After the pause.....

Hi.  It's been a while.  Life happens, doesn't it.  So..... A short recap of recent months.

The total eclipse.  We were north of the totality zone, but it was still pretty significant.  We had special glasses and made a viewer out of a cereal box.  

Halloween came and The Viking wanted to be a ghost, specifically Slimer from Ghostbusters.  Some fleece and felt and I was able to pull something together to his satisfaction.

Stardust and her family were coming to visit in November, so I made up a couple of Skully pillows for Stardust and her dad.  

Stardust was thrilled to design and sew her own pillow too!

In amongst everything The Tramp and I were busy house hunting.  It was time to decide to do more work on this house or see if we could find one that suits us better.  So packing commenced.

This was Thanksgiving Day.  I took a short break from the boxes for some chips and dip.  They weren't even turkey flavored!

Before I packed up the sewing room I found a few hours to make up this Falling Charms quilt for a friend having health worries.  She loves blue in particular and was thrilled with my efforts.  It so nice to be able to just surprise someone.  :-)

I also went on a quilting bee retreat to Oak Island.  The weather wasn't so great, but it was still fun to walk on the sand for a bit.

We worked on our own projects and also got two charity quilt tops sewn together.  Aren't they eye-catching!

Then two days before the closing on our new house, I managed to scare everyone by having a heart attack.  Mild, but painful and frightening nonetheless.  The cardiac hospital staff and facility were fabulous and I had a huge top floor room with a view.  

And just before Christmas we gained a new grandchild.  Precious!  The most recent photo of Precious is in the sidebar.

No rest for the weary though.  We moved in December and have been facing the reality of how much stuff we own ever since.  Why is unpacking so much harder than packing?

The Sandbox took a while to get sorted out.

And lucky me has a spare room (The Annex) to store all my fabric and projects.  But oh my the boxes.  I didn't realize how much sewing stuff I had in closets and in the attic of the old house until it all came together in one room.

I had a quilt challenge to get finished and entered into the guild's quilt show in March.  So The Tramp patiently helped me look through box after box and in the very last box I finally found the right project bin.  EUREKA!  So that's what I named the project.  EUREKA!

I had to ignore the house for a while and get sewing!

And quilting.

Both machines were humming.

And ta da!  I squeaked in before the deadline.

The guild had a pillow swap and this is the one I made.  Fun pattern.  I have another in progress for me.  :-)

All while sorting out the house and getting acclimated.  The Viking isn't minding all the newness a bit.  :-)

The quilt show finally came and The Viking was thrilled to see his quilt hanging with the others, though not so thrilled it didn't have a ribbon on it.  Oh dear.  Hard concept for a five year old.

He did enjoy sewing some charity blocks at the show.

I was thrilled my efforts lead to two ribbons for EURKEA!.  A first in small pieced, and best domestic machine quilting.  Woot!

The "ugly" quilt didn't get a ribbon, which was no suprise.  Now it's back on the couch for The Tramp to enjoy.  :-)  

More news soon.