Dempsey Snow

Introducing Miss Dempsey Snow, my sweet 5th grandbaby...

Dempsey is daughter to my son Russ and his wife Megan.  She is the first female addition to their household since Megan and Russ got married.  She has two brothers, Aylen and Ryker, and a dog brother, Samson.  We are so delighted she has joined the family!!  She is just a sweet little pumpkin and her brother calls her "Snow Baby" because he was told she would arrive when it snowed. Joy!! 

Winter projects

Yea!  I love the seasons...and winter is definately my sewing season.  Having retired this past fall from my job at the hospital due to my health, I had hopes of working on line at home.  I did do a few months of on line work but my nice husband and I decided maybe it was time to just be retired.  It has been a transition to be sure and after a rocky start with much illness, I am finally settling in to a great, relaxed life.  My health is MUCH better and I am proactively working on improving my immune system.  During this process winter hit Nebraska and my 3-season studio became a piling and storage place for projects in process, purchases, projects left out from warmer weather, passageway to the backyard and cow lot for my husband and in general, a mess!  My sewing machine comes in for the winter and takes up permanent residence on the dining room table along with an iron and small ironing board for the counter and piles of projects.  The by-product of my sewing in the dining room is the constant lint and dust balls floating around (truly, not much different from the usual when I think about it!!). 

Happily I have finished up 8 pillows (CQ'd) and quilted 7 quilts and pieced 2 quilt tops and am working on 4 BOMs!  JOY!  Finishing up these projects is wonderful.  They have been piling up and piling up while I worked on more and more things. 

We have had recent snowstorms and spring is looking a little ways off so for now...more sewing!  I still have a small pile of CQ purses to make and several CQ projects to get pieced and now my pile of handwork to finish things up and work on new projects is growing. 

When spring hits I will be outside working on the house (scraping and reputtying windows) and definately hitting the flower gardens in a big way.  

Happy to enjoy life.

Sandy Hook commemorative quilt project

A few stitchers from the HGTV quilting message board are coming together to produce a commemorative quilt to honor the innocent victims at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Conneticut this past December.  We were to each make a crazy quilted medallion of a particular victim which will then be put together with other medallions by quilter Carol Anderson (aka needlecrazy).  This quilt will be presented to the town of Newtown, CT at the end of the school year or on the anniversary of the shooting to be placed in a public building on permanent display. 

I made two medallions for this very heart wrenching project. 

Please meet Emilie Parker, age 6.  She was said to have lit up the room when she entered so I made her medallion happy and to bring out her beautiful blue eyes.

 

Next please meet Rachel D'Avino.  She was a teacher's aide working on her

PhD.  She loved children and was soon to be engaged.

Soon February 2013!

Where does the time go???  It has been a year of recovery for me (I am really talking about 2012 here, I guess...). 

Mom died 1 1/2 years ago now and I feel I am progressing along...a lot of personal readjusting with her passing.  Dad is handling things as well as he can...so, so sad at his partner's passing but trying hard to keep going.  Makes me sad to watch him go through this.  Winter is especially hard though...can't get outside much. 

I had to quit my job due to my health.  The allergies that have plagued me for years had turned quite worrisome in the last couple of years.  The typical symptoms had now turned life threatening, particularly to smells.  My job at the hospital (which I really loved) became a real threat to me due to perfumes worn by staff and visitors.  I seem to be able to deal with the smells relatively well in life using a multitude of medications but when you sit in the aromas for 8 hours a day there is no way to combat the symptoms enough.  I had to take Allegra twice daily as well as Zyrtec twice daily and up to 8 Benadryl daily as well as steroids just to make it through a day of work...and then I was sick for 2-3 days at home recovering and then had to do it all over again when I went back to work.  It became not worth it.  The funny thing is, once I quit work we honestly didn't miss the pitence I made in salary and I wasn't sick anymore and I didn't have to commute 40 miles anymore and I was able to wean off of all of the drugs except a simple twice a day Zyrtec and an occasional Benadryl.  No brainer.  I was a bit worried I would feel isolated at home...NOTTTTT!  Love being home, sewing, drinking coffee, NOT BEING SICK, and being able to visit with grandkids with a more open schedule and spending more time with Mark (who had had to witness my sad, sick lifestyle with no way to help me).

The flip side is that I have now had the pleasure of catching Influenza A which turned into pneumonia and Influenza B which hasn't been as bad but is still a nuisance.  You see, I have had flu shots for at least 15 years while working in healthcare and this year, after I quit my job, I kept meaning to get flu shot but cheapened out at having to actually pay for one this year rather than get it as a benefit at work.  Between my immune system kind of a mess due to the allergy thing and not getting a flu shot but yet being around my sweet grandkids who are exposed to EVERYTHING at daycare, I have managed to spend quite a bit of time sitting around home recovering! 

Happily now, I am almost recovered from everything.  The good part is it gave me plenty of time to sew and catch up on a few projects.  My goal this winter was to actually quilt the six quilts I have had sitting around, work on the CQJP 2013, and finish up a multitude of CQ projects. 

In the meantime the horrendous event occurred in Conneticut with the terrible shooting at Sandy Hook school.  Several of the stitchers on the HGTV message chat boards are coming together to produce a memorial quilt that is to be presented to the community of Newtown, CT at the end of the school year or on the anniversary of the tragedy.  This quilt will hang in a public building yet to be determined as a tiny memorial to the innocent victims in this shooting. 

This is my medallion of Rachel D'Avino to be a part of the memorial quilt.  Rachel was a teacher's aide working on her PhD.  She loved children and she was soon to be a fiance'.  Rachel, you have made an impression on me.