Slow Sunday Stitching

This was a relatively non-busy week, with the exception of basting day.  I had plenty of time to finish up quilting my Father Christmas quilt.  This is one of my entries in our quilt guild show which starts this next Friday.  I am pretty pleased with the way it came out.  I just need to make a label and it will be ready.  

I extensively quilt it, and at times my shoulder and back and neck started cramping up on me. This was a 1995 BOM by Laurene Sinema called Father Christmas.  She was the founder of Arizona Quilter's Guild.  For 25 years she owned the Quilted Apple Shop in Phoenix, Arizona.  In 1998 I went to a quilt convention in Phoenix and met Susan Nixon @Desertsky Quilts.  I bought one or two of the above BOM, and then when I got home I asked Susan if she would go get the rest of them for me.   I started this around 1999 with the guy up in the right hand corner, and he hung around my sewing room lonely until around 2018 when I started working on a few blocks at a time.  I finally completed the top in 2020.  Now it is finally finished, I am thrilled!

With all of our "atmospheric river" storms recently my yard was a mess, especially the back yard.  I was finally able to get out and mow the lawn.   It took two days to do this much weeding and mowing.  I still need to weed my flower beds and put vegetation killer in my front sections that I had redone last fall.  Apparently the guys that took out my grass didn't put black plastic under the bark, and I have crabgrass coming up all over the place.  

This is the side yard, that dandelion in the corner was almost 5' tall and had to be cut with a branch cutter.

This was where John used to build his boats and is undeveloped.  

After pictures, looks a lot better.

I have a lot of nice flowers blooming including the wisteria.  

I mistakenly called this peony before, but it is a Ranunculus.   My peonies haven't bloomed yet and it will be awhile as they frozen late last year.  

The other thing I have been doing is working on Missouri Star's block of the month. 

I am trying to get the first month done as I received month two on Saturday.

I apparently wasn't paying attention and did this.

That section on the right bottom, should be going in like the left side.  I got it straightened out, but decided it was probably time to stop for the night.  

What I will be working on this week for Slow Sunday Stitching will be my  Gnome block of month.  The one on the left needs a few finishing touches, and then will finish up the one on the right.  I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.    Head on over and check out what everyone is up to.

This week will be a particularly busy one.  Tuesday night is our Begonia Society meeting, and it is my month to bring refreshments.  Wednesday is our guild meeting.  Thursday I will be working to help set up our quilt show.  Friday and Saturday I am also working at the show, and takedown Saturday evening.  

Thanks for stopping by!

HQAL, Slow Sunday Stitching, Giveaway Prize

Since the last check-in for Hand Quilt Along I did finish my Father Christmas top, which I had previously shared.    The Father Christmases were all hand-appliqued.  I started this around 1999 with the guy up in the right hand corner, and he has hung around my sewing room lonely until around 2018 when I started working on a few blocks at a time.  I am thrilled to finally have the top completed.  It probably won't be quilted until next year.  

While this was not hand work, I also completed all 12 blocks of the QAL by the Sea by Partners in Design.   The last 4 blocks, and all 12 blocks together.  I have a plan for another larger block, but this also will have to wait till next year.

I finally got one more tea towel embroidered this week.  These are iron-on transfers from Quilters Revolution.  

I was also able to finish up a couple more blocks from the Ella Maria Deacon from last month.  I am trying to finish the last one up, as next month's have been released, which I probably won't be able to get to till after Thanksgiving.

The hand-quilting and stitching links are below.  Check out what everyone has been doing!

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Daisy, Connie, Monica and Sherrie

 

I will be linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy's Quilts.    Check out what everyone has been doing there too.   I will be working on my last Ella Maria Deacon block, and I also have another Stitcher's Revolution prepped to stitch.

This week has been a  hard one again.  My husband has been home, is till bed bound.  He has had BP issues this week, being too high, but it is probably because he has been in bed.  It is not usually this high when he is sitting up.  This has necessitated calls to the Dr., changes in medications.  

We have had multiple therapies coming in everyday 2-3 which take up most of the day.  I am helping him with some exercises in bed.  Home Health has been worried enough about him that they have are coming all weekend.  We collected a specimen for urine testing today, and hopefully that is clear.  He is still eating poorly off and on, though this evening he asked for more pasta which is good.  But his appetite has been up and down.  

I finally picked up all my quilting stuff out of the kitchen and dining room to get ready for Thanksgiving.  BIL Roger has been a big help with John and helping me move furniture to clean carpets.  I had hoped to get a few more things prepped for hand sewing, but I am tired, and couldn't get myself to do it.  

I was able to get an appointment on Monday to get a cortisone injection in my knee.  My knee has been hurting so bad at night I can only get 2-3 hours of sleep, and it has been killing me with the barometric pressure changes.  

One bright spot this week has been a package I received from Tasmania, Australia this week from Kim @Sarah Lizzies.  I won one of her beautiful Parisian boots.  Her pictures here do the boot justice.  I won the cream colored one.  My picture does it no justice at all, poor lighting on a gloomy day. The boot is exquisite, and came after a particularly stressful day with mix ups with a couple of the therapists coming over, and things seeming to be falling through this way and that.  I love the boot, and so much appreciate Kim and all the work she put into it.  It made my day for sure, as did her beautiful note!

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure and visit the other links above.  

Slow Sunday Stitching, Another Rough Week

I didn't get much sewing done this week due to what is stated below.  I did finish some hand stitching on my last QAL by the Sea block by Partner's in Design.  The block last week was the lighthouse.  These are the last 4 blocks.   I think before I put these blocks together I want to do a mermaid for my complete quilt.  

I also finally finished this Ella Maria Deacon block.  I have been working on this for two weeks it seems.  My applique was off, but it is going to stay as is.  Maybe I'll make a notation on it that John fell when I was working on this block.  I have two more blocks to do for last month, and I will be working on those for my Slow Sunday Stitching.

I will also be working on my last month's block of Cassandra's Circle.  I still need to prep the block for that.  I laid the other blocks on the floor today and took a picture.  

I also got the last two borders on my Father Christmas quilt.  

I will be linking up at Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy's Quilts.  Head on over and see what other's have been working on.  

This week has been another rough week.  Trying to get information out of the rehab facility my husband was placed  in was like trying to pull teeth.  Last Monday, I was waiting to pick up my grandchildren, a nurse helped him call me.  He was telling me was depressed, was barely coherent and crying when I told him I loved him. I sat waiting in the front of the school crying myself.

 Monday afternoon I asked the Dr. at the facility to give me a call back.  She called me at dinner time, and told me they had not been able to work him with yet,  that he was very weak, and he told her he did not feel he was making any progress.  I told her I wanted him to come back home with Home Health.  

The team meeting was the next day and they discussed his progress/lack of it and it was decided he would be sent home on Thursday, after his brother Roger had gotten here from North Carolina Wednesday evening.  

Wednesday afternoon I had a video conference call with the OT and PT at the rehab showing me how to get him up, and into a wheelchair.  I didn't find this particularly informative, but they tried.  For one thing, they had heavy plastic shields around their face, had heavy accents, and I have hearing difficulties in the best of conditions.  I sometimes have to see people's lips.  They had masks on and heavy plastic shields.  I am generally able to get him up from a chair or bed and grabbing onto his walker than it took the 2 of them to do.  

They brought him by gurney transport on Thursday.  He has been on an antibiotic for a week which can cause diarrhea.  Right before he left, for some unknown reason, they gave him a rectal suppository.  He has had diarrhea since he came home andis in diapers (which he wasn't in before).  We have had 2 bed changes today and a lot of laundry.  I was thinking when you have a little baby and they have a blowout or a messy diaper, you lift up their legs and clean them up, roll the messy diaper out and can clean them up.  A 270 pound adult  it is not that easy.  

He is not really able to walk, in fact he slipped to the floor tonight when Roger and I were trying to move him to a chair to eat dinner.  He only had to take 8-10 steps to get to the chair.  Fire Department was out to pick him up again, one of the same guys from two weeks  ago.  He did request to move to his chair this morning and we were able to do it without problem and get him back to bed.  

He is eating a little better now, but the first few days, he had a couple of bites of tapioca pudding, Jello, 4 bites of pancake this morning, a couple of Ensure.    He  told me has not been bathed the whole time he was gone (10 days), and they had not given him a toothbrush to brush his teeth.  But the big thing that got me was giving him a suppository when the antibiotic side-effect is diarrhea.  I was so worried about him yesterday, he was not eating much, drinking much, sleeping all day.  His breathing was even when he was sleeping.  He has asthma, and he kept snorting and coughing when he would doze off.  I finally put on his CPAP mask so he could breathe better.  He was on oxygen off and on in the hospital, and rehab, though he doesn't have it at home.  

We are due to have Home Health be started on Monday.  He has been ordered nursing, occupational therapy, speech therapy and maybe a bath aide.  

Hopefully he will be able to get some help  with the therapies at home.  He didn't obtain any help the 10 days he was out of my care.  He is much better emotionally here at home at least.  I couldn't in all good conscious leave him there, with no access to seeing him and very little talking to him.  Our daughters have both been to visit today and he has seemed in good spirits.  

I hadn't mentioned it before, but last week walking around my bed, I stubbed my baby toe on the drawer underneath my bed.  I asked my Dr. for an x-ray, and apparently I have a nondisplaced fracture and they told me to tape it to the  4th toe.  That hurt worse, so I took the tape off.  Tonight when  John went down on the floor again, his walker ran over my baby toe.  It is swollen more now.  I guess I just need to wear shoes in the house or something.  

Well that is it for this week's saga.  Hope you have a great week, and hopefully we will too!

Slow Sunday Stitching

If you just want to read about my Slow Sunday Stitching, you can skip to the bottom.

This week has not been a good week for us.  Monday night, after watching The Voice, I helped my husband into the bathroom to get ready for bed.   He is a fall risk, and I always walk behind him.  As we were walking down the hall, his legs were really wobbly.  By the time we got to the bathroom, his legs collapsed.  As he is a big guy and can't get up by himself, we called the firemen to pick him up.  He was so weak when they were here, they advised taking him to the hospital to be evaluated.  I drove up to the ER and they would not let me in, even though I explained I was his caregiver, power of attorney and he had some cognitive issues.  They ran tests and scans and didn't find anything.  He told them he  had just come on that night, where if they had allowed me to give the history, I would have said it was about 2 weeks.  I would have told him he has difficulty finding words and getting out what he wants to say.

About 2:30 a.m. the Dr. finally called me back and told me what was going on, and they hadn't found anything.  They kept him till Wednesday morning and sent him to rehab.  I was finally able to speak to him before he left for rehab, where visitors are not allowed either.

Wednesday I received calls from the rehab facility asking for his history.  Thursday morning, I received a flurry of calls, from therapists, nurses and the Dr.   Apparently he had some garbled speech, and shaking, and they were afraid of mini-strokes and took him back to ER for an MRI.  They kept him overnight, MRI was negative,  They kept him overnight again.  I insisted on going into the ER yesterday to be with him before they sent him back to rehab.  I was able to spend about 5 hours with him.  He said they didn't give him dinner the night before, but not sure how accurate that was, because I also heard they were worried about him choking on food.  

I asked him how he was when I got there, and he said he was confused.  He cried multiple times when I told him how much I loved him, and that he was no burden to me as he is constantly worried about.  I was able to get him to eat miniscule amount of food for breakfast and lunch.  They brought him sausage for breakfast but told him he couldn't eat it because they were worried about him choking.  That was what he wanted to eat!    I told him when I was there I cleaned a great big dust ball off our headboard and it fell on my pillow.  I did get him to smile when I stated we should "fire the housekeeper".

Today I have spent the day trying to call him, or speak to someone.  I was finally able to speak to his nurse tonight.  I suggested his food intake needed to be monitored as he has been trying to limit his food, and it is really not adequate for his size.  

This is particularly hard, as about 3 years ago, about this same time he had a really bad patch, and both happen around our anniversary, November 16th.  We will be married 45 years on November 16th.  I am terrified of him not making it out of rehab.  If he is not eating, he is not going to get stronger. 

Anyway, my usual activities have been disrupted this week, mainly from worry.  I have been cleaning house.  I deep cleaned the living room, which is where his hospital bed is.  And as he has asthma, I want to keep it as dust free as possible.  But also because he is in this room 100% of the time, it is hard to get a thorough cleaning.  I borrowed my daughter's carpet cleaner and it is cleaner than it has been for several years, and all ready for him to be back home.

Also John's brother Roger is coming for a visit until after Thanksgiving.  This was already scheduled and I am hoping Roger is able to see John while he is here.  

I have been too distracted to sew.  I can't seem to sit still, and I am not watching TV at night like John and I do together, so haven't been stitching.  I did get this Ella Maria Deacon done last week before all this started.

I also got my Father Christmases together.  I still have a sashing and a border to put on.  I hope to do that this week.

So for Slow Sunday Stitching, hopefully I will be able to work on the rest of my Ella Maria Deacon blocks done.  I also hope to prep some more applique for when my brother-in-law gets here, so I have something to do while he is here.  I am going to have to take down my quilting machine in the dining room, and my sewing machine in the kitchen.  

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Head on over there and see what everyone is up to!  

Thanks so much for stopping by and listening to me ramble.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Not much has been going on the last couple of days, my bad knee is having problems.  I am supposed to get a video appointment on Sunday.  I haven't been able to get my cortisone shot since before Covid-19 shelter in place started.  I called the advice nurse tonight, trying to set up an appointment with my doctor, or the orthopedic clinic.  Depending on what goes on with the video appointment on Sunday, they may give me a referral.   I've been having trouble sleeping at night and now it is painful to walk. 

One thing I did get done was my project for the Stitching Sunshine Blog Hop which starts on Monday, at least the quilt top. 

What I will be working on this Sunday for my Slow Sunday Stitching is this embroidery.  I decided I wanted to do this one for my Son-In-Law who happens to drink wine.  His birthday is on July 1st and I am going to wrap his gift card up in this towel. 

I also will be getting the applique ready for this Father Christmas.  This is one of the last 3 I need to do to complete this project.  

My daughter sent me this cute picture of my youngest granddaughter Klara.  

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Be sure and check over there and find out what everyone has been working on. 

Be sure and come back Monday and see my Stitching Sunshine project.   Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching

I can't believe that Sunday is coming around again.  This week has flown by, for no reason in particular.  I spent 5 days this week working on the Ella Maria Deacon quilt blocks.  I finally got the star block done, by EPP it.  I was really glad to get that done!  I don't think I will use a glue stick next time.  I had a heck of a time getting the papers loose.  All except the broderie perse one were done by hand.

While I stayed in this week, and didn't have the shopping hassles, we had other issues.  I was finally able to get 2 weeks of my lupus medication.  Apparently this is one of the ones they are trying on Coronavirus patients so my supply has been limited from my standard 3 month supply to 2 weeks.

Thursday night my heat pump went off again.  I woke up at 3 am on Friday with a migraine, and was cold and noticed it was off again.  The repairman came out promptly and replaced the fuse again, about the 5th time in two months.  It is a low voltage fuse apparently.    So we had heat for most of the day yesterday.  But I had the migraine all day, so wasn't able to sew.  

Then this morning, woke up at 3 am again and it was off again.  I talked to my husband and we are going to get an electrician out here on Monday or so and see if he can figure out why this keeps blowing fuses.  There is obviously a problem.  That last fuse didn't even last 24 hours.  So Saturday I was not able to sew on my machine either, we are heating the room with a space heater my husband stays in and the rest of the house is cold, too cold for my arthritis to handle.  

We did get a visit from our younger daughter this afternoon.  She has been working from home and trying to get her children 9 and 6 to do their assignments.  Next week is Spring Break so she won't have to worry about it.  But she praised me on being able to work from home (I was a medical transcriptionist for 35 years) when her and her sister were young!

So for my Slow Sunday Stitching, I will be working on my Father Christmas.   The last two days, with my migraine, and today I read all day, I haven't gotten much to show.   

I got the big tree stitched down, now I can start working on Santa.  I will be linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Head on over and see what everyone is working on.  

Thanks so much for stopping by, and Stay Safe!  

Slow Sunday Stitching

Time to report in again at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.   I really appreciate this weekly check in and motivation in seeing others' works.

This week has been a crazy one.  Multiple appointments were cancelled due to the mandate for shelter in place for the whole state of California now.  I did venture out daily in the mornings for needed supplies, most of which were gone from the shelves.  I can now say I did score some TP yesterday at Target, and was finally able to find some distilled water for my husband's CPAP machine at Sprouts, after looking for almost 2 weeks for those items.

My chest freezer and refrigerator are now filled to the brim for now, so we can rest easy.  I do miss our family, children and grandchildren immensely.  Granddaughter Kyleigh on her way home with her Dad as of Sunday driving cross-country from Boston.  They will drop off her roommate in Arizona along the way.

So what little sewing time I did this week, I finished up the Buhl-Bushong quilt border assignment for March.

Those blue flowers I ended up changing the fabric below.  I didn't think it offered enough contrast against the green, so I took it out and substituted the above fabric.

This week, I have been working on the Ella Maria Deacon quilt blocks too.  There were 2 applique, 1 broderie perse, which I have all prepped, and I will be slow stitching on Sunday. 

The fourth block was a lone star type pieced block.  I spent 4 afternoons working on this one.

The first one came out like this, almost looks like a cap.  I was really trying to force it to go together.

There is no way this one is going to lay down at all.  I didn't even bother putting three of the corners on.  This took me 2 afternoons to do this much.  I had a hard time figuring out where those parallelograms were supposed to match up.  I kept being off one way or the other.  I took some of those seams out 2-3 times.

Then yesterday I got this far before figuring this wasn't going to work either.  It was like a sliver was missing.

So today I read on Facebook someone from the group had theirs done, and had a hard time too, and did EPP.  So I decided that was what I would do.    I have never done EPP before and it was relaxing to me.  This is the first section.  I still need to prep the other 3 sections so I can do the hand work on these too.    But I think this will be better.  I did figure out when I made the templates to which we were to add the seam allowance, it was larger than it should have been.  That was probably what caused all my difficulties.  

And if I don't have enough to do above, I still have my Father Christmas block waiting to be put together!

I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Head on over and see what everyone has been doing. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hand Quilt Along, Slow Sunday Stitching

Hard to believe another 3 weeks has flown by, and time to check in for the Hand Quilt Along, and also Slow Sunday Stitching.

Earlier this week I did a pretty extensive shopping expedition, but never found toilet paper.  Still can't find toilet paper.  I still have 5 rolls, but I was going to at least buy another package!  Then we found out yesterday our grandchildren are out of school until the 13th of April.  I was scheduled to watch the two youngest for at least 5 days during that time, but now our daughters have decided not to put my husband at risk, especially due to his asthma.  So my older grandsons are going to watch the two youngest.  I will miss seeing everybody for sure!  I also cancelled my husband's appointment on Monday, and rescheduled to the end of April.  

What I have been working on for slow stitching this week is my Buhl-Bushong assignment for March.  I have two of the flowers done, and have two more to go.  This is where I am now.

Next up, I prepared the next Father Christmas block.  My goal is to have this one done this month.  It was one of my 2020 Finish-Along goals.

The links for the other's in this Hand Quilt along are below. 

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Kathi,  Bella, Daisy and Connie

I will also be linking  up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Be sure and head over there to check out those links too.  

I really appreciate both of these weekly, or every three week motivations!  Thanks to both Kathys!

Hand Quilt Along, Slow Sunday Stitching

The past 3 weeks has flown by, and it is time for another Hand Quilt Along report.  I've done lots of hand stitching these past three weeks.

I got 8 of these Buhl-Bushong blocks done.  I have about 56 more to go though.  I did paper piece the crowns, but hand-pieced/appliqued everything else.

I finished this Father Christmas guy.  I am trying to finish 2 more before the end of the month.  The other 2 are relatively simple, don't have the star borders.

I finished the last block of the Hospital Sketches BOM by Barbara Brackman

These are all nine blocks.  I'm going to redo the bottom middle block.  The brown/yellow just doesn't work for me.  The navy blue is fine, it is everything else.  

I finished this penny rug project called All My Stars by Blackbird Designs in a book called Higdon Camp-1928.  This has been a UFO for years, and I put it on my 2019 Finish-A-Long list for quarter 4.  So I can cross that off my list.

Right now I'm working on this crazy quilt piece for a friend.  I have some more stitching in the two blue patches to do.  I think I will be able to finish this by the end of the month for my One Monthly Goal.  

Check out the Hand Quilt Along links below and see what everyone has been doing.

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen and Kathi

I will also be linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.   Head on over there and check out what everyone has 

Slow Sunday Stitching

This week has flown by, I can't believe another Sunday has come around so fast, and not so much accomplished.  I guess most of it has to do with helping out with the grandchildren.  My daughter Kristen asked if I could take Keaton to the ophthalmologist one day, and drop him off at school.  Then Friday John-John and Klara had a day off.  So I watched them.  Then Saturday Keaton was going to be on his own for most of the day as his brother and mother were at Jaeger's Polo Meet in Napa.  So he came and spent part of the day with us.  All these days I did absolutely no sewing of any kind.  I love my time with my grandchildren and we had some good days.  Keaton and I watched Mama Mia II again.  We saw it in the theater the first time, and then Kristen gave it to me for Christmas last year.  Keaton is the grandchild that loves to watch musicals.  

Today John-John turns 9.   This is a picture of him with his dad John.  

Anyway, today my slow stitching will be to hopefully finish up this Father Christmas.  My goal was to finish 3 of these guys for the 2019 Finish-A-Long Quarter 3.  Quarter 3 is up next week, so I better get busy.  I've been working on these stars.  Just need to get the rest of the long strip done and then I will start on Father Christmas.  They are rather time consuming, Father Christmas should be a snap.

The other thing I hope to get to is to hand piece this Ella Maria Deacon block 1.  

I spent a large chunk of this week messing with the background fabric.  This quilt, that is being offered as a BOM by Sentimental Stitches requires 9 yards of background fabric.  DH, sweetheart that he is purchased 9 yards of fabric online for me.  Trouble is, it was white, and I really don't care for white, I would rather have an off-white.   I used to purchase the Rit tea dye stain.  But I found out this week they no longer make it that I can find.  So I purchased a beige color and did all 9 yards at one time.  Having a front-load washer now makes it a little problematic.  You turn on the cycle, and then pour the dye through the soap dispenser.   This ended up in part of it being really dyed and the rest turning a pinkish color.  Another mistake I probably made was only using 1/2 bottle.  So yesterday I tried actually tea dying it, and now it is a blotchy beige-ish color, but I'm still not totally happy with it.   I will just use it as backing for something.  

So I went and got some Kona sand color at Hobby Lobby and cut this month's blocks out.  

I'm going to machine piece the other 3 blocks for this month, but this one I think I will hand piece.  

I'm going to link up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Be sure and head over and check out what everyone else has been doing.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!