Quilt by Credit Card

Okay, okay, I finally get what my quilting friends have known all these years: You quilt by credit card!

Leisa, the longarm quilter took 3 of my quilt tops, along with the backing fabrics I'd selected and turned the tops into beautiful quilts. I cannot wait to put the binding on and have them completely finished.

This first one is a bento box style quilt I started in a Jean Ann Wright workshop using a jelly roll and Jean's special ruler. Mom helped me select the border fabrics.

I cannot remember if I found the backing fabric at a garage sale or the local Goodwill store.

Next is a pattern and technique I learned in a Holice Turnbow class the same day as Jean Ann's class. This one is made of Moda's Brannock (Mom) & Patek fabric.

 Here is detail of the feathers Leisa quilted. I am thinking of binding it the black version of the border fabric. Yes, I said black. Just wait; you'll see. Unless, that is, Mom puts the kabosh on the idea.

 Mom sent me the delicious backing fabric (Minnick & Simpson).

The third quilt Leisa quilted for me shall remain unseen until the 5 year old recipient (or her mother) gets to see it.

I am off to the 4th day of quilt camp; I am working on another special gift quilt.

Happy Quilting Ya'll

(This is Georgia after all.)

Quilt Camp (Stitch-In) Supplies

A co-worker's wife sent me the bright blue hydrangea bloom (below). It is such an understanding gesture from one wife to another in the time of loss.

Balls of fabric and a rug being made of fabric strips.
One word: stress. It is not like the stress when he (my husband) was in the hospital. That was beyond stress; that was living in some alternate universe where things didn't make sense one moment to the next. This stress is from intermittant bouts with grief and anger.

Kitten, the one-eyed cat, snoozes while I type.

Fabric to crochet

 I plan to make one of Mom's heart-shaped crocheted rugs, so I am following the patterns directions. I mean seriously! I made a crocheted rug before, but I never ironed  the strips I'd torn from 7 yards (14 total) of quilting fabric. The ball above took 5 hours.

 Now I am working on the light ball of fabric "yarn."

I bought a lovely "Sunshine" bouquet for brighten up the house. And, of course, wherever I am, there is Joe (on top of one of my crocheted rugs-the no iron type).

Getting Along (Alone)

 I spent this weekend working on another Amy Butler Reversible Sunday Sling. The two I made before I gave away; they were of heavier home dec fabric.

I like the design of this fabric, but I liked the other bags I made better. Nontheless, wherever I put it, Kitten finds it. She thinks it's cushy

See what I mean. I'll have to keep the lint roller handy.

I went back to work last Monday. I was completely overwhelmed by the support my co-workers and the students have given me. My desk was strewn with cards, flowers and a poster board with well wishes written on it were in my office, flowers and butterflies were all over my office windows and they threw a wonderful vegetarian potluck lunch.

They are a wonderful group of people to work with.

  I took a few minutes during the week to walk about the campus and capture some of my favorite plants. Above is from the lily pond by the parking lot.

This bloom was along the sidewalk on the 316 Highway side of the main building. I love the delicate withering of the bloom along with the colors from lightest lavender to burnt blue.

One of my favorite colors is green.
Green is so full of promise. It signals new life with all the promise of riotous blooms and turgid seed pods bursting with progeny.

When you inspect the plant closely, you will not likely find a single stem, leaf or bloom without blemish, but taken together the effect is great beauty.

Sleeping arrangements

Someone discarded an Asian fabric star project at Thimbles, so I picked it up. That was at least 3 months ago. 

 Yesterday I got it out, took it apart, flipped a couple of the pieces upside down, added my Sashiko scraps and replaced her inserted pieces with blue ones, stitched it with red perl cotton thread in a running stitch. I thought I would use it for the sides of a bag, but now I am thinking of something else. It will decide for itself what it wants to be. I'll wait.

The livestock and I have settled into a bedtime routine. I bring Joey indoors, and, once he figures he cannot beg me to let him out again, he settles on the bed.

Joey curled up on the bed.

Rosie (a sixteen pound "Maltese" really?) watches my every move. She won't believe it's bedtime until I turn out the light and remove the extra pillows from the bed.

Rose watches, from the back of the loveseat,  for offical bedtime.

 Little Scooter (at 9 pounds still big for a Maltese), is 14 years old. He is a little blind, a little deaf and somewhat vicious when disturbed in his sleep. He has been exiled from the bed, but curls up and sleeps in his own little bed.

Scooter in his little bed, on the floor, where he cannot bite anyone.

 Rocky (same size as Scooter and 9 months younger) is a snuggler and cannot rest until I am close to him.

Rocky watches to see when I will settle down to sleep.

He will crash when he knows I am settling down for the night, but once I am in bed he is right next to my arms. He makes it difficult for me to turn over, but we work it out.

Sweet slumber for little Rocky.

 Kitten is missing. Two nights in a row I have gone from front door to back door calling for her to come in. I finally go to bed worried about her out in the dark night all alone and wondering whether she is safe. Last night I swear I looked all over the house, and could not find her. Two mornings in a row she showed up, from somewhere within the house, ready for her breakfast.

My scarred back yard. Huge white pine is reduced to a stump.

I had some trees removed. Crit (my deceased husband) had contracted the work before he had his stroke, so I went ahead with it. Now I have a scarred backyard. I have planted no flowers this year and the yard has major drainage problems. I am putting off dealing with it until fall. I don't know if I'll ever feel like doing yard work, but at least I can use the heat as an excuse.

Faded, but still fragrant, gardenia blossoms in a birdnest.

I appreciate all of your comments and concern for my welfare. Things are going well. I have contacted all the folks I need to. Now it is just a matter of going to court, completing all the various paperwork and going to the Social Security office. Thank goodness he had an Advance Directive, Power of Attorney and Will. I recommend, if you or your spouse do not have these important documents, get them prepared NOW. Save your loved one the mental agony, on top of all the stress, of having to guess what you want done. As soon as the probate process for my husband it complete, I will do the same for my loved ones.

One Month

Embrace beauty in all its textures and layers, in all its time: past, present and future.

I have been taking time to make adjustments, sob my guts out, and absorb the silence in my home. I stay busy, but in the non-busy time his absence is like grey fog seeping into my conscience. It happens less now than at first. 

One night I heard his car door slam shut like he was coming home from being out. When we're  asleep, do brains select random noises from the past to play back?

The love seat and coffee table from the living room are now in the bedroom where I can read in the evenings. The big screen TV is, and always has been, too close to my chaise.

I cut out a new quilt, but I haven't found the discipline to put it together. It is for a special friend who has helped me through all this, so I will work on it during Thimbles Summer Stitch (In). Pat, if you are reading this, this year it is a Summer STITCH, not Stitch In. We'll have fun either way. I will be there if I can get vacation time.

I'd like to secure these yo-yos to this hand-dyed background.

That would be good. 
AND look what I found in the process of spiffing up the sewing room.

 Two of Mom's patterns we occaisonally get asked about. The Dresden Hearts pattern was published in 1989, and the rug pattern in 1986!

Cleaning the sewing room is a start.

Fifteen Days Later

I found a childhood portrait of AC (my husband), painted in 1961 by his uncle, William Moise, in a closet as I was cleaning. I probably need to get is looked at. There are spots and tears in the paper on the back.

I tried to drive to Cobb county for the East Cobb Quilter's Guild show yesterday, but sadly didn't get very far before I was overwhelmed. I got off the highway and drove to Planned Pethood. I'd gotten an e-mail from them saying they needed people to come pet, and perhaps foster, some kittens. Kittens would surely cheer me up; they cheer everyone up, so I thought I'd foster a litter. 

They were closed, so I sat in the parking lot and sobbed to Mom. She said "go home and clean your sewing room." I got my quilt book shelf cleaned up, but the sewing room might be too much for me right now.

A few days ago, I found a beautiful bowl for $3 at Marshalls. It makes a great place to store my glasses next to the chair in my reading corner. This was formerly where he and I sat to watch TV. My Jasper secretary replaced his leather recliner when we cleaned up. It was too much to have it empty beside me. I also have not watched much TV.

Yes, Mom, that is my new lamp, and it still has the cellophane on the shade.

The bed has new linens.

I don't remember being alone. 

You get used to it.

Other women tell me.

It must be so.

Windsor again

I have a few more photos from my Windsor, ON day that I want to share. These are from my walk along the waterfront.

When you get past the flower filled park there is a tour boat. As I was snapping these photos, the "captain" invited me aboard to view the entire photo gallery and history of the vessel. I declined. Woman traveling alone and not getting into confined space with stanger.

I love industrial stuff. Seriously, on a boat tour of the Savannah River, I just loved seeing how/where behind-the-scenes stuff gets done. I was breathing in the scent of industry, and, despite concern for my  lungs, absolutely loved it.

 I'm not at all sure what they are or were, but aren't  they magnificent? If I'd payed more attention in physics class I would have thought lever and counter weight. Maybe?

 Every trip has its fun bit; this was one of mine. Yippee:

 I am glad I was warned; sheesh, are they not adorable?

 The Richard Gere looking one in the polo shirt "chatted me up." His friends probably won't let him forget it either. Well, I have to thank him. I hadn't had that much pleasant conversation with a handsome (younger) man, who was not a son, in forever. It really made my day. 

Speaking of men, my husband had a stroke a week ago. It has been an exhausting and confusing week for me. Yesterday he took a turn for the better. He was able to string together a few words for the first time. They were "Oh Karmen goddammit!" The nurse says "Oh you are the one he hollars for all night." That'd be me.

Yep, he'll be back to his old charming self before long. First he will be transferred to a nursing home for rehabilitation. I don't think he will be there long.

Rochester and Windsor

When I left the Ricky Tims show, I drove to the shopping district in Rochester, MI.

The sidewalk had many delightful decorative concrete inserts. These are two I found especially attractive.

Dad has made some pretty cool concrete items like an awesome mill stone set into the backyard. Perhaps he can create something like these, or even better, show me how.

From Michigan I drove to Windor, Ontario. I went through the Windsor Tunnel and showed my shiny new passport to the border officer. He asked a lot of questions and was NO NONSENSE. It was a bit scary.

That was not, however, the scariest moment. I discovered my GPS didn't know what Canada was. I figured I could make my  way to the Hilton, since on Mapquest I could clearly see the Caesar's hotel and casino would be on my left and the Hilton on the right. Not a problem, except I was ejected from the border area right into the city. I did not expect to be in the dark in a district of bars and hoochee-coochee dance establishments.

So I had to think and not panic. The hotel was on the river,  so how darn hard could  it be to find? Plus it is a fairly tall building. I found it right in front of the bus station. Woo-hoo! Once I found the parking garage, I had to walk in a very lonely, smelly tunnel to the hotel, but once in the room I was greeted by a fabulous 180 degree view of the Detroit skyline.

And the next morning I witnessed a fabulous sunrise. The three tall building (lit up above) are the GM buildings. 

I went for an early morning walk in the park along the river.

 Pink and red tulips.

 Pools of color were everywhere.

Orange tulips and sunny yellow daffodils (jonquils?).

 I tried to get a panoramic view of the river of red tulips.

The park was wonderfully laid out with all manner of evergreen shrubs and trees and artfully placed granite boulders. (exuse the coffee cup, I am too tired to edit)

After my walk I had to go back to my room to say good bye to the view. One of the GM towers is on the right.

I feel pretty guilty right now. I came home from the hospital around 3 yesterday to take care of my dogs. They had been locked up in the bathroom since 6 in the morning. The drive to hospital is about an hour, depending on traffic. Atlanta traffic can be brutal. I called the hospital to check on him before I went to bed (I tried to go to sleep at 6 p.m.), since they planned to move him to a regular room from the ICU, but they were having a shift change, so they asked me to call back. Later, when I got the nurse on the phone, she sounded like she'd been dealing with a challenge. They had indeed moved him into a regular room, and she said he was jumping out of bed, pulling out his lines, and kicking them, so they had to tie his legs to the bed too. She said he yelled for me over and over.

I felt like there was nothing I would be able to do to make it better if I drove all the way back. He was delerious and begging to go home all day yesterday while I was there. The nurses had pulled him up out of bed to demonstrate to him that he cannot stand up and walk yet.

The brain bleed is over, but the medicines they had to give him to get cooperation for the MRI  (it took three tries to get it) have really dealt him a set back. I don't know what I will deal with when I go down there today. I know I have to go back to the hospital. I have been reading about hospital psychosis on the internet. Having family around seems to help patients re-connect with reality.

He is at Emory University Hospital. Guess what? Today is graduation on the Emory campus and they already have a massive traffic jam in the area. I will wait a little longer to leave home. If the graduation attendees get situated, I can go to the valet parking and let them find my car a spot. Still, I am apprehensive about getting stuck in the mess (on top of everything else).