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.