Lovie's Quilts and Life: Happy July 4th

It's been over 2 years since my last post. Life keeps getting in the way. Just went thru and deleted a lot of my old blog posts. Hope to try and start blogging with a cleaned up blog. Also hope to add more photos and links to great sites that I find online.

A lot has happened in the last two years - the shop I worked at "Arlene's Clothesline" closed due to Stan's poor health. They wanted to spend more time together before his health prevented traveling. Shortly after closing the shop my best friend Arlene passed away from a heart attack. Its been more than 2 years, and I still miss her, she was like a mom to me.

A couple months later I started working for Eurest, as a housekeeper for Haliburton. I mostly clean offices and bathrooms at nights. Go to work at 5 pm, get off at 3:30 am. I work 10 hour shifts the pay is good and the work is not hard. Working so much that I didn't have time to quilt, barely had time to read. I worked and slept, and that was how my days would go.

Six months later I had to have an operation. Told it would be a 30 minute procedure, go home that afternoon, and off work for 3 days. Boy were they ever wrong. Try a several hour surgery, two days in hospital, and 45 days off work. And to top it off a cancer scare.

Finely get back to work, and three months later my father passed away. He had cancer, and at the end his passing was a blessing. Regret not being closer to him in the end, guess that is normal.

Slowly getting my life back on track. Have come to realize that I was suffering from depression, and just as I started to adjust and get on with my life, something else happened. Lost my mother - lost my job (at Arlene's Clothesline) - best friend Arlene dies - my health issues - lost my father. Have to ask myself what is next.

Enough depressing stuff, life goes on and so do I.

Quilting Update: Have not done any to speak of for 2 years. Although lately I'm getting the quilting urge. I can't seem to stop buying fabric and quilting books. I guess once a quilter, always a quilter. Recently renewed my subscriptions to all my favorite quilt magazines, and have several quilt patterns that I have marked to make. Just ordered Bonnie Hunter's newest book "String Fling", and also ordered another copy of her "Leaders and Enders". Loaned out my copy and never got it back.

Have been using my Accuquilt GO and cutting pieces of fabric for future use. Have a good assortment of "Triangle in a Square" pieces cut and ready to go. I always seem to go back to this pattern, and still hope to one day make a totally scrappy 54/40 quilt, so this is going to be my current leaders/enders project . Also c utting strips 1 1/2 inch wide for future projects - seems that since honey buns hit the market, there are more quilts using this size. I remember when jelly rolls came out, the same thing happened. Everyone was trying to use patterns that called for 2 1/2 inch strips. When I do get the time and the desire to quilt again, I will be set and ready to go.

Reading Update: As the proud owner of 3 e-readers I do make time to read. Nightly at work I read on my dinner break, and when I get of work I ususally read for a couple of hours. Several books on my "To Be Read" list, and more coming out soon that will go on my TBR list.

Vacation: Started a short vacation today. Only off for 6 days, return to work on tuesday. My sister, Tarranda and I are going to Dallas for the weekend, friday to sunday. We already have tickets for a Medieval Times show, and plans to visit the Dallas World Aquarium . Looking for great places to eat seafood. And planning on hitting Quilters Connection a quilt store that I order from online, will be great to see it in person.

Tarranda and I went to Oklahoma City and Tulsa for a couple of days early last month. Had a blast and it was great to spend time together. Here are a couple of pictures I took at the Tulsa Aquarium.