Shirley C

Thursday, January 6, 2022

It's a New Year 2022!

How can it be 2022?

I never dreamed I'd be starting a new year without my Clay! I'm still so lost and heartbroken.

I might be moving this year, and if so, I have a whole lot to do. I think it will be the best for me in the long run as I get older. I just hope it works out.

I hate being labeled a "widow"!

Monday, July 19, 2021

My Heart is Broken....

On June 28, 2021 at 11:11 am, I lost my husband of almost 50 years. We would have been married 50 years this coming July 24th.

The ironic thing is that our daughter and first child was born at 11:11 pm on April 21, 1974. Clay was all about signs and numbers. After he passed, one of his doctors walked up to my daughter and told her the time he died. She about fainted when he said 11:11.

He was only in the hospital 10 days, and I never dreamed that when he went in that he would not be coming home.

I'm so lost without him. We did nearly everything together except I sewed, and he'd visit the casino every so often.

My kids and grandkids are also heartbroken. This new journey is just not fun, but we're managing.

He was so loved by so many! There were at least 250 at his funeral, and it was a great celebration of his life - July 1, 202.

Maybe eventually I'll get back to blogging more often.

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Christmas in July! (Then and Now)

I'm glad that Carol at Just Let Me Quilt decided to have this blog hop. I had hoped to make something new to show, but that hasn't worked out.
I spent a lot of time making masks to donate, and then some that people paid me to do. After that slowed down, I had to catch up on some things for my great grands, and some things for gifts. My time is never my own!

I love, love Christmas any time of the year! I had intended to be sewing things for Christmas this summer, but time has gotten away from me.

So I'm going to share some things I did for past Christmases. I normally like to make the grands one thing for their gifts. We try to give each of them 3 things even if one is money. The older ones enjoy getting money, but we also try to make that fun.
Last year I embroidered the 3 older grands a bath towel, and we hid the money in the top of the box. I taped tissue paper over the envelope, and put lots of tissue in the box. It took them a couple of minutes to realize they had more than just a towel.

The funny thing is the rest of the family was sad because they didn't get their own personal towel! That just makes me LOL!

I also like to do something for the members of my Sunday School class. So I made them each a stocking with their name on it, and I put a small bottle of hand sanitizer in each one. At that time I had no clue as to how much those would be needed!

I also embroidered a few Christmas dish towels to use for little gifts, and even made one for myself!

At Christmas, I like to do a few things for the little great grands to wear. Mattie Jean wasn't due until after Christmas, but I embroidered her a little gown anyway so mom could take some pics after she was born. I did a shirt for Ellie.

This is my planned project for Christmas! This isn't my picture. I bought the panel and some fabric to line it with. I really hope to get it done for Christmas even if I can't get all of it quilted. It will be perfect under my tree.

The best thing about this past Christmas was that all of our family was there for a picture! It's really hard these days with everyone on so many different schedules. Well, everyone except Mattie! She was born December 27!

Be sure to visit all of the blogs on this great hop! There are so many great ideas for Christmas!

July 27

Creatin' in the Sticks

Scrapdash

July 28

Life in the Scrapatch

Cynthia's Creating Ark

July 29

Little Penguin Quilts

July 30

For The Love Of Geese

Quilt Schmilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Quilting Gail

July 31

Just Let Me Quilt

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Shirley C
Kathy's Kwilts and More

Thank you Carol for a fun hop!

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Welcome to the World Mattie Jean!

We are so happy to announce the arrival of our second great-granddaughter, Mattie Jean. She arrived on Friday, December 27, 2019. My husband was thrilled because that was his mom's birthday. She passed in 2005 so this makes it really special to us.
Mom and baby are both doing fine! Ellie was a little overwhelmed, but she is adjusting.

I enjoyed embroidering some things for Ellie and Mattie. Now I will be doubly busy!
This is my last post for 2019! I didn't post much. The summer was so overwhelming with my husband being so sick. I didn't get to sew as much as I'd like. I'm praying 2020 will be a better year health wise!
Happy New Year to all!

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Sewing for Ellie!

The majority of my sewing this last couple of months has been for our sweet great-granddaughter, Ellie. (My previous post is also things for her.)
Her mama asked me to make a summer outfit for her to wear in a local pageant - and I couldn't say no!

We went shopping and found this lemon print fabric at Hobby Lobby along with the yellow gingham. The small pink dot was from Joann's Fabric.
The pattern is from Violette Field Threads Patterns called the Isobel. The diaper cover is also from there called Ruby. I love the diaper cover. This is my 2nd time to use it. I wasn't crazy about the Isobel - putting it together. I grew up sewing with tissue paper patterns, and directions that seemed easier to follow IMO. Anyway, it fit good and looked cute on her. I made some modifications with the sash.

Ellie didn't win, but oh well, you never know with pageants! She is a precious baby girl, and brings us all so much joy.

Friday, April 26, 2019

Catching Up!

Really, does anyone ever catch up? I know I don't! It's been a busy spring so far. Plus we've had a lot of storms in our area. We've managed to get bypassed by a major tornado so we're very blessed.

In between having to shut down the computer, I've embroidered a few shirts and made a romper for our sweet Ellie. She just turned 2 on the 18th along with my granddaughter, Shelby, turning 12. Shelby is just a remarkable kid who wants to be involved in everything! Her school play will be May 2nd, and she has the main lead. Her teacher asked if I would make 3 more angel gowns like I made at Christmas so I agreed. Plus I have to make Ellie an outfit for a local pageant in May. I'm getting a little stressed along with everything else that is happening.

I'll post the pics of the shirts and Ellie. I hope you enjoy.

Shelby and Ellie at Ellie's party.

The funny thing is that Ellie's mama put her romper on backwards. It's supposed to button in the back. LOL Oh well, live and learn!
I hope all of you have been safe from those awful storms! Come back and visit again!

Monday, March 25, 2019

All About Strings!

Today (March 26) is my day in the blog hop "All About Strings" sponsored by Carla Henton of Creatin' In The Sticks!
I'm sure there will be some beautiful and big projects! I know I will enjoy seeing them all.
When I was a young girl, my mom taught me how to paper piece quilt blocks. About all we had was newspaper and scraps that her friends would give her. I can say that she never wasted anything! I wish I knew how many quilt tops and quilts she made in her lifetime. Many were pretty simple and were made mostly for warmth. We lived in a cold house so we'd pile on the quilts in wintertime.
I pieced one string quilt top when I was in the 8th grade, and I won 1st place in the 4-H craft show. My mom sold it and many others to buy me school clothes. My dad was a truck farmer so the winter months were pretty tight money wise.
Anyway, I've been looking at all of the rag rugs being made so I decided to try a little experiment. I didn't have the jelly roll batting so I used some really thick yarn I had in my stash. Well, it worked ok, but not as good as I'd have liked. It wanted to curl up in places. I started working ironing and laying it flat, and it is much better. I just wanted something by my bed as we have wood floors, and they get pretty cold.
My bedroom is sort of shabby chic so these colors work just fine. These are pics of my progress. Of course, it started with a scrap pile!

Here is the finished rug! I didn't waste anything but time as this was a partial jelly roll I got in a yard sale.

My other project was to do some paper piecing for a string quilt. I really enjoy this! I used some old Birds and Blooms magazines, and they worked just fine. No rhyme or reason to the piecing - just whatever piece I want to use. I chose to do 6 1/2" blocks as I have a ruler that size which really helps.

I only have 6 blocks made because I had to stop and do some other projects for a gift.

I love these because you can twist and turn them all sorts of ways to get a totally different effect!

Thanks for coming to visit!

This is the schedule for the rest of the blog hop! I hope you have time to visit them all!

Tuesday, March 26th

Patchouli Moon Studio

ShirleyC (You're here)

Wednesday, March 27th

Stitchin at Home

Alycia Quilts

Websterquilt