Women's Mentoring Group

Back in the summer, I led a small group at our church. It was the first in-person group to meet since lockdown in March. It was a pilot project of figuring out how to do live meetings, streaming, and zoom meetings at the same time. The study book we used is called Broken Crayons Still Color: From our mess to God's masterpiece by Shelley Hitz. It is an amazing book with lessons, coloring sheets, discussion questions, reflection questions, videos, and homework. There were 16 participants.

Out of this grew a mentoring group for women. We meet here at the farm every other week. We met outside behind the house for the first few times but it was raining so we came inside the other day. I placed cushions on every other seating spot so everyone could spread out. It was nice. Everyone had their masks. 

I have been addressing such topics as goal setting, time management, journaling, drawing pictures to illustrate Bible passages and this week we had a workshop on anger. It is a favourite workshop for me. Ever since I did a course on anger and anxiety in the context of pastoral counseling when I was doing my masters, I have loved teaching about what anger is and is not and how to have a "good anger." I think I will write it into my book on surviving menopause. After all, anger was my constant companion. Now it is a defeated enemy. Do I still get angry? Of course? I am human. But I do not live there anymore. I live at the crossroads of peace and joy. It is a much nicer place to be. 

Next time we meet we will be learning about grief and how to have a "good grief." After all, we all grieve at some loss. We do not need to live there. Healing does take place if we know and understand how. So I teach about that kind of thing. It energizes me. Teaching. Especially when I teach from the Word of God and integrate my counseling training with the Bible and invite people to draw closer to God so they can receive healing from painful memories. 

This group of eight women has decided we will continue to meet as a closed group. This simply means no new people will be able to join us. Instead, they suggested I lead the Broken Crayons book study again and invite new people to come and form a new women's mentoring group in the new year. I have a scathingly brilliant idea of getting them to be alpha readers for my book once I get the first draft done and the first edit. That gives me a deadline, doesn't it? 

We are planting amaryllis bulbs today. I got 5 different varieties to get the grandkids to each plant one and observe the growth rates. A science project. My sister will be so proud of me. If I tell her that is. 

Now back to work. 

Blessings,

Chris

November 2020 OMG Goal

I thought I would change things up a bit this month. I have been studying ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and the shoe fits. It helps to understand why I do the things I do and not do the things I do not do. Sometimes I just get bored with a particular project. Other times I am avoiding doing it. I moved my big desktop computer to one of my eight-foot tables and now have at least six feet of space to my left which allows me to spread out some of the projects I am working on. Not quilting projects, even though I have a bin nearby with the few applique blocks I prepped a couple of weeks ago. I have a different view above my computer. No longer the big window with the trees and cows outside. I have given my desk space to my son-in-law for his doctoral studies. So, even though I have been trying to get faster internet, I am still waiting. He needs access to the internet and that is here in my office/quilt room. And with the big monitor between us, we do not see each other, and less distraction. Well, for me anyway. He plugs in his earbuds and is in another world. He works in here 2-3 days a week. I have the small design wall and a different big window reflecting on my screen. Sometimes it is nice other times a glare of too much light. And the sun now shines (when it shines at all with all the rain ) on my right side through the third window. Also, I can see who comes into the room and they do see what I am doing and no more crossing the room when I am online in meetings. 

So what will my OMG goal be this month? 150 Canadian Women from 2017. The project has been revived by the originator as a block of the week. My plan is to sew up at least 20 blocks. I have that many cut out and prepped ready to sew up. It should not be too big a deal. There are no applique blocks to distract me. I have enough applique on the go already. 

November is NaNo month. What is NaNo you ask? National Amature Novel Writing Month. I plan to write every day and finally finally get a first draft of one of my books.  

In the meantime, I am still plugging away at my coursework. Getting closer to the end. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Dreaming

Last year I made a decision to unfollow most of my facebook friends (not unfriend - unfollow) to cut back on the distractions that bombard my screen daily. This was so I could better focus on my school work and writing. I snooze family every month after reading up on what catches their fancy. And then yesterday, some of the groups I follow started to resurface. Oh, my goodness, the most amazing antique quilts ever made and survived have been popping up and I drool over them. Sigh. 

I love it when I see a completely new layout show up in an antique quilt. Our modern quilters come up with amazing new layouts also, but they don't make my heart beat faster and my fingers reach for my credit card. Now newsletters - that's a whole other thing. I get way too many of them. I could block them or unsubscribe, and I have to lots. My friend Gay from Sentimental Stitches announced in this week's newsletter the next BOW she plans to release in February. Did I just write February? heartfelt-block-of-the-week-2021 will be her next quilt-a-long. Will I join? I don't know. Probably not this time. I waited 7 months to start on the Ella Maria Deacon blocks then jumped right in with the 3030 Quilt. These are just 2 more of the 47 unfinished quilts I have in at least that many project boxes.  

We are preparing to snuggle in for the winter here at the Farm. I finally brought my geraniums in. It is supposed to be -3C in the morning and that means a very serious frost as in everything frozen.  I used to have 25 potted geraniums. I planted out 12 back in the spring and 2 hanging baskets showed up so now I have 14 cleaned up and resting in the sunny windows of this old farmhouse. Many of them still have buds coming so should have some colour. 

November is National Amature Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo or NaNo for short. I sort of took part 2 years ago when I tried to write a page a day on my third book when I was last in India. The official goal for the challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That's a mere 1600 words or 5 pages a day. The goal is not to have a manuscript ready to publish, but rather just write out all the ideas into a raw manuscript. And many amateur writers do that then spend the rest of the year editing, researching, and getting it ready for publishing or putting away in an obscure drawer. Many days I do write 1600 words or 5 pages, just not on my book. I wrote up no less than 5 blog posts this week.  

My writing goal for this month will be to have a first draft of a book that I use the working title: Sister. These are stories and reflections of my journey halfway around the world to India to discover many things about myself that I was too busy to notice here in my daily life. In order to accomplish this, I have to give up some of the things I do. I plan to give up housework, cooking and cutting grass. Wait! I already gave those things up. We had Thai take out for supper tonight. And peach icecream. I like peach ice cream. The cleaning lady was in yesterday and my son cut the grass for the final time for this season. But first, I have to find the computer file with all that I have typed out so far otherwise, I have to start all over again. I have several chapters already handwritten. In a box. With lots of notes. And pictures. Probably 15,000.  

And why am I still up writing blog posts? I forgot to put the laundry into the dryer. It was a very big load so I put half the towels into the dryer for an hour then had to wait to put the other half in before going to bed. And it is garbage day tomorrow so I have to remember to get up at the crack of dawn to load 7 bags onto the golf cart and drive it out the lane in the early morning frost. I usually just wear my pjs. I might have to put on shoes and a coat. 

Blessings,

Chris

Playing

 

I have enough blocks made now to play around with settings.  The 3030 Quilt has a large appliqued center medallion. I have not yet started making it. There is also an alternate pieced block available, but I really like the one Gay has designed for us. And can someone please tell me where the little flower block I made back in July has gone hiding? It was on the big design wall a month ago but disappeared when I moved them all to the small design wall. 

And, bless her heart, Gay has just announced the 2021 BOW. She will be making hers in a new red and white collection. I am so far behind. 

Blessings,

Chris

October 2020 OMG Completion

My OMG goal for October was to make progress on the 3030 Quilt blocks. I have these 32 to add to the 9 already made. 

The inner border pattern was given last week. It will be 2 rows of appliqued triangles. I am not decided yet what colour to make them. I made all those chains in a green print. I do not think I have enough of the same fabric to use. But then there will also be something creative for the border. I will wait right now. 

Blessings,

Chris

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A Day of Transition

Today is a day of transition. We are cutting the grass one more time. With the bigger zero turn lawn mower, and driving in the same direction all the time, the leaves are all being blown away from the house. When have we ever raked leaves in the fall? Like never! But the squirrels planted a few more black walnut trees, a horse chestnut, and a maple tree that are all dropping their leaves. And there are a few apple trees. And a mulberry. But mostly there are colorado spruce trees surrounding the old farmhouse. Did I mention lilacs? At least five different varieties. Oh, and an English walnut. There really are a lot of broadleaf trees here. I never gave it much thought before. 

As I was saying, a day of transition. With some help (maybe a lot) from our kids, we dismantled my California king bed and moved it down the stairs, through the kitchen then up the other stairs to the brown room above the back kitchen. This was no small feat. The mattress had to be buckled in half to make the turn up and through the stairs where the bottom two steps come halfway past the door opening and there is a closet floor above that. They did things differently back in the 1880s when this addition was put onto the house when it was 40 years old.  

One of the double beds from the Blue room above the kitchen was dismantled and moved down those stairs, through the kitchen then up the other stairs into my room. I now have a lot more empty floor space to fill up with stuff and even room under the old iron four-poster bed. 

It is the end of October here in Southern Ontario Canada and the golden and crimson leaves are falling off the trees. Winter will be here sooner than we can imagine and I need to book an appointment to get my snow tires put on my car. The geraniums are still outside, but all in a tight huddle awaiting being cleaned up and brought into the house for the next seven months. I saw massive geraniums blooming in their natural habitat on a farm in Australia back in 2015. And let's not forget taking all the air conditioner units out of the bedroom windows. 

There are several bags of spring tulip and daffodil bulbs in the back seat of my car that will be planted in the holes vacated by the geraniums. Each spring, I put the potted geraniums in places in the flower beds that have no bulbs. That way I know where to plant the new bulbs in the fall. I thought it was rather ingenious. My Sweetie thinks I am nuts. No matter. There will be lots of colour to look forward to come spring.   

Our daughter and her family have been living in the trailer in the yard for that past few weeks. Her husband is a very tall six foot three and does not exactly fit in the bed in the trailer nor very comfortably in the double beds in the guest rooms above the kitchen. Hence, we moved the big bed for them to use until they are able to relocate to a home of their own. But we had to move out some of the antique furnishings from there to make room. I like it. I plan to live up there someday. There is a bathroom a mere three steps from the bed rather than all the way downstairs. 

Let's not forget collecting the rest of the things growing in the garden. The carrots were pulled. tomatoes and green peppers and swiss chard came in. And they found a few really big beans so are drying the seeds for next summer. They are also drying tomato seeds. 

So, all in all, I did very little stitching this week. All I got done was a bit of applique onto this little 3030 block while babysitting Wed night. I do that. Babysit the little boys so mom and dad can have a date night. They are usually home by 9.  And we got the pattern for the inner border. Now to figure out which colour to make it. 

Linking with slow-sunday-stitching.

needleandthreadnetwork.

Blessings,

Chris

ps: I just discovered where to find the spam folder in my gmail account. I  have some comments to respond to.

Backbasting

  

I joined Chooky and friends for a marathon stitching day. Well, some of them did marathon all day Saturday. I joined in for a few hours Friday night but all the grandchildren were here and in and out of my room. It was wonderful as well as distracting.

Then Sat morning a few other friends joined me and we stitched and chatted away all morning. 

The finger has healed very nicely and I was prepping a whole bunch of Ella blocks. I traced the patterns onto the back of the fabric square then basted some of the pieces to have lots of hand applique ready to do. 

The little boy grandchildren are homeschooling now and we are getting a new internet provider this weekend. This should give us at least 3-4 times the download speed than what we have had. As I was writing this, the power went out for two seconds. Just enough to turn off everything then turn it back on. All except the computer. Fortunately, the new blogger saves everything immediately when I stop typing. I like that. Word, however, does not. I have to hit the save button. I was working on a course the other day and left my computer on for several days. We had one of those two-second power outs and I lost about 3 pages that had not been saved. But what I don't understand is, all documents are auto-saved when the computer is turned off with open documents. I could not find those pages anywhere, so I had to do them over. Not a big crime. It was only 3 pages and not original stuff as I was outlining not creating.

Blessings,

Chris

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