Row by row

 Life gets in the way of things sometimes as it did this past week.  Some events interfered with ours and everything got put on hold, but we are back to the same ol' same ol' stuff again so here goes.
The top row above is the row I added to the quilt.  Fortunately this quilter put fabric in for each of us to use in her quilt if we chose to do so.  Hers is the appliqued dimensional flowers below and the stars were done by her mother who happened to be the quilter who will follow her rows.  I chose the churn dash or monkey wrench as it goes by both names, which is the pattern I put on the first row I received and added the appliqued flowers to carry her theme forward.  There are absolutely no rules in this round robin so each quilter chooses fabric and pattern.

We have had a lot of fun with this and in this small  community, we have an even dozen quilters participating.

So in the news this week, Bankrate has listed the top places and the bottom places to retire and our state came in as the number one top place to retire. This was based on a number of things including cost of living, (housing, gas, taxes), medical, recreation and others.  However, a trade off is snow and for us the isolation.  (if you can't drive, you can't get anywhere from here)  We have been here for almost 45 years and the Mr. has always had his feet firmly planted here, however the lack of public transportation and the fact that our two children are on the west coast has become an issue that as we age, we must consider.  We have wonderful friends and know that we can depend on them now, but they too are aging and have families of their own. Something also to consider for those wishing to settle here.  We are hoping to get to go camping this summer and our proximity to the mountains is wonderful, but we are also hoping to get a little traveling in also.

"Friendship is a union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue." ~ William Penn