Loooooong time since my last post

It was February 2016, wow!  I wrote several posts and left them in the draft folder at the end of 2017 but never published them. Life has totally crippled my quilting game for a long time but quilting makes me happy. I'm getting back into quilting and realizing how much joy it brings to my life that I am totally convinced I have to quilt more.

I'm going to start with a picture of some fabrics I pulled from my stash for a toddler quilt. I'm going to use these in a quilt inspired by Waves by Missouri Star Quilt Company, info on this page https://quiltingtutorials.com/tutorial/make-a-waves-quilt-with-jenny

It's going to have a black background and the multicolored batik as a border. Finished size will be about 50 inches square.

If you want a bit of life story you can read it below. I mostly wrote it for self documentation. I've got one baby quilt finished at the end of last year and I'm working on another baby quilt with a QAYG method that I think is new. I'm taking pictures of my process so hopefully there will be a long post on both of those soon.

I want to blog and quilt more. I miss the commenting and posting. Life is so crazy but I know it will work out eventually. Here's to hoping it's not another 3 years before I make another blog post!

There is no way to tell three years of my life in a brief way but I'm going to try. I don't think 2016 was much but I didn't get to sew much for some reason. I started college at the beginning of 2017, my son was in high school and I didn't want to work in retail forever so I made the decision to get my degree. Great idea, I had to start over in math from high school Algebra to Calculus III because I decided I wanted to be an Electrical Engineer. I started at community college to get some basics done while I can also work and do all the Mom things I still needed to do. I did finish a quilt in that time and I'll post it at some point. Things went on like normal and my youngest graduated from high school in June of 2019. The next week my husband had a hemorrhagic stroke. We didn't know he had high blood pressure. He was in the hospital and rehab hospital for a total of 43 days. Our lives were forever changed.

I had to move from full time student, part time work and Mom to full time work and part time student. My adult children took care of their father and I am so unspeakably grateful for them. I could not have handled it all on my own as we all felt he could not be left alone. I'm also grateful that his personality and who he is did not change. He's more forgetful, impulsive and can't always control his emotions but he's still the same person we know. He can't work and is focusing on his health and doing great. He's running the house now, with our daughter's help, while I'm dedicating my time to my degree.

 In May, I burned out and just stopped going to work once my husband's disability finally started. I was ashamed and felt weak but it turned out for the best. I spent the summer recovering and cleaning my sewing space to create study space. I started at University in August and just finished my first semester. It kicked my rear end. There was no time for work other than school work and even less time to enjoy myself. I have never worked so hard in my life including the past year. I kinda feel a bit crazy for trying to earn one of the hardest degrees at my age but it's a calling and passion of mine. I came down with the prolonged crud that's been going around after finals and found myself reading QuilterBlogs.com again and watching sewing videos on You Tube. It was just what the doctor ordered to get some much needed stress relief.

The thing is that I trust in God and he has helped us and done amazing works in my life these past couple of years. I can't begin to explain. We've had the hardest times in our lives as a family but they've also been some of the best. Money is tight, my husband is disabled and we have two adult children still living with us but God is in this and has made it some of the best times we've ever had and shown us what is important in life. I continue to trust Him and know He is always with me and He is always good.