Has it really been almost a year since I last posted?  So much has happened.  After my Momma passed away my sister and I took care of our Daddy.  Last year I posted right after Father's Day a picture of him looking vibrant at 85.  In July he turned 86 and had met a lady who he was developing a friendship with.  The picture of him in his favorite purple shirt was when he took me out in October for my birthday right after he came back from a trip to Montana.  He spent Thanksgiving in Georgia with my brother and nephew and their families.  When he came home he was ill and thought he just needed to get some rest, but a day later he was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.  He never left the hospital.  He went from a regular floor to intensive care and a week later passed away.  I miss him everyday.  It was hard enough to loose my Momma, whom I called everyday.  Daddy came to stay with me every week and I went to every doctor's appointment for him.  He had cancer, diabetes, heart trouble, and arthritis, but you would never know because he was always on the go and he never stopped.  It was none of those that brought him down.  In the hospital as he got worse they discovered he had undiagnosed COPD and that combined with the pneumonia is what ultimately stopped my active Dad.

This May we made a trip to Kansas to see our daughter graduate from Emporia State University with her Master's in Library Science.  A week later she was hired as a full time librarian in Kansas and is enjoying setting up her own place and being out of school for the first time in a long time. 

 Our daughter with her Father's parents.

Her and her youngest brother posing nicely for Mom.

Our middle granddaughter turned 3 during this past year, in a few months she will be 4.

 

Her brother turned 2 in May.  

Our oldest granddaughter turned 5 in June.

In the world of sewing I made my husband a barn raising quilt using Kansas Troubles fabric.  He loves it! 

For graduation our daughter ask me to make her a fox quilt.  I started it two months before graduation and her and I finished the binding the week before when I got to Kansas.  I would advise anyone wanting to make this project to give yourself a wee bit more time!  I was really stressed out with this time frame. 

Now I am working on another quilt with a deadline.  I started with other fabric and another pattern and just did not like where it was going for the occasion.  I had in mind to make a disappearing nine patch, but since I had jelly rolls of the fabric I wanted I am making what I have termed as crazy squares.  It could be called a disappearing 16 patch I guess.  To get the blocks a reasonable size using 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch squares I sewed them together in four rows of four blocks and then cut them up like a disappearing nine patch and rearranged them and sewed them back together. 

Over Father's Day weekend we made a trip to Waynesboro to put flowers on Dad's grave and we stopped by one of my favorite quilt stores, The Quiltery in Fairfield, Va.  I found the best fabric to use as sashing between the blocks.  With all the busyness of the blocks I thought a more solid type fabric to break them up would make the top look more pleasing to the eye.

 

I have been wanting to write a post for a long time.  It's take a bit to get back in the swing of life.  I hope to post more often.

Sew Long for Now!