Are We in a Time Warp?

Wow, the last couple weeks just seemed to speed by. But if you asked hubby Bruce, I'm sure he would say just the opposite. For two weeks he had his right hand/arm sewn to his abdomen in order for a skin flap be to acclimated (my word, not the doctors') and then grafted to his forearm, where the cancerous tissue was taken. Anyway, the flap and arm were "detached" yesterday, and he is beginning the healing process. It remains to be seen how much hand function he will retain (it looks like most, but not all) because he's still swollen and sore. But he can now get it wet and we can change bandages here at home until his follow-up visit in two weeks. The light at the end of the tunnel is here, and it isn't a train!!


During this two weeks of self-imposed hibernation for us (it was hard and uncomfortable for Bruce to get around a lot), there was still a lot happening. The back basement door for my studio, which was ordered back in April, finally arrived and was installed.  Now, I know it's just a boring, two-panel door, but it is So.Dang.Exciting to me. The old door was beyond ugly and plain, and the screen had seen better days forty years ago. So, now there's this lovely, clean, wooden door (not steel to draw the cold in) with a lock and dead bolt. I still need to do some touch-ups around the frame, and then we'll be cutting out the carpet around the door to do a small tile entry, probably over the winter or in the spring.






Here is the back door open with the new storm door visible. We can open the screen from the bottom up, which the kitties love. They can lay in the sunshine even if the view is only the basement stair landing and some sky (and a phony plant for some color).

We plan to get a new light fixture out there too,  but that will also wait until spring.

Another happening had to do with the apricot tree.  After the deluge of apricots this year, we were curious to see where all the branches reached when not laden with fruit and propped up with boards. Well, they reached into the power lines, over to the eaves and a bedroom window, and across and into the neighbor's yard (even though we had cut them all back two years ago). The rest of the branches (two of them) reached up waaaaaaay high or else out across the grass area (admittedly rather small) and over to the garden. Bruce had trimmed the lower, diseased branches out near the tree crotch during the apricot season. Anyway, we decided it was time for the tree to go.  It had grown way beyond its described growth when we bought it as a sapling fifteen years ago. Any future fruit would be unmanageable (especially given our aging and health issues). Believe me, this broke my heart. Our yard guys, who are arborists, felled it and cut it up in an hour flat. They left the stump at my request, so that I could put a bird house on it. We do plan to replace it next year with something smaller.

I miss the shade and protection it offered. I'm sure the birds do, too. Boomer's grave, at its foot, is no longer sheltered. My granddaughter London cried when she saw it was gone. She remembers her pre-school days here at grammy's when we used to play out in her kiddie pool and have an apricot drop right in the water for us!

London in 2014 singing "Roar!"

I've been doing some small baby quilt quilting for Quilts for Kids. I've also got three kids quilts I've sewn up from scraps that are basted and ready to be quilted. But first, I'm working to get my August One Monthly Goal finished by month-end on Saturday.

This Firefighter quilt is made from a wonky, misspelled panel (I fixed the misspelled word by taking a tuck to hide the errant letter). The design is my own.  Currently it's basted and about 25% percent quilted. I'm doing some free-form flames. I'll talk more about it when it's done.

We so appreciate all the nice messages from those of you who have taken time to see how Bruce and I are doing and to express kind wishes and words of support. It warms my heart and means more to both of us than you can know. Thank you! So now I'll just the "Publish" button and get this update on its way!

Blue

Bruce had his second arm surgery this past week, on Tuesday. It was performed by the plastic surgeon (unlike last week's surgery, which was the oncology surgeon). We got to see the wound from the first surgery while in the surgeon's office the day before the second surgery. It was interesting to see the actual bone, tissue and ligaments moving inside his arm through the gaping wound. Neither one of us are squeamish about this. I don't know why I'm not, but maybe it's because two years ago we went through this same thing. Bruce, a former medical engineer who worked for Symbion and Robert Jarvik on the artificial heart, has watched many open heart and other surgical procedures. 

The plastic surgeon wasn't able to proceed with Plan A, which was to take tissue and skin from his arm and move it around to cover the surgical wound.  So it was Plan B; sew Bruce's hand once again to his abdomen to let the flap of tissue acclimate to its new site and establish a viable blood supply. It will be another couple weeks, sometime before Labor Day, before they release the arm. They'll cut the tissue flap from the abdomen, then sew up the abdomen and the arm. It's the easiest of the three surgeries. Will this happen again? It's possible, even probable, given past history. But we'll take it one year at a time. 

So here are my boys, Bruce and Alfie, enjoying each other's company. We have a pretty good set-up for Bruce in his recliner in the living room. Alfie loves to nap on a pillow with "Dad".

So, in between doctor visits, surgery, nursing (and pharmacy, grocery shopping, garden, laundry, etc), I actually managed to get a lot of sewing done this week. I'm actually surprised at how much I got done. But then, putting up some tomato sauce here or making a tomato pie there is hands-down easier than dealing with bushels of apricots for weeks on end! Speaking of tomato pie, I used Carole's recipe (from her blog, From My Carolina Home), and it was deeee-lish!! It's the first time we've ever had tomato pie. But not the last!

So, let's get to some of the blue sewing. I'm linking up to our regular Scrappy Saturday scrapfest over at Angela's blog, So Scrappy. Here are the blocks, in no particular order.

Two International Sisters blocks. These are from Preeti's pattern, which you can find HERE.  Meet Elizabeth (Cady Stanton? Warren?) and Toni.  These sisters are known for being persistent and good writers!  That solid blue fabric is actually from Africa - in this picture it still has the wax finish on it.

Some light to medium blue bitcoins. Although I originally planned to use these as a border, I've changed my mind. They'll go into the Parts Department along with all the other bitcoins and become a part of some future quilt.

Then we had some string blocks. First there were the three 9.5" string blocks. I only need 3 more (purple) string blocks, and the large strings will be ready to assemble into a flimsy. So, I started making some 6.5" string blocks - six of them. I'm going to make lots of basic 6.5" blocks this year and next in various colors. Strings, crumbs, HSTs, etc. Then I can use them as blocks in Quilts for Kids quilts.

Next we have 8 Garlic Knot blocks, which measure 8.5" (unfinished).

Two Beachcomber blocks made from crumbs. They measure 11.5" each (unfinished). This is my current crumb project.

And finally, 8 blocks of this 9-patch variation pattern. This one is getting close, too. I'll have enough once I do the purples, depending on what setting I choose.  We'll see about this when the time comes.

And I have been making progress on my One Monthly Goal (OMG). I'm kinda winging this as I go along, because the original panel blocks were an odd size. But it seems to be shaping up. The little bits of bright yellow you see on some block borders will disappear - they're unsewn seam allowances. I do plan to add a white-black-white border around the quilt with 9-patch cornerstones and a red binding. But that may change, depending on how it looks. I think my pace is good for a finish before month-end.

You might remember that this challenge came about from our Salt Lake Quilts for Kids group, because we had these mis-printed panels donated to us. The block below had the word "Firefighters" spelled with an L: "Fireflighters". So, I made a little tuck in the block, and it is pretty much invisible now. Sorry for the bad picture.

Thank you all for your kind emails, thoughts and prayers for Bruce. We really do appreciate it. I'll be answering all your emails, even if I'm a bit slow. I figure that if I have time to sew, I should have time to write, right? It's just that sometimes I need to bury myself in fabric....

True Blue

August is blue month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, my online sewing buddies. More specifically, the color is light to medium blue. And that is so appropriate because here at home we've been lightly blue because the sarcoma in Bruce's right forearm reappeared. But the surgery was last Wednesday and results are great news; the oncology surgeon was able to remove it all! We will meet with the plastic surgeon on Monday and closure and/or reconstructive surgery will be Tuesday or Wednesday. The plastic surgeon hasn't seen the wound yet, so until he does, we're not sure what the next step will be. Right now Bruce is home with a wound vac (negative pressure therapy) on his arm. That is light years easier than me having to dress his deep open wounds as we did two years ago.  

So, things are looking up! We had a "date" yesterday to our favorite place, Barnes and Noble (that's actually where we met on our first date years ago). We had coffee, read magazines, bought some stuff and chatted. It was nice, and a good first outing for Bruce after surgery. He's pretty much back to normal except for his heavily bandaged arm. But all things in time.....

And I did manage to get some sewing time in yesterday, as well as on Tuesday before the surgery. The first thing was this rather wonky-looking row of light blue tumblers. I'm alternating the fabrics with selvage tumblers. Not much to look at, really.

Here are all the rows to date sewn together. It looks a little better, but still wonky. The alignment of the tumbler die on my Go Baby cutter isn't straight. So unless I load my fabric in at an angle (which I forget to do at least a couple time for every color it seems!), the cut selvage tumbler (and the fabric ones too sometimes) comes out wonky. And it probably doesn't help that I pin it up on the design wall without even trying to straighten it... But the quilt police are going to have to take a chill pill, because I'm not going to fix it.

When the sides are chopped off to get a straight edge, the width will be about 41". The length isn't there yet, but this piece will still get a purple and a black/gray row, and possibly a brown row.  That should give it a bit more length than width, because I hate square quilts.  I may add a thin white stop border around it, then a top/bottom wider border in some fabric/color. Still evaluating. It's going to be a donation quilt, so I'm not going to wring my hands over it too much.

And here is the 8th of 9 selvage 16-patch blocks. It measures 16" square. I still don't like these any better than I did eight months ago, but it's eating up selvages and some background fabric scraps, so there you go. I'll do one more in purple, sew them together into a quilt top. A 48" square quilt top, no less. I'll be disliking it even more then! I may add a bitcoin border to it - those little tiny 1x2" finished strips I've been sewing all year. We'll see how crazy I get. Another donation quilt destined for Elsewhere.

And then I got down to some real, fun sewing. I only needed six light blue cracker blocks. This one will begin coming together after we do purple!

And things are back clicking along again at the Block Lotto. My friend Nann and I have volunteered to co-run the Block Lotto to allow its originator, Sophie, to retire from the responsibilities. Nann chose the block this month, State Fair. They will finish at 6 inches. These are the four I sewed, and I think it's a really cute idea.

I hope your weekend is as happy and peaceful as I know ours is going to be!

One Monthly Goal (OMG) for August

For the month of August, my sewing goal will be to finish this Firefighter Quilt for my local Quilts for Kids group. We had our August meeting last weekend, so I won't be able to turn it in until our September meeting at the end of September. But I'd love to knock it out ASAP so I can concentrate on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in light blue this month. And I have 8 quilts for QFK to quilt before the September meeting, although two are done already. There is no shortage of projects here!  

So this is what the Firefighter quilt looks like now:

First I have to border the blocks on two sides with the Dalmatian print. Then they will get either red, blue or orange (ombre orange fabric left over from Saguaro Sunset) and then white (which is up on the design board but not very visible). Once the 12 blocks are bordered, they will be set with the colors running diagonally, like above. I'll see what the size is at that point (I'm winging this), and then perhaps add a border or two. And I have some cute fireman fabric for the back. I plan to quilt flames onto it; I've even been practicing.

So, all in all, a do-able goal. 

I may be unable to post for awhile. Bruce's begins his first arm surgery tomorrow (we have to be there at 5:30 a.m.!!) If I don't respond to your comments, please understand. But we're hoping that things will go smoothly and settle down into a home-care-and-surgery routine. Fingers crossed that the next 4-6 weeks fly by relatively uneventfully. 

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts and the OMG August goal-setting post.

Under the Wire

Whew! I'm sneaking a post in here today, the 31st of July in the evening. I just finished my Spokes wall hanging under the wire. The deadline to meet and post my OMG (One Monthly Goal) is in a couple hours, LOL. But it's complete, including the hanging sleeve. 

Usually I prefer to show some in-process photos, but I just decided on Saturday that I was going to make a mad dash to the finish line, and I didn't take too many pictures.  

This is how the wall hanging started the month - with the black and white background finished, as well as the bicycle, basket and the base area of the flowers all fused on.  My goal was to completely finish this wallhanging by month-end.

Last Saturday I began cutting out flowers, leaves and flower centers out of the array of fabrics that I'd set aside. Several were cut from the final mix. I played with them on the design board and got an arrangement I liked and wanted to keep. Mistake. The design wall is vertical, and the flower and leaf pieces still had their backing attached. So, I took it down, removed the papers, and began again to arrange it on my sewing tables. When I once again got an arrangement I liked, I fused it down with the iron.  Here it is back up on the design board at that point.

Here's a close-up of the flowers and basket. The basket, again, is woven strips that was completed last month.

And here is a close-up of the spokes area. I really love how this area came together!

And then I basted the quilt on Sunday or Monday, can't actually remember. Next the quilting began. It is very narrow, almost matchstick-type quilting. Each row is approximately a half inch apart. They are not precise, although I did mark the center points on all four sides and started there. But the lines themselves are rather organic. The quilting took a long time - a couple several-hour sessions. Once the straight lines were done, I did some micro-stippling in the flowers and leaves to make sure to sew all the pieces down securely. Although I don't anticipate having to wash this wall-hanging, I don't want floppy flowers!

The binding and hanging sleeve came next, and it was done! I worked on it most of today (Wednesday) and it's done!

Spokes measures 32.5" x 37". It is perfectly square although I didn't press it well enough to hang perfectly straight. I'm glad I cut the background a couple inches wider on each side, because that gave me room to trim and square it up after quilting it to death!!

I'm so pleased to have this project done and hanging up. In JULY!!  Linking up to the OMG finished goal link-up at Patty's blog, Elm Street Quilts. I so appreciate her efforts in running this program to help us make and meet monthly goals!

Spokes was also Goal #5 on my 3rd Quarter Finish-Along list. I will link up there at the end of the quarter, but my goal list is HERE.

The End of Pink... but not the Apricots

Our apricot tree is like the Energizer Bunny ... it just keeps going and going. This week, after taking 4 cases to Weight Watchers. They asked me how many trees we had. When I told theme only one tree, they found it hard to believe until I showed them the picture. Ha! I also took apricots to neighbors and a meeting I attended. That left me with a couple cases to deal with at home. We ate lots of fresh, yummy fruit. And then there were two more batches of jam, several quarts of frozen apricots, an apricot pie and some apricot turnovers. And yes, some went to waste before it could be dealt with. It makes me feel guilty, but on the other hand, I’m only human. We capped the blisteringly hot work week by filling the kiddie pool (meant for grandkids) and getting in it ourselves. We’re nothing if not immature. You’ll keep the secret, right?

And I got a lot of sewing done, too. I don’t know how the hours of some weeks can stretch to accommodate so much, while other weeks ricochet by in an instant. But this was a good, long week. 

First out from under the needle we’re these string blocks. There are 4 that will finish at 9” and 6 that will finish at 4”.

And then there were the bitcoins rows, made from 1.5x2.5" scraps.  These will eventually become part of a border, but I have a new block plan for them for next year.

I also sewed some little scraps and lingering waste triangles into some miscellaneous crumb blocks - two at 6.5" and four at 4.5" (top row, center in picture below). They will go into the Parts Department for eventual inclusion into a future quilt.

And that was the end of my pink scrap sewing for the month.  I'm thrilled to say that it decimated my huge drawer-full of pink scraps. Here is a recap picture of all the Rainbow Scrap blocks that I made in July. I'm linking these up to Angela's Scrappy Saturday post. 

A total of 77 blocks.  But wait, there's more!

I had so many pink scraps, that I sewed two pink quilts for Quilts for Kids. First up, Little Pink Scrap Quilt A (38x48"):

I used leftover 2.5" squares, leftover solid strips and tied the whole thing together with a cute piece of floral fabric - not a scrap, but any use of stash is good! 

Here is a detail of some of the heart and loop quilting I did (shown after quilt was washed).

And here is Little Pink Scrap Quilt B (44x53").  It, too, used leftover squares and strips, plus two 1-yard cuts of fabric (one sparkly, on back, and the hedgehog fabric border). 

I added the two pink quilts to the pile of baby-sized quilts I quilted for Quilts for Kids this month. Five other quilts quilted (sewn by others), plus the two pink ones finished entirely by me.

There is some quilting detail on one quilt I want to show you. I did some free-form loops and stars with variegated thread on this starry blue quilt (sewn by a man!)

So, my quilt finishes for the month are shown below. I'm most thrilled with Crumbcakes, of course on the top left. The Little Pink Scrap Quilt A was goal #9 from my Finish-Along Quarter 3 list, which you can see HERE. I'm particularly thrilled that I did two quilts instead of just one.

And a shout out here to Cousin Kim, who finished this lovely quilt for herself this month: 

It's the last weekend of July, and the summer is half over. Where does the time go? More importantly, DO YOU WANT SOME APRICOTS???????????

International Sisters, Apricots and the Color Pink

When life gets so busy that it's hard to find time to write even one blog post per week, surely it's a sign that a relaxing summer is not on the calendar! Yeah, life is crazy. But it's mostly good crazy. 

The word of the week last week was APRICOTS. We picked several cases every other day, and so far have been able to find neighbors, friends, family, and the gang at Weight Watchers to take them off our hands. Even the birds have been enjoying them! To be sure, we've kept our share. After a couple hours picking and sorting, we come inside and begin processing. I'm channeling Bubba Gump here when I tell you we are making apricot jam (regular and low-sugar), frozen apricots, apricot puree, canned apricots, apricot fruit leather, and dehydrated apricots. And eating them warm from the tree by the dozens. If I had remembered to take a picture of the tree, you would see a definite depletion of the apricots compared to last week's picture. We are probably past the halfway point. Hopefully.

We did take time out for a doctor appointment (more about that later in the post). One day we had family over to learn how to make jam, and on Wednesday I had Cousin Kim and my friend Bonnae over and we sewed all day. It was heavenly. So, despite everything, I managed to crank out some pink blocks for Scrappy Saturday at Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge link-up.

First were 18 nine-patch variation blocks.

And then I sewed four 9.5" strip blocks and six 4.5" strip blocks. No plan yet for the smaller blocks. I just have so many pink strings that I wanted to use more of them. There are still plenty to add into other projects or wait their turn for next year.

Next up were the International Sisters blocks. These are the delightful former African Queen blocks that were re-drafted by my friend Preeti. I started making these in May with the color orange, then progressed to blue in June and now pink in July.  I ended up making dressing nine Sisters. Two are twins, and the ninth one was a little late to the party, but they are all present and accounted for!

I was so inspired by Preeti's thoughts and words as I read her blogpost this week, Women of Color. Political news is never fun and games, but when our country's President stoops to telling women of color (U.S. Congresswomen, no less) to "go back" to their "crime-infested countries", we've hit a new unacceptable low. This IS their country! Our country. All colors, all political beliefs, all religions, economic levels, education levels, abilities and interests. Our strength is in our diversity. As Preeti observed, when one woman is attacked, each of us is under attack.

Good people can agree to disagree politically (or in other areas) and still be friends. Or at least polite. We should not allow anyone to demean women! Bullying and hatred need to be called out and crushed whenever it is given voice or action by ANYONE.

It truly pierced my heart to hear those words. So, to calm myself, I began sewing International Sisters. First were the twins. They may have differing complexions, but they are definitely sisters. I decided to name them this month. But I'm not matching names to complexions because each one is a symbol of a sisterhood that goes beyond the color of their skin. Meet Malala and Rosa.

Here are Ilhan, Ruth, and Tammy D.

Florence and Maya.

Coretta and Harriet. Coretta's dress is from fabric sent to me by my friend Sally, and Harriet's dress is made of some fabric I brought back from Kenya last year.  Speaking of Kenya, it was one year ago this month that I was there, and the desire to return burns as strong as ever.

And finally, in a show of sisterly solidarity, here are all my International Sisters to date.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The doctor appointment I referred to above was for Bruce. The cancer in his right forearm (just above the wrist) is back. The MRI shows that it's near where they did the tissue transplant 2 years ago. This tumor is deep, but the good news is (a) his chest scan was clean and no lymph nodes are involved, and (b) they can operate to remove it without taking his hand or forearm. The surgeon will take out the tumor and affected tissue, and unfortunately some ligaments. Bruce will lose the ability to open his hand more than halfway, but should still be able to, after therapy, use his fingers to type, play the guitar and perform other fine motor skills.

In general, we're optimistic. It helps that we've been through this before and know what to expect. Specifically, the initial surgery (or surgeries) will remove the offending tissue, while subsequent surgeries will attach his hand to his stomach area for tissue grafting, then detach it after 3 weeks once circulation and viability is established. So, we're looking at 3-4 surgeries over the next couple months, beginning August 7. Please keep a good thought for my dear Bruce in your heart.