UFO Finished!!!

It's a miracle! In the midst of all the "moving" activity - I found the backing fabric for "Spring Strippie" and was able to make the sleeves and finish this UFO. AND just in the nick of time too. I was the second lady in waiting for coronation of Stashbusters' "Queen of the UFOs". I used OLD Mountain Mist batting and it was everywhere! I was finding tufts of it on my clothes, the quilt and anywhere I looked. I was worried about how it was going to look finished - but it has a great drape and is hanging straight! So I entered it in our Lincoln Quilt Guild's show too. [Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend at Wesleyan University - if you're in the area.] I've pictured the front and the back for you.

Evening Stars Workshop had a block exchange of the churn dash blocks. Then I was in a "strip of the month" club led by a good friend of mine. I'm sure I drove her nuts! But she never said a word!. [Thanks, M!] The first month's assignment was "half-square triangles" - that's churn dash! The next was "square in the block" - ha! churn dash!!! Well, you get the picture - if churn dash fit the description - there it was! [I had alot of the blocks!] I even had a row of churn dashes left over - [they ended up on the back!] I thought the extra row made the quilt too long for the width and didn't want to deal with redesigning it. That's probably why it had a l-o-o-n-g incubation period as UFO.

"Moving activities" aren't all productive - you can just lay about and avoid the whole mess for awhile! A friend leaving town loaned me her library books that she knew I'd love. Yep, sure did, JA Jance has another series out. "Edge of Evil" is the first of 3 - (so far). The character is a news anchor dismissed for being "too old" and the story rushes on from there. I recommend them to any mystery fans out there or anyone avoiding big jobs!

Mom's 90th was celebrated in style!

That’s a picture of mom with 2 of her 3 bouquets for her birthday! My sister and nieces sent her 90 flowers for 90 birthdays. Three bouquets of 30 flowers each – it was great. Mom lives in Independent Living at the Legacy Terrace. Mom was at the beauty parlor when the flowers were delivered so they carried them into there. No one could see who was carrying the flowers! Everyone sang Happy Birthday and it was such a hit!

The next week, another Great Granddaughter brought a giant bunch of balloons. Seriously, they were at least 5 feet tall. Mom said she startled every time she walked into the room – it looked like a person standing there!!! Another friend at the Legacy had a birthday 3 days later – we seriously considered ‘ring and run’ leaving the balloons! Of course, neither of us can run very fast … so we’d probably get caught! LOL!

Well, things are getting back to more like normal! Got these checked off my list!

1. Mom’s 90th birthday party
2. Annual meeting run by the office
3. House inspection before closing

This weekend hoping to have time to go thru boxes in the basement AND quilt a little! I know – I’m a dreamer!

In Stashbusters I’m only 3 away from being the Queen of UFOs – that group is seriously too fast. I had a finish in February – there’s 100 on the list and I’m already at the top???? I’ve decided I’m going to be a benevolent ruler – lots of chocolate will be the rule!

I have a wall quilt UFO, got it bound but it needs a sleeve and a label – I haven’t been able to locate the backing fabric – but I WILL find it this weekend. That's a royal edit!

Take it Further Challenge: Change

This month the challenge is so about me!! It’s a hoot to have “Change” be the topic the month we’re making all the plans to retire and move from the prairie of Nebraska to the coast of Oregon. So far this month, we’ve had a gigantic garage sale and our house sold quickly. Looking ahead is just the endless sorting and packing … and packing and sorting … oh, and praying it all fits on the truck! Then driving for 3 days, sorting and unpacking… At 55 this doesn’t thrill like it used to!

My sewing room is kind-of packed so I’m working in a different medium this month – paper collage. I remember doing this when I was in school oh so many years ago and then again when my kids were in school. The new copiers are great tools for this. I laid my pieces down and scanned it and Voila! A jpg! Okay – laid it down several times, fiddled and cropped and then Voila!

I chose a picture of the prairie and the picture of the coast taken from my condo living room window. How convenient that a bridge to the beach was able to reach into the prairie and lead me into my new life, making the transition easy for me!

The transition isn’t seamless – the edges don’t line up. But there is sky in both – the vegetation changes but is still wheat and grasses. The bridge goes both ways – so I’m able to cross back and forth in my mind.

It’s hard leaving “home” even though we’ve been dreaming of this for years. Good friends, family, my favorite job, quilting groups, water aerobics friends, even my personal rut(!) are all hard to leave. Heading off into the unknown isn’t what it used to be. We have cheap or free minutes of long distance; we have email and blogs with pictures; we have frequent flyer miles to spend on trips and visits … it’s not like covered wagons following the Oregon Trail … but it can feel like it.

But I can also admit – just between you and me [giggle] it’s also exciting . I have a granddaughter to get to know and babysit and teach all those grandmother things to!! The importance of watching clouds, making cookies, playing with fabric and giggling!

I’ll be retired and I’ve got enough quilting projects in mind to last me until my 90s and beyond. We’ve visited/driven through Newport for the last 9 years so – a slightly familiar area to explore further – an indoor pool in the complex for water workouts for my knees, 8 miles of beach to walk any time, any tide! There’s a great quilt shop in town with a guild ready for me to join and I hope a small group of scrappy quilters – ‘scrappy’ in more ways than one. I wonder if I need to take references from my quilt group here! LOL!

Change – here it comes, ready or not!!!

Never Mind!!!

Believe it or not - in this day and economic times - our house sold in 2 days! We've just been wandering around in a daze today! And my clock radio is no longer banished to under the bed!!!

I even had time to sew today! Hip hip hooray!

Want a nice house in Lincoln Nebraska?

We survived the garage sale! Man, that garage was PACKED tight with stuff - we only held it one day - Saturday, opened the door at 7:50 and there were 8 people waiting to get in. We made them wait until we got enough stuff out so there was room to walk inside. I had put "quilter" in the ad - Quilter moving to condo - fabric, notions, and furniture - it's going cheap!

I overheard two ladies talking while waiting - "Are you a quilter?" "No, I live in the neighborhood and I just love her garage sales!!!"

Someone asked me why we opened early - I said we didn't but looked at my watch and it was only 8:05! It seemed like it should have been 10! At one point, looked up and there were 10 people in line to pay and they weren't the only ones in the garage! At 10 someone asked me if I was the quilter - I said yes -that was my ad. She then said, well, I thought you would have fabric - I answered - I did. LOL! I bought the gallon ziplock baggies and stuffed 75 of them with fabric! Didn't even make a dent in the stash!!! Heavenly days - I've really had fun the last few years!!!

Had just enough at the end of the day to take one carload to Salvation Army. Got both cars in the garage that night! Sunday I cleaned out drawers and closets for the open house. I'm glad to come to work - where I can at least work sitting down!

The house officially went on the market Wednesday - although we had someone come thru last night and another one scheduled for tonight. Open house on Sunday.

Send positive prayers my way - I went upstairs last night and my husband had unplugged the alarm and put it in the dresser drawer! Trust me, dear, they know people live here. They do not say - "what a nice big bedroom, too bad it was so crowded with that clock radio!!!" LOL! I did manage to get permission to plug it in and set it-- if I hide it under the bed in the morning!!! Unfortunately, I must have turned down the volume on one of the trips under or out from under the bed. Cathy Blythe was whispering this am - very unusual! I overslept - and on my mom's birthday. I did manage to take her a cinnamon roll for her birthday breakfast this am - and one of my nieces had the same idea! So mom has rolls for tomorrow morning too. Happy 90th birthday, mom!

I looked in Stashbusters at the UFO Queen list and I'm like #10 with a bullet!!! I have a wall quilt ready to bind - if only I could find a) the binding; b) the time and c) the cutting mat!!! I think I'm going to be QUEEN! Oh well, I'll be benevolent!

We're trying to "Think spring!" There's a possibility of snow hanging over our heads - good grief isn't it the middle of April???

March Take it Further Challenge

My post card for the March challenge was done in the middle of the month again - then it was packed away while we were redoing the sewing room and spare bedrooms. I found it, found the camera and actually thought of it when I was able to do it!

As you can see - my take on "details" was more of a 'to do' list of my life these days. Details of our days make up our life.

Balancing PT after knee surgery with going back to work "full time" is overwhelming. Add mom's 90th birthday in April, throw in a hint of changes to come ... and you tend to forget parts of the list. "finish one monthly" was supposed to be "finish one UFO monthly" So instead of 'DH' I had to put in 'UFO' in the corner. Oh well, no time for 'do overs' and no one is very successful ripping out machine letters!

So far Sharon, the organizer of Take it Further challenge has really meshed with what's happening to doni in lincoln nebraska. Pretty amazing since Sharon is in Australia! January's challenge - someone you look up to - my knee surgeon seemed like a good fit. February - what you remember - right when I was going thru old photos from my side of the family! March - details - right when life was getting over-burdened with details. But what's really amazing is April's challenge - Change! The same week that we announced I was retiring and we're moving to Oregon in May!!! Change is rarely dull, and I had already made up my mind that I may not have time to do much in the sewing room - but I was going to do the TIF challenge!