Finally--I am Sewing Again!

IIf you are interested in quilting skip this long paragraph about my health!  My health has not been good since last April or May.  I had dental work done and got an infection under my new permanent bridge.  It was pure hell for awhile there and then I finally went in for a second opinion about MS because I had so many symptoms (and have three relatives with it).  Turns out I do not have MS (thank you for that) but I do have a B12 deficiency which actually mimics MS to the point of ridiculousness.  It was so bad that between checking for MS the first time and then seeking a second opinion a little over a year later I no longer had a knee reflex in my left knee.  That got me further testing anyway and we got to the bottom of my problem.  However, all of these issues retriggered Epstein Barr ( I had mono when I was 18) and the fatigue is like nothing I had ever experienced.  So after every test under the sun (MRI, bloodwork, lumbar puncture, etc.) it looks like that has been what has made me so weak.  Have lovely leg spasms, burning feet, jumping nerves, ugh!  It has been really hard to even work since school started and I have been to the ER a few times..pretty sure I had another gallstone (sans gallbladder) and passed it in the ER too.  At least that pain is gone.  I long for my former healthy life!  I have not been going to Pilates for the past two months or so as I am too weak.  I can barely climb a flight of stairs and it seems like  lifetime ago that I hiked the Grand Canyon.  I have gained some weight back though been losing again this past month and am committed to trying. Good news though my migraines are the best they have been in twenty years.  I finally figured out a lot of my triggers are food.  UGH!  I do not eat fake sugar, much MSG, hardly anything processed and viola no more migraines unless I accidentally eat something.  I would take the crazy daily migraine pain over the worst of the fatigue though--that was super frustrating to me.  In the past week or two I have finally noticed some improvement. I am not sleeping near as much though I do need to be in bed with feet up a lot still.  Just a week ago I went out socially for the first time after a work day. I can do some on non work days but on a work day I just have to lay down as soon as I get home.  

Anyway enough about that!  Some people never recover from EB and I plan to if at all possible. 

Several weeks ago on a non work day Barb and I went to a fabric sale at a gal's house (her store in Prescott had closed) and here is the craziness I came home with for 80 ish dolllars.  I have not spent money on fabric in forever mainly because I have not been sewing but this came at a time when I was finally getting back in there!

 

Liz joined us for shopping and we ran into Tina (who was my first quilt camp roomie) so we all went to breakfast together.  What a fun bunch!  So I put together both mine and Kathy's 35th Ave. BOM from last year.  Forgot to get a picture of the second one.  It is the same but orange outer border. 

 The main reason I got back in the quilting studio was to finish On Ringo Lake (On Green Bay).  I did finish it, Ros quilted it and has some close up photos here.  I love that she puts GO PACK GO on these!  She also quilted Love Shack for me.  I was so afraid I would not be happy with it if I did it so she did her magic.  I found a stripe to bind it with and it is such a happy quilt!

 Several years ago Barb gave me the embroidered squares below.  I finally got around to using some modern fabric to center them in the stars.  Still needs quilting but will make a nice gift for someone.

 Kathy had leftover bits and pieces from On Ringo Lake so I made a pillow for my brother Sam and his soon to be wife Ashley (she is pregnant so wedding postponed a year).  It is stuffed and done but I did not take a picture!

 Here is Kathy's matching quilt which Ros has right now.  I helped with a lot of this quilt and put all the blocks together since Kathy hates on point settings more than I do!

 I also got this March On Green Ba Packers quilt top together.  I need to order some Packer fabric for the final border and it will be ready to quilt or tie.

 I just love playing around with my shadow when I am taking pictures of quilts.

 

I also finally quilted (by myself!) this tiny Snow Buttons wall hanging.  I have quite a collection of little quilts these days!  I was overall happy with how it turned out. 

Kathy is back to working on her En Provence from two years ago.  She has a lot more blocks than this done and with any luck will get closer to done this weekend.  She is really trying to finish it up before Good Fortune starts.

 Also wanted to share my latest lunch find.  These stuffed peppers from Trader Joe's are really good and only four WW points.  I am eating them most every day at work.  Delicious.

Ros has been Busy/!

Ros has been busy quilting for me.  I cannot wait to pick up these two beauties!  First up we have the Love Shack wall hanging that I finally made after admiring some of my quilty friends' several years ago. I really wanted to quilt it myself, but I just do not do a great enough job and I want this hanging on my wall for years to come so off to Ros it went. 

Then On Ringo Lake finally got done and quilted.  This last mystery quilt of Bonnie Hunter's took me the longest to complete!  I just do not have time for sewing now that I am teaching high school full time.  There is always so much to do (especially these first few years--I imagine it might slow down when I have less to create!)  I teach three or four different classes and one does not even have a teacher's book.  All of them need me to create the worksheets, quizzes and tests. Nothing is handed to me. I like doing all that stuff, but I miss sewing, quilting, reading, etc!



 

 The label hasn't been signed by Bonnie yet, but hopefully when I see her in January I can get it signed.  Kathy and I (and other quilty friends) have signed up for a class at 35th Ave. with her.  We are taking the Spider Web class.  I have always wanted to make this one and in fact the quilt that got me hooked on quilting was along that line and while surfing the net I found Bonnie's pattern and Bonnie!  That was fifteen years ago so funny I am finally going to get to it. I usually change up the colors but think Kathy and I are going to tag team on a red one!

 Look at that awesome texture!  I have not decided if I am going to put this in my Packer guest room (and maybe give away the one that is in there) or eventually give this one away.  I am looking forward to the pictures at out next Kickoff party!

It turned out great!  It is bigger than Celtic Solstice...now to decide which one I can part with!

2017 On Ringo Lake/On Green Bay

 

2013 Celtic Solstice/Packer Solstice

 

In other news, my health sucks these past six months. Shots a few times a week now and lots of vitamins. I have reactivated Epstein Barr virus (likely caused from B12 deficiency though not sure what caused that).  Lots of tests ruling out other stuff.  Lumbar puncture next week.  Not looking forward to it, but happy to rule out other stuff.  

Spring Quilt Camp with NimbleThimbles

 I went up to quilt camp at Emmanuel Pines last Friday for the weekend.  It started snowing on the ride up and snowed and snowed!  Very little of it stuck, but it was snowing for hours.  I have not seen snow in quite awhile so it was fun--really felt like Christmas on April 1st!  I worked all day Friday and a good bit of Saturday on making Bonnie Hunter's Love Shack!  I love how it came out. It was a super fun project to do at camp because it involves lots of different  blocks.

 I have wanted to make Love Shack for a long time but it involves several patterns on quiltville (maverick stars, strings, happy scrappy houses, wonky hearts and letters) and also lots of size adjustments which are not my thing.  I was so proud of myself for figuring all this out--even though I counted the blocks wrong in the one column and so made the blocks too big and had to eliminate a maverick star or start over!  I will be keeping this one and hanging it in the living room or dining room.

 Saturday Kathy, Kathy, Becky and I took a hike to stretch after all that sewing. We wound up going four a half miles (20 min for each mile) and made it out to the road.  Really good conversation all the way too. So glad to have quilty friends who sneak exercise in too!

 Saturday night Barb helped me make sixteen trivet Christmas presents.  I made them all out of Christmas fabric and will be making more in other fabric too.  They are made from a hexie ruler and lots of fabric folding.  The tricky part is pinning them just so.  That is the part Barb is much better at than me!  You stitch around the outside and flip them out at the center and they look great!  When I was done with all that and the quilt auction I continued working on En Provence.  This quilt A is for Adaminaby from 2012 was my auction quilt and Kathy O (the tall Kathy from the walk picture) won it for 25 dollars.  I ran across this little quilt which I had forgotten I made two of and decided it was a good auction quilt.

 Sunday morning we hung out some of the quilts (some people did not hang anything out--not sure why) and you can see the center of my En Provence on the right top.

I would never have even gotten it out if not for the fact that Marguerite had not brought her finished top and her daughter Laura was busting butt working on hers all weekend (along with other stuff).  Seeing Laura making progress motivated me to get to it!  Not sure why I was dragging my feet on it as I usually am right on schedule with getting the mysteries done but this year the trip to New Mexico to get my my son and his girlfriend and her kids (flat tire, no money and diabetic ketoacidosis and hospitalization was involved) knocked me off track.  This quilt has his hospital gown fabric in it.  Stitching the memories in.  Sunday morning I got the borders mostly made but thought I was four star point units short...turns out I was not.  I got home and discovered I started with the wrong star point color.  Of course I did not figure that out til I made the four star point and attached them.  HAHA!  Last night I fixed and attached the first borders and did some ironing.  So this morning (Monday) I attached the last border, did ironing and made the backing and cut the binding.  I still need to get a picture of it though.

Prepping for Love Shack!

We hiked this morning and I could not find any mojo to sew.  I finally took a nap...unusual for me but just have not been quite myself!  After that back to the sewing room.  We watched Grease Live and loved it.  Finally decided to prep up Bonnie Hunter's Love Shack!  

picture is from Quiltville.com

There is no pattern for this unless you take her class for it, but you can get the individual block patterns from Bonnie's blog.  I have wanted to make this for a few years now but as a pattern follower I just never went to the effort to print all the patterns, etc.  

I have now printed all the patterns and even did the prep for many of the blocks.  I put it all in a bin and labeled it with my dry erase marker so now  it feels like a work in progress instead of a vague plan.  Pretty sure this will come to quilt camp with me along with some other little stuff and talkin turkey...really need to cut those borders out!

 So really there was not alot of sewing going on this weekend though I spent quite a bit of time in there anyway.  What project have you been dreaming of doing that you just gotta get kitted up?