First week on Super Trip

We have finished up the first week of our Super Trip in our new motorhome.  We were so busy right up to leaving this spring but I managed to get 3 quilts done before we left.  One was for a friend from MI but living in Green Valley - her first grandchild was born and the mamma requested purple/gray/yellow.  The second was for my son in Australia right now - a good friend was turning 30 and he wanted her to have a quilt made by his mom - the anchor was his requested design and for it to be black and white stripe.  I only had about a week on this one and my dear husband thought it should have a little roughed up anchor on it...a little more real.  The third one I cannot put up yet as it is for a friend in Boyne City, MI and since we haven't gotten there yet to give it to her, I can't spoil the suprise.  I will say it is a Jacobs Ladder block design.

We headed out of Green Valley, AZ and got as far as El Paso, TX the first night but as we pulled into town, we noticed hot air coming from the dashboard AC.  We stayed at a nice campground with a very nice large pool and hot tub and next day they recommended a local garage - Lopez's Garage.  We checked with Good Sam as our warrenty insurance is with them too and they also recommended this place.  We took it over to them and they confirmed our fears that it was the compressor.  They had that part but did not have the "cleaner" (for lack of better word) and spent all day looking for it and finally ordered it to come to them Fed Ex on Sat at 1pm.  They offered for us to stay right there in their parking lot and they brought out electricity to us.  We kept busy seeing El Paso...The Art Museum, the Indian Artifacts Museum and a lot of little shopping spots for things we had wanted to get before we left but no time....always a time thing!  We took a long walk one morning and walked over to a great Mexican Restaurant for breakfast...no Gringo food!!  yummy!  We had dinner at Cheddars - never been there before and we were impressed.  Very good menu, wonderful comfort foods and great prices...we will try another along the way. 

Sat came and the wrong part came too...ugh!!  Now this garage is owned by a wonderful family and the "old man" started it out under a tree when it was all a farm (now a shopping meca) and then built a garage and then another and now five as well as racing cars.  Now the 2 sons mostly run it - though he has not really retired and Mammasita runs the office.  The sons also race and they all rebuild classic cars - which were parked all around us for us to drool over.  They were pretty frustrated by 2 pm Sat and they don't usually work on Sat - the son helping us was supposed to be in Tucson that day buying a race car and instead was working on our motorhome. He decided that on Monday they were going to every parts store in town and would build the darn thing if necessary "the old fashioned way" is how he put it.  We decided to go back to the park for Sat night and Sunday where we could put our slide out and run both house AC units and go swimming and sit in the hot tub...ahh.  On Sunday night during our supper, we prayed that God would help us - we had been there now since Thurs morning and it was now Sunday.  We were at peace the whole time, knowing God was in control anyway and figured there was a reason we were "stuck" in El Paso.  On Monday morning John remembered looking for a part number right after we bought the motohome and contacting Winnebago to get it, that they were very helpful.  He decided to begin to make his own calls and once again they were very helpful and directed him to a chassie RV parts shop 48 miles back in Las Cruses.  They told him that there are 2 very similiar parts and having the original would be helpful to compare.  So we drove back there on Monday at lunch time and sure enough, it was the correct one.  We high-tailed it back to El Paso and in 30 min it was on and we were test driving - COOL AIR!  We left and headed to Fort Stockton in the afternoon getting there just at dark.  We will try not to have to do that again as it is difficult to find street names etc.  But John was determined we were leaving "Dodge" that afternoon...and we did.  One overnight stay and we are now on to San Antonio for the next 3 days.  Time to have some "western" fun in southern Texas.

One note...we regret hearing about the horrible tornadoes in TX and OK.  We are grateful that it all stayed north of us but our prayers go out to those in need up there.  We considered going up to help out and use our extra week we have committed to a Habitat Build in NC to assist but decided that it's just too soon and they don't need extra people around just yet.  We will go on and help out in NC the first week of June.

Here are the quilts I finished.  I have done some mending on road and also have the rest of my Women of The Bible Quilt blocks with me to hopefully get done.  There was time for a little stitching....

 

HERE I GO AGAIN

I am starting up once again....to write and share my tidbits of time spent quilting and now organizing our travels in our new-to-us motor home.  I have changed the color of this blog and will continue to work on designing it.  For now...this is just a new beginning with more to come.

2011 - What kind of New Year will it be?

Wow, almost a whole year since I have written in my Blog - and it makes me ponder, why did I do it in the first place, why have I not written in 9 months and why do I want to continue?  As I work through those questions, I will write...and this week the most immediate consideration is that it is New Year's week.

My first inclination was to title this "Happy New Year" but then I questioned is that really what I would want to wish someone.  Some other options might be...a peaceful new year, a prosperous new year, a healthy new year...but happy, well happiness can be elusive.  I think happiness is a choice, so can I wish that you choose to be happy this year?  I guess I could.  Then maybe all the other possitives that could be a part of our lives for next year can be summed up in that choice to be happy in our circumstances.  We may not find 2011 to be prosperous - certainly a lot of people did not find 2010 to be so.  And such things as peace - well, is that peace in your own mind, peace in your family, your work, our country, our world?  Then considering health, mental health or physical health? 

The apostle Paul said he was content in whatsoever state he was in.  He could say that because he believed that God was in control and nothing happened to him that God did not allow and would see him through.  His confidence was not in what he alone could do, what others might do but in God that would do.

So, I guess what I wish for my friends and family and anyone reading this blog at this coming New Year holiday...is that you have a God filled year.  Let go and let God.  Choose contentment over happiness, or prosperity, health or peace.  I believe we will find that when we choose God, we will not be looking for outside things or people to make us happy, to bring us prosperity, to take care of our health or to bring peace to our lives.  Why would we ask the imperfect to try to do what Perfection can do? 

Choose God this New Year - there really is nothing better I can wish for, for any of us, than that. 

So...a God filled New Year to all of you

Re-using time?

The concept of recycling is concerving by using something over again and saving resources.


The one thing I can't recycle is wasted time.


Of course only I can personally decide if the time I have used was wasted. I think my time is only wasted when I spend it doing something that is not a priority. Don't get me wrong, even rest and thought and time to contemplate are a priority to me. It's only wasted time if I didn't use it the way I wanted to use it. Oh you know, that "I am the master..." thing. Well, I am the master of my time and no one else.


I choose how I am going to spend my time even when there are things happening all around me, people and projects calling to me. When I feel like I am running around keeping plates spinning on sticks and they are all about to fall if I don't run and keep up. Sometimes the best thing is to let a plate fall - sometimes that is the best use of my time.


I know that I had better be the one to choose because I can't get these moments back and re-use them differently. They don't belong to anyone else, they belong to me. I can however use those "wasted" moments to learn for the next time, how better to use them. So, maybe they aren't wasted at all. They can become learning moments...if I choose. I'll know next time if that was productive huh?

Well, as I can see from that pesky date recorded on my last blog - that which I had hoped to do weekly, became monthly. Ugh!! But, I like the "get up and dust yourself off" idea and so once again, I am going to attempt to do these blocks weekly. Time sure gets away from me....but that's for another blog!!


I finished up the block for Women of the Bible Quilt called Potipher's Wife. It is a Joseph's Coat design modification. As the story goes, Potipher's wife wanted Joseph to sleep with her and he refused to dishonor her husband (his boss) and his God and ran out of the room. She grabbed his coat off him as he left and she used it as evidence that he tried to rape her. But, as always - God is in control.


I machine pieced this one and it was some tiny pieces as it is a 6" block. It is not perfect but I'll see how much time I want to spend later, if I am going to rip it out and re-do some of it. Ah...there is that time choice again and I can't re-cycle that time I spent doing it the first time. We'll see.

Time Capsule

Wow, now if you were considering what you would put into a time capsule for someone to find many years from now...what would it be? I think you might find that those things you would include also might be the areas of your life you value most. With that in mind, that might also be the areas you would want to invest the most time in now. Just a thought...

After 8 weeks I am still struggling with the pain from the Shingles, so I don't get as much done as I usually do. I move slower and get tired easier. I have a lot of things going on right now - an on line quilt class at Quilt University, reading for my book club, finishing up a 12 wk Bible Study of the book of Daniel with my husband and about 15 other couples and working at this Women of the Bible Quilt. I just finished up Deborah and that makes 17 done of 52. I will include in this post all the completed 4 1/2" blocks - most, but not all done by hand and are not trimmed to preserve the edges until I get them all sewn to the sashing. Some of the colors relate to the story and the blocks names in many cases depict her circumstances as well. I really can't wait to get the quilt finished.

And as always...making every moment count

Wendy

time to look ahead...

Happy New Year to everyone! It's still January and we are still at the beginning...of the year. So, I am going to take some time now to make better use of my time all through the coming months..."planning makes possible". Surely we can get discouraged if we set some goals and don't make them, but if we don't make them, we most surely won't reach them. I tend to bite off more than I can chew and that usually results in choking. So, my first goal this year will be to keep my goals reasonable and attainable.

I have been suffering from Shingles since the week before Christmas and was told that it would be 5 weeks before I started feeling better and 6 wks was the normal duration if I did not end up with lasting nerve damage. So, blogging, or quilting for that matter, has not been on my list, managing my pain has been my focus for this whole illness. This is week 5 and I am finally beginning to feel less pain and able to put some attention to things I love.

My first goal for the year 2010 is to finish my Women of the Bible Quilt. I started it 2 yrs ago and the instructor/designer told me it took her 2 yrs to finish it, so I am not too terribly far behind. I will be showing you one finished block each week. There are 52 blocks - one for each week of the year and one woman's story. The colors could be anything we wanted or we could try to use colors that pertained to the story in some way. I have finished 17 blocks so that leaves me 35 to go. I have some 44 weeks left of the year so that leaves a few weeks for the border which has a vine and grape cluster applicque and at least get it ready to quilt. Most of my blocks have been hand pieced while we were traveling and I love that I will be able to continue to do that if we are away.

In this post I will again give you the web site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenoftheBibleQuilt/ for the quilt. It looks like they started in April or 2009 and will be done around that time this year - so if you are so inclined you can join in now near the end of last year's study and then just continue until you get to where you started this year. You can do the Bible Study right along with the other women from around the world that are involved. You can ask the question if you are interested, but I believe that each week is independent and doesn't build a whole lot on previous weeks. There were always people starting mid-year the other 2 yrs I did it. You can do only the quilt, only the study or both.

My second goal was to begin a quilting bee in my home for just an informal gathering of quilters looking for a place to work on their projects, chat and maybe even take field trips together, all the while learning from each other. We had our first gathering this month and will continue the second Tues. of each month this year. There were 4 of us and we had a great time of show & tell and getting to know each other. We bring our own sack lunch so we can work and eat and chat all at the same time.

My third goal is to continually find more ways for me and you to save time in our daily lives. Time to do what we need to do, what we love to do and maybe even time to help others. I have a passion for organization and time management and I want to develope that efficiency for the improvement of our lives. I'll be working on that and sharing as we go thru the year.

As always....make every moment count!
Wendy

Time...to celebrate

Celebrations...an oppotunity to give honor to someone or to commemorate an event. Christmas is by it's very name, commemorates Christ's birthday - Christ and a mass to celebrate His birthday. Many celebrations have been "tagged" to this time of the year and been grouped into the season. You can talk about Santa, winter wonderlands, gatherings of family and friends, snow and dreaming by the fire. Whatever you choose to do this season to celebrate whatever you want to commemorate - the fact still remains that the real reason for this party is for Jesus.

Personally I would suggest to all those that do not believe in Jesus and have chosen this time of year for all kinds of other warm and fuzzy celebrations, to just find other names for their way to party. That is not Christmas...Christ Mass (celebration). Why would one even say "lets get together for Christmas - if you don't believe in Christ in the first place? Would they also invite us to "Bob's Birthday Celebration" and then do nothing to commemorate Bob's birthday? I do not think so.

So, I am going to wish you a Merry Christmas - meaning a merry celebration of Christ's birthday. I am going to wish that something or someone brings you closer to the Christ of Christmas - to a saving knowledge of His love!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

...making every moment count ~ Wendy