Comfort quilt finished

I can't help it. I love this quilt! I may have to make some blue and white blocks and make one for me. This one will go in the mail today to a special person needing some comfort in her time of health crisis. I'm not sure if she reads my blog, so I'll wait to say who it is until she gets it. The fabric used in the alternate blocks on the front and the entire back is some fabric that Leota found at a garage sale. I love it when I can put to use what people bring me in the form of a comfort quilt for others.


Deborah and I leave for Houston in two days! I just pray Dad stays well enough for me to go and stay gone for 5 days. Since Jim's last day at work is tomorrow, Tuesday, he knows he is going to be helping Joe and Rob keep Dad on track until Judy gets back from Albuquerque on Friday. Yes, we are BOTH going to be out of town. A little scary, but I know we have to live our lives.

I added this picture of my boys and Jim having breakfast yesterday morning. It's rare these days that I get the three of them to myself especially now that Rob is married. April had to work early on Sunday so I talked them both into coming for breakfast. Well, I didn't have to talk very hard! LOL

I still need to get the label ready for the blue and white quilt so I better get going. Need to get my nails done, do some laundry, check on Dad, etc., etc.

Another comfort quilt

I love "quilt-as-you-go"! This one is almost completely quilted as of tonight. The two rows on the left need quilting then I can start putting them together. I'll add the binding, and, poof, it's done! I'm using a very simple quilting pattern so it's going very fast. I'll probably rearrange some of the blocks so the dark ones are not close to each other. When it's totally finished, it will look a bit different because the thin sashing that will hold them together will add to the design. I plan on using a dark blue to sash the front. Maybe on the back, too. I'll post a picture of the back when I'm done.

Not too busy at work, but tomorrow may prove differently. No surprise since it's Friday.

Dad is doing a bit better with the new diuretic they put him on and the oxygen he's breathing. He informed me tonight that the pills in his Saturday box were there because he moved them from the Wednesday box. When I asked why, he said 'cause he forgot to take them Wednesday morning! Guess I'll have to start checking them more closely.

I thought I might finish the quilt tonight, but I am really tired. As long as I have it ready to mail by Monday, I think I'll be doing fine. Have a good weekend if I don't see you 'til next week!

Quilt as I go..

Monday night was spent quilting these blocks. They are from a pile of comfort quilt blocks that have been sitting here, staring at me. lol We've had some ladies lose loved ones in our online qroup so I thought I'd better get at least one of these done in case we want to send one on. I'm not sure yet how I want to put these together. If I use the traditional sashing to connect the blocks, I'm afraid I'll lose the secondary pattern that arises when the blocks are sewn together. But, that's the easiest way for me to do it. If you click on the picture, I think you get a closeup of the quilting. I just picked a design I thought would fit and ran with it.

While quilting last night, I decided I didn't want to cook. So, I called Pizza Hut. While placing the order, I got up from my sewing machine, intending to run into the den to ask Jim what he wanted on his pizza, when my shoe caught one of the cords under my table. I couldn't shake it off fast enough and so I pitched forward onto my knee. Good ol' carpet burn! Ouch. The phone flew out of my hand but I didn't lose the Pizza Hut person on the other end. Picked myself up, walked to the den, got Jim's order and limped back to my room. LOL I tell you, I've GOT to get this sewing room in order before I knock myself senseless!

Early day this morning so I best get going.

No quilting, but some crochet

Well, I haven't cranked up my sewing machine in the last week or so, but I have been working on another afghan. Here are 5 swirl motifs put together just so I can see if I'm going to like it and, thus, continue making a total of 52 "blocks". LOL, yes, 52 of these things! Am I crazy?? Maybe, but this will be a very portable project if I continue to make all the blocks before I connect them all together. I think I'm going to like it, so I will continue...

Dad's visit to the doc today netted him a new concentrator for oxygen use, an antibiotic and another, 5-day diuretic (added to his present Lasix). He looked better when I left about 6:15 this afternoon. I hope and pray he's able to sleep better tonight and that the diuretic aids in removing a lot of the fluid that is building up. This congestive heart failure is not for sissies...

Jim is off tomorrow and then he only has 6 more days to work before retirement. More thoughts on that later...lol I'm going to bed.

Wedding Weekend

These are just a sampling of the pictures taken this past weekend at Rob and April's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful backyard. The wind blew a bit, but it really wasn't too bad. The picture of them on the swing was actually taken a few weeks ago, part of their engagement picture package. The photographer has done a wonderful job and I can't wait to the pictures he took of the entire event. These candid shots were taken by our son-in-law and he did a good job, too! Thanks, RW!

I couldn't resist showing you a picture of my baby boy dancing the Mother-Son dance with me. I wish you could see his face in this one, but maybe the pro photographer will have taken a better one.

Needless to say, I have done absolutely no quilting this weekend. I did show Rob and April their Double Wedding Ring quilt that is only about half quilted. They really liked it. It will get done, eventually!

I'm off to get ready for the day. Dad has an appointment to see about his oxygen levels and maybe a possible infection. Please pray that they can deal with all this here and we don't have to head to Lubbock.

Have a great day!

Where did the week go?

This week has flown by. Maybe because it's time for Rob and April's wedding? We have the rehearsal and dinner tonight. Jim's daughter, Brenda, and her family are on their way from Houston as we speak. They should be here around 1 p.m. I wish I'd taken today off. But, I didn't, so I need to get my rear in gear and get going for the day.

My brother and his wife will be in this afternoon and my aunt should be getting in tomorrow sometime. I think those are the only relatives, on our side, that are traveling to get here. Oh, speaking of my brother, he called last night to let us know that his daughter is going to make them grandparents once more. Their son had a little girl a month ago and this baby is due in June.

Dad is hanging in there. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Please pray that he can make it through this weekend without any episodes. We do have an appointment for Monday morning since he does seem a bit short of breath and is weaker than he has been. I told my brother that if Dad seems worse today, I am taking him in for a check. Unfortunately, his cardiologist in town is out until Nov. 5 and his backup guy in Lubbock is out until Monday. We'll see his primary doc here on Monday and go from there.

Off to start this very long day..

"I Spy Crazy 9 Patch"

This one is made from fat quarters I have accumulated throughout the last few years. Exchanges for birthdays, bingo winnings and other occasions have brought me many different kinds of FQs. Most of these are children's prints.

Let me back up...Last Monday I went to my local quilt group meeting. We left with instructions to cut fabric for next month's program. It will be a Crazy 9 Patch lesson. I couldn't wait. So, I found some sketchy instructions online to help me get started. (We only got cutting instructions at the meeting.) Then, in order not to have another UFO needing to be quilted, I decided to go ahead and quilt-as-you-go this one. Hence, the back of it has the car fabric connected with red strips. I'm not sure I cut and sewed the blocks like you're really supposed to, but it will do. Ultimately, this will be a donated quilt.

Only one more week before Rob and April's wedding. I pray that Dad will stay healthy enough to attend. I'm a little worried about him since he had his flu shot this last Monday. He has not felt well at all, and today seemed to be the worst. He seems to be accumulating more fluid on his lungs, especially his left, and we are working on helping him get back to where he was. His weight has been going up gradually and it worries us. His breathing was more labored today than it has been in quite a while. Please pray that he will overcome this episode on his own.

I really need to finish quilting the DWR but it is so big and heavy that I get lazy to do it. I try to do a ring every day or so, but it is slow going. Maybe I'll have it done in time for their first anniversary! LOL

Halloween quilt (edited)

I edited the post to show what I did to the Halloween quilt today. I took it to the shop and no one seemed to catch on to the fact that I had quilted a spider web all over it so I decided to make it more noticeable. I ran to Hobby Lobby and bought a metallic paint pen and just went over my quilt lines. I like the way it turned out! NOW I'll hang it at the shop! lol Stayed with Dad until 5 and left him sleeping. Joe was home. Dad seems to have had a reaction to the flu shot we took on Monday. I hope he feels better tomorrow.

So, here's what I've done instead of cleaning my sewing room. I saw the orange fabric as I was thinking of sorting through things and decided to make a Halloween quilt. I thought a big spider web would be the ideal quilting pattern. I hope you can see it in the closeup. I'll bind it and hang it at the shop. Stash busting at it's best!
It was another slow day at work, but tomorrow should pick up. Leota had some minor surgery done and will probably not be back to work this week.

Time to take the contacts out. I may have to try to get an appointment with the eye doc sooner than December 10. I've waited this long, maybe I can hold out until then.

No cleaning, more sewing

These are pictures of various ways I thought of to arrange the log cabins I made this morning. I started them last night using the Eleanor Burns, quilt-in-a-day technique. But, I think I'm going to cut them up and re-sew them so they will have the tilted effect, as shown in the last picture. It gives them so much more interest.
I had good intentions of coming home last night and just start clearing out my sewing room. Before I started that, though, I spied some orange fabric and thought, "where is the rest of the Halloween fabric?" I did a little search in some of the boxes and there it was. So, I had an urge to cut up some logs and sew away. Just another procrastination avenue...
Jim and I ran to Dad's this morning for breakfast and while Jim is gone to the base for groceries, I came home to shower and change clothes. I'm now on my way back to Dad's. He has decided he wants to go to the grocery store with me. While I'm getting cleaned up, he is making his list. I'm so happy he's decided he wants to go!
When I get home tonight, maybe I can finish the log cabin blocks and get them ready to be quilted. We need a new wallhanging at work and this will be perfect for this month.

A week gone by..

Here it is, a week since I posted. Everyone is fine, I've just been a little slow in getting things done since Judy and I have given it a really good shot at getting back to the gym. Obviously, I can't do everything! lol I have been working on some quilty stuff. One project I'm quilting on right now cannot be shown until after Rob and April's wedding, whether I'm done with it or not. At the rate I'm going, I'm not sure it will be finished. In the meantime, I have been working up these string blocks. As you can see, I still need the corner blocks.
I've also been playing with more Christmas panels since I've got another order for a tablerunner. I got a little carried away sewing strips on the sides of this little santa globe block but I was hoping to make it a reversible runner. I'm not liking the fabric I used on the back, so this may become just a little wallhanging.

Dad's doing well. He and I went to Muleshoe yesterday to visit one of his co-workers who is now retired. She lives in an assisted living complex. I came away from that visit feeling very helpless in that I can't figure out how to help this lady without stepping on toes, mainly, her family's. She only has one son and he and his family seem to be too busy to even help her get settled into her little apartment. Which, I might add, she's been in now since April and boxes are still piled high and she has almost no furniture except for a rickety old recliner and a not-so-comfortable cot in the bedroom. I could go on, but like I said, I'm not sure how to help her.

On our way home, we stopped by the little "casino" (for lack of a better term) and spent about an hour. By the time we got home, Dad was pretty tired. Heck, I was, too! lol It was all I could do to come home, fix dinner and get to the gym. No sewing last night, except for one string block.

Time to get ready for work.

Slow day at work...

  Since it turned out to be a slow Tuesday at work, I decided I'd come home and finish up these baby quilts. I still need bindings on both of them, but I thought I'd show the quilting on both. I thought it would take longer to quilt the blocks individually, rather than the circle within a circle pattern, but it really didn't. I'm happy with both. Click on the picture to see a close-up.

It's time to grab a bite and run on over to Dad's. We're trying to scale down the amount of hours the homemaker has to be there. He's getting around so much better that he's willing to be alone for a while. But, I still feel like I need to be there for a while. The boys come and go during lunch, so he's not totally alone for long. Judy pops in, too, so he's got people checking on him periodically.

another bear quilt

This has proven to be a popular quilt with some of my clients. I've had requests for two of them. I put this one together tonight so you can see it's very easy. It's a little smaller than the one in the previous post, but it's more a crib size, for a baby.

The picture of the first quilt showed me that I really need to pay attention to how I place the triangle blocks. If you look close enough to the first picture, you can see where I placed them in the wrong position. Since I was aware of that in this quilt, it went together much better. I'll try to get it quilted tomorrow night.

Dad's visit to the cardiologist was a good one. He's doing well and we just have to continue to watch his fluid build up. I hope we can start getting him out to places like the Senior Center. He's a little gun-shy about getting out in public with his walker or quad cane. He's still a little wobbly. His face is finally looking normal after his little encounter with the cabinet handle.

We have a new little baby in the family! My brother is now a grandpa! Little Journey was born yesterday at noon, our time, and weighed 5 lbs. 15 oz. She's little bitty and so cute. Got to see pictures soon after she was born. Can't wait to see her in person. I hope the Oklahoma crew can make it to Rob and April's wedding next month since little Journey decided to get here earlier than she was planned. What fun would that be!!

Quick quilt

Here's an easy pattern that can be whipped up in a few hours. I have another friend who has had surgery and has been having a bad time. I thought she needed a comfort quilt. She loves bears so I went searching for a bear fabric that wasn't too juvenile. It feels good to finish something again. I know, I finished the tablerunners, but it's just not the same as finishing a larger quilt.

It's time to get to bed. I have an early day tomorrow since we have to take Dad for a follow-up visit to the cardiologist at 8:30. That means getting to his house at least by 8.

New Santa panels

Easiest runner, yet! This Santa panel comes in three's so I just left them intact and just did some free-motion quilting all over it. I put a small border on it because that's all the batting and backing that was left around the main piece. Then I put a binding on it and called it done! I'll take it to work and see if someone is in need of a Christmas tablerunner.

We were supposed to go to Lubbock tomorrow to see the cardiologist, but they called and suggested we see our local guy. Good idea. Will save us a trip. The guy in Lubbock is there if we need him, though. Good news today! The kidney doctor dismissed Dad and told us his kidneys are working at 40%! His numbers are dropping so he is staying far away from dialysis. We are excited!

I'm a bit tired after working on this little runner. Took me two hours and my eyes are really bothering me. I must make an appointment to have my contacts cleaned. '

Who said...

"Mistakes are design opportunities"? I have two cases in point here. The bridal shower quilt, to the left, finally got it's borders. But, in my haste, I decided to sew the narrow border and the wide border together before applying it to the quilt. Good idea if I was going to miter the corners, but not so hot idea if I didn't miter. Ends up that the smaller border gets extended out to the ends, thus cutting into the total look of the wide border. You can see that in the top left and right of the picture. Thanks to Deborah for suggesting that I use a solid for the small border. I had to dig through my stash to find something suitable, and I did. All that's left to do now is to iron on the freezer paper onto the backs of each block. It really is a pretty little quilt top.
Now, this little quilt top, made for a client who underwent bilateral knee replacement yesterday, was a little bit of a challenge. I got the pattern from a book called, "24 Hour Quilts" or some such nonsense, lol. Actually, this pattern says you can do it up in about 5 hours. And you probably can if you don't mess it up in the cutting like I did! When cutting the sewn strips to make the blocks, I layered them, right sides together, so when I cut, I had mirror images. Not supposed to do that. I ended up with blocks that didn't fit into the design, hence the corner areas you see in the pictures. The darker corners in the body of the quilt are not supposed to look like that, but I kinda like it, don't you? I didn't add a smaller border, (I got lazy) and just used extra blocks for the corners since I didn't have enough of the big border.

So, see, mistakes really ARE design opportunities! I have to believe that or I would never finish anything.

We, Judy and I, took Dad on his first real outing yesterday. We ran to Farwell for a little while of fun at the local "for amusement only" casino. A little hole in the wall where you just play the machines and win tokens to play some more. I think he really enjoyed it.

Time to get ready for the day. We've got the bridal shower today and Jim thinks he needs to eat breakfast. lol Have a great day!

Tryng to catch up

April's bridal shower is coming up this Sunday so I decided to whip up a siggie quilt for guests to sign. The idea for this pattern was taken from Linda J. Thank you! I will add a few borders in the next day or two. Now, I have a question that I hope one of you bloggers (or more) can help me with. You'd think that as long as I've been quilting, that I would know what kind of pen to use for these signature quilts. I have yet to find one I REALLY like. Help! I want something that will write boldly and clearly. I usually use a Micron 05, but I'm not crazy about it. Any ideas?
I have been wanting to make a cap and booties to match the pink shell afghan, but only got around to making the cap. It was so easy to make that I made one out of the white yarn that Judy made her afghan from.
Here's a picture of Judy's afghan. She made this for Journey, Henry and Shanon's granddaughter (due in Oct) These are the afghans we made while sitting with Dad in the hospital. I couldn't resist taking a picture of my pink shell with the blue ribbon it won.

Took Dad to the doctor today to remove his stitches. He's doing well. Tired tonight, I'm sure, since he walked quite a bit at the doctor's office and then back out to the car. The doc also gave him an antibiotic to fight a bug that seems to be going around. I think I had it a couple of weeks ago. They also gave me an antibiotic for a sinus infection - the source of my headaches lately.

I'm off to cut borders for the siggie quilt.

Pink ribbon quilt

Here's the pink ribbon quilt quilted, bound and labeled. I still want to make a travel pillowcase to match. I figure she'll need a pillow for all her trips to and from Lubbock.




Dad is doing much better. I want to take some pictures of his face now that he's healing. Judy sent me some pics of his face at it's worst. I'm not sure I should show those. lol He really is doing much better, though.

I'm really tired tonight for some reason. I was going to work on that pillowcase tonight but I think I better wait until I'm rested.

Dad has another "adventure"!

We spent the evening in the ER last night with Dad 'cause he fell and cut his nose horribly. He hit his head on the handle of the kitchen cabinet just below the sink. Oh my goodness! He looks like a boxer now. lol Bless his heart. It took 7 stitches and they did a CT scan but all is well. He tripped on the leg of his walker. Joe was home with him at the time and he was able to put his first aid training to use. Today, April suggested he looks a little like the Beast in "The Beauty and the Beast". LOL He really does.

Here are two more tablerunners made per request after clients saw the one I made for Leota. These panels are great to make up these quick runners. One of them even has a reversible look to it. I made them all using the reversible quilt method. My next project is to finish quilting the DWR I showed in a previous post as well as finishing the pink ribbon quilt.


After getting home from the hospital at midnight last night, I went straight to bed with the chills. I was so cold I was shaking and every inch of skin on my body hurt to the touch. I was up several times before 6 a.m. and then went back to bed and slept until nearly 1:30 p.m.! That's really unusual for me. I hate wasting all that quilting time! But, I guess I needed that. I'm feeling much better right now, but I did sweat a cold sweat all afternoon.

It's back to normal tomorrow.

September 1st

Wow. Already. September 1, 2007. Can't help but remember this day in infamy. Well, in my life, anyway. 34 years ago I married my oldest son's dad. Three years later we were divorced. All I got out of that marriage is my beautiful, 32 year old son, Joe. I used to ask Mom, "Why did you let me go through with it? (getting married). She would say, "You wouldn't have listened." Smart woman, my mom, but then I would counter with, "You could've at least tried!" Can't blame her, though. At 18, I was pretty strong-willed and hard-headed, as most 18 year olds can be.

But, that was then, and this is now. I've been married to Jim for almost 25 years now and my sweetie is working on retiring from the Post Office in only one more month! How exciting is that? Scary, too. But, he's ready and because he'll only be 62, and is in extremely good health, I know he would like to embark on perhaps another, albeit not as demanding, career for a while. We'll see...
On a quilty note...Here's another tablerunner ready to be quilted. This one is for April's brother, Perry and his new bride, Amanda. Rob told me their colors are red and black and I had a hard time deciding what to use as the corners. I knew I needed something lighter so they'd stand out, and the white actually has the word "Love" written all over it. I hope to get it quilted this weekend.

Last, but certainly not least, Dad is hanging in there. We're still working to get his meds "just right" but I think that's going to be an ongoing proposition. He calls me several times at work just to say "hi" and I am so happy to hear his strong voice on the phone. And, it's good to know that he's feeling well enough to get on the phone!

I'm off to get ready for work. Jim is off today but I've got a pretty full schedule. Mary C., I miss you!

a quilting evening

I finally spent an entire night quilting! I made this tablerunner for Leota since her birthday was last Sunday. I'm not so sure I didn't make her one with these Santas last Christmas. Oh well, if I did, she's got a matching pair now! lol We'll have her birthday lunch at work on Thursday, but I'll give it to her tomorrow.

Dad's doing really well. He's trying to walk without his walker but I'm still not ready for him to do that without one of us near him. He wants to be "normal" so badly!

This little runner wore me out tonight. I'm out of practice! lol I've got a couple of larger quilts to work on, so I hope I can spend more evenings doing that.