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!