With a Heavy Heart I Write This...

Hello friends,
In August my husband and I drove to Washington state, while my daughter and grandson flew there. It was a family reunion that gathered for my mom's 90th birthday, which we celebrate early in August, rather than September when her real birthday occurred. My sister and her family live close to mom and my brother flew there from CA. Mom looked great and was her usual self. We all thought she would easily make 95, if not 100 years.

On her real birthday in September, which happens to be the same day as my brother's birthday. Yes mom's very first child was born on her birthday. Mom took the train to CA to celebrate her and my brother's birthday. She complained of not feeling well and having some pain. When she got back to WA, my sister took her to see the doctor, who gave her meds for what the doctor assumed was wrong. Still the pain was there. So off to the ER she went, waiting for hours! Finally they put her in intensive care. She had several issues going on it seems. These things inside of her could have been happening for weeks, months or even years before they started to bother her. Well long story short, mom refused any meds to keep her alive. She wanted to go without pain, so they gave her a morphine drip. It took a little over a day and she was gone! I can't believe how this all happened so fast. Mom was the picture of health 2 months ago and then on October 16, 2016 (the day after my daughter's birthday, mom's first grandchild and only granddaughter), she was gone. I was in shock over all of this.

I couldn't travel for the service, since I have had awful sciatica pain for 9 weeks now!!! The sciatica came on after we got back from the trip to WA due to sitting in a car for thousands of miles. While my pain is lessening and I am starting to feel better, the pain of losing my mother so soon and so quickly was heartbreaking. My daughter needed closure over this and went to the service which was yesterday. She will fly back today. This is the first loss my daughter has had in her young life.

Once I am over this sciatica pain, I will try and blog again. It has been hard to deal with this and the loss of my mother. So love your family and friends while they are still here and tell them how much you love and appreciate them while they here too, because life is so short. One day they are here and then the next they are gone.

Hugs to you all!!!

Pin It Now!

The Road Home Row Along: The Colorful Sky of New Mexico

Marian Pena of  Seams to be Sew asked me if I would like to participate in her row along for this year called, The Road Home. After reading about it, I decided I would like to join in and challenge myself to create a row block. The idea behind the designs was to create a quilt row of something that you would see on your way home. Living here in New Mexico, hot air balloons are a very common site to see in the blue sky above almost daily.  Then of course annually starting the first weekend in October is the International Balloon Fiesta where hundreds of people around the globe come here to fly their balloons during the festival. The sky above Albuquerque is filled with balloons of various sizes, colors and shapes during the 9-day Balloon Fiesta. It's always fun to see what special shapes will be flying each year. So my Road Home row is all about hot air balloons flying over the Sandia Mountain range and the Rio Grande.

Thank you Marian and Amy (of Sew Incredibly Crazy) for all the work in getting this Row Along to happen.

My row pattern was going to be on Craftsy.com, but Craftsy is making all kinds of changes and my pattern store has disappeared on Craftsy! The Craftsy link on my blog to my pattern store is gone too! So since I cannot add my pdf to Craftsy now, please leave a comment if you would like me to email you my pdf row pattern. If you are a no-reply, then I won't have your email and you will not receive the pdf. So if you aren't sure if you are a no-reply, then leave your email in the comment too. If you don't hear from me, then you probably are a no-reply. So please email me if you do not hear from me. *See Update below.

I hope you enjoy making The Colorful Sky of New Mexico row quilt. And please be sure and hop along to all the other blogs that are participating in this row along to download their row patterns too. Combine the rows that you want to into a quilt. Plus there are giveaway prizes too.  Happy row quilting!

*UPDATE: I finally was able to add my pattern on Craftsy. I am charging a small fee for the pattern on Craftsy, so if you would like the free pattern, please email me, or leave a comment and I will email you the pattern for Free. (Leave your email in the comment if you are unsure if you are a no-reply). The pattern will be free here only on my blog through October 15. Once it turns to October 16, then I will not be emailing any more free patterns, but you can purchase the pattern on Craftsy. The time will be on Mountain Time, where I live.

**Update 8/20/19: Craftsy deleted most of my pdf's, so I have this pdf and others on Makerist now. Go here for the "Colorful Sky of New Mexico" pdf.

Two giveaways to enter here are Calibre Art Mat and Anita Goodesign Embroidery.
GIVEAWAY CLOSED.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Road Home Designers:

September 6

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life 
Harrisville, MI Sunrise Coast
Cynthia’s Creating Ark
Adelaide South Australia
Kissed Quilts
Grand Coulee, Washington
Renee's Quilting Addiction
Alberta, Canada

September 8

Sew Incredibly Crazy
Colorado
3 Patch Crafts
Bulgaria

Just Let Me Quilt
Las Vegas, Nevada
Quilt in Piece
Amanzimtoti, South Africa

September 13

Tweety Loves Quilting
Edinburgh, UK
Quiltscapes
Heber City/ SLC
Seams To Be Sew
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Pine Valley
New Zealand

September 15

bdieges designs
Road to Tehachapi (CA)
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Worcester County in Central Massachusetts
Patti’s Patchwork
Toronto, Ontario Canada
Seacoast Quilter
New Milford, Connecticut

September 20

Beaquilter
Denmark
Heleen Pinkster
Netherlands
Rebecca Mae Designs
Northern Maine
MooseStash Quilting
Alaska

September 22

Words & Stitches
Beaches of California
Quilt Art
Africa
I Can Quilt 2
Baltimore, MD
Any Pattern
Port Angeles, Washington
Patchwork Breeze
West Michigan Shoreline

September 27

Creatin’ in the Sticks
Dodge City, Kansas
Sue Griffiths Featured At Just Let Me Quilt
Northern Rivers Region, NSW, Australia
Seams To Be Sew For Batts In The Attic
Hollywood/LA

September 29

Quilted Fabric Art
Burlington Vermont
Westend Quilter
Manitoulin Island, Canada
Pamela Quilts
Oregon
Quilt Fabrication
Silicon Valley, CA

October 04

Linda Robertus
Netherlands
Elm Street Quilts
North Carolina
Sarah Quinn Featured At Seams To Be Sew 
Outer Space
Patchouli Moon Studio
Central New Mexico

October 06

Cheryl LaPlant Featured At Quilt In Piece
York, Maine
Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse
New Hampshire
Bumbleberry Stitches
Oklahoma
Needle in a Hayes Stack
Mojave Desert

Cloth and Paper Studio
North Georgia Mountains

October 11

Show 'N Tell Day 

Seams To Be Sew
Quilt in Piece
                                       Just Let Me Quilt (Carol made my row. Check it out)
Cloth and Paper Studio
                             Moosestash Quilting (Joan made my row too)
WestEnd Quilter

I personally wasn't able to hop along and see the other blogs participating, due to having a very difficult time dealing with sciatica pain for more than 6 weeks! Then to top it off my pelvis got out of alignment (an inch off!) and needless to say, the pain has been too much to bear. It's taken me weeks to get this blog posting written, as I cannot sit or stand for more than a few minutes at a time. So my apologies to the other Road Home participants for not commenting on their blogs.

Pin It Now!