Made me smile, and shake my head!

Ha! I rarely actually laugh out loud, so I don't often use LOL. Don't get me wrong, I laugh a lot, just not when I read something. It has happened, just not very often... Made Me Smile is more my style. Like today when I opened this to write and I saw the mess I had made when I was trying to customize the header on this blog. MMS and shake my head. I really have to smile when it comes to some things, like computer stuff. I absolutely love the Internet, love email, and facebook. For me, living in the middle of nowhere,  I love shopping online. I can order most things I need and have them at my door in a few days.  AND I have been an EQ fan for years... although I still have version 5. I keep thinking I should upgrade, but as soon as I do, V8 will be released.

I have been working on the General's Wives quilts... I admit that I over think most things I do. So I was trying to cut out the last colorway of block 3. The blue/tan, my favorite. The blue is just a little turquoise... just love that combo. So, I am arranging the colors and I start worrying that I won't have enough of one of the colors I want to use for the setting blocks.. I swear this ocd/add part of my brain really causes me trouble! Instead of making those two blocks, I start searching for the same fabric online... spent at least an hour last night, then again this morning... Of course the easiest solution would be to make the setting blocks first, and use what is left to make the pieced blocks. and If there isn't enough for both of the quilts in this color, I can use this tan in one and get what I need to do the other one. The goal is to use up some fabric, not buy more because I might not have enough!

Looks like it is going to rain today. I think I will put something in the crock pot, or a roast in the oven and sew all afternoon... I will get those setting blocks done first!

General's Wives quilt(s)

My Dad always said "If you have a frog to eat, eat it first thing in the morning. If you have more than one frog to eat, eat the biggest one first." I know this was Dads wording of a quote by somebody else, and I have looked it up a while back and read the original quote, but I like my Dads version. I often tell my kids to "Eat the Frog" or Eat the damn frog" depending on how tired I am of looking at their frogs!

I am eating all my frogs this morning, so I can sew this afternoon.Right now I am on my 15 minute break. Check out flylady.net. I love the theory behind "flying", but I am not always good at staying on track!

The key to being a successful Quilter is the right amount of organization mixed with the mess of creating. My sewing room is pretty organized using the deep Billy shelves from Ikea. The end shelves are filled with fabric, most of it folded neatly and organized by color on one side, and theme on the other. Those shelves have glass doors so I can see my stash. The TV, wii (for netflicks) and DVD player are in the center, with wood doors below to hide the projects I am working on. Bookshelves on both sides of the TV unit. Sounds nicely organized, right? Well, it would be if there weren't bins of fabric that don't fit into the shelves. Then I watch an episode of Hoarders, and wonder if that is my future... Kidding ~ it really isn't that bad! Watching those shows really does help weed out the things I have that mean something to to me and the things that I just have... got as a give and never used, bought, used once and put it in a drawer, or a bin and never used it again.

I am on  a mission to lighten my load in the next two years. In two years my baby boy will head off to college. I will be alone. OK ~ not really, because there is the herd of pets still here. I do not know what I will be doing by then. Adjusting to life with out my Glenn. There are a few paths I am considering, but what ever path I choose, I will be selling this house. One of the ways I am trying to lighten my load is to finish the quilts I have started, make the quilts I bought all of the fabric for, and get rid of the bins of fabric, either by using it, or using enough of the fabric on the shelves to make room for what is in the bins. I have a list of about 15 people that I plan to make bed size quilts for. These are my best friends from High School that were married before I started quilting, so I never made them quilts, Glenn's Best friends who were all here for the funeral, and some other special people in my life.

Right now I am working on "The General's Wives quilt". Well actually I am making six at the same time. I bought the Kit so I would have the pattern, thinking that would be one of the color ways. The kit as enough fabric for two quilts except for the outside borders. So I bought 3 more yards of the same fabric and now there are two. I started pulling for another quilt and came up with a blue/tan combo, a red/gold combo and a floral combo. There is enough of the blue/tan combo for two quilts. which is good because that is the color I will be keeping one of! The other five are going to some friends of mine who just happen to be General's Wives... along with being amazing women in their own right! They are all wonderful mothers, one is a retired Air force Colonel Nurse, one teaches the deaf and translates spoken word by signing in classrooms so deaf kids are mainstreamed. One is what everyone would think of  as the Southern lady, a true Steel Magnolia. Each of these women have been wonderful friends to me and knew the right things to do when Glenn passed away. When I saw the quilt pattern I knew I would be making several versions, and I picked the colors to suit their personalities. I will be posting some pictures of my progress.

This is what I started with.

I can see six quilts there, Can you? The reason I wanted to get a photo of the before is there seems to be a weird phenomenon of making large scrap quilts and there still being the same amount of fabric when you get done as when you started. I just want to document what I started with... Six King size quilts should make a pretty big dent in this pile right? We will see what is left at the end.

Time to get some chores done so I can go make a block ~ six times...

I regularly read a few blogs and I keep thinking I have one of these... maybe I should get back to it. My life has been in such turmoil since last September, and I really need to get some order to it. My kitchen remodel is taking too long and there are still so many other things that need done, but I am getting to do some piecing and I have actually finished several quilt tops. The Gammill is still under wraps in the garage, and the next priority is getting the floor installed in the bonus room and get the long arm set up.

This is the Kool Kaleidoscope quilt, Top done, not quilted. This is from the Book by Ricky Timms, Kool Kaleidoscopes.


This shows the border I got from a post on Pinterest. Love Pinterest, as long as I can use the things that inspire me. Sometimes I spend too much time getting inspired, and not enough time using that inspiration! I really need to get my room done upstairs so I can have a place to hang finished quilts for pictures, and my phone makes things look yellow. Need a new phone, but I am one of those people that hang on to things way too long, and then wonder why when I finally get the new one... like changing the blade in the rotary cutter!


Oliver was helping me display the quilt.

This is one I finally finished, a pineapple quilt using Bonnie Hunter's instructions. Again with the phone camera.... Maybe I will get that new phone today...




I have one more that is almost done, then I will start posting on a large project I have started, making 6 quilts all at the same time!
 Lots to do today, recover from the trip I just got home from, and make a list of what I need to do to finish the kitchen.

Have a great Wednesday!

Inspired!

I am so excited! My Daughter got me hooked on Pinterest, so now my mornings go like this... Wake up to alarm and panting dogs, pour a cup of coffee, let the dogs out, turn TV on to local morning news, open computer, check email, check facebook, go to Pinerest and drink coffee while I get inspired by sooo many creative people! This morning in the DIY and crafts category there were several quilts. Like all quilters, I love to look at other people's quilts. one had a border that is just what I have been looking for to finish a Kool Kaleidoscope quilt I started last summer for a wedding present for a wedding that was in November 2010. Really trying to get this one finished, but the border I spent way too much time on just wasn't working for me.

This quilt is for one of my best fiend's daughter. We became friends after we both divorced our husbands who worked together. We knew each other before that, but as with most divorces, most of the other wives in the group pretty much dropped us when we divorced their husband's co-workers. Fine, who needs them? I had two little girls and Catherine had one, a little older than mine. We hung out and helped each other with the kids, went out together when the girls were with their dads.  This quilt is for her little girl, all grown up and married to her best friend.

Being a Military Brat, I do not have friends from first grade like some people. The best I can do is friends from high school. I started at a new school my freshman year and I was lucky to be able to stay at that same school all four years. Lindhurst High School, Olivehurst, California. Brand new school my freshman year. It took me a few years to really find my place in the school, and I had friends through out high school, but my senior year I was a cheerleader, and got to be be friends with Cari, who was a Song leader. She had a group of friends who she had known for several years. That group is now my longest group of friends. We talk a lot on Facebook and we were supposed to have a week together last fall. When I lost my Glenn, I had to cancel my trip, but they had a great time and I will make it this year. We have all spread out across the country. One is still in California, one in Oregon, one in Montana one in Indiana, one in New York, and me in Georgia. I always think of them when I hear K.T. Oslin's "80's Ladies", just add a decade or two... We Graduated in 1979...

I have been on the computer long enough, I need to get the rest of my day going! I am going to get my sewing room in order today so I can get back to Quilting!

Still trying

My life has been in such turmoil and I have felt so scattered, but I am trying to get some quilting time in. The temporary sewing room is such a mess. I had bought milk creates from Walmart when I was moving to Florida, and when they came back to Georgia and I stacked them so I could see my fabric. The weight of the fabric has started to collapsed them and they just aren't working for me. Today I drug my 15 year old son to Ikea in Atlanta to buy some new shelves. What a mad house! There were so many people there that it was hard to shop and compare thing. I did find a bookcase with optional doors that I think will serve the purpose. So I bought three. I hope to get them assembled tomorrow and get the fabric in a new home. I think there is enough room for everything, but if not, I know where I can get more.

Yesterday I went out. I Stopped by Magical Stitches, a budding quilt shop south of Macon. She has several new lines of fabric. I really need to get things together here and get my sewing machine set up. There are so many things I need to do. My sewing room had been in the bonus room before the ill fated move to Florida. When the guys were unloading the truck to move us back into our home, I had them put the sewing machine table and Ironing board in the dining room. I hadn't finished packing my sewing room, so now I have my entire sewing room piled in the dining room. The bonus room, or as some people call it the FROG - Finished Room Over Garage, is now without carpet. The plan had just been to put new carpet up there to sell the house. Before we were moving, the plan had ben to put hardwood up there. So I am back to plan A, with one modification. Over the last 6 years, since we moved into this house, Glenn and I had talked about putting a bathroom in up there. So I will talk to a contractor about that before I put the floors down. I am trying to do things the way Glenn and I would have if he were still here with me.

While I was out yesterday, I stopped at an antique mall in Byron GA. I wondered around looking at things, but I didn't see anything I really wanted. There were some of those baby bonnets that are made out of handkerchiefs, with the poem about using it on the babies wedding day. I have a ton of handkerchiefs I bought to use in a quilt. While I was looking at them a lady walked up to lookat them. She was admireing them and we were talking about how easy they would be to make. She said he husband had recently passed away. I told her that mine had also passed away, and I asked her when she had lost her husband. She said September 8th. Two days before I lost my Glenn. She and her husband had been married 52 years. Glenn and I had been married 16 years. We talked about how we were dealing with things. It was nice to talk to a stranger who is really going through the same things I am... in real time. I have been approached by several people who had lost their spouse, but they are all a few years out and every one of them are in new relationships. I don't know why that makes a difference to me, but somehow it does. Maybe it is because my biggest problem is the lonliness I feel, not having my best friend to talk to about everyday things. The thought of being able to be in a new relationship is something my brain can not grasp, so how can these people know what I am feeling? I know it is just where I am right now, and that they grieved their losses, but I guess I can not imagine I will ever be there emotionally. This lady and I talked about things like Thank you notes, she has done hers and I haven't, and getting rid of clothes. Again she has and I haven't. I really need to get on things...

Ok ~ Time to get something done... I think I will clean the kitchen, then head upstairs. I am taking down the popcorn ceiling while I try to get ahold of a contractor friend of Glenns to talk to about putting the bathroom in up there.

Recover and Rebuild

My life changed completely on September 10, 2011. My Glenn got home from Afghanistan on July 18. He had lost a lot of weight, twenty pounds, in six months. He looked tired. "Everyone looses weight there. I will put it back on" He seemed OK. He was having a lot of indigestion, saw the flight surgeon, got prevasid.

 We started getting ready to move to Patrick AFB for his assignment to be the Opps Group Commander there. His job was starting the end of September, but since school started the 10th of August, our 15 year old son, Ross, and I moved down on the 8th of August. The week before we left, Ross had injured his foot on a ATV, so he was on crutches starting at a new high school. He knew no one. We just kept saying it would be much better when Glenn got there.

I rented a small house with a small fenced yard, across the street from the Ocean. I could walk to the beach in 2 minutes. Glenn came down a couple weekends and we went up a couple weekends. Labor day weekend Ross and I came up and finished packing what we needed to go to Florida. the rest was going into storage until we sold the house in Georgia and bought one in Florida. On Monday Ross and I drove the truck loaded with 3 dogs, 3 cats and a bird down to Satellite Beach.

Glenn Drove down on Thursday the 8th with a U haul full of appliances and furniture, fabric and my Gammill. We unloaded the truck, and set up the washer and dryer, freezer, connected TVs. Glenn went to work on Friday, preparing to take command later that month. On Friday night we went to a retirement party for one of Glenn's friends. Saturday Glenn went to work the his reserve weekend, but he came home after lunch saying he wasn't feeling well. I wanted to go to urgent care, but he said that he had just gone to the doctor. He couldn't lay down, because of the indigestion, So he and Ross put my Gammill together.

We were supposed to go to a function that evening so I started a load of laundry to wash his shorts and the washer connection was leaking. I went in the house and told him. He went out to the garage. I was getting my clothes ready to go that night when I wondered where Glenn was. I looked out back, then I went to the Garage. I saw his feet, like he was laying down on the floor. The young man that lived next door was walking up his driveway with his surf board. I yelled to him that I needed help. then I opened the door to the house and told my son to call 911. The young man, Seth, and I started CPR. The first one there was a motorcycle cop. Then the Ambulance got there. They worked on him for what seemed like forever, but my concept of time isn't good. they took him to the hospital.

When Ross and I got there they took us to a room separate from the waiting room. I knew it wasn't going to be good news. We waited. I called his friend who's party we had been at the night before. He and his wife got there after they told Ross and I that Glenn hadn't made it. They took us back to see him. It is really still unreal to me. The group of people at Patrick AFB were wonderful to me. There were probably 15 of them at the hospital that night to help me deal with it. A Chaplain, the General, the person in the wing who was assigned to me to walk me through all of the paperwork and she set up the funeral. I called my oldest Daughter first, then his Dad, that was the hardest phone call. Then my sister and one of his friends from the AF Academy. I told him he would have to make the rest of the calls. My daughter and sister got to Florida on Sunday. The Patrick people were great, by Friday they moved us back to Georgia. His dad got here on Saturday, my mom and second daughter got here on Sunday and the funeral was on Monday the 19th.

My sewing room is not set up, my two Kaleidoscope quilts are not finished. My Gamill is in the garage waiting for the room to be ready for it. I really do not know when any of this is going to get done.

I keep waiting for this to be real for me, but I am having a hard time convincing my heart. My life was centered around him. Everything we did was because of what he did. He was a wonderful husband, a great dad. He was a Colonel in the Air Force. He flew rescue helicopters, saved lives in Afghanistan. He was my Hero and my biggest fan. He loved showing my quilts to people. He was as proud of me as I was of him. I know he is in a "better place", but he would rather be here with me.