Ann's Words

Today our Thimble Creek quilt group made the move to our new quilting home.  It was glorious!  Our fellow quilter, Karen Ashton, is our perfect hostess and today we settled in to this beautiful room surrounded by charm and grace.

We meet every Wednesday from 10:00 until about 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. and we sit and stitch and share and feed our souls.  It really is a bit of heaven on earth.

I read an anon post this week on FB that said:  “There’s a certain kind of magic in making something with your own two hands.  It’s not always loud.  It doesn’t always come with applause.  But sometimes you step back, take a breath, and truly see what you’ve created.⁠  And in that moment, you catch yourself thinking, ‘I did that?’  

That’s not just a finished quilt, a sewn hem, or a pattern brought to life. That’s your time, your patience, your courage to keep going—especially on the days it felt impossible.  You didn’t just make something beautiful.  You grew. You learned. You showed up for yourself.⁠

⁠So if you’re looking for a sign that you’re doing enough, let this be it. What you’re creating matters—because you matter.” 

There is a secret “Yarnia” passageway from this quilting room into the yarn room that is its own special place.  It was also magical.

At noon we all went downstairs for lunch, another favorite part of our favorite day.

I am grateful for these dear friends.  We’ve been quilting together for many many years.  And I expect we will one day be quilting together in the heavens.

We spent the day in Salt Lake at the UoU Hospital.  John was back for another ear surgery with Dr Patel, a specialist for cancer in the ear.  This problem has been tackled before.

Some history:

John’s Ear, Ready for Halloween!

There has still been itching and irritation in the bowl of his ear.  The doctors decided to go after it again.  Here’s the before:

We arrived early this morning, but ended up waiting all day for John’s turn.  Gratefully he found some tennis on the TV in his private waiting room.

I bound a baby quilt Claire made for a friend and stitched while listening to an audio book.

Finally, this evening, they took John back for the surgery.  They had a second specialist–a dermatologist doing the lab work in the room as they scraped out the skin, to be sure they found clean margins.  They took another skin graft from John’s thigh to replace the skin they removed from the ear, then they packed his ear full of a bolster to hold the graft in place as it heals.  This won’t be removed for 2 weeks.

We got home late this evening, stopping by Taco Amigo on the way so John could enjoy a fresh strawberry shake, his favorite.  Let’s hope this is the last time this ear goes under the knife!

Today was the wedding day of our niece, Katie Wakimoto.  She and her bride were married at Solitude in Salt Lake.  Here are a few pictures to mark the day.  We weren’t invited, so we got to stay home and babysit Caleb while Claire and Graham went.

John’s sister, Diana Wakimoto

Katie’s sister, Christina with her husband and baby daughter.

Jeffrey and Kathleen Lewis

Ben Camp, Vicki Work and Chrissy Lassen, cousins

Ben and Barbara Camp

Dan and Emily Lassen, Dave and Maggie Lassen, cousins

Sadye Wakimoto, sister, and Ben Camp, cousin

Katie and her bride, Qiana Noel Smit Wakimoto

I got a call from my dear friend, Melissa yesterday inviting me to join her and her sister and sisters-in-law at a little family quilting retreat.  I was thrilled to have a free day and to be able to go!  They were meeting at Donna Vidmar’s home.  I was excited to see her place and her sewing room.  She is an Amazing quilter.

This morning I packed my bags and a project and headed up the canyon with excitement in my heart.  I’ve had a hard time breaking back into my quilting life since our return.  My family history work has pulled me away.  I needed to get some quilting mojo back!

Here is one of Donna’s recent quilts:

One of the perks of knowing Donna and Melissa is that they are Peter Vidmar’s family.  I remember watching the 1984 Summer Olympics while getting ready to move to Nigeria.  That was the year Peter competed at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, winning two gold medals in the team all-around competition and pommel horse event, while also earning silver in the individual all-around. Peter was the team captain.   I cried when he and the US team won.  They won for all of us.

Today in Paris, Faith Kipyegon from Kenya raced to break a 4 minute mile.  Peter, always an Olympian, was sure to have the TV in the sewing room set to watch this event with us, which was quite thrilling.  We all watched and cheered as she rounded the track in this exhibition run.

She fought to the finish line in a final time of 4:06.42, more than a second faster than her world-record mark of 4:07.64. This time won’t count as a new women’s record, since it was an exhibition race using male pacemakers—but it was still an eyepopping performance.

She fought to the finish line in a final time of 4:06.42, more than a second faster than her world-record mark of 4:07.64. This time won’t count as a new women’s record, since it was an exhibition race using male pacemakers—but it was still an eyepopping performance. You can watch the race below:

Today I sewed together the first of my Chopped Snakes quilts, made entirely of scraps.  These quilts are perpetual projects in my sewing room as I work to keep my scrap basket under control.

Donna’s Halloween quilt:

This evening we took a nice long walk around the neighborhood and over to the Heber Temple site.  Hopefully that temple (announced 2 years ago) will soon be started.  It was a great day doing what I love with friends I have missed.

Proud Mom Moment.  Adam starts his 4th and final year of residency July 1st.  He’s an excellent ophthalmologist.

We’ve had Devon Stratton and his crew, our favorite tree guys from Climbers Tree Care, working at the cabin this last week.  They have been kind enough to let us use their splitting machine, so today was the first of 2 Saturdays we spent at the cabin working through piles of cut trees.  To meet the fire codes, we regularly have to remove any dead trees, or trees that grow too close to the buildings.   Devon left a huge pile for us to work on.  Aaron and Graham invited their strong buddies to join us for a day in the mountains.

We will soon be saying good by to the wood shake shingles covering our walkway and garage here at Sundance.  Like at our home in the valley, insurance will no longer cover shake shingles.  Everyone worries about fires.  Here’s a last look before this roofs are covered in metal roofing.

I had never seen or used a wood splitter.  It was really fun to watch the hydraulics at work.  With a push of a lever, the power drove a wedge into the hardest logs and split them like a bale of hay.  It was incredible to watch.  I thought of lots of metaphors as we worked, how small things, good or bad, can have great consequences.  Take a look at the power:

We came back on the 28th to finish our work.  Look at all this beautiful stacked wood!

This week Eric, and his son, Brandt, came to town from Reedley.  They came with fruit, fresh picked from our family farm.  What a delicious treasure!  We had some fun visiting time before these boys went to Colorado for a night fishing trip.

After the boys returned, we had a fun get-together at Riana’s home in Lehi with Paul’s family.  Claire and Graham were in town too.

It was our first time meeting Grace Ruby, Janelle’s daughter.  She’s named after my mom, our grandma Ruby Grace, and her mother, Grace Honor Bushman.  She is a dear little girl!

Aaron has the greatest friends.  Jason Allred has been a long-time friend.  Jason has been living in our home while we’ve been away.  He just finished his MBA at BYU and tonight was a farewell party in his honor.  Old BYU and Qualtrics friends came.  They’ve gathered here many times over the years.  They are such a fun group.

We will miss Jason.  He’s been a perfect roommate and he’s really good at cutting watermelon!