The Other Shoe Drops

I finally quilted and bound my On Ringo Lake quilt. It’s a simplified version as I used a good number of the pieces for On Ringo Pond, which I finished last month. This one will be a personal quilt for cuddling, as I like them not too big and heavy.

The final measurements were 54.5 x 64”, and I quilted it in a simple stipple. There are a lot of piecing 

“missssssnakes”, but I really don’t care. I’m just not focused enough to piece together hundreds of little bitty pieces going this way and that.  

I would’ve preferred to have a nice border on it, but I used all the border pieces on the first Ringo quilt, so this is what it is.

The colors are yummy, though, as I switched out the browns for grays. And about 95% of the orange fabrics are from Tula Pink’s Salt Water line. I used this same fabric line in blues for Salt Water Wedding back in 2014.

The backing was a piece that I picked up a few years ago from Connecting Threads.

So, it’s all washed and fluffy and crinkly (just like me!) and I’ll use it as my new lap quilt. I like to rotate them. Do you do that? 

My Bernina had to have the foot pedal cord replaced, but it was only in the shop for a couple days, so that was nice. While I was there to pick it up, I got all the supplies for the 2 Blocks of the Month I’d missed due to sheltering in place. We’re still practicing that, of course, but I did go out and visit the store curbside, with mask.  Anyway, here are the two blocks. The first one is a bit odd because, uh... I messed it up royally. But in my defense, they didn’t give us the right amount of fabric to cut the necessary pieces, so I had to improvise. 

And these are the mostly same blocks I’m making with a busy US State-themed background. I give myself permission to skip uncooperative blocks (I’m looking at you, purples) or substitute others. So, I only did the 4-patch economy squares. And yes, I agree that that pink pinwheel in amongst the flying geese is hideous. That will be getting switched out before I sew the blocks into a flimsy.  It will be a small donation quilt when done.

And here is my Rainbow Scrap roundup for April.  Linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s blog.

Yield: 1 Scraptastic Star, 9 Split Nine patches, 17 selvage hexies, 9 Twin Sisters blocks and 16 string blocks.  That’s 52 (smallish) blocks; a light month.   

If I have any more quilt finishes before month-end, I’ll catch those on the next post.

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Just when we think life can’t get any more complicated... OK, fill in the blank. Here are your choices:

(A) Donald Trump becomes President 

(B) You lose your job

(C) You catch Covid-19  

(D) You have to have your arm amputated 

The answer is not (A) because DT is already a bloated windbag President (my blog, my opinion). And it’s not (B) because we’re retired, so jobs are not a worry for us. We do, however, worry about our kids and friends and neighbors. And it’s not (C), because we’re all healthy here (got tested this week). So, if you said (D), the arm amputation, you would be correct. Unfortunately.

Bruce had an appointment last Tuesday with a radiologist to discuss the possibility of using radiation to kill the remaining cancer cells in his right (dominant) arm. Long story short, the doctor discovered another tumor had popped up seemingly overnight on his forearm. It’s about the size of a large pimple, but truly it wasn’t there a week ago. Anyway, we (I was requested to join the consultation) were sent back to his original orthopedic oncologist (Joan D. Miles - we love her!) and the consensus was that now is the time to stop playing whack-a-mole with the cancer. And we certainly don’t want it to metastasize to his lungs. So, Dr. Miles and Bruce decided that amputation was the next step. Like NOW. Well, technically, it’s on Monday the 27th. I raised a feeble suggestion of waiting until after Bruce’s birthday on May 3, but they just looked at me like I was an alien (I get that a lot).  

Bruce's first thought was that this provides a lot of new humor possibilities. And we were surprised at how great the grandkids think it’s going to be that Grandpa will have a robotic arm (eventually). They already thought he was cool before because he calls Brussels sprouts “turtle heads”, but the RoboGramp thing just thrust him into superstardom in their eyes. 

We, of course, know that the reality will hit pretty hard. As much as we’ve tried to prepare for this, knowing for years it was an eventuality, there is going to be a difficult adjustment period. The prosthetist told Bruce he will mourn his arm like a lost loved one. But, it’s time. We are ready. And best of all, we have each other and loving family and friends. Oh, and we don’t have Covid-19, so there’s that. 

Finally, I don’t know what my blogging schedule will be like for the next few weeks. It may continue as normal, or I may go dark for awhile. Heck, for all I know I could be shoving Bruce out of my way so HE doesn’t take over my blog. It could happen. Thanks for all your past and ongoing good wishes. Your kind messages mean the world to us. Stay safe. We’ll “see” you soon!