Lions, and Hexies and More, Oh My!

I have been hand sewing hexies in front of the TV again.  Kathy has to do passive arm exercises to help her shoulder heal so we watched two seasons of The Umbrella Academy and started Schitt's Creek.  Lots of stitching while sitting in my new recliner.  There is already another row on this quilt which has been sitting around getting no attention for several years.

I asked to visit the Tosa Quilters (though was too tired to go to the meeting) so I got on their mailing list and found out about a 35 minutes away fabric sale. Since Kathy is off work til later this week healing, we went on a little road trip with Sunshine and bought all of this fabric!  Also got an early Christmas gift the hexie Go! Cutter die.  

I also have spent some time the last few weeks using up all kinds of blocks and leftover parts so that I can make a Christmas stocking for the grands, step grands, honorary grands and my own kids.  

The red one with the star was leftover from years ago when I made stockings for an exchange.  The blue churn dash is the only one I made from scratch (for Hazel) since I saw my online quilty friend Nancy's a few year's ago and knew I needed to make one.  These are not done, they are waiting for the top of the stocking...hoping to get on that this week or next.  Goal was to have them done by early November so I can mail them out for use by start of December.

You may recognize in the two multi colored stockings the blocks from several years ago when I sewed two each of the Quiltmaker Bitty Blocks (they are still online free I think) but they did a row by row and I never figured out what to do with them.  I still have some left, but I went ahead and used them and am glad to have found a use for them!  

After I completed the ones in the first picture I decided to make a few more and cover my own kids too so I used leftover parts Barb gave me from a Bonnie quilt and made three more of these.  They turned out pretty nice from a simple leftover stack of blocks!

Many years ago I hand sewed these hexies with the strange intention of making a little baby quilt.  The colors are more for antique display or something and I decided to cut it into a stocking too.  LOVE it.  Not sure if I will give this one to Kathy or to my youngest son Jay as it sort of speaks to me for him.

Hannah gave me Hazel's lion quilt since it did not have any whiskers and I got them put on one night while watching TV.  Kitty is my daughter's--Willow.

Still playing lots of games--especially solo.  Spent some time this past weekend getting better at Palm Island.  It is kind of addicting.  Simple but not!  I started out with a horrible score of 13 and am now up to 29.  Improving each time!

BJ and I have been working on our mysteries too. I am pretty happy with how this one turned out!  It now has a light blue border on it and is waiting for the darker blue with flower border once it gets a pressing.  That is up next, then back to the stockings.

 

Quilted and Bound and a Loss

 Keeping up with my reading this week.  Finished this one and now reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Lacuna."

 I picked up FOUR quilts from the longarmer down the street.  She quilted my sister's Midnight Flight Christmas Quilt and now it is bound and waiting for a label.

 She also quilted my daughter Hannah and son in law Jeremy's wedding signature quilt.  Also bound and waiting for a label.  I used to label ALL my quilts, then somewhere along the line I got lazy and stopped.  I need to get back to it!

 The grandbaby's quilt with sloth in the center (Hannah and I saw sloths for the first time at the Dallas zoo and we have been in love ever since!).  The embroidery on this is awesome.  My friend Barb decided to make the blocks for me as a gift to Hannah who she has never met.  SO SWEET!  Of course then I had to figure out a pattern and since they are not finding out the gender it had to be gender neutral.  These thirties fabrics worked out well.

 Here is a peek at my lion for grandbaby.  I am hand stitching the binding on so not quite done, but I love the leaves the gal at Blue Whale Quilt Studio put on him (at my request).

Been doing lots of resting, reading, etc. but in the evenings lately I have found some time and energy to sew.  Taking each day as it comes and getting so excited for baby.
If you do not want depressing news click off here.

My nephew Christopher passed away a week and a half ago.  He was thirty years old and six weeks older than my daughter Hannah.  He is the only son of my sister.  She is heartbroken as we all are.  He is above with Coleman as a packer for Halloween.

 Above Coleman, Hannah, Jay (Mac) and Christopher on the bottom.  I took them all to the pumpkin farm and we had such a great day there.

 Christopher smiling in #3. And with my kids below too. So many memories with him and hard to even believe he is gone.

 I wrote his obituary and tried to capture who he was and how much he was loved.

With deepest sorrow, we announce that Christopher Jordan Simons, age 30, of New River, Arizona, died suddenly on Friday, July 17^th, 2020, while undergoing emergency surgery.  Christopher, endearingly known as CJ by his family and friends, was born on December 26, 1989, to his loving mother Tina Baeza (Neff) and his father, Brad Simons in Burnsville, Minnesota.  He was a son, grandson, nephew, cousin, and a friend to so many.  As a child he was always smiling and finding new and clever ways to get into trouble.  He was beyond intelligent and had a knack for math, spelling, and grammar. He was our go to guy for setting up electronics or troubleshooting computer and TV issues!   He would regularly correct others for using improper grammar.  CJ graduated from Career Success High School in Cave Creek, Arizona, at the age of 16 in 2006.  He followed in his family's footsteps and joined the Navy soon after graduation.  During his service he was part of Mission Enduring Freedom and visited much of the world while serving his country.  CJ had many friends, and if you were one you knew you were a brother to him and he would always be there if you needed anything.  He was as loyal a person as anyone could ask for.  He was known for giving advice (our “Dr. Phil”), love, and his daring and brave demeanor.  He could be stubborn and a bit quick tempered, but CJ never seemed scared.  He would never back down from anything. CJ always loved animals, playing poker, video games, going off-roading, cheering for the Packers, and spending time with his friends and family.  He could be regularly seen in his Boondock Saints shirt and seemed to always wear a hat.  He didn't like to smile in pictures, but his smile was larger than life and if you saw it, it would warm your heart.

 He will be greatly missed by his mother Tina (New River) and his father Brad (Eau Claire, Wisconsin); his grandparents Toni and Gary Hirn; his aunts and uncles (Sam, Ashley, Angela, Kathy, Steven, Cheryl, Mark, and Sue);  his cousins (Coleman, Hannah, Jay, Benjamin, Christian, Colton, Barrett, Stephanie, Billy, and Sarah), his girlfriend Jennifer, his ship mates and Navy brothers,  his “New River Mafia,” as well as many others.  CJ was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents and his maternal grandfather Lenny.

We feel if CJ could tell us one last thing he would tell us to hold our heads high. To smile at all the fond memories.  To cry tears of joy of the time spent with him and not tears of sadness.  To hug those you love, forgive those who need it, and know he is looking down on us smiling, and drinking a Faygo.

We love you to the moon and back CJ and always will.  You will always hold a place in so many hearts.  

A Celebration of Life and military funeral honor ceremony will be held as soon as we are allowed to gather the many family, friends, co-workers and all the people who loved CJ.

New Quilting Studio and Already Sewing!

Super happy with our new house and the decision to make the living room the quilting studio!  We made the dining room the living room and put the kitchen table in the kitchen.  We use every inch of this house and it is cozy and organized.  Took me about ten days to get everything where I wanted it...lots of naps involved and I had to rest a lot more than I would have liked, but it got done and now my reward is sewing!

We had to trash the old ironing board set up, but I liked it so much we bought the same shelves and oriented them a little differently for our space.  Here is a picture of it in progress.

 There are two built in bookshelves on each side of an unusable fireplace so I have quilting stuff on the one side and my keeper books and books to read the future grandbabies on the other side.  Not much really fits underneath in the cabinets as they are not very deep but I used it the best I could.

 Hung all the rulers behind where I sit on the wall.

 This is above the fireplace.  I have my year round sewing tree up.

 The front door has a little alcove with another door and I hung all of my metal quilts (gifted to me by my godson Koi and his mom Tara) FINALLY.  They were not hung at the old house as I had no walls left.

Kathy sits across from me when she is in here.  We each have our own U shaped space.  We bought (and she assembled) two shelves on wheels with drawers and a cabinet.  Each is under our window and helps since we lost the built ins from our old house.

 I put a bulletin board on the back of the Ikea shelf and stuck some stuff on it.  Works for me.

 This is the view from where I sit.  We put quilts in the large cabinet there and stacked more on top.  The quilts to be gifted are in the office along with the seasonal quilts to change out.  They will not all fit in here.  The top drawer has strings and the bottom drawer has tops and backs.

 My daughter is in her third trimester--YAY.  I gave her an eye spy quilt and then I made this one (she picked it from all the Patch Pals patterns.)  This was fun to make but like a puzzle to lay out!

 My friend Barb (in AZ) embroidered the cutest little animals for me to make a quilt from for the baby.  They all have fuzzy minky fabric in them and are soft and super detailed.  This picture does not do it justice, I need to get some close ups.  She gifted me 12 blocks and I decided to use a mystery pattern from a long time ago and it needed 13.  Barb whipped me up a kangaroo and it is in the mail on the way here now.

 I quilted and bound my second Scrappy Tulip quilt (from Mystery Quilts Anonymous fb group) a few days ago.  The first one I gifted to my ex chair at Basha, Marisol and this one I am not sure goes to who.  I like it enough to keep it but I have so many!

 I started the Jelly Snowflake Mystery quilt that Pat Sloan mentioned on her blog.  Info is on   A Quilting Life here.  Some are doing it in Christmas fabric, but I used the only jelly roll I have which is Moon Shine by Tula Pink.  Second clue comes out tomorrow.

 I also quilted three of my Rock Candy tabletoppers that have been done and waiting for that and binding for a long time.  They are in the gift me pile.

 Bonnie Hunter started her new leader and ender Easy Breezy.  I decided to use up a bunch of patriotic scraps and make a quilt of valor.  I kitted up 30 blocks to start in the six inch size.  They are cute!

 I am also still making a house a day. I have 106 so far.  I need to get them up on my design wall (finally redid it, the first one I put up nothing stuck to!) soon so I can get a picture of them all.  Still social distancing and being super careful.