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