A finish and an update

Oh my - I haven't posted in a month! Well, to begin with, I have a finish -  Paint Splash. I shared some pictures of it in progress last time.

This donation quilt is 59" by 66". 

I used Finesse #3285 Light Wool 40-weight thread for the quilting.

The motif is a free-motion horizontal stipple and I added stars, swirls, hearts, and leaves for interest.

The backing is from my stash.

Ray is doing well and has learned to not be an over-achiever; he had a little set-back from too much exercising. He is walking better and doing more each day. We've also learned that he shouldn't expect his new normal for 6-12 months.

Ray was with me when I saw my Bone Health doctor. They had quite the conversation since the doctor had his knee replaced 3 months prior to Ray! 

I'm doing well. My daily shots for bone health are done and I will have an infusion in the near future that should stabilize my bone density for a year or longer. That will be ongoing for a few years. My bone density increased more than 6% during the last year giving me some really strong, dense bones. 

I am gaining strength and walk a few thousand steps each day. It's hard to believe that last fall I averaged less than100 steps a day one week. Last week I averaged over 7,000 steps a day. Every week gets better and I'm beginning to add more exercises. My stamina is still a work in progress but getting better. One day last week I cleaned my closet - that's the first extra thing I have done and I'm working my way through a list of things I want to do. (Quilting is NOT an extra thing; it is a necessary thing!)

We've enjoyed watching some of our grandsons participating in ballgames, soccer matches, and a track meet recently. We also took a 'hike' a few days ago at Blackhawk Springs Forest Preserve. We stayed on the paved path which made it easier for Ray. We enjoyed being outside in some open spaces and also enjoyed a picnic. It was a gorgeous day although a bit windy.

Next time we'll try some of the off-pavement trails.

Another day we met Ray's brother and his special friend at Grace's Place in Cascade, Iowa. We enjoyed a good lunch, some delicious pie, and a great visit. It is wonderful to finally be getting out and doing some things.

These blocks are currently on the design board. I still need to decide the actual layout.

I'm very grateful to feel well enough to quilt and/or sew almost every day. 

A real outing...

Today was a beautiful day and we decided to have a real outing.

We went to Lake Le-Aqua-Na State Park. After driving through the park - we stopped for a LITTLE walk and a picnic. Here is Ray with his camera.

We were standing on a small bridge over this stream.

The sky was beautiful and the temps were in the 60s. 

For our picnic, I heated some potato soup before we left home and put it into a thermos. I also grabbed cornbread muffins and some veggie sticks. 

It was so nice to have a somewhat 'normal' day. 

The secret project is finished and I will share when it is gifted. I've been working on the quilt below. The top will probably be together by the end of the weekend. 

Ray is doing quite well with his new knee. Of course, his recovery is not going as fast as he'd like but he is progressing. He's been released from care by the gallbladder doctor so that is behind us. Ray is able to do more and I'm thrilled that he is doing some chores, especially ones that are hard for me. He still has Physical Therapy twice a week and I'm still his chauffeur.

The last appointment (I hope) related to my back is next week. I'm doing well although my progress got slowed a bit while Ray was out of commission. My stamina is slowly coming back but it is coming. My step count is growing every week and I'm stronger. 

It is so nice to be on the recovery side of the surgeries.

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.

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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!

A Little Getaway

Ray really wanted to photograph the eagles so we went to the Quad Cities and looked for some. Sadly, we didn't find many. This is my one photo taken with my phone. Ray got some really good pictures of the few eagles that we did see.

We visited two quilt shops: Quilting in the Valley in Moline, IL, and Expressions in Thread in LeClaire, IA. I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures. Both stores were empty except for the two clerks and one other customer which was perfect.

We spent time at the Quad City Botanical Center. We went just after noon and the place was almost empty. Ray was able to use his tripod which made him happy. I took a number of photos. I loved the pops of color.

Pink Powder Puff

Cacao pod on chocolate tree.

Bunch of bananas and their flower

Limequat - cross between a Key Lime and a Kumquat

The ladies working at the Botanical Center suggest River House Bar and Grill in Moline for a late lunch. It did not disappoint! I had the Oriental Chicken Salad - do you think that's enough chicken?!

Ray was very happy to see Jambalaya on the menu and the corn bread was wonderful.

We left with more than enough for another meal. We did add two pieces of corn bread to our 'leftovers".

The other major stop was Lagomarcino's Confectionery, a chocolate shop. The salted chocolate covered caramels were so good! It's not that we needed candy...

We spent two nights at Element Moline, a fairly new, very nice motel. We would definitely go back there. This was the night view out of our "living room" window.

We arrived home and had messages on our answering machine. Ray was put on a list for knee replacement a week ago. His surgeon found out he could retire and will not be doing surgeries after March. He called to see if Ray wanted him to do the surgery (YES!) or to wait for someone else. Life has been quite hectic getting appointments and all. It'll probably slow down after Ray's surgery in early March.

I've been doing a little sewing - I began a new (gift) quilt. I'm also doing my exercises and getting much stronger. Ray was a great caretaker after my surgery - I have a lot to live up to!

Yes, I cut the quilt in two!

I started Irish Chain with Solids at least a couple of years ago. I added the borders in July of 2020 and it was ready to be quilted in September of 2020. Somewhere along the line, I decided to use this quilt as a practice quilt for quilting with rulers. So I quilted each block with rulers or sometimes didn't. I just practiced on it intermittently.

When I got my longarm, I continued practicing on it. Sometimes I used rulers and sometimes I didn't, Recently I finished the quilting. Then I cut it apart, serged the four sides on each piece, and added the binding. The idea of cutting the quilt came to me  a couple of months. 

I think you can tell this was folded.
I still don't like getting on the floor.

I have beautiful tables that my machines sit on in my "machine room". To protect the tables, each machine was sitting on a practice sandwich. 

I really need to make new covers one of these days.

Now the tables look much better! The quilt was 63" square. One table in the machine room is 30" X 72" and the other is 22" X 72". The quilt is a little short on the ends but it works.

The quilting is all different and all practice. Some of it is rough but it will be fine for table mats.

I used Aurifil #2600 Dove thread and I also used Finesse #3285 Light Wool thread. They both look similar and I wanted to test both on my longarm. The back of the quilt is navy with white circles - it was in my stash. 

I really do need to make some new machine covers. I've been using small quilts that are quite old and faded. I always put the back side out because it looks better.

Practicing on this quilt also included loading a pinned quilt on the longarm, taking it off, and reloading it. It was great practice and helped me become more comfortable. I'm moving forward!