Thanks everyone for your kind words. We are all doing well and remembering the good times. He had such a unique colloquial way to tell stories. They always started with "so I goes to....." That memory alone makes me chuckle. DH is taking care of his mom - he is such a good man. So all is moving in the right direction.
I took some time yesterday to plot out the next two tops. One will be "kitties in the X-mas tree" using Jenny Doan't cat pattern in christmassy fabrics. I picked up a layer cake on sale. The background will come from stash. It isn't a perfect match but I'll make it work.
The next one will be the snails trail with the batik I picked during my last splurge of the year.
I did finish a double-mitt pot holder but don't really like it. That pattern needs to go back to the drawing board.