A Sewing Day

Today was Easter.

So naturally I chose to work on finishing at last my two versions of the Temecula 12 Days of Christmas quilts.  Makes sense in my world.  All work had stalled at Block 10 in January when The Troubles began, so it was a full day to get them both done (because very hard to choose fabrics for these):

The first one features French General fabrics; the second features that flannel Folk Art Museum fabric by Kathy Hall and enough fussy cutting to make any obsessive-compulsive a happy girl.

One day this past week, I rearranged my main sewing room.  It is a much better layout and I am delighted with it.  Unfortunately, this involved rotating the computer and printers 45 degrees which meant hours of reorganizing the cables.  All done now and they mostly don't show, which is a first.  I also am now using my 23" TV (a gift from a very generous online blogger friend upon the unfortunate and violent demise of my previous all-but-new computer monitor, which you may remember, perpetrator shall now remain nameless, okay it was Timmy) as not only a TV but also a computer monitor.  You just switch the input back and forth.  This is all just too cool for words.

During the rearranging, Rembrandt became obsessed with a paper clip.  Over and over, she would pull it off the folder and knock it to the ground, I would put it back and she would pull it off again.  My Rembrandt can do tricks!

  Here she is merely looking cute and colorful.

Here is Donna di Natale's new book from Kansas City Star, Anna's Quilt.  It is a delightful book that gives the pattern for a quilt that her Aunt Anna made and then smaller projects that are inspired by the Depression Era quilt.  

Donna was the editor for my book A Bountiful Life, which is hanging on still at Little Quilts :-) :

Come see it if you can, or be sure to visit it at Spring Market in May in the Kansas City Star booth.  I can't make it there myself because of The Troubles, but Donna is going to conduct a Schoolhouse for A Bountiful Life for me, and not only Donna will be there; Mary Ellen von Holt of Little Quilts and Muriel Pfaff, without whom I simply do not know how I would be navigating through The Troubles, will both also be at the Schoolhouse!!  I just cannot wait to see the youtube video of Schoolhouse to see my three good friends telling the audience about the book and the quilt.  Thank you, Donna, Mary Ellen, and Muriel, dear souls all.

Last but not least, I met Bettina Havig at the shop yesterday.  I was thrilled!  Her book, Amish Kinder Komforts, is one of my favorites.

Nothing to report on The Troubles, except that the chemotherapy infusions continue, the side effects are enough to get a hyena depressed, Timmy is helping me in all ways possible and is the best son ever (how many people could make me laugh during the infusion when I know what is coming a few hours later), and it's too early to know what the effect of all of this is.  Must think positive.  This is the third week, the good week, and I feel fabulous!

So as the Easter sunset sets in the west, Rembrandt, Timmy, and I wish you all the best in quilting and daily life.

Bulloch Hall Quilt Show

I want to give my heartfelt thanks to all who left comments on the last two posts and to everybody who has been helping me in so many ways since I got the diagnosis / surgery / chemotherapy.  I didn't answer everybody who commented; the chemotherapy and showing up for work is about all I can keep up with at the moment, so I hope you all understand and know that I loved hearing from all of you.  The nausea pills do a pretty good job, but between the bizarre side effects, threatening nausea and exhaustion, well, it is an altered reality.

I have no idea how many chemotherapy cycles I will have to do, or radiation, but radiofrequency ablations have also been added to the mix.

Going to the Bulloch Hall Quilt Show is the first activity I've done this year lol!  A hearty thank you to Muriel, Kathie, and Kathy for this treat.  Oh, also we ate at The Salt Factory in Roswell beforehand; the food is delicious.  Quilts and antiques that caught my eye at the show follow.  Bulloch Hall is the 1839 childhood home of Theodore Roosevelt's mother.

wonderful!

this old one is my favorite in the show:

attic steps:

the gorgeous attic floor:

I love this one:

a tiny one:

doll bed:

Yes, these tiny squares are appliqued:

Follow-Up

So, dear reader, here is the flip side of the idyllic scenes described in the previous post, i.e., happy trip to Gatlinburg and fill-in volunteer work at Day Job enabled by Cherished Son.  Timothy picked me up at school since he had brought me there after the chemotherapy training session, greeting me with the news that he had accidentally broken my gorgeous, huge computer monitor.  Even though I had bought it last summer along with a new computer since my previous desktop is old and tottering (like another occupant of this house I could mention), I have barely used it because the Oldie has been holding up so far.  Timothy brought home his own desktop and this gargantuan TV monitor that he uses for a computer monitor, but unfortunately has been rearranging cables and peripherals between his computer and my new computer for some dread purpose and the monitor just finally fell off the table.  


In his frustration, he kicked the front door.  Which is hollow.  Now I have a broken front door.  Which is one of a matched pair that has unusually deep-set locks because of their retro sunburst doorknob plates, just to make sure that replacement would cost the moon.


My somewhat aching incision and I trailed out to the garbage can to get the make and model of the monitor (with which I had totally bonded even with little use), so I could get the same thing at some point in the future (not possible now with these crushing medical bills hurtling at me from every angle).  He had bashed it so badly (did he think it was a Taliban?) that it was impossible to locate the label.


In revenge, I am making him pick up the clothes off the floor of his bedroom.  This should take several days.


Just another day in Paradise.

February

Hello, all.  First the biggest news: poor Rembrandt had a UTI!  It took a while for me to realize what was wrong with her because of my preoccupation with surgery recuperation, but she got treatment and a new expensive vet-based food that she and Jack will be eating for a while (or forever), and she is her old Rembrandt self again, thank goodness.


Amazingly, Timothy's emergency family leave from the Marines has evolved into three months of paid leave (of which two months are left) because there is no slot available for him to work at the local recruiting station.  He asked me if I would like to go somewhere before the chemotherapy/radiation begins, so off we went to Gatlinburg for a few days last week-end.  I was delighted that I (slooowly) managed to hike the Laurel Falls Trail, which is 2.6 miles round-trip.  It was rainy and the fog was really moving in on the trail and it was just gorgeous.

  Reaching the Falls:

 We had some tasty meals, at Pancake Pantry, which has been in Gatlinburg since 1960, oh the nostalgia:

and The Old Mill Pottery House Cafe, which has one of those great menus where you want one of everything and the meals are served on their own handmade pottery.  The building used to be a potter's house.  I can remember when the large old mill next to it was literally the only thing in Pigeon Forge; oh, how times change.  We stayed at a different motel each of the two nights; the first motel, Zoder's, was one I had never stayed at but had always intended to try sometime.  It was fabulous, right on the babbling creek of course, with complimentary wine and cheese at 6 and cookies and milk at 8, and the most comfy beds ever. There was a small indoor pool with a waterfall, exercise equipment, and our room had a view of one of the log cabin cottages that looked quite authentic.


It snowed the final night, so here are a few parting pictures of that gorgeous scene.  Brutal reality now looms, with the first chemotherapy scheduled for next Friday.  Appointment yesterday, training session this morning, pet scan / mammogram / port installation TBA, chemotherapy pills, chemotherapy IV, shot to stimulate white blood cell creation, apparently hundreds of visits to the cancer center, and the challenge of maintaining the job through all of this.  You aren't going to believe this next part.  Timothy offered to work as a volunteer (normally parents are volunteers) in my place at such times that I can't be there, something that he can easily do since my job duties at the new school are considerably simpler than my duties have been at the previous schools, since there are two other librarians besides me.  So I am going to show him what to do later today after the training session at the cancer center.  Is this a good boy or what?

 One of these mountain peaks is Mt. le Conte, which you may remember we have hiked a few times and stayed overnight in the cabins on the tippy-top:

 And it's off for home...

  

Post-Cancer Surgery Recuperation

Hi, everybody.  Tomorrow will be two weeks after cancer surgery; am home now recuperating and Timothy, bless him, is home for the second time on leave to take care of me.  I can tell you, I didn't have a clue what I was in for with this slow recuperation.  If the blessed employees and patrons from Little Quilts had not rallied instantly to help me, it just could not have been done. My co-workers from school, Robbie and Ann, did the same: they called, they came over, they brought things, just like the Little Quilts family.  The school secretary came over and so did Valerie, 2nd in command at Educational Media from work.  They all brought supplies.  My neighbors, Cathy and her mom, said just let us know what we can do.  My longarmer friend, Cheri, who lives in a different area from LQ, visited, brought flowers, and brought homemade vegetable soup.  So many brought homemade food.  Muriel from LQ drove me many times to the hospital, she came to visit, she started a Care Calendar.  The last time she brought me to the doctor, I got a prescription for pain medicine that I can take, Muriel got it filled, and this has helped.  How true it is that quilters are the most wonderful group of people ever.  I want to thank everybody by name but my face is breaking out in sweat as I work on this.  I am so overwhelmed and so very, very thankful.  Thank you all for your enormous help, your time, and your good wishes.  


The book seems to selling well and I was so delighted when I saw it a few days ago.  I even got to sign some copies for the shop :-).  The quilt is hanging now at the shop.


Here are two scrap houses I made for the sew a long before going in for surgery.  Love you all.

  

A Bountiful Life Goes BOM and Jigsaw

I learned today that two quilt shops are offering BOMs for A Bountiful Life: Homestead Hearth and The Cotton Patch.  


And if I may, please take a gander at the glowing description of the book in the Little Quilts email newsletter (which by the way you may want to sign up for if you are not already receiving it; it's fun and has the latest):

So this calls for a jigsaw of one of the blocks from the quilt; this block was appliqued by Wanda Hizer, office manager and Appliquer Extraordinaire at Little Quilts, Marietta GA.  Click here, open the zipped folder, click on the game, begin play.