Why is it just when I think things are going to settle down, they don't?  My father's GF (who is 20 yrs younger and was with him for 11 yrs) decided to call her son and asked to move back to Illinois, without mentioning this to my father, he was devastated!  She tried to deny it; however, her son had called while I was at my father's house and I answered the phone and he told me.  When I inquired about she told me I was lying and asked "who said that", when I told her "your son" she immediately became quiet as a church-mouse .. my response was "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive" (Sir Walter Scott).  I could believe it and my father cried, my question was "why didn't you say something" no response.

Since then I've been busy, she left.  I had to place my father in a care home, am in the process of cleaning the house to sell, and to top it off my BFFL (50 yrs) and "almost-sister" was diagnosed with CANCER.  

Here's how I feel right now, as expressed to my dear sweet friend, Susan N.

I think that is why I appreciate Susan N so much!  She and i have been through thick and thin (both for over a decade) with our parents. I just wish I understood why when things get tough people 'go away' ~ when I know people are going through difficult times I'm always right there (*whether you want me or not) no matter what. Why is that? Are they that afraid (in the back of my mind I think they are), but why? 

I lost my husband 16 years ago and that same year experienced the deaths of  4 other family members and 2 friends.  Since then I've been to hospice another 6 times (12 in 16 yrs), with the last being 2 years ago when my Beloved Sister "Yvonne Mae" passed away at 72 years of age, Lord, I miss her so!

God does put me through his paces and as one woman I know said to me recently "it's a lot but you seem to be able to handle it well". IN reality, I don't want to be able to handle it!!!!

Reminds me of the old song "Tracks of my Tears" 

People say I'm the life of the party,
'Cause I tell a joke or two.
Although I may be laughing loud and hearty
Deep inside I'm blue.

So take a good look at my face
You see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears.

Why do people not see the tears that my friend Susan and I cry?

Bonnie Hunter's giving away two copies of Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. Please have a look!  


Bonnie Hunter ~ Quiltmaker's 100 blocks Giveaway


Leave her a comment and you might just win one of two copies Bonnie is giving away, but hurry you only have until March 26th.


Cheers!

Bonnie Hunter and Quiltmaker's 100 Block {{Give-Away}}

Bonnie Hunter's giving away two copies of Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. Please have a look!  

Bonnie Hunter & Quiltmaker's 100 blocks Giveaway

Leave her a comment and you might just win one of two copies Bonnie is giving away, but hurry you only have until March 26th.

Cheers!

 

Have you Seen these MISSING QUILTS and/or QUILT BLOCKS???

Please help Patsy find her quilts.  They were stolen from her car while traveling.  This is so heartbreaking!

Here's Patsy's story:  http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/blog/index.php/archives/3505

Also, check out MISSING QUILTS ... to see other's who have lost and/or had their quilts stolen.

Done, In The Nick of Time

♪♫Happy♫♪Birthday♪♫ANTHONY♪♫

Today is my grandson, Anthony's 9th Birthday :D

Where does the time go, just yesterday he was a baby? 

Now, he's big ... Anthony being his normal goffy self, hahaha



I've been working on a cuddle quilt for him and finished it this morning...well just about finished I need to hand sew the opening closed then it's done.

It looks a bit wavey and wonky hanging up, but the 'ocean' fabric gives the appearance of wrinkles, and there are none honestly!!!   All-in-all grandma's happy with it !!!

Love you Anthony

Grandma & Grandpa

Fabric Organization - DONE!



I finished organizing the fabrics by Color...phew that was a bigger job than I initially thought it would be.  Where'd all that fabric come from????  HaHaHaHaHa

The odd thing is I'm not really a "blue" person, yet it seems I've amased a mass of 'blues' so much so there are two bins overflowing, and honestly I need to put the overflow into a third bin...gads!!  Turbo, my fabric inspector, was even intrigued by the 'blue stack'...and it kept growing, LoL

 Mom, that's a lot of blue fabric ..

IT'S ALIVE ...  

Reds, Blacks, and Brights,  just beginning :D

Pinks in the chair, purples on ironing board, and whites which I thought I had more of...alas!!




           

           Pretty Yellows! 
Evidently need more ?? YES!!

~ Here are the cabinets ~ 

 

Notice the BLUES on the 3rd shelf, overflowing!  

 Here are the antique quilts and my grandmother's button box, a film reel button box and an old purple/gold tin button box.

 

New Year Arranging

Since it is the new year and I've not arranged my fabrics since I moved into my quilting studio last summer, guess it's time to "just do it"!!

Here are my cabinets closed and open.  See all those bins? They are loaded with fabrics admixed and must be separated by color.  After that I should (notice the key word 'should') measure and catalog all the material; however, I believe it would be easier to sort it by color first and then measure at leisure HAHAHA

So without further ado here are the fabrics....LOL

I have one more cabinet full, just can't get a pic right now...

A girl can never have too much fabric ... LOL

CHEERS!

Pink-All-Around Progress

I said this wouldn't get the best of me and it didn't!!!  I had enough left-over (haha) binding and was able to fix my 'miscut' and carry on, yea!!!  

All I have left is sewing the binding to the back, by hand, and it's done.

I finished the back with fast corner triangles ~ they are wonderful and so easy to make!!!  The triangles are used to place a dowel to hang the quilt and putting another dowel at the bottom makes the quilt lay flat.  This particular quilt can be used as either a wall hanging or a table topper.

Instructions for fast corner triangles can be found at the Alzheimers Quilt Initiative web page: http://www.alzquilts.org/sleeve.html 

My 1st UFO for 2012 ... I'm not telling how many more I have to do though :)

CHEERS!

Pink-All-Around The Disaster

I have been working on my PP Pink-All-Around that I started in 2007! How do I know that?  The instructions were in the container with the fabrics.  I put all my material, thread, embellishments and patterns or instructions for each 'project' (started or not) in Sterilite containers...I'm a bit OCD or CDO (because the letters are in order!).


Well anyway, it went from bad to worse ...
1.  I miscut a piece so it wasn't large enough to cover the paper.  Easy enough I matched up the polka-dots (what very little I had, it was excess on another piece) and sewed that together, looks pretty good and one can hardly see it (you can see it on left side of block edge).

2.  While trimming up the blocks I (again) miscut (the same block mind you!) and made it too short!  Okay, so I added a piece of the sashing to give it the proper length, about 1/8" was added and when I added the rest of the properly cut sashing it showed a bit more than I wanted, but 'oh-well'.

3.  Finally, I pieced together the four PP twist blocks...yea progress!!

4.  I cut the binding and guess what ... I should have made the binding 2" and not 1-3/8" as the instructions stated .... grrrrrrrrrr  So they are tight but doable :D  


5.  Onward and upward ... this quilt top or wall hanging isn't going to get the best of me, not yet!!!!!!


6.  I sewed the binding on and whilst "trimming" back for my mitered corners ... you guessed it - I miscut and cut one corner off !!!!!!!!!!!! 

 Guess who is going 'frogging' today and making more binding ???  

When this is finished, I'm going to change the name to

"Pink Humble Pie"

 

New Year 2012 New Ideas

I've finally gotten back into quilting.  I started making a lap quilt for my father which grew beyond my poor old sewing machine's capability so, of course, I needed a new sewing machine.  


For (an early) Christmas my DH got me a Laura Ashley NX-2000 Innovis by Brother, it's a dream....

My New Brother (lol) 

I found a super soft minkie for the backing, which will be good for Dad - after all he is 95-years old :D

I made a dish mat for my DD which was so much fun and so easy to make - visit my friend Connie's blog Quilting by the River for a quick tutorial :) 

Cute huh? 

I've got a couple more to make for myself, yea!! 

Hope everyone has a Happy Holiday

~ CHEERS!