Happy Valentines (belated) to everyone.  Clay gave me Red Roses and I gave him two Vermont Teddy Bears that we both love.  We just love our President Trump and now we have the cutest Vermont Trump Teddy Bear!  The Koala Bear was just too cute to pass up!  The Roses are artificial and so pretty!  They will last a LONG time!

Now on to where I am in my quilting projects – Should I just say ZERO?  LOL.  I have progressed very little on Mary Brown but as always hoping to produce something this week.

On one of my post I believe I discussed the issues about me doing scrappy quilts!   OMIGOSH is extremely scrappy and I tried 2 different fabrics to make this quilt last month with no success.  I decided that I would just work on a couple of on-line BOMs until Clay was up and running again.  Well, that did not work out too well.

I made one block from one of the 4 selected BOMs and after spending the time and effort in doing that, the block has a problem, but I don’t anymore – it is called TRASH CAN FIX!  The block and the other projects I had printed out to work on are also visiting the TRASH CAN FIX!  I hope I have learned that I have plenty of beautiful patterns and do not need to participate in the on-line BOMs!  OMIGOSH is a quilt that I have been wanting to make for years!

After the TRASH CAN FIX, I decided to go back to OMIGOSH – especially when Gretchen posted her finished quilt.  She made a smaller version, but I love the way the 9 patches show the diagonal lines!  We were going to start this quilt together in January, but of course, I am behind.  My biggest problem was fabric selection.  When I first started my OMIGOSH you can see what I ended up with.  I really like the little top that I made and the 9 patches really did provide the effect I wanted.  For the 2nd fabric start, I selected some Jenny Beyer fabrics BUT that did not work out either.

Gretchen used a white background for her quilt which really allows her Shoofly Block fabrics to pop in this quilt.  When I saw her finished top I realized that I could use my original Reproduction Fabric selections but change the background to a Bella Solid beige background.  Yesterday I started working with them and I am very pleased with the first 9 patch block.  All blocks are 5″ unfinished and 4 1/2″ finished –  I really do enjoy working with the small blocks and the positive out of this story is that I have practiced enough that all blocks are coming out perfect!  YEA.

This is the first row of the Shoofly block and I really think that I will be happy now with this quilt.

This is the stack of fat quarters that I will use.  They are from Barbara Brackman’s Union Blues, Lady Albums, and Richmond Reds.  I do hope that this turns out like I want it to.  It will be “scrappy” but very controlled!

OMIGOSH is a quilt that I can pick up at anytime (with current time constraints) and not have to revisit the pattern to refresh the memory (what memory I have left these days)LOL.

UPDATE on Clay:  Clay had a highly successful reconstructive surgery on Thursday morning.  He is doing very well and his Orthopedic Doctor is very pleased that the Masquelet Technique** used in repairing his hand.  The gunshot had shattered almost an inch of the 5th medial bone in the middle below his little finger.  By the grace of God there was solid bone at the top and bottom of the bone remaining and Major Wilson was able to put a screw into the top portion of the bone and the bottom portion and grafted bone from the wrist in the middle!  Major Wilson was praying that this would be possible as he did not want to have to use pins. We are so indebted to BAMC and the Excellent Orthopedic Team that has been caring for Clay!  They have performed a miracle.

The Masquelet Technique**of repairing trauma incidents like this and those on the battlefield is absolutely amazing.   We go in for a checkup on Friday!  We are about half way through the toughest part in this process.  He most likely will be put in another cast in two weeks or so.  Right now he has a splint on his hand and will find out Friday about the next phase.

UPDATE:  I forgot to post about the neat Smart Cart that Clay also bought for me on Amazon.  I used it for the first time Thursday morning and talk about saving my back from carrying a snack, purse, and water – great little cart!  Love it! This time I had two Mophie’s (extended batteries for iPhones)stuck in the outside pocket – this way I would not run out of battery time if we had to stay overnight!  This little cart will get a lot of workouts in the future!

**Masquelet technique, which is the use of a temporary cement spacer in the first surgery followed by staged bone grafting in the second surgery and is a recent treatment strategy to manage a posttraumatic bone defect.  This procedure was developed by the French and used in combat injuries.

This week will be busy and probably very little time for the Studio but it is OK as after Friday I do believe things just MIGHT slow down and I can get into my quilting rhythm again.  Less stress means more quilting!

Nanette – have a wonderful week

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday

Weather Alert – Winter is over with in South Texas – EXCEPT for tomorrow.  80 today and 49 tomorrow…. Hummm!  Best way to get the correct weather report these days – open the back door and see if it is cold, warm, or HOT!  LOL

Now to the important things in life!  Quilting!   A quilter knows when they have a great friend!  Gretchen gave me some very sound advice Sunday and I am following it!    She encouraged me to work on the new iMAC and Celebrating Mary Brown rather than trying to make another quilt during the day!  I tried that yesterday and I know now that I was just trying to do too much given our situation!    I do believe things will get easier for me now!  THANK YOU GRETCHEN!   I just cannot be Wonder Woman anymore!  LOL

I finished my Sunflower Block yesterday!  This is a large quilt and when preparing each block, you will notice I have a tab that states the Block Number.  I find this very useful when making a quilt – pieced or appliquéd!

This block completes the 4 upper right corner blocks.  Looks like I need to get the connecting vines done soon!

These are the  4 upper left hand corner blocks that also need the vines that pull these corner bocks together.

I have 8 more blocks (Bottom Right and Left corner blocks) that are a repeat of the above except for the birds.  There is another block that will replace them and I think probably one of my favorites!

Have a great week – we are one day closer to surgery and hopefully on the road to recovery for Clay’s hand!  AND it appears that listening to Gretchen is proving a big positive for me in de-stressing and just enjoying things.

Nanette

In September 2019,  Karen and Cathy selected Celebrating Mary Brown as their next project and invited anyone to join in the fun!  The following quilters are participating.  We will be showing completed blocks on the 30th of each month!  Take the time to visit them to see their completed monthly blocks!  If interested let Karen know you are interested in joining the group.

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday

Well,  we are still living the good life, ‘alive and well’, re-organized daily schedule, and used to the ‘new and different life’!  BUT one month down and about 2 or 3 more months to go when Clay will be ‘almost’ back to being a 2 handed person!  YEA.  He is ready to get rid of the cast for good.  We are not sure as to what comes after the surgery – will find out on the 7th when we go to Pre-Op appointment.

Reconstruction surgery is scheduled on the 13th of February.  His birthday is the 6th of February and we will be celebrating with Jan and Mike at Sea Island Restaurant!  Our Valentine gift this year, for both of us, is to have a successful surgery that will get him back on the road to final recovery!  Our 2020 will start around 1 May!

Between the changes in daily routines and doctor appointments I have been limited on my quilting.  It seems by 7pm in the evening I am what you call “DONE”.  This has caused me to be late in my work on Mary Brown, BUT I am almost finished with my Sunflower block for the month.  I should have used a lighter color leaf fabric for the middle leaf, but too bad – no changes or redo’s this month!  LOL  Maybe during the Super Bowl tonight I will have it completed!  Just the middle and the bottom 2 flowers!

Here is Jan’s block for January.  Jan and I definitely did not get off to the great start for 2020 as we have planned, but we will recoup and catch up soon – right Jan?  Jan was not feeling well and we all know what was going on in the Cook household!

Now for an update on OMIGOSH project. Gretchen asked me if I would like to make this quilt with her this year and I jumped at the chance to have a quilting buddy while making this quilt.  She posted her progress yesterday on her blog, click on her name to view her colors and blocks.

I wanted to make this quilt with Reproduction fabrics, but my idea for that one did not work out.  I made 5 of the double nine patch blocks (each block is 5″ unfinished – 4 1/2″ finished) and 4 of the ShooFly blocks.  Here is a picture of the one square in a square I made before realizing my error by using a larger print for the HSTs!  Keep in mind that these are 2″ HSTs and the SnS is 2″ and the 4 patch in the center block is 1/2″!

It did not take long to realize that my fabric selection would not work, so here is what I did with the blocks I made!  Great Computer Laptop Cover (when quilted of course).  There is a problem with the lower right corner, but it will remain as it is!  I tried to use a larger print for the ShoFly block and it definitely did not work, although I like the outcome of this little mini-quilt!

At first I decided that I would just give up on OMG – but it is really a lot of fun making those 2″ 9 patches and then there is the lovely 2″ Square in a Square block.  They are all made from 1″ strips – so much fun, and really something that is not really challenging (other than the size) for me to work on during this time of healing.  One thing I do not like to do is to give up on a project because of a pattern problem, wrong fabric selection, or just do not like the way things are going.  I take it as a challenge.

With that being said, Here is another group of fabrics that I have selected.  They are Jenny Beyer fabrics that I was going to use for Hexagons for a Lucy Boston quilt but that will never happen!  I am testing them today to see if they will work out better, if not then I will probably go for a 2 color purple and lavender quilt!

Have a great week, enjoy the Super Bowl if you like football, and keep on stitching!

Nanette    Hope to see more progress the next 2 weeks!

Linking to the following groups!

Mary Brown Group – In September 2019 Karen and Cathy selected Celebrating Mary Brown as their next project and invited anyone to join in the fun!  The following quilters are participating.  We will be showing completed blocks on the 30th of each month!  Take the time to visit them to see their completed monthly blocks!  If interested let Karen know you are interested in joining the group.

When I do not get to spend time sewing or hand appliqueing I always feel like I did not accomplish a lot.  But you know that is a stupid statement.  We all accomplish a lot during each day in retirement.  It is just that sometimes we cannot do what we want to do when we want to do it. I hope this is not another lesson for me from God in patience!  LOL

Anyway, I am so thankful that I did get the iMAC set up and running when I did even if I did push too much and it bit me in the bottom on Thursday.  Friday we went to BAMC for Clay’s hand.  They took out the stitches and then put him in a full cast.  Friday evening Clay realized that there were some issues with the cast and Saturday we went back to BAMC (this time to the ER) for them to trim off some very very rough edges.  It only took 20 minutes for that to happen – OH but YES – it took a 5 and one half hours wait time!  Needless to say the only thing I accomplished was to vacuum and mop the floors before we decided to take care of the cast problems yesterday rather than Tuesday.  That would have made Clay have some bad issues with being able to move his thumb and 2 fingers that are not restricted!  Whew!  Glad that is over with – needless supper was at 8:30PM!

There is one good thing – we do not go back until 7 Feb to BAMC for pre-op checkup and then on the 13th Clay will have the reconstructive surgery.  There are 2 other appts at the end of January, but nothing big so we are both looking forward to settling in and relaxing before it starts over again!

Today has been a gift from God!  Peace and quiet, worked on the iMAC with Apple support who was the best Technical guy I had found in the last 4 months!  Great help!  I now have both email accounts loaded on all Apple products!  There was one thing we did that caused me some time I had not accounted for – duplicate emails from the 2nd account, but they are all gone now

We have been watching the games and enjoying relaxing!  Clay is doing fine – no pain – he is really a great one to care for!  He just handles things!  Maybe I need to take lessons from by guy!  (Never happen to this Hyper Type A!)

Have a wonderful week and enjoy stitching – I am hoping to have something about quilting to blog about this next week!

Hugs

Nanette

Life is getting better these days Clay is doing great and  I am slowly getting things done that were put on hold.  One of the most important things I had to do was to set up my new iMAC before Windows would no long be supported.  Somehow I thought I had until the 20th of January to make the transition, but alas when I turned on my PC it was yesterday that Windows 7 support stopped!  Whew!  Talk about cutting it close!

So this morning I rushed to shut off the Internet on the Dell laptop and the 2 desktops before we had any problems with uninvited guests – like hackers or unwanted viruses on our network!

I started Monday with setting up the iMAC, backing up all documents for the last time, transferring them to the iMAC, switching 2 laptops, and now aI will be getting rid of the 2 each 10 year old desktops.

You ask about my quilting projects?  Well, they have been on hold until tomorrow or Saturday!  I had allowed 4 days this week Tomorrow will be downloading EQ8 and getting familiar with some of the software and settings.  I now am totally Apple and am 95% finished with the transition.  Here is my new work station!

There was one problem with the transition, I have 3 external hard drives that I use to continually back up my documents and pictures that are on the PC.  One of them was accidentally hit and fell on the floor – goodbye Seagate External Drive!  Thank God I had already transferred files to the iMAC, because later when we moved the PC that had all the files went belly up also (at least I think it did) !  I had another one that evidently had died also so I was left with the one that I backed up my MacBookPro laptop.  In the end, it all worked out great, if I lost any data or documents they were things I can do without!

Tomorrow will be short trip to HEB and playing with Ms MAC and Friday we will be going to BAMC for a checkup and probably a full cast will be put on his hand after they remove stitches and the temporary splint.

I am ‘planning’ on selecting fabrics for OMIGOSH if all goes well.  I am still leaning toward Reproductions.  But as we quilters know – we have the option to change our minds.

Have a great week and week-end!  Enjoy the Holiday on Monday if you are still working

Nanette

Welcome to the old folks at home day!  Football games have been Number 1 here yesterday and today!  I love football (yes weird for a quilter) and will enjoy the remaining games.  I am already looking forward to the Olympics in June and then football in August.  This year I will be more in tune with the teams and players!  I think the Dallas Cowgirls are off my list if they do not learn how to play consistently!

Clay is doing great!  He has such a good attitude – and mine has improved 150%!  I do believe that the last half of this year will be our time!

I have been able to complete a couple of blocks for Mary Brown. I decided to do 16 blocks first – the 4 corners each have 4 blocks that are connected together with the vines for the flowers.  I have the left top section completed.

I have finished 3 blocks of the right corner now.  Today I will be working on the 2 Sunflower blocks and one more pineapple block for the bottom 2 corners!  If you look closely you might see where the pencil marking is for the vines that will be placed on the bird and leaf blocks!

I do not know what happened, but for some reason it took me almost an hour to get this picture (above) inserted in the post!   Somehow the picture was corrupted.

I wish all have a great week and lots of quilting in your week!  I am getting back to normal and it feels great!

Hugs and thanks to all who were praying and rooting for Clay to do well!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday

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, Connie, Bella, Gretchen, Daisey , Kathie.

Greetings from South Texas where at our house we are thinking of buying a table with a large umbrella and 2 chase lounge chairs and enjoy having our own sandy beach!  YUP – no rain here!

Yesterday we had an appointment at BAMC for a check up on Clay’s hand.  Talk about relief for me and Clay!  The Doctor (military) has done a miracle with his hand.  How he ever put things back together is amazing.  Clay heals well so all looks great!  He is scheduled for his Reconstruction surgery on 13 February.  Next week he will have stitches removed from his finger and then he will have a cast on his hand until the surgery.

Prognosis is fairly good that the little finger will be OK, with a ‘wait and see’ on mobility, etc.  But knowing Clay – it will all work out in the end!  He is such a trooper!

As most know, we had concurrent Cataract surgeries in September and October.  Clay did great – ME, well we know how that damn black cat always follows me around, I have Ptosis (pronounced Totis).  It happens sometimes with this type of surgery and can be hereditary – THANK YOU SMITH-HARRISON LINE!

Ptosis can be caused by Cataract surgery (whoopee) or genetic (another whoopee), so I really have a problem now, and have been referred to a Plastic Surgeon for corrective surgery.  I also have issues with the bottom eyelashes growing inward which aggregate my right eye and have to go back to the Eye Doctor whenever that happens (which is about once a month).  Apparently the surgeon will zap the folicals with a laser  and permanently cease that issue!  I was just so damn happy yesterday afternoon when I realized that I now have another ‘minor’ surgery ahead which will resolve this issue!  Doesn’t this just sound like fun and games?

Especially since 2020 was to be such a quiet, peaceful and ‘a lot of quilting’ getting accomplished!  I guess that looking like I am 60 is better than having drooping eyelids!  LOL.

If it had not have been for how great Clay’s hand is looking and the positive outlook, I think that the trauma I have experienced (NOT TAKING AWAY FROM THE PAIN THAT CLAY HAS SUFFERED) on New Years Eve that I might have just come home and sat in a chair forever!  (Not really).  Anyway, this is on the horizon, in the meantime I am determined to put issues behind me and go forward as backwards is not the place to stay!

This week-end will be football week-end!  Yea!  I am thinking that starting Monday I will start setting up my new iMAC.  I will need some time to get it set up and will have 4 days to do so as Friday we go back to BAMC.  I am not ready to start working on OMIGOSH until Clay gets his hand in a cast that will give him more freedom.

All in all, WE ARE SO BLESSED.  We have each other and it is such a very special gift that God gave us!  Who else has grown up with someone from age 9, never dated, but at the age of 51 Clay called me in DC and I married him in 2 months and that was almost 24 years ago!

Others that I know are going through much more severe illnesses and I constantly pray that they are healed.

I am hoping to have some hand work ready for HQAL tomorrow!  If I can maintain only positive thoughts, things will improve even more.

Have a wonderful Saturday and count your blessings!

Hugs, Nanette