If You Can't Say Anything Nice...

My mom used to say "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".  

I wish some public figures would learn that!  I know that's an impossibility, but a girl can dream, can't she?  LOL!

I think MOST of the people on TV these days hold more with 'if you can't say anything nice, come sit next to me".

Now that 2020 is over and people are looking toward making New Year's Resolutions, I've been thinking about the effect 2020 had, and what we can look forward to in 2021.  Did you know most resolutions are forgotten by February?

Right now, just more of the same old - same old stuff.  As the engineers I worked with used to say, Same S**T, Different Day.  Truth.  It's going to take a while before things go back to anywhere near what used to be normal.

Normal? 

I hope not!  I hope we learned some things, and make some permanent changes.  Make America great again??  Ha ha!  I hope we can make America SMARTER.  Make America be nice again, read again, be sensible again.  If only!

Wishful thinking again?

If you're one of those who makes resolutions or chooses a word for the year, here are a few random thoughts of mine.  Remember, these and $5 will get you a coffee at Starbucks...

The word I'm sick to death of is unprecendented.  

[ˌənˈpresədən(t)əd]  ADJECTIVE

1. never done or known before.

   "the government took the unprecedented step of releasing confidential correspondence"

   synonyms:

   unparalleled · unequaled · unmatched · unrivaled · without parallel · without equal · extraordinary · uncommon · out of the ordinary · unusual · outstanding · striking · exceptional · prodigious · abnormal · singular · remarkable · unique · anomalous · atypical ·
2. As you can see, there are approximately 20 synonyms but how many of them did you hear on the nightly news??  Don't get me started on the vocabulary of today's news people!!

The word I tried to use in 2020 was FINISH.  I wanted to finish projects in a reasonable time.  I wanted to finish up my UFOs, I tried to be better at this, and I only really achieved anything like a reasonable finish rate in November.  Maybe the holidays were a good motivation.  Maybe I work better with a deadline.

Focus.  I like that word a lot.  2020 was a hard year for me with regard to personal focus.  I learned that if I don't make lists and set deadlines, I slide way down the focus meter.  I said to myself too many times, I can do that tomorrow.  Then I spent today doing not a lot of anything productive.  Hence the Covid 10 - that's pounds I gained from sitting on the couch eating M&Ms.  😒

1. 

2. I hereby resolve to continue to reach out to my people in 2021 like I did in 2020.

3. Well, I didn't do a great job at that, so maybe my resolution should be to do it better.  With being homebound for so much of the year, we learned, each in our own way, which of our relationships were most important to us.  Did we get closer to our significant other or wish to smother them with a pillow at night?  Just KIDDING! But you get my drift... who was it that we ached to see, and to whom did we send texts or make phone calls most often?  Those are our significant others.  May we cherish them in 2021 even better than we did in the past.

4. 
   
   And what didn't you miss?  I found that I can live without actually going into the grocery store.  I am perfectly happy to send my hubby with lists 95% of the time.  It's only when he spends $17 on an organic whole chicken that I regret not going myself.  Because he would NEVER think to comparison shop nor call me from the store.  And he'd rather buy an organic chicken than disappoint me by coming home without one.  I think I like that about him most of the time.

5. 
   

   
   And guess what, it was actually no better (or worse) tasting than the $6.60 non-organic one I bought this week!

6. I don't miss shopping for other things, first because, well, Amazon.  And secondly because I don't need anything else.  Really.  I learned that this year.  The different between need and want was always an intellectual thing.  This year I learned what it really is.  I need nothing that I don't already have.  A nice home, warm clothes, food to eat, a great family, a church home, Jesus in my heart.  Everything else is, as they say, gravy.

7. So here's to 2021.  May it be everything you want it to be, but be careful what you wish for:  you might just get it!

8. Keep calm and carry on...

9. 

Quilting, or How I Bit The Bullet

 I self-define as a piecer, not a quilter.  Let's be honest, I think I KNOW how to do it, heck I've even taken a few classes.  But it's not really my thing.  I always tell people that I quilt by checkbook.  And I'm not sorry.

People outside the quilting world often think that 'quilting' is the whole thing from buying the fabric to having a finished quilt.  To them I probably look like a 'quilter'.  I start with fabric and end with a quilt.  But I prefer to think of myself in the purest terms as a piecer.  I so love the process of choosing pattern and fabric, cutting the parts and sewing them together.

Then, I'm done.  Literally.  I have a tub of tops to prove my point.  

Now being a piecer has its drawbacks... dollars for one.  You normally have to pay someone to do your quilting for you, unless you can barter or trade for it.  So each quilt sent to a long-armer ends up costing somewhere from $75 to $100 and up as they get bigger.

Of course they are very worth it.  They come back looking fantastic!  The woman who is doing my quilts these days has a real flair for matching her pantograms to my fabric choices.  She is a jewel!

But I have done some small items.  This table runner I made for my son was a Quilt-As-You-Go project, all straight lines.  I can handle that.

But recently I have been making a real effort to get some of my UFOs finished without spending a ton of money.  Honestly, some of the early ones are not works of art, not long-arm worthy.

So it doesn't matter if the quilting is expertly done, right?  As long as they hold together.  They'd be good practice, and my sewing machine comes equipped with at least two different types of quilting feet.  OK, so I decided to give it a try.

This holiday table runner was purchased two years ago at least.  The fabric is gorgeous, and it could not have been easier to make.  A friend and I bought them together on the same shopping trip and hers has been done (and expertly so) for probably the whole two years.  So I got brave and jumped in.  I did a decent job in the center panel, quilting on the lines of the leaves and swirls.  The next two borders got really wonky figure eights.  Whatever.  The outside border got loops.  I figured it was going to be hard to see against the print.

OK, bound and done.

Next was this family quilt.  My sewing family decided to do a block exchange.  Aunty Sunny wanted a Christmas Quilt.  She started it.  She made the Christmas tree with instructions from our Friday Night Sewing sisters.  Everyone made twelve blocks of the same type and we swapped.  We were short on people so cousin Shelly and I each made two blocks, and got two quilts.  That was a while ago, because two of my cousins who participated have since passed away.  I decided to layer and quilt this one myself.

There are lots of blocks that have buttons or trims on them.  Santa has a pompom on his hat, and his beard and mustache are fringy.   I made the top left block and the bottom center block.  My theme was wreaths.  My quilting leaves something to be desired.  Hopefully I'll improve on quilt number 2.

This quilt was made from scraps left over from other projects.  To me it looks kind of Dr. Seuss-ish.  My daughter's father-in-law agreed.  Maybe he'd like it!  

My quilting is actually improving... at least it feels a little more comfortable, and my shoulders are not attempting to disengage from my arms!  So there might be light at the end of the tunnel.  Or is that the train!!??

Three UFOs finished in December.  Wow!  I amazed even myself.  I also bound Woven Ribbons, which was quilted by Lynn about a year ago.  Can I count that as four??  LOL!  I need all the credit I can get.

Quilt on...