Visit to Vermont

As a young girl, I remember thinking how nice it would be to travel and see the rest of the country. It seemed like Vermont never did anything "great". We didn't have a Vermonter win Miss America (that I remember), TV shows, movies, and books never took place in Vermont, and the nightly news had more information about life outside of Vermont than inside! It just felt like I lived in an isolated piece of the United States. Our family would ride into up-state New York to visit relatives, go to New Hampshire to camp, visit relatives in Massachusettes and Connecticut, but that was the extent of our exploring. When I was in High School, I used to babysit for a wonderful family that had 4 children. They moved to North Carolina and one summer they returned to Vermont and took me to North Carolina with them. What fun that was! It was so beautiful that I believed if I lived anywhere outside of Vermont, it would be North Carolina.
Once I finished nursing school, I had the opportunity to go on a GREAT ADVENTURE with my brother Paul. We left Vermont in February, 1979 and DROVE across the country to California! I was 20 years old and my brother was 19. I still can't believe our parents let us do that! It took us 5 days to drive across the country because we had to go south to miss the rocky mountains.
We arrived in San Jose and then life changed for both of us! I met my husband, Paul met his wife, and we since have both lived in the western part of the country!
Returning to Vermont is like visiting a small piece of heaven. Everything is lush green, country roads, old barns and houses, ponds, farms, covered bridges, and beautiful lakes! The days go by more slowly as there are no cities in which to hustle and bustle about! The clouds are either giant white fluffy looking things, or gray low-hanging, and full of water!!!  My two sisters, my Mother, and I drove hundreds of miles through Vermont visiting quilt shops and at one point I had to pull over to the side of the road, roll down my car window, and LISTEN to WATER rushing through the brook! It was so melodic and just tickled my heart. As I get older, I find myself longing more for my "roots" and a slower life! I now appreciate much more, all the beauty God bestowed on my homestate. As much as I would love to once again live in Vermont, the Lord brought to mind my wedding vows taken from the book of Ruth : "Wither thou goest, I will go. . .your people will be my people. ."
My wonderful husband is an Arizonan and this is home for him. This is home for our children too. So, I am ever so thankful for those visits I get to make to Vermont!!!
In just over a week, I was able to do many things in Vermont! First and foremost was spending time with Mom! I also spent some time with both my sisters and visited with my youngest brother and his family.
Mom and I spent time sewing and I was able to finish a diaper bag (experiment) I was working on. I am hoping to write a pattern for this but need to do some tweaking first! Here are some photos:

                                          Outside of the bag. It has front and back pockets,
                                           and a pocket on each side. I don't have a got shot
                                          of the quilting details but the light fabric is all lines
                                          that criss-cross, the bottom is meander, and the top
                                          band is swirls.

                                          The inside of the bag has 6 pockets and a covered
                                          cardboard bottom.

                                           These are three matching burp cloths and a matching
                                            bib.

I left these with my sister Diane. She is going to see if they might sell. Meanwhile, I need to put all my notes about this bag together to make a pattern. Then we will make a couple more with more tweaking.

Since I have been home, I spent a day with Daughter-in-law - Victoria, teaching her to sew. Her baby is due any day now and we made a new mattress for the cradle my father made for my babies over 30 years ago! It now belongs to Ben and Victoria. I asked that they have more than one baby and be sure to pass it down making it known that Pepere Bushey made it!
Here's photos of Victoria and the finished project (sorry, I don't have a picture of the cradle):

Victoria learned how to thread the machine, wind a bobbin, change presser feet, she sewed on a zipper, piping, and learned how to "stuff" foam into the finished project!!! She was awesome! Little baby boy Rayes has a nice new mattress to lay on!
Well, back to the sewing machine . . . . .

UFQ #1

WooHoo! I have one unfinished project (quilt) done! I will call this UFQ  #1. For those who are reading this post, you might notice my UFQs are not in order (sorry, yours is coming!).
Last year I was blog hopping and found a bunch of bloggers who were in a virtual quilting bee. They would send fabric and directions to their friends and they had to complete the block and send them back within a certain amount of time. Sooo, knowing I had a stash that needed to be used up, I decided to put my feelers out among my friends and see who was interested. Kim, Sally, and Diane, these photos are for you! I finished the tablecloth with the blocks you sent me. The blocks are beautiful and I am so appreciative of all the work you did on them! I have to apologize for not putting forth the absolute best stitching on this project - each time I sat down to work on it, I kept thinking of all the other things I should be working on!  I still think the virtual  quilting bee is a great idea and would love to get another one going. We can make it simple and the more people that are involved, the better! Let me know what you think.
 The flower block is called Aster. It was fun and a little bit of a challenge to put the block together but so worth it!

                                          I just had to add the beautiful flowers Nick, Kathryn
                                         and the boys sent for Mother's Day!!!

                                           A closer look. There are 9 Aster blocks in all.

                                          The bowl in the middle is a fabric bowl Diane
                                          made out of the rest of what I sent her.

                                           My photo take on how the Amish display their
                                           gorgeous quilts     :)


Well, I am able to cross this off my to do list! Now on to the next. Hmmm, dare I tell what unfinished project I will work on next?  Maybe if I do, it will actually get done!
OK, here goes, I am going to take out and work on . . . . .  (Drum roll please). . . . Nick and Kathryn's quilt!!!!!  There, I said it, now I have to do it!
Til next time!

Hello again

I haven't posted since last week as I was waylaid by 4 days of dizziness (thanks to having Meniere's Disease)! I was pretty much limited to sitting in my chair and not moving a whole lot. These times - while quite bothersome - also are beneficial in helping me realize how thankful I need to be for those days that I feel great! I need to get myself in gear and really take advantage of those feel good days and get a lot done. Yesterday I managed to clean out a significant pile in my bedroom, clean out a kitchen drawer and cupboard, get all the ironing done and all the clothes folded and put away! While I had wanted to get some sewing done, I felt the need to work on household things first. Today, I spent 2 hours cleaning the pool and managed to get a load of laundry washed, dried, and folded and it is only 10am! I hope to have a photo within the next couple of days of what I have been working on. We will call it a UFP  - Unfinished project!!  Talk to you soon!