Wow, what a week.
Okay, two weeks.
Okay, two weeks.
I thought I'd get right back into my weekly posts but then
I discovered my posts haven't gone out since July!
I'd be upset but I'd only had time to get a few out
since then anyway so not too much harm done.
To fix the issue, I had to delete a whole lot of what looked
like spam addresses. Oh gosh I sure hope they were all spam!
If you are somehow seeing this but no longer receiving my emails,
I apologize. Please re-subscribe, and I'm so sorry!
(If you're MailChimp-knowledgeable, how do you handle this?)
SO, with all of that mess, I didn't get my post written last week.
Another shop hop has come and gone. Usually I take
lots of pics to share but this year I guess I wasn't really
feeling it; I just have these two.
There are now only 8 shops in the hop, the lowest since
I started going over 20 years ago. That's a little sad but
not really surprising as we all know how things are going
for brick and mortar quilt shops these days.
I wasn't after much in particular but, as always, I came home
with some major bargains from the clearance racks. Before the
hop, I'd successfully gotten my "fabric used" number to exceed
my "fabric purchased" number for the year but I came home
with almost 44 yards. Guess I'd better get to work, eh?
I do have plans for all of this believe it or not!
And boy do I need to get busy because I just sold four quilts
last week. With my time being so limited in my sewing room,
I need to manage my time very wisely. More on that in a bit.
Let's see how last week's productivity went:
1) Finish pumpkin quilt; name, pic and list in shop.
Completed, and sold!
"Hello Fall" (73 x 83)
Pattern is "Hello Pumpkin" by MSQC
2) Finish next fall quilt; name, pic and list in shop
Completed, and sold!
"Pumpkin to Talk About" (70x88)
Pattern: "Pick of the Patch" by Wendy Sheppard
Crazy, huh? I barely had the little pumpkins done in my
last post and here it is finished, pic'd and sold. Huzzah!
More craziness: I have a request for another one already.
The flying geese are my addition, made from the trimmings.
Rather than add them to my growing HST trimmings collection,
(remember how I'm trying to purge!?!), I wanted to just put them
into the quilt that they came from, and match. Being in a bit of a
time crunch I went with the first thing that came to mind.
I do love putting the scraps into my projects as well, though
they usually end up on the back. This was a nice change.
3) Finally start on the acorn quilt!
Lots of progress made.
Completed 55 acorns; 6 more to go.
The pic is rather dark as it was evening but I'm using
Woolies, the loveliest, most petable flannel fabric ever.
The pattern is Acorn Tumble by BasicGrey.
4) Plan next few quilts and make out shop hop list.
Done.
I ended up going with no real list, just a general idea of what
quilts/themes I want to tackle next. Somehow I want to get
6 to 8 quilts made in the next couple months. I know, right?
And when things are fixing to get pretty crazy, and emotional.
Crazy quilt woman, that's me. Well that's my segway right into...
The Big Change Ahead
If you've been around here a bit, you might remember that hubs
and I live on the last of my family's farm. Years ago, we purchased
(from my mom) the home that my dad built in '88; it was our dream
to keep this last bit in the family since the ownership goes back to
the 1880's. Even though the city keeps creeping closer, I always felt
our few acres, with an orchard, large garden, chickens and a pool,
has been, and would always be, our haven.
You might also recall that a couple years ago, my siblings
chose to sell off the last bit of ground that we owned together.
(view before the assisted living came in)
That property surrounds our own so now, right next to us,
blocking our beautiful sunsets, sits an assisted living facility.
I have continued to tell myself this is still our haven but it's
becoming difficult to feel it with four lanes of traffic, neighbors'
dogs barking and sirens (we're now on a medical route) wailing.
We get trash in our yard, not to mention people letting their dogs
do their biz in out there (nope, they don't pick it up!) and, believe
it or not, we've even had a resident of a different assisted living
(about 1/2 mile up the street in the other direction) just walk
right on up and hang out on our front porch multiple times.
And we live pretty far back from the street!
What happened to the quiet farm I grew up on?
Now you're seeing the writing on the wall just as we did, right?
This past summer we were approached by the same assisted
living company that built next to us. My knee-jerk reaction
was "No! Not yet!" But I prayed. A deep, cry-out-from-the-soul
kind of prayer. And wouldn't you know it? By the next morning,
I was at peace.
My parents may be gone but the message to "just let it go"
was as obvious as if they were with me still. So, we let the
prospective buyers know that we were open to discussion.
We continued to pray and have others pray. Hubs and I gave it
a lot of thought and searched our souls and then we searched
for a place that might someday feel like home, just to know if
that was even a possibility!?
To make this long story a little shorter, it's all now under contract.
It's a commercial deal so it takes months, not weeks like a normal
home sale. And you know the hardest part? Everything--our home,
all the trees (many we grew up playing under), everything!--is going
to be leveled. We are allowed to take anything we want (even trees)
so we're trying to find homes for as much as we can. Whether we
sell or give things away, we just don't want it to go to waste.
We've already moved out some things, including the chicken coop
and my brand new batch of chicks (ordered back in February).
I will never own chickens again. <sniff>
Well, I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.
Now, as hard as all of this is, keep in mind that I am still at peace
with it. There is no doubt in our minds it is the right thing to do.
When you have that much prayer and trust going on, it's crazy
how things--so, so many things!--start falling into place.
But it's still just....hard.
But for 6 years of moving around after getting married,
I have lived here my entire life.
However...
There is some good to come of it. It's what has been
keeping me going through it all and I can't wait to share it.
I'm sorry to drop another cliffhanger but I need to keep this
post a manageable length! Tune in next week!
And I promise not to skip.
Happy quilting!
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