We're all a little lost if we don't have our Queen Bee anymore aren't we?

These are blocks for Cynthia. She was the Queen Bee in the Fab Bee for the month of April. I had started on them earlier in the month but with one distraction after another I decided that's it! I've got to get these done! Around that same time, I found out my Grandma had fallen ill and shortly after passed away. I seriously thought I could feel my heart starting to break when I heard that she was ill and then when I heard the news that she had passed, well, I was sure it had broken. 

She was my last grandparent and a pretty special one at that. She had white hair, glasses, knitted, crocheted, baked, gardened, the whole nine yards. Nothing was better than showing up on the farm to her greeting us at the door with a sunshiny smile (her whole face lit up, much like my youngest, he has her eyes) a hug and a giggle. Then she make me biscuits! She and my Grandpa were a huge influence on my life and my husband's for that matter (one of the benefits of being high school sweet hearts). They are a pretty big part of why we live on an acreage and why I love bread so much!

When something like this happens I'm amazed by people's wisdom, kindness and love (I know it sounds sappy, give me a few more sentences and I'll be done... promise!) Have you ever had someone say the most perfect thing that brings you comfort and blows you away? Here are a few I'd like to share with you:

 First my friend Trudy sent me a text saying "Sorry to hear about your Grandma. Someone told me to let all the good memories fill the empty space. I think that is true. Are you getting Dawson today?"  I had to leave that last little bit in, hee hee! And just for the record, I'll admit it. I totally ripped Trudy off in the tribute I wrote for my Grandma's funeral. It sure made my job a whole lot easier! I realize I'm being silly but actually the whole concept of what Trudy wrote inspired me to write my tribute for Grandma.

Another comment on Facebook from Kimberly hit it right on the head when she said, "sweet friend, I can't even imagine. I absolutely adore the one Grammy I have left, and know the day we say goodbye to her will break my heart into a million pieces... thinking of you. xx".

So that's what happened. I felt my heart break into a million pieces which seemed pretty fitting since that was my plan for my blocks, to make a bunch of little hearts to be dispersed through out Cynthia's quilt.

 However I didn't want to fill Norm's quilt with sadness, (Cynthia is making her April blocks into a quilt for her husband Norm) so I tried not to think about the emptiness but instead to fill them up with happy memories, like Trudy said. Some are filled with memories of vast blue prairies skies, warm sweet off the bush raspberries, kittens stuffed in Grandma's slippers (hey, they fit and she never wore slippers anyways) the highlights of dust dancing around in the hay loft, walking with Grandma to the chicken coop and the feel of diving my hands deep into her flour drawer (which I always got in trouble for but was totally worth it!)

Well okay maybe I took a liberty here and was sappy for a few more than just a few sentences! Thank you to everyone who took the time to send kind words and thoughts about my Grandma ... Grandparents, they are so important aren't they.

Darn it all, after I had taken the top photos, I remembered about these buttons I had in the studio that I wanted to add!

 

She's a crafty Dame!

A few weeks back our guild (Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild) had a booth at the Creative Stitches show in Abbotsford at the Tradex. It was loads of fun but was really a hoot was when a bunch of Vancouver people came out from the Vancouver Modern Quilting Guild (I finally met Paul, the fellow that made me the most awesome pot holders in from the last inter-guild swap!-yay! And he is just as lovely as his work). This time around we did an inter-guild mug rug swap at the Creative show and I received...wait for it.... Amy Dame's mug rug! 

Amy is super cool (and god does she know stuff, I learn something new every time we chat. Of course she knows loads about quilting but she knows loads about everything else too! Don't know something, just ask Amy she'll know!) You know how with some people it's nice to just sit back and listen to them? Amy is one of those people. So much so that we quoted her on some buttons that we made up for the Creative stitches show. They were a hot commodity and were the first ones to be snaffled up!

 

I think the next round of buttons we make should use something I heard her say at our February retreat " I sew some weird Sh*t" on my machine"! See that's why I like to sit back and listen to Amy talk, you never know when a little gem like that will spring out!

Now Amy received my Olive Juice mug rug which, as you can tell, was quite fitting because I Olive Juice Amy Dame!

Oh ya, and Amy requested I put a follow by email on my blog, so there it is in the upper right hand corner, TA DA!- Cheers, thanks for stopping by!