I'm back!!

Finished another Deer Friends quilt for Roxana today and yes, she has one more for me to do.

I haven't been up to quilting since my last post because I got the infusion (IVIG) I get every 6 weeks for Myasthenia Gravis.

I'm feeling better now and back to quilting.

Happy quilting!

I'm Still Here!

I think this is the longest I've gone without posting since I started my blog a year and a half ago! 

I have no pics for today.

I did finish the little basket quilt and will post a finished picture when it is hung in place over Mary's bed.

It turned out glorious.

AFTER I picked out several blocks where my bobbin thread just laid on the back and the top thread came down and bunched up!

Don't you just hate that?

One hour of quilting took me four days to take out!!

It was very dense quilting!!

I was not in the mood to post.

In the midst of all that, I had my IVIG infusion for 

Myasthenia Gravis and the 2 day headache that follows.

A dear friend flew in on her way to see her mother for Thanksgiving and we had lunch.

(Hadn't seen each other for about 2 years, I think.)

Then, very late on Friday night, my Mister fell  when the wind blew a piece of carpet up in front of the laundry room and tripped him.

I had just taken my bedtime sleeping medicine and gone to bed and we was taking Dusty out for the last go round.

He got scraped up on both hands and one elbow, plus he got some punctures on one hand from a metal drain grate.

He takes blood thinners so there was lots of blood and bruising and one hand swelled up real bad.

the good news is there is no fractures.

The left hand is badly sprained and he's pretty non functional for anything that takes two hands or a grip.

So most of the jobs he does around the house like laundry and dishes and such now are on my plate.

Whaaahh!!!

It's 2pm.

From the minute I got up this morning I have done nothing but get him fed, take him to the doctor, get his medication, get him fed again and now I'm pooped.

I need to be quilting!!

You're caught up on my life now.

I guess I've rested now and I'm going to quilt a really cute little Christmas quilt for Alta.

Happy Quilting!

I feel fantastic!!

Hey, Energizer Bunny Here!

I have to say that I haven't felt this good in a 

lonnnggggg time!!!!!!!!

Those of you that know me and that have been reading my blog for awhile, know that I have a chronic neuro muscular illness called

Myasthenia Gravis!

I don't like to belly ache about  feeling bad day after day, because I don't think that is why you guys read my blog.

But the way I feel today makes me realize how bad I've been feeling for several months!!!

I want to talk about the disease a little here because anybody can get it at any time!

That is really scary!

I got it at age 43 and I'm now 59.

At the time I was a blues singer on the verge of who knows ....

Totally life changing.

Please read about it here

Now on the the good stuff!

 Yesterday I basted and quilted this beautiful table runner for Debbie. I'll see her tonight at guild.  I hadn't done flowers for awhile and had forgotten how much I enjoy doing them!  (I also got halfway through quilting a different quilt which I will show in another post...energizer...

Here's a great baby quilt I started for Melissa

this morning.

It's made from a Moda Strawberry Fields charm pack.

Here's a closeup of the flower quilting:

And also the back:

Here is the next quilt project I am embarking on:

A daiwabo wedding quilt for my niece Jessica.

I'll post a picture of the design for the future quilt in a later post, I think this post is long enough.

Energizer bunny is going back to the sewing machine.

Happy quilting

Rough Week

 I've had a rough week but things are getting better so I'll be back with pics of quilts probably tomorrow.

I had my IVIG infusion for Mysathenia Gravis

and got a terrible headache.  

So I've been in a codeine haze for a few days now.

Happy Quilting!

Two emergency baby quilts

I've been taken away from the big feather quilt by a couple of "emergency " baby quilts.

You know the kind when the shower sneaks up and its 3 days away and they bring you the top and say,

"Pleeease?"

I always say come back tomorrow and I'll have it done.

Here's the first:

And the second:

Here's close ups of the back and inner border:

I also spent the weekend getting my IVIG infusion for Myasthenia Gravis.

And then Mon and Tues having the Headache from 

H E double toothpicks.

This morning I had to make up for lost time with errands to grocery store etc before it got to hot to function outside , so, tomorrow, it's back to the feather quilt.

Only 3 big ole borders to go.

Happy quilting!

Back again

Had IVIG infusion last weekend for Myasthenia Gravis last weekend and ended up with terrible headache again.

I woke up headache free today

so I'm back to quilting.

Hope to post a pic of quilt later today.

Even with terrible headache,

I managed to get 2 quilts basted on Tuesday.

It is already very hot here so the pool's open!

Happy quilting

Just surfaced

I had my IVIG this weekend  for treatment of my Myasthenia Gravis  I just surfaced today finally without a headache.  Wooooo It was a BIG one this time.  Sometimes I don't get one at all, a but this time I was down for about 3 days.  Glad to be back.  Gonna try to quilt here in a bit.

Happy quilting!

Gina's Beach Quilt

I thought today I would show a quilt I did early on in my quilting career.  I made this quilt in 2001, after my second trip to Kittyhawk  Beach with my brother and sister.  Which was also about 5 years after I got sick with Myasthenia Gravis  (that I mentioned yesterday). 

The first 6 1/2 years of MG I was on Oxygen 24/7 which made traveling a bit tenuous at best.  My first jaunt to N.C. took place in a car driven by a dear, dear friend over 3 days to get me and ALL my paraphernalia for survival there.

This second trip, I had improved enough that I traveled by myself via airplane.  (But still with Oxygen.)

I noticed on this trip that Gina needed a new beach quilt sew

I designed this quilt when I got home.

By this time I had only made a couple of place mats, a small quilt and 3 bed quilts.  Not much experience to be designing a medallion quilt.

But I managed to learn about coping strips and making getting things to fit around the previous rows.

Then I had to baste it.

I wasn't that experienced at basting yet and ended up having to baste it by myself.

A daunting task for a healthy person, but for me at that time, I could just barely breathe.

Sew I wallered around on the carpet in front of the office in my apartment complex.

(The only place I could think of the do this.)

And in a little over 2 hours time I managed to get it basted together.

It was NOT pretty.

I did not yet know about tacking down the backing while basting sew you don't get puckers in the back.

I did know about a busy back though, and that was very helpful later when I hand appliqued several large pleats down on the back.  You can hardly see them.

By the time I got to the forth side of this monster I believe I was oxygen deprived because I couldn't get it smoothed out, sew I got a needle and thread and took darts in the side.  (Left side between 2nd 3rd and 4th wave blocks.)

I was still very timid about my quilting stitches sew I quilted it with invisible thread.

Then I had the nerve to enter this quilt in a juried quilt show!

I got in, but did not get a prize.  Hmmmmm?

Well, Gina has her beach quilt, and she takes it to the beach, but she puts it on her bed.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

happy quilting

Lazy day

Didn't have a picture to post today so I wasn't going to post,

 but then I read that Blogger was posting blurry pics so I decided I might as well say something anyway.

You're probably saying,

"Don't your pics look blurry everyday?"

Yes they do, but I really try hard to get them right.

I'm pooped out.

Will be getting my Intravenous Immunglobulin infusion (IVIG) tomorrow

so soon, I'll be revved back up a perking right along.\

For those of you new to the blog,

I have myasthenia gravis.

As long as I take care of myself and don't overdo and stay away from sick people, I do pretty well and can keep cranking out quilting.

For this  am very grateful.

So , for the next couple of days, I will be connected to an IV

getting flooded with antibodies to confuse my immune system

so my brain will communicate with my muscles more normally for a

few more weeks.

Hey,  I read a new (to me) author yesterday.

Julie Hyzy, author of the White House Chef Mystery series.

I finished the first one, "The State of the Onion".

It was as good as the title!

Just reserved the second in the series:

"Hail to the Chef"

I usually listen to books I borrow from the library while I quilt and download them

directly to my mp3 player. 

These were not available for listening so I had to actually read.

Not to worry, I had not forgotten how.

Well, I better gar up for a trip to the grocery store so we have food for the weekend.

The infusion takes 2 days and its much better if I have have easy to prepare

foods on hand.  No muss, no fuss. 

Sometimes I end up with a headache, and sometimes I'm really tired, and sometimes

everything is normal.

Happy quilting!

Charity Day

Went to charity sew for the Mid-Del Stitchin' Sisters Quilt Guild

today and put a binding on a quilt that was already quilted.

I guess I did more gabbing and carrying on than working because as soon as lunch

was over and I was done with the binding I packed up and came home.

I was tired.

guess I'm on the downward slide.

My next infusion is the 22nd of January, so that's just in 2 and a 1/2 weeks. 

So I'm starting to poop out quicker.

The Winter Quilt Show is next week,  I hope I'm perky enough to go, I may have to stay home.  There were a couple of people there to day with colds and I already have a scratchy throat.

I have to be sooo careful

since I take immunosuppressive medication for

Myasthenia Gravis

Happy quilting,

Needles

I just found an incredible deal on sewing machine needles at ctsusa.  The guest blogger at Stash manicure today.  You can click on Stash Manicure on the right side of my blog under "Blog that I follow".  What a savings and no shipping!

I get my IVIG infusion tomorrow--yeah!!  Yesterday I slept from

4;3:30pm to 6:30 this morning.  Can't get

much done with a sleep schedule like that!!

Got a good start on one of the quilts I basted Wednesday.

Happy quilting!

Haven't posted for a couple of days because I've run out of gas.  I got postponed a few days on the infusion of IVIG for my Myasthenia Gravis and I haven't got anything done to post about. 

 I did manage to get a couple of quilts basted with the help of a friend, but that doesn't warrant a picture.  And nothing has happened to talk about because all I've been doing is sitting

and watching TV.

I'll get my infusion Sat and Sun so things will  pick up .

Happy quilting

100th post!

This ought to be a momentous occasion but I don't have a brass band or even a special picture or anything.  I do have something to say, however that has been bugging me for a while and I'm going to say it here.  You know, us quilters are a tough bunch.  We make beautiful quilts and give them away.  I guess you would have to say that we are givers.  I sew with a bunch of women on a weekly basis that hardly have a quilt in there possession because they have all been given away to family and friends and strangers.  We even meet 2 days a month specifically to sew for 'strangers  in need' to give them quilts.

Yes we are givers. If there is a need, we give.  Somebody sick?  Send a card, or take over a covered dish, or visit them in the hospital, or finish the binding on their quilt for the show.  Car broke down?  Give them a ride...  You get the idea.  But, just try to give a quilter a complement on her beautiful quilt and see what happens.  She will throw it back at you in a New Your minute.  (I say "She" because my experience is 100% with women quilters and I don't know if this particular phenomenon translates to men.)  Women quilters can not recieve a complement.  In fact Women in general cannot receive a complement.  Tell a women she looks nice,  she has on a pretty dress,  that was a great casserolle, the list is endless.  You know how it feels to get a complement,  Uncomfortable.  we really don't know how to receive.  but receiving is all a part of the giving process!  You can't have one without the other! When you give something, there has to be someone on the other end receiving what the giver is giving or the process does not work.  You can't have one without the other. 

I guess you might wonder why I am coming at this particular subject at this particular time.  Well, I am part of the committee planning the Holiday party for my Quilt Guild and when the discussion came up about the gift exchange there were some things said that were not very nice about gifts that were received in past years.  "...I gave a wonderful bla bla bla and all I got was a lousy yada yada yada."  And other comments on the same line.  I thought that this attitude is just wrong.  Then I put this attitude together with the unable to receive the complement thing and thought maybe it all goes back to just not being able to receive in general.

When I first became ill with Myasthenia Gravis in 1996, I was just almost helpless.  I required someone to drive me, push me in a wheelchair, someone to feed me at times, bathe me at times, things that were incredibly hard to accept, but let me tell you I learned to lovingly say thank-you and resist the innate response of saying "no thanks, I don't need any help".  I needed help.  And more important, my loved ones needed give me help.

So when someone gives you a complement on your quilting say thank-you.

Happy quilting

Another Quilt Out, Another Quilt In

OK, so you can't make heads of tails out of it but if you click on it to make is bigger i think you can see the big double flower.  There is also a butterfly and smaller flowers in the meander. but those are not visible in the  picture.  I got another quilt in yesterday from a young woman making quilts for her soon to be nieces and nephews when she marries next summer.  Love to see the art of quilting continuing on into the next generation.  It seems unbelievable to think that quilting could actually be lost along the way but the young people don't seem to be all that interested in sewing.  To attached to facebook etc.  Oh,  I could go on about that, but I won't. 

I'm really starting to poop out but I've lasted really well this time.  I get my infusion on Monday and Tuesday.  Those of you who Know me know what I'm talking about.  (I talk like I have zillions of folks out there clambering out there reading my every day--have you looked at my followers list all 2 of you?)  I have Myasthenia Gravis which is and auto immune disease that makes my brain not communicate with my muscles correctly.  I get infusions of Intravenous Immune Globulin every 6 weeks.  It's a home infusion, take 2 days and sometimes causes a 2 - 4 day headache. 

I'm going to the grocery store here in a little while before it gets too hot and then quilt a little while this morning.

Hey, to day is the last day of a sale at Target on Western digital external hard drive 320 Gig for $47!  I bought one several months ago for $79.

Happy Quilting