Recent Quilting And Other Stuff

Roger is doing great, that 8 hour period of time he says is just a story that he can't remember.  So we are moving on.  No need to dwell on something that may never happen again, per the doctor's.

While the kids were in town I was able to get some great family pictures.  Below is little Anthony with his grand father, Roger Jr, and his great-grand father Roger Sr.

Isn't that a precious picture.  He threw that little hand up and touched his grandfather's face and I just had to snap.  SWEET!

Below are some of the recent projects of mine and mom's that I have gotten quilted.

The first here is a table runner that mom made from some 9-patch blocks she had made up.  Amazing what you can do with some stray blocks.

 I quilted it using an allover free hand feather.  I think it turned out pretty.

 Next is a piece that I had left over from making my yellow and brown texas braid quilt.  I decided to make it into a table runner.

 I decided to quilt it using the same free hand "wheat" looking pattern that I did on the quilt.  Love those colors.  I'm going to put this on the coffee table that is in the sunroom.

 Below is another one of mom's projects.  It is a blue and yellow quilt.  It's been in the "needing to be quilted" pile for a while.  I think she finished piecing this 2 years ago.  And of course her quilter, ME, just got around to quilting it for her.   I just love blue and yellow quilts.

 Beautiful floral fabrics in this quilt.

 The next one is also one of mom's projects which had also been in the "needing to be quilted" pile.  It has alot of christmas fabric 9-patch blocks.  Some of the fabrics were even Elvis Christmas fabric.  What a hoot!!

 After it is all said and done scrap quilts have a life of their own.  It's like Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty.  You never know what you are going to get until you get it done.  I think it is great!

 

On the bottom left is another project I got quilted for mom.  It was a secret sister table runner she received in 2010.  So I had a productive couple of days getting things quilted.  Four of mom's projects out of my "need to be quilted" pile and one accidental (left over) project I turned into a table runner for me.

 

Next I'll post some pictures of the progress of the studio addition.  I am so excited at the progress.  Hopefully by the end of summer we will be all settled into our new quilting space.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Guess Who's Building A Store In Greenville?????

Jo-Ann Fabrics!!!!

This store will be 2 miles from my house!! YIPPIE!!  It is scheduled to open this summer.  It is being built where the old Circuit City was across from Haywood Mall.  In the same strip with Toys R Us.  

 My husband has been very busy this past week getting some of his "To Do" list completed.  Below he has reroofed our swing.  Love that swing and the tranquility it gives.  Thanks Roger for bringing her back to life!

He also has been hard at work on my studio addition.  Here he is laying out the forms for the new walkway.  I'm starting to get excited.  Now if the weather will stay pretty so he can work outside.

Update on mom (AKA Energizer Bunny Quilter):  Mom fell last Friday (off a step ladder which at 77 years old she should not have been up on!) and has a couple of compression fractures in her back.  L4 and T12.  She is in a TLSO brace which goes from the hips up to her sternum.  Still a good deal of pain.  We did a MRI yesterday and will see the neurosurgeon on Monday to get the results.  Susan is now calling her "tumbleweed"  hehe.  I'm sure it won't take the bunny long to get back up and going again. 

So as usual there is never a dull moment here!!.  Hopefully she will be much better soon.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Catching Up.....Again.

I can't believe that it is March 6th today.  Time has truly flown this past month and alot has happened, good and bad.  But today I realize that God has the masterplan and is in control of everything and we are moving on.

I will try to catch up on some of the things that have happened in the past few weeks.  Sorry for the vacant blog but life just was too crazy to write about anything.

One of the crazy happenings in the past month was my husband had an episode where we thought he was having a stroke.  Scarry for all of us.  The final diagnosis was Global Transient Amnesia.  A rare condition where someone forget everything that happened in a certain concrete period of time.  He lost an 8-9 hour period of time on February 15th.  He doesn't remember anything that happened from 2:30 pm until about midnight that night.  I had left for work at 2:30 and he kissed me goodbye as usual.  When I arrived at work at 2:45 pm I had 7 calls on my phone from him, looking for me.  When I returned the call he didn't know where I was and said he was a little confused.  My boss drove me back to my home where I enroute dispatched EMS.  When I arrived he couldn't remember even talking to me, although he did know who I was.  When EMS arrived he knew who he was, but it was 1985 and he said Jimmy Carter was the President. 

After many tests, CT, MRI, MRA, EEG, Cardiac Echocardiogram, etc. the neurologist said no stroke, but Global Transient Amnesia.  He told us that it was rare and that nothing specifically he did caused it and it may never happen again.  He may get back pieces of that day or never get any of it back.  As of today he hasn't gotten any of that time period back.  But other than that he is his normal self.  But a scary time for me and him.  We did find during this ER stay that he was hypertensive and is now on medications.  We felt lucky that at 62 he was not on any meds until now.  But much better than a stroke.  Many prayers were answered.

So as you can see my stress level has been out the roof lately.  Both of our sons came in for the incident and were able to spend some time with their dad.  A very good thing.  God reminds us at times how precious the time we have is and not to take any day for granted.

Over the next few days I will fill in some of the other things that have happened.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia

HAPPY 77TH BIRTHDAY MOM!

Today mom turned 77.  What a wonderful time in her life and how lucky I am to be able to spend time with her quilting.  I truly am blessed by the hours we get to spend putting thread to fabric and creating heirlooms to be passed down in the family.

Below is mom with her Easy Street Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter.  And yes she said last year after Orca Bay that she was not doing another mystery quilt.........hehehehe.  But after I got all of the pieces cut for her so quickly on my accuquilt cutter she just couldn't resist.

 And here is the quilt after the borders were put on.  Beautiful!  I call her my energizer bunny quilter.  She just keeps on piecing and piecing and piecing........

and of course Whiskers had to give his seal of approval.

Mom, Roger and I went to Ruby Tuesday's for her birthday lunch.  She had the bourbon glazed grilled salmon, the first grilled salmon she had ever eaten.  She loved it.

After lunch I took mom to some of our local quilt shops for a girl's outing.  We went to Marietta's Quilt and Sew first and had a great time looking around for goodies.  We were able to purchase some backing fabrics on sale.  Amazing how much fabric it takes for backings.  Then we headed out to Viking Sew & Quilt Center for some more fun shopping.  They were having a clean off the bolt sale and we were able to find some "skinny" bolts that we could use for backings.  Then we headed over to Walmart to get mom a printer for her computer.

After all of the shopping we headed back home to do some quilting.  This week I was able to get some of mom's many quilt tops she has pieced quilted for her.  (I think she has 14 tops waiting for me to get quilted for her.......see where the energizer bunny title comes from!).

On the rail is a blue and yellow quilt mom made months ago, it turned out beautiful.  Also on the rail is a 9 patch mom made with Christmas fabrics, including in the border some Elvis Christmas fabrics.  On the floor from the left is a secret sister project mom received 2 years ago.  It is a table runner.  The middle is a green 9 patch that mom did as a table runner.  On the right is my left over from my Follow The Yellow Brick Road Quilt which I made last year from Bonnie Hunter's Braid pattern.  I made this left over piece into a table runner that I can put on the coffee table on my sun porch.  I hang the quilt behind the couch and it should look great.  I had pieced the backings together into a long strip for the Christmas quilt, the green table runner and the secret sister table runner and had extra space left so I threw in my table runner to use up the backing and batting while quilting.  A good use of time and space.

A great day spent with an awesome Mom!

Happy Quilting,
Shelia