Grieving With Gratitude

This is the end of the road for the "TEXT IT!" blog hop.

Sherri Noel has included such fun projects. The other bloggers made such  wonderful interpretations.  I chose to make the sewing machine pad. Below is the photo from the book.

It was perfect for this adorable new fabric that I had just bought at Stitch Central..

I had to widen the sewing pad a little to fit the panel, but it came out so cute.  

It's the most adorable fabric.   It's also available with cats. I just love the flower bouquets in their hair.

Do you want some of this fabric and live too far away from Stitch Central in PA, you can call them or  here's the selvage if you want to search on line.

So what would a blog hop be without a giveaway? Leave a comment sharing whether you prefer adding words to your quilts using applique or piecing it?  If you haven't done it yet, this book will be a real inspiration for you, so tell me which one you'll use first.  The winner will receive the book, TEXT IT! from Martingale and 2 spools of thread from Aurifil.  The final day to enter is Sunday 3/17.  I'll pick a winner at midnight.

For the wrap up of the hop, head to Sherri Noel's blog tomorrow for the final giveaway.

I'll spare you from talking about my grief journey in this post.  Let's just work on winning this giveaway!

Grieving with Gratitude

I'm participating in a blog hop for a book called TEXT IT! by Sherri Noel.

I really love words and fonts and letters and have over the years come up with many ways to include them on my quilts, so I was excited when someone wrote a book sharing lots of quilts with words.

My project is the sewing machine mat.  As a sneak peek, Sherri made this pin for me to share.

I'll share my project on the blog hop on Friday March 15th, along with 2 other bloggers. Until then there are bloggers sharing their projects.  The hop has already started and every day each blogger will be giving away a copy of the book and 2 spools of Aurifil thread.  So make sure that you visit the other bloggers to win a copy of the book.  I'll share my project on Friday. Here's the remainder of the hop.

MONDAY MARCH 11 - COUNTING SHEEP

DEANNE EISENMAN - WWW.SNUGGLESQUILTS.COM

RAEWYN BARGE - WWW.STITCHINGFARMGIRL.BLOGSPOT.COM

SUSAN PELLAND - WWW.SUEPELLANDDESIGNS.COM

TUESDAY MARCH 12 - HOME PILLOW

JOANNE HARRIS - WWW.QUILTSBYJOANNE.BLOGSPOT.CA

PATTY DUDEK - WWW.ELMSTREETQUILTS.COM

ANDY KNOWLTON - WWW.ABRIGHTCORNER.COM

SANDRA STARLEY - WWW.UTAHQUILTAPPRAISER.BLOGSPOT.COM

CINDY PIETERS - WWW.STITCHINATHOME.COM

WEDNESDAY MARCH 13 - LIFE IS SHORT

BECCA FENSTERMAKER - WWW.PRETTYPINEY.COM

KATIE BOCK - WWW.SEWINGWITHKATIE.BLOGSPOT.COM

ALLA BLANCA - WWW.RAINBOWSBUNNIESCUPCAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

THURSDAY MARCH 14 - HUSTLE PILLOW

TERRI BANDEN BOSCH - WWW.MEANDERINGSALONGLIZARDCREEK.BLOGSPOT.COM

WILLOW OLSON - WWW.BEARPAWDESIGNBLOG.WORDPRESS.COM

ERIN SAMPSON - http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/

FRIDAY MARCH 15 - SEWING MAT

LAUREN WRIGHT - WWW.MOLLYANDMAMA.COM.AU

SANDRA HEALY     - WWW.SANDRAHEALYDESIGNS.COM

CHERYL KRISEL LYNCH - http://www.cheryllynchquilts.blogspot.com/

SATURDAY MARCH 16 – WRAP UP 

SHERRI NOEL - WWW.REBECCAMAEDESIGNS.COM 

If you are new to my blog and wonder what my quilting specialty is, I love to invent tools and techniques and share them with other quilters.

Curvalicious was the first tool and using fusible applique, you can make curved looking quilts easily.

Check it out at www.Curvalicious.net.

Recently, I designed these adorable Mini Mosaic quilts that are so much fun to make whether you're 8 or 80.  You can see lots of them in my ETSY shop.

And you can see lots of my quilts and my travel schedule on my website

Last week, I was able to put a name to some feelings I was having. 

FEAR

I haven't heard anyone talk about this in the grieving process. 

As a recent widow, I realized I didn't have a safety net.  I'm impetuous and I leap into new situations.  But, I always had someone to catch me, to fix it and to get me out of jams.  I don't like being afraid and find it leads to tears - lots of tears.  I decided to try and empower myself and decided to paint my fireplace brick.  I have wanted to do it for 3 years, to brighten my family room.  Don was the painter.  He agreed to do it, but never had enough energy.   About a year ago, my DIL volunteered to do it, but I was worried the smell would bother his sensitive respiratory system. 

So I watched some YouTube videos, screwed up my courage and then headed to the local paint store. 

It took me 3 days to do what might take someone else a day, but I was so happy with the results.

I'm not ready to paint a room, but maybe one day!