Friday agian

Boy, time flies when you are busy doesn't it?  No finishes this week on quilty projects, but I have been sewing. I spent quite a bit of time unearthing all my UFOs for the Pat Sloan UFO busting challenge. Then I had to sort and count them. (See me sweat). Of course her forum 'quilt mashup' was all a buzz with everyone counting and sorting and posting.  It has been fun.

Still visiting Mom and Dad in their separate Assisted Living/Rehab facilities. It is sort of draining. My Dad is doing much better, but still having a lot of pain in his back where the fracture is. He is having a consult next week about having the procedure my Mom had a little over a year ago. The insert 'orthopedic cement' on either side of the bone which stabilizes the bone and decreases the pain. It worked well for Mom so I hope it helps Dad too. My sister is still here so she stays with our niece and runs Dad's household.

I did get my Halloween quilts up so I took pictures.  I'll share a couple.

The witch  is in

Sit a spell

Scrabble Jack

Halloween rail fence

Last night was guild. Lori Allison was the speaker, and she brought a trunk show. I really have to remember to take my camera to guild meetings. I usually don't because the room is so big that I don't think the photos would really show the quilts.  Lori's patterns are mostly big blocks using color to really pop the quilt. She uses a lot of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. It is always fun to be at guild with all those quilters in one room!!!

Happy stitching everyone.

I really have been reading and following all my favorite blogs, but I just haven't posted one. My last post was on 10/4 (also my birthday) and my Dad was still in the hospital. He was released on Tuesday the 5th and I took him home. I got his meds and bought food and settled him in at home. My sister came in from California that same evening. After two nights and 3 falls out of bed Dad went back to the hospital.  Appears that his oxygen level was too low causing him to hallucinate. He was released 2 days ago to rehab for some strengthening. I teased him that it was his yearly pilgrimage to the hospital and rehab. It is the fourth year in a row that he has had an extended hospital stay in the fall and the third year that he has had a rehab stay as well.

I haven't done much stitching this week. I have been having some stomach trouble, hopefully it will be over soon. A couple of weeks ago I did finish stitching this top for the store. The pattern is from Buttermilk  Basin and I love these little snowmen.

I also finished a couple of table toppers from the charm packs I showed you recently. I was going to put another border on the Halloween one. The fabric line has a cute stripe that has spiders on it. I think it needs another border, but I am not sure about the stripes because they are light colors. Tell me what you think.

Last week Bee met at my house. I had to pull on the gloves and clean up my house. Yikes! We had veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, chips and dip. I also had hot spinach puffs (minis), candy, and nuts. When I was shopping for food I spotted cream puffs and I had to get those too. They were about 8 inches high with whipped cream....honest!  When it is your birthday month you get either 2 FQs or a half yard of fabric . This lovely little stack is what I got.

I also got a surprise in the mail. Swap blocks from Karen and this sweet little tote. Thanks Karen. I am going to use my tote for take along hand projects. I have two English paper piecing projects that I want to do. One is stars and the other is pies and tarts. I even have purple handled scissors...they are so going in that bag.

Today I did do a little sewing. I finished my snowbound block for this month.  I also had 10 pillowcases almost done for the 1 million pillowcase challenge and today I finished them up. Felt good to get a few things off my to do list.

I was playing around on my computer and stumbled onto Pat Sloan's blog. Right now she is doing a UFO clean up. Every Tuesday and Thursday between now and Thanksgiving she is giving a tip on getting rid of UFOs. I am not sure I can do the link, but the site is http://www.patsloan.typepad.com. I have started working on tip #1. Anybody else need to clean up some UFOs???
Happy Stitching everyone!

photo op

Just a quick little post. I met one of the editors of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine at the shop last week. They have a new blog, Quincie's Big Adventure (blogspot).  Quincie liked our little shop and we are in her post. (Oh I am in the post too!)  Check it out.
Happy stitching

Big adventure

The pumpkins have appeared at every grocery store and halloween candy is  everywhere you look. Some people look to the weather to tell them fall is here, I can tell by the candy aisle. LOL

I  recently finished a sweater for my youngest and sent it off to her at school. She told me that she wore it twice this week and that she loves it. It is mustard colored, not a color I would have picked out, but she did pick it out and she loves it. I have to admit it grew on me while I was working on it. I  had her older sister try it on before I sent it and she threatened to take the sweater home with her. Maybe I will have to knit another one.

DD#1  let the sweater go when I gave her the pillow I had finished for her. She told me that she loved it and was going to use it all year. Maybe she will change her mind after she has it a while.

I finished my Snowbound block. I still haven't started on the pieced blocks. Oh well, I wouldn't want to be all caught up... what would I do then???

I had a great adventure this week!  To start at the beginning....my niece called me around 11:30pm on Wed. night. My Dad had fallen and could not get up. The paramedics were on the way. I met him at the ER. Now Dad had been to the DR the last week because he was having back pain. He got pain pills and muscle relaxers. It seems he got a little loopy ( my niece's medical term) from the pain pills and he attempted to sit on the end of his bed and he missed and landed on the floor.  After most of the night in the ER the diagnosis: a compression fracture in his lower back and a bladder infection. He was admitted to the hospital.

The adventure continues the next day. My nephew got a dog, and of course he isn't around right now to take care of her. My niece is handicapped and while she can walk with crutches she has poor trunk strength. So walking a big, untrained dog not so good.   As soon as I woke up Thursday I went out to walk the dog. I was playing with her  in the yard when my niece came outside and locked us out of the house.  We checked with the neighbors and no one had a key. My aunt, who does have a key ,had just teed off in a golf outing.  I formulated a plan. My niece looked at me and said, "I don't think that is a good plan". I said, "I know, but we gotta get back in".   So I opened up my Dad's extension ladder and after it fell on me and bruised my shoulder, I managed to get it up against the house. I climbed to the second story outside my Dad's bedroom window. I unscrewed the plexiglass frame that surrounds the window A/C. I tried to lift the A/C and found I couldn't do it while balancing on the ladder. Did I mention that I am a klutz? Well consider it mentioned.
Sooo I stood on the 4" window ledge and stuck my leg into the room over the top of the A/C and lowered myself down. These crazy windows are 4 feet up off the floor. Lucky for me there is a cedar chest under the window. I made it! My muscles were trembling and I was sweating, but I was in. Of course I had to go back up the ladder and replace the plexi- frame and screw it back in.  Then took my niece to her meeting, visited my Mom ( resides in Alzheimers facility), then my Dad in the hospital. I went to sleep really early that night.
Dad is still in the hospital, friends and neighbors are helping walk the dog and I keep my keys with me!!

Happy stitching everyone.