BOMs Away - A Long-Ago Sunday for Norma and some BOM dabblings

 

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

Kinda just putzing through this week. The service for Scott's Mom will be on Tuesday. We've been scanning in lots of photos to put together a nice digital display for everyone to enjoy. I really like the happiness on her face in this one, as well as the super cute Easter Sunday outfit, circa 1958.

BOM stuff:

A couple of weeks ago, I fused the last block down for my Wind in the Whiskers. Cute little koi pond. Don't think I posted it yet, though.

(The kitten tail and lower bush edges are left loose, as they will straddle the border seam.)

Today, I made the four 3D butterflies and attached them for the Kitten Kaboodle block. 

Oh, and I also made pupils for these kittens. There weren't any in the pattern, and they all looked freaky without any.

So now, this project is ready to be fully assembled into a complete flimsy!  It only has 2 borders, and I would love to just throw it all together this week and have a nice accomplishment to carry me through the upcoming hard days. However, Scott's using my cutting table to finish up the photo tasking - spread all over it, and I'm not about to ask him to let me move him. Ah, well, it'll be a nice Feel-Good accomplishment next weekend.

Oh, also, through this week's TV time, I've done the applique stitching on two more of the Month 4 squares for the Water Reflections BOM. 1 block left to go.

I know I've only been sharing BOM stuff for months now, but that's not at all reflective of the bulk of my quilting work. There's always a priority quilt that gets 99% of my time each week. I need to do at least 4 write-ups on finishes.

The last 3 weeks, though, what you've seen is what has happened. I'll probably move through another week of numbness and seeing only to the basic tasks of daily living. I think I'll use the final assembly of Wind in the Whiskers as my marker for the time to return to normal quilting operations. And I'm dubbing it absolutely OK for that to happen when it happens.

~*~*~

How about you? Have you done any BOM work lately?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up, 

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Didn't mean for that to happen. But it did.

 Oh, dear.

Grief is not conducive to sticking to no-purchase resolves. I caved on two quilts that have been calling to me all year.

Sage & Sea Glass Star Chain quilt, by Kim Diehl, using her fabric line of the same name:

And Harmony, by Nancy Dink, which will be perfect on the bed of the basement room:

And now I found the pattern for this one, and it would be a great use of all the Halloween scraps I have. Wonder if I have enough of something for the background on hand already. . . "Scaredy Cat" by Jedi Craft Girl.

So, three quilts screaming at me, two purchases. I guess it could have been worse. . . 

And it's cheaper than a psychologist, eh?  

BOMs Away - Goodbye, Mom Caulkins

 

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

Well, in the very wee hours yesterday, we lost Scott's mother. 

While Mom has been experiencing strange difficulties for most of this crazy year, she found out only five or six weeks ago that she had metastasized lung cancer. We were able to travel to her state twice during that time to visit - the first time while she was still lucid and mobile and enjoying company, and this past weekend, where we were able to be there with Dad and Karen for her final days and passing. 

This is my all-time favorite photo of her, at their wedding in 1958:

I have to say again how very, very amazing Scott's sister, Karen, has been. 

She gave up her job and her personal life to move in with their parents so that Norma could stay in her own home until the end. Karen cared for her ceaselessly, using her home health care training to provide physical and nursing care as the needs arose. It was an absolutely priceless gift, one that went beyond anything Karen could have been expected to do, one that came at great emotional cost and had to have been taxing, as she could only extremely rarely leave the house for any kind of break. She is an amazing woman that I am glad to be related to.

The only BOM work I did this past week was some stitching on the current Octopuses Garden block in my hand applique tote, while I was sitting with Norma Saturday morning. In a desire for her mind to have some indication that she was not alone, I just babbled aloud for a while about what I was stitching - "now I'm going to start on this yellow blob on the right hand trigger fish, mom. It's not as tricky as that black tail piece was!"  Kinda funny - inane conversation, but the important thing to me was to make my presence known and keep company with an unconscious patient. I can't help but feel a connection can be "felt" at some very basic level that is meaningful to a departing person. I hope so, anyway.

And I hope you're in the midst of better times than we are right now. 

~*~*~

Did you do any BOM work lately?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up, 

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter