Just Some Thoughts For Today

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood of the SF bay area of Northern California. The breezes are blowing. The air is clear. The skies are blue. The temps are perfect. Just another day in Paradise as we love to say around here.

While Jim was gone I sewed and sewed and sewed. I also hung a few things up to enjoy in my own little sewing room/guest room. Two are journal quilts made by me. I just finished the middle one though it was started in February 2008. The bottom one is a quilt made by a friend for Stephen when he was ill.





It is so beautiful outside, that I've removed the covers from the patio furniture. I've also fed the plants and trimmed the bushes. There are plums on the plum tree and lemons on the lemon tree. The strawberry leaves are lush and beautiful but I am still waiting to see some sign that I might have strawberries.



Three more pictures of lovely things for today. My favorite flowers......sweet smelling lillies on the dining room table. Sun shining through the window of the living room. A pot roast with vegetables aromatically stewing in the crock-pot for dinner. Life today is good. I even got up-to-date with bills. Soon I'll leave for a little play time with the DGDs. Yes. God has blessed this day.

LIfe Does Move On

I just read over my last post to this blog which was on March 15th. I do believe an update is in order.
Jim ended up in the hospital for 5 days. The final diagnosis was haemophilus influenza aka H-Flu.
It comes on suddenly with an extreme sore throat and fever. Yep. He had both those symptoms. As it worsens, swallowing becomes difficult. Yep. It pretty much became impossible. So he was admitted to the hospital and it took 5 days until he could come home. Along the way, he experienced pneumonia, respiratory distress, high blood pressure, and high sugar levels. But in the end, he survived and came home to rest up. Due to his weakened immune system, he also caught a virus after he came home. Fortunately we were able to survive that with OTC medicines.
The good news is that he is well enough to be at this moment in Salt Lake City, UT for two genealogical conferences.
That ends this update. I spent last weekend at a quilt retreat. More about that with pictures later.

Not Fair. Not Fair.

I've had enough illness and caretaking over the past two years. It wears me out and with Stephen's passing, it makes me anxious when my loved ones get sick. There are always the colds and viruses that the DGDs get on a regular basis. But then Jon and Lissa seem to pick them up. And then there was Violet's twisted ovary that had to be removed. That plucky little girl recovered just fine. Now it is Jim with an abscess on his throat that seems to have come on suddenly. He's at a definite level 10 in pain. That would be can't swallow, can't talk, tears come to my eyes kind of pain. Doctor has prescribed antibiotics and codeine for pain. A referral to see an ENT specialist has also been sent. I'm not waiting for them to call tomorrow. I'm going to call first. Right now................we just need to make it through tonight. Hope the antibiotics kick in and the codeine provides sleep and rest. It is not fun to force feed fluids, pills, and cough medicine to a husband with a really, really, really sore throat. OH.......also it is our 41st Wedding Anniversary today. Celebration of any kind is on hold.

Silly Groups of Four

4 Things I like to eat - Spinach Salad, French Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookies, In N' Out Burgers

4 Things I like to smell - lavender, fresh baked bread, raspberries, lemons

4 Countries I have traveled to - England, Germany, Italy, France

4 Countries I would like to travel to - Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia

4 Colors I like - red, blue, yellow, green

4 Things I like to drink - water, lemonade, chocolate milk, margaritas

4 Things I can count on - God, my friends, my family, the weather changing

4 Things that bless my day - sunshine, a call from a friend, my DGDs, my husband saying "Did I tell you I love you today?"

Adventures In The Snow

Ahh March! Daffodils blooming and Jon's birthday approaching. A celebration is in order so we went to the SNOW! Yes. The snow in South Lake Tahoe is still there in March. We enjoyed the gracious gift of time in our friends cabin. It was a great place to get away, introduce the DGDs to the snow and enjoy being a family.

The cabin was near Heavenly Ski area but we weren't there for the skiing this trip.

Instead we just played in the snow............................built snowmen...................

......sledded down hills......


......ate birthday cake......

....caught snowflakes on our tongues...

...played Wii, while DGDs rested...

Had an all around great time!

Blessings and Bali's

Many are the blessings that one receives from friends. So many friends called, wrote, and e-mailed me this past week. Though it's been a difficult week as memories of hard times surfaced, I know in my heart that Stephen is in a better place and he is free from debilitating pain. I think that his birthday is always going to be the hardest for me.

As for this one year anniversary of Stephen's heaven date, we just had an easy day. I went to Bible study in the morning and that began the blessings of the day. Afterwards, the sun came out for awhile which was a definite answer to prayer. Jim and I went out to lunch and talked some about our feelings and about Stephen. Then I went for a massage and a manicure. The day was topped off with DGD blessings. Both of them spent the night.......a first for us all. Nothing like a little DGD sunshine to bless your day.

On to the Bali's. I'm currently working on a class project from the Road to California show. It's called Strip Therapy and I'm using a set of Hoffman Bali Pops......2 1/2" X 40" strips. It is going to be gorgeous when it's finished but right now all I am thinking is that it is alot of work.

The beginning......sew lots and lots of strip sets.

Then it's time to use the special triangle cutter. This goes on forever and ever.

The triangles get sewn together into squares.

Eventually there will be 42 beautiful squares. Right now there are 9. 33 to go. More forever sewing.

And here is the little machine that will do all the work....my Featherweight named "Jean".

Diary of a Traveling Challenge

One of the best things aout quilting is all the quilting friends you make along the way. I've had the great fortune to be a part of mini groups and large quilds. My group in MD, the Loose Ends, refuse to let me go even though I now live in CA. That's okay. Our motto seems to be "once a Loosie, always a Loosie". I like it that way.



Our little group has shared in many challenges along the way. We are currently doing a row by row challenge. In case I wondered if I was still a part of the group...........no problem. They are mailing me my project row to work on every two months and I mail on my project row to the next recepient. So far it is working.

And now for a little picture diary of my second round of the "Loosie Row Challenge". My job was to add a third row to the piece that was sent to me.



This is how it arrived. Yikes! Fabric, fabric, everywhere. Kaffe Fasset fabric. What am I going to do with Kaffe Fasset fabric????


HHHMMmmmmm............Maybe this idea from a magazine will work. But I will NOT do curved piecing. No sir. Not me. I will figure out a way to do applique.


My new mantra has become......It's okay to mix large colorful prints. It's okay to mix large colorful prints. The quilt police will not arrest me for mixing large colorful prints.


Well look at that. They are very colorful and pretty. The fabrics and overall feel of the quilt is still not my style. But it is fun to stretch and work outside my comfort zone.









We need some spacers to make it work. Probably should have tried to make five leaf shapes instead of four. Odd numbers usually work better. Oh well. I think this looks okay.


And there you have it. The diary of a challenge. It is now boxed up with all it's books, scraps, pictures on a thumb drive, and fabrics. Have fun JoAnna! As for me............well...........my next one will arrive in March. Yikes! Time to stretch again.