Feeling like a fraud.

 My blog name is Pointless Quilter but I haven't been quilting a lot lately.  I have been working on Orca Bay for a while now.  And while I have most of the inner quilt finished (well by the end of today I hope) I did have 1/2 of it done about two weeks ago.

All those red triangle units with the black pieced corners kill me.  The border is full of them too and if I didn't already have the black pieced parts done for the border, I'd change it.  It's a super scrappy quilt and I did pull most of the fabrics from all of my scrap bins (strips and squares) so that is a plus.  I know I'll like it when it's finished.  

I also finished this little runner.  My older sister last year chose this pattern for her new house for a Fall runner for her kitchen island.  And after I had finished the two end applique pieces (machine applique) she decided she wanted a circular or oval runner instead.  So this runner will go into our guilds boutique next year, hopefully, depending on this Covid pandemic.  (Sorry for the feet in the picture.)

I've also been asked by my son-in-law and step-daughter for a family-sized Disney quilt for Christmas.  I immediately started collecting Disney fabric.  I wanted as many as I could find and my idea is to border all the squares of the Disney fabric with either a red or black polka dot fabric in all sizes of polka dots.  The outer border will be a red with white polka dot fabric (large dots) and maybe embroider each of their names on a side and maybe some embroidered Mickey's.  That's the dream.  Let's see how it ends up.  

Here's the pile of Disney fabrics and polka dot fabrics.  The embroidery hoop is there to hold it all up.

I did do another pillow but this time for the sister of the lady who consigned me to make the 5 sister pillows I showed in this post.  I had already made her (the original consignee) a bee reading pillow last year when she consigned me to make reading pillows for her grandchildren.  But this sister wanted something a little more fancy but with bees.  This is what I ended up with.  Same quote.  This sister said she loves pink.  

And as far as embroidery goes, my niece asked if I could embroider a design she drew.  She wants to put on some sweatshirts to give as gifts this Christmas.  Since I have the IQ on my Babylock Valiant, I said I'd never done it but I'd give it a try.  And I did it.  Luckily it was just an outline drawing.  Now I wait for the sweatshirts.

CROSS STITCHING

I have been doing a lot of cross stitching.  I sit with my husband each night now to watch tv and I stitch.  This is our bonding time and something we lacked the last 10 years so we are each making a point to just be together.  He is alone most of the day and especially now since both his vehicles are not working, he really is stuck at home.  So because of this, I can get a lot done.  I have a Tiny Decision app on my phone and each Saturday I let it choose what I will work on the next week.  Here are some of the items I've stitched (not finished) since the last time I posted.  

Fully finished and framed.  This was the Fat Quarter Shops mystery 2020.

Finished but not framed

Did more of the border on this but didn't take picture.

If you want any details on any of these cross stitch projects, please comment below and I will get that to you.

FAMILY

I convinced my husband and father-in-law that we need to go visit the kids and grandkids.  It has been 3 years since we've seen them.  So we got in the diesel truck and drove 12 hours to visit.  I just have to say that I love their new house and I think I have the sweetest grandkids ever.  We went on a day trip to a National Forest and played by the creek/river for a bit.  

The visit was short but great, it was the trip home from heck though.  We were hauling our little trailer back home (they are getting something bigger since the grandson is getting so big).  The first thing that happened on the way home was we stopped at In & Out for lunch and Jeff ended up having a seizure of some sort and blacking out.  Thanks to the couple sitting behind us who caught Jeff before he fell over.  911 was called and the ambulance came.  They took his stats (he kept saying it was low blood sugar but the EMT said it wasn't) but he was actually partially detoxing from alcohol.  And because of that his blood pressure was either too low or too high.  (We are still working on getting that settled as he's gone to the Dr since he's been home.)  So that put us back for a while and we headed home again with me driving.  Mind you I've never driven a truck with a trailer before but I was doing fine until we hit Primm Nevada when I heard a pop and the truck started losing power.  We ended up stopping at a truck stop and having the truck towed to Bakersfield Dodge and we waited for Jeff's friend Tom to drive from Visalia to Primm to pick us and the trailer up.  In this time Jeff  had another episode which scared both me and his dad.  It was a 24 hour ride home, with a lot of drama in the truck (long story -not getting into it on this blog).  

The only good thing that has come of this trip is that we both loved Utah and now we want to move there.  However we want to live nearer the southern end of the state near Zion and Bryce and up in the cooler areas.  So we are actively lookin for homes there and will become more serious after the new year.  We need to sell the beach house first (my in-laws house) and their house and ours so it will still take a while.  I convinced Jeff that me working for the state for 5 more years is not going to increase my pension/401k funds that much more.  Also with this new #46 president, I have a feeling stocks and the markets will go down so we won't be making as much interest, etc. on our 401k's and savings.  Plus I turned 60 this past week.  I want to start enjoying life.  My health is better than it has been in years.  I'm slowly still losing weight and walking, walking and walking.  If I don't get enough steps in, we now have an Elliptical Machine at home so I can make sure I get enough exercise in.  Here's a picture of me this year and a picture of me last year.  I was so unhappy (crappy couple years before too) that I ate myself into that.  Like I said I have a ways to go but I'm happy with what I've done so far.  And yes, I've also become a red head.  Why not?  :)

We are still in the process of closing my dads estate.  My brother is doing an excellent job and we hope to have it all settled by the end of this year.  Then we have to figure out what to do with both my mom and dad's ashes.  Right now they are at my brothers.  

Work is great.  I love my boss and we have a new principal whom I really like as well.  (I liked the last one too.)  It's an interesting time to be working at a prison--I still am following my protocol of washing everything once I get home before I touch anything.  The staff gets tested every week now and so far I've been 'not detected'.  I am very diligent about wearing my mask at work and when I go to the store but it's also mandated in California and we can get fired if we are caught without a mask at work.  So there is that.  

If you made it this far in my post, thank you.  Thank you for looking.