Time Passes

 

 

Time passes more quickly than it even seems possible.  Ten years ago, today, my brother moved on from this world (car accident). 

 

I try not to dwell on things that I cannot change, but certainly he is missed.  In my head, I like to think of it as if I'm (we, our family) permanently missing a piece of "my" puzzle. 

 

 

 

Some of you may know that I like hummingbirds...  a little story: 

 

My grandmother was a bird lover, especially of hummingbirds.  My brother was an artist.  After my grandma passed away, my brother drew a hummingbird and flower combo that was included on my grandma's grave stone.

 

My dad is a bird lover and his wife is a flower lover.  You can imagine that they were always trying to "lure" hummingbirds into their yard.  Prior to my brother passing away, they had never seen a hummingbird in their yard.  The day of my brother's wake (visitation... what do you call it?) my dad and his wife saw a hummingbird at their window several times.

 

The evening of the wake, after we were done, my friends and my husband (then my boyfriend of only 4 months) went out to get something to eat at the only place that was open (McDonald's).  When we sat down at a table, we looked up at the "art" on the wall and it was a painting of a hummingbird.

 

 

                              

 

This video is of Caroline's Spine, which was one of my brother's favorite bands.



Catching Up...

There are so many things I need have wanted to blog about and just haven't managed to make the time.  So, in no particular order....

I made these baskets for my friend as part of her baby shower gift:

they doubled as centerpieces:

I'm still working on finishing the quilt that matches these baskets.  It's pieced and the back is sewn together, I just haven't managed to get it quilted yet. 

We took a trip to Las Vegas for my husband's birthday (not that we really need any excuses to visit Las Vegas):

I participated in a RATZ (Rapid And Tiny Zakka) swap.  This the first sewing swap I have participated in.  We made needlebooks.  The one I made turned out a bit wonky zakka :) 

I also participated in a modern art challenge with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. Each participant chose a small print of modern-ish art that they liked/represented them and also included a small (FQ or smaller) piece of fabric that represented their style. Then, we threw them in a clothes basket and drew another out.

This is the quilt that I made for my partner, inspired by this Charley Harper print.

This is the quilt that I received. You can see my inspiration art piece (Van Gogh) in the photo, although the print is upside down.

I love this quilt that Emily (no blog, but here is her flickr )made for me.  Don't mind the other quilts above that I didn't crop out, even though they are beautiful, too.

I think this pretty much catches me up on stuff that I wanted to say/show! 



Terrariums

Earlier this week, I went to visit my friend and we made terrariums!  We had been talking about doing it for a while and finally set a date.

We had fun planting them.   We both bought plants and then shared them with each other.  After I got back home, I also reclaimed some moss that I found around on the shady side of our garage. 

Of course, my terrarium has a lid and the whole thing is a bit fogged up right now, so I can't get a good photo of it completed.  I also ordered some mushroom figurines from Etsy (when I was a little girl, we would go mushroom hunting with my grandpa for these Morel mushrooms) to put inside my terrarium.  I saw a really cute gnome figurine, too, but I'm waiting a couple days to order him.

Of course, I'm not really sure if my plants are suited to terrarium life, so we'll see if they survive.  We had fun planting them, which was the most important thing!