When I Turned 50

The year I turned 50 was a hallmark year in our lives.  I was menopausal, grieving the loss of my father, took over the family farm and gave up my vegetable garden. So I streaked my hair and did a low carb diet and lost 23 lbs and on my birthday flew out for the first of many visits to our daughter and her husband who had just moved to the east coast. I have been thinking about, talking about, writing about but not actually yet writing the story of my journey through those days. I do not know quite why I have been dragging my feet about writing this book, other than fear of failure and wondering if anyone would be interested in reading a book called Surviving Menopause: One woman's journey from anger, depressing and suicide to peace, joy and purpose. Perhaps revisiting all those emotions is part of the hindrance. And yet, God has given me the most amazing healing and wants me to share the journey. So what is holding me back? Recently, I have been given some encouraging words from God through a couple of new friends. Words that invite me to draw closer to Him and spend more time in His presence. I can do that. I was reading from Psalms yesterday while waiting for the pizza for David's birthday party.

 Psalm 27:14 says,

 "Wait patiently for the Lord. 

Be brave and courageous. 

Yes, wait patiently for the Lord." 

Interesting that I was looking for a word for the year. Last year's word was "Be Still." This year "Wait" had come to mind.

I was telling the little girls the plan for Dear Daughter - to gift it to Great-Grandma for her 90th birthday party next month and get all the family to sign it. As I was explaining that I was going to take the blocks off the wall for the girls to sign their names, Devan turned around holding a purple Sharpie in her hand and showed me this.

I was going to give her a black Micron pen but I guess purple it will be. Great Grandma likes purple. Now to complete the hand stitching on the block around the printing. 

Blessings, 

Chris

linking to: show-me-something-purple.

To-Do Tuesday Week 2

This was my to-do list last week and how I did.

• clear off long table in quilt room - again done but needs it again already
• water house plants  - there are about 30 of them and it takes at least 10 pitchers of water and many steps to get them all done. Three of them are hanging baskets and need to be brought to the sink of tub to get a good soaking without dripping everywhere. 
• finish book report for ITPAC - still working on that 
• write out psychology and theology comparison paper - should be done today
• complete these 4 Dear Daughter applique blocks - 2 done 2 to go
• submit ITPAC - soon
• red is the colour for RSC for Jan so pull out the red Bright Jane blocks
• located the Dear Jane 2 box (one of 4 of which one is still missing) and pulled out no less than 8 red blocks with foundation patterns ready and fabric chosen that still need doing.
• But then I could not find the bobbin case for the Feartherweight nor the presser foot for the Bernina.  

• not start anything new - was tempted more than once but have resisted so far
• waterfit 2 X  - done
• cut the grass - wait- it's Jan 1- we should have 2 feet of snow by now - its raining again today and the grass is looking kinda green. 

This weeks list will be shorter. 

• finally finish the rest of ITPAC and submit
• birthday party for David turning 3 on Friday
• waterfit 3 x
• start whole30 clean eating program after the pizza and cake on Friday
• finish final blocks for Dear Daughter and assemble the top. 
• and turn this 
  
• into more of this 
  

Lets see how I do this week. 

Blessings,

Chris

The Gentle Art of Domesticity 2019

Jenny of ELEFANTZ is doing a book study this year on

 The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket

I think I will follow along as I have a copy of the book and a delightful read it is. I need to get a new perspective on domesticity. According to the author this is different from domestication and minimalism is not my thing. 

I was a stay-at-home wife and mom, choosing to make my home and family the priority in my life as an adult. It was the example set by both my mother and my husband's mother. Living on a farm has given me a perspective on life far different from most women. I made our clothes and grew a very large garden every year. I canned and froze fruits and vegetables to last the whole year for many reasons besides economics. 

No promises that I will actually do any of the projects as I am working on completing my doctorate and finishing writing 2 books. I have been coached to keep this goal always in front of me. I even wrote a couple of pages today.

A few months ago our son moved back in with us and his 3 little girls live here half time. I like it. I get to see them more often besides babysitting and putting them to bed and family dinners. We get to hang out. Tonight they were preparing for some kind of show and put on their best dresses and "makeup". How does one clean red marker off the nose of a 6 year old? Soap and water and Vaseline and lots of elbow grease. Hers. 

The 11 year old is eager to learn how to bake and I have ordered a copy of Jane Brocket's Vintage Cakes for her to read and dream. Together we have made some amazing moist banana cakes. I think this could be a nice Gramma - granddaughter adventure as we read and drool and dream. 

But then, I am starting a clean eating program later this week, right after the pizza and birthday cake (chocolate) for 3 year old David.  

Blessings,

Chris

Saturday Morning

All I wanted to do this morning was to sew up one little block for my Dear Jane 2 quilt.
So, I pulled out the book where I had neatly placed 8 foundation patterns and red fabric ready to sew. It was supposed to be so simple. I have made hundreds of them. Ya right.
I have the quarter inch foot with the seam guide on the Bernina. No problem. I will just switch to the regular foot. Where is it?

Well, then I will set up the Featherwight since it is sitting right here on top of the Treadle machine that was moved in here last month when we started the cleaning lady clean up. It had been on the long table until I cleared that off yesterday. Plugged it in and wiped off the dust. Tightened a screw on the plate with the thread holder. Thread is there already. Need a bobbin. Where are they? Okay. Found several in a jar nearby.

But wait! The bobbin case is missing! Sigh. So I started looking for the bobbin case. Could not find it. Okay. I have 3 more Featherweights in this room. No bobbin case in the one on top of the bookshelf. The other 2 are in the bottom of another book case with the sliding door closed and the big table is in front of it. And to think. I sent all the left over chocolates out with the garbage this morning.  So, I started looking for the Bernina foot again. Not in the Bernina accessories drawer. That meant only one thing. I had to search through every one of the nearly 40 see-through storage containers - the ones from all those cookies that I stopped eating. And here is some of what I found:

• 12 quilt marking pens
• 11 coins
• 10 packets of pins
• 9 batteries
• 8 irons
• 7 pairs of glasses
• 6 pencil sharpeners
• a few $5 bills
• 4 seam rippers
• 3 dried up glue sticks
• 2 bottles hand sanitizer
• and 1 Baby Jesus button
• but no bobbin case 

Seriously. All I wanted to do was sew up one more little red block for the RSC

Can I count this in my 15  minutes stitching today? 

Blessings, 

Chris

BTW . . . I did find the missing box of Dear Jane 2 blocks right where I put them. This after going through every other box in the house at least twice. At least now I know what I have and where.
And I had looked in that closet several times. 
BTW 2 . . . I found just 1 bobbin case on one of the hidden machines after crawling under the big table after moving a bunch of boxes.

Middle of the Night

What do you do when you lay down for a nap at 6 pm and wake up after midnight? You quilt of course. I did my 15 minutes of stitching at the machine tonight adding the sashing to the almost last few blocks of Dear Daughter. I have 2 blocks half done then only one more to make. But which pattern to choose since I am only making 36 instead of the 42 like the original and I made several alternative blocks. So close. I have them all up on the design wall waiting for all the grandchildren to come over next week for little David's third birthday. We will have pizza and cake. I want them to help arrange the blocks for their great-grandma's 90th birthday present quilt. The party is next month and we will get all the family to sign the blocks then. But first I will have to quilt it. By machine of course.

I find signs all over the house

Blessings,
Chris

15 Minutes to Stitch 2019

One of my 2019 goals is to stitch 20 minutes a day. 

Well 15-20 minutes. 

I joined Deb in her a-heart-day-in-month-of-may.

and I did it. 

Now to stitch something 

(anything)

every day. 

I will even try to keep track. 

Blessings,

Chris

First Post of 2019

I did not get my One Monthly Goal done in Dec. I only stitched 4 days this past month and still have 5 blocks to complete for Dear Daughter. This will be my Jan 2019  OMG.
Gay is teasing us with a couple of new Block of the Month possibilities for this year.

I decided to join up with to-do-tuesday this year to help keep me focused on completing my weekly to-do list.

Tues Jan 1, 2019

• clear off long table in quilt room - again
• water house plants
• finish book report for ITPAC
• write out psychology and theology comparison paper
• complete these 4 Dear Daughter applique blocks
• submit ITPAC
• red is the colour for RSC for Jan so pull out the red Bright Jane blocks
• not start anything new
• waterfit 2 X 
• cut the grass - wait- it's Jan 1- we should have 2 feet of snow by now.

So even though it is the middle of Christmas vacation, the girls are at the kitchen table playing school. "Gramma, do  you have any books with no writing in them?"

New Year's blessings, 

Chris