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!

Happy Friday Well, Wednesday morning before I went to the hospital I decided to sneak in just a few minutes of sewing. I happily stomped down on the pedal and sewed the last seam of the backing. I had the iron heating up so that I could just hop up, press it and run out the door. I ended my seam, shut off the machine, laid the backing out and with iron in hand and was disgusted to see that I had run out of thread so the last 18 inches or so were not sewn. Argh!! In the middle of all this I was getting call after call asking about dh. Yes, I was feeling a little guilty sewing when I should be at the hospital. I turned off the iron and headed out the door. You know the rest (read earlier posts if you don't).

Thursday I came home from work and loaded my bobbin and sewed and pressed that last seam. I packed it all up and called the quilter. I took everything to her and she thinks it will be ready by mid next week. I am hoping it will be sooner. Now to get the tote bag all sewn up and ready to go.

I had told dh I was not going down to see him last night. So of course some things have to happen to pile the guilt on. First he got a call from his dad that his uncle had passed away. We knew this was coming. Even though they were not that close it is still hard. Then I learned that they were having to give him platelets and whole blood. DH didn't know any details of why they were doing that. I called the nurse and asked her. Even though I am on the list for family she said she could not tell me over the phone. I asked her to go down to his room and I would call him. She went down immediately (bless her) and told dh everything I wanted to know then he relayed the info to me. She was in there and answered a few more questions. This a.m. they told him he can go home Monday so he must be doing ok. His Dad is coming over for the funeral so he will get to see dh, which is great.

I have someone taking care of the kids today after school through getting them fed dinner and settled until I get home. This way I can go straight to the hospital. Of course he has a list of things that he wants from home that he told me about after I got to work. I will buy what I think he needs now. The rest he will get tomorrow.

DH is already trying to coordinate my weekend for me which I am trying to discourage him from. I am trying to sprinkle myself around to the kids, me and him. I told him some things may have to slide for now and to just relax. We will see how that goes!

I got the 411 OK I have more information. So let me share and then also answer some questions.

I did take the day off today. While I do qualify for FMLA I also have no savings since it was wiped out when dh lost his job so hate to take unpaid leave. Plus I work unbelievable hours so they should be able to give me a few days off with pay. I only have 4 vacation days and I do hope to spend time with my kids at Christmas time.

They did call and ask about the insulin. I thought we agreed I would not bring it. When I got there they wanted it. It seems that there are so many insulins that are similar. They worked it out...I think. They are not giving him his regular dosages then act surprised that his sugar is high....duh! They finally put him back on his dosing tonight. We will see how that goes.

DH was taking other meds at home. When we filled out the paperwork we disclosed all the meds and dosages. I asked the nurse about them today and she had a surprised look. She mumbled that he should probably take them and quickly left more or less indicating he should take them NOW without her knowledge. So I gave them to him. They are now on his orders.

I still have not talked to the surgeon although he has spoken to dh. I called the office and left a message for his PA. The PA called me back and told me everything. Coincidentally the hepatologist was there and filled in the gaps and concurred much of the information that overlapped the two docs specialties. So read on here is what I know....

The surgery went exactly as they thought it should. They were able to put an articulating spacer in so he will have some movement. This is a good thing. He is in a knee immobilizer from ankle to thigh. He was up and walking on it with a walker already. So things are looking ok there.

I walked into them inserting his PIC line today (not sure if that is spelled correctly). This is how we will administer IV antibiotics for the next 6 weeks at home. The 6 weeks could be more or less. Then they will take him off antibiotics for 2 weeks. At that time they will determine if infection is gone by doing an MRI, culturing fluid from the knee (if there is any) and then visual inspection. If all docs involved the infection is clear they will make him active on the liver transplant list.

Once he is on the list they will only do the new knee replacement if something happens that indicates it. They will do liver transplant as soon as one is available. Then in 3-4 months they will do the replacement. If his recovery from transplant is going well or something happens that indicates need to do the replacement they will go ahead with it. At this pace I suspect he will be all redone by May or June. We will see.

You all are so wonderful. He is much better. Once they get him off the pain pump it will be that much better. I will be writing to lots of people about this experience. Everyone raves over this hospital. I just don't see what the big deal is. I wonder how people that don't have someone there for them asking questions or don't question themselves manage. The nurse did indicate it is an issue for many. She is really trying to fix all the woes so I will be sure to commend her as well.

Don't hesitate to ask questions. I am really very tired and have probably left out things. Thanks for all your wonderful support. Much love and hugs to you all! swooze!

UGH! OK I am a bit stressed and snarky here. Surgery is over. They rush rush rushed to get us back in the pre-OP then the inevitable wait. I had some concerns about some things and the anesthesiologist was very attentive. She ordered new labs and blood products which I strongly felt he needed. Let me just say that 2 of the samples were bad and they ended up sticking him 4 times. Poor guy.

They took him back an hour late. I am sure this messed up some of the things I am about to gripe about. They have this great board that tracks progress of when patient goes in OR, surgery starts, stops and then patient goes to recovery. They also give you a pager that the doctor buzzes about 10 minutes before he comes out to talk to you. The board was never updated. I found out he was in recovery an hour after he got back there. No call or visit from the doc. I was in the waiting room the entire time. Then about 3 hours after he had been in recovery I call back to see what is going on. Some nice chipper lady informs me they are getting ready to take him to his room. I tell her that is great and good thing I had called as I would never have been told. When I asked her who would have informed me she had no answer. I asked her when the doc would talk to me. She said she would page him and then "if" he called her back she would give him my cell number. I received no call.

I go up to his room and wait. He gets up there pretty quickly. By 7 his IV had somehow been pulled out of his hand. This is how they are administering his pain meds. It took an hour for them to get everything re-inserted and hooked back up. If I didn't have the kids at home I think I would have spent the night. I have very low confidence in the staffs competency right now.

To add to all this loveliness I get a call from hubby this morning asking me to bring his insulin. I was agahast. I heard him talking to someone and I asked if that was the nurse, which it was. I asked to speak to her to find out what is going on. She is unsure of his medicine and I explain what it is. She seems to think I don't need to bring his now. Sigh...

So I am taking another day from work and hope this doesn't jeopardize things for me. I am really stressed but just have to do what is best. When I found out anything I will let you all know.

Sorry for the long rant!

D-Day is Upon Us Hubby's surgery is tomorrow, 11/27, around noon. We check in at 10:30. I had nightmares all night long last night that things do not go well. I called the doctor's office to ask a question today and am waiting for that response. We can only go in knowing we have done all that we can do. Hubby is very depressed and mean right now. I will be happy to have this behind us soon. My best friend surprised me today (she had to cuz she didn't know where to go) and is planning to come sit with me at the hospital during the surgery. Keep us in your thoughts please.

Weekend Progress and a Love Quilt. I did get to sew this long 4 day weekend. I got a love quilt topped and have begun piecing the back. I will finish tomorrow....I hope! I am making a matching tote bag. All those pieces are now cut out. I just have to fuse them and sew it together. It will go quickly I am sure. (Please pardon the bad pic. The quiltholder was very wiggly and the door not wide enough)

Kiva You may notice the new link on my sidebar to kiva.org. A friend of mine heard about this organization and made a few loans. I just recently went back and looked to see what was happening with her loans and see that she has made quite a few more.

People can ask for loans for just about anything so read carefully. Many want seed money to start or grow a business and others ask for money to finish builidng their house. The lender that Kiva worked with does charge interest but you do not earn interest on your loan. Read carefully as the terms are listed for the loan. The amount and repayment term. There is also information about the "lender" and their stats on successful collections, etc.

You get your money back after the loan is fully repaid and then can withdraw your money or make another loan. You can lose this money. I would look at this as a donation more or less for this very reason.

The maximum loan amount is $25 right now. Due to it's popularity they are limiting the loans to allow many others to participate. Who knew there were so many philanthropists out there?! So I have made one loan of $25. My plan is to make several others and then just keep reloaning the money as it is paid back.

Preparing for Thanksgiving and the 4 Day Weekend I have shopped for the big dinner and already made the inevitable second trip for forgotten items. I will be baking pies Wednesday night and trying to get things started that can be done in advance. Of course ds thought of one more thing he wants for dinner that day. I see another trip to the store pre-Thanksgiving in my future!

Sewing plans are also in the making. I had visions of pinning a quilt outside. Those plans are quickly waning as a big front is coming in and the 4 days I wanted to work on it are supposed to only reach low 40's. There is also talk of precipitation. Sigh.... It isn't as if I only have that one project to work on....I'll live. Reference my to do list from two weekends ago. Still have those things to get to!

Post Thanksgiving shopping plans are in the making as well. Our tv has been needing to "warm up" lately. So we are watching for sales on an LCD or Plasma tv. DH has his eye on the 42" or thereabouts. Anyone own an LCD or Plasma? Any helpful tips? I heard you want Plasma as there is no "ghosting" when you are watching action such as in a movie or in sports.

If you are traveling for the holiday I hope your travels are safe and happy!

Looking for Input I have makers choice on this round robin. I am open to your input. The border can be up to 4". What are your thoughts?

Round Robin Bloggers I am participating in a round robin with 14 other bloggers from the original Q4P ring. Here are the guidelines for this swap and pictures of completed rounds http://abyquilt.blogspot.com/2007/09/mini-round-robin.html.

The first block is to be 4" square finished. While I was doing the great unearthing of the sewing room I came across a great fabric that has leaves in gold on a brown fabric. It was perfect....but the leaves are too large.

So onto my next idea. I became paper piecing obsessed this year. I searched high and low and found a great PPed maple leaf. I had to redraft it to make it the correct size. I did that and started sewing on it a few nights ago. I felt awful and was having trouble with it. I decided to walk away from it and get some rest. Today one of the other participants was talking about overthinking her block and possibly making it too complicated. It made me think about what I was trying to do. I have now dropped this idea.

My final idea. I have a fabric that I was going to use in the PP pattern. It would be perfect as the focus block. Why not? So I will be cutting it out tonight and getting it into the mail tomorrow!

I had a finish! I joined a round robin on quiltsbykos since I have become....er....uh....addicted to them. I had to add a 2 or 3" border. I have wanted to do a checkerboard pattern but felt it needed something more. My friend suggested a flange so I added that too.

Not as Productive as I had hoped. Here is my progress:

• finish love quilt top and back and deliver to be quilted (get batting) - putting borders on now. Bought the batting. Have decided how to do the backing.
• make totebag for love quilt - have a design in mind
• repair 7 Sisters top - my sewing session got canceled. Didn't touch this
• finish small RR - I have the design in mind and all the fabrics pulled
• finish 12 days blocks - nope
• bind ninepatch - nope
• baste Floral Irish chain - bought more pins
• make RRBlogger starter block and mail - I redrafted the pattern and have the fabrics pulled. Need to buy a small journal to send off with it.

I went to the LQS Saturday night to see what was new from market. I bought a couple patterns, a kit and fabric to make one of the tops. The quilts are for dd. She will have more quilts than me at this rate.

I met a group I see every month at Panera's then dh decided to go shoe shopping. That ate into the day. I sewed after that...really more planning. Did lots of cutting. I am a little bummed I didn't get more done but dh is going out of town next weekend then the long Thanksgiving weekend will be here. More retreating for me!!

Hope you all were more productive than I was!

Stashbuster Retreat Weekend Okay I am a list maker. The Stashbuster yahoogroup has a virtual retreat weekend from 11/9-11. Here are my goals:

• finish love quilt top and back and deliver to be quilted (get batting)
• make totebag for love quilt
• repair 7 Sisters top
• finish small RR
• finish 12 days blocks
• bind ninepatch
• baste Floral Irish chain
• make RRBlogger starter block and mail

This is a pretty doable list. I just have to stay focused!

What Was I Thinking? I don't remember now. I sure wish I had written it down. Quiltmakers was going out of business and I had to buy fabric for a love quilt. I bought plenty for everything except a backing. CRUD! Well I don't mind pieced backs so I will more than likely piece this one. The only issue is that I thought I had enough extras to make a tote bag for this love quilt to fit into. Double crud!

This quilt will be Queen size. I am sure that when I was in that store buying, my mind wasn't on making it that big. Interestingly enough I have more than enough for the borders and sashing....just not that backing. I am going to try to slip into the LQS on the way home tonight. I came to a screeching halt last night on this quilt over this issue. I didn't dare cut anymore until I had a clear path forward on that backing. Again it isn't so much the quilt as it is that tote.

Wish me luck! Note to self....make a note to self next time!

Tuesday Accomplishments Did you notice my weight ticker? I have 9.5 pounds to go before I meet my goal weight. I could make it by New Years at my current rate. When I graduated from high school I weighed 172. I am pleased!

I have the blocks assembled for the love quilt top. I have to add some more sashing and borders. I am happy at the progress so far!

Weekend Accomplishments

• basted Simple Simon
• basted 12 Days
• started the love quilt. Should have it topped in a few days
• Pinned the binding on my Ninepatch on point. Just have to sew it down. (BONUS)

I think I did well. Remember I bought those banquet tables? I took them outside on the driveway and worked on the quilts and took conference calls for work. Very pretty weather but will turn soon. I have to get that Irish Chain basted while the weather holds!

Goals for November

• Baste Floral Irish Chain
• Baste Simple Simon
• Baste 12 Days Quilt
• Repair 7 Sisters Top
• Finish pink and green love quilt and tote
• Finish all swaps within 1 week of receipt (feedsack, small RR and Blogger)
• Finish 12 days blocks

This is a pretty aggressive list but I think I can make it. The Thanksgiving holiday will help with the extra days off. We don't go away and we don't get company typically. I need to get a quilt topped this weekend then I will focus on basting the three tops listed here.

Reflections On October and a Top Secret Photo!

Let me think....what did I get done in October??

• 2 challenge blocks
• a 6" round robin center
• 2 sets of pillow cases
• assembled 3 quilt backs
• trimmed one UFO for binding
• I organized the heck out of my sewing stuff! Not done yet but getting there!

Shhhh............my recipient hasn't gotten her cases yet....don't tell her these are here....

More Winning and Swapping I have had a few wins that I neglected to mention. First I won these 4 season patterns and have received them! Love it! Then I won this quilting book, rooster and sunflower panel (LOVE both of these things) along with a pattern. How funny. I am signed up for a churn dash swap and that is what is in that pattern. Cool! I really wanted those patterns and stalked her site! hehehe The other win was most unexpected but really nice! Oh and I forgot this one and came back to add it. I won these Hawaiin blocks. I did pay postage though as I felt it was a tad high and only fair.

I went to see Mr. Postman this a.m. Some lucky person is about to receive a pair of pillowcases in the size and pattern of their choice. Let me just say I sure hope they like blue. More paper piecing insanity on the cuff but hey, they look great. Picture will be posted Friday or Saturday once they are received. They have to go due North for a few states so should be quick. Do you recognize yourself here? mwaahaahaahaahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Eeeeeviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllll!!

Hugs all! I am hanging in there. We have a date set for surgery. No more hoop jumping at the moment. Just hope that nothing changes for the next 4 weeks. Wow that is a long way away!

DH Update. Mark met with the doctor for surgery clearance. His MELD score is up to 20 again. The doctor is against surgery to fix the knee. She still wants the amputation but has agreed (finally) to support whatever Mark wants to do. He still wants the repair. We told her we had scheduled the surgery for the 6th and she let us know she will not be in town that day so we need to reschedule. I checked with the ortho doc's office and the PA said keep that day but the ortho doc came back and said reschedule. If we are lucky it will be the 20th. ***** we are tentative for the 27th now *****

Everyone tells us to act with a sense of urgency but no one else seems to be. Lots of feet dragging and delaying. There was supposedly a lot of discussion going on between the surgeon and the ortho and we asked if the ortho was up on what needed to happen. He said he was at the meeting but now that all seems to have been lost.

I am just so frustrated. I don't know what to do anymore. I want to rest....and not have this to deal with. Imagine how my husband feels. He thinks the liver doctor just wants his leg. She has no bedside manner whatsoever. Once we get the surgery done I am calling to see if we can switch to another hepatologist in the group. That won't happen until knee surgery so we don't have to start over.

Frustrated. Overwhelmed. Lost. I am suppressing many things so not sure what other feelings are lurking out there.

Quilty Weekend I had a very quilty weekend. I got 4 backings ready for UFOs. I took them and the quilts and batting to the LQS to use their tables. I managed to pin baste 1 and began another. The time was somewhat of a loss as the back on the first was so wrinkly and the batting was wrinkled as well. The second I was basting along and got to one end and realized the top was not lined up properly so I would have to redo that one. I did trim a UFO so that I can bind it.

I was so frustrated over my basting efforts that I went to Target and bought two banquet tables so I could let my battings sit open overnight. I set the tables up in my living room and laid out my "Chain of Events". I smoothed it and let it sit going back and smoothing every so often. I let it sit overnight and then pinned it in the a.m. There still were quite a few wrinkles but I managed to get those out. I think I made most of the problems because I didn't press the backing where it joined very well. There is one spot that might tuck but I think I can work it out as I quilt it.

I managed to cut all the pieces for another set of pillow cases. I have the cuff pieced and just need to assemble them tonight then mail tomorrow. No pics til the recipient gets them. Sorry.

No more organizing going on at the moment but I need to. Will focus on my projects and shoot for next weekend to continue on the organizing efforts!

Here they are! All done. Here are the quilts they are to go with. I had intended to make a block for the love quilt but time just flew past me. My friend informed me I was to make her pillowcases to match. She was kidding but I thought it was a great idea!

Updates

Hubby update. He goes to the doc to be cleared for surgery on the 25th. If he is cleared the surgery will take place on 11/6. They are removing the hardware and placing a spacer. If he is lucky it will be articulating which allows some bending. If not he will have to wear an immobilizer and keep it straight as an arrow. This will be followed by 6 weeks of IV antibiotics. After 8 weeks they will go in to sample the bone and check for infection. No infection redo the replacement. If there is infection then more antibiotics. ***NOTE*** If he becomes ill enough that his liver takes priority he can leave the spacer in indefinately. By all appearances I think he will have the replacement later this year and then the liver will be down the road a bit. But I also know that appearances can be misleading.

Sewing Room Re-org update. I spent the entire weekend in my room. I setup the other cabinet that I have and emptied out all the plastic totes of fabric placing it in these cabinets. I took down the entertainment shelving and moved it to my bedroom. I bought a couple cubby hole type storage shelves with fabric "boxes". One is setup and the other will be setup some time this week. My foyer has been cleared of all sewing things save the UFOs, active projects and the cutting table. Things are really coming together now. I think I can finally show progress that can be seen by others! Photos to come.

Homespun Butterflies I have been sewing. Promise! I just chose an insane project. These butterflies will be the cuffs for pillowcases. They are made of homespun and my sewing machine didn't like that blue homespun. It was like sewing quicksand. I have to trim them up a bit.

The Winner Is!!!!!!!!!! Hefty quilter from Queensland, AU. I am going to spend the next few days pulling together a nice little prize for her and will post a pic before sending it off. Congrats Tracy!

Reflections on September I would swear to you that I did a lot of sewing in September but when I go back and look there wasn't so much accomplished.

• FMQ practice swatches
• FMQ baby panel (not bound but purpose to FMQ was met)
• Add a border to Beth's RR
• Finished a LOVE quilt and mailed it off
• Knitted a chemo cap
• Lot's of organizing!!!!!

6 inch RR Here is my 6" RR for the swap on Quiltsbykos. It really is square but the edge decided to curl for the photo plus my angle is a little funny.

Pin Cushion Extravaganza
This pincushion was sent to my by my friend Beth as a gesture of love when we were getting all the horrid news about my dh. Little did she know how disappointed I was that I had missed the give away at Darlene's blog while I was on vacation. I love it! Thanks Bethy!
This little baby was sent to me from a PIF (Pay If Forward) giveaway I signed up for on Kim's blog. I only have 1 person that has signed up for mine so still have two openings. You just have to pledge on your blog to give away 3 gifts to others. I hope you will sign up.

DFW Quilt Gang Challenge I was enlisted into the DFW Quilt Gang while I was at the Plano Quilt show. They handed me a tote and said here is your challenge....hmmmm.....did I sign up for that?? LOL. This is my first time at a challenge and we were to make blocks appropriate for a child. One applique and one pieced. Here are my offerings.

Ta Da!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is my 100th post. DD and I discussed what to do and like many others who came before me there will be a drawing. Now to make this interesting I want you to tell me about yourself in a comment so that I can get to know my readers better. Likes, dislikes. Do you enjoy other hobbies, etc. Using this information, DD and I will custom make a little goody bag or box. I will randomly draw from the comments this coming weekend.

Be sure I can contact you or I will have to go to another person that has commented! Good luck and hugs to all!

More Organizing

I just cannot take a picture that shows all the work that I have done. I am done in the room for now until I get some sewing projects with due dates out of the way. I can now get to everything and have refamiliarized myself with what is lurking in there. I still have that stack in the foyer that needs attention as well. I will probably pick away at that as I can but don't want to move too much of it into my sewing room just yet.


This is the 2nd picture down in my October 2nd post. Here is the original post also the 2nd picture down.

More later! Hope you all feel less ashamed of your sewing spaces after seeing mine. I sure have gotten the comments!

Before

After

I can live with this now. There is an improvement for sure. I know everything that is here. I will be moving onto the next area which had that big pile of yarn in it. I really do plan to keep all my craft gear in one room but am contemplating moving the yarn out until I can tidy up some other things. More to come!

Here is the original BEFORE picture.

Yesterday's Post was an Eye Opener! I must say that I was very disappointed that my pictures didn't show more progress than there really is. The two that really show are my baker's rack and my fabric cabinet. There isn't as much fabric there as it appears since I didn't fold it to use the whole depth of the cabinet. I have a lot more fabric than what is shown there in other totes in the room. If you look under my sewing machine you can see two there.

To tell you just how disappointed I was I went straight to the room after posting and worked on it some more. When you walk into the room immediately to the left is my MIL's sewing machine and cabinet. Stacked on top are my batts, magazines and cross-stitch kits. Down on the floor are boxes of miscellaneous stuff and assorted baskets. I sat on the floor and sorted through those boxes. I am grouping things into like piles. I did this for about an hour and came out with a grocery sack of trash, a plastic cart that was falling apart and some empty boxes. I have put away most of what I sorted out. If I took a picture now I still don't think it would show much improvement. I now plan to just focus on that cabinet until I can get it looking spiffy (3rd picture in yesterday's post)! Stay tuned for more progress photos!

I decided that I am going to get up when my alarm first goes off or stay up if I get up before that time and work on something. This morning I spent trimming that love quilt. I should be able to sew the binding tonight. If I am going to preach 15 minutes a day I need to practice it.

Saturday Quilting. I finished quilting a love quilt over the weekend. I need to bind it and then there is one block that needs just a little TLC before I send it off. I will be posting a picture but want it to be received by the recipient first.

**** hint **** it's on the cutting table wink wink wink ****

My sewing room is really coming along. Most of you would see chaos but compared to what I had before it is so much better. Here are a couple of views. This is a work in progress for sure.

The Great State Fair of Texas. Our schools give the kids a day off and a ticket to the state fair. Monday was the day. My husband and I have gone every year since we have lived here with only 2 exceptions for me. We always take the kids. We went yesterday and ate our favorite foods, sampled the new food they were talking about on the news. This included funnel cake, fried peach cobbler, fried cookie dough and many others. It was all good!

Here is a picture of ds and a little lady that sells items from Peru. She has these tiny animal figures that she sells and ds always buys them from her when he finds some he doesn't already have. She is always happy to see us. It was amazing to see my son standing next to this lady. He has shopped with her since he was probably 4 or 5 and is now 14. Aren't they cute?

After we bought from her we were told by another vendor this is her last year at the fair. I hope that isn't true but we wish her the best!

There is another vendor there that makes sculptures of horned lizards aka horny toads. He have been buying a few pieces every year and this year was no exception. Here are some of our pieces. They are pewter and air brushed. Great works of art!

DH update. We have a doctor appointment on October 12th with a new Orthapedic surgeon. Our intention is to have him remove the hardware and let the infection clear then redo the replacement. If the need for the liver comes along in this process that obviously will take precedence.

Welcome to the third installment of my quilt gallery. I grew up in central NY and we regularly went to Lancaster, PA to eat at Good N' Plenty and Fine and Fancy. When I became a quilter Lancaster took on a different meaning. I wandered into one of the Amish stores with fabric with a quilt for my nephew in my plans. This was another step out for me in my quilting skills. Sadly my nephew's mother abandoned this quilt when she took my nephew and left my brother. My mother grabbed it and offered it back. I asked her to hold onto it until he has his own child and then we will give it back to him. The light is a pale lavendar.

This quilt is my first "art" quilt. My friends were having a boy and chose Noah's Ark. If you look closely you will see the animals are felt and removable from little pockets. This was a fun quilt to do.

This is it for now. I have to find more pictures to share. I do have quilts in my Flickr account. See the "My Quilts" link on the left of the blog. Hope you enjoyed looking!

More of My Quilts This quilt is the second pattern I tried. Donna Poster gave out this handout and I winged it. This is my all time favorite quilt. I just love the colors. I have been collecting reds and whites to make one for myself. This was a gift to my childhood friend for the birth of her first child. I told her I loved this quilt so much and how hard it was to let go. She said she would send it back. What a sweet gal!





This is the first quilt I made as a result of someone asking me to. I told them if they bought the materials I would do it. I was unsure of the colors and I think these were even poly blends (hmmm have to check those scraps!!). It taught me to be more specific when telling people what they needed to buy.





This quilt I made for a good friend that I worked with a lot. I was so happy to present it to her. When she opened it she said something to the effect that her son could use this as his "suck" blanket. I wasn't quite sure how to take that comment. As a result I am more particular about who I gift quilts to.





More pictures to come! Enjoy!!

Found Treasures. I have been working on decluttering and organizing my sewing room. Things are much improved but I still have a ways to go. When I was working in there this past weekend I unearthed what I thought to be a journal. It was kind of hard to grab but I finally decided to just get it up and off the floor. It wasn't a journal but a photo album of my first quilts and a quilt show I had attended.

This quilt is a queen size log cabin that I made for my mother. She washed it into tatters. I meant to look at it when I was up there this summer but forgot about it until the day before I was leaving. No time to deal with it. She is supposed to come down for a visit and I will ask her to bring the quilt to see if it is worth saving. This is from Eleanor Burns Quilt in a Day log cabin. If you remember a previous post I used 5/8" seams. Oops!

This quilt is a double size log cabin that I made for myself. I had it on a bed and a dog that I had at the time nibbled a hole in the border. I have the fabric scraps pulled and ready to repair it. I just need to do it. Darn that dog! This is very country. There are farm animals on the light side and the reds and blues have hearts on them. Another quilt that I used a 5/8" seam on. These are the only two....I swear it!

After these two quilts I took a class from a quilt store. I am trying to remember the name of it at this point. They closed the store and moved to PA. It was owned by Donna Poster. I think she is pretty well known in the quilting world. I took a class for Magnolia and Tumbling Blocks from her. She gave us the handouts for other strip quilts one of which was a Double Irish Chain. I have made a LOT of quilts from that pattern. She also allowed me to make the Peacock which is a model in one of her books. This pattern was only in the first edition of her book and not in the reprints.

As I unearth other photos I will share more pictures with you. Happy Quilting!

Waiting. Have been doing a lot of waiting this month. Waiting to get through all of dh's dental work which is sort of done. He needs to have some cavities addresssed but the critical work is done. DH had a blood test to see where he was on the liver issues. His score improved. I have calls into several doctors to find out what is next and what all this means. Hurry up and wait.... They scare the bejeebers out of you to tell you to hurry but they sure don't seem to be in a hurry. I must say that dh is getting around a bit better and acts as though he feels better. Amazing what taking care of your teeth can do for you!

More waiting. DS made the golf team! Yeah! Then we had to wait about two weeks for the schedule change. How aggravating to just be out in limbo. I like to be able to get a "status" on these things but school red tape isn't setup to accomodate that. I was a little disappointed that he dropped Jr ROTC but he did keep his language, Spanish. I think he is frustrated with me because he comes home trying to top me and asks how do you say some word in Spanish. So far I have known the answer. Sorry kiddo! Love ya!

While I am on the topic of waiting DD ordered gym clothes for athletics. First they lost her order. Then they found it and all the others that were lost. They turned them in and the store ran into some quality control issues with the fabrics. One of the coaches was so frustrated by the delay that she insisted the parents go to the store to pick up orders. Of course they were not ready but coincidentally they now had all they needed to complete them. So all this pressure made those folks stay late to fill all these gals orders. I was sick at the time and didn't appreciate being a pawn in her game. Such is life.

So now you are all done waiting for me to blog! Yeah! I am here!

Ok Debi L got sick of waiting for me to blog so she tagged me! That evil gal! LOL ! Well she also awarded me the "Make Me Smile award so she must not be too bad ;).

Here is the Meme....I have to use the letters of my name to share something about me.

S - smart



U - unusual ( see the W in swooze...synonym...weird)



Z - zany



E - effusive (I gush...can't help it)



T - tall



T - technical (work with computers...if I had an L I would have said logical)



E - exuberant

I have a funny, whacky, weird sense of humor. If you knew me you would understand! I won't tag anyone in particular for the Meme but I will say that the whole Stashbuster webring deserves the "Make Me Smile" award. I am so happy to have all of you particpate in our little webring and I love to read all of your blogs.

All grown up....or so they think Son is in JROTC this year. He had to wear his uniform today for the first time for inspection. Doesn't he look handsome? JROTC has been a big source of contention at our house. Hubby being a vet I thought he would be thrilled and supportive. That has not been the case. I am just trying to support my son in what he wants to do.

DD has not been a girly girl for a few years now. Jeans and T are the standard wear. Well that hasn't changed but now she wears contacts, makeup and fusses with her hair constantly. She is very independent and outspoken. Tough kid to parent but a great personality for making it in the world.

Still decluttering! Still FMQing! I have really been trying to figure out how I was going to shift all my stuff without spreading it everywhere in the house. I went in my room last night and started pulling the layers away. I sorted, filed and trashed as I went. I was happy to see that most of what I wanted to keep was containerized and would be easy to move. Two drawers of the dresser are empty and the other drawers don't have too much in them. I will get the new cabinets in there easily! Yeah!!

I am plugging away at my free motion quilting. I have one more little section to do before I can finish up the outside border. That border is confetti covered. I was going to try to loop around each piece but I think that will be too much. I am think of just choosing a certain shape and/or color to loop around to simplify it. So close to a finish! I am learning so much. I am having some issues with restarting once I stop. I either skip stitches or wobble. I shared my woes on quiltchat and got some suggestions. I even got a suggestion to chew gum to help with my rythm. What a great idea! I will report back on that one!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. I have really been working on my organization in my sewing room. If you recall my previous post my sewing had oozed out into the rest of the house. Now I have most of that semi-organized on a 5 tier bakers rack that my best friend bought me for my birthday. It is a lot better but I can still improve. So I pick away at things a little everytime I sew. I will post "after" pics soon. They will be more along my journey pics though....



Saturday a.m. I was thrilled when I went to Wal-mart and found some cabinets that I really wanted marked about 45% off. They are the big white cabinets with doors. About 30" wide 20" deep and 72" high. I bought two. I am now working hard to clear the spot where these will go. This will help get so much more stuff up and put away! Yeah! Dang, each cabinet weighs 130 lbs. I got ds out there to help me get them out of the truck and onto the patio. I was toying with the idea of setting them up in one area and loading them to get a space cleared, then moving them to their final place. NOT! Just gotta clean out. That is all there is to it.



You saw my RR row that I added. My next project was to practice FMQ on my Janome 6500. I had bought bolts of baby panels and muslin and thought they would be perfect for this type of practice. I started Saturday and am almost done with the first one. I will just say I suck less at FMQ now! LOL! I think it looks pretty good. I vowed to not unpick any of it but had to go back on that and pick out a thread nest that happened at the end of the bobbin. Not too bad. I am ready to move onto a "love" quilt that I inherited to finish. My confidence is high. I am getting a little bored with the baby panel but will persevere on the panel since the love quilt will take a lot of thread changes. I just have to relax and enjoy my journey.

The 300 Pound Gorilla in my house. I have not blogged about this before but may have hinted at it a bit. It is depressing so just feel free to pass this by.

In 1990 my husband had donated blood while in college. We got a notice from them that my husband was deferred. He had Hepatitis C. We didn't really understand the impact at the time and I am not sure we did anything about it at the time. I think we may have heard there really wasn't a cure or that is was only 50% effective at the time.

Fast forward 10 years to 1998. My husband had blood in his urine. We went to a urologist and they did surgery. They pushed us to go to a gastroenterologist about the Hep C so we did. He went and had a liver biopsy. Diagnosed with cirrhosis. They talked about varicies and wanted to do an endoscope and banding. Hubby declined that procedure. We went to the gastroenterologist to see about treatment for the Hep C. They told us the process and said they were now seeing about a 66% cure rate. Hubby decided that he didn't have time to devote to a year long treatment that would have meant weekly doc visits and lab work.

Let me add as an aside that my dh does not have the best oral hygiene. He goes to the dentist when there is a problem only which usually includes pain. I tried repeatedly to get him in to the dentist for cleanings. While having the other issues addressed they did tell him he had gum disease and would need planing and scaling. Let me tell you, this did not happen.

Along with this lovely issue my hubby has a bad right knee. Over the course of many years since the early 90's until nine he had 6 arthroscopic surgeries to fix meniscus tears. He got to the point where there was no meniscus left. He began courting orthopedic doctors to find one that would do a knee replacement on him since he was so young. A little over two years ago he found one and got his knee replacement. He was told he would need to get his teeth taken care of as the infection could spread to the joint. More unheeded advice.

Hubby made it almost a year in good shape. The knee felt great. He felt great. Good mobility. One day he hopped out of bed and looked down to see a very swollen knee. We went over and over in our minds as to what happened. We could find no good answer. My husband developed a lump on the side of his knee. He went to the family doc and he checked that bump. There was some dry skin there and the doc knocked it off while examining him to expose a sac that had formed. He sent dh straight to the hospital and put him on antibiotics. They cultured it but didn't find anything. The spot responded and went away.

Somehow the message was lost on dh that he needed to be seen by an infectious disease doctor. Long story short(er) the spot came back, we went to the infectious disease doc and they ordered surgery to have a port inserted in his chest. He was then placed on mega antiobiotics. Much of this runs together but the port was removed and the problem recurred.

Back to the ortho doc and he decided to open up the knee, remove the spacer and clean it out. Once that was done they put him on antibiotics to try to kill any infection there might be. The doctor didn't see anything in the joint to indicate infection. As a precaution we did the port again and the mega antibiotics. As soon as he was off our friendly little lump came back.

This time the infectious disease doc opened the wound and encouraged dh to keep it open so it could heal from inside out. They also placed him on an oral antibiotic to be taken daily for the rest of his life. They were suppressing the infection. This started late last year.

Last summer dh went to Baylor to work with the liver transplant team and go through the process of being placed on the list. He was given some things to address and he addressed those. In the meantime they monitored his MELD score and we watched it go up and down with each course of lab work. This score determines your placement on the list and how ill you are.

While going through all this dh was fired from his job. To tell you how bad he is he was declared disabled and now draws social security disability.

This past summer dh was driving and slammed on the brake. Not much longer after this the knee swelled again. Went to the ortho. Ortho told him he had osteolysis which means the bone was growing away from the knee replacement. He wanted to do another surgery but wanted dh to be cleared by the transplant team. We had not heard much from the team until this point except for the letter ordering tests and then the results letter. We went and met the new hepatologist. He had lab work just before we saw her. While we were sitting there she got his labs. His MELD was now a 20 and their sickest person was a 22. She had a lot of questions about his knee and the meds. We had been providing all these details as we are required to do. She told him he needed to get his teeth cleaned immediately to clear the infection. She presented his case and came back to tell us that he would need to have his right leg amputated above the knee since the infection could not be cleared. Both of these need to get him listed and get a liver.

I called our dentist and desparately begged them to take care of him. They did not have room in their schedule. They referred us to an endontist. I called and explained the situation to them. They said their computer was down and they could not help us for a few days until it was resolved. I got a call back almost immediately. The dentist said get him in the next day. We were there with bells on. They did their assessment but could not clean since they needed more info from the transplant team. We went back the next day and had half his mouth done. He has two more appointments and will be done on the 10th. He has to have two teeth pulled as well. Two weeks later the dentist will clear him of infection in his mouth.

We saw the vascular surgeon yesterday. We were resigned to the need for the amputation. Our orthopedic went to bat for us but the hepatologist didn't think we could wait (what have we been doing all this time?). He asked us for the history of the situation. We told him and he asked if we didn't think this was a bit extreme and that he didn't want to do it. We said yes we don't want to either. This doc is going to go to the transplant team and go to bat for us to see if they can try the alternative out orthopedic gave which was to take the hardware out, place a spacer, clear the infection. Get the transplant. Then when he was well enough redo the knee replacement.

I cannot tell you the stress I have been under. There is so much more to this story. I will share more as I know it. Not blogging this topic has kept me from blogging at all. I had to tell about it so I can get on with my blogging.

If you have read this far please collect your gold star! Thanks for listening.

Labor Day Sewing. I had several items I wanted to work on but only managed to finish my row (triangles) on this Round Robin for my friend Beth in MD. I saw a quilt at the Plano quilt show and took my inspiration from the border. And what a small world....that quilt was quilted by our very own Bonnie Hunter! Here is the quilt and quiltmaker that inspired the border for Beth's RR. Karen collected the left over HSTs from her guilds quilts and made this. In fact she said she took everyone's blocks and trimmed them for the quilter in return for getting the HST's. It is truly an awesome quilt!

Please stay tuned. I will be posting this weekend and catch you all up on my going's on. My life is a little upside down right now and have been trying to decide if I tell more or not.....

The Bagsket

Why Did That Baby Irish Chain Become a UFO? I intend to share this info with each UFO I finish but forgot to do so this time around. I actually bought this top off ebay from a gal I know in Maine. She had hand quilted it about half way. I didn't want to finish it by hand so picked all those stitches out and machine quilted it. In fact this is the first quilt I quilted on my new Janome 6500. She quite working on it because she felt it took too long to do and wanted to work on faster things. What a shame. It was so close and her quilting was great!

I will be posting another pic with the recipient of the quilt as soon as I meet him!

We Have a Finish!! I was 4th in line for the Queen of UFOs on Stashbuster. But I had a finish to prevent my reign!

Weekend Accomplishment. Here is my first paper piecing experience. This is for a round robin I am in and belongs to Jane in Kansas. I really enjoyed doing paper piecing and look forward to trying more.

What I did for summer vacation. I went to visit my folks for 8 days. DD went with me. While I was there I made a "Scrappysak", a "Grace Smartbag" with cover, finished a squiggly hotpad and made two helmet hats. To me it was heaven to sit and craft and visit.

Here is my other part of a great vacation. My mother hosted a picnic at her house and invited all my aunts and uncles over. This is her side of the family. There were several cousins and my aunt from my Dad's side as well.