This was a good day, I was well rested, I got to sew and knit, and the Lightning won their game. Series is tied 1-1. Go Bolts! I’ve been too tired to knit in the evenings the last week or so and I missed several days when we went to Amelia Island but I did knit a little last night and hopefully I’ll get back into my routine of working on some knitting or crochet in the evenings. You can see Finn is content to curl up and sleep again… hopefully he was active enough today to sleep through the night!
I sewed today! Just a couple hours this afternoon in between cleaning and organizing but that was long enough to cut and piece this 3 yard quilt. A year ago after Stephanie from my HeartStrings group shared with us some of her 3 yard quilts, I ordered 3 fabric kits from Fabric Cafe and got one of their books free. I will say that I kind of prefer pulling my own fabric from stash because I tend not to like the skinny borders they use on many of them and I like a double fold binding.
There was not enough fabric for a double fold binding so I pulled a blue from stash and it will work fine. When I pull fabric bundles for these 3 yard quilts from stash, I find my self choosing at least one that has more than one yard or I’ll pull 4 fabrics. That gives me an opportunity to make my border larger and to cut my double fold binding. If you look on the far right side of this photo, you can see a sliver of the blue fabric I chose for the binding.
This HeartStrings 3 yard Project could not have come at a better time for me. These are quick and easy quilts and most tops can be pieced in an afternoon. When I was packing up the stash, I packed an entire bin with bundles just for these quilts and they’ll be perfect projects for me to work on in the coming months. I can already tell that having the stash in bins is going to be a challenge but I’ll get myself organized and get used to it. I’m just grateful to have lots of fabric and projects to work on and plenty of space in this house to set up my sewing room and the longarm. I’m going to focus on the positive and make the changes I need to make for it to work.
Finn was happy to settle down for a nap while I sewed!
Funny to say that on this end … but Big Canoe is home now and Finn and I arrived safely after an almost 9 hour drive. Traffic wasn’t bad until I got south of Atlanta but UGH – so much traffic for a Sunday. Luckily, I won’t have to deal with driving in Atlanta very often. I don’t know how people do that commute day in and day out although I have had some challenging commutes in my time too.
Chris and Rae brought me dinner and Chris helped me carry the longarm downstairs from the car. He also helped move a few things around to get ready for the movers on Thursday. I’m sure I’ll be moving things here and there for weeks but I’m going to try and sew a little on Tuesday. Tomorrow I’ve got to get myself organized and run a couple errands.
Finn did great on the drive and was a bit overly excited when Chris and Rae arrived but he’s sacked out now. It was a long day for him too.
I never get tired of watching them and for some reason they seem to congregate around the house more on the weekends. All of these videos were captured this morning within the space of 2-3 hours.
I can’t believe it but I’m finally done with all the packing! The junk removal company come yesterday and took all the furniture we are not moving and will donate it. Keith set up the beach chairs so we could watch a little TV last night.
We’re going to go out for an late lunch/early dinner at 4pm and then we’ll load up my car so I’ll be ready to head out early tomorrow morning. I can’t believe it’s finally move time, it seems like I’ve been decluttering and packing forever.
One of the things I find so interesting is watching the animals sniff out where the others have been. Last night the cat was wandering around and this morning the buck was very interested in his scent. As you can imagine, Finn spends a lot of time in the yard sniffing for visitors too.
We have a little progress being made … last night the Association approved the contract to make the repairs in the crawl space, this morning the HVAC guy is down there extending the condensate drain lines outside the space, and we have a call at 1pm with the realtor to discuss getting the house back on the market. It’s going to be months before it’s all done but hopefully we can get a sales contract on the house while the work is in progress.
For the most part, decluttering and packing has been my job and Keith has carted off the donations and trash … but there are two area’s that HE must pack … his closet and his office. I’ve been after him for a couple weeks and he keeps saying he’s ready … I’ve had to tell him that ready means everything that isn’t going to be used up to the last minute means in a box and taped up!! He tackled his closet today … and the office is mostly done except his desk!
We’re at the stage that there are bins and boxes everywhere! In the library ….
…. and in the corner of his office! I wanted to have most of the upstairs bins downstairs in one spot so I could get an idea how many there were. I’m still crossing my fingers that everything fits on the truck. Worst case, Keith will be renting another UHaul trailer for the overflow but I’m starting to feel like it’s all going to fit. 🤞🏻
We ALL worked very hard today and accomplished a lot and we’re all tired! My count down has started … just one week until Finn and I head to Big Canoe for good. Keith will follow a week behind. We’ll take it easier tomorrow. We’ll work on packing a couple hours but other than that, I’m looking forward to relaxing in the pool!
I’m so behind responding to my email but thanks again for all the birthday wishes and if you wrote me with questions, know that I’m working on responding to them – it might just take me a little while. We arrived home this afternoon and I’m taking care of all the urgent move/association emails while Finn cuddles with me. Apparently he did fine boarding the last few days (he hasn’t had to board since Feb 2020!) but he is being a little clingy right now so I plan to give him the time with “mom” that he’s craving and I’ll get back to packing tomorrow.
Today Adam shared one last photo with us from the last few days … do you remember this photo of him drawing on the beach?
He didn’t see a shark while we were there but the setting inspired him to draw one and he painted it when he got home. He’s really been working on his art the last year or so and it shows. I love that he has a creative outlet. I always tried to foster that in both boys when they were growing up and it has carried over into adulthood.
We had a late morning breakfast with the boys and then they hit the road. Keith and I have another day here on Amelia Island before we head home tomorrow and then I‘ll have about a week to finish up my packing. It’s breezy and overcast which is just perfect – I’m reading, Keith is dozing and we’ll hope the rain holds off.
We spent time with the boys on the beach today … it’s been a while since I bobbed around in the ocean and it was fun.
Then we went out on a sailboat late afternoon. The boys found it very interesting and I always love being on the water.
Thank you all for the birthday wishes and assurances that my 60’s will be great years – I’m counting on it!
And while it doesn’t fall under the category of birthday fun, as expected, the buyers pulled out of the sale due to the issues found in the crawl space. We’ve made progress working with the Association and getting bids but they weren’t willing to commit before the work was finished and we were not willing to wait it out with them. We’ll see if we can find a buyer to take it with the assurance from the Association that the process has begun and that the issues will be resolved.
