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This is the hardest post I've had to write. I've put it off all week.  Thought of a few sentences. Had a few random thoughts. Did the photos. Left it.  Unsure what to say.  For the first time in, oh, forever, I think, I don't feel much like writing.  Both my daughters have commented about missing reading my posts. A very close blogger friend had good advice: don't wait too long or you may never go back. So here we go.

Some things are constant in life:

'my' lake this week

Some things are not.
Brady, my beloved grandson, no longer has a dad. He died very suddenly and tragically on Father's Day.  We spent the past several weeks out in Alberta. How does a child recover from the loss of a parent, especially when both are so young?  How can grandparents help?  How do parents help their daughter heal?

I don't know.

Be there.  Enjoy/treasure ordinary moments.

Nana was a bit of a MacGyver herself, rigging up a sprinkler of sorts on a hot day; like his Nana, Brady loves to read

Listen.  Do what you can.

How do I get 'back' into my life?  Well, I made some more Canadian Women blocks.  I was sewing this set the day the phone call came.

88 - Viola Rita Huggard MacMillan: woman miner, first to be inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame; 89 - Helen Creighton: folklorist of Nova Scotia; 90 - Ann Hulan: successful Newfoundland farmer, after her husband died, she sailed her goods to St. John's on her own schooner (note the ship in the centre 2.5" square)

When I got back home, part of me knew I needed to keep plodding along, trying to catch up, even though I'd missed three more sets of blocks.  Another part of me knew that choosing the colours, ploughing through the scraps, and doing the ensuing piecing was healing.  And part of me recognized that reading about these women's hardships and perseverance would, in turn, help me in dealing with our loss.

Slowly I've sewn six more the past few days.  Each one takes me at least an hour, usually more.  My impatiens below, once again, do not disappoint, despite being left to their own devices for three weeks. Who knew they'd be such a perfect backdrop to these blocks?

91 - Maud Watt: first female game warden in Quebec; 92 - Sophie Morigeau: successful trader, one of the first BC women to claim her own land, 320 acres; 93 - Kirkina Mucko: at age 2, she had her legs amputated below the knee because they got frozen and gangrenous, yet she hobbled around, sometimes on her knees, sometimes on artificial limbs, for the rest of her life. After losing 6 of her 7 children as well as her husband to the Spanish Flu, this amazing woman became a midwife, working in Labrador for 30 years.

I set these next three beneath a stunning flower arrangement that the Movati Club where I teach yoga, sent me:

94 - Irma LeVasseur: first registered francophone woman doctor in Quebec; 95 - Clara Brett Martin: first woman in the British Empire (yes! and she was Canadian!) to become a fully-fledged lawyer, earning her LLB in 1899; 96 - Caroline Louise Josephine Wells: first female dental surgeon in 1893.

Being alone this week has been mostly good as I start to regroup and recharge.  So much kindness from so many people have come my family's way. This meal (well enough for 3 meals!) was thoughtfully made for me by my sweet friend Liz.

I added the (score!) dry rosé from the Provence region I found at Trader Joe's. Thanks, Dayna, for a much-needed fun morning there, and at the Farmers' Market, and then at a wonderful local place for lunch, Crispelli's, which we picked up, and ate in her serene back yard.

Life does go on, as they say. We will be okay.  I know sewing and quilting and yoga will help me.  I have the Cows quilt on the frame from before, and I have a new pattern I'm working on for an upcoming issue of Benartex's Modern By the Yard. That link will take you to their blog, with a link on the sidebar to the summer issue, full of free wonderful patterns.

I heard just last week from a reader, Michele, asking about the directions for the Freefall QAL which she had just come across. That warmed my heart, but even more so, because she sent a photo of her first blocks as she works through it on her own! She gave me her permission to use this photo:

Aren't these truly luscious fabrics?! Cannot wait to see more.

Just a reminder that Connecting Threads (affiliate link there and below) is having quite the 10th anniversary sale:

• up to 40% off kits and samplers (here's one I really like:

Move Over quilt kit

• up to 30% off batting (something I've taken advantage of several times. They carry Hobbs.  (I need to do a post on my experience with their battings, all good so far.)
• 25% off thread

Craftsy is also having a summer sale on kits and supplies, up to 50% off. Here is just one I really like:

Cornerstone Dreamfield quilt kit

Thank you so much for the support of this blog.  I should be back on Instagram later today as well. I have an aunt and her three daughters hip-hopping around the south of England, (and over to Paris--ahh!) and I need to visit their feeds! My aunt sent me some gorgeous shots of hydrangeas...

Linking up