Powers Family Reunion

In this crazy year of social distancing, we were finally able to gather these 5 siblings, me and 4 of 5 brothers, and some of the extended family for another reunion.  The last one was 4 years ago,

 at Fathers' day, 2016.  Since then my sister, Mary,  has passed away. 

A big change for me was that I have been widowed since then, so I was going alone.  But at the last, I got in touch, (through Facebook!) with a niece that I had not seen since she was maybe 2-3 years old.  She is now 46 !   She wanted to come !  Precious reunion just right there ! 

  Even the rest of the family had not seen Ruhama, since 1998, at her mom's funeral.

 She and her husband drove to my house from just one county over , and followed me out to my brother's cabin on the Buffalo river.   Can you just imagine us living that close all this time and not knowing it ! ? !

Anyway, it made it very nice, and she was able to call her dad, Richard,

the last brother that I have yet to reunite with, and I got to finally talk to him on the phone (we send cards at Christmas/birthdays).  He was unable to come out and bear the extreme heat and humidity.


Jeff and Judy drove ahead of me to remind me how to find Ted's place.  Judy's daughter, Trista, and her man, Terry also followed. 

Ted kept the smaller kids busy playing in the river and creek, and most of us wound up escaping to the airconditioned cabin when we could no longer take the heat. 

  Ted and Gina layed out a spread of food that was just amazing, including ribs that were totally falling off of the bone !  And, OH!, the strawberry cake !

 John and Deb were there most of the day, and his son, Josh (and Sasha, his wife) came later, and a few of John's grandkids stayed awhile, enjoying some kayaking and good food and company. 

We were very heartened to have my brother, Jim, his fiance, Lisa,
his daughter, Kasie,

 and his granddaughter,Lindsay Victoria,

   there.  Sadly, Jim's son, Lindsay, took his own life a week earlier, and we will be reuniting for the memorial NEXT weekend, LORD willing.

My daughter, Kelley, and her husband and kids were UNABLE to come due to his position with the army, and the fact that his coworker had been exposed to someone who tested positive for the Covid 19 virus.  This caused Tim to have to be quarantined at home until the coworker is cleared or Tim is cleared.  Very disappointing, but life these days. 

All in all, it was a WONDERFUL day, and I am very grateful to GOD for the chance for us all to be together again.   We should NEVER take that for granted.  You never know when it's the LAST TIME you'll ever see someone you love in this lifetime.

  EDIT:  Ruhama's sister, Vivian, (who I also haven't seen since 1976 or 77,) and her husband, Chris,  just added me as a friend on Facebook, and shared this photo.

Joe, Tim, Chris and Micah,........Chris and Vivian, with Princess Jocelyn

CHARMED small quilt, FINISHED

Yesterday I finished binding the small quilt made from charm packs.  For some reason, I have been off on a lark of using polyester batting again.  I had given it up for YEARS and YEARS, but a friend had some put back, and after helping her with hers, I tried using it again.

Pros and cons.........

Pro Polyester---I love the puffed up look that you get with the extra-loft batting when your quilt top is made up of just squares......particularly around 4 inches square.  I like the unwrinkled, smooth look of the fabric IN the squares, after washing the quilt.  Hand-quilting is an unbelievable DREAM after working with cotton for so long.........this was SO EASY.  A needle just glides through the polyester.
Con Polyester---NO DRAPE.  I sat back in my recliner last night to snuggle with the newly finished quilt, and it just stood out from the sides of my body like it was spring-loaded !  Sadness........oh, the sadness !

Pro Cotton/Cotton Blend---I love the crinkly look of most quilts that have been made with a cotton batting, particularly a really scrappy quilt..........it makes it look like it is already old and loved.
I love the drape of a washed, and then MANY-TIMES washed cotton-filled quilt.  It lies against the body as it should, hugging with the love that was stitched into it.
Con Cotton/Cotton Blend---That same crinkly texture that I have loved for so many years turns right around and disappoints me with my more modern designs that have been straight-line machine-quilted.  They finish with a wonderful linear, crisp look, and then wrinkle all up in the dryer.  Crazy, aren't I ?  I love it and regret it for the same exact look.

So, I guess the lesson learned is that there is a place for everything, and you don't know until you try !

So here's the quilt.

A small quilt top

Not a lot to report, but I am sewing a bit.  I dug into my stash of charm squares, mixed several lots to get a good mix of light and medium prints, and came up with this top that measures 52 inches square.

 I made a back for it today, and, to me, it is TOTALLY unrelated to the front.  But it was the best that I could do with limited choices here at home and in this town.  Atleast there IS quite a bit of PINK in the quilt top.  

 The dark print is a pretty, rich, dark pink, althought it is reading as red here. Using my one-by-twos and clamps, as usual,  I thread-basted the quilt this afternoon, in my living room.

  Somehow I'm finding myself still in this 'retro' mode, enjoying the use of polyester battings again.  I think that my mind has chosen to forget what it's like to find one of these polyester-batted quilts BEARDING, with lots of nice little fuzzies protruding ever so meekly from the surface of the quilt.  If that annoying tendency rears it's ugly head, I'm sure that I will go RUNNING back to my cotton batts !  But I'm loving the lightweight feel of these for Summer. 

  I think that I'm going to hand-quilt this one, but haven't decided yet if I will use the Q-Snap floor frame.  

A couple of things to share just to catch up this blog.  

 Here is a baby-sized quilt that I made several months ago......not sure if I shared it then or not.  It's made from a charm pack called "Airmail", I think.

  Last week....


...I made this back for the comfort quilt that my friend is making for herself, for some treatments that she may be undergoing soon.

There's a cross, made from blue pinwheels, in the center.

Below is the front of the quilt, in progress at the time of this photo.

And, one other note, I stopped taking my blood-pressure medication on Monday June 29, 2020.  No problems.