Thoughts of a Grasshopper

Let me tell you a little story. My friend's father passed away several years ago. Her mom was in the early stage of dementia. She had the task of packing up her parent's house and move her mom here. In talking about all she had to do, she mentioned her grandmother's genealogy. Loving family history like I do, I offered to scan what her grandmother had. She had mentioned there were a lot of pictures and documents. I was okay with that. She again tells me there is A LOT. I thought to someone that doesn't do genealogy a bin would seem like a lot. Wow! I misjudged this. She and her son delivered 13 boxes to me in October 2018. She wasn't kidding, there was A LOT!!  I began by taking a quick look in each box. I pulled a lot of duplicate items that ended up being a box of "trash" but I let her decide whether she kept those items, sent them off to family or disposed of it altogether. (This is long so here is a picture of fruit pie I made. Could have baked a littl...

  I've been sewing masks for over a month and have made over 250 (I stopped counting). The pattern requested is slower going than others but they sure have a nice finished look about them. My favorite mask I made is one of the ones my husband wears (the mask on the right in the picture below). The sewn masks are the AB Mask for a Nurse by a Nurse pattern. Google it. After several weeks of sewing the style above, I was introduced to a mask from t-shirts. I dug out some of my older, thicker ones that could stand to be retired and cut some out. I have a stack of them by the door and in my van for something quick if you forgot to wear one. I round out that center point for the nose. The original pattern was higher up on the cheeks but I found it best to snip down a little for the eyes.

The first positive thing from the closure due to the COVID pandemic is that I finally cut the fabric I bought last fall when Bonnie of Quiltville shared the color palette for the mystery quilt. Nifty wave look going on. The amazing part is that the top is made up of the block above and sashing.  This is the second mystery quilt from the past 7 years that I've managed to sew. I bought the fabric for the 2018-2019 quilt and never cut the fabric. I didn't want that to happen again, and this closure has provided the perfect opportunity to get busy with it. I just need to quilt and bind it now. Love how it turned out.

 Between work, DAR, and volunteering, I don't have much time to pursue personal interests. These are a few pictures from the year with very little creativity. These next few pictures are from the Pesos and Patriots Museum exhibit that was the project of our last Regent. A couple of cards I made in February. Chapter members that attended the Saturday evening State Conference. Easter table setting. My Regent photo. A pen I bought that I love. Centerpieces for workshop. We had a "Groovy" theme. Some produce from our crop share. Some foliage. Point of Rocks Santa Fe Trail Marker Sunrise at Bosque del Apache.

 These are all of the Christmas card designs that will be sent out. I typically make 4-5 cards of the same style. I tend to get bored with a design beyond that, although it probably would be faster to persevere.

 I finally put this quilt top together. I had 4 more blocks to sew together. I must admit that I was a little nervous to put this together. The instructions said to use 1/4" seams. I tend to sew with a scant 1/4", although I really tried to do a quarter inch. When you are dealing with the same size block, it isn't that hard to match up the seams, sew, and have a good finished look. This top has blocks as small as 6 inches and as large as 24 inches.  I happy to say that it went together beautifully. I did have one block that I had to finagle a little but otherwise, it whipped together and I can't help but wonder what I was worried about.

Stockings are one of my favorite things at Christmas.  I personally have not had a stocking in 30 years but how I loved them as a kid.  When you were waiting to open presents there was your stocking to look through with an orange in the toe of the stocking, nuts, candy, chapstick, little toys and games like a yo-yo, top, or those plastic squares that have the numbers 1-15 that you try to put in order.  A few years ago I put together a stocking for my mother as her Christmas gift.  It was fun to come up with things to include and to do the shopping for it.  I know she enjoyed it as much as I did.