More Blocks

It seems that mornings are a good time for me to clean house. The sewing room and the laundry room have been swept and dusted. So the afternoon and until late this evening I have been in the sewing room completing some more of the blocks on the baby quilt. I now have made diaper pens, ducks, and lambs. I should have pictures in a couple of days.

We have been having some work done around the house. The new deck has finally been completed except for the railing. Our son does metal fabrication and he is making metal railing to fit between the upright posts. He has that finished and almost ready for the painter. We also had a retaining wall rebuilt which really looks nice. Now we have to get a load of dirt to reshape an area close to the retaining wall. I feel like Lucy (in Florida) with all of the outside projects.

Thinking of all our friends in Arizona who are enjoying the warmer weather as we are stuck inside because of the cold!!??

Everything Baby!

These are 15 of the 18 diaper pin blocks for the Everything Baby! quilt by Lunch Box Quilts. There are just cute. Too bad we don't really use diaper pins anymore. I met Angie, the digitizer, at her booth at the Houston Festival. She was also one of the presenters at Bernina University in Kansas City. She is working very hard on her business.

Today was a trip to the hospital for all the pre-op stuff...the worse problem was finding a parking place which was on the other side of the hospital. Since they are always building something, there are lots of construction areas to avoid. But it was quick and easy after answering another hundred questions or so--just had blood drawn and an EKG.

Internet Sources

This evening was the monthly meeting of the Santa Fe Trail Quilt Guild. Our program was about techniques of hand and machine applique. Two of our members did an excellent job of helping us non-appliquers understand the steps of applique. I do have a book called Women of Grace and Charm that does have an appliqued center. I plan on working on that quilt soon.



I showed my calendar quilt that has so many half square triangles. I had every size thangles except one inch. Since it was Sunday when I wanted to work on the one-inch half square triangles, I did an Internet search to find some papers to use to make over 150 of them. I found a site: http://www.quiltingandwhatnot.com/Half-Square-Triangle.html. It has different sizes of foundation papers to use. The real problem comes when your printer does not print the sheet at 100%. So you may have to work with the printer to adjust the printing percentage so that the sheet prints the correct size.



A site that was mentioned on one of my listserves shows Sharon Shamber demonstrating how to apply competition-quality binding to quilts. There are three you-tube clips that show how Sharon applies binding. You can see clip one at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PE0Yq9iGlc where she shows how she applied the binding to her Angel Quilt.

Sunflowers II

After looking at the small sunflower top for a while, I decided that the border wasn't working. So while I was in town on Friday, I stopped at the local quilt shop and found some sunflower batik. I like this border much better. I would like to have found some with a little more orange color in it--but this will do for the sample. The flash washed out the yellow a bit, but it is very striking. Now to get it quilted tomorrow.

In the other part of my life, I had an appointment with an oncologist on Friday. He is certainly a knowledgeable doctor and has a nice sense of humor. He wanted to know all my medical, personal, and vocational data. We discussed the different outcomes from the tissue results and the different plans. The plan of action will be made after the tissue results are known. Before leaving the cancer center, I did have blood drawn, a chest x-ray, and an appointment for a bone density scan. My lump and some lymph nodes will be removed on January 13th. So I have several projects that are now a top priority for the next week.

Sunflowers

Today I have been working on the small sunflower quilt from Lunch Box Quilts. I started with the small sunflowers that are a combination of embroidered petals and appliqued petals. I wish I would have changed the background in each of them. The medium sized sunflower was applique. The large sunflower had applique petals as the first round. Then the second round are dimensional petals that are sewn in the hoop, cut out, turned, and sewn down in the center. I really like the dimensional look of the large sunflower. I wish I had some batik for the outer border to really make this 21" X 24" quilt shine. I think I will wait to see if the quilt shop wants a different border before layering the quilt and finishing it. It was fun to make.

The more embroidery I do, the more I would like to have another machine for sewing.

New Adventure

This small calendar wall quilt is a pattern given to the local quilt guild as a project last fall. I had all of the blocks completed but still needed to make the hundred and fifty half square triangles for the last border. Those have been completed the last two days. I still have some little details to finish on a couple of the blocks such as the handle on the umbrella. Now to get it quilted and bound.

The big adventure in my life started a couple of weeks ago when I went for my physical. A dark spot was detected on the mammogram that was not on the last one. So I was called in for a sonogram that showed the exact shape and size of the lump. The next day I had a biopsy that turned my breast into a blue/green/yellow batik-looking bruise. Three days later--yesterday--I had an appointment with the surgeon and made a decision about removing the lump. Today I am waiting for confirmation of the time for the surgery which should be within a week. This has been a surprise because no one in my immediate family has ever had breast cancer. My daughter-in-law is a surgery nurse, so she is helping guide the process. It's a new adventure for all of us. The prognosis is good and I'll keep you informed of my progress.

Back to Sewing

The sewing room has been a busy place today. This morning I finished washing an old quilt made by my grandmother. It had yellow stains, so I used a product called "Restoration" and soaked it overnight. I also made a quilt label for it so that I can give it to the next generation.

Last year I pieced a top called Vintage Moments by Marsha McCloskey. She is famous for feathered star blocks which makes up the middle of the quilt. Today I sewed the backing and delivered the quilt to my long arm quilter. So another quilt almost finished. I really love this quilt. I purchased the pattern and fabric several years ago and was waiting for my quilt skills to improve before making the quilt.

This afternoon I have been trimming 1.5 inch half square triangles for a small calendar quilt that I made this spring. The half square triangles will be the outer border. I still need some more triangles before I am ready to put on the final border. This little quilt has my first attempt at hand applique. I may even try applique again.

We are off to dinner with friends. A great ending to a holiday week.