Hobbies and stuff!

 I have a lot of hobbies lately, theres quilting, photography, cooking, and one I haven't been doing much of lately, writing. 
  Quilting; I have finished my 2nd quilt, a gift for Madeline for Christmas. It came out nice even with the many many mistakes I made along the way. That quilt will always hold a place in my heart and memory, not because I made it for Madeline, making it a labor of love, but rather because of the circumstances of how I ended up having to make the quilt to get it done. This quilt took me all most a year to make and I had to do something I had never really done before; I had to hand sew the blocks together.

 20 pieces to each block and 20 12 inch blocks all put together by hand as I sat with Mom first in the hospital as she got a pace maker put in, then a month in re-hab where she was so ill cared for she had to go back to the hospital for another week. During all that time I sat next her bed and I just sewed, it was soothing and a great stress reliever, and I needed that often as I dealt with one issue after another in the Re-hab place. As I said a labor of love and a whole lot more. 

I will be starting a new quilt soon, by machine this time, but first I need place mats for my table so I am going to make some up in a quilting fashion. My first quilt came together a lot faster and graces my living room year round.

   Photography; I started a photography club in my new community and it is going better then I expected. There are 8 of us and we have a real good time when we meet. All of us have improved our photoing and gained more confidence with our cameras and our skills. We tried our hand at selling our photos in a craft show. I sold 3 photos and two other members of the group sold 1 photo each, so not a rousing success but not complete failure either. This summer we are  planing a photo exhibit here in one of the club houses. That is going to be fun and I am exited. Funny though as I progress with photography I seem to take less pictures, I no longer bring the camera to family gatherings, our on a lot of the outing Bill and I take. I simply want to enjoy the moment and I have enough family pictures to go through as it is. I need to purge my computer of a lot of pictures, a very time consuming job with over 5000 photos to go through. It isn't always an easy decision on what to delete and not delete. Madeline and I take picture walks her with her own camera and me with mine. I love those walks and the girl has a natural eye. The club has taken a few outings and we  have a challenge each meeting to keep us clicking away between meetings. 

 Cooking; Well I am always cooking, its what I do. I am still an Allstar with Allrecipes.com and they keep you cooking for sure. My food photoing is not as good as I would like it to be, and I am not sure how to improve it, but the food is always as good I want it to be and at times even better. I made Potato Leek soup this week and I made a big batch with the idea I would freeze some, nope we ate every bite and argued a little over that last bite.

  Writing; Out of practice for sure, but I think its like riding a bike you just got get on it and go. You tell me am I riding on a smooth rode or am I falling down.