Quilts – Page 3 – Letters from Home

Some Things I Love

I finished assembling the quilt top, thanks to the gift of an extra day.

Tim broke the family speed record for skiing. I wish I didn’t know this.

After 11 years of searching, then waiting for a sale, I bought a piano lamp.

Richard and I spent about 5 hours preparing French food yesterday, and it was really disappointing how awful it tasted. Ours actually looked like this photo. pc: tablespoon.com

This week, as I ran errands and shopped, I was asked a few times if I was planning to do something fun. Yes! We celebrated Richard’s birthday with food, food, presents, food, and desserts. At Costco, someone asked if the next big birthday was the big 4-0, and since the scales have tipped toward 50 for me, this miscalculation has embedded itself in my heart and grown into many private smiles. I love celebrations with family, the preparation, anticipation, and the memories.

And, if you want to see Paige’s 8 beautiful paintings inspired by The Secret Garden, her show is coming up soon. I love seeing Paige’s illustrations.

As for the Daniel, he had the opportunity to meet Elder Uchtdorf and shake his hand last week, and he was invited to share his testimony in Stake conference. He is moving to a new apartment that has hot water. He has been busy assembling emergency kits for each companionship in the mission. With summer holidays coming to an end, they expect more protests and violence in his area, but the kits are more in preparation for earthquakes. He is teaching Rosa and others with his companion who is from Canada. I had my first bad dream about his safety, and I can’t hear The Prayer (Bring Him Home from Les Miserables) or Danny Boy without tears. Still, I love being part of a missionary family.

One thing I do for my calling at church is teach Primary children during ward conferences. I made this visual aid for last Sunday to teach about Isaiah’s “Mountain of the Lord’s House” and it was a lot of work, but the kids really loved the doors and windows. They also loved talking about how temples are like mountains, places to feel peace, quiet, and see beauty and light. I also loved the comment about mountains being places of adventure. I think learning of God’s ways is one of the great adventures of life. I love what I learn as I serve in Primary.

Little things this week

These ideas for family history at a friend’s home were inspiring. It was an honor to see their family’s testimonies and how they celebrate their ancestors.

Tim has another black eye but declined to be photographed.

I kept the conference block tower for several days because Mark did a brilliant job.

In Quilting News

This quilt is for the Quilts of Valor Foundation. This week we learned where our quilt will be sent and that it will be displayed with other quilts until it is chosen by a wounded veteran. The picture is included with the quilt so the person can see who made it.

There were more people who worked on this than are pictured, but I am thankful for the memory a picture holds.

The quilt group in my neighborhood has been a joy to me. Now that our leader is moving, I find myself feeling very sentimental about all those meetings in Kaye’s home over the years. I think of the things I have learned, the funny things people said, the beautiful quilts, and the oohs and aaahs when someone would show her finished quilt. I am thankful that Kaye not only taught me how to quilt, but provided such beautiful inspiration from her own projects. She is an artist and she is immensely generous. There are happy, happy memories in her home which goes up for sale tomorrow. Sigh.

Christmas Block Exchange

Each friend made 15 duplicates of a block and we exchanged them yesterday. Two of mine are pictured here, the plain pine and the wreath with a bow. This will be a beautiful quilt someday.

Catching up

Mark was honored as an Eastmont Patriot of the Month for citizenship, leadership, scholarship, and extra-curricular activities. Woot!

I helped make this quilt for a new baby in the neighborhood.

Every conversation at our house includes a status update on my massive painting project and Richard’s apple harvest. I stopped counting gallons of paint, but Richard knows exactly how many pounds of apples were produced.

Court of Honor

Missionary

BYU Homecoming Spectacular 3rd row seats. Awesome!

It’s Inktober for Paige on Instagram.

ONE page of a piece Timothy is working on. Legit!

Did I mention I am painting a lot? It feels like our house is finally becoming our own. I waited a long time to paint because I knew what a big job it would be and I didn’t have the time. So far, I have spent about 17 full days on it. I have not had this kind of time…ever in my life to devote to such a project. Someday I might post “after” pictures, but you could also come and visit.

Finished Doll Quilt

Well, I finished it. I really like how it turned out, even if my hand quilting is not great. It makes me appreciate the tiny stitches in one of my heirloom quilts even more. Many of the doll blocks were made by my friends in quilt group about 2 years ago, and this quilt will always remind me of them. My sisters and Mom helped me begin quilting it, and it sat in a storage room for months. I did most of the stitching during the winter Olympics, of course. It is the perfect lap quilt in size and coziness and memories.

Couch conductor

10:30 pm Sunday night. I am recovering well from a hand laceration. Richard still has no energy after the flu. The boys play trumpet and piano while we rest.

Last Sunday Timothy gave a talk in church with 30 minutes to prepare. He did so well!

Timothy and Mark played in a piano recital on Tuesday night.

It was a good week to be a parent.

Daniel advanced to a regional level in the Sterling scholar competition.

Daniel was named a National Merit Finalist.

Paige began work towards a summer internship in New York.

I finished hand-quilting my international doll quilt. I will finish the binding some other day.

Richard and I watched the John Adams miniseries, except when my eyes were closed during the violence and 18th century surgeries.

We watched Wonder. Tears streamed freely for me.

I can’t type this week as my hand heals, so this is it for a while.

The Big Three

I bought a new planner for 2018 which provides space for daily tasks and schedules, but also has a space to list the three most important tasks for the week. Last week the big three were mostly about Relief Society. This week, my big three include quilting and and a focus on housework. I love having an overall vision for the week.

Here is my quilting progress for the week:

I am working on a group exchange for next Christmas. I tried English paper piecing to make this wreath. It is probably too time consuming to do enough of these in time, but I am happy with the result. The green pieces, sewn individually and then together, probably took me 6 or 7 hours over the summer.

I added a bow, and liked it so much better. The bow took probably 2-3 hours.

Everything is hand-sewn on this quilt block and hand-appliqued to a white square.

I really like this orientation for the square, too. As you can see, the pins are still there and I have yet to finish a single block. Lots of work.

I won’t focus on quilting every week, but the time I have spent stitching has felt wonderful.

I forgot about these

My quilt group made these blocks about 18 months ago and exchanged them with one another. I made the ones with the smiles. I was busy and put them away and forgot about them. It’s definitely time to sew them together and make this quilt! I plan to ask my sisters and mom to help me hand quilt around the figures during our family reunion. I’m bossy like that.

Snow, snow, snow, Serve, serve, serve

We got so much snow last weekend that we thought we would document it. The snow plows always make a large pile in front of our yard, but this is the biggest we have ever seen.

Richard is camping! with the Scouts in this stuff. I sometimes feel grumpy about all he has to do because I wouldn’t enjoy doing those things. However, I think he likes most of the life of a Scoutmaster. Maybe I am a little grumpy because I miss him, too.

This week I fielded calls and texts every day about people being sick and meeting their needs. If I stop to think, I can feel overwhelmed by so many needs. Mid-week, I got a call from the YW saying they were going to make a whole bunch of freezer meals for the Relief Society. Hooray for the army of women and young women who do so much to help others. On Thursday I met with our quilt group to see the quilt we made for a sister with cancer. We always have the biggest turnout at quilt group when there is a service project to do. It is a tribute to the hearts of the women that service activities are always full.

Have you downloaded the Serve Refugees app yet? In Salt Lake there is a need for JoAnn gift cards for a sewing class that is now in session. This is an easy, meaningful way to help a refugee become self-sufficient today. I am thinking that a small note from you or your children, encouraging a vulnerable refugee woman would go perfectly with a gift card.

You can mail gift cards to:

Utah Refugee Connection, 6440 South Wasatch Blvd., Suite 100, Salt Lake City, UT, 84121