Saturday, January 15, 2011

Catching Up

Well, I must say, I don’t know if a blog was a good thing for me or not.  Things just keep happening that keep me from blogging.  Since I posted last I went to Iowa and visited with my folks for 2 weeks.  My dad is in a nursing home and is 85 years old.  I went up there twice in 2010 after not getting up there in 2 years.  At the same time I was up there over Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law was in the hospital, in a nursing home and then back in the hospital and then passed away.  The funeral has passed and now my husband is dealing with the estate.  Really not a whole lot of fun since we live out of state. 

But the not so fun and fun part is we and by we, I mean my sister-in-law (my partner in quilting crime) is, we get to go through her things.  We have gone through most of the household things and even most of her quilting things.  We are a family of quilters.  I think I can honestly say I got them into quilting.  I brought back 2 doll quilts I had made, one for my mother-in-law, the other for her mother.  They were made 20 years ago, as one is dated Mother’s Day, 1990.  Both are the same pattern and the pattern appeared in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, probably in the  late 1980’s.  I know I still have it as I recently went through my magazines and ran across it.  I made a third and I sold it through an antique store.  Here is a picture of them.QNM little quiltsGoing through her things is finality in a way.  But it brings back some memories too.  She took lots of pictures and I have gone through most of them.  Now I am glad she did take all those pictures.  But I must tell you to make sure you make note of who is in the picture for future generations.  She did not and now there is no one left to tell me who those older generations are, especially of her side of the family.

Marva, my sister-in-law, also issued me 2 challenges while we were up there last week.  Not one, but TWO!  We used to, LOTS of years ago when we both had more time,  issue a challenge back and forth occasionally.  And then it stopped.  Well, she jumped back on it full force in 2011!  At least she didn’t say I had to take them nor did she give me a time limit.  No rules really.  Those kind of challenges I will take.  Here is a picture of 11 machine embroidery redwork blocks she gave me to do something with-someday.  Is there a set for 11 blocks?  I will have to think about this one.M's rdwrk chllngeShe also ordered 10” squares of Windham's  19th Century Reds and the only rule she gave me was it had to be a miniature.  There are 25-10” squares, so it could be a big mini or I use the leftovers for the back; although I do have some yardage of a couple of them I can use.  They kind of remind me of madders; which I happen to like.M's fabric ChllgneSo that is all this time.  Maybe next time I will finally get around to showing you my Dear Jane or some other quilts I have made.  Or a couple of old tops I have, one is full of holes and I reproduced it.  I have lots of things to write about if I just do it.

Sew Having Fun,

Sarah