Updates

Ms. Bunny has been moved to a psychiatric facility to stay for awhile. She has always known she has cickle cell and that it caused her pain along with many hospital stays. She is now realizing the implications of what her life will be as she grows up. She's having a hard time mentally absorbing these things at only 6 years old. The doctors there are better equipped to help her understand it all.

SIL is still waiting to have her arm set. She has to be off her blood thinner for a few days before they can do surgery. It's broke in 4 places. She will have screws put in to hold the bones together.

My daughter has a rental car and an attorney to help her deal with the insurance companies. Neither her's nor his insurance were offering her the full value of her car which meant she couldn't get a replacement car without making payments. She doesn't want anything more than enough money to own a car without any payments due on it. This is only fair since her car was completely paid for.

My own update? Hmmm..... I tried to learn to use photoshop so I could start doing some portrait quilts. The version I bought didn't come with a book of instructions. It requires logging onto the website to read and learn. My brain wasn't willing to absorb the information so I'll leave that for later. I worked on my guild challenge quilt a bit then decided that's not what I wanted to do. I couldn't concentrate.

When my quilting brain is on overload and desparately needs a rest; I change to doing plenty of physical activities. I won't bore you with before and after pictures but I scrubbed and cleaned the bathroom. Including all the woodwork, tile, and walls. The physical activity left my body suffering from aches in muscles I forgot I had. That's a good thing though. My creative mind is starting to come alive again. Toward the end of the day my mind was coming up with ideas for the quilts that are waiting.

Today I'll start scrubbing the kitchen.

Yesterday was another one of those days.

A day when you just want to rewind and start it all over. You know what I mean? I type talked yesterday that I was supposed to be going shopping for things to stash away for next xmas. Not long after my post I received a phone call that my SIL had fallen the night before and broken her wrist in 4 places. She was in the hospital to have surgery to have it set.

I also forgot to mention in my last post that my daughter was on her way to visit Ms Bunny at the hospital when she was hit by a drunk driver Christmas night. She was t-boned on the driver's side. She's going to be fine but the car isn't. It's a total loss. The baby was at home with daddy.

So instead of shopping as I had planned; yesterday was a day of waiting on phone calls, cleaning house, planning, making notes, and evaluating goals for 2009. Today will be more of the same.

Christmas is still waiting.


First thing Christmas morning my six year old grandaughter, Ms. Bunny as I call her, asked to be taken back to the hospital. She didn't want to open gifts to see what Santa brought. She just wanted to go to the hospital to stop the pain. She has sickle cell. She was in the hospital earlier this week but was sent home to have Christmas. It's very sad to see a child so sick. Her gifts will wait until she is back home again.

I gotta tell you a story about one of her gifts. On the day after last Christmas I went shopping to find bargains. Lots of great bargains are found the day after Christmas. That's the time when I start getting things together for birthdays through the year and the following year's Christmas presents.

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I found gifts for several of the grands. I happened to find a couple of Bratz dolls at 75% off for Ms. Bunny. I bought them hoping Ms. Bunny would like that kind of doll. She had never indicated to me that she did so it was a gamble. When Ms. Bunny came to see me a few days ago, after her last hospital stay, I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring her. To my pleasant surprize she said she wanted a Bratz doll. Well there will be two Bratz dolls waiting for her.

While the parents took Ms. Bunny to the hospital, I stayed with Ladybug and cooked dinner. She loved her gifts too. Her's were not wrapped.

I helped unpack some things for my daughter while she was gone. She's still unpacking from her recent move to a bigger apartment. I kept the boxes to use in some of my cardboard crafts when I get around to doing more of them.

Today is another big shopping day. Time to find bargains for birthdays and next year's Christmas again. Actually, today is the day I take my SIL for her grocery shopping so it works out for me too. We plan to go to several different stores. It's probably going to be a very long, busy day. But wow.... who doesn't like finding bargains?

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I do hope that all my blog readers had a very pleasant Christmas and that you got all your heart desired!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!


I finished the baby quilt so I took it with me to visit the nursing home. Mom was delighted to see it finished. Today was the family Christmas get together. Lots of people making the patients very happy. I was allowed to take pictures but I'm not allowed to show them publicly. So here is Mom with her Santa's helper hat on.


Here's the finished quilt ready to be bound then wrapped.

Primitive applique gingerbread man and flowers. Can you see the message written? It says for Ellisa Jewell. In another block I wrote from her Na Na and great Na Na.

I did simple quilting so I could finish it quickly.

It's hard to see but I did meander in the background of the blocks and a leafy design on the sashing. Both very quick to do.

Here's a view from the back.

I don't think I told you that in my family it's a tradition for all the women still living that are a direct line (to the child born) would put some work into one quilt for the child. Mother, grandmother, great grandmother etc. My daughter still has to put her part into the quilt. She's going to write a poem on the back with pigma pen and then draw some flowers or something around it. My daughter won't sew anything no matter how hard I try to get her to. She hates it.

I'm glad the tradition is to continue. Now I have to figure out what I can get Mom to do for a quilt for my newest great-grand. She can't sew anymore but maybe she can draw on some fabric. Hmmm..... I wonder where I stashed my fabric crayons? I'm sure I have some here somewhere.

I will resist! I will resist!

I will resist the temptation to start quilting for customers another three days!

I received these by UPS and it was a big temptation to open the boxes to get started on the 2009 quilting. I resisted though so I can relax until Christmas is over. If I open the boxes and put one on the machine I will be tempted to stay home instead of visiting with family. Actually, my first priority will be to complete the quilts my customers were kind enough to let me move to after Christmas. The boxes won't be opened until those are done.



Today I'm working on completing a quilt for my youngest grandaughter. My mother made the blocks many years ago when she was in the first nursing home. She did the best she could to do applique. The blocks were intended for my daughter's first child when ever that might be. When my daughter became pregnant I pulled out the blocks and finished the top. A crib size. My grandaughter will be a year old in February so I think it best if I get this one finally finished.

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Its amazing how many machine quilters will set aside their own projects in favor of making our customers happy. I'm probably more guilty of this than most. Which is why I plan to change things this year. I believe I planned to change it last year, and the year before that, and the year before. This year I have much more determination but we shall see how the new year turns out.

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This evening I will visit my mother at the nursing home. I hope to show her the finished quilt so I best get in the studio and do the quilting.

I know I'm late posting today. I've been busy putting an organizer box tutorial together and onto the other blog. This is the next box I created. If you care to take a look at the instructions the link is on my side bar.




If everything goes according to my 2009 goals there will be many other cardboard crafts showing up in my tutorial blog too. Actually, I've been thinking maybe I could sell some of the cardboard craft patterns on Etsy shop to earn a little money. I'm still undecided on that though.

It sure does feel good to not have any stress hanging over me for a few days! It's like a big weight being lifted off my shoulders all of a sudden. I'm enjoying every minute of my free time. Still, there is sooo much I want to do and sooo little time to do it before my vacation is over.

Tomorrow I hope to get some house cleaning done and maybe work on my guild challenge quilt. Or maybe work on a quilt for my newest great-grand.

Well finally..... the Christmas quilts are finished. One customer brought me another gift of fruit. Isn't it great! Most of it has been eaten already. I enjoyed every bite!!




Here's the first finished quilt.

I did more hands on the hand strips.

And more feet on the feet strips.

A feathery design on the outside strips.

A leafy design on the inside strips.

The feathery design from the back.

The hands and leafy design from the back.

The next finished quilt.

A curling feather design on the outside border.

A leaf vine and a curling design on the inside borders.

Combinations of line dancing and leaf and flower designs on the blocks.

Another block.

Another block.

The next finished quilt.

A feather design on the outside border.

Another feather design on the inside border.

A leafy design on the sashing and corner stones.

Another view of the sashing and corner stones.

One of the blocks.

Another block.

And one more.

And another.

The border from the back.

Now that I'm finished for the year, I can turn my energy to finishing up the weatherization I didn't get finished a few weeks ago. I will put up the rest of the plastic on the windows and possibly make a window quilt or two. Even with the new insulation this house always feels cold. Mostly because I have high ceilings which means the heat is up high and the windows don't have covers on them. Next, I'll sort and file the paper work for this year and start the paperwork for the new year.


One thing is for sure.... I don't want to be this busy again! With so many life happenings this year I've been really stressed for weeks. The money just isn't worth all that stress. I'd rather be broke than go through another year like I've had. My goal for next year is to work less and enjoy life more. Hmmm..... seems like I said something like that last December and the December before that and even the one before that. Maybe my goal should be to find a way (a golden key) to work less and enjoy life more while still making the customers happy and keeping the bills paid?

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If I find the golden key to ending machine quilter stress.....I will be sure to tell the whole world. Until then I'm going to concentrate on more immediate tasks. I only have a few days when the chain that holds me to my machine is let loose ya' no.

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Later......

I think I'm having a bad hair day. (Don King style)





To get the full impact you should click on the picture to make it larger.

Yesterday the UPS man brought me a package. Very strange. I'm thinking a customer sent me a late quilt for Christmas or else an early January one. I couldn't imagine who it could be. I didn't recognize the return address and the box was really different than any I'd ever received before.

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I open it to find fresh fruit! OH WOW! First I have to get rid of all those plastic peanuts.





Here they are.... fresh apples!




These are not just apples, they are antique varieties. Some dating back to 1600's. There was instruction sheets in the box telling me not to remove the apples until I had read the pages. It's quite a history lesson about apples and Johnny Appleseed and all the different varieties in the box. They come from Kilcherman's Christmas Cove Farm in Michigan.

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Now I'm wondering how I can save the seeds and plant them some place for the future. I can't plant that many trees in a tiny city yard. Hmmm... maybe just one or two? I did loose the crab apple tree that the city planted in the street easeway. It was taken down in a storm. Maybe I can put one there and one in the back yard? I'm going to save all the seeds to see if I can get them to grow. In the mean time I'm going to enjoy eating all the different varieties to see which one I like the best.

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Thank you Ann, I love it!!!!!

More finished quilts. I did go back and do more quilting on this one. I meandered with clear thread in the background of the blocks.



It looks much better with the background quilted.

Then I did more holly leaves on the tiny border.

Next I quilted this one.

Circle Lord made it go quicker.

Then this one for the same owner.

Also used the Circle Lord.

Then I quilted this one.

It's hard to see the stitching because the colors match so closely.

The feather designs on the border start in the center with this bow and move out to the ends.

The sashing is a leaf and curl design. It's one of my favorite designs because it looks so elegant.

The center photo also got a feather design around it.

Here's a picture of the back so you can see the quilting better.

And another one from the back.

I couldn't quilt on the photos because it would crack with each stitch.

I'm slowly getting the Christmas quilts done. I'm still not sure if all will be finished but I'm doing my best. Staying off the computer and in the studio is helping a lot. It's surprising how much can be accomplished when I stay away from the computer.

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I have an appointment this morning to sign papers for my mother to be admitted to the hospital. She's acting up again which usually means her medication isn't balanced right. They wanted me to go right away but I'm not catching a bus while it's still dark. I gave a verbal admittance over the phone and will go as soon as the sun comes up.

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I have the next quilt on the machine ready to go when I get back. I have a couple more to do then I will take a whole day to do the binding on several. The work goes much quicker when I work on several bindings all at one time.

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Over the last several weeks I've had people post comment questions but..... your "no reply comment" is turned on so I can't email you back to answer. "No comment reply" is an email blocker that keeps a person from being able to respond to your comment. I know I'm staying away from the computer as much as I can but I do try and answer specific questions about the quilting I get done and then show in my posts. Please consider turning on your "yes comment reply" so I can email you. I may have a question to ask you but can't if I can't email you.

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