Progress in quilts and

Busy I have been, Some days you just have to take a break and do what you love.

You wake up one morning and realize life is short.

You need to get busy, work on things on your bucket list, how about the quilt

project boxes, spending time with family and friends, going for walks, attending

great lectures, doing things with your husband and son.

This is just the start. A lot has been accomplished and I have felt good doing it.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I will catch up on my adventures.

I have missed keeping my "journal" up.

I finally finished my version of "The Splendid Sampler." This is the quilt
I am sure everyone heard about by Pat Sloan and Friends.
I printed off all the blocks as they were presented.
You may remember I made a quilt for the family of Kerry Ann that had ALS.
The fabric is by Moda, and was designed for this cause.
I had a lot of it left over, as I did not know how much I was going to need.That
was my selection of choice for this quilt. 
It is not every block that was presented, and I used a couple that were 6 inches,
and not part of the patterns and added a couple additional colors to give it a bit of pop.  ( I just liked them.)  As they say, I did it my way.
The back is done, and it is ready for quilting.

I joined Kathleen Tracy's group to work on some smaller quilts.
I love her patterns, plus they aren't taking as long to make.
This "little" quilt is 6 1/2 by 7 3/4 inches.  It is machine pieced, and hand quilted.
It was a free quilt  kit from Temecula Quilt Company.
It had been a long time since I hand quilted anything.

I have quite a variety of small quilt kits that have accumulated.
It is time to work on them. This one was fun to make.  Plus, I found
I could hand quilt it faster then trying to do it by machine.

Still doing a bit of cross stitching. I have a friend that loves hedgehogs.
The combination of hedgehog cross stitch and the fabric went together well.

Took another class in card making. New ideas are whirling around in my mind.
This led to purchasing more dies, and paper.  And here I was trying to destash some of this craft!
I have some friends that are enabling me.  

Found a quilt on the internet called "Kingfisher".  As you can see it is made with diamonds and
hexies.  The pattern shows the diamonds much larger along with the hexies.  I have this box
of hexies that made with 1/2 inch papers.  This led me to downsize the diamond to accommodate  the size hexies I have.  When you have over a 100 already made, you adjust! This makes for a
great hand project when traveling in the car.  Over 50 have already been appliqued.
The last car project took 3 summers of driving back and forth to Buffalo for family reunions.

Another quilt top completed.  I think this was a pattern from Temecula, also.
It is made with 3 different size squares.  I had precut squares of navy and greens. Their
choice was scrappy, Mine is scrappy, but using greens and blues.  I also made it a bit larger.
Lap size, for more of a coverup.  The back is made, too, and ready for the quilter.

One of my new style of cards.  Another great way to use up scraps.

Great way to use embellishments as well.

Been working on my photography composition.
Have taken a couple classes to learn more about my current camera.
Some may be paying off.

Not the greatest picture (didn't learn about inside photography, yet).
This is Thomas Dambo, who curated the Troll Hunt at the Morton Arboretum.
He was a great energetic speaker.  Reuse, recycle.

Here is one of the Trolls on display at the arboretum.
What a wonderful display.  Six guardians of the forest are hiding in the trees. It
is being enjoyed by children and adults.

Another kit I have had for a while, well years.  I was in the mood to do it
all by hand.  Made the templates and cut it out, sewed on the lines for the seams. Even
the borders are done by hand.  Then to top it off, I quilted it by hand as well.
It has been many years since I did anything totally by hand.  It was relaxing and fun.
Need to do more of that.

Today I leave you with one of my better pictures.
Enjoying nature has been one of my greatest passions.
Being retired gave me a chance to get out there and foster that passion.
Life marches on, take the time to enjoy what you love.

Have a wonderful day.
Mary