Make-A-List Monday - January 2021

 It has been a busy day.  After running to the grocery store this morning I spent the rest of the day organizing my studio and preparing my List for January.  My List will be rather simple this month, as I slowly dip my toe back into the world of quilting.  

January 2021

1.  Garden Party - From Addicted to Scraps by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville

I started this quilt at a workshop with Bonnie Hunter in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

2.  Pennington Quiltworks Saturday Sampler from 2014/15

This is one of the blocks that I have already finished.  I will pick up where I left off.

3.  Quilts for Kids

4.  Baby Quilt for little Luca

5.  The Patchwork Quilt Along by The Fat Quarter Shop

These are some of the blocks I have already finished.  

6.  One Hundred Eighty-Two Day Solstice

I am doing this quilt with a Halloween theme.

7.  Basketweave

Basketweave can be found in the book Quilted Living by Gerri Robinson.

8.  Quilt "The Children's Library."

9.  Diamond Painting

This is the project on which I am currently working.

10.  Cross Stitch

This is one of the projects I will work on this month.

I think this is a good place to end my List.  If I can accomplish working on these ten projects during the month of January, I will consider that a win.  Wish me luck!

Until Next Time.....Happy Stitching!!!

Sharyn

 

Twenty Months in the Life ... A Quilty Pleasures Roundup

I guess the only way to summarize the past 20 months is to just jump in with some photos. In some cases it was not easy choosing only one photo for each month.  Other months I hardly had any from which to choose.  Either way, when I look back on these photos I realize that time really does fly and that we need to enjoy the moment for we never know what the future will bring.

May 2019 

My grandson, Jace's big boy quilt was one of the last quilty things I did before taking my quilting break.  He hasn't used it on his bed yet because he is still in a toddler bed, but soon, I'm sure.

June 2019

My husband, Don, retired after 39 years of teaching in the same school.  It was wonderful to have all three of our children attend his retirement dinner.

July 2019

A beautiful rainbow over our West Windsor house.  Notice all the trees?

August 2019

One of those trees in our backyard decided it was ready to become firewood!

September 2019

We went to Cooperstown, NY for a long weekend.  This beautiful butterfly was at the farmer's museum.

October 2019

JT's great dane puppy, Thira.

November 2019

                           We had a wonderful trip to Disney. Love Pluto!

December 2019

I made my three oldest grandsons ornaments for their Christmas tree.

January/February 2020

Our annual dinner at the Cranbury Inn with some very dear friends.

March 2020

One of the unexpected treasures at our new house was discovering this farmstand a quarter mile down the road.

April 2020

What do you do when the world is on lockdown so there is no place to go?  You find a comfy stitchy spot on the front porch.

May 2020

Home grown tomatoes!

June 2020

I managed to finish quilting this monster quilt that I had been working on for at least four years.

July 2020

Welcome grandson #4...Luca

August 2020

And grandson #5...Caleb

September/October 2020

The sunsets in Hunterdon County are amazing!

November 2020

Cousins meeting for the first time.  Missing sweet Caleb :(

December 2020

Our first Christmas in our new home.

These pictures are only a small snippet of life at Quilty Pleasures over the past 20 months.  Now that I've caught up, it's time to start thinking about my list...  

Stay tuned ;)

Until Next Time.....Happy Stitching!!!

Make A List Monday - May 2019 (Not Really)

THE LOST YEAR...

(or should I say 20 months)

About 20 months ago my life went into a topsy-turvy mess.  My husband, Don, asked if I would take a ride with him to go look at houses.  I knew he had wanted to move for a while but moving was not something I had any interest in doing.  We have lived in our home for 25 years.  We have wonderful neighbors and our children grew up in the house in which we were living. But I agreed thinking what would it hurt to take a look around.

Don has always wanted to live in the country with lots of land on which he could putter around.  Our current house only had about 3/4 acres and he had done almost everything to the property that he could.

On our journey we headed to the remote town of Kintnersville, PA.  We found a 10 acre horse farm that he fell in love with and I thought I would be okay with.  

We asked our realtor to work up an offer for the property on a Thursday evening.  After a sleepless night and a panic attack, I realized that I could not move to this property.  I knew I wouldn't be happy there.  We decided to wait awhile before we looked again.

In the meantime, my husband retired and life went on.  But the trauma I suffered from the panic attack had taken its toll on me.  Quilty Pleasures was put on a very back burner and I essentially stopped quilting.  I started stitching in-hand again but my quilty-bug was gone completely.  I finished my grandson's Big Boy quilt and another for my daughter's friend. But other than that there was
 NO QUILTING for me!

In January 2020, I was in a deep slump.  I've suffered depression before, but this was different.  I wasn't sure what was happening.  Could it just be the "winter blues?"  I knew I had to do something because I was falling fast into major depression.  I needed a change...something to get my mind headed in a new direction. On a whim, I called my husband one day and told him I was ready to go look at houses again.  

We quickly got our house ready to put on the market.  We called our cousin and realtor, Greg, and he took over.  Our house sold in a few weeks while we were busy looking for the perfect place to move.  Don wanted a house off the road with a long driveway and lots of land/trees.  I wanted a house that would be perfect for my quilting and all the other arts in which I dabble.  The house I moved to had to have big, bright windows, a beautiful kitchen, and not be too far from family.  

We found this home in Flemington, NJ.

(Some of the following pictures are from the Zillow listing. This is not our furniture)

We both fell in love!

Big Beautiful Windows throughout the house, but the sunroom is especially bright and happy...

The beautiful kitchen and the studio over the garage sold me on the house...

My long-arm machine and my Bernina fit perfectly!

This little babbling brook next to the long driveway was an added bonus...

Fast forward 20 months.  SOOOOO much has happened since I basically stopped blogging.  We have settled into our new home. We have added two grandsons for a total of five!  Our world has been turned upside down by a pandemic called Covid 19.  We have elected a new president and anxiously await his inauguration in a few weeks.  

I wasn't sure how I wanted to document the past 20 months.  I wanted to remember important things that happened without having to write miles and miles of blog posts.  I've decided to try to take each month and post one photo that reminds me of that month.  Hopefully this can be accomplished in one or two posts.  

To help tickle my Quilty Bug back to life, I will completely redo my Make A List Monday.  I also want to add some posts about the hand stitching I have been doing when I stopped quilting.  When my Quilty Bug flew out the window, my Stitchy Bug flew in, so I have been very busy with that hobby. 

Hopefully I can start to work on my monthly recap post(s) ASAP.  I want to start 2021 ready to go with a renewed love of quilting.  

Until Next Time.....Happy Stitching!!!

Sharyn