Good Friends

Our friends Jim & Susie came to Charleston for Thanksgiving this year. We all gathered at John & June's house (they've known Jim & Susie even longer than we have) for a delightful dinner. As Jim pointed out at dinner the first time the 6 of us were all gathered was 35 years ago this week at Jim & Susie's wedding. Of course at that event we didn't have all the assorted kids and grandkids. In fact, our son Craig was the only kid who was even around 35 years ago.

Here are the 6 of us this weekend. June in front with me and Susie standing behind her. Then in the back are John, Jerry (peeking over our heads) and Jim.



I'm not sure what June, Susie and I are laughing about in this photo, but this is a common occurrence when we're all together.


We're lucky to have such good friends.

Helping out with dinner

As I was out and about today I realized I should stop for milk. I pulled into a grocery store where I seldom go and ran in. There was a bit of a holdup at the register and as people started leaving the line to find a faster one I found myself close enough to see that the person checking out was having an issue with paying for her groceries. The cashier closed out the transaction and was ready to move on. Impulsively I told the cashier I'd pay for the groceries. Since it was a store I don't usually frequent I don't have one of their club cards so the cashier made sure to scan one to take advantage of a great turkey sale - The $18 turkey came to only $5.50. My milk and the woman's groceries totaled only $20 so it was an inexpensive feel good moment.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving is coming

This year we'll be spending Thanksgiving with a large group of long time friends. Jim and Susie and their kids & grandkids will be coming from out of town. We're going to all gather at John & June's.

June and I have been breaking down all the tasks so that no one has to bear the full load of the dinner. One of the things we talked about was table linens. June said she had tablecloths but wasn't sure if she had enough napkins. I told her I'd see what I could come up with and decided I'd embroider some Thanksgiving napkins. I found a package of 12 assorted color napkins at Bed Bath & Beyond fairly cheap and picked up 2 packages. (we will be more than 12 and hopefully less than 24)

I found the turkey design in my library of embroidery designs. The variegated threads I used were fun to watch develop and I used a different thread for each of the napkin colors.

Just before I was finished with all 24 napkins I got an email from June telling me that she had enough napkins. I guess we'll have LOTS of napkins now!

(click photo for larger view)

Halloween

Hayden's preschool Halloween party was this morning. She was dressed as Dora the Explorer.






For those without young children in their lives, Dora is geared toward preschool kids. She is a cute little girl with a bit of a chubby tummy. This is what she looks like on the program.



The powers that be seemed to think that Dora's image needs updating. They have introduced a 'tween' Dora that looks like this:


I think the revamp is terrible and the message they are sending to young girls is not a good one.

What I've been working on

(click for larger view)
It's really hard to see what is going on with this piece. I started with a Jinny Beyer border print which was cut and pieced back together. It originally was supposed to be a square but I could not get the design to match up in the middle. I eventually ended up tweaking the center and it turned into a rectangle. I still had some match-up issues but not as bad as it originally was.

What this photo doesn't show very well is the embellishment. I first used some of my machine's decorative stitches and followed along some of the stripes in the fabric with a scallop (using a variegated thread) and two different width fill designs using metallic threads. I then heavily beaded the entire piece following along with both the fabric design and the scallop stitch.

Once I sandwich the piece I may follow the suggestion of my friend Virginia and do a simple serpentine stitch along a few of the very narrow stripes as the final quilting stitch. I also need to decide if I want to add any additional beading.

While working on this I tentatively named it "To bead or not to bead..." What do you think about that name?

Birthday Boy

Today is Jerry's birthday. It just so happens that some old friends are in town this week and so we're meeting them for dinner tonight.

Happy Birthday!!

Grandkids

I think it has been a while since I posted any photos of the kids.

Noah was pretending not to pay attention as I was taking photos.



I found this cute Halloween dress for Hayden yesterday and when she tried it on today she wouldn't take it off. This is certainly something I could have made myself, but would I ever get around to it?? I doubt it.



I'm actually amazed she was smiling so big for the camera. She was overtired today and spend a lot of time whining.

State guild retreat

The Quilters of South Carolina held its annual retreat this past weekend. About 280 quilters from across the state gather for a weekend of classes and fellowship. The teachers are picked from the guild and we are blessed to have many talented teachers in our midst.

In the past I've just signed up for Bring Your Own Project, but this year elected to take a class called Fabricating from Nature with Marilyn Wall. Lots of great work was started in the class.

This butterfly was my project. I pinned it to this pink background temporarily for show & tell on Saturday night and think I like it. So, the background may stay. My original photo had the butterfly resting on a flower but I may decide to leave the flower out. The poor thing still needs a body. (click photos for larger view)


Karen was in the same class and she used a photo of flowers from her garden to create this. You can see the photo she worked from at the bottom right. I love the colors she used.


I think my two favorite works were these 2. Veronica's boats (I think I got her name right!) are beautifully done. She will add some buildings/homes at the edge of the water in the background.


Joyce's bridge scene was created from a photo she took in China. It was fun watching the composition coming together. That's Madonna's dog on the wall next to Joyce.


We were all inspired when Sandy visited our class with the quilt she made in last year's class. We saw how adding paint, etc. can really enhance the work. Sandy has a painting background and it's very apparent in this piece. Isn't it beautiful?


I highly recommend a class with Marilyn.

Home again

I'm back from my most recent trip to Detroit. My mother had a surgical procedure on the fracture on her back a week ago. While she still has some pain it's obvious by her reactions that the pain is better. However, now her oxygen levels keep dropping and they have to increase the amount of oxygen she has been receiving. Yesterday they drained off about 30 ccs of fluid from her chest and lungs. Hopefully she'll turn the corner soon.

While I was gone the TTT group delivered 3 quilts to a family that recently moved into a Habitat home. The home was a Women Built home and all the labor was by women. Sheila, one of the TTT gang, suggested that we make quilts for the mother and her 2 daughters. She contacted Denise, the new owner of the home, and found out what color schemes we should use. We raided our stashes and pieced the quilts as a group project. Karen donated her quilting talents.

The quilt in this photo is for Denise the mom. She asked for earth tones.

Left to right in this photo: Karen, Sheila, Betsy, Frances, Janice, Denise, Virginia, and one of Denise's daughters.


This pink and black quilt was for the youngest daughter.



The older daughter asked for a yellow and blue quilt.


I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there for the presentation and I hope that Denise and her daughters enjoy their quilts.

Slacker

That's me, a blogging slacker. I haven't gotten much sewing accomplished in the past few months. We're still dealing with my mother's issues. The fall that broke her arm was back on July 24 and she has had 3 surgeries since. There was a surgery to insert pins in the broken arm/shoulder but that surgery was unsuccessful so they did another surgery to remove the pins.

After being in a rehab facility for a while she had to return to the hospital for a 3rd surgery to insert 13 screws in her arm. A few days before that 3rd surgery she started having troubles with her back and has been diagnosed with a fracture at the L2. Tuesday they'll be doing a surgical procedure to stabilize that fracture. That's 4 surgeries in the space of 8 weeks. For a frail 85 year old it is becoming a bit much.

I leave in the morning to drive back to Detroit for this latest surgery. Jerry can't join me as he is now a gainfully employed individual and the company kind of expects employees to actually attend work in order to get a paycheck!

20 years ago...

The big news in Charleston, SC today is the 20 year anniversary of Hurricane Hugo. At the time Hugo was the most destructive storm in history. It has, of course, since been surpassed by Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina.




What an experience that long night was. We (Jerry, Craig & I) hunkered down in our family room to ride out the storm. We lived in the Charleston suburb of Goose Creek at the time and we saw no need to evacuate since we were not close to the ocean. We lost electricity at about 8pm and turned to our portable radios. Once the local radio stations were knocked off the air we tuned into a strong signal station in Jacksonville, FL. Many other Charlestonians also found that station and soon the DJ was fielding calls from Charleston and we followed the progress of the storm from those calls. Amazingly we never lost telephone service.

When the eye of the storm passed over everything became eerily silent. Everyone in the neighborhood ventured out during the eye to see what had happened. Jerry actually climbed up on our roof to try to fix one of our roof turbines. Then the 2nd wave came and it was even more intense than the first.



We were incredibly lucky and had minor damage to our house. A few holes in the roof and trees down on our fence were about the extent of it. In fact, our insurance company settled our claim over the phone and sent us a check without question.



We also were lucky that our water and electricity were restored earlier than most although I will admit that about 2 days after the storm Jerry and I did resort to stripping down and showering in a downpour on our back patio. We grabbed a bar of soap and a sheet to protect from the neighbors' prying eyes and took turns washing the grime and tree sap off. It still ranks as the best shower I've ever had!

Needless to saw we take Hurricane season seriously around here!

Ch..ch..ch..changes

After spending 4 years in retirement, Jerry decided he'd be happier if he went back to work. (How is that even possible?? I'm LOVING being retired!)

Anyway, yesterday he started a new job at the same company as our son Craig. We had to dig out business clothes for him and he had to buy some new stuff. It has been kind of getting ready for the first day of school!

The deal we made when we retired was that Jerry would cook dinner every night. Now that he's back to work I guess I am too...back to the stove every night. I was so enjoying just waiting to be called to dinner and will miss that!

Back home

My mother's surgery finally took place late on Wednesday. They ended up inserting a plate and 13 screws. The doctor shared an x-ray. (click for larger view)



Jerry and I left Detroit Friday morning and arrived home this afternoon. My mother was moved out of the hospital today and is now in a rehab facility. Unfortunately, she has another issue that was just diagnosed - a fracture to the L2 vertebrae. The back is actually more painful for her than that arm. We're not sure yet what the course of treatment on the back will be.

A reminder to everyone out there - make sure you're taking your calcium and getting those bone density tests.

Things don't always go as planned

I'm currently in Detroit because my mother has surgery scheduled. Back in late July she fell and broke her humerus bone high up in her left arm - almost to the shoulder(she's left handed.) Surgery was performed to insert 4 pins. Unfortunately the surgery was not successful and they are going to go back in and try to insert screws and a plate. They will know during that surgery whether the screws are successful. If they are not, they will go ahead and do a partial shoulder replacement.

Surgery was originally scheduled for Friday morning. During the preop tests they discovered her blood sodium levels were too low and her potassium levels too high. Both can cause heart arrhythmia issues which is not something you want during surgery. She was admitted to a ward on Friday in order to stabilize her levels which takes a couple of days. It now looks like surgery will take place on Tuesday.

It has been a long haul for an 85 year old woman and there is still a great deal ahead of her. She is getting frustrated so we're hoping that everything goes off without a hitch on Tuesday and she can start on the road to recovery.

Mr. Moose

When I was recently in Detroit my brother and sister-in-law let us stay with them. As a thank you, I've made this moose wallhanging for their vacation home in northern Michigan which has a moose theme. The binding has to be stitched down so it looks kind of odd in this photo.

Hopefully they'll like this!

Charity quilts and leaving town

Here are two quilt tops made by my splinter group for donation to charity.

We pooled fabric and made simple patterns. We ended up with 3 nearly identical quilts out of the fabric in this first quilt.


We used the pattern for this green quilt several times in different colorways. I only have the photo of this green one.



Several members of our group have longarms (quilting machines not physical deformities) and they will quilt these.

After 5 years of not visiting Detroit, I'm returning next week for the 2nd time in a month. My mother recently fell and broke her arm. The break is way up high on the arm - almost to the shoulder. She had surgery to insert pins but the surgery ended up not being successful. In fact, one of the pins fell out and my brother found it on the floor of the hospital room! They were designed to be removed after a month or so, but it's hard to imagine how one worked its way out early.

She is scheduled for additional surgery next Friday to try screws and a plate. If, when the Dr. gets in, they determine that the screws and plate won't work they're going to do a partial shoulder replacement. (this is a new Dr. and a new hospital. Mom didn't like the first hospital very much and we lost confidence in the Dr. after finding pins on the floor!)

So, I'm back up to Detroit to be there for this new surgery. This has been quite an ordeal for my 85 year old mother and she just wants to get it all behind her. Any good thoughts sent her way would be appreciated.

Irises

This is what I worked on for most of the weekend back when the guild had its annual beach retreat. I finally put the borders on yesterday. I really enjoy working on complex paper pieced projects. This one will probably sit for a while until I get around to quilting it.

Family visit

I don't get to see my family often enough. I don't ever seem to get up to Detroit where they all live and they don't get down here to Charleston.

The day before we left Detroit was my nephew Eddie's high school graduation open house. Still not sure why they waited until August to celebrate a June graduation, but because they did wait, I got to attend.

Here's Eddie with his cake. (click photos for larger view)



Me with my two brothers. Ed on the left and Claude on the right. I make sure everyone knows I'm their MUCH younger sister. Actually, I'm 6 years younger than Ed and 4 years younger than Claude.



Here are some of my other nieces and nephews.

Corinne and her husband Dan (Corinne is Ed's oldest daughter)


Eric and his wife Melissa (Eric is Claude's youngest son)



Claude, Jr. and his wife Rhonda (Do I need to say that he's Claude's oldest son)


Colin and his wife Diane (Colin is Ed's oldest son)


Kristin and her husband Brian (Kristin is Ed's youngest daughter)


(l to r) Kevin, Chris and Eddie (Ed's 3 youngest)


Claude's middle son, Paul, wasn't able to attend the party.

It's always fun to see everyone. I really need to visit more often.

There's no place like home

Boy, it's nice to be home! I left on July 23rd and went up to Knoxville, TN with several quilting friends to attend the AQS show being held there. After leaving Knoxville I traveled up to Detroit and just got home from there yesterday. As I mentioned earlier, my mother fell and broke her arm the day before I arrived in Detroit. She had surgery and is now in a rehab center learning on to survive with her dominate arm useless to her right now. She is improving, but has a long way to go.

The quilt show was smaller than I expected, but the quilts were lovely. (click photos for larger view)

This was the Best of Show Quilt "Circles of Life" by Linda French of Ohio.



This is "Feeling Groovy" by Candace West of Florida. There is lots of bling on this quilt which doesn't show in this photo very well. According to a friend of hers that was lurking near the quilt, Candace digitized the quilting design and then added the bling inside the quilting lines.



Here's a closer look at the bling



This is Dresden Galaxy by Mary Ann Herndon of Texas.


I think this may have been my favorite quilt in the show. It's "Silverlight" by Betty Busby of New Mexico.


Knoxville was a nice town and I think the TTT gang will want to attend the show again next year. If we do, we plan to stay longer than overnight so we can enjoy the city.

AFK

I've been away from the keyboard longer than I anticipated. My mother fell and broke her arm. She has had surgery to insert 4 pins (which will be removed in several weeks) and I have been sitting in a hospital in Detroit.

Hopefully I'll get home next week and can post some photos of the Knoxville Quilt Show.