The time between Thanksgiving and New Year's always seems crazy, but never more than this year! My husband started a new job in New Jersey in mid-October - and yes, I live in Massachusetts. He comes up to visit most weekends, but this is my third time driving down to New Jersey with the kids since Thanksgiving. I know that many, many families live apart in order to make things work financially or because of the nature of their jobs, or for any number of other reasons. I always thought, "wow, that must be a challenge." I was right! I miss him terribly when we are apart, and I don't want him (or me) to leave when we are together. That's normal, I guess. What perhaps isn't so normal is how much I RESENT the traveling! All I can think of when I'm stuck in traffic (usually somewhere in Connecticut) is that if I can't have my family all together, I at least want to spend the time apart doing something I love - quilting or knitting - not stuck in a car surrounded by other cars. Ugh! (OK, pity party is over)
As a result, I've not been as productive in the sewing room as I normally would strive to be during this time of year. My main project has been
Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune Mystery Quilt. I'm behind, but not too behind. Another clue will be released tomorrow while I am still working on last week's clue - and I still haven't finished assembling last YEAR's quilt, but I'm enjoying the process.
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| Clue 1 done and trimmed |
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| Clue 2 done but NOT trimmed |
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| Clue 3a done and trimmed |
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| Bonus triangles from Clue 3, NOT trimmed |
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| Clue 4 done and trimmed |
I've been keeping my finished pieces in a butter cookie tin (much like
the HSTs that I shared last month).
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| I dutifully ate 5 lbs of butter cookies so I could use the tin in this way. :) |
In the meantime, my 16-year-old son has been sharing memes (is that right? Are these memes?) with me, letting me know that he isn't the only one who doesn't know what to expect when he finds a tin of butter cookies:
I'll have two days back at home before I get back to work. I'm hoping I can get completely caught up with this year's mystery, make some more progress assembling last year's mystery, and plan out some baby quilts. I have two showers in February and one in April - better get cracking!
4 comments:
The sacrifices we make for our quilting projects.... the units look yummy in the cookie tin but not the kind of yummy that your sons may want!
Hubby live in Illinois while the boys and I lived in Oklahoma for 8.5 months, while we tried to sell our house. Only the boys and I did the traveling. It was hard. Thank goodness for Yahoo IM in those days (16 years ago). Texts cost 10 cents each way back then, and long distance was expensive, especially with a cell phone. IM was how we stayed connected all the time. Sorry you are in different places.
Been there, done that, got the merit badge! Now that my husband has passed away, I find those separations were good training for the future ... though never easy. You have already gon through some changes of jobs and locations and must be pretty tough. Though the internet drives me nuts with so many regular changes, it is still a blessing to use in text or face-to-face communications. I have no doubt you will find ways to fit everything in.
Nice to follow along with your Good Fortune. I opted not to start, but enjoy seeing the blog posts each week and I do feel a twinge like I'm missing out. But I've waited this long, i might as well wait for the reveal. That living apart business is hard, and i'm sure having teenagers makes it more difficult. We did it years ago, the kids were little, 4, 6 and 9 I believe. We managed to get through it, but I d remember big phone bills. That was back in the days before cell phones, etc. Anyhow, I hope you have a Happy New Year!
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