Finished Frolicking

I finished my top. I used a border I saw on FB. There are lots of creative people out there. It was hard to choose!



I’ll share what I’m working on now soon.

Swooze

Modern BOM

One thing I'm allergic to is making a quilt that looks like everyone else's. I did this BOM at my LQS for which they gave a suggested layout. I sat in class one day staring at the wall of blocks made to date while they were talking about finishing kits. I looked at the fabric choices and was just not in love with anything.

At the next class I continued to look at those blocks and an idea popped into my head. I was going to put HSTs all around the blocks to form a stripe. When I did my bad quilt math it seemed like it was going to be too large so I altered my idea a little and here is what I came up with.

Do you like BOM programs?

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Did You Frolic With Bonnie

I did! I wasn't as fast as a lot of others and I'm glad. I've been collecting border ideas. I even chose one and began sewing for it then saw some other great ideas! Darn!




I’m trying to get around to your blogs.  Leave me a comment.  It will get me there faster!

Swooze

One day Quilts

Do you have quilts that you'd like to make one day? I have quite the list and realized one day may never get here so I better take action.

This is Shakespeare in the Park. I believe it's a Judy Martin design. There was a lot of talk about this quilt on my Stashbuster group. I bought the book but did not make the quilt at the time. My son surprised me when he said he'd like a purple quilt. I felt it needed a little zing so I added the green. I need to quilt it now.



This is Bonnie Hunters Double Delight.  It was a mystery quilt she offered many years ago.  It’s still free on her website.  I planned to do it in her colors but had a hard time finding the pinks locally in civil wars.  I did find the purples though.  I began buying and while on a Patchwork Express trip I found a pink to use just in a different place.  This too needs quilting.



I can sort of tick these off the list.  I need to choose the next someday Quilts now!

Are you working on your bucket list?

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While I Was Away

Since my incident with the mountain and altitude sickness I've been soul searching. Trying to figure out what I wanted my life to look like.

I've been doing a lot of sewing versus talking about sewing. I haven't been blogging nor reading many blogs but I do read one of my favorite yahoo, now io, groups. I've been teaching quilting classes a little and working to setup more classes to teach.

I've had another vacation. It even included visits to high altitude although this time I was equipped to handle it with knowledge and appropriate supplies. It was good to conquer that fear. It healed me more than I could have imagined or realized that I needed. Ray and I talked over the bad trip and my feelings over things. It helped to air that all out.

Sadly life brings other realities with it. We lost Duke late last year. He was put to sleep the day after his 10th birthday. His heart and spirit were strong but sadly his body was not. I've helped many a dog over the Rainbow Bridge but this one was particularly painful. He left a giant hole in our hearts and lives.




Then 2 days after I brought Ray home from the hospital and one of the worst experiences of my life we lost Augie.  He was not doing well and I was running back and forth to the hospital.  I knew he didn’t feel well although he acted a little better.  I told him I was taking him to the vet the next day.  He died some time in the night.  He was 13 so more than likely if we had made it to the vet I would have had to euthanize him.  No good answer in any of it.

So here I am.  I’m going to try to make it a habit of visiting with you all again and share what I’m up to as well.

Thanks for checking in on me.

Swooze

Foot Pedals Need Love Too

My foot pedal would see sluggishly or stop completely even with my foot firmly pressing down. Even more entertaining was when I lifted my foot and the machine kept seeing

2Q FAL

Time to declare what you want to finish for the second quarter of 2019.

I’ve been MIA. Been sewing a good bit just not talking about it and not reading about it much more than that.

1) BCS Mystery Quilt 2017-2018 needs quilting

2) Armadillo wall hanging. Needs quilting

3) Yoda quilt. Needs quilting

4) Renees yellow top. Needs quilting

5) Awareness - red black. Needs quilting

6) Pink Poppy BQ. Needs quilting

7) Marys Strippy - bike. Needs quilting

8) Vikki's Baby quilt. Needs quilting

9) Double Wedding Ring. Needs quilting

10) Nancies Floral and White Blocks. Needs quilting.

11) Red and White bow tie. Needs quilting

12) Scrappy Mountain Majesties. Needs quilting

13) Pieced together contest. Needs quilting

14) Rays Horse Quilt. Neefs quilting

15) Halloween Half Hexi. Needs quilting

16) Aquarium. Piecing

17) Selvedge Tree. Piecing

18-25) Charity quilts. Needs quilting

-AND-

26) 3 postcards. New start
27) Hedgehog pincushion. New start
28) I Found a Quilted Heart. New start
29) Strip Stack quilt. Needs quilting
30) Three yard quilt. Needs quilting

Some piecing, lots of quilting. New starts and UFOs. Varietybis the spice of life they say.

Linking with Leanne at She Can Quilt for 2Q Finish Along. Are you playing along?

Swooze

March OMG

I decided at the last minute to join in with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for the March One Monthly Goal linkup.  What’s the harm if I don’t meet my goal.  The goal last month was to get the borders on this quilt.  As you can see I got the borders attached but what you can probably not see is the corners are not quite done.  At this point I’m thinking there will be a lot of handwork to finish these.  I’m going to try to machine finish one corner to see how it goes.

I have been away from the blog for a bit.  I have been feeling overwhelmed with work.  We are having to learn a new software tool.  It’s been a huge uphill struggle.  This past week I had a breakthrough in my understanding and use of this tool.  I’m no expert but I am able to independently get things done.  This gives me such relief and makes me happy.

So in the evenings reading blogs, much less writing blog posts, was far from my mind.  I read emails and sewed.  That was about it.  I got lots of sewing done.  I’ll share some of these things in the coming days and weeks.

Tomorrow I am heading to the Dallas Quilt Show.  I’m not really in the market for anything specific.  I’m going to spend time there with a new friend.  She has extra activities planned before and after the show.  It should be interesting.

Did you miss me?  I look forward to catching up with you over the coming days.

Swooze

OMG February

Hey there. Needed to get this posted before time runs out for declaring my goal. I’ve been working on a quilt, a BOM actually, for a year now with the last block being given out on the 16th of this month.

My goal is to assemble the entire top. I have to trim all the blocks. The borders are made except for the corners.

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

What’s your One Monthly Goal?

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January OMG Complete!

I finished all the blocks which was the goal. I then set them together and added the first border!

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts and planning my February goal!

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OMG Update

I’ve completed the red and orange blocks.

I’ve completed the units for the blue and green blocks. I do have either one extra green piece or am short one blue unit. Time will tell. 2 blocks done 23 to go.

How are you doing with your goals?

Swooze

1Q FAL 2019

It’s that time! Time to declare what you want to finish for the first quarter of 2019. I try to thoughtfully choose my list of items but as soon as I make that list I start thinking and, and, and. This time is no different! Dang it!

1) BCS Mystery Quilt 2017-2018 needs quilting

2) Armadillo wall hanging. Needs quilting

3) Yoda quilt. Needs quilting

4) Renees yellow top. Needs quilting

5) Awareness - red black. Needs quilting

6) Pink Poppy BQ. Needs quilting

7) Marys Strippy - bike. Needs quilting

8) Vikki's Baby quilt. Needs quilting

9) Double Wedding Ring. Needs quilting

10) Nancies Floral and White Blocks. Needs quilting.

11) Red and White bow tie. Needs quilting

12) Scrappy Mountain Majesties. Needs quilting

13) Pieced together contest. Needs quilting

14) Rays Horse Quilt. Neefs quilting

15) Halloween Half Hexi. Needs quilting

16) Aquarium. Piecing

17) Selvedge Tree. Piecing

18-25) Charity quilts. Needs quilting

-AND-

26) 3 postcards. New start
27) Hedgehog pincushion. New start
28) I Found a Quilted Heart. New start
29) Strip Stack quilt. Needs quilting
30) Three yard quilt. Needs quilting

Some piecing, lots of quilting. New starts and UFOs. Varietybis the spice of life they say.

Linking with Leanne at She Can Quilt for 1Q Finish Along. Are you playing along?

Swooze

Good Fortune and OMG

I played along this year. The last Bonnie mystery I did was Grand Illusion and I didn’t care for it so I didn’t do any others since then and have loved every single one!

This time when she announced colors I decided I would try to work exclusively from the scraps. I will say that I wanted to employ strip piecing where possible so did cut into some yardage that was actually in one of my scrap bags. I also wanted to make a smaller version in the 45x60 range. I will be closer to 54x72.

I was assembling my blocks along with a friend when she discovered she had 50 too many 4 patches. I asked her for her extras, which she gladly shared. I may just make the quilt the full 72” square size.

Here are ny first blocks.

I went with rusty oranges to golds. Right noe I wish I had chosen brighter oranges but I’ll make these work.

Did you make Good Fortune? I think I will make the January OMG to be make the 35 planned blocks. If I make 49 so much the better!

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

Swooze

Grand Junction to Breckenridge Colorado

This is Ray’s last goal. To go skiing. I am not a skiier so was content to wander the hotel or village to snap pictures.

We stopped in Grand Junction to resupply and get ready for skiing. We drove for about 2 hours and climbed from an elevation of about 5,000 feet to 10,000 feet. I would soon learn this was a no no.

We passed through several tunnels winding our way higher into the mountains.

The view of the larger mountains looming in the distance and the river winding it’s way along with us excited me.

I thought it interesting that the highway was two tiered in places.
We pulled off in a small turnout along the river that had ice forming near the banks. We saw an increasing amount of snow.

Here was our goal. Breckenridge. We passed through several well known resorts including Copper Mountain and Vail. Beautiful resorts along the way.

We exited the highway and saw animal tracks along the road. We pulled into the resort we had booked with. I went inside and checked in. While standing there I mentioned feeling out of breath. They suggested I make use of their oxygen bar. They said be aware of altitude sickness but didn’t give details.

We got up to the room and located the sports shop that we rented equipment from. We drove down to the shop and while he was equipped several people talked to me again about altitude sickness, hydration and O2.

We returned to the hotel and I sat with the O2 for about twenty minutes. I didn’t feel quite as winded so thought I was good. We went up to the room and I drank lots of water. I felt a little off so I took some excedrin. I had felt “funny” when we were in Albuequerque but lots of water and a good nights rest solved that issue.

We woke up Thanksgiving day (next day) and Ray was getting ready to hit the slopes. I felt nauseous and before he left I started vomiting. I just felt the trip was catching up to me and I had caught a bug. Ray went and got gatorade and made sure I had plenty of water. I slept off and on all day and drank water and gatorade. Ray came in throughout the day to check on me. By that evening I was feeling good.

Ray ordered from the restaurant downstairs. I had a grilled cheese and the best tomato soup I have ever eaten. I felt good. We talked about Ray’s day and about our departure the next day. We had plans to go to Colorado Springs and Castle Rock on the way home to Texas. I had friends and other sites to see!

We went to bed. A snowstorm was blowing in. We hoped we would be able to get out without trouble. In the morning Ray tried to wake me. He was able to but I was not acting right. He tested my blood sugar but it wasn’t low. He fed me something just in case.

He got me to the edge of the bed but I could not sit up. He asked me if I could move to the chair. I fell to the ground and pulled the drinks on the nightstand onto myself. He asked me to crawl because I was in a corner. I could not do that.

After this I remembered him talking to the 911 operator and answering questions. Then I remembered an EMT telling me he was taking me on the ambulance. My next memory would be of the hospital room.

I was later told they took me to the ER in Frisco, CO. By the time Ray got there ( he was detained briefly at the hotel to answer questions ) he was told I needed to be taken to a lower elevation immediately. There had been talk of careflight but they didn’t want to risk putting me at an even higher elevation. They diagnosed me with altitude sickness. I had an O2 level of just 38%.

I was put on the ambulance again and taken down to Denver a little over an hour away at an altitude of about 5200 feet. Altitude sickness usually starts at an altitude of about 8000 feet. I was told they did MRIs and CAT scans but I am not sure what was done.

I remember coming to and having several different nurses trying to put a large gauge catheter in. They said it was needed for a certain test. Lots of poking and zero success. I also remember another nurse coming in and doing stroke tests. I was asked to grip, push, pull, smile, etc. They were asking me my name, where I was, why I was there, who the President was and the date. I really struggled with that last one.

They let me off the hook and asked if I knew the year. 1986 I proudly exclaimed! They repeated these exercises through the night. I stuck to 1986. Around 6:30 the next morning I responded with 2012 but knew that was wrong and reverted back to 1986. I also became aware of the whiteboard on the wall. I would look at it but didn’t understand what words were. I could not read! I didn’t even know what that meant...reading. About two hours later I started getting that ability back and was able to read the date to them when asked.

They decided I didn’t need the test they wanted to stick me for and slowly started giving me fluids. I was visited by PT later that day and they wanted to walk me to the bathroom. I had to use a walker and was really wobbly. With the help of two people I went to the restroom. They took me into the hall for a very short walk and returned me to bed.

They were thinking I would need to go home with a walker and on oxygen. Getting a few good meals in me really helped. More rest and oxygen helped too. By the next day I was able to walk without the walker but could not maintain good O2 saturation without using O2.

Sunday I was given a cognitive test. The hardest part was drawing a clock face to show 10:50. I did it though. I went for an even longer walk down the hall. At some point I had a cardiac stress test which showed all clear. By late Sunday evening I was released and Ray took me to his motel.

We got to the room and he helped me get cleaned up and into bed. We got the oxygen set up and had a good nights sleep. We had a 12 hour drive to get home and decided to break it up into 2 days. I let work know what was going on and yhat I’d be in touch once I got home.

We were home by Tuesday night. I felt like a bad dog skulking aeay with itsvtsil between its legs. I didn’t get to see my CO friends but I did get to return home in one piece.

I’m mostly recovered now. Still have some issues with stamina but that will return with time. My O2 sats were normal when I returned to Texas but I used the oxygen for a little longer to help me heal. I’m off the oxygen now and the doctor has cleared me.

Not the ending I had hoped for to my vacation but it was an otherwise wonderful time. I will avoid high altitudes in the future. I was diagnosed with both types HACE and HAPE. I don’t really care to repeat that experience.

Thanks for sharing my travels.

Swooze
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They

Southern UT to Western CO

After we left Zion we were on our way to Colorado so that Ray could meet his second goal of going skiing. We looked at prices fir Breckenridge and everything was so high. We put a call out to friends for affordable but good skiing in CO. Wolfcreek was mentioned by several so we set our sites there.

We stopped in Moab UT for the night. While on the way there we kept searching for information about skiing conditions and costs. When we got up in the morning all sorts of great deals popped up for Breckenridge plus the snow was much better there.

When we went outside we were greeted by more beautiful red rocks. Southern Utah how I love thee!

Can you see the green in the rock below? Beautiful!

We turned the back toward the north and east and headed for the Rocky Mountains.

More from Colorado next!

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Zion National Park

We spent the night in Hurricane Utah. We had planned to drive to Springdale but turned back stopped not too far after Hurricane and turned back as accomodations were more affordable. We were rewarded by amazing views the next day.

The first picture shows a ridge that has formed along the hillside. It was clear why rock and mudslides occur here. It’s hard to see but the rock curves out.

The drive to Springdale, through Zion National Park and into Glendale was breathtaking. I took hundreds if pictures, pared it down to 80 for facebook and about twenty to share here.

I will return to southern Utah. I was just awestruck.

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