Feelin' Scrappy!

We had a wonderful weekend!  It was sunny and in the 70s...my sweetheart worked in the yard and the garden and it looks beautiful.  We have 14 acres but the property is divided by a creek so we really live on and keep up the front 5-6 acres...the other side of the creek is woods and a meadow with a big pecan tree in the middle.  Sweetheart keeps the meadow mowed but otherwise the woods are a haven for deer, turkeys and other "wildlife."  I was able to work around in the house a little which made me very tired but very happy.

I did a little sewing on scrappy string blocks last week and plan to do a lot more this week.  I'd like to use up as many of my scraps as possible.  Most of the patterns I'm using are from this site.  Here are my string blocks

Then I started another set of spiderweb blocks..I love the way it makes the star in the center.  I've seen  colors used the make the stars and I love the look but I wanted to start with a white star.  These are fun to do and easy to piece using a paper foundation. 

It's been 4 1/2 months since I have been anywhere other than the hospital or the doctor's office...no restaurants, no fabric stores, NO SHOPPING AT ALL!   Shopping is not my favorite thing to do but I miss getting out and feeling of fabric and looking around.  So I did a little online shopping to keep my sanity :)  I really like Connecting Threads...their fabric is very nice and reasonably priced.  Among other things I found some charm squares on sale.  They are from a fabric line called Canning Day...1930s reproductions. 

On Ebay I purchased some reproduction fat eighths. 

Can you see a theme?  I'll cut 2 1/2" squares from all of these to use in making hexagons for a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  These are ones I'd started previously...I'm using the English paper piecing method...it's so easy and I can sit and make these. 

The quilt in my header was made by my grandmother.  She used feedsacks and flour sacks for the most part.  She always told me the green between each flower was the grass path through the garden.  And she always put a yellow center in her hexagons because "real flowers" had yellow centers :)  So, I will border each block in white and then green so my flowers will have a white fence and a green grass path through the garden! 

I have seen some beautiful, less traditional hexagon blocks being made on some blogs with planned colors and fussy cutting.  They are so very pretty!   I can't wait to try that as well.

I enjoy so much reading blogs and I cherish the friends I've made.  We may never meet but you bless my life.

Karen

OOPS!!  Thank goodness I posted that picture of the spiderweb block with the white star.  What I noticed as I looked at the picture (but didn't notice looking at the block itself...brain fog again?)  was the lack of a seam allowance on two of the star points!  SOOOOO...the block has been taken apart and that will be corrected...I want pointed stars :) 

A Happy Mother's Day

What a beautiful sunshiny day to celebrate Mother's Day.  I hope all of you had a nice day!  Our older daughter called from North Carolina and our younger daughter and her husband came after church to visit.  My sweetheart grilled steaks for all of us and we had a lovely time.  Sweet gifts and tender cards made my day.  I LOVE my girls so much...they are amazing young women and I am so proud of them :) 

My sewing machine is sitting ready and my scrap strips are just begging to be sewn.  I'm not up to following a quilt pattern or doing much rotary cutting so I think I'll be working on sewing scraps strips for my spiderweb and string block quilts...it's easy and doesn't require a lot of thinking and matching.  I think I have definitely had "brain fog" for awhile...I love to read but had a difficult time concentrating.  Seems that is another side effect of treatment.  It is certainly getting better and I'm back to reading a lot. 

I am doing some crocheting.  Before Christmas I made a granny square doggy sweater from a pattern I found here.  Our Boston Terrier granddog, Virginia, loved the sweater! 

So I'm making her sweaters for fall.  Here's what I'm working on now. 

Do you recognize the colors?   The burgundy and gold are the colors of Gryffindor House and the green and gray are Slytherin colors...both from the Harry Potter stories. :)  Virgina loves Harry Potter :) 

I also started a ripple afghan, a pattern I've always enjoyed.  It's in hunter green, sage green and soft yellow.  It will take quite a while to finish but it's mostly about the crocheting...keeps my hands busy. 

This week I got some good news at my doctor visit.  All my blood count levels are now normal.  I was concerned that recovery was so slow but my doctor assured me that I'm actually recovering very well.  I don't go back for 3 months which is great!  Hopefully then I will find out if I am in complete remission which is what we are praying for.  Whatever happens, I have been blessed beyond measure! 

Karen

New Beginnings

The sun is shining today after several days of clouds and much needed rain.  The trees are so green, the garden is growing (we are already eating green onions) and the flower pots on the porch are ready to plant. 

Spring is a time of renewal and promise and I appreciate that so much this year.

It's nice to be back visiting blogs again and seeing the creative projects of so many talented quilters and crafters.  It has been a long winter.  I spent all of February in the hospital...the stem cell transplant went well...but there were other complications and I was much sicker than anyone anticipated.  Recovery from the transplant is very slow and mine is even slower due to the complications.  Weakness and fatigue are the most difficult problems.  Thankfully my sense of taste is almost back to normal so the past two weeks I have been able to eat more normally.  That should help me get stronger.  Just now I'm feeling able to do a few things including being online.  I haven't started sewing again...sitting at the sewing machine is somewhat daunting but I'm thinking I can resume hand quilting this week.  This is what I'll be working on. 

This little wall hanging will be a gift...it's been several years in the making but I hope to finish the quilting this year.  Do any of you struggle with your hand quilting technique?  I just can't seem to do the rocking stitch that most hand quilters use.  I've developed my own technique which is similar to a running stitch...I know the "quilt police" would be horrified but I'll have to do it this way until I figure out how to do it "right." :) 

Hope you are having a great week filled with lots of stitching!!!

Hi Is Risen!

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16


Wishing you a happy and blessed Easter.

I can't believe Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone and we are ready to welcome a New Year! We had a wonderful time with family at Thanksgiving. Both of our daughters and sons-in law were here with us as well as my Sweetheart's brother and his wife. We enjoyed our time together so very much.

Sadly, at Thanksgiving my Sweetheart's sister's husband went into the hospital after battling cancer for seven months. We spent two weeks visiting the hospital and spending precious time with the family. He went to be with the Lord on December 8. The family gathered for a funeral just before Christmas for the third time in the last 10 years. It certainly changes the focus of the holiday season and emphasizes our appreciation of family time and the fragility of life. The birth of Jesus, the Messiah and our Savior, had an even more special meaning for us this year.

We had a quiet but wonderful Christmas. I did get a little sewing done for Christmas. I loved seeing the mug rugs being made by so many quilting bloggers so I had to give them a try! Here's the result.




This year I hope to make a few Christmas projects each month so next Christmas will be a "handmade" and "homemade" celebration :)

Thankfully my doctors decided that I have completed chemotherapy and am ready for the stem cell transplant. I'll spend next week doing some pre-transplant tests and then be ready for the harvesting of my stem cells, the heavy chemotherapy and the transplant. That will include about 3 weeks in the hospital after mid-January.

Before then, I'm going to get my year of sewing and quilting planned so I can look forward to doing what I love while I am home and recovering. I won't be going out much until spring so I should be able to accomplish a lot on the days I feel good.

Wishing everyone a blessed new year filled with happy stitching,