ideas . . .

I tried to get this done in time to share at our Art Group tonight, but I unstitched more in the past couple days than I stitched.  But about 4 pm today I found myself on the right track.  I am  now anxious to get more time to work on it - but probably not until after Thanksgiving. 

The Art Group meeting was fun - saw some great stuff from others. 

Good day . . .

Go Bobcats!

What a great day! Our neighbors Nick and Betty came over to watch the football game and we enjoyed some good taco soup, salad, crunchy bread and fresh ginger bread with special topping for dessert.

AND - the Montana State Bobcats won the game over the cross state rivals - the University of Montana Grizzlies.   It is always a good day when win.   

I did some work on an art piece on my longarm - will show more on that tomorrow.  But the important thing is that I am working again!  Amazing!  It might be a miracle!

Starting again . . .

It has been a long absence,  but here I am. 

Right after my last entry, the first part of July, my brother had a heart attack.  My mom who is 91 lives here in Bozeman in her own condo since her move here last summer.  My brothers illness really took a toll on her.  My brother had surgery in mid-August to replace the titanium valve from several years ago as that was not working and he is doing fine now. 

Mom continued to struggle during my brother's health issues and then her younger sister passed.  Mom had been so vibrant, so independent and able.  That suddenly that started to end, as it can, with memory loss, angry phone calls made that were not remembered,  family conflict over issues that didn't exist, overtaking and undertaking prescriptions and continually wanting to move away.  And we keep working on it.

In late July, we enjoyed a huge family reunion here at our house with lots of cousins.  We ate "fried chicken" made memory of the Kimble family who all loved their friend chicken.  My dad and his two sisters were the parents of the 75 "chicken-eatin'" relatives.  It was a milestone for us all - lots of memories made and certainly worth the work.  You can see some of the cousins in the photo above.

Our Scottish Terrior, Kassie, got sick right after the reunion and was soon diagnosed with bladder cancer, inoperable, and yesterday we said our final good-bye to her.  

I always think about being on the Oregon Trail.  You just keep heading "due west" through all kinds of good and bad and that is what we are doing.  Today it seems like we have arrived somewhere - not sure where - but not a place of celebration.  Just a destination.   And then we will head out again.

I have continued with my studio work - including some art quilting, traditional quilting and design digitizing.   I want to start a new blog focused on my art.  I will post that here when I get it up. 

It feels like my "third act" is completed.  

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.

Sometimes . . .

I just need to be "Carol" - not wife, mother, daughter, grandmother - just "Carol". Do you know what I mean?

Today is one of those days of awareness. I need to just be me - all day - going to church alone - in my studio alone - happy alone. It is a gift and I am going to bask in it for today. The world out there is going to have to get along without me for today. And I know it will do fine - probably even prosper.

As will I.

Special night . . .

Bob had to work today at the Builders Exchange and came home a bit weary as he has a little cold going on. He wanted to stay home and rest and I wanted to head out so decided it would be a good night to take Mom out for a dinner out. We drove out to Willow Creek which is about 40 miles and had their ribs - the best ever. It was a great evening and we decided that it would be fun to do a "girls night out" on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. I am using lots of flexibility with the word "girls" here - but you know what I mean.

I got the coach unloaded, washing done and some work done in my studio today so I felt like a celebration was in order - and it was a fun evening.

We are home . . .

I can't believe I haven't written a word in 3 weeks - what is up with that?

I will try to catch up in a hurry. We were still in Palm Springs area the last two weeks of March and had a great time. Met great new friends and "old" friends joined us as well. We did lots of sight seeing, visiting, shopping, and just enjoying the time. We left Palm Springs area a week ago today and came north through the high desert of California to Barstow and then through Las Vegas to St. George, Utah. We stayed a few days in the St. George area and loved our time there. We started home from there this past Thursday. After an unscheduled stop at a truck repair facility just south of Salt Lake City, we arrived home early last evening.

The little guys, Weston and Walker, were waiting to color some eggs and we had a fun family evening. Today we all went to church together and had a long brunch here at home. Nothing like hitting the ground running.

It is always good to get home, but I miss life in "Gus" as well. We will have a busy week as Bob is going to work at the Builders Exchange for a few days. I am going to get Gus unpacked, laundry caught up, and work on a quilting project that deserves to be finished.

I hope your Easter was as wonderful as ours.