Month: June 2020

WOW – 2 posts in one day, but I thought that everyone would enjoy seeing some of the “goodies” I purchased lately to keep my sanity and to have inspiration to get back to making quilts!!!

The first thing is a new Item that Quilt In A Day (Eleanor Burns) is selling.  It is basically a roll of plastic that is 1 1/4” wide on a spool and cut in strips to wrap around your thread spools to keep the thread from making a mess.

I am sure that every quilter (especially those that hand applique) will love this product and it works!  I use this type of plastic that I purchase from JoAnns, etc in long sheets to cover my fabric stash in the Studio.  Here is how it looks on some thread that would drive me nuts when I could not keep them from raveling project bag.

Next  good is a great fat quart bundle of French General’s Le Beau Papillon.  I am usually late in collecting certain fabrics and this is one.  This is my 2nd French General bundles.

Now lets go to Sashiko Projects!  Sylvia Pippen has great pre-printed projects and I really liked the two that I ordered.  One is for Nordic Christmas Panel for  20XX and the other is a panel with Sashiko Sea Reef.  Love them both!

Next is a preprinted block for hand quilting.  I purchased 2 different ones from The Stencil Company.  They had a great sale and I participated!  They are both preprinted on a black back ground.  Should be good practice for my hand quilting in 20XX!

And if the above wasn’t enough goodies that I did not need….Here are 2 books that were on sale with Connecting Threads.  I also purchased Book 4 for EQ8 software and hopefully by 20XX I can design my own quilts!  LOL

Now for the one that I had drooled over since Lynn from Sew’n Wild Oaks began working on the quilt.  I found the fabric at Shabby Fabrics (and purchased 3 fat quarter bundles of 14 fat quarters each). I believe this will be adequate fabric to make this quilt.  I normally do not use the same fabrics for quilt patterns, but this quilt screamed for the same fabric.  You be the judge.

My list of ‘quilts to make’ has grown and I realize that at my age I may never get them all made, but I am going to give it Hell when I am finished recouping from eyelid correction by the end of July.  Clay is doing well, but could the African’s keep their dust?  It is interfering with our morning walk!

Hugs and have a great day!

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

Greetings from a very hot, horrible air quality South Texas where we are on a Vacation from Walking!  YEA!  (Not really).  Looks like it will be a very hot summer again!  Only 2 more months and maybe we will be a nice Fall in September.

I have been trying to catch up on all things that had been put aside.  One of the things was to work on my new iMAC that I got for Christmas.  It feels good to be caught up with things that I have wanted to do.  Along with that I am “de-stressing” from the last 6 months.

I am just now beginning to think about all the projects I want to get started on!  So many, so little time. But by August I firmly believe I will be back at it 100%!

I finished one small thing I have accomplished!  I took the little block made from 4 OMG blocks that I was not going to use in my OMG quilt and made a pillow case for hand applique. I am pleased with how it turned out.

I am really enjoying just taking each day as it comes – if I feel like quilting I do, if not , it is OK.

On 10 July (unless cancelled) I will finally get my eyelids fixed. I am excited to get this done and over also!

Have a great week and stay safe!

Hugs, 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.  It is so wonderful to have Clay walking with me each morning as soon as we get up!  Love it – Although he walks the circle while I do my 9 times to the gate (which is 1.5 miles) he is walking 30 minutes each morning.  He is walking at a faster pace than I have ever seen before.  What a miracle!

This week I completed the basket block for the lower quadrant for Celebrating Mary Brown quilt project.  I have 2 more blocks to complete and all 4 corners will be finished – with the exception that I need to add the fines to connect the leaves and basket blocks.  I have now finished 14 blocks.

My friend Jaydee and I started on Brinton Hall Quilt a couple of years ago.  I changed the pattern and used batik fabrics with Asian fabrics in the Center of the Medallion.   I have not been able to quilt mine due to life, but hopefully by 2021.

Jaydee finished hand quilting her quilt.  She used Reproduction fabrics and Toille fabrics for the Center Hexagons.  It is a beautiful quilt and I wanted to show her work.  She is very pleased with the outcome and so am I!  Quite interesting how different fabrics can change the look of a quilt pattern.  Jaydee changed her quilt from the original pattern also and she did a beautiful job!

I am so happy to be back to my quilting.  Today I am going to do some piecing on OMG and another project that I started last year.  In fact it was August 29, 2019 when I had made the following blocks using EQ.  I have since upgraded to EQ8 with my new iMAC and hoping that I can transfer the EQ7 file without a problem to EQ8.  My friend Gretchen suggested that I go back to this project and finish it.  I remember I had so much fun making the sample blocks, so it will be great to finish this project!   In fact I started this right before the Cataract surgeries that we had in Sep/Oct timeframe.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week.  I am really looking forward to it.  Just one short trip to SA on Wednesday and we are free until the 23/24 Jun for Clay’s last appointment to BAMC for his hand and a checkup with the Cardiologist!  Light at the end of the tunnel.  I am trying to schedule my eye surgery around the 20th of July when Clay will have been given the green light to move on with life!

Hugs, 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 Monda

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.

I started having issues when I visited my favorite Bloggers when I tried to leave a comment.

IF you are using Safari (iPhone, iPad) do the following:

Go to your Safari -> Settings -> Privacy -> uncheck “Prevent cross-site tracking.”

It has to do with how the new “Blogger” works.  I googled the problem and this is what they said needed to be done for Apple users!

AND yesterday I worked on a block for Mary Brown, should have it finished today – so I am on the quilting road again!  Now looking forward to this afternoon which will give us the beginning of 10 days before we have 2 doctor appointments for Clay!  We are really going to enjoy this time.  I plan on working on my hand projects and OMG, or if bored with it after I complete one more block I will start on another pieced quilt!

Quick update – I am heading to my Eye Surgeon today – I am going to try to get a surgery date around the 20th of July.

Clay had his 7 day check up – he walks 30 minutes each morning and is becoming a dedicated walker.  The Nurse Practitioner told us that he was at Critical Mass with his valve and that he would have died instantly if he had not shot himself in the hand, which of course led us to where we are today.  His valve was opened about 1/4 of an inch!  She believes it was Devine Intervention.  The walking will help repair the damage done to the heart (not real bad) due to the valve problem.   How about those apples for the day!  He is doing great only 10 days after this procedure – Only has to be on Plavix for 3 months (YEA).  AND his hand is improving quicker – guess it needed some blood to heal!   He has the greatest immune system – wish I had some of it!  LOL

I just had to tell the great news.  Life is really beginning for us again!  HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020!

Hugs,  Nanette

Thank you to everyone again who has offered a prayer for Clay during the last 5 months.  I apologize for not responding to comments lately.  That will change from now on.

Clay came out of the procedure with anesthesia psychosis which was very scary for me and him.  It lasted over 30 hours.  He went 48 hours with no sleep (wired and hallucinating).  I made it with 30 hours of no sleep before I gave up and came home and slept 3 hours on Wednesday.  I went back to the hospital that afternoon and by then Clay was 100% better.  I do wish the Nurses would have told us that what he was experiencing was from the anesthesia but they did not – only when we left did the hospital doctor tell Clay that was what had happened.  It would have been the decent thing to do and helped us understand.

Clay never had a problem with the heart valve replacement, his vital signs were back to normal with 8 hours of the procedure!  He is a tough guy for his age and that wonderful immune system of his really helped.

We were grateful that they let me stay with him in the CVICU both nights.  The Doctor would not release him until the anesthesia had worn off.  By Wednesday afternoon he was my Clay again and he was released on Thursday morning.  By Saturday we had recouped some of the lost sleep and have been back to our little routine of life.

Friday I get to go see my eye surgeon and am so ready to get the eyelids fixed from Cataract surgery.  The next 2 months will have some doctor appoints (mostly mine that I had to put off).

Today I am trying to work on my Mary Brown blocks and get back to my quilting.  But I have a feeling that it will take me a bit to get over what we have been through.  With my personality I expect to bounce back at 100% quickly, but guess I will have some good days and bad days as the stress level is reduced.  Clay always does better than me in situations like this and probably due to his years as a Lt in the SA Fire Department.  The Government only made me more nuts!  LOL!

I am so grateful to both heart doctors who cared for Clay.  Dr Palomino saved his life with his aggressive testing of Clay’s heart and Dr Alverez gave him a new Aorta Valve!  Together they saved his life and we will be ever grateful.

We are through the rough times and trying to get back to normal life which is getting up each day and spending the day in the Studio.  My goals are to get a good nights sleep, walk in the morning, and today the third goal is to start quilting again!

Have a great week and down here in the South we have already hit over 100 degrees.  I will say that I really have to push myself to want to do that early morning walk when it is 75+ degrees and 90+ humidity.  But it is worth it because it clears my mind and I have a better day from doing it!

I promise the next post will only be on QUILTING!!!!!

Nanette

Clay is in recovery.   Valve was shot. He was in and out of surgery within 50 minutes.  All went smoothly. He looks great color wise but very uncomfortable   His blood pressure will have to adjust.  Hoping to go home no later that Thursday

Amazing what increased oxygen in the blood does for the body.

We have made it through a maze of accidents, surgeries, stress beyond belief and the witnessing of a miracle for him today.   We had the best TAVR Doctor

I wish to thank everyone who said special prayers for Clay.  God was listening

Here is my favorite Psalm that always sustains me thru health issues and especially surgeries

The LORD Is My Shepherd

23 1  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2  He maketh me to lie down in green [1]pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest [2] my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. [3]

Her is Jan’s block for May.

Here is the bottom right section of mine – I did finish the Pineapple this month – 3 more and I will have 16 blocks done – more later in the month – maybe!

Tomorrow is Clay’s TAVR procedure.  Sharon sent us this sweet picture to give us peace!  Have a blessed week and until next time!

Thank you Sharon for caring!

Nanette