Wrapping up 2020

 

I am happy to see the end of 2020 and am hoping that 2021 will bring a fresh new year where we can move out of this COVID nightmare and onto enjoying life!  

Santa brought this lovely lady into our lives this year.  

Gracie is almost 5 months old and has captured my heart completely!

I have had adult cats before, they belonged to my husband when we met.

I have never had a kitten before though...I have always been a dog person.

But this year found me longing for a cat companion.

However, I would prefer she wanted to cuddle at 6AM rather than play...

Another new passion of mine is rope bowls.  I made a few for Christmas and some little coasters as well.  It is a lot of fun and people who have received them as gifts seem to enjoy them.  I will be working on these some more.  Its another way to use some scraps, though it barely makes a dent.  

I can finally show some of my major projects for the year, now that they have been gifted for Christmas...

A blanket for my son.  Made extra long to cover his 6 foot frame.

I also made one for my daughter and one for my son's girlfriend.  

I think they are all happy with them!  My husband's will be finished in another day or so.  I had to order yarn for the last few rows and it arrived after Christmas...

I have spent a lot of time with my Cricut machine this year as well.  Here is a mug I made for my son who loves to climb at the climbing gym.  I found the designs and pieced them together to get the end result that I had in mind.  I am very happy with how it came out.  

My daughter returned home yesterday and my husband returned to work today so this is the first day of the Holiday break that I have been left to myself.  I miss having everyone here but maybe I will find inspiration to start some new projects and/or organize some that are in the works so that they can be completed soon.  

I also need to get organized for getting back on track with an exercise regimen and for the new semester of librarianship and teaching.   

I hope everyone has an amazing new year ahead!  Stay healthy and focus on spending time with who you love and what you enjoy the most!

November Update

Wow!  Time flies even when you are in social distancing lock down mode.  I haven't done much quilting at all this year but I have done a lot of other stuff...

 Here is the first painting I did with my daughter over Zoom.  She teaches at one of those paint with wine places (and she is a grad student studying Opera Voice Performance).  She loves her job!  I love painting with her!  Here are the others I have done with her over Zoom...

And, she is a fantastic artist- here are her Halloween Pumpkins:

I have also been doing a lot of crochet:

This is me, modeling a Crochet hat, infinity scarf (and I made accompanying finger-less gloves) for my daughter's first Colorado winter.  She has already been wearing them.  It is made out of a baby yarn, chunky, self striping, from Hobby Lobby.  

I simply used double crochet, always going into the back loop only, which gave it a nice texture.  

I feel like I am finally understanding crochet enough and after I followed the hat pattern, I did the scarf and finger-less gloves on my own.  I wanted them to match the hat and could not find a pattern for the gloves that I liked.  After I had done the scarf on my own, I figured I could manage with the gloves too.  I am happy with the result but now she needs a set that isn't as bulky for when its not quite so cold.  

The pink/coral set pictured below is mine.  

I ordered the pom poms on Amazon.  Sooooooo much less expensive than local stores.  

I hope to make a few more for Christmas presents.  

This is a project that failed, made too short and so it became a cowl but I love it.  I will try again making it longer for the other experiment.  Creating your own pattern is challenging.  I was working from a picture I liked and still want to succeed but it may be after the holidays before I have time to experiment further.  

Here is a place mat I made.  I would love to make enough for the Thanksgiving table and I have enough yarn but I am in a major time crunch on Christmas projects so this may be a Center mat for Thanksgiving this year.  

 Some Halloween projects I actually got finished...The first is a painting tutorial from The Art Sherpa- 

Find her on Youtube if you want to spend some time painting!  

This is last year's Halloween Quilt that just needed a binding.  So, I managed to get that done.  Its still hanging in the entry way with all the other Halloween decor.  Need to find time to get that down this week and put Thanksgiving out.  

This Coffee Cozy made its way into the care package for my daughter in time for Halloween.  Who doesn't want a candy corn Mickey Mouse coffee cozy?

And, a friend and I have been doing a lot of Cricut work...

I have also been running and...something I never thought, in a hundred years, that I would ever do...

Climbing at the climbing gym with my husband and son.  They have been climbing partners for about 3 years and it has gotten really difficult to get their schedules to match up often enough.  My husband was thinking of giving it up if he couldn't get an additional partner- which he had done just before social distancing but then...social distancing.  Well, my husband is in the best shape of his life and he LOVES to climb so I wasn't having that.  I told him I would give it a try.  He was so appreciative and I was doing so well that after my month long trial membership, I kept going.  I now do top rope climbing with him as well as the auto belay and I am making good progress but it is challenging.  The best thing is I am not the only fat or old lady giving it a try.  There are a bunch of women who climb with their sons!  Its awesome!

On top of all this, I am still working from home as a high school librarian and I have one Young Adult Literature Class that I LOVE to teach!  Having an empty nest is the biggest challenge of all but I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to do all these things I love.  I see my son more often than when I didn't climb, often as a nice surprise because he found time away from homework and work to join us, unannounced, at the climbing gym.  

I hope everyone is having a lovely November filled with all that they are thankful for!  

Good luck on getting all of your projects done...

I will be a crocheting mad woman to get Christmas projects done!  Wish me luck!  I need all the help I can get....

Pressure is on...

So, here is one of the latest finishes.  Yes, it is actually complete.  I do finish one once in a while.  

This quilt is made from shirts worn by my husband, my son, and myself.  Then there is one other fabric added to represent my daughter since I didn't have any of her shirts, then the blue.  I used 2 layers of warm & white batting- it quilts up so much nicer that way- so it is one heavy & large lap quilt.  I usually use washable wool batting now days but I had some warm & white left over and wanted to use it up.  

Here is the back and an up close.  That pink London fabric is the one i added for my daughter.  The rest are clothes actually worn by the rest of us.  That pink & yellow plaid is from a pair of shorts.  

The quilting pattern is called "A Little bit of fluff".  This is the second quilt- ever- that I have had a problem of the back folding over on itself during quilting.  I had to remove stitching from the second half of two rows to fix it.  That was frustrating...otherwise, I love my long arm machine!

This is my other recent finish.  Made in two days.  Those hand painted panda blocks have been in my stash for years.  I was finally motivated to get something made with them.  Its a little less than 30 inches square.  Now I have to figure out where to hang it.  

These blocks called to me yesterday so I got this simple top put together and I am really loving it.  I already have the backing loaded on the long arm.  I think I want this one hanging in my bedroom where I have new solid navy bedding and a light blue-grey wall.  

I had originally planned on working on my bee quilt yesterday.  That didn't happen.  Now that I have found out that we are planning on starting a hybrid model of school this year , in addition to an online option, and I will be starting back in less than 2 weeks, the pressure is on to get some more projects finished!  

I saw this Barbie at the book store the other day.  I LOVE her!  I have been trying to make myself take some time for meditation and yoga through all this quarantine so this tickled my funny bone.  Even Barbie is more Zen than I am...

Namaste!

July Already

Maybe this post would be better titled "Quarantine"...I know I am not the only one struggling to get through.  I kinda have a love-hate relationship with this staying at home business.  Its quite the dichotomy...
getting a lot done and still feeling useless
being incredibly busy but still feeling bored and limited
trying to quarantine while still trying to function- life goes on...
So, I have gotten a lot of quilting done in the last couple of months...
the picture above is an animal quilt I sewed the lattice & border on yesterday.  Today, I will try to get a backing put together for it from my stash. 

I also did 8 hours of digital quilting on a king size quilt yesterday which I will show when I manage to get it finished. 

The Peacock quilt and a matching flower came from fabric in my mother's stash.  She passed away a year ago and I am just now getting around to going through what I saved from donation at the time.  I will make the two matching wall-hangings and hopefully find a place in my home to hang them.  The pillows are for my bedroom refresh. 

We gave our unused wall mounted TV to my son but that required a patching and painting of the one color wall in our bedroom.  I followed that up with new curtains and bed linens, as well as a good clean up that my husband has really appreciated.  Now if I could just get the rest of the house in shape...

My son's girlfriend and I spent some time making a huge mess and a few great paintings came out of it. 

I am still trying to find places to hang the good ones.  She already has her's up on display at their house. 

A major endeavor I have had to deal with during this quarantine... My daughter graduated with her Bachelor's degree in Opera Voice Performance and moved 450 miles away to go to grad school in the fall. 

We were all quite disappointed that her senior recital ended up being performed through a series of YouTube videos rather than in person. 

Locating an apartment and moving her to a different state has been a challenge during this COVID mess.  It included two road trips for me, three for her.  One of those was a major move with 3 cars (she has 2 roommates) and a Uhaul.  She is now trying to get a job, during quarantine-another challenge, and be prepared for classes in the fall. 

My son and his girlfriend are trying to stay focused on college classes during this quarantine craziness and they work so hard at their jobs!  So glad they have each other!  We spend as much time with them as possible!  We got roped in to playing poker recently, something definitely out of my, and my husband's, comfort zone but we had a lot of fun! 

And, I have been doing a lot of sewing, paint by numbers, reading ...

 These, along with the painting below, were housewarming gifts for a friend- another person who moved through all this quarantine mess...

Loved seeing one of my paint by numbers being loved and appreciated!  It was so much fun and the perfect gift for these friends!

I have also done a little gardening.  Not something I am very good at, but I figured if I was going to be stuck at home all summer, I might as well make the yard a little more enjoyable with a refresh of lilac bushes and porch cushions (the red ones).  We have enjoyed a few mornings out there but mostly it is just too HOT!


I am not a fan of living in the desert southwest and can't wait for my husband to retire in a few years so we can move out of here.  An ocean breeze is definitely calling me!

I am lucky to get to spend a lot of time with this guy: my faithful running partner.  

Since April 1st, we have put in 139.95 miles. 

Since I ran 6 miles and cleaned all day on Saturday, my body is still achy and I am taking a second rest day today.  I'll be lazy and do some sewing.  Tomorrow we will hit the pavement as usual.  Even heading out before 7 am is too hot though...ugh!

I have to put a white T shirt on him before we leave so that the sun doesn't scorch his black back. 

I will leave you with a picture of my best friend and husband of, in less than 2 weeks, 25 years.  He has been an amazing support to me in the last year and a half that has been the most crazy and difficult of my life.  With the emptying of my nest and the passing of my mother, I am having quite the identity crisis.  This covid mess just adds to the craziness and uncertainty about who I am and what I should be spending the rest of my time focused on.  This man is my rock and the best thing that has ever happened to me!  He is an amazing father and has the patience of a saint. 
I can't believe we are looking at 25  years together...it has been an incredibly blessed marriage!  So lucky to have you!

I wish everyone happiness and health as we battle throught his crisis.  Namaste!