Just Some Musings

I am sitting at my desk with practically nothing to do and thought I would pop in here.  Last night I went to a quilt class called "Star Shadows" given by Alice at Pieceful Quilting.  Alice is just the greatest teacher and will be sorely missed when she retires in July.  I am enjoying the making of this quilt and cannot wait to see the finished product.

Yesterday we had a scare with my grandson, Matthew.  The school nurse called to say he should be seen right away by his pediatrician because his heart rate was too fast.  My daughter took him to the ER at the doc's instructions and they checked him over.  They found nothing wrong and think it may be from his allergy medication.  They changed his prescription and Lord I hope that is all it is.  Christine is going to follow up with a pediatric cardiologist to be safe.  I cannot tell you how frightened I was...and I am sure my daughter was beside herself with worry.  I thank God for his mercies!

My fibromyalgia has been really acting up lately.  I am in constant pain with it and this causes my muscles to contract and tense to the point that they hurt all the time as well.  I am so tired of being in pain constantly.  All the meds on the market for it have so many terrible side effects that I won't take them.  When I can no longer function I will consider them, but until then it's a no go.  My quilting , when I sit at the machine for too long, aggravates the fibro also.  I have to remember to get up and move around every 1/2 hour or so.  When I am quilting I tend to zone out and forget the time.  My hubby will sometimes call up the stairs..."Hey, are you going to cook dinner today?"  I just forget the rest of the world when I am "in the zone"!

I am going to call one of the ladies that lives locally and gives private classes on her long arm machine and set up some lessons.  I want to learn how to quilt my own quilts!  Renting time on her machine is the perfect solution for me since I cannot afford to buy one of my own nor do I have the room for it.

My grandson, Austin, celebrated his 11th birthday yesterday.  He had a little league game last night and got to pitch two innings at the end of the game.  He did so great!  I am so proud of him.  I cannot begin to tell the depth of my love for my grandkids...it is unexplainable.  It is the same, but different than your love for your kids.  I guess you can only know if you have grandkids of your own.

Guess I should get back to work now........

Retreat

What a wonderful time I had on our annual quilt retreat with Pieceful Quilting, Riverhead, NY!  2 1/2 days of sewing, chatting with friends, sewing, eating, sewing, chatting some more, sewing.....you get the drift!  We made an awesome quilt designed by Diane at Pieceful Quilting with the theme of "From our House to Yours".  It was Roz's birthday and I gave her the "shawl" I had quilted for her.  She loved it and I was thrilled that I had done it for her.  My hubby also made here a "quilt shop" bird house as she had admired the ones we have on our garage.  She was very touched that he had done that for her.  The hotel had a new chef this year and the food was awesome!  They took very good care of us there.  This coming weekend we are off to Lancaster for the BIG quilt show!  More quilts and shopping!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a few thoughts....

It has been over a month since I last posted here.  So much has happened and been accomplished.  My grandaughters finished their pillow cases and presented them to Mom and Aunt Christine for their birthdays.  They were so proud of themselves and their work.  (which was awesome!)  I have completed quite a few "tops" in the past weeks.  Finished the Turning Twenty I mentioned the last posting, almost finished my Civil War Tribute Quilt top...still have the borders to do, did a set of placemats and napkins for patriotic holidays, and did all of my block of the month projects as well as the block exchange I am involved in.  This weekend we have our annual Pieceful Quilting Shop retreat at the Southampton Inn!  Cannot wait to get there on Friday afternoon!  Three days of quilting with my quilting buddies.  Then the following week it is off to Lancaster, PA for the American Quilters Society huge quilt show and some shop hopping around the area to different quilt shops!!!!!!  The week after that a bunch of us are going to NYC for a "red & white" quilt show with over 600 quilts from a private collection and the Empire Quilters Guild annual quilt show as well.  You would think we would be "quilted out" by the end of all that.......NO WAY! 

Sit-n-Sew Friday!

Here we are at another Sit-n-Sew Friday!  On the first Friday of each month our local quilt shop opens the classroom for a small fee and 12 of us get together to sit-n-sew together.  We have pizza, sew, talk, sew, eat, talk, ...well you get the drift.  It began in the two months before Christmas as a "finish your gifts" Friday night and has evolved into a gathering of good friends to share the love of the craft of quilting.  Tonight I am taking a kit I had put together to do a "Turning Twenty Again" lap size quilt to work on.  I will probably get it all cut out and start sewing on it tonight before I leave there.  I am using all floral fabrics in the pink, cream, apple green and lavender color scheme.  I really have to figure out how to post pictures here one of these days.
I honestly don't know what I would do with my spare time if not for my quilting.  It has become such a passion for me even though I am not a pro by any means.  I just love the feeling of peace that settles over me when I am sewing.  I also love watching the puzzle of pieces become a beautiful piece of art as I stitch it all together.
Tomorrow I have my two grandaughters coming over to learn how to use their sewing machine I gave them for Christmas.  I think I will have them make a small tissue holder for Mom's purse.  It was a simple pattern and since they did such a good job on their pillow cases last week I think they can handle it.
Happy quilting!

Christmas

What a beautiful Christmas I had.  My youngest daughter had all of us to her home for Christmas dinner this year.  She served up a wonderful Prime Rib dinner that was cooked to perfection.  The kids had a blast opening all their presents and then spending the afternoon playing together.  One of my favorite gifts was a photo book made up on Shutterfly by my daughter Christine with pictures of all my grandchildren at different times of the year.  Photos of a day at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum with the kids climbing all the trees, a day at the beach, halloween pics, picking apples at the local orchard and pictures of the kids at Christine & Jim's wedding.  It bought back all the moments of those days spent together.  The only negative of the day was that Jim couldn't be with us as he was home with a stomach virus.  We missed him.

We got hit with quite a blizzard on the 26th.  12" of snow and very high winds.  The conditions during the storm were scary.  That wind was howling outside my house and at times sounded like a freight train coming through.  I heard things banging around outside all night.  My poor husband was out in it most of the storm plowing snow.  His truck broke down twice and he had to work on it out in the storm as the truck doesn't fit in the garage.  He was exhausted and very cold when he came in for the night yesterday (the 27th).  Fortunately he has today off so he can rest up.

I spent two days sewing while the storm raged outside.  I am still working on the block of the month (Civil War Tribute Quilt) that I am doing.  This months block consists of 8 blocks with lots of tiny little triangle pieces.  It is taking me forever to complete these 8 blocks.  I have so many bom's I am working on that I really need to catch up on.  How I wish I could retire and stay home and sew!

Reflecting

Just sitting here at work (another boring day) and thinking about how important my quilting hobby has become to me.  It isn't just a hobby anymore.  It has been the catalyst for new friendships that have become so very important to me.  It is also my way of de-stressing in this oh so stressful world we live in.  When I sit at my sewing machine I tune out the world.  I use that time to pray, to reflect on my day, to make plans and just to relax. 

I am working on many projects at once these days.  I want to do quilts for all three of my daughters this year.  I have the top done on one...two more to go.  I want them to be extra special so am choosing patterns carefully and taking my time.

I plan on posting some pictures of the quilts that I have made...just have to have the time.

November begins

Since I last posted we have had a death in our family.  My husband's younger brother  (49) Steven who has been in the hospital for 2 1/2 years with a traumatic brain injury contract pneumonia.  His Mom called us and said we should come to Florida as they didn't expect him to make it.  Off we went the next morning and spent the next 5 days at Hospice House by Steven's side.  It was terribly hard on my husband to watch his baby brother dying.  My heart broke for him as I had already been through that 9 years ago when my brother passed away after a long illness.  I knew his pain you see.  My husband tried so very hard to be strong for his mom and sister while there in Florida through it all.  He succeeded in doing so until we were back in NY and he was putzing around his own garage all by himself...then he fell apart and had himself a good cry.  We are very glad to be home.

I have been working on several projects in my quilting room.  I have a bunch to send out to the "quilter".  I really do have to learn to quilt the pieces together after the top is made.