A different kind of week and a finish

The last few days have been interesting?. Ray had back surgery on Friday, August 7. The surgery was scheduled much sooner than expected so he had a flurry of doctor appointments. When we thought he was finally ready, we found out he needed one more test. The hospital scheduled it late on Wednesday, August 5 and all went well. Earlier, we decided it made sense to just stay in Madison from Wednesday until after the surgery. That meant Thursday was a free day.

Our first stop was Olbrich Botanical Gardens. The Blooming Butterflies event was going on so we enjoyed lots of butterflies.

The flowers inside were gorgeous and I loved the colors of this one.

I think I enjoyed our time outside in the gardens even more than seeing the butterflies. I absolutely loved the water lilies. I don't remember seeing so many colors/types of lilies - I only took pictures of a few.

We enjoyed lunch at the Hubbard Avenue Diner in Middleton, WI. We always enjoy meals there. They are known for their pie (we passed this time) and the staff all wear shirts about pie. One I've seen often is I 8 𝝿 (I ate pie). Our waitress was wearing a shirt with 10-🚦𝝿 (the stoplight only had the green light colored), Any ideas? When I asked and she said it was Spanish, I knew there was a reason I'm learning Spanish! Tengo 𝝿 or I have pie.

Last stop of the day was Blue Bar Quilts in Middleton, WI. I left a travel machine to be repaired and found backing for four quilts. The first backing, a black and white print will be used for the quilt tops on either side of it. 

The second backing will also be used for two quilt tops.

It was nice to find backing fabric that I could use for more than one quilt.

I finished the binding on this quilt Thursday night, so I have another finish - another Simple Squares donation quilt. Simply Squares Red with Paw Prints is made with some colorful paw print fabric left after I used it to back a quilt.

The backing is a turquoise fabric that matches the turquoise paws.

I used a larger double loop motif to quilt this.

Size:        56" by 56"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Linen # 10WG1

                back -Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   Double Loops

Ray had to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM Friday. He was the first surgery for his doctor that day. All went well and we were on our way home about 2:30 PM. Now he has a lot of restrictions for a few weeks - no bending, no lifting, no twisting, no exercise except walking.... I'm jealous of his ice machine - I never had that for my back surgeries. It is so nice! He has some pain but he also has pain relief for the nerves that were pinched. He's doing well but will be taking it easy for a while. 

It's been quite a week and I am glad this one is behind us. Maybe I'll be in the sewing room a little more this next week.