November/December 2022 Happenings

 Let's start with the quilts.  I finished the Christmas Cabins. Love it, although I wish I'd quilted it a bit denser.  I was afraid to because of the minky backing, but it did great.

Next up are the two memory quilts I made this year. One for a childhood friend who lost her husband to cancer earlier in the year, and the other for a work friend of 40+ years who lost her husband a few months ago to a fall and neck injury.  Both were made from the shirts of the husbands and both were big University of Tennessee fans. I incorporated some of the shirt embroidered UT emblems in each quilt.

The above quilt pattern is called Nova. And the lower one is called Bricks and Stepping Stones by Bonnie Hunter.

These next two are in-progress quilts.  I joined Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt and am loving it!  Learning some things to help my piecing work, and it is fun to try to figure out what the final layout will be.  I suspect we are only a few weeks away from finishing.  Great for me too, since it forces me to slow down since I can only have instructions a week at a time.  Kind of like a block of the month but it's a block (section) of the week.

The next one is a remake of one I did last year for my brother.  I used hand embroidered blocks made by his birth mother.  There were a few left over so I decided to make another one, I loved it so much.  I didn't have enough of the embroidered blocks so I ordered a rework panel with flowers to supplement. No, I won't be embroidering these, but I think they will still look good in the quilt. Hope to have this one on a bed by Valentine's Day.

Other goings on .........my favorite little boy was sick with strep a couple of weeks ago, so I babysat him. Well, I should say me and Puzzle the golden pup babysat him.  She was by his side all day long.  Thankful he was on medication so he didn't feel so bad.  We also made some paper snowflakes for his Christmas tree at home.

I never tire of making these beauties.  SO easy!

We took the grands to see the play "The Sound of Music" and they both loved it, especially our girl Emma.

It started at their usual bedtime of 8 pm, so the little guy did his best. But by intermission at 9:30, he was done.  Papaw volunteered to take him out to the car, maybe go get some ice cream while they waited on us. He was asleep before he could take more than one bite of his sonic blast. Bless his heart.

Emma was a trooper and stayed focused and enjoying the show to the end at 10 pm!

My hair has continued to grow throughout the year, with just three trims. I'm loving it. It is now longer than it has ever been in my life. I'm able to put it up.

I just can't believe how much it has grown in one year.  The right picture is with it wet so it the curls were lengthened out some that shows more of the length.

And it the pic below comparing last year at Christmas time to now, I had worn it is a bun all day so the sides were more lengthened out than normal.

So, I am still letting it grow. Not sure how long I will let it get but I am enjoying the journey of learning how to deal with my curls and wearing it different ways.

I did a 5k on Thanksgiving morning. Decided to at the last minute.  I've tried to continue running three times a week this year but most of that has been inside. I wasn't sure how I'd do.  But, I am very pleased with my results. I placed 8 of 31 in my age group (60-64) at a time of 38:15. (Notice the dog and her favorite toy in the background!)