A Bittersweet Day

Today marks the one year anniversary of my beloved Felix's sudden passing. It has been a long and lonely year. I am grateful to all my friends and family for helping me as I mourn his loss.

Every day I talk to his picture and pray for his soul to be at peace. Wonderful memories of our life together are a comfort.

Thank you for listening. I will go to visit my sister and brother in law today so to not be alone all day.
Thank you again.

50 Years Ago

Today would've been my 50th wedding anniversary with Felix. When he died last July, I was heartbroken. Now I try to take heart in all the wonderful memories that I have of times we shared.

Rest in peace, my darling!

Helpful Friends

My dear quilting friend, Annie, from the West coast, sent me a supply of bright purple elastic, hooray! Thank you, thank you!

So I'm back to making more masks. Here is some of the new fabric that I'm using for them.

These brights were purchased from Quilted Twins online and were a bargain price for 10 half yard cuts at only $20. Look for their half yard bundles on sale!

www.quiltedtwins.com

The masks are really pretty!

Be sure to make your masks in two different fabrics so that the wearer can tell which side was against their face.

These are machine washable and dryable, too!

Keep calm and sew on!

Masks

With ¼" elastic now scarcer than toilet paper, I dug around in my notions shelf and came up with a roll of spaghetti string elastic that I think will work for making masks. I made 12 masks but forgot to photograph them for you. The two sides are different colors of fabric so that folks can tell which side was worn next to their face.

The spaghetti elastic was very troublesome to sew because it would not be caught by the stitches very well and would pull out. Shortening my stitches helped but I needed to go over each end three or four times.

Well, hooray! My dear friend, Maureen, gave me some decent elastic for masks! Thank you! Here are the new ones that I made.

Each mask has a nose piece sewn into it to help prevent fogging of your eyeglasses. I used a 3" piece of a coffee bag closure that was just sewn into place.

I'd saved those coffee bag closures that are wider than a regular twist tie with two wires running down each side and plastic in the middle which is where I stitched them.

Sent off two envelopes to my two sisters and brother in law priority mail so they should have them by Wednesday.

Hope you are staying well!

April Fool!

And now, for your listening pleasure:


GREAT BIG GOBS OF GREASY GRIMY GOPHER GUTS,

MUTILATED MONKEY MEAT

LITTLE DIRTY BIRDIE'S FEET;

GREAT BIG GOBS OF GREASY GRIMY GOPHER GUTS,

AND ME WITHOUT A SPOON!

A Little Sewing Again

Although it has been several weeks that I've not sewed, recently I discovered a batch of lonely Log Cabin blocks that sparked my interest. There were 42 of them already made.

It would be fun to complete just 7 more to make the total 49. That would make a nice 7 block by 7 block setting. So I rummaged through my fabrics and found my basket of 2" strips.

Here are the started blocks.

Encouraged, I did a couple more rounds.

They are coming along nicely and I'm pleased to be sewing again.

Today was sunny and mild and I received an impromptu invitation to my nearby sister's house to help celebrate a doggy birthday. "Bently" was just three years old today and we all had fun.

Bently is a Golden Retriever, as are his buddies, Leroy and Hannah, who are owned by my sister.

He is owned by the daughter of my sister's friend who lives nearby.

Above are my brother-in-law, William, my sister, Suzanne, and their dog, Leroy.

Next is Bently, getting help to open his birthday present of a huge bone from Tractor Supply.

And a tissue paper covered pack of chew sticks, yeay!

The girls made two cakes for the party, one peanut butter cake for the dogs, and a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting for the people.

They were very well received by their respective guests! Yum, yum!

The cake for canines was decorated with bunny biscuits.

While I was there, I was pleased to see Suzanne, my sister, was using my Stars and Hourglasses quilt on her bed.

It was my wedding present to her on May 1st of last year and it still looks great!

Hope you are finding new inspiration during these troubled times. May your life be filled with health and laughter, and your cabinets filled with surplus toilet paper!

Happy quilting!

Another Milestone of Passing

February 20th marks my beloved husband's birthday. He would have been 73. I still miss him everyday but it is acute on the eve of his birthday. I still talk to his picture and say prayers for his soul to be at rest and at one with God.

When I dug out from last night's snowstorm I went to the dump and collected a big bear hug from Matthew, whom Felix had mentored. We both commiserated over his early death and told each other how we loved each other. Matthew did me a favor by checking the oil in my car despite the cold and windy day. The oil was fine but I was grateful to him.

This is the first birthday since Felix's sudden heart attack that took him away from me. I promised Matthew that I would sing Happy Birthday to Felix. I hope he will hear me, not with his ears but with his soul.

Treasure your loved ones!

The End of an Icon

Today marks the very last day that Keepsake Quilting's retail store in Center Harbor, New Hampshire is open for business. They had sent me an email last week announcing 80% off their prices before moving to their North Carolina store. So last Friday I went up there and bought these beauties.

It was just over 25 yards of fabric and my bill after the discount was $44.00. Wow! I will miss them sorely even though they will continue to sell online.

Happy Quilting!

Half A Year

Today marks the sixth month anniversary since Felix died of a sudden heart attack. I still miss him so much. I talk to his picture every day and pray for his well being and peace in heaven.

If your loved ones are alive, hug them and kiss them and tell them you love them.

Happy quilting!

January Thaw

I ushered in the new year with the sniffles and a constantly runny nose which developed into a cough. It has taken me almost two weeks to shake it but I seem to be better now.

Yesterday was a record breaking January thaw with temps in the upper 50's and bright sun. My driveway melted off all the residual ice and snow and was bone dry at last! To celebrate that, I took myself up to Center Harbor, New Hampshire to Keepsake Quilting's big store closing sale.

It must have been on everybody else's mind to do the same because it was mobbed with shoppers picking out bargains of 70% off. Here's what it looked like.

I shopped for 10 or 15 minutes and then got in line for my hour's wait to the cutting desk.

Then there was another 20 minute wait to the register with my purchases.

There were two end of the bolt selections that I bought that qualified for the $7 per pound price. A pound of fabric is about 3 yards, My combined weight of the two bolts was 3 pounds.

I bought two yards each of a couple of nice cheddars and 4 yards of a pretty floral for pillowcases.

It was sad to see the store's shelves nearly empty and to know that on February 1st they will be gone from New Hampshire forever. They will keep their North Carolina store and still sell on the internet.

I bought about 15 yards of fabric in total for a few cents under $45 so it was well worth the trip.

Happy quilting!

Christmas Presence

Christmas Presence


I wish for you, all around you,
People who love easily and forgive quickly,
Whose eyes are stars when you are night,
Whose voices are trumpets when you are silence.
I wish for you people all about you who are gifts in themselves
And whose presence in your life is an all year-round present.

-James H. Curtis (1931-1973)
Unitarian Minister

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Celebrations

On Sunday, December 8th, my wonderful sister, Suzanne, and her beloved husband, William took Ilse and me to a bell ringer's concert at a local church. Here is Ilse going into the church.

The music was lovely; all Christmas selections and played on 154 hand bells and 85 chimes.

They did the Carol Of The Bells, and also my favorite, Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella, an old French carol.

My dear friend, Ila, from Illinois, sent me this huge box of perfect pears. Thank you, Ila!

At the Senior Center, Meb was running a string block workshop for us and it was great fun to see all the scraps!

I brought in a couple of string quilts to show what the finished blocks can look like.

Whenever I'm making string quilts from various scraps, I like to use one color or one fabric on the center strip to unify the quilt. Can you tell that I love red?

At the Golden Gese Quilt Shop, Maureen was finishing up her matching placemats and table runner from a jelly roll. These look great!

Then, on Thursday, I took Ilse to the Senior Center for their lovely holiday meal of Chicken Cordon Blue.

Someone had made a Santa party favor for each guest from needlepoint. Aren't they cute?

The table was very festive,too.

As we dined on our feast, the Meals On Wheels Band played and sang Christmas carols.

It was a good meal and a fun day out and I'm glad that we enjoyed good weather for it.

My two sisters keep me consoled that Felix is not here and my many loving friends are a true gift.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Already December!

Thanks to my dear friends, Dick and Grace, I celebrated a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at their house with my neighbor, Ilse, and her two house guests, Rosie and Leon. They set the perfect table for us.

Here are our host and hostess, Dick and Grace.

We enjoyed each other's company and had a lively game of trying to name all the Democratic candidates.

Nobody could get all of them and a few have dropped out since then.

Their little Bichon Frise, "Ziggy," kept us laughing with his antics.

It was so good to be with friends on my first holiday without Felix.

Then, on Saturday, I took myself to Keepsake Quilting's retail store which is about 30 miles away, for their 40% off moving sale. They are going to close the New Hampshire store and consolidate to their North Carolina headquarters. I'm sorry to see them go!

I got there early in the day but it was already mobbed! I waited for half an hour in a line that snaked through the store just to get to the cutting tables.

There was another 20 minute wait to get to the checkout, too.

When, at last, I was able to leave with my treasures, I stopped off at The Canoe restaurant for lunch of my favorite, their lobster/mac/cheese dish.

Their portions are huge! After eating all I could, I still took home the other half of the dish for a meal at home.

I liked the sash that they tied up my bag with at Keepsake. It's a pretty French blue.

These are the fabrics that I bought and I got enough to make a raft of pretty pillowcases for my family at Christmas time.

My bill for fabrics was under $60 for ten yards worth, so I think that I did well and no shipping fees, either.

We had two days of snow, 6 inches on Monday, then another 6 inches on Tuesday. My wonderful local plow guy got me all plowed out nicely, so I'm good!

Hope you had a lovely holiday and are now quilting up a storm!