It has been Forever....

It seems as though I have not posted on here in FOREVER!  Although it was April and not actually FOREVER, it still feels like I have been gone a long time.
We have had a very rough year and it appears things are going to get worse before they hopefully get better. Briefly, because I don't want to make this a sad blog space, my husband is battling cancer yet again.
We thought he was done and good to go, but at his six month check up, they found lung cancer.  Not metastasized from his colon cancer of last year, but a new and totally different type of cancer. Stage three and inoperable. They felt that it would be treatable with chemo and radiation if it hadn't spread too widely so they did a PET scan to check.
Well, they found the lung cancer was treatable (curative or palliative is yet to be seen) but not until they treated the colon cancer that the scan found had returned.  A double dose of cancer, two types squamous and adenocarcinoma was very hard to swallow.  It also initiated a very busy schedule of appointments and surgery and a two month "semi" recovery. So that in a nut shell is why I have been away so long.

I have been sewing still, but just in the brief moments in between higher demands. I can't say I will be writing with any regularity but I am hoping that I can find some time to just check in and post up things that I find joy in.  Somewhere there needs to be a memoir of the joy otherwise life would seem very bleak.

So for some happy thoughts to sign of with:

Kodi and Pedro, our new family members

A few of the chair covers I made for my daughter's teacher

A few of the things we made for Craft Hope

As I scroll through my photos I am reminded that there are many things that I want to share.  I hope this will motivate me to a place where I can come and share and be happy, realizing that over all, life is good!

Enjoy the day.

Penny

Just invited!

I know it is late on Saturday but I just found this invitation so I am going! Jump over to Sew Many Ways and join us! I have so many things to sew since I have started Christmas sewing already!  Yes Christmas! We are hoping to renovate our house this summer so I need to get done my Christmas gifts as we will be most likely living on our boat.  There isn't much room for sewing on the boat so I am getting my act together now!
Have a great evening.
I will post what I made soon!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter.  We had a wonderful weekend with family and friends.  Even Asia (our dog) had her sister over.  The weather was reasonably "springy" and the sun was out so I am not about to complain.

Morning at the park

As always, we seem to be crazy busy here and I have decided it is not going to change any time soon!  So I will pop in and post when I can, as much as real life lets me! I also want to try to get some of the tutorials I have been photographing finished and posted.  I have a multitude of projects done and given away but no time to post!

Then there is always this type of adventure that sucks the time out of your free days....

Who know these things could explode like that?  It certainly was a big mess to clean out of my top corner cupboard!  Picture me standing on my counter trying not to fall off, wiping this mess off of the lazy susan that wants to turn every time I touch it....  Ya, that was fun!

Anyway, life is good!

Be back soon.

Penny

Long Time Away

Hello there.  It has been a long time since I have been able to post in my blog, but I am back finally!

Life has been very busy here but I think things are about to settle into a nice routine in anticipation of Spring.

Christmas and New Years went well this year and thankfully quiet and uneventful.  My sister travelled home from BC and arrived safely in Ontario.  I have to say that winter driving across Canada in the winter is not the safest idea, but all went well and I am happy to have her home!

The fall was full of sewing projects, just not stuff that was for us.  As you all know I was sewing for the production of Annie that my daughter was in, which went very well.  Then our group was asked to go straight into helping the ladies who were sewing for the production of The King and I.  It was CRAZY busy and very different from sewing for Annie.  You might say from Rags To Riches!  Sewing silk and Satin are not my favourites as I don't like the "fray factor".  However, it all turned out well and the show was a great success.

On health notes, my hubby is doing remarkably well and has been able to stop Chemotherapy!  This is a huge relief and a great blessing.  He is recovering from the side effects and has been able to go back to work.  That has made him so incredibly happy, he is like a new man.
My best friend Bee also had her latest surgery and all went well.  She is home recovering.

Aside from sewing for Christmas gifts, which I really didn't get a chance to take pictures of due to the severe lack of time left after The King and I, I spent a good deal of our holiday time sewing a quilt for Bee to take to the hospital with her.  It was her birthday gift, just a little late, since her birthday is boxing day and I didn't get it done until the first week of January!  It arrived in time to go to the hospital though and that was all that mattered.

The quilt top was a "rescue" from our local Value Village and was originally intended as a practice quilt for learning free motion quilting on my new sewing machine but it was her favourite colour and she needed it in a hurry.  Since it was already in the machine and underway, I just changed what I was going to do with it to something that suited the occasion.

Her "people"!

Encouragement

I stitched the names of all her family, friends and pets into the boarders along with some words of encouragement and added die cut GO! Ribbons in the colour of the Endometriosis campaign along with an official ribbon to the centre of the quilt.  This worked great and was a total relief because before it was going to be Bee's quilt, I had NO IDEA what was going to happen in the middle of this quilt!


I wanted her to feel wrapped in the love of everyone close to her during her stay at the hospital and she loved it.  Each stitch reminded her of how much she is loved and why she needed to pull through this surgery.

She is now home safe and snuggling up with her quilt healing.

I'll be back soon to fill you in on the project that is consuming all of my time now shortly!