I'm back

I've been away from the blog again.  Lots of stuff going on.

Shortly before Thanksgiving I got word that my Mom was not doing well and going downhill with her health.  Since my Dad passed away last year, she had just given up.  A few days before Christmas she passed away.  We left here the day after Christmas to head to Illinois for her funeral, hoping the weather would be OK for the trip.  Our driving days were good except for the day of her funeral.  It started snowing a little during the service, got a little worse while we were at the cemetery and by the time we finished the lunch afterward, there was about 2" of snow on the ground.  It was a slow, slippery trip back to the hotel that afternoon.  We passed several cars in the ditch but made it safely.  The next morning the snow had stopped, roads were cleared and we had no trouble driving the rest of the way home.  We did stop in Arkansas to visit my DH sisters and BIL's.  One BIL has Alzheimer's so we wanted to visit while we could with him.  He has good days and bad days but we had a nice visit.  Then within a week and a half of getting home and settled again, DH and I both got the flu so we have been laying low and trying to feel better.  There were days I wasn't even interested in sewing, so I know I was feeling bad!  We are both better now, just some left over congestion and a little cough still hanging on, but feeling so much better.

I do have some projects to show that I was working on before things got hectic.  Here is the Bunny Hill sew along by Anne Sutton:

 The finished quilt.  If you click the photo, it will biggie size for you.  I had thought about turning the HST's in the corners of the red and green blocks so the red half pointed out, then just went with the pattern with the light half out.  I still wish I had done them different but it's done and that's what counts.  I did sew little red buttons in the corners where the light half of the HST's meet to set it off a little.

 A close up of the three snowmen in the lower right corner.

 Here's the little guy in the upper left corner.

There was a bonus applique block that was so cute I had to make it, too, and used it as the label.  The puppy is so cute.

I worked on finishing the Mystery quilt for our Small Quilt online group.  I had everything done except the last eight square in a square blocks and it sat while I worked on other things.  The square in a square are not my favorite blocks to make.

I have started hand quilting this one.  I'll show a better photo when it is all done.  The one our leader, Kathy Tracy did is pictured on the cover of her new book that is due out in July.

The Small Quilt group is doing another Mystery Sew Along this year.  The first applique block has been released and I have it done.

The next clue will be released on Feb. 1.

I also found out my nephew and his wife are expecting a baby boy in the spring, so I had to start a quilt for him.

I've had this pattern for a while and am excited to have a little guy to make it for.  More pictures as I get it further along.  So far all of the fabric for it has come from stash which makes me very happy.  I will probably have to buy some flannel for the backing but we will see.

One last project that I finished and mailed before Christmas.  My daughter asked me to make a little time out mat for my grandson that she could keep in the bag for when they go out.  Not that my little two year old GS would need it.  LOL, he's two!

It is just something I put together from scraps but it turned out really cute.  It kinda looks like a party is happening but I wanted it to look more positive than negative.  He uses it just about every day for some thinking time.

That pretty much catches things up.  It is time for life to settle down and get back to normal.  I am looking forward to nicer temperatures because DH and I plan to have some fun.

With some issues of getting older, we turned the motorcycle into a trike.  He debated about just selling it, or making it into the trike for quite a while.  With the encouragement of several friends, we did the trike.  We are waiting to get the brackets reinstalled for his back rest, then with nice weather, we can start getting use to the different way to ride.  It shouldn't take too long and already have a long ride planned for the fall.  

Well, my stitching chair is calling!