The Ten Month Catch Up!

I have not blogged since January!  I cannot recall how much I have shared here about my health, but that has a lot to do with why I have not been blogging.  Ok, I just looked back  and I see I explained in November some.  In November at my follow up appointment for my lumbar puncture the neurologist told me I did not have MS.  I went in for an MRI and saw a naturopath and was in general feeling like I was dying.  I missed so much work last year and barely worked my second job at all.  I have never had such an overwhelming need to sleep except when I had mono and when I was pregnant with my daughter (and her military dad was never home and my oldest was two and half and only slept five hours a day, but I digress).  I got no answers and I am sure the stress of feeling that way and having no answers only made me worse.  In the start of the year they sent me to see a cardiologist and a pulmonologist because I could barely make it up a flight of stars.  It was like I had just chased the ice cream truck, and never mind that I quit going to Pilates as it made me too tired and then my left leg got so weak stairs were hard without the railing.  Anyway, in March I saw the pulmonologist again and found out that there was nothing wrong with my lungs (or my heart per cardiologist) and she said...how is the MS going?  I was like what.  I don’t have MS, I just have Pernicious Anemia but my neuro left me a weird message last night about my MRI and which he said my MS was quiet...I thought it was in error.  So come to find out, I do have MS as confirmed by the lumbar puncture the previous October (the neuro only saw the normal bloodwork and not the spinal fluid results...yet never realized he had told me I did not have MS when he called me back later and MRI showed lesions.  The pulmonologist got the records from my regular doctor who I had also seen several times since the test and she also had not informed me as she had not read the results.  Needless to say, I transferred all my care to Mayo and am done with all that confusion.  I started taking lots of supplements and trying to figure out what would help me.  Eventually I found a combination that seems to make life more bearable.  I am now back to working regularly, working out and only napping.  Honestly it was the hardest year of my life.  If I try to decrease the supplements the fatigue hits me like a wall.  It is like having the flu without the puking!  I have been gaining weight and that is depressing.  The only thing unaffected has been my appetite.  I also have not been able to hike though now that it is cooling off, I am hoping to try again.  If I overdo it at all I get this feeling of walking sleep--it is hard to explain, but I truly just want to lay down where I am and go to sleep!  It has been a slow recovery and I hope it is not done yet, though I am much better.  

For the longest time I really did not sew. I did listen to audiobooks (often more than once as I kept falling asleep) and Kathy and I got into board games.  That helped to get me out of bed one evening a week or so.  It gave me something to look forward to when really all I could do was work and sleep. We have found tons of fun games--Pandemic, Kingdomino, Forbidden Island, Love Letters, Palm Island, Hive, Sushi Go, etc.  

As I started to get more energy I did some sewing on the weekends.  We really stopped going out and doing stuff so I was a homebody!  I am just finishing up my two week falI break.  I felt good enough to work my second job (most everyday) and I  am actually getting in my sewing room and have done all kinds of sewing so I better try to update you on that front!

I have been working on and completing many of the quilt on my All People Quilt UFO list this year.  I finished the Merry and Bright Tablerunner.

Barb is currently quilting the Kaleidoscope of Kolor quilt now that I fixed that last border.  It is giving her fits as she tried something new on her quilting machine but it is looking beautiful.

I used the Animal blocks that Barb gave me in a wallhanging I sent to Norway.

The Packer March On quilt is all ready for me to quilt it.

I sewed a few Tula Pink City Sampler blocks awhile back and yesterday I cut about eight more so they are ready to go.

The hexagon Eye Spy quilt is all tied and bound.

Nines Surrounded was sewing a long time ago and finally I got it quilted and bound!

I also got my Fireworks quilt quilted and bound.  This one was from Quilting on the Rim with Becky many years ago!  

 

 I got the quilt done for Tula Pink Stacks too--I won those blocks at guild several years ago. I quilted it myself (as I have some of the smaller quilts) and I actually like how this one turned out!

A long time ago my friend June (who has since moved away and I lost touch with) gave me a bunch of partially completed blocks, a pattern and thirties fabrics.  I completed the quilt which is a larger size baby quilt and then did a little wall hanging to go with it.  I sent both to Norway to my second honorary grandson Lenny who was just born.  Here he is with his quilt.

Serpentine Spider Web is now a flimsy!  I did not even blog about the class I took last February at 35th Ave. with Bonnie Hunter and lots of my friends.  Kathy took it too and we both did the same cheddar coIor.  After the class, Kathy let me complete the whole thing though she helped here and there.  Each blocks takes about an hour to make and I was so ready to have this one over!  I set myself a little goal towards the end of five blocks a week and that really spurred it on!  I really wanted to get this one done before Bonnie’s class at 35th Ave. this January.  I signed up to take Idaho Square this year and am planning to show this one off as done from last year!

My brother and his fiance were supposed to get married in March but she wound up having a baby in March instead!  Bear is a great addition to their other three boys.  They have Ben, Christian, and Colton.  They postponed their wedding until this March and my sister and I are bridesmaids in it.  Kathy and I made them last year’s Bonnie mystery (On Ringo Lake( in their wedding colors and I used the extra block to make them a pillow.  Cannot wait to give them to them! Somewhere I have a picture of this all done, but not finding it now so here is the flimsy.

We had to put down two of our dogs last summer.  Daisy got old and a few days after we put her down, Zoey started getting seriously aggressive.  She attached Bug and it was bad.  The vet thought she likely had a brain tumor.  It was awful to lose them both so close together.  We lasted a few months with just Lombardi and Bug.  We looked for another Chihuahua for a month or so and eventually BJ found us one from the rescue she volunteers at.  Her name was Cupcake and Kathy wanted to call her Bradie (for the Patriots).  Eventually I decided her name was really Sunshine.  So we mostly call her Sunshine Cupcake Bradie.  LOL She was the best little personality and is about five years old. 

In better news, my daughter got married in June!  You may remember she was engaged many years ago to a young man named Jeremy when we moved to Arizona.  They were quite young and the time and wound up breaking up.  Both of them had long term relationships with one person while they were apart but never married.  Then they broke up with those folks about the same time and found each other via Snapchat recommendation.  They met for lunch and realized they were still deep down meant to be.  They tried taking it slow but both felt like they had not missed a beat and were better versions  of themselves and the next thing you know they were planning a wedding.  Since I was so sick this past year, Hannah flew here to try on wedding dresses.  She found the most amazing dress and I am so glad, Mom, Kathy and I got to be a part of it!  They got married in Pepin at the Hidden Meadow Barn and it was absolutely stunning all around.   They are now in Aruba on their honeymoon and will soon start trying for babies!  Of course they got the latest Bonnie Mystery, Good Fortune, for their wedding gift.  

 

They also had me bring rectangles for the guests to sign for  guest quilt which I have not yet made.

We did another Good Fortune (mostly Kathy focused on this one) in the same colorway but with darks instead of lights and the colors in the different places for my son Mac who now goes by Jay and his fiance Liz.  Unfortunately, after being engaged for several years, they broke up a few days after Hannah’s wedding.  Not sure what to do with that quilt now.

My oldest, Coleman is still in Ohio with his second wife, their six kids and their grandbaby.  The oldest, Hailey had a boy, Saxon.  She is only sixteen and was the quilt that I made 16 years ago that gave me the quilting bug!  I sent a quilt for her son and the box was delivered to the wrong address and the people would not admit to getting it, though the post office says it went there.  So I sent another one via Randy’s sister so they would get it.  It was the baby mystery quilt I had made for Ben (same pattern though I got the color placement right this time!)  I have not seen Coleman or the kids  since they moved back to Ohio awhile ago.  Randy also moved back to a few months ago so he keeps an eye on them I suspect. 

At some point this past year, Barb and I made a few small snowman quilts.  Barb did not complete the tiniest one yet--I see I already posted a picture of that one, but we both got the larger ones done more recently.  They are super cute and I am adding them to my mini quilt collection which is quite huge. I do not even have room to hang them all anymore! I need to rotate!

Barb quilted my Midnight Flight!  I love how it turned out and it is my new favorite! I decided that this one (errors and all) will live at my house for the future grandbabies!

One day Barb and I were Skype sewing and she was making a coffin wreath so of course I had to make one too.  It is not done yet and I have no idea how to attach it so for now it is done.  Barb got that far too.

My quality friend Limbania passed away from a long fight with breast cancer a month or so ago.  So hard to believe as she was younger than I am and has young children

Kathy, Barb and I went to Bisbee last weekend (I was so sick when we went there last year I wanted to go back and finish what we did not get to do!).  BJ watched out new dog Sunshine and I finally gifted her with the Puddle Jumping Mystery that she has wanted since she saw it.  She was really one of my first quilty friends here in Arizona and is a good friend.  She was over the moon with it.

35th Ave. BOM in progress this year. 

This sort of catches you up on the goings on in my life these past ten months. I am super excited to do the Quiltville mystery and usually am better about blogging while it is going on so I hope to get back into regular blogging and sewing! I have missed it!
I sewed some leftover hst's from way back when together for this fun little quilt.  Stash kitty is checking it out!  At Barb's this week I cut and sewed Betsy Schnibbles too.  Both are flimsies.

Working on some Christmas gifts for the kids....got them this far...


 
Also working on more of these for Christmas gifts. 



 
I am also doing Bonnie's Leader and Ender Shoofly blocks here and there....I have a few more done than this picture but you get the idea.
 
If you read this 10 month post all the way to the end, I am super impressed!  More sewing happened than I thought and at least it is mostly documented now!  Til next time.