A HEART ATTACK IS SLOWING ME DOWN!

If i was missed this past week i had a good reason, not a happy one though the outcome so far turned out better than expected....i had a heart attack!...my lungs was filling with fluid smothering the heart....i think i had all the tests in the hospital before they were through....i came home today with lots of instruction and lots of bp meds....so it will take some getting used to and a lot of trial and error....i dont mind telling you it will be a hard thing to do...

I am so tired and they took my arthritis meds away because of the health risk so now my arthritis is really kicking up a fuss....i can hardly move without pain....so lots to get used to there too...

sewing may have to take a back seat or i might not be able to do as much as i have in the past...but i will do as much as possible...i have so much to do!....

that is it in a nutshell about me for now so i have to wear a new groove in my life...is it too late to teach old dogs new tricks?? guess we will find out....more later....

QUILTER CACHE INSPIRED RUNNER

In the midst of all the other sewing i have been doing i found time to make a new runner....

It was inspired by Quilters Cache...i dont know why i went there, lord knows i have enough ideas to work out of my head but its always nice to find a new idea, right??...lol....its not entirely like the one they had pictured but similar....and i think their blocks were bigger in the center and i wanted triangles around the pinwheel...that is light yellow sashes around the pinwheel and a funky color green triangles...glad that one is used up...i still wonder why i bought it....that will need machine quilting this week sometime...

its such a very dreary day today i think the rest of the day will be spent putting blocks in therows of the gfg quilts and see if i can get a row done on each of them....got leftovers for supper so no cooking this evening, good time to just keep on sewing and forget the weather...now if the tv will co-operate and have something decent to watch while doing this lol....

by the time i get all that done i will probably have some sore fingers so maybe the rest of the week i can get caught up on the machine quilting...hope so.....more later...

GRANDSON'S "FOOTBALL" QUILT

First i have to say what a wild and not so nice a week this past one was....the flooding in the midwest, here included, the explosions in Boston and Texas...it makes a person sit up and take notice what is going on around them...i know i am more alert of my surroundings...just hope this next week and beyond is more safe for all of us....

while sitting here drinking my coffee reading some of the blogs i thought i better get some pictures taken...so here is my grandsons quilt with the final red border on it...i made up all the black blocks as much fabric as i had...

i would have liked 1 more row on the sides but it didn't work out....then i ran out of red fabric...then my order came with red in it for another project and it worked for the quilt so added another border...it still isn't as big as i would have liked it...but he can wrap up in it anyway....

i got out his pillowcases that match it and you can see a closeup of the football print...

i had planned on giving all the grandkids pillowcases but some were dragging feet about what they wanted so i still hadn't given those i had done to them....this is going to work out well...he will have a quilt and cases to take with him when he goes off to college this fall...

the sun is out today and it looks like a really nice day so i think i will get out and shop a little...didn't go to the store other night as i planned so more groceries to get....getting tired of the same ole, same ole meals here so i think another good idea is to make out menus for this next week and follow them...i got out more in the winter than i thought so didn't use a lot of the stock i gathered for bad weather so i should use it now...

going to cut the backing ready to piece for grandsons quilt later today too and then wash the pieces...i would rather iron 2 smaller pieces than 1 big one...have to piece it anyway as the quilt is 50x 72 then i can pin ready for quilting....trying to get brave enough to machine this one....trying to do a bigger one each time till i get comfortable doing large quilts by machine...oh i wish i had a longarm!....

i was dreaming while relaxing last night....about building an oversized 1 car garage up close to the house and making it into a sewing studio....i could  do that there is enough room and with a few short steps from the house even...oh that would be so nice...my sewing room is small and its jam packed...i am sure you all know about that in your world too.....well off to do whatever....more later....



FORGET SEWING, NEEDING AN "ARK"

YES forget sewing and start building an ark....we got 6+ inches of rain in a 24 hr period and now no one can get in or out of town as water is over the roadsand bridges that lead out of town....i havent seen the water that high since 1979....and those bridges are high off fields below...there are a few creeks that run into the spoon river and it can really go on a rampage....in fact i dont know when we got this much rain in the same time period before...and its not over yet....more rain is forcast today and tonight at least 2-3 more inches....then friday its to get colder and  "snow"???? geez whats next!!!!

i have water in the basement....i knew i would have ...it seeps in around the blocks at the base of the floor and runs to the drain when we get a lot of rain...i havent been down to look yet how bad and just hope no one put things back on the floor....i usually keep things off the floor because of that....am not looking forward to going down the steps as they are hard for me to navigate with my bad arthritis and i dont want to fall....

i worked on the modern quilt today trying to keep my mind off the basement and started putting the blocks together and trying to decide just how big to make this quilt...its looking good so far...

i should go to the store after supplies but the milk man and bread guy probably didn't make it so shelves will be empty and that is what i need lol...i could make some french bread it dont use milk  but i dont have a cow so am out of luck in that dept. i can cook around no milk though so no problem...got hamburger out but no ideas yet what to cook later...i'm more interested in sewing lol.....

schools are all closed all over the county today some are trying to clean up...others because they are rural and cant get to the students....bet the kids are happy! lol....

oh yea! its starting to rain again....well its 'backstroke' to the kitchen for me.....more later.....

SO MANY QUILTS -SO LITTLE TIME!!

Right now i have so many quilts going...i am beginning to feel bogged down....i know, its my own fault lol...but i can explain lol....

i have the snowball quilt you saw in last post but i was looking in the cabinet and found the fabric that was left from the pillowcases i made my grandson...i guess i havent taken a pic of those yet...

anyway i only had about 1 yard of the fabric left so i made blocks out of it alternating with red and blue to make it go farther....ran out of red and didn't think it was going to be big enough for him but i had ordered red for another project and it matched what i ran out of so after i wash it i can put the last border on it...will get pics when i get that border on....

then i got out the blocks of the modern quilt i have been working on all year now and then....

this is a pic i had in the archives but i have almost 70 blocks now and will make quite a few more before i decide just how big it will be....its going to be very striking in color....the pic dont do it justice....will try to get a better one later....

i have the backs for all the quilts now except the modern one so i can get going....and i also have 15 new blocks for the gfg quilts and will start again setting them in rows....

had a good after surgery checkup at the eye docs other day....i never went back for the check up when i was suppose to so he gave me a lecture lol....and i promised to go sooner than 5 years lol....i know i shouldn't take it lightly as i have had eye problems in the past and still have one that will go out of this world with me....

i got steel in my eye years ago and had to have rust scraped from the cornea dead center and it created a shadow that i see when i move my eyes and the new lens from cataract  surgery makes it more prominent to see...

rain, rain all week so i guess i will be sewing more maybe i can get caught up with the pics to show ya....more later....

WORKING ON ANOTHER UFO AND THE GFG'S

I got out another ufo recently and started looking it over and decided to make it bigger at the request of my daughter....

when i am finished it will be bed size...it is a snowball quilt made with mostly floral calico prints that i have had forever it seems...so when i went to make it bigger i dug everywhere i might find the same pieces to use that are in the quilt...and luckily i found just what i needed...

i have to sew the side and the bottom onto the main part yet .

there are squares of this print in the quilt and i have just enough to make a good size border around...

when i ordered the backing i was crossing my fingers that it would be something i liked....the name was 'ivory crinkle texture' something so i was worried it really would be crinkled and not smooth but when i t came i was very happy...it was just a hint of patterned ivory and the texture was great and the color was close to the color of the center of the blocks...

daily working on the gfg quilts is taking time from the other quilts but i do have to keep working on them if i am to get them done...i did 6 more blocks ready to add to rows this week so far....when i get to ten more i will post a pic of them too...you will get pretty tired of hearing about those quilts before i get them done i am thinking lol.....something different next time...maybe....more later...

MORE WORK ON FLOWER GARDEN QUILTS

Ever since i got the blue quilt done i worked on a few of the other quilts that i have started as i posted before but i went back all last week working more and more on the Grandmothers Flower Garden quilts...working on 2 at a time is a lot slower getting somewhere believe me!...

When i started the very first row at the beginning i didn't think to add the white around the outside half way before putting the block in the row so now i had to go back and add the white ones this week as i wanted to work on the the next row from this end...

I sure am glad i figured out to add the white to the blocks before i put them into rows now because to finish the top row i had to wrestle all the quilt to work on it putting the white on later....late last night i finished with all the little white ones so now i can start putting blocks in the row...those go faster being they are almost done when i do that....the above is a good tip for working on these using this method!...

And i have been making more blocks...doing some in various stages...today i basted several blocks and clipped them back to work on them further when the mood hits me....yesterday i finished some that you see in the picture below...

 that now just need the white around half way before they are placed in a row...i have almost the 7th row done on 1 quilt and now that i have the white across the top and i can add the 7th row to this quilt...yay! i am over half way on both of them....i havent been stopping to take out the basting after they are put in rows lately so one day i will just have to sit at the table and work on that before it is too big a job....

Thursday this week is the quilt ladies meeting again for the month so i will be showing the blue quilt and maybe a couple 4 patch and 9 patch runners to show they can be just as effective as an elaborate  block quilt with the use of nice color combos....i hope i can get them to see that lol...

i am going to keep working on the gfg quilts this week too now that i am on a roll with them...and for now back to work on them after i get the dishes done....more later....