MARCH 2022 BLOG/NEWSLETTER

Hello friends and Sewists,

I’m sure y’all thought I had fallen off the face of the earth. Just about! 2022 hit us like a freight train and we are still recovering. This might be old news to some of you who frequent the shop, but I’ll try to cover the basics for the rest of you.

News Years Eve, Christer’s index finger was in the wrong place with the power planer. We spent 6 hours in Emergency getting it fixed up.  (not quite what I had in mind for NYE!!) It has just now completely closed up and healed finally. We had multiple trips to the dr., a couple of bouts of infection taken care of and it’s still swollen a bit and very stiff. But he did not loose his finger, for which we are very thankful. Time and exercise will help with the stiffness and swelling. So now it’s onto the next thing.

In February my 90 yr old mom fell and broke her leg right at the hip. They did surgery to replace the ball at the top of her femur. She was totally disoriented and wouldn’t stay in bed. Fell again the day of surgery and the next day too. They sent her to rehab and she fell again. She was having trouble swallowing and declining fast. They sent her home on hospice and she passed away a week later. Since I’m 1500 miles away, it was a few weeks of constant phone calls and text. Very exhausting and stressful. But not as stressful for me as it was for my sisters that were there taking care of mom. My heart goes out to them most of all. It has been really rough and I am so thankful for their love and support. Then there is the worry about my 93 yr old dad who lives in Florida. He’s doing well so far, but you just never know what’s waiting around the bend. 

As I have mentioned before, our plan is to build a new house here on our ranch. The old farm house we have been living in for the past 11 years is deteriorating rapidly. And with all the nasty winter weather again this year, we are desperate to improve our living conditions. As y’all know, the price of lumber and building materials have skyrocketed in the last year, so the new house is on hold for the time being. But we are still in need of safe and comfortable housing. So in January, we hatched a plan to completely remodel this old farm house. We did manage to get a new mud room when we fixed some rot problems last fall. But there is so much more needed. Our plan has always been to tear down this old structure after the new house was built.  Then build a family guest house in it’s place. We have spent the 50 years of our marriage remodeling every house we lived in, including a rental. We are very tired of remodeling and all the “surprises” around every corner of each project. Hence, remodeling this old farm house was not on our minds at all. Enter COVID and a “new normal”, which requires a new perspective. We have accumulated quite a stash of building materials over the past 6 years or so for various projects around the ranch and at the shop, that we haven’t gotten around to yet. We decided to use what we needed from that stash to do the old farm house remodel. It’s an extensive job as the roof structure needs to be replace, one of the exterior walls is completely rotted out and a couple of original “tarpaper shack walls”, will have to be replaced so we can insulate. Long story short, it’s going to be a big, messy job right in the middle of our living space. Not something we ever wanted to do again, but here we are, ripping out and diving in. Finger crossed that things get better with the spring. We are hopeful and getting excited about having a better place to live by the end of this year. (we hope!!!) We also have our vacation cottage that is still under finishing construction projects. I try to balance it all the best I can and I know I have way too many irons in the fire. Laugh out loud Working on that.

As you can tell, 2022 has been a very eventful and stressful year for us so far. That’s the reason I haven’t got to writing the newsletter until now. Because of all the changes in our life, I’ve had to make some more adjustments on the business front. We went to being open to the public on Weds only just about a year ago. It’s been very helpful for us. I am still at the shop every morning until noon working on paper work, filling web orders and running the longarm machine quilting your quilt tops. Since we are just a small “mom & pop” business, we have to wear many hats. To try to pare down the mountain of paper & computer work that is needed every day, I have decided to simplify this newsletter/blog publication every month. The pressure of having to come up with an article and tip every month is crushing for me. I have decided to eliminate them from this newsletter. I will on occasion add something when I come across an idea to share. And I will share free patterns that I design when they are available. I also publish this on my website under the BLOG tab and will include items that I can share with you there too. Also, I will try to keep up with a monthly publication, but please don’t be worried if I am late or miss a month. I will try my best to keep you up to date on what is happening both at the shop and in my life for those interested. Living in a construction site has it’s limitations.  I do appreciate your support and the kind words of encouragement y’all send to me.

We do have new fabrics trickling in every month. New Cuddle, new panels, new blenders and prints. Here are just a few:     

(new fabrics soon to be on the website to purchase)

These beautifully done panels and companion fabrics are from QT. Realistic hummingbirds, fun and sweet spring signs and patriotic blocks. We also keep a good supply of the Cuddle in both 60” wide and 90” wide coming as they sell out.

Hopefully y’all are having a much less eventful year than we have had so far. Spring is sure to be just around the corner with colorful blooms and birdsong. We have all had a weird couple of years and really deserve a good one. Please let us know what we can do to help you with your projects. Feel free to email me or leave a message on the shop phone and I’ll get back to you. The website is always available and I fill orders everyday Mondays thru Fridays.