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.

So little time...

I am trying to be better organized. I am following the flylady but I have been out of bed for two hours and still not showered with shoes... maybe tomorrow. The positive is that my sink is shining, and has been for days! Baby steps and maybe I will find some time to make it upstairs...
I haven't written anything lately because I have not been upstairs to piece anything. I have three customer's quilts to do, one is on the long arm. The second one I have for the same customer is a small wall hanging for St. Patrick's day. I ordered a new Pantograph and I hope it will be here today. The third quilt is a large one.

I have been busy since I last posted. I purged my closet. I was brutal. I haven't done my dresser yet, but I have 2 medium size cartons of clothes packed so far and I am pretty sure I will have three full when I am done. The closet looks so good!. When I was growing up my Dad was in the Air Force and at that time we moved every year. I hated unpacking, so I always wanted the fewest boxes of my stuff. I guess that is still in the back of my mind now thinking we might be moving this summer. I will now have three fewer boxes to unpack!
The back yard is slowly getting done. If we have to sell this house this summer I need to get the backyard looking like it did when I saw this house, and bought the backyard. I really looks like a park when it is cleaned up. A smaller lot for the next house. I am not a gardener.
I also did a talk about quilting to a group of ladies about quilting. This was very hard. All but one of these ladies don't quilt and I don't think they were too interested in how quilting is done. They did enjoy the trunk show, at least they said they did, but I don't think they got the artistic side of quilting... they kept asking how long it took me to make the different quilts. That is not something I keep track of. Oh well, that just proves that quilters are a different breed of people. It was amusing to me. Poor unfortunate souls...

Dog days...

This quilt is going to be done someday! I worked on it until late last night, and I will be back to work on it as soon as I eat some lunch.

This morning was the first of three trips to the vet. Maddie, my pretty girl, was first for her yearly shots and check up. Maddie is a sweetheart I adopted about 14 months ago. People always tell be how pretty she is, then ask what kind of dog she is. I should get her DNA done and find out. When I adopted her the Bio described her as a 2 year old Cocker Spaniel mix. I was thinking about getting her and I mentioned it on Facebook. My best friend since high school, who lives several states away, went on Pet finders and picked out the same dog I was looking at. That made my mind up! I went to get her, about an hour drive north of here, and when I got there I was expecting a 30 pound Cocker mix. She is a 50 pound girl. At her first vet visit her Doctor said she is more like 7 or 8 years old. We have 2 Golden Retrievers, so she is a small dog compared to them. My husband was really not in favor of getting a new dog, but he left it up to me. When we had her for about a month, he said he was glad I rescued her. She really likes men and greets him at the door whenever he comes home. I think he likes the attention. She fit right in with the boys, and is good with the cats. She was very interested in the bird in the cage at first, but now she pays no attention to him unless he is singing, then she just listens.
I take the boys in tomorrow morning and afternoon. I decided to take it easy and do them one at a time, since Glenn is not here to meet me there and hold a leash.
Lunch time and then some piecing time before the kid gets home and we go to the orthodontist... and I wonder why it takes me so long to get anything done... maybe a retreat is in order when Glenn gets home in July.

I haven't finished the Kaleidoscope quilt top yet... the center is done but the left over stratas were just sitting there, and I needed borders. I have been doing a sort of crazy quilt type thing with the left overs. There is one quilt in the book, by Ricky Tims, that has what looks like a crazy border on it but when you look at it closer you see all four border are the same. I love the one in the book but I had already started random piecing when I looked at the picture again. I will be working on it after dinner tonight, so maybe some pictures tomorrow.
The organizing of my time is coming along a little better. I have found if I make a list of what needs done it helps. My list has gotten longer the last few day because my husband may be transferred in his job. It is something we won't know for sure until he gets home from his deployment in Afghanistan mid July. Since we have a son in high school I may be moving before my husband so Ross can start School. I really hate having to move Ross right now, but that is the military life.
In the mean time I need to get this house ready to sell. This will really cut into my quilting time. We have an acre lot that is partially wooded. The woman who had this house before us was a fantastic gardener. She put brick walkways around and through the woods. She planted azaleas along the paths. It is a lot of the reason I liked this house when we bought it. When it is all cleaned up it looks like a park. Right now, not do much. I have not spent the time on it that it takes to keep it up. I now know I am not a gardener. I spent all day on it yesterday. I think if I just spend a couple hours a day on it I can get it under control at some point.
I guess dinner isn't going to make itself. Then back to the quilt.