What I Have Been Up To I have been on vacation since the afternoon of the 24th and go back the 2nd. I had lots of things planned and of course didn't get to all of them. I did sew though! Yeah! I have added a row to a round robin as you saw on a previous post.

I completed my part on two Round Robins from the old Quilting 4 Pleasure webring. You can see the pics here. If you want to be surprised Liza and Sharon then don't look!

I did blocks for a 12 days swap last year. I didn't get them all embroidered so asked the participants to send them back if they wanted me to finish. I completed DrBeth's and then I had also made 2 extras for some gals that were in a 12 day swap where all the participants didn't come through. Those just went off in the mail today. The pic doesn't have the writing norembroidery on it. I will see about taking another pic of the block.

Finally, I am adding a round to a feedsack RR I am in. I have makers choice and it is the last row. I have been doing a lot of searching and planning for this round. I have my plan and am executing. If I am lucky it will be done this week and off to the owner by Saturday.

Update on health at the Harris household. DS is fine. I am super watchful and nagging him to take shots. I guess this is how it has to be. DH is a little confused today. This is a side effect of the liver disease. He won't take the meds they gave him for this. I tried to push it on him...no go. Otherwise his health is fine and everything is going in the right direction healing and lab wise. Next doc visit on 1/10 then we wait to see if the infection is gone. Thanks for all your support this year. It has really meant a lot.

Christmas Sewing I finished this feedsack RR I am in. I have one more to complete in this swap and I am done done! Yeah! My addition was the blue stripe, the white stripe and the rail fence row. The guideline was 4" but I needed to add the blue and white to get it to the right size. I added 7" total.

I Sewed! I wrapped all the gifts. I decorated as much as I am going to this year. I have grocery shopped. So when all this was finished yesterday I went to the machine and I sewed. Of course I became quite interesting to dh as the calling of my name began soon after. Once he was settled I managed maybe an hour or so.

I am working on an RR for a friend from #quiltchat. Her RR is a gorgeous red, white and blue all in feedsacks. My addition is squares and rectangles. I added a 1" blue strip all around then a .5" white strip. I was going to add a checkerboard but have changed my mind to use 4" strips, alternated so they will have sort of a rail fence look to them. I will post a picure tonight. I hope to finish it today so I can move onto the next project.

Merry Christmas to all! Hope you have an enjoyable time with your family!

My Son Is Home He got home yesterday. Still very tired. He tried to talk me out of his going to school today. He really needs to get his makeup work so he can catch up over the 2 week break. He will live! This is a short day for them so he can get home extra early for a nap which I am sure he will need.

My vacation starts on the 25th through the 1st. I have big sewing/quilty plans but the obligations are already piling up. Oh well....such is life.

I have been blogging for one full year today! Happy Anniversary to me!! LOL! Not sure if or what I will do to mark this milestone. I think I should send one of my UFOs to each person that posts and let them finish them then mail back to me! No? Really? I will let you...honest! OK how about this? You send me fat quarters?? Still no?? Well had to try. Post and surprised! Evil grin inserted here.

I Don't Know If I Should Laugh or Cry My son and I spent all day in the ER yesterday. He has been a type 1 diabetic for 5 years now. Once in a great while he gets the idea that he is superman and thinks he doesn't need to take all his medicine. So he is now admitted. He is doing okay. I did cry in the ER when I was talking to Beth about what I needed to take care of but quickly pulled it together and got friends to pitch in. He will be in at least until tomorrow. So...

DH had his PICC line stuff changed out yesterday. He called me when I was at the ER and told me home healthcare did not take his blood for labs. I called the doctors office and said "I need you to manage this because I just don't have time to keep up with it all". They are "taking care of it".

Quilty things.....I thought about taking my Seven Sisters quilt with me to work on in the ER....does that count?? I am fine...really. Just need to get this all behind me...soon!

Zoe died yesterday. Her quilt did not arrive in time. She fell into a coma and then slipped away shortly afterwards. I offer another dear chatter in our room many gratitudes as she sent a quilt in the name of the room. She said Zoe knew we all loved her and that is what matters. While I know this is true I am still a little saddened that I didn't get the quilt to her in time. We will miss you dearly Zoe.

Love Quilt is Done and in the Mail! I vowed to bind that quilt last night and I did. My too tired too busy excuse started to wear on *my* nerves. So around midnight last night I put in the final stitch. I had to get this done. Poor Zoe's health continues to fail. I will be crushed if we lose her. I will be devastated if she doesn't get this quilt and we lose her. Again, prayers please for Zoe (Glenna is her real name) that she gets her much needed lung transplant. (The picture is cloudy because my camera was in my very cold car and the camera clouded up)

I have to share the tote bag was perfect! The quilt fit totally into the bag and worked as I had planned! VBG!!

Mark Update Got a call from the infectious disease doctors. They got the labs back (except one). They said things are looking good. His platelets are high (good) for him. 96 where they were 41 or less in the hospital (a normal person is over 150). Other labs look good. The one test that will tell if his infection is going away is not back yet but they can deduce from other tests that is probably is. Good news!

I am Here!!! I have been sewing a wee bit. I found a 3 hour long nap quite helpful and refreshing Saturday and didn't sew that day. Sunday I kicked it into gear and got a tote bag done. I also have the binding done to sew onto the love quilt. I have not sewn that on and I must! The poor dear is in the hospital again. Please send out your prayers and well wishes for zoe that she gets her much need lung transplant along with restoring her health so she can have the surgery. I will try to post a pic of the tote tonight.

Mark update. We went to the docs on Monday. First to the orthopedic. He took out the staples. Looked things over and asked how Mark was doing. Mark twisted it a little because he wasn't wearing his knee immobilizer. He gets what he gets. He prefers to take the risk since the immobilizer hurts too much. We see the ortho on the 27th for an x-ray to check healing progress. Things are as they expect at this moment. Then off to infectious disease doc. Again things are as they expect. They educated me a good bit. I asked about prevention of spread and reinfection. Keep the area clean and dry, keep the bedding clean and dry, wash, wash, wash those hands. We go back to them on the 27th as well. Mark had his first blood draw today so we should have some results to see if we are heading in the right direction.

Love Quilt Got a call from the quilter and the Love Quilt is ready to be picked up. She called me yesterday but I was just too tired for a road trip. I plan to leave work a little early so that I can get over there to get the quilt and then still run an errand. And darn it all! I just realized I forgot to bring my camera. She has more open space to put this quilt so that I can lay it out and take a pic. Oh well....when I lay it out to bind it (outside) I will take a pic then. Nothing else on the quilty front.

DH is managing well. He does wake up in the middle of the night with some pain. He needs to manage that a little better before bed. Physical therapy and home health have been by several times already. The home health nurse asked if DH needed her to come by and clean his room for him. Now I admit it is really cluttered in there but not dirty.... We are seeing the infectious disease doctors on Monday and I plan to ask what I need to do to ensure we do not pass this infection around or that we do not reinfect dh. From what I read so far it is just to keep things dry and clean. Today I woke up and felt a little tired but more rested than I have. This is a good thing.

Tuesday and he is home finally! I cannot believe it took until 6:00 p.m. tonight to get him home but here he is. We got dd's room all setup for him until he is a little more healed. He needs to not have dogs sleeping on his feet.

I had to drive across town to find a pharmacy that has one of his meds that our regular pharmacy doesn't. Luckily I found it at the first (second) place I went. Of course it won't be ready until 9:00 p.m. tonight. I want to go to bed.... Such is life.

No quilty news today...probably not until this weekend. I am trying to get the little loose ends taken care of for Christmas. Would love to be done by this weekend. Still have to decorate so I may get started on that as well.

Thanks for the continued support all.

Monday Update: I know people are coming here for an update so I better give one. Everyone at the hospital was talking about dh coming home today. His lab results are stable. They grew the cultures from his knee and have only identified Staph, luckily NOT the antibiotic resistant one. He has been taking antibiotics since the day of surgery and we will continue this at home with a weekly blood draw.

They are making progress towards his release. The docs have been by and signed off saying all is ok to go. They are waiting for the IV antibiotics to be arranged for home. Not sure how long that will take. I am standing by.

I will be glad when he is home so that I can eliminate all the road travel. I tried to get the house ready for him to come home but didnt quite finish. I will just have to keep at it until it is done. The main thing is eliminating trip and fall hazards. We have some tight spaces so I will have to move things to accomplish this.

Me? Well, quite frankly, I am exhausted. I wish I could just sleep for a couple days but I know what won't happen. I will have early bed if I can get the kids to cooperate.

I handed the love quilt over to the quilter. She said my backing wasn't square so she donated a new backing to me rather than use mine. Sigh....

I did manage to go to a quilters Christmas party with the DFW ladies from the Quilting Passion forum. It was a lot of fun. I brought my friend Amy. She and I were not prepared for the acitivities but several gals donated an ornament for our use and we bought FQs to play the bingo games. A fun time was had by all! I can't wait until next year and I will be ready.

I was talking to someone Saturday night and trying to tell them how I am feeling. I need to move on to that next project. I just feel sort of blah. A feeling of "let down" although I haven't had anyone "do" anything to me. I am sure being tired doesn't help. I know what I need to do next so I will at least pull out the pieces and try to make some small progress there. Hopefully that will get me in the groove again.

Hugs to all of you for your wonderful support!