Time to Recap 2019!!

You sure didn't get "the rest of the story" on the blog this year!!!  Sorry about that.  I've been playing Wheel of Fortune - too much - and apparently boycotting the rest of the web!

P and I watched a new series on HBO (via BBC One)  Years and Years!  OMGoodness - it was so good.  Slightly in the future with the same political and earth problems.  It was fascinating and slightly scary!!!  One line got my attention.  Paraphrasing here:  "Remember when the political news was boring??  We used to go to the kitchen and get a snack!!!  Art imitates life!!!!

I taught Hand Embroidery last spring and I loved it!  The samplers turned out modern - just as I wanted them to!  Lots of personality in them.  I thought I would teach it again this fall, bought supplies and everything!!  But By My Hand tightened up their store space and there's no longer a classroom.  Sigh!  Oh well, who knows where I would have found the time!

I feel that I was a slacker this year in the sewing room!  The last of the dog-damaged quilts from Portland were made whole again.  And that sucked up alot of the energy in the room.  I am not mentally equipped to repair badly damaged quilts!!  And the dog-lovers have been warned!  Yes, I still love them, even the 4-footed ones!

My 2019 QOV program was ambitious!  We all worked on Sawtooth Stars and I ran an alternate block raffle each month - so making 17 alternate blocks or begging someone else to do it monthly!  We made more money than we thought we would and we did end up with plenty of quilts for the year.  And although I had my doubts about an 'inbred' selection of quilts ... that didn't happen!

Sometimes you couldn't even tell the same star blocks were in them!!  2020's monthly block is a string block aka StashLab's String star.  I'm loving it and the blocks have been coming in like clockwork.  At our December Open Sew weekend I put the first QOV top together - just to be sure it was working!!  And boy-oh-boy did it!!  Gorgeous!!

So my Finished list - 2019 included:

2 repaired quilts
6 wall or baby quilts
4 QOV quilts!!
5 pillowcases for GKids
10 Fabric Post cards for exchanges
1 Queen sized!!
10 ModSquad monthly projects

Not bad for an off-year!!

Just so you don't think I've slowed down too much ... I attended 6 Quilting retreats!!  Finishing School and Bayshore in Bandon;  Brookings Guild and 3 Amigos in Gold Beach; Sisters Week at Black Butte (2nd year!) and 3 Amigos Beach Bums in Crescent City over Labor Day Weekend!!!

P and I joined and worked on Jen Kingwell's BOM thru QuiltMania.  We were keeping up pretty well until they had the reveal ... and we didn't like it!  Darn!  We're going to change it up a bit - or get used to it!!  And oh, my! we bought a boat-load of her fabrics - probably enough to make 5 of the quilts!!!  Oops!

I read 45 books this year. (if I finish the one I'm reading!)  That number is probably a little soft - I have problems writing down the computer books I've finished!  Something about getting them ready to go back to the library helps me keep track!

Favorites:

The Day the World Came to Town  Jim Defede - The Broadway musical was based on this book.  I loved the characters, the story and how good you felt that even on 9-11 there were people in this world that did good deeds for strangers, against all the hate and fear that was blossoming.

Invisible by Andrew Grant  An Army Intelligence Agent goes undercover at the courthouse to solve a murder.

Relic by Alan Dean Foster  SciFi  The last human in the universe is telling our story

The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose  - Fascinating story of the famous performance artist Marina Abramović, who staged a show in NYC.  She sits quietly at a table and audience members can participate by joining her at the table - no talking, no touching.

The Book Artist by Mark Pryor  A spy novel with so many twists and turns you can't put it down!

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen  SciFi  Set in San Francisco where a time-traveler gets stranded and has to live invisibly to save the future.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles  Our book club read this.  If I had known that Russian literature could be this charming - I would have read more a long time ago! :-)

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens  Another Book Club - fascinating to the last page!!

The Threadbare Heart by Jennie Nash  The description says '...23 tubs of fabric' and I knew that I'd like the main character already!!

We are experiencing a West Coast Winter Storm!  And I am up way too late!  So I may add photos to this later ... or not!  Here's to 2020 where we will do more of our favorite things and pass on the joy of living to everyone we see!!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from the Boyds

Loads of fun and memories this year.  R and I went to Palm Springs to get out of the rain in January – but it followed us!  February, we loved the award-winning musical, ‘Come From Away’ on tour in Portland.  MARVELOUS!!  If you get the chance … GO!   Then, Yosemite in late spring.  (a picture is above!)  My first visit, and it was awesome!  Waterfalls were in full flow for the first time in years!  And, of course, golfing and quilting kept us busy the rest of the year!

A, J2, D, K and E left on a Great Adventure!  For the next two years J2 will be teaching at The International School in Central America!  We spent time over in Central Oregon, helping sort and pack the house and, of course, we held an extended Camp Nana/Papa before they left.  We ‘skype’ often and so far so good.  It IS hot there – (the boys are always just in underwear!) but doesn’t seem to slow them down!!

I was able to go back to Nebraska in July for my Great-Niece N and H’s wedding.  What a party!  It was great spending time with family.  However, this Oregonian is not up to Nebraska summers anymore!  Can you say "Boiling Hot!"??  It was so-o hot that even Native Nebraskans living there were spent!

M, our 11 yr old!, played on the traveling baseball team this year –we were able to meet up at some of his games.  A weekend at Newport, our first Oregon home!  P, our 13 yr old!, and I bonded over jewelry she was making and shopping the Port between games!  In October, we babysat for a week, while mom and dad got away for their 15^th wedding anniversary! 

Wishing you and yours the best in 2020