Hello Friends

Again, my thanks for all your kind comments and e-mails. We are slowly adjusting to (but NOT liking) life without Gwen. Every day I miss hugging and kissing her and seeing her smile. At the same time I am so relieved that she is at peace.

I’ve really missed blogging but feel it is no longer appropriate to be Gwensmom at Gwenshouse. That was my life for almost thirteen years, and I would not trade it for anything. But now it is time for something else.

I’m making slow progress on determining what to do next. (Suggestions are welcome!) But in the meantime, I want to keep up the conversation with you, my wonderful online friends. You all kept me going through some very tough times when I was limited to the house and the keyboard.

Many of you have asked if there is anything you can do for me and the answer is YES YES YES! Come with me to my new blog GET STITCHY WITH SARAH. Lurkers, that includes you too! We are going to sew and knit and who knows what else. There is also a new matching Flickr account, Getstitchy, with photos of all the old projects and a few new ones added already.

Although my future is still uncertain, I know I want you all in it. So click on the groovy 70′s needlepoint cat above and let’s go!

Thank you so much for your kind, supportive and compassionate words for me and gwensdad in our season of loss. It is hard to know what to say to people in our situation, but it meant the world to us that you said something. It has been a great comfort to know that folks from all over were touched by the life of our sweet girl and will miss her too.

Gwen would have been 13 years old today. My mom took off work and spent time with me earlier. Then gwensdad and I went out for a quiet dinner.

We miss our baby so very much and find it difficult to let her go. At the same time, it is a blessed relief to be free of constant worry about her safety and well-being. We had long dreaded the day we would lose Gwen and didn’t expect it quite so soon. But our girl enjoyed her life, she didn’t suffer in the end and had us right there with her every step of the way. This is what I desperately wanted for my daughter. The fact that nothing bad can ever happen to her leaves me grateful beyond expression.

Now we begin an uncertain journey into a radically different way of living. We’re not sure what we will do and whom we will be. The prospect of finding out is a rather frighting and overwhelming, yet also a little exciting. I hope you all will stick around for the ride.

It is with sorrow that I write to tell you that our precious daughter Gwen passed away peacefully in our arms early Wednesday morning. She had contracted a flu that developed into pneumonia from which she could not recover.

We thank God for her life which was rich and full of people who loved her, and for our family, friends and even strangers who are carrying us through this sad sad time.

Visitation will be Monday, September 28 at Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. with a memorial service to follow at 4:00 p.m. A full obituary will appear on Friday or Saturday in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Every parent’s dearest wish is that their children be happy, and we were granted that blessing in both Gwen’s life and her easy passing.

Thank you to all you dear people who journeyed with us and with Gwen through this blog.

Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

Gwen contracted a very nasty virus this week that turned into pneumonia. She was admitted to the ICU at our local children’s hospital on Sunday evening.

Respiratory infections are a serious threat to children like Gwen. So far she has shown signs of improvement but is not yet out of the woods.

There IS hope for Gwen. But today Gwensdad and I have had some gut-wrenching conversations with doctors about how far we want them to go if she should get worse.

I will post updates when there is something to tell. In the meantime, please send prayers, karma, vibes or whatever you can for our precious girl and for us.

Thank you in advance.

At the prom, 2006

First, my return on the star swap. This is by the lovely and talented Nicci whose art is big and bold and colorful. I have enjoyed seeing her work online for a long time and now I have some in my house! Don’t you love the rosebush hair?

Then, Gwen received a surprise from LauraJay, the special needs mom and quilter extraordinaire. I will wait while you click on the link and see her amazing quilts.

OK, are you back? Wasn’t that amazing?

A while ago, Laura offered to send me some fabric I admired on her flickr set. It came with this adorable doll for Gwen. As you can see, it met Gwen’s approval.

Thanks so much Nicci and Laura! Art in the mailbox always makes for a great day.

And although I'd banned myself from any unnecessary spending, I determined that it was necessary to assemble and ship an Iraqi Bundle of Love. A soldier in Iraq is collecting bundles of fabric, yarn and knitting/sewing supplies to “surge” into the area where he is stationed near the end of his tour. Bundles should be mailed by September 7th so that they will arrive in time to be distributed during the festive celebrations at the end of Ramadan. Details and instructions are here. I will send you the APO address- just comment and ask. There is still a week to get yours in the mail!

Don’t you think that this is a much better kind of “surge” that the ones we have heard about so far?

My bundle includes a shower curtain, a vintage sheet, a tablecloth and some large and small cuts of fabric I have had forever. Also enclosed are zippers from clothes I have refashioned, buttons from the men’s shirts used for a quilt and oddments of yarn, trim and embroidery thread. Believe it or not, I was able to cram it all into a large APO flat rate box.

I’m mailing these out as part of a larger decluttering project to make way for Gwen’s new bedroom. She will be moving to a bigger space and getting an awesome set of retro mod vintage furniture hopefully this week!

This shop was fantastic. It was much bigger than any of our Memphis LQS’s and a little overwhelming at first. There at my fingertips were bolts and bolts of wonderful prints I have seen online but could not find locally. And they could be mine without shipping charges!

I wandered around the store wondering how to decide what to bring home with me. At one point I became concerned that there were no batiks. But the back of the store had a whole huge wall of them in every color, print and design. I nearly swooned.

After much hemming, hawing, flipping, flopping, wishing, washing and back and forth, I make some decisions and loaded up my credit card with all of this:

A few 1/4 yards of dots. I’m collecting them for a baby quilt.

These black and white prints to make something for Gwen.

And all these lovely half yards of gorgeous green batiks. No definite plans for these yet. Right now I just love looking at them.

The only thing I really wanted but didn’t find were Kaffe Fasset fabrics and this owl print by Amy Schimler. They did have full selection of Floragraphix by Jason Yenter but I had spent my budget and had to leave it behind.

This is a great store with a friendly staff who folded my purchases up for me nice and neat. Go if you can, but allow plenty of time and take lots of money!

After visiting the Arboretum, we met an old friend of mine and her husband for lunch. N. and I were camp counselors together way back in the day. I didn’t take any pictures at lunch, but here is one of us from a long long time ago. Ah to be that thin again!

The next day, gwensdad got to pick the activity and he decided on horseback riding. This was a little disconcerting to say the least. I have been uneasy on horses ever since being thrown off of a temperamental pony, oh about 40 years ago. But it was time to suck it up and try again.

I remembered what I had learned about riding as a reluctant student at various summer camps, so things went well and I ended up having a great time. We rode for an hour on trails that wound around a mountain and then stopped for a hour at an old garnet mine. It rained pretty hard while we were in the mine but let up as soon as we resumed our ride. After we had gone a little way, the man on the horse in front of me dropped his rain poncho and spooked my horse. She jerked back but I stayed on. It happened so fast that I did not have time to get scared until it was over.

At the end of the ride we were excited to spot a Blue Heeler puppy. We are always glad to see Australian Cattle Dogs because they remind us of our beloved Cody.

On the drive home we saw several weathered old tobacco barns.

After we cleaned up, gwensdad dropped me off at the Asheville Cotton Company with instructions to come back two hours later. Stay tuned to see what I bought!

Yes, the stars aligned, so Gwensdad and I were able to take our first vacation in 12 years to beautiful Asheville, NC. I had gone to summer camp in the area and we had been there the year before Gwen was born and always wanted to go back.

Asheville is a small mountain city with beautiful vistas, an abundance of wildflowers, wonderful restaurants and best of all mild temperatures with low humidity. We stayed in a cabin with rocking chairs on the upstairs porch and a hot tub on the downstairs porch. We only had two days to play, so we skipped the main attraction, the Biltmore House, as we had been there already.

Instead we visited the North Carolina Arboretum, an extensive botanic garden, forest area and regional green resource. This place is a regional treasure and it blew us both away.

The core garden area is flanked by an array of stunning gates made at the Penland School of Crafts. This one represents the area’s wildlife and natural resources.

Snake detail

And this one has a garden theme

Turtle detail

Here is a fabulous piece of sculpture by Martin Webster. Read about it and all the other fabulous garden art on the Arboretum’s art page.

Finally, the quilt garden, planted with quilt block designs. New blocks are installed four times a year. The darker foliage in these squares is sweet potato vines and the small shrubs are a fragrant basic that scented the entire area.

Our visit was cut short by rain, but there was so much else to see! Including these lovely art quilts in the gift shop.

This amazing place is a jewel. I am longing to go back to hike the trails and browse the gardens we didn’t have time to see. At $6 per carload of people, it is real bargain that you won’t soon forget!

I recently joined Art42, a new mail art site based on the old Nervousness format, and promptly signed up for three projects. The first one is to art up a brown cardboard star sent by the swap host. For a long time I have enjoyed looking at the colorful jumble of fabric scraps that accumulates on the floor while I am sewing. So I attacked some bright batik fabrics with scissors and went to work with some glue. Here it is so far. It needs to be shiny, so I’ll give it a few coats of varnish before sending it off to the pacific northwest.

Have a great week!