Wednesday, February 7, 2018

What I like about retirement:  Everything!
I re-retired last June.  I’ve had friends who have said they don’t like retirement.  They actually use the word bored.  No way!
Because I am retired, we were able to pick up and head for Arizona to my sister’s wedding last July, with no thought of when we had to return.  Days were spent in Arizona, Sedona, at the Grand Canyon, and we even made an out-of-the-way stop in Waco, TX.  Yes, I am a big fan of Fixer Upper. I sometimes think I am a fan as much for the fact that Chip reminds me so much of my son as I am to see the transformations.  I like a lot of what they do in their remodels, but cringe every time they paint beautiful brick.  Taking low-maintenance brick and turning it into a high maintenance painted surface just makes no sense to me. But I digress.
Some of the other things I like about retirement is having time to do some remodels around the house, go to grandkid events when they come up, go to lunch with Miss College Grand Emily when she has a break in classes, volunteer at Church, schedule things like Jim’s knee replacements without worrying about working around a work schedule, and get after my many hobbies.  Quilting has been the hobby that has been consuming most of my waking hours lately.
Currently I am working on a Jack’s Chain Quilt to donate to our church.  A fellow quilter sewed the 9 patch blocks together and I am assembling them.  It took me awhile to get onto the technique of working with hexagons, but I persevered!  It is coming together quite nicely.

The patchy quilt below is giving me a run for my money in the way of time consumption.  Each patch is 1 1/2 inch square.  Each finished block is 10 inch square.  After spending more hours than I care to count on this quilt, I figure I am exactly halfway there.  The destination of this quilt is unknown.  I might just have to keep it for us.

Did I mention we added a new member to our family?  Sadie Jo is the sweetest little girl ever and has added a lot of fun to our lives.

We used to raise sheep, so I thought it only right to make a throw of sheep for Jim.  Each sheep is made of wool material and it turns out this little blanket is mighty warm on these cold winter nights.

This quilt is called an Orange Peel Quilt.  I quilted it in a space saver quilting frame that my dad made for me many years ago.  This quilt is twin size.  There is another one very similar in a Queen size ready to go into the frame.


5 comments:

Osage Bluff Quilter said...

Have thimble, will quilt!

Victoria Zigler said...

I'm glad you're enjoying your retirement.

By the way, I try to come over and read your blog regularly, but I keep not ending up doing so. I'm trying to keep track of so many things these days that something has to appear in my inbox for me to guarantee to see it. I'm trying to do better at keeping up with friends' blogs, but I'm not doing as well as I'd like to be, and seem to do best with the ones where I can get post notifications delivered to my inbox.

Pix said...

Retirement is GOOD! Glad you are enjoying it. Love the sheep throw... ♥

Intense Guy said...

Beautiful quilts!!

I've been watching Devine Design on the tele... She does the same thing (paint brink fireplaces... ugh!)

Cheryl @ TFD said...

Hi Deanna! So good to see you back in blogland...I've been wondering how you were. I'm happy to hear you're enjoying retirement and doing some traveling. Sedona, AZ is on my bucket list. The last time we were driving through AZ, I wanted to visit there but we didn't have time. Retirement is good...now if I could just get the hubby to think that way! He already is wondering what he'll do when he retires. He doesn't know I already have a Honey-Do list a mile long! lol! Enjoy your weekend!