The Best Ever

What can I say? Spring finally arrived here in Skunk's Misery. I am outside as much as possible. There are lots of weed seedlings demanding my attention. When I am in the house I'm either too tired to quilt or I'm filling orders for my Thirtysomething Square Up tool. Stephanie Prescott of A Quilter's Dream designed a Block of the Month quilt using my Square Up tool. Perhaps you are participating or have seen it at your LQS. Her pattern is called Sample This!

Last night I joined Joy and Patty to do a little sewing. "Little" is an accurate description of what we did. More talking than usual. Must see them more often so that won't happen. It was difficult to focus on cutting and figuring out someone's pattern.

My trip to Santa Rosa was the best ever. Everything about it was Perfect. I'm still talking about it. All flights were on time. The weather was gorgeous. The meeting was well attended, everyone was friendly, sales were good, nice compliments, a fun, full workshop, and good food. To top it off, my hostess took me on a hike in the Foothills park near her home. I couldn't have asked for a better time. I noticed how much cleaner the area is than my area which is always a mess coming out of winter. Lots blooming, and the only bugs I saw were bees on the beautiful, blooming wisteria vines. I saw few birds maybe cause there weren't any bugs for them.

It's in the 80's today. Too hot for me to work outside so I am catching up on paperwork... Cooling off to normal for the rest of the week. So I will be back in the garden again. Wish me luck eliminating the weeds so I have more time to quilt. I sure hope you don't have the same problem.

Another Adjustment

I haven't done any sewing or quilting in the last two weeks. I was working on 2 quilt tops - my Flying Geese quilt and Bow Tie blocks done; these are the newest.  I'm loving it. The Flying Geese blocks are waiting to be joined. I should be able to get back to it soon now that things are settling down.

I haven't written in 2 weeks for several reasons. First, I came down with the flu. We were at the hospital with our 92 year old neighbor that we help take care of. I went to the bathroom because I felt sick to my stomach. A nurse found me there and very quickly put me in a wheelchair put a mask on my face and a pan in my lap and pushed me out the door. Mark got sick just a few hours after me so we were not at Dorothy's bedside when she died the next day. By Thursday we were better so we could attend the funeral and then helped clean her stuff out of Assisted Living.

 
Adjusting to Mark's retirement has been easier because of Dorothy. He would go visit her nearly every day, leaving me a few hours alone.With her gone we will need to make another adjustment to our lives. Preretirement  Mark was gone at work nearly 12 hours a day. Now he will be underfoot even more. One of the hardest things for me with him around all the time is that I want to retire, too. Yet I like my job. And work just started for the season. With everything going on between  my fella friend and Dorothy  it's been hard to focus. I'm anxious for a new normal to settle over us.

It's also Show Season! I enjoyed the Mukwonago Crazy Quilters Annual Quilt Show on Saturday followed by the Sun Prairie Heritage Quilters show on Sunday. I went with Judy on Sunday. We had alot of catching up to do. One thing for sure. The quilts in the shows are getting better. Lots of fancy machine quilting. The Baltimore Album customer quilt that Judy quilted won best of show in Mukwonago. Way to go Judy! I didn't do much damage to my wallet. 32 different half yards and  a pack of Bali Crackers. All very inspiring. I hope you can enjoy a few shows this spring.