Year End-2016 Summary

This has been a year that has flown by so fast I do not know what happened.  I did not review my goals from 2015 nor post goals for 2016.  Now it, too, is gone.  So here is a quick summary of my year.

The second week of January I subbed at school, worked at the library and traveled to Wichita to be with Karen when she had foot surgery on the 15th.  I got there the night before her surgery and returned home on March 10th.  The end of June I spend 10 days at Karen's again just for fun.  A couple weeks later she came out to the farm for a couple weeks and we hosted the Gerald & Arvilla Juenemann Family Celebration Gathering the end of July. Right after Labor Day I took a week and went to the mountains.  I went to the Fort Collins Temple open house, then to Steamboat Springs before camping in the mountains then a short stay in Denver visiting a friend and my niece, Elizabeth.  On November 10th Mom, Dad & I left for Arkansas to spend Thanksgiving with Allen.  We stayed 5 weeks with him before heading back home.  We stayed with Karen overnight traveling both ways but extended that on the way home because of blasting fridged cold with temps as low as 23 degrees below zero and wind chills 35 degrees below. We got back to the farm the night of Dec. 20. I have loved the extended time spend with family this year.

On The Farm Baby Quilt 

I've done a bit of sewing also.  At the end of 2015 Mom, Karen & I bought Aunt Sis's Janome 350e embroidery machine.  I made a quilt for Jonathan & Elizabeth's first baby using blocks made on the machine.  It was so fun to watch the picture 'appear' on the fabric.  It was fun to make but took a long time for each block.  Later I made a burp cloth, bib, blanket with machine embroidery on it for a gift.  Mom & Karen have also made projects with the machine.

Chain Reaction

On the regular sewing machine I made a quilt from the Row by Row gift fat-quarter set that I won in 2015.  The pattern is called Chain Link.  I used 42 of the 46 fat quarters in the set.  I still need to quilt the top.  This fall I took the quilt top in to the Oberlin quilt shop where I won the fabrics to show her what I did with the winnings.

Row by Row 2016
Made by Karen, Quilted by Rose

This year Karen & I collected RxR patterns again and I only made one row for her and she did all the rest of the quilt then I quilted and bound it and took it to Oberlin shop again.  She won another fat quarter pack, thread, and Best Press.  Norma designs the best rows.

Coneflower table runner/wall hanging

I also made a table runner/wall hanging from a kit I received from Aunt Sis when I took Mom & her sisters to Manhattan for their Sister's week in 2015.  It turned out cute.

Laura, Charlotte, &Thomas with the Quiet Book

I designed and made a quiet book for my great-niece, Charlotte.  Laura asked if I'd consider making one so I decided to try.  I researched, collected patterns and pictures, drew my own designs where needed and began working on it.  I used machine applique, machine embroidery and other techniques to make 12 pages-put princess in bed, counting ladder, velcro match color & shapes, snap together flowers, tent with zipper front and teddy bear inside, button shirt, buckle belt, barn with cow inside loop closure door, glove to insert hand with snowman, elastic stretch elephant trunk, bathtub with sliding shower curtain, tie ballet slippers.  The ABC blocks on the cover coordinate with the ABC block quilt I made for them when Charlotte was born.

This fall while in Arkansas I made two more wall hanging tops from kits I had.

 My goal for 2017 is to quilt all the tops I have put together.  I am hand quilting one now and have another embroidered top that I want to hand quilt & one king size bed quilt needs hand quilted because it is too big for the quilt machine.  The rest I think I can machine quilt on Mom's long arm quilting machine.  More great-babies are coming but none are first babies for my nieces or nephews so I do not think I will be making any baby quilts this coming year.

2016 was a good year and I look forward to 2017.  Happy New Year!

Rose

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Time to catch up

It has been a while since I have posted to my blog.  Today I looked at the goals I set up the first of the year for 2015. In review I did pretty well on household cleaning projects and spiritual projects.  My quilting goals were no where close to being accomplished but I did 2 new projects that were not on the radar at the first of the year.  I have decided not to post specific goals for 2016 and just post the accomplishments.  We'll see how that will work for me. 

My health has been ok over the past year.  My doctor has changed my medications so that I am only taking one name brand (expensive) drug now and has decreased the number of blood pressure and blood sugar drugs I am taking.  My bp and A1c have both slowly increased and at the first of this year has put me back on low doses of one drug for each again.  The fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue are managed as long as I take the medication regularly, do not over extend myself, get plenty of rest, and avoid stress.  There are days, especially when in a flare or after over extending, that I just can not function.  I can hardly get out of bed, have a lot of pain, my mind does not track what is going on around me, I have no focus.  I try to not take anything more than OTC paid meds but there have been a few times that I needed to take the other just to try to manage the pain.  I'm grateful that it is not all the time that I need the pain drugs and can deal or endure the rest of the times.

Over the past 10-11 months there has been a lot of stress around the farm with my nephew.  It started in April, exploded in July and reared it's ugly head again a couple days ago.  This has been very hard and stressful for me because it breaks my heart for all involved.  I only see the situation getting worse before there is any improvement but I pray I am wrong about that.

I am currently in Wichita staying with my sister, Karen.  I left the farm on January 13 and plan to return the first of next week.  That will be 8 weeks away from home.  Karen had foot surgery on Jan. 15 and today is the first day she has been able to get herself to school.  I'm glad to have been in a position and able to be with her through this and help her out.  I must say that I am getting a little anxious to be home again. 

While in Wichita, I finished a Coneflower wall hanging and made a quilt top called Chain Reaction from the fabric I won from the Row by Row. In December Karen, Mom & I purchased my aunt's embroidery machine. I have spent some time playing with it and figuring it out.  I have made several designs for practice, 2 tea towels for Laura and several quilt labels  I have figured out how to copy and transfer designs from the computer to be used in the machine. I will take it home and work with Mom on it so she can make some things.


Yesterday was my 59th birthday.  I think I should update my blog intro. Now on with my day.

Rose