Here I am again . . .

I took some time off and now I am back.  It has been a busy couple months, but all is well here.

We have had lots of celebrations, birthdays, Mother's  Day, Father's Day, kiddo's soccer, some "granny nanny" days, planting flowers, visiting, kiddo's soccer, meals with friends and so it goes.  Mom turned 91 in May and we had an open house for her.  She is doing very well in her own condo here in Bozeman.


This past week, I have been doing lots of "cleaning out" in my studio area which is the area over the garage.  There is a large storage area that we call the "eve storage", a bedroom, and my studio in the space over the garage.   The entire space is about 900 square feet.  The bedroom is filled to the brim with stuff - or at least it was.  When Mom moved out of her house in Missoula 3 years ago, I brought her antique quilt collection here for safe keeping.  She has about 50 antique quilts - some of them quite nice and some just representative of an era.  She decided after her birthday that she no longer wants to do any more sewing or work with the quilts.  So, I am moving them to the eve storage which meant I had to go through every thing in the storage area, empty it all out, haul stuff to the dump, to our new Goodwill, and lots and lots of books to the library for their annual book sale.  But, the eve storage is now empty with shelves rearranged and I am starting to put things in there.  I also have several boxes of her fabric - mostly wools as she never quilted, but did lots of beautiful sewing/tailoring of her own garments.  And, I want to reclaim the extra bedroom as an office area.  More on that later.

In the midst of that I have found some inspiration to play around with creating some "fabric sketches" for a challenge in our little art group.  I dug through my scrap basket and pulled out little scraps of what I liked.  That is the first picture above.  Then I pressed them and started just sewing pieces together freeform and this is the first "sketch".  It is 9" x 9" and I want to do some stitching on it now.

Tonight I made cookies for church tomorrow.  I have found a church I like so much.  I have been going now for almost a year when we are home and I always leave feeling so much love.  Sometimes Bob and/or Mom go with me, but sometimes not.  I am doing more and more volunteering there and it feels right.   Mom gave me the cookie racks 'cause I bake so many cookies. I like it more than I thought I would.

So, it has been a good couple months - I have found time to be just me while enjoying special days.