Medically-Induced Coma

Good morning, my friends. It was a day with no quilting. It wasn't planned that way, but my morning doctor's appointment wore me out. It wasn't terribly stressful, and the news I got wasn't unexpected. Nevertheless, I still have no answers, and that left me feeling kind of glum for the remainder of the day. I'll say more about this at the end of my post. If you're not interested in someone's health-related woes, you'll be happy to have me leave it for the end so you can make your escape. Don't worry, I'll warn you.

So let's just see if anything else was accomplished. Before I left, I had some time for some slow-stitching. 

Later in the day, I finished it off while we watched the news.

Here are the four blocks I have for this quilt so far. 

I was kind of burned out on the quilting, and a day off sounded good. Instead, I went to work on February's Inverted Star block. I had a lot of help with this.

February's block is green. Smitty helped me choose the fabrics for this. He's good with greens...like green grass and the green of his eyes. Yep...green is a solid color. The color of money. And honestly, these look delicious to him.

I got as far as cutting the pieces I'd need. Somehow I miscounted when I cut the background pieces, and so I needed more of those too.

I want to get back to my quilting today. There are three rows left to quilt. Two rows is a big bite, and so it's doubtful I'll have enough energy to add in the third. Nevertheless, I expect the quilting will be finished tomorrow, one way or another.

Last night's dinner was a new recipe. This was pretty easy to do...easy enough to add it to my RV recipe list. This is Spicy Marmalade Chicken and Sweet Potatoes. A simple marinade is mixed up for the chicken. I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, but you could also do this with boneless, skinless thighs. The chicken needed to go in the marinade for a minimum of a half hour. When I had that going, I cut up the sweet potatoes and put those in the oven to roast. After ten minutes, the chicken was added to the same sheet pan and returned to the oven to roast until it was done. 

And that was a tasty dinner. We liked it. When I see the word "spicy" in a recipe, I've learned to turn down the spice some. For this, I used only half the amount of crushed red pepper. We didn't actually notice any heat from that, but I'd still do it the same way. If you like more spice, then by all means, add the full amount. It's your stomach.

Since I knew I'd be finishing off the sheep yesterday, I traced out the ninth block for "A Year in the Garden."

These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

And that's where I'm headed next. Maybe breakfast first. 

Okay, so here's the story with my shoulder. Way back on December 28th, the day we left on our trip, I noticed my left shoulder was aching. I chalked it up to the effort required to carry laundry baskets full of my belongings out to the RV the week before. It seemed odd, though, because I'd been working out on the Bow-Flex a couple of times a week. I'm not trying to look like Mrs. Universe, but I use enough resistance to maintain strength. So...okay...maybe my shoulder was sore from that. Only...it never got any better.

About a month into our trip, I decided to try a strategy a doctor had given me for my knee a while back. He described this treatment as "2-2-2." Two naproxen (Aleve), twice per day, for two weeks. So, I did that. It made no difference whatsoever. It gave me no pain relief, and it was no worse when I stopped taking it. 

Okay...so inflammation is apparently not the problem. Since then, I've just been living with it since the end of December until I could see the doctor yesterday. He's the same doctor who treated my shoulder fracture a few years back (different shoulder), and I like him a lot. He was conservative about recommending any surgery for my shoulder fracture, and it turns out, no surgery was needed. I can trust a doctor like that.

So yesterday, I got x-rays, which didn't show much. They showed the expected arthritic changes you'd  see in a person born during the 14th Century. (I've carted a lot of wagons in that time.) The doctor believes it is a torn rotator cuff, and that makes sense to me. It would explain the sudden onset too. Okay, so that means I need an MRI. He was concerned, however, because a lot of insurance companies are requiring a trial of either physical therapy, or injections, or both, before authorizing the expense of an MRI. He's ordered the MRI, but he also gave me a referral for PT, just in case. 

As it stands, I'm waiting to see what will happen with the MRI. Will they authorize it? If so, that would be the best case scenario. Will they insist I try PT and/or injections first? It's unknown at this point. It left me feeling kind of bummed at having no answer and no solution in sight. It's painful to the point that it's doubtful I can participate in PT in a way that would be helpful. I fear it will only make the problem worse. I'd be willing to try the injection, but that probably won't help either. I'm hopeful they'll just authorize the MRI and we can get on with whatever surgery is required to repair it. And that's where it stands. Maybe today will bring some answers. I'll keep you updated when I learn anything new.

Okay, standing up straight now. A day awaits. Slow-stitching is next.

Passing for Normal

Good morning, my friends. If I write fast this morning, I might be able to get this done before I need to get ready for my doctor's appointment. If I run out of time, we'll have to meet back here later today. 

Yesterday was the first time since we've been home that the day seemed pretty routine. I did my usual stuff in the morning, did a little housework, did a little laundry, and I had plenty of time for sewing. It was a good day. Then, this morning, I was up at my usual time, and that left me some time to write this post before I need to go. 

So what's going on with the sewing? Thanks for asking. I took the first stitches on the fourth block for Home is Where My Flock Is. These are fun to stitch.

Two more rows are quilted on the Painted Ladies. That brings me to just three rows left to quilt. Here's the top half of the quilt.

And here's the bottom half. 

From there, I headed into the sewing room and sewed together January's block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The pieces were cut. I needed to sew together 24 half square triangles, and then trim them to 2-1/2 inches.

And voila! My first inverted star. Amazingly, I sewed it together on the first try with no mistakes.

And then I added a solid blue border. My friend, Kate, did this with hers, and I like the look of that. Also, it'll protect those edges from stretching.

And since I didn't get any of my bonus triangles sewn together while we were traveling, I've turned them into my first ever leaders and enders project. I have a whole shoebox full of bonus triangles sitting beside my machine. With them so close at hand, you'd think I'd get into the swing of starting and ending with them, but I was having the hardest time remembering the ender. I'll get it, but it's going to require developing some muscle memory about it.

Nevertheless, I managed to get about five 4-inchers and five 1-1/2 inchers sewn together. Hopefully, I'll live long enough to sew all of them together and turn them into something before I die.

There was some happy mail yesterday. I needed a backing fabric for the Raggedy & Friends quilt. (It still needs to be sewn into a finished flimsy.) So, I went in search of "Raggedy Ann fabric" and found this from an Etsy seller. There's way more fabric here than I need, but it was a good price, and so I went ahead. This piece was just a bonus. There's about two yards here.

And there's about 4 yards of this one. This is the one I'll use for the back.

I can turn what's left over into a donation quilt for Quilts for Kids.

Also, I wanted to show you this creation of Mike's. When we're RVing, we've had this ongoing problem with different wraps, especially the stretch-tite plastic wrap, falling to the floor as we go down the road. The stretch-tite box has been pretty much destroyed from falling so many times. (The box is kind of important for that particular product.) So Mike created this rack unit on his 3-D printer. Each wrap is contained on a shelf with a lip that will prevent it from sliding out of its spot, and the rack is attached to the wall with double-sided tape. Cool. As always, he's my hero.

Okay, so I managed to get it all down with time to spare. If I hurry, I can get in a little slow-stitching before I need to go. I'll be back tomorrow to tell give you the news about my shoulder. It's raining hard at this end. I hope y'all are having better weather at your end.

Halfway

Good morning, my friends. We're expecting plenty of rain over the next week or so...nearly two inches in the next two days. Yikes. It's good sewing weather, though, and I'm glad to be home for the day. I have an early doctor's appointment tomorrow to see what's going on with my left shoulder. I only mention it now because tomorrow's post will be late, and I should have some news about my shoulder by then. Honestly, I don't see how I'm going to avoid a surgery on this, but I'm hoping the doctor will have some other ideas.  

It was late in the day by the time I got to my quilting. Fortunately, Smitty was keeping an eye out for invading forces, and so I felt purrfectly safe.

With his purrtection, I was able to quilt another two vertical rows. That makes five down, and five to go. Here's the top half of the quilt.

Here's the bottom half.

Here's a little peek at the back.

Sadie was there to give her purrspective.

She doesn't like how I quilted this cat. Its ears and tail are too short.

That is purrpawsterous.

Everyone's a critic.

It was nearly time to start dinner by then, but I sat and finished off the eighth block for the Snowmen & Reindeer project while we watched the news.

Sadie helped me trim it to size.

Here are the eight blocks I have for this quilt so far.

On today's agenda, two more vertical rows of quilting, and I'll be taking the first stitches on the fourth block for Home is Where My Flock Is.

The quilting is taking most of my sewing time, but I'm still hoping to get January's Inverted Star block made. The pieces are cut. It's just a matter of sewing them together.

There's one housekeeping chore on today's list of to-do's. Hopefully, I can manage to fit it all into a single day.

So that's all the news that's fit to print. I have some comments about the actual news, but I'll keep that to myself for the time being. Just now I'll get started on my slow-stitching and enjoy the rainy day. Rainy day = Good sewing weather.

Approaching Normal

Good morning, my friends. My post is late this morning because we left early for an epic grocery shopping trip. Honestly, it's the worst grocery shopping trip of the year...that's the first one after we get home from a trip. Thanksgiving gives it a run for its money, but today's was impressive by any measure. Our list was so long that I actually moved some items to the list for next time. Enough is enough, as you probably know.

There were two positives about this morning's shopping extravaganza. First, we got Egg McMuffin. I think we only did it once while we were traveling, and so I was missing it. Second, we got to see some of the blooming trees. Things bloom earlier in the valley than they do at our home's elevation, and so we're seeing some stuff we won't see at our house for a couple of weeks.

The flowering plums might be my favorite spring bloomer, and they're also one of the earliest. These were blooming in a store parking lot. We have them lining our driveway, but ours are still in tight buds.

Here's a close-up of their flowers.

Behind me was another blooming tree. It looks similar.

It's flowers are white. My phone tells me this is also a plum. The flowering plums are ornamental only. Perhaps this one actually produces plums.

Also, this viburnum. 

Seeing all those blooming things made the trip worthwhile. But, oh...the prices of things. Good grief. Let's just not talk about that, okay?

In yesterday's sewing, I quilted two more vertical rows on the Painted Ladies quilt. This is the top of the quilt.

This is the bottom half:

So, I'll continue on with that, going for two vertical rows at a time. If I can stick with that, I should have a finished quilt in less than a week.

This is how much help I got from Smitty. He put out the do not disturb sign.

Sadie was no better. I think we're all still adjusting to the time change.

In the sewing room, I cut the background pieces for the January and February Inverted Stars. This is my 2026 Rainbow Scrap project. January's blue star pieces are cut. I'll make that one first, and then cut the pieces for February's block.

I'm hoping to get that sewn together today. Also, I'll finish Block 8 for the Snowmen & Reindeer soon, and so I traced out the fourth block for Home is Where My Flock Is.

Finally, in leftover news, I had forgotten I took this picture when I picked up my sewing machine a few days ago. This was a class they were having at the shop. These are Easter Egg Mug Rugs. They were done with machine embroidery and using the fancy stitches on a sewing machine. I think these could easily be done with applique, and you could also use cut-off ends for the left side piecing. Cute. This looks easy enough, and I might decide to make a couple.

So, that's all I have for you today. I'll get back to my quilting, and I'm hoping to get started on January's star. Right now, I'm drinking another cup of coffee. After that, I'll have some lunch and take a nap. I'm already worn out from the morning's activities.

We got a little dusting of snow last night, and it's very cold out. Sounds like a good day to get under a quilt and stay warm, doesn't it?

It's a Start

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Monday! The sun is shining here, but it's cold out. Nice to look at, but I'll probably stay indoors today. It might be the first morning I've felt mostly settled. Not much was accomplished yesterday, but I still felt worn out from the trip. It had me wondering why I felt so tired at home, and yet, not while we were still in the RV. I'd say traveling is tiring, but isn't being in the RV traveling? Well, duh. It's the routine that's missing. If I'm not in my regular routine, then it's more tiring and stressful. So, all of that to say that I think I can pick up where I left off in December from here on. Yes, I'll have to make some trips into town, but that's part of life. I don't think it will throw me off too much.

My first task yesterday was to help Mike by emptying out the freezer so he could attempt to repair our malfunctioning ice maker. He has a part on order, and so we're optimistic he'll get it working as soon as the part arrives. And that was the last thing I needed to do before I could get to my sewing. 

Yesterday's highest priority was to get a start on quilting the Painted Ladies. They've been more than patient. The image you see below was taken in January of 2024, and that's how long they've been waiting to be quilted.

First, I needed to choose a thread color. As usual, my friend, Ila, has given me the perfect color. Thank you, Ila. This is a dark gray Aurifil. I don't know anything more about it...weight, what it's made from ...but I already had a nearly-full bobbin of the same thread, so it didn't really matter.

Of course, Smitty had to put in his two cents, helping me select the thread. 

You might remember that we saw the Painted Ladies when we passed through San Francisco two years ago. After making the quilt, it was quite a thrill to see them in person.

I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest for this project. The quilt was sewn together one vertical row at a time, and I'll do the quilting the same way...one vertical row at a time. Starting on the fourth vertical row from the left...

I think of those long diagonal strips of gray as the "road" where the Painted Ladies are located. In the pieced triangle there, I've done a sort of arching sequential dot-to-dot motif.

In the rectangle below, I did a loopity-loopity thing. (Technical quilting terms. I should probably create some sort of reference manual.)

Below that, another dot-to-dot motif in the triangles on either side of the roof. The roof was left unquilted, although I might decide to do something there later. (Probably not.)

The original pattern had an applique template to create an eave under the roof. I decided to use bits of ribbon, lace, and other stuff there. In this first one, I'm using a ribbon that was tied around some fabric with the Moda label on it. Originally, I simply caught the upper portion in the roof seam, but left the bottom edge unstitched. I'm afraid that will be annoying for whoever uses this quilt in the future, and so I've decided to stitch all those loose edges down. (I'm doing this quilting with the quilt sideways to me, and that's why the image below looks larger on the right.)

And then, I outlined the door, but added a little design on the wall of the house. After giving this some thought, I decided to let the fabric tell me what the design should be. In this case...a ladybug.

And that completed the first block. Continuing on...I started with the large gray triangle.

The rest of the gray section was stitched just the same as before. Also, I stitched down the ribbon.

The house wall was from a floral fabric, and so I gave it a tulip. Who doesn't want to see tulips in the spring?

Continuing on...I gave the next block a little cat. I'm thinking I need to give this cat a tail.

And then stitched the upper portion the same as before.

Finally...this fishing lure fabric was given a fish, and the rest quilted just as before.

And that completed the first vertical row. I got a late start on this, and so that was also the end of my sewing day. I took it off the machine to have a look at the back. This quilt has a pieced back. Happily, this first section of quilting is where it's easiest to see on the back.

So I'll continue on my merry way with this. The quilt has ten vertical rows. I'd like to make it my goal to quilt two vertical rows each day until it's finished. Any sewing when the two rows are finished will be in the sewing room with whatever I'm working on there. As I mentioned yesterday, my first priority will be to make January's and February's Inverted Star blocks. I believe I'll have time to at least get started on that today.

As for my quilts that need quilting, I'm turning over a new leaf in 2026. I've always had the quilts for quilting as a section of my white board, and I'd work on the same one until it was finished. Then, I moved on to the next thing. Well, the quilts that need quilting are beginning to pile up at an alarming rate. For now, I'm going to just keep going with them. By that I mean I'm going to start each sewing session by making progress on one of the quilts that need quilting before I move into the sewing room to work on a project there. I'm hoping I can make some progress on the stack that way. 

This morning, I'll spend some time on my slow-stitching. And I know I'm getting back to my regular routine because I have a couple of housekeeping chores on the day's list of to-do's. I've already planned out the week's menu, but I need to make up a shopping list for tomorrow's grocery shopping trip. It'll be senior discount day at our store, and what could be better than that?

Okay, then. Off I go. Much to do. I'm hoping to accomplish more today than yesterday, and then I'll know we're really home again.