Category: Blended family

Blended family · Casa de Ortega · grief · Life after loss · quilting · Widow · Wife

Oh Boy! Good Mail Day!

Wild Rose Quilter4 Comments

The rest of the fabrics I ordered to go with the ones I pulled from my stash for soon to be Baby Z’s quilt arrived today! I have to get these washed and pressed so I can get started cutting my squares! I’m so excited to see how this comes together! 


If you’ve read the previous post, you know I’m planning to make a chevron quilt. The light gray print on bottom will be the background for the zig zags in the other colors. Then there may or may not be an appliqué added on top in the darker gray in this next photo. 


Either way, I can’t wait to work on it! I absolutely adore this next piece of fabric. I only ordered one yard to use  in the  light blue zig zag, but now I think I must get more because this fabric just needs to be the backing also!! I was going to make the backing from the light gray print, but I’m just too in love with this blue and all the sweet sayings in it. 


I needed a dose of  pretty fabric “medicine”. A dear friend passed away yesterday. He was like a brother to my late husband, who passed away five years ago this past May. I think a wonderful reunion is happening on the other side. 

And, my new Prince and I took his young prince back to the  airport today to fly home to his mom and stepdad. We really enjoyed the past two weeks with this sweet young man. I’ve only known him for two years, but our relationship has come very easily. We seem to have bonded well. I already miss having him here. I know Efren does! I wish he didn’t live ten hours away from us, so we could be together much more often. I snapped some pics of him and his dad before we left. Love these guys and I’m thankful to have them in my life now. 

Blended family · nature · quilting

Sunday Stitching with a View

Wild Rose Quilter2 Comments

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This was my view this evening as I sat in my lawn chair and worked on hand stitching the binding on this one. I made the binding Wednesday, and I’m proud to say I’ve made good progress in the snippets of time I could find to spare for it. My goal is to have it finished before this week ends.

Last night, my 5 yr old grandson joined my husband, my 16 yr old stepson, and me for a sleepover at Casa de Ortega, aka Mammy’s house. I had chosen “Grammy” as my grandmother name, but it came out of his mouth as mammy, and it stuck. He has a Mimi, a Memaw, and a Meemaw, all on my daughter -in-law’s side, so it was really no surprise when he pronounced Grammy as Mammy. I had always heard that basically you can choose whatever you think you want to be, but your first grandbaby will call you what they call you and that’s that, lol.

After we dropped him back home to his mom and dad this morning, we spent the whole afternoon into the early evening out at a local lake, with one of my brother-in-laws and part of his family, and my mother-in-law. It was an absolutely beautiful day for some fishing, kayaking, and just sitting enjoying the beauty around us.


We don’t get my stepson nearly as often as we would like, because he lives 10 hours away and so we have to make the most of the too short visits we get. It warms my heart to see him and his dad having a great day together.


I hope your Sunday was blessed and have a marvelous Monday tomorrow.

Blended family · family · freehand quilting · longarm quilting · quilting · quilts · Wedding · Widow

I Have a Finish!

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Oh it feels so good! I finished Baby C’s quilt tonight. I can’t wait to get it washed and take it to him. ❤️


I love the 10 Minute Block pattern and tutorial. Such a fun, fast and easy pattern. 

I have so many WIP’s waiting in line to be finished, but first, I must start a new quilt! Because somewhere near the end of October, there will be another sweet baby boy for this Mammy to love! I’ve been looking over patterns the past couple of days, trying to settle on one. It definitely needs to be another fast and easy! 

The wedding, by the way, was just lovely. My new husband and I sat on the front row with my step-daughter and her husband and the other two sets of grandparents, with one chair  left empty for the grandfather that was there in spirit and in hearts. It was sweet. It was beautiful. It was perfect. 💙

Blended family · daily life · family · grief · love of my life · quilting · Wedding · Widow · Wife

Family, Past and Present

Wild Rose Quilter4 Comments

Today, we get ready to watch my oldest “step”-grandson (from my marriage to my late husband) marry his sweetheart this evening. It will be a fun wedding, cowboy style, in the pasture with reception dinner and dancing to follow. These moments and days are bittersweet. These are the days when my past life and present life collide a bit more, and emotions tend to be more unpredictable. It’s now five years post loss. Greg’s absence is always more “acute” at events such as this. This is his first grandchild getting married. I know that my stepdaughter will very deeply miss her father’s presence at the wedding. Tonight, my new husband will accompany me, and sit on the front “family” row, as the place by my side now belongs to him. I am so thankful that he has been welcomed into the family with open arms, and that I continue to be a loved and special part of my late husband’s family. And, that he also has welcomed them into his life. Our blended family is quite complex. On both sides. I am so blessed and thankful for this new love and this precious man to share my life with. There was a day when I couldn’t imagine it, and now I cannot imagine not having him in my life. I believe he and Greg were just both meant to  have a place in this journey that is my life and in my heart. Thankfully, there are no limits to love and no limits on how much or many our hearts can hold.