Goodbye March!

It's almost April! There isn't a lot of quilting going on here but hopefully there will be soon.

Ray has a new knee. The MAKO robotic surgery went well and Ray is recovering nicely. Let's back up a little. He had surgery three weeks ago on Thursday, 3-10-22 and came home on Friday, 3-11-22. On Saturday night, 3-12-22, he began having stomach pains. They were so bad that he finally went to the hospital by ambulance at 1:30 AM. The hospital is about 30 miles away. I made it to the ER at 3:10AM (time change happened). It took the rest of the night, many tests and finally a scan to figure out the problem. He was having a gallbladder attack! He's never had a problem with his gallbladder and it was full of stones!

Okay, fast forward to the knee recovery. This past week, he progressed from the little walker (the kind people put tennis balls on the legs) to the super duper walker that seems to be all-terrain. He became even more mobile then and within 24 hours he began using just a cane! He is regaining good mobility and his prognosis is great. He got the staples out yesterday, 3-30-22 and also got to stop wearing those darn TED stocks.

Today, Thursday, 3-31-22, he had Da Vinci robotic gallbladder surgery. The surgeon told us a couple of days after the ER visit that it should be removed. After the surgery, the surgeon told me the gallbladder was in really bad shape and needed to come out. Wow! The doctors all think this surgery won't slow down his knee recovery. We arrived home mid-afternoon and he is doing well with pain.

It has been quite a March. Did I mention that I had a bone density on 3/1 as a follow up to my spine surgery and on 3/8 I had a colonoscopy?! And this morning our VERY EARLY trip to the hospital for surgery was in snow, slush, and wind before the snow plows got to work. We made it on time but not one minute early! I'm thankful that I drive a Jeep. 

We both look forward to April! And I really hope to be quilting soon...

Blue Quarter Squares is finished

Last April, I posted that Joy at The Joyful Quilter had a guest blogger, Connie, who made a table topper inspired by a pattern for a quarter log cabin quilt and I went on a hunt to find a pattern or a picture. I found what I was looking for and made this block.

I guess that is the only time I posted about this quilt. I set the blocks  on point and must have finished the top by July since I stopped sewing then. It was the next up to be quilted a while ago and I decided to do some ruler work in the white squares and meandering over the rest of the quilt using dove gray Aurifil #2600 thread. That took a few days and then the poor quilt waited quite a while for binding. At last, it is done!

Please ignore fold lines.

I did not use a pattern; I just used measurements that looked good and fit my scraps. Each block began with a 4 1/2" square of white. Then I strip-pieced each piece as a quarter of a log cabin. The blocks were trimmed to 8" squares and then sewn into the quilt. 

Here is a closeup of my far-from-perfect-but-getting-better ruler work.

The backing for this 60" by 70" donation quilt is a fun and busy fabric.

The binding matches the blue setting triangles around the sides.

=====

I've been busy practicing quilting on my longarm and working on the very special gift in addition to helping Ray get ready for his knee replacement. He's had a zillion appointments and we both had to go to Joint Replacement class. We are educated! 

We both had a few other medical appointments/procedures in the middle of all of this prepping for surgery so we've been busy. I am getting more strength and stamina and think I'm ready to be a caregiver. Yesterday I actually cleared some snow!!! Our neighbor clears our snow and we only have a little bit to do. We do have a new battery run snow shovel so it wasn't a huge deal but it's been a long time since I've done it. 

In a few days Ray will have his new knee. We are both anxious to have him feeling better and to do things rather than visit the hospital!