Day 3 Writing Challenge

This little quilt has hung in my home for many years and it is one I treasure as it is one of the first Christmas quilts I made.  As I look back now, I wonder how I ever managed to piece it together.  It was a busy time for me with a small family and a newly formed business, "fun things".

I had started a mail order, home-based business making and selling fabric and wood items.  We produced a small catalog, placed a few ads in magazines and

it took off much to my surprise and delight.  We were soon picked up by some wonderful individuals who represented us at national gift shows. Orders kept me and my family very busy as well as friends I hired to help me. 

Time for doing the things I wanted to do for myself was limited and when I saw this little quilt, (can't remember where or who pattern was by) I knew I had to use some of my fabric and make it.  It just seemed to speak to me and has brought me much joy and happiness year after year.  I love the simplicity of it and of course, being a lover of anything hearts, these small hearts just added to the beauty of the design. 

I love the traditional red and green of Christmas and these prints and colors just spoke to me and they still do.  This little quilt will always hold a special place in my heart reminding me of a time gone by, one that was filled with challenges and many blessings.

Day 2 Blog Writing Challenge

Do you want to build a snowman?

Spent such a fun day on Saturday with my daughter and grandsons who came to help me decorate my home for Christmas.

Unbeknown to me while my daughter and I were bringing up decorations, the boys were outside building me a snowman.  Over Thanksgiving we were inundated with snow---lots of heavy wet snow.  It was perfect for building a snowman. What a fun surprise!  I loved it!  Brought back so many memories of when my children were little and couldn't wait to get outside to play in the snow.
What made this snowman even more special was that the hat placed on top of his head was one of my mother's hats. 

Thanks to their help, my home is now decorated for Christmas and every time I look out my window, a smile lights my face and warm fuzzy thoughts of my grandsons invade my soul.

 

2019 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

This morning while browsing through my emails, a post from TuningMyHeart/ caught my attention as she mentioned one of her goals was to become a better blogger.  My sentiments exactly as I recently posted.  She mentioned a 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge that Cheryl Sleboda  http://muppin.com/  has set up.  Thinking this might encourage me to be more faithful in posting, I decided to accept the challenge. 

I look forward to reading other bloggers posts.  It is always uplifting to see and read about what others are doing. 

Tuning My Life - A qulters 

Never-Ending Job

I love my Maple and Ash trees except come late fall when the leaves start
to drop.  Then it becomes a never-ending job of raking, mowing and blowing the leaves.  So appreciate my grandsons and their help.  Along with another brother and their parents, they spend part of their Saturday's helping me with yard work

    

When they were younger it was so much fun having them come and "play" in the leaves, jumping and even burying one another in the deep piles of leaves.  I miss those days, but am so happy they still "play" while raking.

Apology In Order

Today I decided to look over my blog stats and was saddened to see that there were many comments left waiting to be moderated and I had not checked them out.  My excuse, if I can have one, is that I've not blogged for ages and when I did post a few times this year, didn't feel well enough to look and see if anyone had left a comment.

So for you who were kind enough to leave me a comment, please accept my apology for not responding.  It was not intentional.  I surely hope to do better in the future as I love hearing from you.

Found this little snowman I had started some time ago, and since I had finished my fall wall hangings, decided it was time to complete some of these UFO's. This pattern comes from Kathy Schmitz.

Hope you have a great day stitching, quilting, or doing whatever brings you "Joy"!

Fall Projects

While visiting one of our local quilt shops awhile ago, I saw this adorable fall panel and knowing I would never take the time to piece/applique something similar, I purchased it and hand-quilted around each motif. 

   

Pulling from my fall stash of fabrics, I pieced this fall pumpkin.  Although they will only be up until just after Thanksgiving, I am enjoying seeing them hanging in my home.

New Adventure

Day 1:  New Adventure

While visiting with my daughter the other day, I expressed to her some feelings I had been harboring and the frustration I was feeling at not being able to find “joy” in some of the things that normally brought me happiness.  I felt like I needed something “new” in my life to bring back that spark!  So being the wise woman she is, she began suggesting things I might want to do that I had not done for a while but adding a new twist or challenge.

Thus the idea of writing and posting on my blog was discussed as well as starting an Instagram Account and posting there.  As we talked about this, I began to feel some excitement.  So, to make a long story short, I took a little time to think about it and with her help, I’m off to a new adventure.  A new name was needed for the Instagram account and after a little searching the title “Life_Sew_Joyful” came to be.  My reasons for this being:

“Life” is precious to me even though it has not always been easy and many times more challenging that I would have liked.  Thought it would be a great board for sharing thoughts and feelings about what is going on in my life and perhaps getting feedback from others who might read or see the post as to what they are facing and doing.  Life is short and we need to treasure every day.

“Sew”.  I love crafting and sewing; especially quilting and embroidery and have missed being able to get downstairs to my sewing room.  Reading and stitching were lifesavers while I was recovering from a broken this spring.  I’m hoping that as I move forward, I can share some projects that I’m working on and see what others are crafting and creating. 

“Joyful”.  A few years ago, I chose “joy” for my word of the year because I wanted to find “joy” in my everyday life.  To help me keep my focus I stitched and framed “choose joy”.  It sits where I can see it daily and continues to remind me that I have a choice and can choose joy.

I'm looking forward to writing and sharing once again.