veg bed

 and thoroughly enjoying them!

The bird of paradise clump on the palm tree survived the freeze!  So many other plants are going to have a lot of regrowing

 to do before they will bloom again.  

I hope we are done with the freezing cold mornings!

I put this together yesterday;  an early Mother's Day gift from my daughter and family.  I will make a cement pad for it to rest on out back by our pond!

 

THE SAGA CONTINUES

 Knocked down with another migraine this week-let's add vertigo and vomiting with this one!  Fun. Marsel bought me this pad of watercolor paper that is a watercolor coloring book!  It's a great way for me to play without too much strain!  It's also good therapy because my hand shakes now and it is helping me to steady it!  Also, I can play while sitting in my bed which has been my world again this week

I know how fragile my emotions are still because I was sobbing when awakened to texts for prayer because a man under the influence of drugs caused this accident.  It is my daughter-in-law's vehicle;  she and daughter were on their way home.  He drove them right into those cement traffic barriers.  My son and his son were following  right behind them and saw the accident and thought they had witnessed a fatal crash!   Ella was taken to the hospital and released, her mom, Cassandra was take to a trauma center and just came home tonight.

Ella is one poor bruised body but her Mom has fractured her sternum and T2 vertebrae but she is alive and there is no spinal cord injury!  

I know this sounds like the worst case of bad luck for a family but I don't believe in luck--and yes, we think these are all bad things happening lately but I will just say, I believe God will have his own good reasons for all of these tears and I trust him, shakily some days but still I acknowledge him as God Almighty in all things.

Steel is strengthened when it is heated up and beaten-I have a whole new understanding of refining faith!

ADDING A FEW EVERYDAY

I added some more blocks.  

It seems to be going easier each block.

Lena found a more comfortable spot to nap while I sew!

Does anyone have a cat that likes them to stand by them while they eat?  Of course, I accommodate her.

 

WOOD RE-WORKING

When we sifted through the ashes, there were some treasures we were able to save.

I made this bowl for Ethan in 2021 from the grapefruit tree he used to love to climb. It was badly singed and covered with the thick, toxic smoke.

After a good bit of sanding, I was able to save the bowl

 and then I put wood sealer on it.

This is one of those things I will have to save for a while

 before returning it to Matthew and Will.

Both of their bowls were burned beyond repair. 

 See on the right hand side--Ethan wrote is name in marker

 so he would know it was his!  

 

PROGRESS

Look at that!  Two blocks done--I had to resize the pattern to fit the center shop blocks but it worked! 

 The hard part is really done, now it is just manual labor! lol

 

LOOKING AHEAD

Next month the All Florida Shop Hop begins and I didn't finish last year's project.  I pulled out the pouch of fabric, the sketch I had made and hoped to get some brain cells moving around.

I am making a less ambitious layout than originally thought but even so the choices are causing a lot of sparking and sputtering! 

 I will make a fresh start today.

Reminders like these cause both pain and joy.

(we had measured his height again on my birthday, not knowing it would be the last entry.  And the dirt from handprints on the doorway from my sewing room, where this is marked, to the garage will not be washed for fear of removing these precious markers!)

 

JUST ONE STEP

I picked up wooden needles to knit some dishcloths-the basic patterns required the least amount of thought.

 

GOODBYES

We took a day to go to downtown Jacksonville to the MOSH and expose the kids to some smiling adults instead of sobbing ones.

We had a very good time trying to keep up with each of them!

The youngest did need a snooze for a bit!

My Washington Son and family.

The drive home last night after saying goodbye to everyone. 

 Yes, the sun sets on one chapter of our lives.

 

AND ANOTHER LOSS

Nyki (New Year Kitten)

January 2009-January 2025

I am doing well physically, for which I am very grateful.

 My emotions are all over the place.

Who knew you could cry so much?

 

TRAGEDY

 I am not going to be around for a while; my 9 year old grandson has perished in a house fire.  We are devastated.  

A PATTERNS SHOP HOP

We went to two shops yesterday-I held up well!  As usual there was a lot of inspiration and good fun. I bought some fat quarters for a couple of new project bags, a panel and background fabric for a quilt and a charm pack to make the quilt in the foreground.  

Mary is a good shop hopping friend, to say the least! 

 It was so good to be out and about again!

 

CAMELLIA BLOOMS

These are the bushes in our side hedge; 

 usually not much for blooming until this year!  

Even a double bloom on this bush!

And this is the first year for this one to bloom-

they are just stunning!  

I'm so happy to see these perfect flowers! 

 Even is they don't have a perfume to match! lol

I'm off to a few quilt shops with Mary for a Shop Hop;

it will be a real test of my stamina!

 

A PRE-SEPSIS PROJECT IS FINISHED!

The lovely fairy garden 3 yard quilt finally has binding (and I put it on right to machine stitch it all the way this time!) It was all ready to finish just before I got sick and it has languished all of this time!  Now it is even washed and dried!  But if you remember , there is something extra special about this quilt---it glows in the dark!!!!

This is a view of the corner!

And the blocks with the mushrooms look like this---

in the dark!  How cool is that!

The quilt finishes at 44" x 54"

 

I DID IT!

I loaded up the table runner and worked on it throughout yesterday.  I cut out the binding and stitched it on only I sewed it to the wrong side so I had to finish the binding by hand--no longer an easy job for me!  (I sew my bindings on and have for years but obviously I forgot what I was doing!)

But even with the binding delay, I had the runner done by bedtime last night!  This is my first pieced/quilted project of 2025! 

 (and the first in 4+ months!)

 

EARLY MORNING VISITORS

Aren't they beautiful birds?! 

 The Sandhill Cranes  are tall--48-50" each. 

 Their chatter is beautiful and their songs, while a bit boisterous, are incredible, too.  They come up to get some cracked corn to warm up after our chilly mornings lately!  

I stitched all of the blocks together and then had the less-than-thrilling job of ripping all of the paper away from the blocks.  Now if I had used the special paper available in pads for foundation paper piecing, which comes out in the wash, this step could've been skipped but I used thin copy paper.

Here is the pile of paper I ended up with--about 8" high! lol

And most of it peeled away very nicely.

I'm pleased with the results.  

I added some left over 2" strips for borders. 

 The final dimensions will be about 24" x 34" after I layer it up 

and load it on the machine for quilting!