Finally able to blog about our trip to Scrub Stitchin'

Our trip began with a flight to Hawaii and then onto Sydney. It was long, but it didn't seem it to me because I mostly slept.

We rented a car and drove to our wonderful hostess' home. Thank you so much, B! It was a joy getting to know you better! You are truly an intelligent, creative, and gracious lady. You were a highlight of our trip.

I joined B's Rainbow group for donation quilts. I will be making the rainbow rows as shown on her railing. I look so forward to sewing with her online.

The next day we Ubered to the Sydney Temple followed with a ferry ride up the Parramatta River into Circular Quay.  

Upon arrival, we switched to the Manly Ferry and enjoyed a new view of the harbor and Opera House. We also met up with my friend, Karen, for lunch. She taught us that we must eat fish-n-chips with our fingers.

What fun to finally meet her in person after all these years. 

Karen made us gifts of snap pouches. I love mine! It is the red one.  I have photographed it with other pouches I have received from recent retreats. I love the way the Prairie Points give you an easy grab for opening, and how it snaps back closed on its own.

We also enjoyed the Harbor, Opera House, and botanical gardens.

I am interested in architecture and delighted in the tiles on the opera house. From a distance you wouldn't realize such details. 

I even loved the design in the bathroom.  It was perfectly designed in the same style with the wavy sinks and overlapping mirrors.

The interior intrigued me as well.

Then there were the gardens. I fell in love with these beautiful and massive tree trunks!

This unique tree doesn’t even have a main trunk.

Some outings with friends and that hard day I forgot to share in the previous post

 A couple of days sewing with friends brings you these quilt photos:

Brenna's Dresdon top coming together. ..You have seen some progress on mine in older posts.

Kalynn makes two quilts from identical jelly rolls while showing us the difference between a light and black background. 

Hard Day Stuff...

My siblings and I got together in early April to make decisions about Dad's treasures. It went well.  While I do have brothers, their inheritance is different from ours. Dad gave the girls his collections of things, and they are many. Dad loved auctions where he spent his later years purchasing horse tack, horse drawn wagons and buggies, furniture,  harnesses, tents, coats, camping gear, and many many more things. He drove far to collect these things as well as horses traveling to Wyoming, Colorado, and Indiana. He made these trips for years, and loved every minute of them. All of us and several of his grand kids traveled with Dad to these auctions, especially my husband. My sweetheart would joke with Dad and us that he helped Dad bring it all home, and one day, he would have to dispose of it all. That day came unexpectedly this year.

Those trips brought Dad special friendships. As many of the auctions came from Amish communities, he built bonds with one particular family. Dad visited their community annually and took them on a few hunting/horse pack trips over the years. What a treasure it was for us to have this family pay a driver and travel out of state to bring them to Dad's funeral. We enjoyed hosting them in Mom's home and visiting with them.

My sisters, myself, and our spouses spent two days in  April organizing and making decisions on how to sell Dad's things. Mom is still with us, but struggles with dimentia.  This may sound crazy, but for some moments I can actually see a few blessings come from this disease. Mom is not hurting  emotionally or having to deal with the logistical challenges of going through his lifetime collections. She finds joy in seeing things cleaned up. She is able to be home alone with daily family check-ins and meals brought in for her from my sister who lives close. Mom still knows her surroundings and feels peace there. Moving her out of her home would just agitate and confuse her. We are grateful to be able to give her the gift of staying in her own home. We feel she won't be with us long.

So, imagine years of auction purchases collecting on a farm. We honestly took 6 trailer loads of Dad's things to a local auction without even making a dent in his treasures. It feels wrong and very emotional to go through his things. I was with him for many of those purchases and trips. Those experiences brought him joy. My last personal time with Dad was last August when I spent several days with him and Mom driving him to his last auction.

Here are some photos taken during our clean up day. We literally went through Conex boxes, sheds, pastures, and fields.

Some of Dad's saddle collection...me being silly on one of the saddles.

We had backhoes, a skidsteer, a tractor, multiple trucks and trailers, and another large piece of equipment I cannot identify helping us get the work done. We also brought in two large dumpsters, one for scrap metal.

We moved and lined up horse drawn buggies and farm equipment in the field in front of Grandma's home that Dad maintained.

Lots of feeders, horse panels and gates, watering troughs...

A couple of antique house drawn sleighs...

Some of his saddles... He had a leather shop where he built and repaired saddles, bridles, pack saddles, and more.

My sisters and their spouses with some of the saddles.

Some of Dad's things are antiques.

Some were purchased new and this one took my loving grandfather to his final resting place only ten years ago.

Mom was out helping us and having a good day in spite of being confused.

We will be back at the project again the end of May.

Quilts, a hard day, and Easter

 I took a class on how to use my new Pfaff with my friend, Theresa. It was a delightful day.

I took photos of these quilts in the shop.

Easter kite flying with grands. We did it in their back yard. It brings me joy to see all of my grandchildren raised in ooen space and making their own fun outdoors.