Sailboat Quilt is DONE!!

One of my goals was to, before my surgery, finish hand quilting the sailboat quilt that was a customer's quilt.

Well...I MET THAT GOAL!!!

This quilt was HAND PIECED by a lady in her 80's for her great-grandson.  I've never met the lady that made the top, but I work with her daughter...who is the grandmother of the little boy that this quilt is for!!

It is twin-sized and those adorable sailboats are JUST PERFECT for a little boy!

I put the binding on it this past weekend and washed it.  Today I made a label for it...just because.   I don't usually make labels for customer quilts, but since I know this lady used to hand quilt and can't now, I felt a special kinship with this quilt.

I will be delivering it to my co-worker on Thursday.  I truly hope it meets with both her and her mother's approval!!

Loretta

A Diagnosis...Now for the Treatment...

Quote for the Day:

"I was going to have cosmetic surgery until I noticed that the doctor's office was full of portraits by Picasso."

~Rita Rudner

Since about Thanksgiving I've had progressive numbness of the last two fingers on my right hand as well as the outer 1.5" of my right palm.  

No, this is not my hand...but it shows the area that is numb ALL DAY, EVERY DAY...

As the symptoms got worse, I was pretty sure what it was, but had to have a visit to a neurologist and have a nerve conduction test, or EMG, done to make the final diagnosis and get treatment ordered.

Yesterday was that day, and I do, in fact, have Cubital Tunnel syndrome...just as I and my primary care provider thought.  The neurologist has ordered a custom splint for my elbow and has referred me to an orthopedic surgeon so that I can get the surgery to correct the problem.  

Unfortunately, there is no surgeon at the hospital I work at that does this type of surgery, so I will be having it at West Virginia University Hospital.  It is more nerve-wracking for me to have the surgery amongst strangers than if I were having it among my friends and co-workers.  :(

In the meantime, while I am waiting to have my consultation interview with the surgeon, I am frantically trying to finish up the quilt that is in my frame so it will be done before I have to have surgery.  I am on the final stretch...

I have already made sure that I finished the other quilt that needed to get done in a timely manner...the baby quilt for our new grandson due in June!  That quilt is completed, but I can't post about it yet, because it is a gift.  Once it has been gifted to my daughter, I will post pictures!  :)

Loretta

Even MORE Quilt Updates...

Quote for the Day:

"I hope to live all my life for my art, 

without abandoning my principles one iota."

~Gustave Courbet

This quilt update is about my customer's Sailboat Quilt that I've been hand quilting.  

I am almost finished with the second of four rows of sailboats!  I would estimate that I'm about 40% done with the entire quilt at this point.  

Here's a close-up of one of the most recent blocks that I've worked on...

Since the quilt isn't that big, I loaded it into my frame "sideways"...that's why the boats are on their sides.  Maybe we should name the quilt "Titanic" since the boats are all on their sides???

Loretta

Minty Fresh!!!

Quote for the Day:

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...

 It has no survival value; 

rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."

~C. S. Lewis 

Yesterday I put a message on Facebook asking where, this time of year, I could get a mint plant to grow indoors.  A couple of people responded that I could get some cut mint in the produce section and root that.  But one friend said he had a lot of mint and all I had to do was come over and get what I wanted!  :)  

I immediately went over and he had already dug up a root ball for me!  Now that's a friend!  :)  Thanks, Jeff J.!!!

I came home and planted a small part of the root ball in a container for the kitchen...

...beside the aloe plant in the window over the sink...

...and the rest I planted outside between the Autumn sedum and chrysanthemums.

Jeff also blessed me with an 18 count of fresh eggs from his free-range chickens!  :D   It's nice to have friends like that.  I gifted him with a jar of blackberry jam made from the blackberries from my back yard!

I've been quilting on my customer's sailboat quilt and am now ready to roll the quilt to the next section in the frame.  I put a line on the picture so you can see how much is done.  Everything to the right of the line is complete!

And here's a close-up of the stitching...the good, the bad, and the, well, you know...

The problem is that the green checked material is very tightly woven and difficult to needle through so some of stitches in that section are not so tiny and even.

"If it can't been seen at 30 paces while riding a galloping horse, it doesn't matter."  Right???

Loretta

What's Going On In My World...

Quote for the Day:

"There aren't enough days in the weekend."  

~Rod Schmidt

What do you do with a slightly-too-ripe banana?

Add a serving of Greek yogurt and a cup of frozen berries...in this case, frozen blackberries from my backyard bushes this summer...and blend well...

MMMMMMMMMM!!  Better than any purchased smoothie!  Ever!

I've been working on my customer's sailboat quilt and this is a glimpse at some of the stitching close-up!

Last week, I started a new type of chiropractic treatment for my back.  It's called Atlas Orthogonal Treatment.  I've been in chiropractic care for 26 years now and I'm certain that it is the only thing that has kept me upright and working all these years.  It's also the only thing that has ever relieved the daily headaches I had before starting treatment.  

But with the severe arthritis in my back now, I can no longer take the hand's-on adjustments and the crunching and popping movements of traditional chiropractic.  A friend told me about the new technique and her doctor that does it.  I started going last week and am more hopeful about my future than I have ever been in the last 3 years.  If you live in the area, I highly recommend Dr. Lionette and his team at Enliven Chiropractic!  They treat with a holistic method that treats the PATIENT and not just the "condition".  

To help with my treatments, I've taken to drinking LOTS of water, watching my sugar intake, and have lightened up my purse from 10+ bag of "everything but the kitchen sink" to a little 2.5 pound
"only the basics" clutch-type bag.  

I put our phone in front of it for size-comparison purposes.  My old purse could have been used as a lethal weapon, but this new one...not so much.  :)

I have also purchased an exercise ball chair to use at my computer.  This helps strengthen the core muscles.

What I've really noticed with the new chiropractic care is the difference it makes in my right knee pain and stiffness.  Up till the day I started treatment with Dr. Leonette, I was using a cane to assist me in going up and down the stairs in my house.  Since my first adjustment with him, I no longer need it!  

With regards to my back and leg radiculitis, I'm not "pain free", but I do have long periods of time with no pain...sometimes up to 48 hours in one stretch, but most of the time it is in 4-6 hour periods.  

Now you can see why I'm feeling more hopeful now than at I have in a long time! 

Loretta

Fall Is Here...

Quote for the Day:

"Love the trees until their leaves fall off, 

then encourage them to try again next year.” 

~ Chad Sugg

Autumn is in full swing here in West Virginia.  The leaves are starting to turn colors and drop to the ground, the nights are getting cooler, and starting tomorrow, so will the days.  We've had a brief "Indian summer" (that's probably not a "politically correct" term, but I don't know what else to call it)  with lots of sun and warm temperatures, but tomorrow the highs are going to start only being in the 60's and lows in the 40's.  Andy mentioned today that he will probably have the coal stove up and running when I get home from work tomorrow.  

We live in town and are surrounded by mountains.  Here's the view off of my back porch.  You can see the leaves are starting to turn brown...

One of the trees on our new property...

The mountain to the south of us...

The "Burning Bush" on our neighbor's property is starting to turn brilliant red...

Now, in quilt news...

I finished up the Blue Ridge Beauty quilt on Monday and took it out of the quilting frame.  I sewed the binding onto the front and it is ready to be turned to the back and hand-sewn down.  I had planned to take it to a fiber arts group that I attend on the first Tuesday of the month, and get started on sewing it down, but this month I was unable to attend at the last minute.  It is currently folded up and sitting in a tote bag...without me getting a picture of it, yet.  :(    So you'll just have to take my word for it that it is done at this point.  I'll be sure to take and post pictures when the binding is done.  

Today I loaded a customer's quilt into the frame.  (Don't worry about the wrinkles, those are taken care of by tightening the rollers on the frame to pull the fabric more taut.)

It was HAND PIECED by the mother of a co-worker for the grandson of said co-worker.  

It is an adorable quilt, but did have some "issues", but because it is hand pieced by the child's great grandmother, I chose to leave them in rather than "fix" them.  It will just be a part of the quilt's history.  Sometimes that is more important and endearing than "perfect".  

I did go through the back of it and cut off all the "dog ears" and some extra fabric that the maker left on.  Also, she did not press the seams as she went, so I spent at least an hour yesterday trying to figure out which way they laid best, spritzing them with water, and then pressing them down into submission!    Today I marked it, loaded it into the frame, and put the first stitches in it!  

It is a twin-size, so it should go fairly fast...I'm shooting for 2 months.  We'll see how close I get to that time frame!

Loretta