Six Years Today!

Six years ago today, on June 23 - it was a Sunday in 2012 - we moved into our home here in The Villages. Our son, DIL, and grandson Austin were waiting to help when we pulled into the driveway. Dan and I can't believe we've been here so long! 

We finished unloading our U-Haul truck literally minutes before Tropical Storm Debby began. Link to move-in day. It rained and rained and rained, for three days. Nonstop. We were sure we were facing flooding as we did in Des Moines in 1993. However, we quickly learned that sandy ground (Florida) behaves much differently than clay soil (Iowa). Water here soaks through the sand, and once the sun comes out to dry up the streets, within minutes you won't see a puddle anywhere.

We've adapted to Florida. We're not too smug to recognize that we've been "woosified." When the temperature drops to 70, we think it's "turned cool."

Since March 2015 we've been driving our second golf cart. Today we noted we've put 18,037 miles on it. That's a lot of seat time! But we don't think about it much when it's a pretty drive going nearly anywhere at any time of year.

This is our show-stopping Bismarck palm in the front yard. It's the view from my sewing room bay window, and I love it. Apparently it will get quite large.

By contrast, my Australian friend Di looks small standing next to a Bismarck palm we found while visiting Leu Gardens in Winter Park, in February 2017. Dan and I know won't be around to see our Bismarck get this big.

Sewing room action has been a little slow this week due to the usual activities, a dentist appointment, and going twice to Amazing Grace Lutheran Church's Early Learning Center. In August, this brand new facility for 60 children ages infant to four years will open.

As we have been attending Amazing Grace since last October, we're volunteering to help get the ELC set up. Dan and I build a toy grocery store stand, and hung wire baskets on walls. I will make valances for nine windows in the building, starting with the director's office, front office, and staff meeting room. I've ordered fabric and will buy materials to assemble the valances and get them hung. And I'm making several patchwork kites to hang on the wall in the vestibule. No doubt I will share pictures.

Until fabric arrives, I've been working on the improv quilt based on grandson Austin's artwork. 

I'm making the quilt top with these 5-1/2" high by 6-1/2" wide blocks. All of them are improv-pieced with four to six different solids in each one. 

This is the final layout of the 120 blocks. The top should measure 60" X 70".

Before settling on this layout I turned the above picture into black and white so I could see the balance of values. I am satisfied with this. 

So this is the state of of the top. I'm in the midst of "webbing it." Link to tutorial here.

The top will be completed today, and then I'll begin to audition bias tape to replicate the shapes Austin drew horizontally across his art. It remains to be seen whether the various bias tape shapes and colors will make the quilt entirely too busy.

I'm listening to an audiobook while I'm sewing; it's "Before We Were Yours" by Lisa Wingate.

For those of you who know that I quit taking the breast cancer drug (Arimidex) on May 21, and may be interested... I'm still having 4 to 6 hot flashes a day. The frequency has slowed down a tiche, from 7 to 8 a day I had been having. Honestly, I hoped they'd be gone by now. I've also been seriously dieting for seven weeks and have lost eight pounds. I'm getting back into clothes I haven't worn for a couple years, but I'm finding it's taking a lot more persistence to get rid of.

Where's the chocolate?! 😭

It took more than a month, but most bloggers are happy that Blogger will again cooperate with comment emails. I've followed the step-by-step instructions provided on the Blogger forum to erase, save, reset, and resave my email address so as to receive comment notifications. As much as I'm looking forward to this return to normal, I am also cognizant that I will continue to not receive comments from anyone using a Yahoo email address in their Google profile. Google doesn't play nice with Yahoo, and hasn't for at least seven years.

I hope I hear from you! 🙏 Linda