"Bye For Now", Nancy

The world is a very sad place today.  Nancy Zieman of Sewing With Nancy (link) and Nancy Notions passed away yesterday after a long fight with cancer.


I met Nancy a number of times for various sewing events and never met a more gracious and kind person.   She epitomized the Christian in all of her business dealings, and although I'm not personally aware of how she acted in her personal dealings I'm sure it was no less.


Nancy was a member of Peace Lutheran Church in Beaver Dam.  I know this because I attended many seminars in that church during Sewing Weekends, and it was no secret they valued her as a member there.


She will be missed so much by all who knew her personally and professionally.  If you sew, you probably owe a debt of gratitude to Nancy and her crew for some knowledge or inspiration at some point.  She developed notions for Clover Company, and was a part of the Baby Lock community for years.


I won a Baby Lock sewing machine at a seminar at Nancy's a couple of years ago.  I treasure the memories of ALL my sewing weekends there, probably 20 in all.  It won't be the same without Nancy.


But given her deep faith, I'm sure that some day I'll see her again in heaven, and it truly is just a 'Bye for now"...


We mourn, but we're grateful for the time we had.


Sew on...

Catching Up on To Do Lists

Seems like there's always something ELSE I should be doing...

Maybe you feel the same way.  When I'm at work in my office, I am thinking about all the things I should be doing at home.  And if I'm working at home, my mind keeps bringing up my UFO list from the office.

It's worse when you have multiple responsibilities.  I am not just an employee at my job, but also the leader of our church quilt guild, the raffle queen at the library quilt guild, and the church treasurer.  Not to mention a member of a family with duties there and a member of an extended family with duties there too.

Not that those things are duties exactly, but they sure do have to do lists associated with them.

Last weekend, Miss E was in the high school play.  that brought up chauffer duties, as both girls do not usually end up in the same place at the same time, and there are only so many places you can be in simultaneously.  So Drama Queen got dropped off and we trundled Miss A over to meet her mother.  We ended up staying out for dinner, an occasion that does not happen as much as I'd like these days! 

I'm also trying to put together a small demo project for the church ladies for this weekend, plus I need to get organized for the November raffle which happens at our library guild meeting tomorrow.

I think I'm set for those.  HOWEVER I did not actually do any of my own sewing this weekend!! 

Last night I went down to the sewing room to GET ORGANIZED.  AGAIN.  Someone gave the church ladies a bag of fabric and I'd brought it home.  I sorted it out while catching up on reruns of Doc Martin from PBS.  We ended up with seven half yards, about a dozen quarter yards and a pile of small cut up ends and remnants.  And one piece that was about a yard and a half in size plus some miscellaneous junk that I tossed.  I ironed it all.  (Obsessively, I can't put fabric away all smooshed up.)

THen I spent some time trimming up some odds and ends of my own, and cut up two more quilt kits.

Which brings me back to my to-do lists.  Still to do...

• Three Christmas quilts, layered and ready for machine quilting
• Two tops done, ready for layering
• Fabric for two backs, needs ironing and trimming/piecing
• Unknown number of kits for quilts and other projects, awaiting start
• Two sweaters requiring buttons to be sewn
• Two or three knitting projects, on needles, in process, just need to apply hands and time to finish
• ...well, I'm sure you get the picture.

When they turned the clocks back, they should have left that extra hour in!

Ah, well, there's always tomorrow...

Maybe YOU can find some time to sew on!