I've also been working on my Jane Harris sampler. Then when other projects come up that gets put to the side. So tiny progress being made until after Christmas. The Halloween cross stitch on my blog is one that I finished in a weekend. I framed it and gave it to my daughter.
I've been working on a baby quilt for my granddaughter and it needs to be completed by this Sunday for her baby shower. I am almost done. It turned out bigger than I anticipated so I've been hand quilting a little each day. Now I'm quilting the sashing and the border and it will be done! Whew! But my hands are not liking me! It done and baby shower over because I need to start my Christmas gifts. Gulp! But at least I have everything I need for what I'm going to make. Thank goodness I'm retired or I'd be in big trouble.
Speaking of Christmas gifts... In July I cut fabric for what I had planned the Christmas gifts to be, then had to finish some quilts for our guild's quilt show in October. So the original Christmas gifts got put to the side. So, they will now be for next year.
Here are some of the quilts that I entered in the show:
Our guild doesn't award ribbons which I am thankful for. I need to sharpen my skills on hand quilting. There were some really nice quilts and, of course, I didn't take my camera.
So, I've been retired for a year and two months now. The first year was the hardest. Too many things came up that I wasn't aware would happen once retired - such as my "retired" prescription plan sucked! I pay more for my prescriptions now - especially at the beginning of the year when there are all those deductibles. Sigh... Then my hubby qualified for Medicare so that was fun trying to figure all of that out and which supplemental plan to purchase and which rx plan to use and so on. And now here we are back to that time of year of open enrollment. Also, I didn't plan for my sister to die and that was totally unexpected (she is younger than me but has had several strokes and a 5 by-pass heart surgery). Then after we got home from the memorial my brother ended up having a 5 by-pass heart surgery - he is also younger than me. After he got home from the hospital by dad ended up having a slight heart attack! Too much at one time. I started feeling like maybe I should go back to work...but I quickly talked myself out of it! LOL! Then the holidays came and went and for some reason - even though I had more time to prepare - I was not as prepared as I usually am for the holidays.
I have come to the conclusion that I need a routine. I'm too out of sorts, off track, out of sync - whatever way you want to describe it. I didn't routinely clean my house each week, I didn't routinely pull weeds in my gardens - I was just kind of out of it. So my plan this year is to get back on track, come up with a plan to clean my house room by room and then keep up with it. My craft will always be a work in progress - I clean it, then I start a new project and then it's a mess again so I clean it again and - you get the picture. I'm sure you all have that problem. Ok, maybe not all but a good majority of you do.
I have always been wanting to get back to rug hooking. I had sincerely thought that maybe it just wasn't for me. And then what would I do with all that I make? Then I realized that the reason I've been dragging my feet rug hooking is that the patterns I picked out were not really what I was aiming for. I realized this when I went to my friend's son's graduation party and saw how she had incorporated her rugs, mats, etc into her decor and that's when I knew I had been picking the wrong patterns. So I will attempt to finish those that I've started, get help with the binding, and then move on to the things I want to decorate my home with.
Well, enough about me... what's up with you!?!
Thanks for stopping by!
Char
