An update - the present situation

Hi  blogger friends - I am still here but for health reasons not posted since June 2, nor actually read any posts! I have not touched the sewing machine since the above date, nor a pair of scissors or a needle - apart from occasionally sewing hexagons by hand,  but been taking stock of my present situation re patterns, fabrics and quilts waiting to be quilted, quilts I would like to make, a few new fabrics and patterns.

First of all let's have some colour  

I have here a stack 0f 20 quilt tops in various sizes, thank goodness none are double bed size or larger! 

On my quilt ladders in the hall there are 10 more - proving that I love stitching the tops but not so much the quilting. Once a top is finished, even before the finish, my mind was always racing with ideas for the next one,  you will notice that is say 'was racing', my situation has changed somewhat. over the last three months, however I have bought two new quilt patterns and fabric which had been on pre-order from way back and these are now living in a drawer in my sewing room presently.

 Lets have more colour from Anna Maria - her Iconic range below

this is destined to be used for Paris Metro - pattern from Jo at These Clever Hands

also from Jo - link above - I received my pre-order of Shooting Star below - another  Anna Maria range again from Jo - link above

and I found this Martha Negley fabric below online ages ago

Then came rough sea time - stormy weather ahead

A few days after my last post in June I began to develop extreme bouts of utter fatigue, breathlessness and chest pain on exertion. I have a congenital problem with my aortic valve, it's a bicuspid valve and without going into full detail it means the valve can't open and close as it should and eventually develops stenosis - the only way out of this is heart surgery to put in a new valve. More meds and lots of tests, a few  months grace and then decision time as to when I would have surgery. As you can imagine I've had lots of ultrasounds and so on visits to hospital, John (husband) has been in charge of all housework and cooking since June as I've been to told to take life very easy. More blood tests and then another shock - my platelets have dropped to an extremely low level and some are distorted - priority visit to haematologist - more hospital visits and tests.

One diagnosis given for the reduced normal size is thrombocytopaenia but the large ones are the worry - possible bone marrow problems, ultrasound of spleen this week and specialist visit next week for the crunch time visit. Fatigue is horrendous and along with other side effects have reduced my quality of life to quite low levels at times, anxiety and some depression.  Until my platelet/bone marrow problem is sorted any heart surgery cannot go ahead because of the bleeding caused by afore mentioned low levels. I have to avoid anything sharp - rotary cutters are of course off the scale here! However life still goes on and I still make plans  - Boardwalk quilt is one I would like to work on eventually, I could use up some of my scraps here.

Then one day I happened to see this pattern below on a quick few minutes on my iPad

the Martha quilt. Definitely not the style of quilt or colours used by me and which I would never have thought of making, but I experienced an instant feeling of emotion  and memories when seeing it. I suddenly thought of mum working on her embroidery when I was a little girl, she would be making and mending, crochet work which she loved and knitted warm sweaters and cardigans for school. Of both the Winter days in Lancashire UK walking to school with knitted mittens on my hands which became chocked with snow from playing snowballs, and of the Summer days in gingham dresses playing with friends in the fields across the road, making daisy chains, jumping across the stream - I could go on and on. I have to make this quilt, not necessarily in exactly the same colours but definitely more soft and subdued than my usual fabric choices. I hope it will be my Younger Days Memory Quilt.

Even though I am  restricted on certain levels I still look out for the moon at evening or very early morning and I love to watch the sunrise and sunset colours in the sky

Not sure when I'll be posting again but I'm trying to work out a good "management of time and energy"

routine- keep your fingers crossed, I think I'll try for one post per week, NOT as long as this one. Also setting aside no more than 30minutes twice  daily to read your posts, gosh I've been missing 'visiting' with you all. Here's to better days!

Maureen

At last a little progress

Last post I was about to make a start on a waistcoat for great-granddaughter using Tula Pink new fabrics, 
the back and two fronts cut out and quilted ready for the next step.

Pretty certain of the fabric for the lining but yet to decide on the binding.

Next on the list was Sailing the Seven Seas or Sea Glass as the pattern is named. Not much progress here but the 6" flying geese strip is all done and sewn

I've deliberately created a stronger definition between the lights and darks here compared to the 8"geese, I like the effect, they stand out rather than merge in with all the other fabrics, the 4" geese will have the same treatment.

In an ideal world I should have liked to show this top complete, I've been faffing around sorting fabric storage and trying to create order down here in my sewing studio - a never ending task it seems.

On the subject of fabric sorting I unpacked all the pieces in a kit I'd bought some time ago - Good Gracious is the name of the quilt  - very colourful fabrics. Photo below but not a good one unfortunately, certainly doesn't show the correct colouration,  I should have photographed in the morning!!

,

I posted two photos of  four of the main fabrics a while back

and you can see the richness of colour, there are more fabrics in the kit of course but these were my main reason for buying. I probably should have studied the pattern more closely, in the pattern photo you may be able to see there are four small squares containing a large swan and four with a small one.The pack contains a quarter yard of each of both large and small swans (excuse creases, only just unpacked), seems like I'm going to be having an awful lot of swans around in my stash!

 It's always a gamble I guess and usually any left overs are easily used but I can't imagine where I will use these. Actually, I'm already thinking that I just might use all these fabrics for an alternative pattern on my list of projects, time will tell.

I'm off for a quiet relax, leaving you with the ideal pose for relaxation as shown by Leila who heads for the  sunniest chair first thing in the morning.

We're half way through the year now and normally we have New Year resolutions, this year I'm going with June resolutions - to come back in to spending more time quilting and blogging as before on a much more regular basis and with more projects. Also my poor blog needs a real shake up with layout and so on.

All for now from me, for those in the Northern Hemisphere I hope you're enjoying a wonderful Summer.

See you soon

Maureen

Mixing it up

I've spent hours playing with Maggie Pearl blocks in the very bright colours shown in previous posts -could not create a layout which I liked. Blocks based on the colours mentioned in previous posts just didn't work together and also I realised I actually had underestimated and would need another five blocks.

Just couldn't face going back to cutting and sewing more, then I remembered I had a few blocks, made as I stitched my first Maggie Pearl, in my 'spare parts' box which were quite off the wall for that particular version, however I pulled them out and mixed them with my new ones.

First layout - excuse the rough placement, I hadn't straightened or pinned at this stage but

not happy with the left top block and the pink one below so switched out the pink

still should play some more but to be honest I just want to finish and start on my next project!! I could switch the two  blocks  bottom row and see how that looks, a task for after dinner and then re-assess the placement of blocks tomorrow morning.

I have the fabric and pattern to make a waistcoat for my little great-granddaughter - I say little, she is 18 months old and a pretty good height for her age, she is a sweetie, her daddy (our daughter's husband) measures 6' 9" and our daughter is 5' 9" so we're guessing she's going to be shooting up pretty quickly, better get busy at the machine!

This is the waistcoat pattern - the yellow frills will not be on the one I make!

I had bought a yard of Hootie Owl plus the same of Family Tree  - both Tula Pink - a few days before I came across the pattern, I'll use Family Tree on the front instead of strip piecing

and

I have a small sewing studio but a large overflowing collection of fabrics, (as you all know) and presently taking time to re-organise my storage system, in doing so I came across a luscious 2yard piece of KF fabric, actually probably a PJ design and isn't it amazing that we suddenly find the perfect piece for a future quilt, I intend it to definitely be the border and probably used a little within the body of the quilt which will be chosen from one of the three books mentioned in this post.

You may remember years ago books on Blended Quilts by Sharon Evans Yenter and Marsha McCloskey, I fell in love with most of the quilts in these books!

Time will be spent now looking through these books for a design - difficult because I could make them all!!!

Words from David Bowie which appealed to me years ago and is pinned on my notice board

"I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring" perfect!

Bye for now

Maureen

Yay - back at the machine

Yes, what a pleasure to be back with colour and fabric again. I've followed orders and  worked for no more than one hour at the computer or sewing machine before taking a good break., no heavy lifting allowed either. Cortisone shot helped but I do have what is known as a 'frozen shoulder' so range of movement is a problem, they tell me this can last up to three years after going through various stages - can't wait!!

Still, here are the remaining 15 blocks for Maggie Pearl, I showed a range of light and dark orange last post.

So Yellow first 

Now Green

Last up is Red 

I'm thrilled I was able to finish them all up, next will be the time consuming task of reaching a pleasing arrangement, that will probably be during the next week.

Another longed for task was on the menu over the past couple of weeks, one of the bookcases in my bedroom was years old and actually made of MDF (don't ask me what this means). There was shop in the city - Furniture for Flats - many, many years ago and they produced affordable  - read cheap - basic items of furniture, I bought two of the book cases.

The colours have changed over the years, the latest was a very soft, soft green but I was longing for  brighter colour around the house. Husband likes subdued, I love bright and bold so I bought a rich green paint, help from husband to take books of shelves and I found using my right hand only worked well with the paintbrush one shelf at a time and then the sides so it wasn't a quick fix, two weeks wasn't bad to complete this.

Not the best photo but you can see the bright green, I love it!! There's going to be more colour popping up, I can't deal with painting walls so help will be needed with this part of the revamp. Hanging on the side of the shelves is a seahorse decoration found in a hardware store, fell for it because I love seahorses

the wooden dowel pieces and shells reach way up to the top.

I think my time is up now but here's a bright red Hibiscus which is a good match for the red blocks.

Fingers crossed I continue to make progress, another hour later tonight to read blog posts.

See you soon

Maureen

Quilting Friends

 Updating - hibiscus slightly rain damaged but one I am especially fond of, a good way to begin my day.

I have been neglecting blog reading and also writing blogs myself, most of you know my history very well by now!! I seem to be always having something go wrong in addition to my constant medical problems.

Paragraph below bypass by all means, I just had to get this off my chest and although we are mostly scattered throughout the world I feel I know a lot of you as friends and have been following your blogs for many, many years with great pleasure.

Recalling the fall I had at the end of October last year - torn tendons left shoulder this time, right was three years ago. Not too bad but gradually over the months became worse, my patchwork fell away mostly as did responding to your blog posts. Two months ago I had a corstisone shot into what is called the subacromial bursa to try and stop the pain and inflammation. Hasn't worked and I'm now in a lot of pain with very limited use of shoulder. Ultrasound scan yesterday - the stenographer was horrified at the how the damage had progressed. Protective tissues - bursae - which protect the tendons muscles and bones etc from rubbing together are doubled in size, inflamed  and shoulder full of fluid going down into the biceps and even affecting my arm and hand, in fact the result of this is incredibly painful. Today another ultrasound guided shot directly into the bursa to try and reduce the size and the fluid currently within my shoulder,  if it does not the only remedy will probably be surgery.

I won't be in my little sewing haven for quite some time I suspect, I will be reading blogs but probably will have difficulty typing - as I am today but figured I may as well do this if possible even though it's taken me a heck of a long time!

Maggie Pearl I have been able to m make  another four blocks since my last post so here are the oranges beginning to merge into the yellows to come

excuse the rough placement of the blocks.

Well, best make a move now so husband can drive me to have this procedure - please keep fingers crossed for me that this will work magic and I will be able to power through my quilting and fondling fabrics as I used to do.

Wishing you all well and hoping that you have not suffered damage with the storms and tornadoes we have seen on our TV screens. Stay safe and happy quilting.

Maureen

Maggie Pearl colours - see my feathered visitor!

Last post I had three blocks for Maggie Pearl all sewn up, I've since cut another 15 sets, only two more to cut tomorrow.

Having always been impressed by the great organisational skills of quiltdivajulie I decided to follow her example!! Saves time  by clipping the block pieces together and avoids the odd strip or two disappearing onto the floor - thank you Julie.

I mentioned a feathered visitor in my post title - we have these gorgeous birds below visiting our trees outside the lounge and my bedroom windows to open the long seed pods of the China Doll trees, it's a delight to both see and hear the parrots twittering away together in small groups.

You know that I enjoy taking photos of the flowers in my garden, two nights ago I decided to try taking a couple at night - I was pleasantly surprised at the result.

Day Lily

Zinnia

A very brief post I know, my shoulder is still a problem but I'm booked for an ultrasound guided cortisone shot in a few days time, the first one wasn't carried out using ultrasound and may not have quite hit the spot, better luck this time hopefully.

Until next time - take care and enjoy playing with fabrics!