The best project for hospital waiting rooms

The past 2 weeks are a blur.  My mother has not felt well for quite some time. A visit to her family doctor resulted in a scan that revealed she needed to have her gallbladder removed. We were referred to a surgeon who suggested she have a colonoscopy since she'd never had one. After a little persuasion, she agreed and was scheduled for the procedure the following day (perfect timing so she didn't have time to dread it). Good thing she had the colonoscopy because he found colon cancer. He felt it was contained and was very optimistic that surgery would remove it all. 

Two days later she is in surgery to have her gallbladder and a portion of her colon removed. During surgery, the surgeon ran into complications and couldn't do the procedure as planned. That turned out to be a good thing, though, because he also found cancer in her intestine.


As a child I remember feeling very sad at Christmas when I learned of the passing of a lady who went to our church.  I thought how sad it must be too lose a loved one or get sad news around the holidays.  They would never be the same.  Unfortunately, I will never think of Thanksgiving in the same way in light of what happened the past week.  Time will heal the shock but Thanksgiving will always be the holiday season when mom was diagnosed with cancer. 

I spent a lot of hours in the hospital and put my time to good use.  I worked on my baskets. 

Did I mention I need 280 something of these little guys to make a quilt?  They are perfect for hospital visits.  I am sure we will have many more medical appointments so I'll have a lot of opportunities to make more. 

Hope you get a lot of quality quilting time in this holiday season!

 

Civil War Bride Quilt Block #8

The Civil War Bride Quilt is moving right along.  Here's block 8.  I will embroider the details after I've finished appliquing all the blocks.

I think the thing I've most enjoyed about this quilting journed is the diversity of challenges each block poses.  When I began planning this block, I knew exactly what I wanted to use for the pears.  I envisioned them like this.

I quickly realized this fabric was too muddy for my contemporary quilt.  So, I thought this would be the perfect pear.  I even fussy cut it so the flower motif on the fabric would become the top of the pear. 

Decided I didn't care for it either.  I finally settled on the fabric you see in the finished block.  I like how the green and yellow geometric shapes seem to create a roundness......ok......ok.......I'm over analyzing!

Even if I hadn't checked the calendar to see when Thanksgiving is I know it must be soon because my Christmas cactus is blooming.  My sister gave it to me years ago and it has never failed to bloom around Thanksgiving. 

Hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week.  Hope you have a great week.

A quick update

Returned from a wonderful trip to Houston to quilt market.  Weather was absolutely beautiful.  I am not the kind of person who feels comfortable asking designers to pose for photos.  I am much too shy to ask them to spend time they could use to sell products to pay for their market expenses to pose for a photo with me.  SO, I have only one photo that was taken for the Lecien folks that includes me and proves I was there.  That's Lynette Anderson, Darlene of Sew Graceful Quilting, and me.

To see lots of market photos go to The Fat Quarter Shop's blog.  They did a great job of taking lots of photos to give you an idea of what everything looked like. 

The quilt festival quilts are always hung while market is going on so I got to see the quilts.  Oh my goodness!  What a feast for the eyes.  The winners are not announced until after quilt market so it's always fun to try to guess what beauties will be chosen as winners.  Sharon Schamber's quilt "Mystique" took Best of Show.  

Nancy Kerns' "Mary Simon Rediscovered" took the Founder's Award.

Why not grab yourself a cup of something warm and go over to The International Quilt Association website and view all the winners.  I can almost guarantee you'll be inspired!