New projects

Here are a few of the things I have been working on lately.  I finally finished the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt with Bonnie Hunter! 

I absolutely love this quilt.  It was such fun working on it with thousands of others worldwide and I cannot wait to get it quilted!!

Here is another I finished a couple of months ago.  It is called Gemstones.

Here is the quilt from our local quilt shop retreat in Southampton in February....

And a cute little Christmas tree that was designed by our local quilt shop teacher Diane using the Lil Twister tool.  Sorry it is sideways...couldn't get it turned around.

I love my quilting so much....it gives me such joy to finish a project and see the final product.

On a sadder note....on Easter Sunday my Mom's oldest sister, Trudy, was found dead in her apartment.  Mom and her other sister, Ellen, are both devastated by this loss.  The three of them were always together.  They didn't do anything without each other.  My Mom has had so many losses  in her life.  I wish I knew how to make it easier for her.  She has her faith to comfort her and I am so thankful for that. 

I am off to my sewing room now to finish up assembling the blocks on a crazy quilt I am working on. 

See you next time....

Weekend Retreat

I have just returned from our annual Pieceful Quilting Retreat at the Southampton Inn.  The Inn changed hands sometime over the last year and boy do they need to get their act together.  The chef is no where near as good as the one from the last two years and the lack of communication between the staff had two of our ladies with "special needs" diets left without meals that fit their needs.  I think these are pretty darned important mistakes as these dietary  needs were medically necessary...not just a preference.  The staff had been told three weeks prior and still couldn't get it right.  So that part of the weekend was a real disappointment.  The mystery quilt we did was pretty cool...although when I first saw the fabric choices I thought it would end up really ugly!  We made a "scrappy" quilt out of some of the ugliest fabrics I have ever seen and it came out pretty!  Our teacher, Diane, became a grandmother for the 4th time during the weekend.  She is the lovliest lady and a fabulous teacher.

I just love quilting retreats...I always have such a great time hanging out with others (stangers and friends) who share my love of quilting.  I make new friends and enrich current friendships.  I wish I could go on more of these three day weekends! 

I will be going to Lancaster, PA next month for 6 days to the national show.  I and a friend are scheduled to take five classes while we are there and also do a bunch of shopping.  Of course, we will be visiting the quilt show as well.  I cannot wait for this vacation!  Hoping that my friend is feeling much better for this trip than she did for the weekend retreat.  Not feeling well put a real damper on her weekend (and mine). 

Back to work for now...

My Friend

Since I blogged last I have lost a very dear friend.  His name is Father Daniel S. Harris, former rector of St. Mary's Church, HB, NY.  I was his secretary from 1981 through 1985 and it was the best job I ever had.  I joined his church because of the way he did my father's funeral service back in 1981.  He was the chaplain of the local volunteer fire department of which my Dad was chief.  He ministered to our family greatly during those days and continued to for the next 30 years.  Even after Dan left us and moved to Massachusetts to another parish he came home for weddings (mine), births, funerals and just to visit his wife's hometown.  Oh how this town loved this man.  He was the best priest I have ever known.  The witness of faith I have seen from him, his wife and their family is a gift of God's grace.  You see, it was just a few short months ago that they lost their son, Josh to a drug overdose.  Dan's wife, Robin, must be one of God's angels because she has born all of this and still can smile and count blessings.  Dan served the Fire Dept. in MA, NY and even the men in NYC after 9-11.  He "worked" the pile  ministering to the men there.  He was so dedicated to spreading the word and his ministry to the men.  What an amazing man he was.  I know that he is at peace now and it is only us here that are saddened and miss him.  Time will heal the loss and I will be able to rejoice in his leaving as he would want me to.  Rest in Peace dear friend...rest in peace.

Orca Bay Step 5 & 6

Here are some pics of my progress....

Only a couple of steps left to this mystery.  I cannot wait to see what we are doing with the strings and triangles.  I absolutely love these little stars!

Christmas

Christmas at our house was a bit different this year.  Because I have two daughters who aren't on the best of terms this year we ended up having our Family Christmas on Christmas Eve Day.  They were civil, but certainly not loving.  I keep waiting for them to wake up.  Anyway....the children certainly had a good time.  I made quilts for all of my family (3 daughters, 3 sons-in-law and one stepson).  Everyone seemed to love them so that made me happy!  For my grandchildren I had been buying coin collections over the last 10 years and gifted them with them this year.  The two boys got Morgan Silver Dollars and Liberty Silver Dollars.  Samantha (oldest girl) got the collection of Peace Silver Dollars.  The two youngest got the Eisenhower and Susan B. Anthony collections.  They all got the startings of things like Roosevelt Dimes, Buffalo Nickels, Lincoln Pennies, Liberty Dimes and nickels, etc.  I am hoping that this gets them interested in doing more of the coin collecting.  I got them a couple of other little things as well.  They seemed excited by it all.

I spent Christmas morning at my youngest daughters house for breakfast and after that spent the rest of the day at home with just me and hubby.  He watched his shows and I went to the sewing cave for the rest of the day.  We had a nice lasagna for dinner and back to sewing I went.  I am working on the Orca quilt steps 5 & 6.  Finally got Step 5 done and now working on step 6.  I will post pictures of my kids with their quilts and my progress on the Orca quilt later tonight when I get home from work.  Yes...I have to work this week.  We are not busy so as you can see I am catching up here.

Our Friday Night (every week) Finishers is over with for the year.  It lasted from October through Christmas week and was such fun.  12 ladies getting together on Friday nights to sew and work on Christmas gifts for our families and friends.  I am so grateful for Pieceful Quilting for providing the venue and an advisor for our group to meet.  We will be meeting only once a month for the next 9 months now.  I used that time to make gifts, aprons for donation to the church fair and some pillow cases for home and the grands.  I look forward to meeting again in October.

Yesterday I took all my grandkids and went to the movies.  We saw "My family bought a Zoo!"  It is a great family movie.  The best part was being with all my grandkids for the afternoon.  Before I know it they will get old enough that they don't want to spend the day with Grandma!  I cherish these moments I have now.

Till next time............................

Orca Bay Update

Here are my finished Steps 1 - 4!  Doesn't look like much from this picture but it is lots of piecing!  I am loving the color combo and cannot wait to see what this quilt will look like.  I am off to set up the strips for cutting out Step #5.

Preparing for Christmas

It is only December 8th and what a start to this month it has been.  I got all 8 of the quilts back from the quilter that I am giving as gifts this year.  Four flannel lap quilts for the men in my life and one each for my daughters (bed size) and another for my sister-in-law in Florida.  I made 18 aprons (some for donation to the church fair) for gifts as well.  I am still working on my civil war tribute quilt as well as the Back to Nature quilt that I started last year as a block of the month.  I am also still working on the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt with Bonnie Hunter that we started in November.  It has certainly been a busy time for sewing in my house.

I had some terrible news as well to start off December.  My very dear friend, Father Dan Harris, is gravely ill.  Dan was my priest, my boss, my counselor, my mentor and is my very dear friend.  I met him in 1980 when my Dad passed away.  Dad was an ex-chief in our local fire department and Dan was his chaplain in the department.  When my Dad passed my Mom asked Dan to do the funeral services and that is how we met.  I was so impressed with his loving support of our family and the wonderful tribute he put together for my Dad that I began going to St. Mary's Church shortly thereafter.  I have been there ever since.  Dan was our rector for ten years and for 7 of those years I was his secretary.  He was a vibrant preacher and an amazing teacher.  The kids loved him...little ones and big ones!  He got people going to church that had never darkened the door step before.  He began a youth ministry locally and throughout our diocese that still continues today.  He supported our volunteers at ground zero after 9-11 by leaving his home in Massachusetts and going to the Trinity Church across from the WTC and ministering to the men and women there.  He came back to town so many times after he was transferred to MA to do family funerals, baptisms and weddings (including mine).  He has been such a loyal friend to our family over the last 30 years.  Now he is back here in Hampton Bays for his retirement.  He became ill suddenly with complications to his diabetes and I am told it is grave.  I am deeply saddened by this news and pray constantly for a miracle to take place and for him to be healed.  I did get the news this morning that they removed the ventilator from him and he is breathing on his own and they are weaning him off some meds and so far he is responding very well.  God is so good.  There are so many people praying for Dan to beat this that God just has to hear us all. 

On another note...I am a mother with daughters that are at odds with each other and it is putting a real damper on our holiday celebrations as a family.  It is causing us to cancel out our usual Christmas Day gathering and only being together as a whole for about an hour on Christmas eve morning.  I want them to sit down like two grown adults and hash out whatever is causing this rift.  I am trying very hard not to get involved or in the middle of it.  I tell them that I love them both and will not take sides or agree or disagree with either of them.  They must work this out themselves, but to do that they have to talk to each other.  So far that is not happening and the hurt continues.  So I will be spending Christmas Day at home with my husband...no kids...no grandkids.  It will be a first for me and I gotta tell you...I am not looking forward to it.  I wish that they would get on the bandwagon of peace on earth and good will towards sisters!  I pray that it eventually is settled with them because this whole thing is causing me great pain.

This weekend my quilt buddies (thank God for them) are getting together for our Christmas celebration at Sue's house.  I am really looking forward to it.  Just being with friends who share my love of all things quilting is such a joy!  I am amazed at the friends I have made since walking into Pieceful Quilting two years ago.  They are all such wonderful caring women...and fun too!

That's all for today folks....be back soon.