It's Finished!

I have finally finished the quilt I was making for my niece. In an earlier post, I said I was using the Attic Windows block using heart blocks left over from an anniversary quilt as the focal point in the block. I even posted a photo of a block. Well, here is a photo of the finished item:

I think it turned out very nice. There is only one instance of having like blocks side by side. See the two pink hearts in the middle of the photo. And I worked so hard to try to avoid that happening. Oh, well. This photo makes the two hearts immediately to the left of the duplicates look the same, but they are not. The top one is blue and the bottom is green. And some of the windows look empty, but they aren't. Those windows have light colored, usually yellow, hearts. So what do you think? It actually does kind of look like a window -- if you squint your eyes and move back as far as possible. :-)

Good news on the cancer front. I had another 3-month follow-up visit yesterday with the medical oncologist and everything looks good (his words!). I am a year and a half out of the end of chemo so my anxiety lessens with each healthy doctor visit. I still have the port-a-cath, but I hope to get it removed when I can switch over to six month visits, which should happen sometime this fall. It doesn't hurt, but it's a bother having to have it flushed to make sure no clots form. I did find out recently that I can wait three months before having it flushed. I was told at the beginning that it should be flushed every 6-8 weeks. I've been having it flushed every six weeks because that times well with doctor visits. So now I'm switching to three months. Saves a little money because insurance doesn't cover all the cost of the flush. Nonetheless, I am very happy that I continue to do well. I feel good most of the time, which is a good thing. All in all, I'm very satisfied with my life.

In an early post this year, I mentioned the positive thoughts jar that I was going to keep. Well, it was a good idea! I do add thoughts to the jar, but it's not happening every day. To be honest, I seldom have thoughts that aren't positive so it's hard to remember to write down special thoughts that occur. I don't remember most of the things I have written down so opening the jar at the end of the year will be a treat. I must remember to add to the jar, though.

I've started working on the baby quilt for my new great-grand-nephew who is due in July. I'm using English paper piecing in a hexagon and diamond pattern. Something like the diagram below:


I like fabrics from the 1930's so that's what I'm using. Since it's for a boy, I am using "boy" colors -- blue, green and yellow prints for the hexagons and solid blue, green and yellow for the diamonds. I'm just getting started so no photos yet.

That just about does it for this time. The SWANs meet tomorrow night so I'll take the Attic Windows quilt for show-and-tell. They've watched me working on the blocks for what seems like forever so I'm sure they will want to see the finished product.

As always, thanks for reading my ramblings
Amy 

How will I ever find time???

I think I may have written about this before, but it seems as if every time I am nearing the end of one project, my  mind is already jumping ahead to the next one. In my last post, I mentioned the quilt throw that I am making for my niece. I have about half of the blocks finished. As always, I am doing everything by hand in the pot-holder quilt method. Here is a photo of one of the completed blocks:

I'm using the Attic Windows setting. This photo doesn't really do justice to the block, but I think the finished product will be really nice. Sure hope she likes it!

Now that I'm getting close to the finish line on this quilt, I'm jumping forward to the next quilt -- the one for the new baby coming in July. I really enjoy doing English Paper Piecing so I am going to make the baby quilt using EPP hexagons and diamonds. I'm still working on the layout, but I have all of the paper pieces cut (using freezer paper) and adhered to the fabric and about half of them have been basted. I hope to finish the attic windows quilt within the next month so I will be able to focus my full attention on the baby quilt.

Annnndd, I'm even thinking ahead to the next quilt after the baby quilt! A great nephew is in the Air Force and I think it's time I make a quilt for him and his wife. I'm tossing around patterns -- flying geese (to honor his service)? Homeward Bound (because he hopes to be stationed back in the states soon)? I just don't know. Fortunately, I'll have a while before I have to make a decision on that one.

I'm doing pretty well at keeping up with the positive thoughts jar. There have been a couple of days when I forgot to add to the jar, but that's been balanced out by the days when I put two or more thoughts in the jar.

Apparently I don't have enough to occupy my hands or my mind because I keep finding new things that I want to try. The most recent thing I ran across is on a blog called Thread Head and the craft is Romanian Point Lace and can be found at http://joanne-threadhead.blogspot.ca/2010/08/romanian-point-lace-tutorial.html. I'm going to give this a try when I have a chance. Maybe this will be my ornament for the 2014 SWAN exchange.

Yesterday was another followup visit with the medical oncologist. I am now about a year and a half out of treatment so I'm hoping that all tests for the next six months are negative so I can move to seeing the doctors every six months. And get this port taken out! While it doesn't hurt, it's a pain in the behind to have it flushed every six weeks. Not having it flushed could mean a blood clot and that wouldn't be a good thing, especially since the port catheter is in a vein near the heart. So for the next few months, I'll continue with the flushing and hope that all of the tests continue to come back negative.

Enough chatter for now. It's time for me to get back to the quilt...so I can get this one finished and start on the next one! Or work on the shawl that I started knitting back in the fall... Or try out the Romanian Point Lace. So many things I want to do; so little time!

Thanks for reading my ramblings.
Amy

Finished!

Yep. It's finished. What I'm talking about is the baby quilt for little Austin Littau. He's two months old now so it's time that he gets his quilt before he's too big for it. I'll package it and the books today and take to the UPS store tomorrow. I can hardly wait to see what mommy and daddy think of the quilt. And I know Austin will like the books. Here's a photo of the finished product.
It turned out really nice, don't you think?

The quilt is not the only thing that has taken up my time. I mentioned earlier this summer that I was working on a surprise for a friend. I gave this witch wall hanging to a fellow SWAN who very nicely gave me a quilt hanger. I felt moved to make something for her. Here it is the way she has it hanging in her house.The one I made is on the left and seems to go quite well with the other door decoration she uses.

And, of course, I'm always working on knitted items. I have been experimenting with knitting scarves lengthwise instead of crosswise. Does that make sense? In other words, each row I knit is on the long side of the scarf instead of the short side. The problem with doing that is you have to estimate during cast on how long the scarf should be. Since I'm not using a pattern, it's been a bit of trial and error. Here are the two scarves I've finished so far. The white one is a gift for my sister-in-law. The multicolored scarf is made of mohair yarn that I bought on a whim a few years ago...then didn't know what to do with. They both turned out nice, I think.

Now, I'm working on a pair of socks...and another surprise wall hanging. (That's all I'll say about that!) When the socks are finished, I'll post a photo of all the socks I've made this year so far. I've ordered more yarn so I suspect more socks will be constructed this winter. For some reason, it just feels right to knit socks when the temperatures are a bit cooler.

So, now you're up to date. I hope you have enjoyed looking at my projects. It seems there are always more projects rolling around in my head that I would like to do than there is time to do them. And for some reason it seems like I accomplished more when I was working than I do now that I'm retired. Go figure!

As always, thanks for reading my ramblings.
Amy

Stitch night

It's been a while since I have added to my blog. I'm sorry about that, but I have been knocked a bit low by bronchitis. It's been a long time since my last bout of bronchitis and I forget from time to time just how much energy it takes to cough all the time. But I'm feeling better each day and it's time now to catch up with blogging.

The SWANs met last night for the first of the twice-monthly stitch night for May. There are so many good things about the group that I'm not sure where to start. I guess the first good thing to talk about is the fact that the group is growing! We've added three new members this year (counting me as one of the three). It's always a pleasure to meet with stitchers and talk. I'm the only quilter, but that doesn't bother anybody. The rest are counted cross stitchers and that's fine with me, too. One of our newbies joined us last night for the first time...and he's a male stitcher. Russ brought along some of his completed projects and he does fantastic work! Now, don't get me wrong. I have absolutely no problem with males choosing needlework as their hobby just like I have no problem with ladies who choose to remodel houses or rebuild cars as their hobby. A hobby is a hobby is a hobby. Gender shouldn't be a factor in any venture.

The only down side about having Russ as part of the group is we're going to have to change our name, I think. You may remember that I said earlier that SWANs stands for Sophisticated Women Addicted to Needlework. Doesn't seem quite appropriate now that Russ is part of us. I know I'm going to put on my thinking cap to see if I can come up with another acronym that is descriptive yet all-inclusive and I suspect my fellow stitchers will be doing the same.

Because of not feeling up to par, I didn't do much stitching last night, but I sure did a lot of talking and listening! We had to move to a larger venue since the group is growing and we now meet at a local church, which means we can be as loud as we want without disturbing the patrons at the coffee shop like we had done in the past. Plus we have more room to spread out. All in all, the move was good. But I digress. I had so much fun last night that it should be illegal! There were about 10 of us and and at any give time, there were at least two conversations taking place. And those conversations ranged from discussions of kids/grandkids, flooding around the country, the oil spill, how we're all tired of rain, and anything else that came to someone's mind. Lots of laughter....LOTS of laughter! Like I said, it should be illegal!

I don't know how most of the group does it. About half of us don't live in Columbia and have to drive at least 25 miles to get here. And that's after working a full day. We gather at 5:30, which means that most of the folks come directly from work. A few of us are retired and have fewer time pressures. I do know that there is no way I could have participated in the group while I was still working. By the end of the day on Thursday, I was always so wiped out that even if the heart had been willing, the body would have told me to go home and relax. I admire the ones who work and come to group, especially when I see how much they accomplish on their stitching between stitch nights. Where do they find the time (and energy) to do all that they do?

So, I came home again last night all fired up to continue working on my quilting project. With luck, I'll start feeling more like stitching soon. Ideally, I would like to have half of my blocks finished by the next stitch night in two weeks. I think it's an achievable goal because I only have 7-8 more to go. Keep your fingers crossed that I make it.

Thanks for reading my post. Now back to stitching.
Amy

SWANs night out

Last fall, my neighbor and good friend, Denise, asked me to go with her to a stitching group. This group is composed of a dozen or so ladies who get together on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. The purpose of the meeting is to stitch, drink coffee (or other non-alcoholic drink) and talk. I'm not much of a joiner, but I decided to give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did! I was welcomed into the group in a way I would never have anticipated. In most situations, my style is to keep my mouth shut and get the lay of the land before I start adding to conversations. These ladies made me feel so welcome that I was jumping in with both feet. What a wonderful experience.

To begin with, I thought it was just a bunch of friends, which they are. However, after a month or so an e-mail to the group referred to them as SWANs. What in the world??? So, of course, I had to ask. Turns out that they agreed that they needed to call themselves something and thus SWAN, which stands for Sophisticated Women Addicted to Needlework. All of the group members -- except me -- are counted cross stitchers. Oh, I think they have other needle crafts that they do from time to time, but their main craft is counted cross stitch. I used to make counted cross stitch projects, but I guess it just isn't the craft for me because the phase didn't last. I appreciate the workmanship that goes into the items, but I'll let others do the work and I'll admire from afar.

I was afraid that I might not fit in with the others because I'm not a cross stitcher, but Denise assured me that any needlework was fine. Sometimes I take knitting and other times I take a quilting project. And each time the group asks what I'm working on, how I'm going to finish it...in other words, showing interest for what I'm doing.

Each week that we meet, I come home fired up to work on my crafts -- not that I need firing up. It just feels good to be out with a bunch of women with whom I have nothing in common other than a love of crafting. Most of the group are public school teachers, some are retired, but we all have the same goal of relaxation through crafting. I can't think of a better way to spend a Thursday evening!

Til next time,
Amy