Wintery Pause!

Today it a long post day for me and maybe you! I made two delicious hot coco cups and top with creamy whipped cream then tip top with the special chocolate sprinkles from a dear friend. Actually they are all gone now and the tea kettle is on and there's a plate full of holiday cookies for us.

This time of the year I get homesick lots! Like every other year, I missed dad's birthday celebration  and will miss mom's birthday then the Lunar New Year. The technology has been life saver these days; chatting with Fifi for hours, watching Lucky naps, talking to mom and listening to her little bits of this and that .

When I was little, I remember every winter days mom would cook a huge pot of soup and our family would gather in the kitchen table. We all asked the same questions, what kind of soup for today? Mom always said, It is good for you! We all have the soup before rice and side dishes. The soup likely is some kind of herb soup; bitter and the color is black.  Now I made some for S; bitter and black. I tell her the same thing mom told me, It is good for you!

When we were still lived in N.D. The winter was long and bitter cold. The second year was particular hard for me with schooling, teaching, and mothering. I wished that mom could walk through the "space" to our home; cook for us and just be with us! Homesick is hard! That year, a package arrived after Thanksgiving. It was a surprised package from Monica. I have had not idea who sent the package and guessed with S in the living room for a good 10 minutes. I keep thinking it might be a wrong package because I didn't order the fabric! Then I went ahead and opened the package. Within the package was a beautiful layer cake fabric and a kindly note. Words are still hard to describe the gratitude I have till this day.  The layer cake has been saved for years for the right quilt design!

When I saw Patchwork Tsushin magazine's quilt design. I knew it is the pattern for it! I was quiet nervous cutting down to the charm pack size. I switched to a new blade and slowly cutting. I hope a queen size for this quilt, so I went through the stash and pulled out some fabrics. Still not quiet enough for a queen size quilt at this point, but I am enjoying this patchworking here; extra slow!
More fabrics have been pulled out and await to be iron out and cut. Hope before this winter season ended, I could have it ready!

As the end of the year approaches so soon, I have slowly gather S' 11th birthday quilt fabrics. I hope to surprise her on her birthday this year, which is coming so soon! I am not confident as I used to, but will give it a try! It is all about stars and dreams! I was thinking tiny 1.5"x1.5" finished at 1"x1", but it will probably be the 12th birthday quilt instead.  I always look forward making S' birthday quilt more than any other quilts. It always makes me feel great that I can sew and consider myself a quilter; I could sew for families and help friends sew their memories together. It is a great gift that I have and hope I continue for years to come!

For many years, I used to be an organized person! Then after so many moves and travels, I let go many of that organization skills! It is quiet scary that I realized I have a few items that are triple. They were placed in the different boxes and buried under other items. Last night, I made a commitment to myself to take a wintery pause and hope to get things in orders again! It will be nice that we could look up the labels on the boxes and find the paperwork that we needed or it would be nice that I can pull out S' school pictures when she was asking if she can take a look.  It would be so nice I could go through all the supply boxes and put them in the proper place. I know, there's a lot of serious organizing prepartion around here!

I continue enjoy my part-time job! I met people from different part of the world and share lots stories and feel better each day! There's time that I still feel quiet in between, but it comes and goes! I like to think it is part of the life challenge and will make me a stronger person after all! I still take one step a day and take pause when I need! There are still confidents and such need to catch up and feel great about myself again! I will be taking a long wintery pause from here. I hope not too long, but I don't want to worry you.  I think the pattern can wait a little longer to publish. I hope you can wait for a better and fulfilled me to return to this space again. Yes, that {bands of colors quilt along} will be happening sometimes, my goal is when I can talk clear and feel confident to host the group again!

Meanwhile, you can picture me surrounding with file boxes, picture albums, and acknowledge award cards S collected over the years. Of course, cutting fabric, making chain piecing, piecing the quilt tops, and such! Lots "good for you herb soup" and homemade cooking!

Until then I am taking the pause from here..

xxc

Update:  Many of you have asked about the {half triangle quilt}. As I mentioned in the post that the pattern is found from Patchwork Tsushin, a Japanese quilting magazine that I subscribed last year. The pattern was found in the June, 2014 issue. page 63. Due to the legal copy-right issue. I cannot share the pattern in this space ( Sorry, but it is illegal take someone's work and claimed as mine). I did work on my own measurement for the quilt blocks.  Thank you for understanding~