Memory Bears

My dad passed away five years ago this month. A volunteer organization in San Diego offered to make a bear for the family out of the clothing of a loved one who passed away. My mom was the first one to send a shirt off and get a bear back. Then my sister wanted one, then another sister. My family is pretty big and each time we got a bear back, my mom would send another couple of shirts for a daughter or grandchild to have a keepsake from my dad's plaid shirts. The picture below shows some of the bears the family got back from that organization. Each time my mom got a bear, she (or the family member who got a bear) would send a donation to keep this wonderful non-profit organization going.

But...they do limit the number of bears they will make a family. I had made some bears years ago and thought I could make the ones for me and my three girls so that family members who don't sew could get a bear from the charity group. I found my pattern and made the bear bodies when I went to my friend's condo a year or two ago. When I got home, I started to stuff them and argh, what a boring job and I put it aside.......
This weekend, after my stamp party, me and my sis got to talking about our mom's clothes and if we'll do bears again, in her memory, with some of the garments we saved. I told her about the 'bodies' I had in a bag in my sewing room and she said, "Get them out. We'll help you stuff them." My oldest daughter Kelley and her friend Brenda were still over so I practically RAN to my room and got my bag of poly fiberfill and the bears. In no time, we had stuffed three bears and I actually ran out of stuffing. I couldn't believe it because stuffing seems to last forever!! Me and Isabel closed up the bears with ladder stitches and wallah, they were finished!!! Boy, did that feel good!
These bears belong to my girls (from l-r) Ashley, Stephanie and Kelley. Kelley remembered my dad's pearl buttons and made sure to pick a shirt that had them. She wanted those somewhere on her bear so Isabel cut off a cuff from the scraps left from my dad's shirt and I made a little collar to connect it. Came out pretty cute, I think. :o)

I need to buy some satin ribbon to tie a bow around the neck of the other two bears just to dress them up a little bit. I also need to buy more stuffing so I can finish my bear. I hope to finish it this week and not wait another year or two!

Stampin' Fun

Yesterday I had a Stampin' Up! party. We made this cute Halloween card by embossing the haunted house and doing some sponge painting for the sky. It was fun.

We also made these cute little pumpkin candy favors. So simple using an oval punch, sponging the edges to shade them a little and attach to a little box we put together.

These were especially good because Neena, my Stampin' Up! demonstrator brought Godiva chocolates to put inside. Yum!! There are no candies left in my pumpkin!! :o)

33 Years

Thirty three years ago today, I was a young bride shaking in my shoes before walking down the aisle to marry my hubby. I wasn't afraid of getting married. Richard was a catch and I was happy to marry him. I was just afraid to have all those eyes on "me"!! Thank you Mr. Wonderful....for 33 wonderful years, 3 beautiful daughters and all the laughs, tears and memories.

Huntington Beach, CA 2004

A Memorial to my Mother

My mom passed away on Thursday morning, very peaceful and in the home she shared with my younger sister. She was in her pretty little bedroom in San Diego. Hospice came and helped assist us in keeping her as comfortable as possible until her passing. Most of you probably know that she has been sick for a while with congestive heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver. She was also a breast cancer survivor for 34 years and a diabetic. She fought to stay with us a long time and has survived five years after my father's death.

Rosa Torres Reynoso

09-04-1928

08-12-2010

1947

My oldest sister Isabel was with her when she passed. We were taking shifts with her as we knew it was getting close. Isabel came and got the rest of us so that we could tell her one last goodbye, give her one last kiss and hold her hand one last time.

2006

Mom was always asking to have her picture taken but it wasn't until I started getting photos from my sisters for a Memorial slide show that I realized what a glamour gal she was. :o) I love this last photo and I'm going to make one in an 8x10 to frame. I think she's just beautiful in this photograph.

1948

I love you Mom. I will miss you forever and then some!

Finished my glass block

Wooohoooo!! I worked last night until about midnight but finally finished my glass block. As you can see, there was a little piecing that went along with this one so even though the glass was done a week ago, there was some sewing to do this time around.

I went ahead and added it to last months block to the top. I only have one more to go.......

I know my friend Angela LOVES when I use blue painters tape to hold up my blocks and quilts. Adds a touch of class, don't you think? :o) I just pinned the new row next to my existing top and oh, it's so pretty. And it's going to be a pretty good size too. I already have the border fabric. It came with the last kit and it's so sweet AND PINK!! This quilt is so outside my color wheel. :o)

I got my fabric ready for the last block last night. All I have to do now is trace it and I'll be good to go. I will take it with me when I go sit with my mom this weekend. I have been trying to stay busy to not think too much.

We got some bad news about my mom. They started Hospice on Friday and gave her two weeks to two months to live. It has hit us girls pretty hard but it is not so much of a surprise. If you are a regular reader, you probably know she has been battling with a few medical issues since early this year, congestive heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver which have both caused a lot of fluid in her body. Her body is no longer responding to her medications and she is getting very tired. We will cry a LOT and miss her an awful lot but the life she has been living is not much of a life. It is hard to see her like this so we will have to deal with our grief and let her go.

Cutest things.....

My daughter, Kelley brought me a treat last night. She printed me off some of these adorable little floss bobbins. They're just printed on card stock so I don't think they'll last too long but being this cute, who cares. :o)


I'm not sure what else the blogger has on her site. Check it out for yourself. Cute as can be! How can two little dots for eyes and a tiny line for a mouth be so adorable? (Yes, I know. I'm easily entertained!) Wild Olive

Have a great weekend!!!

Are we still in June???

No, I didn't think so. But I finally finished my June block from my BOM project. Well, the embroidery part anyway. I have 4 small basket blocks to make still and add the borders and sashing squares. But here is my glass of lemonade. Sip, sip. :o)

The next block is a whopper. It'll probably take me a while to trace it on the fabric. So, let's see. If June's block was finished in August, then my July block.....yeah, October it is! :o)

Now what? And 'hello Shannon' :o)

I can't grow tomatoes. I will spare you pictures of what my tomato plant looks like. It's VERY sad. But guess what? I can grow jalapenos.

But guess what else? I don't like spicy food. LOL Now that's some smart farmin', huh? What I need is for my tomatoes to grow like my jalapenos because I love me some 'maters. :o) Guess I'll go buy a crate of tomatoes and maybe try my hand at salsa. You can 'can' salsa right? CanCan....hehehe.....I got a picture of jalapenos doing the can-can but I should've pictured them doing the Mexican Hat Dance!!! Arriba!!!! Ole'! :o)



Okay, let's get serious. Mmm, maybe not! Let me take this moment to pretend that I'm Queen Latifa and send a "shout out to my girl Shannon" in Kansas. hehe It's a small world we live in and the Internet makes it even smaller. I got an email from a friend, Nan, who I know from one of my Yahoo groups. She works at the quilt shop in Kansas called Quilting Bits & Pieces, the shop I am doing my BOM Berry Picking from. This is from Nan's email:

"Something funny happened yesterday at the shop. Shannon, my Monday co-worker asked me if someone named Liz did the Berry Picking BOM. I said yes, why? She said one of the blogs that she reads, "Busy Liz" had pics of Berry Picking blocks and she looked really close at her computer and decided they were our fabrics! I said, yes they are! :) It turns out, Liz, that she found your blog from Reeze's blog on the sidebar of favorite blogs. Cool, huh? She said she loves your blog and all the cute stuff you do."

Well, isn't that somethin'? And what a small, small world. So Shannon, this is where I am on my block. I'm still a month (or two) behind but I'm getting closer to getting this one done and then it's onto that monster block! The last one is a biggie - a basket full of jelly jars and 'stuff'.


I am also working on some scrappy summertime baskets for a swap. The block is from Quilter's Cache and it's called Bouquet. I've got three more sets of five to finish so I better get busy and get these mailed off. Lots to do.........

Bye Shannon!!! :o)