Inspired Stitches

2010-04-03T09:06:00.005-04:00

My blog has moved:

www. InspiredStitches.com

I wanted to learn new software and expand beyond what blogger provides

Estelle’s Quilt – The Wedding block

2010-01-10T17:39:00.000-05:00

The next block in the set is the wedding block for obvious reasons.

There are several combined patterns in this block. The birds are from the Embroidery Library. The floral elements are cut from one of their violets patterns. (Violets, which are my sister’s birth month flower, are a main element in the quilt)

There are over 43,000 stitches in the pattern and I almost had to throw it out after 36,000 stitches because my machine decided to build a thread nest underneath one of the pedals. Fortunately I caught it quick and was able to pull the stitches completely and continue!

Estelle’s Quilt – The Initials Block

2010-01-09T17:04:00.000-05:00

I went through some variations of the Initials Block and finally settled on a simple embroidery of violets and vines with the initials in the middle

There are three different embroidery patterns in the design. The violets and vines which surrounds the initials is based on a design from Dainty Stitches called Heirloom Corners. When I put the four copies into the corners I decided to tweak the ends of the corners that make the left and right sides so the block is more of a rectangle than a square.

The center initial with the vines behind it comes from an alphabet set that I picked up a while back but unfortunately don’t remember where. It’s a beautiful set with twirling vines. The two letters flanking it I use just standard lettering.

The whole thing is done using a Sulky Premium 30 weight 100% cotton thread. Everything except the lettering itself are using Blendables which gives the coloring variations. It turned out a lot nicer than I thought!

The picture above is the block getting read to have the corners attached.

Estelle’s Blanket – Appliqué Block 1: Chickadee

2009-11-23T11:42:00.001-05:00

I’m finally returning to working on Estelle’s blanket! For the first appliqué block, I’m using a block from a BOM (Block of the Month) program from a site I subscribe to

The original block had lemons incorporated in the design but since I’m doing one that’s geared towards my sister’s birthday month I swapped them for pansies that I designed.

Since I wasn’t sure about sizing and placement, I used Sulky Paper Solvy to make sure of the placement and the five little pieces for each

Here’s what I was playing with for figuring out where the pansies and leaves would go

Here’s the work in progress. As you can see each pansy has five pieces so placement was critical

In this close up you can see how they fit. As as well, you can see something that I learned: You can’t iron sulky paper solvy!

Here’s the piece almost finished. I added some shading using Tsukineko Ink pens around the leaves and on the ribbon. Then I did some free motion stitches for the pansy leaves.

Mom status – Wed Oct 14

2009-10-14T15:24:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to let you know I went and visited with Mom today (Wednesday) for a very short visit on my way to her place to pick up some boxes and to bring her two new sets of PJs and socks.

She looked pretty good, even more ‘peppy’ than on Monday. She liked the PJs. One set was a satin set with a jersy inside, the other was a light flannel. I bought two other sets but I'll be returning them because one set is too thin and the other has stitching that she won't like. I did a massive PJ search on Tuesday after work. Next time we need PJs we'll have to go to the St Laurent shopping center, much bigger selection than Bayshore.

My only concern is that she has to run an obstacle course to get to the bathroom so I worry about her tripping on something. She runs the bathroom gauntlet every half hour more or less thanks to blood pressure medication. So much for the diagnosis of Apraxia. Guess it was just temporary because of the stroke. There’s no way she could manoeuvre around the two beds, move things out of her way to get to the bathroom because the obstacle course is different every time…

Until I see her progress plateau, I won’t let them close the door to her returning to the Monastere onto the assisted living floor.

She expressed a desire for a TV so I’ve asked for one to be installed for the week. We’ll see how it goes.

What I’m finding at the hospital is that they don’t really take the time to hear what she’s saying and tend to talk at her, not to her. I guess because she’s hard of hearing and is 91, and yes a little slow but she’s totally with it. They figure she’s not all there but in fact, she is. She’s just hard of hearing and a little slow but she’s fully aware at the fact they’re talking at her, not to her…

You might think I'm procrastinating finding out about her at the hospital but there is method to my madness. The longer she stays, the better she is and the more likely she'll be able to return to the retirement home in assisted living instead of being delgated to a nursing home. I've been in touch with the retirement home, they have no spot for her at this time but it may change when the time comes and they may find a temporary spot for her in the meantime since she's been there nearly 10 years. I won't worry but trust in a higher power that things will work out..

Mom status – Fri Oct 9

2009-10-11T08:09:00.002-04:00

Today I went to the home to pay the outstanding bill my Mom built up but no-one was there to take it so I’ll try again next week.

I talked to Eric, the Services Director, at the home. there are no rooms but he said they could move her into the Alzhimer ward temparily until a suitable room opened up – if it was deemed she could return to assisted living.

After that I went to have lunch with Mom. They moved her again but just to the bed beside the window in 633. Another lady – a really nice lady was occupying the bed next to the door. A large lady which is probably why they moved mom, the room wasn’t designed for two beds. The lady asked me if I was her daughter and proceed to ask me to get her to eat her lunch instead of starting with dessert. I just chuckled, Mom usually samples dessert first…

She ate by herself then decided to go to the bathroom. I went to get the walker but there was NO manoeuvring room. Mom said there was no room but she could hold on to things as long as someone was around. She did all of the manoeuvring on her own. Very slow, holding on things but did the whole thing. She did her business, open the door, got hold of the doorknob, then the corner of the bed, got to the sink, wash and dry her hands and proceed to return to bed. She went to the bathroom several times during my three hour visit. Always on her own. She also brushed her teeth with the new battery toothbrush I got her. I gave her a package of facial cleaner sheets. She had no problem using it, nor with the face cream. We discussed things, she was very clear. We went over all her clothes and I took them all back, leaving her with a clean nightgown. We decided that I would just bring a change of PJ and cafgan when I came so there won’t be any extra stuff lying around. She also mentioned that if she could control a TV, she would like one, so I’ll see about getting one in next week and we’ll practice.

There’s no doubt based on what I’ve seen today. She still progressing. This was the first time I could have stayed all afternoon and she looked bright the whole time. She expressed her concern that she take care and not fall. She fell in the bathroom but she claims she let herself slide to the floor. Regardless a break would be devastating and she knows it, so she herself is taking extra precaution making sure she holds on to things. But where she is now, it’s an obstacle course to the bathroom! The nursing staff doesn’t want her to go by herself but they’re not always around to help her. When she’s gotta go, she’s gotta go – this is because they’re giving her water pills for her high blood pressure. They’ve taken putting up the sides of Mom’s bed and having her wear Depends at night but if they forget and leave the side of her bed down, she goes on her own. The lady in the next bed said she got up several times during the night and she was concerned for her safety. Given the obstacle course to get to the bathroom, so am I!

Now lets hope a spot opens up at the assisted living area of the home. She would be much happier in her own stuff and TV…

Mom status – Tue Oct 06

2009-10-11T07:47:00.002-04:00

So the four sisters attended a meeting with the hospital to review our mother’s status and provide their opinion. We were told that our mother is suffering from Apraxia which causes impairment involved in the planning, executing and sequencing of motor movements. We were told that she had difficulty swallowing, food and liquid was getting into her lungs and that she had frequent bouts of choking. We were told that she could not do for herself. That she could not handle any deviation from the straight forward simple tasks. Things like finding an obstacle in her way from getting up from her bed to the bathroom would be a problem. It was recommended because of her age and condition that we place her in a public long term care facility. They were of the opinion that she needed 24hr care to help her eat, get to the bathroom, make sure she doesn’t choke when she eats.

Not the news we wanted to hear. And, not the things I’ve seen in her progress over the last weeks. Not even the things my sisters have seen in the last few days. We were pretty much devastated with the news.

So with this, we went to sit with her. She was having lunch. Eating on her own. Slow but no hesitation on things, no choking. She told me to clean her spoon so she could eat her dessert. After dessert she fiddled with the containers putting them all in her plate so she could put the plate cover on them to cover the clutter. My mother is a neat freak. She doesn’t like clutter. Clutter irritates and depresses her, always has, always will. Hospital trays full of food containers are clutter, all those little containers and covers – no wonder she hesitates, there’s no place to put anything. I can see her looking around wondering where to put the cover so it’s out of the way and looks presentable. It’s a good thing my mother doesn’t run a hospital, she’d be a terror but things would be neat…

Then she decided she had to go to the bathroom. We told her to wait for someone to come and help her but anyone knowing our mother, knows how stubborn and hard-headed she can be. The call light was on and my sisters were lookng up and down the hall but no one was available. Our mom told us to open the bathroom door so she manoeuvre her walker (meanwhile the sisters are freaking out because everyone is busy down the hall). She proceeded to get up on her own – it took three tries but she did it unassisted. Then she started to push her walker but suddenly stop, look down, then unlocked the walker brakes on her own. Then she shuffled to the bathroom, turn the walker around so she can walk in backwards, take a hold of the bathroom railing and tell us to close the door. An orderly showed up to help her get back to bed. Our mother is also a very prim and properly little old lady. Last year she broke her ribs running to the bathroom. So when she wants to go, she wants to go…

She then complained about the towels, complained about the fact that the staff doesn’t know how to fold things properly, complained about the fly on the wall and peeling paint. She was clear, not muddled. Yes she tripped on words at time but she knew. She’s extremely hard of hearing and sometimes she answers the wrong question but is that because she’s muddled or misunderstood the question – she does tend to try and answer what she thinks she was asked. When she gets tired she gets mixed up but she knows it. She is quite aware of her surroundings.

After seeing this none of us feel she’s ready to be institutionalized. We all agree that quality of life is much preferable that quantity. We would all prefer to have her choke to death in her own place than break her spirit by putting her into a long-care facility at this time. Besides we all have bouts of choking every now and then, it doesn’t mean we have to be institutionalized. Also after spending almost every Friday for the last nine years having lunch with her I know what’s going on her her mind: she’s hurrying up to drink and eat before they come take the food away – and we all know what happens when we eat and drink too fast. She’s not done progressing and I don’t say that looking at this through wishful thinking eyes. I’m looking at this through my observations seeing her twice a week since the stroke happen. It would be much cheaper and yes safer to put her in long-term care but our primary interest is that she have a quality of life, not just a quantity of life.

So we’re not going to give up on her.

Mom's status – Mon Oct 05

2009-10-05T09:21:00.002-04:00

By yesterday afternoon Mom has seen her six children. Last Friday it was my older sister Estelle and I. Then on Saturday, Sunday and Monday we were joined by our two other sisters. On Monday she got an additional visit from my brother John & his wife Debbie who drove up from North Carolina. Mom recognizes everyone now which is a very nice change from the previous weeks.

It’s been exactly one month since the stroke and she’s doing a lot better. She cannot stand on her own but with help she is taking her first steps, its a start. She recognizes everyone now and looks bright but she tires out after two hours so we’ve kept our daily visits within the two hour timeframe.

This week she’ll have daily visits with a decreasing number of sisters. One is departing on Tuesday morning and the other two will be leaving either Wednesday or Thursday morning. Then it’s back to me on Fridays and Mondays. I’m going to try and catch up on work this week before going for the regular lunch on Friday. Some time in-between I have to move a couple of pieces of furniture to move out of her suite in hopes of moving her either to assisted living quarters in the same residence which will be one smaller room versus two rooms but no decisions as to her living arrangements have been made yet. Next week we’ll see if she continues her progress.

Mom’s status – Mon Sep 28

2009-09-28T07:15:00.001-04:00

I took a bag of nightgowns, pjs ,underwear and sock sand gowns plus her walker which they asked for so we’ll see what this next stage brings. She is standing with assistance but not walking yet. The one disconcerting thing that’s going on now is that her short term memory is messed up. When she saw me she thought I had been gone for a week or two but I was there on Friday and had lunch with her.She didn’t remember. She also asked where Dad was in all of this, that kind of caught me of guard since he’s been gone for years. She also didn't remember having visitors last week but I kept reminding her about the visit. She's going to have the four sisters this weekend so we'll see how she remembers then.

Now comes the longest stretch were I have to get some work done this week so I won’t be going back until Friday. Three days is the longest stretch without checking in on her but I just have to keep reminding myself that she’s being taken care of and she does need to learn how to do for herself, so she has any possibility of getting into assisted living quarters versus needing to stay in a nursing home. Time will tell.

Mom’s status – Fri Sep 25

2009-09-25T07:27:00.000-04:00

She was moved to the 7th floor into again a single room. This floor seems busier than the 8th and I guess here is where she’ll be exercised to see how far she can return to any semblance or normalcy. The staff here seem a little more gentler when they move her on and off the bed to the chair for meals.

I had lunch with her today but she seemed tired out. I tried turning on the TV but she didn’t want it at all so I cancelled it, no sense in paying for something she doesn’t want. If she wants one later I will put it back for her.

I asked her if she had visitors yesterday, she did. My brother Paul, my sister Carmen and her husband Bob drove the 5 hours to visit her. My sister said Mom looked at her and told her she was ‘big’. My sister said that those were the nicest words she ever heard because it meant that Mom was there – LOL. I had a long talk with the CLSC caseworker on the phone in the morning. She was very nice and reassuring about everything. She reaffirmed the process which is to see how far they can bring Mom back to doing for herself. There doesn’t seem to be a time limit, it will be based on their observations as they work with her. When I was at the hospital I talked to the nurse who asked all kinds of questions about Mom’s capabilities before this and what the ideal outcome we’re shooting for. The best we can hope for is assisted-living, which means we may be able to get her back into the Monestary where the surroundings are familiar to her. The other option is a nursing facility which would have to be a public one, lets not hope for that one.

Lunch was a little on the short side but I talked her through it and helped her eat. She was put back on IV, guess she wasn’t eating properly but who can eat mush! I went over to her place and got some things packed. I go over there almost everytime I see her to pack things up and start bringing non-essentials home.

Mom’s status – Tue Sep 22

2009-09-22T16:41:00.004-04:00

I briefly stopped into the hospital to see Mom today after work (I’ll be having lunch with her tomorrow) and she was doing MUCH BETTER than the previous visit.

She can’t talk more than a couple of words, gets the words jumbled, can’t stand, can’t move around much in bed, doesn’t eat enough, can’t do for herself most things but other than that, doing much better. So much better I got a TV going in her room for four days to try it out (FYI: Clairette, this is from what you sent). I think it will help her focus on something else other than herself – might be good for her thought processes, maybe get her out of the funk she’s in…

If you recalled on Sunday it was a very BAD day. I’m glad I waited till today for make an entry but I feel sorry for the family because Clairette called me shortly after I saw her on Sunday – and that was a VERY BAD day because she seemed to be in agony, not so much today…

For other news about her, she's now a homeless person! Regardless of the recovery, she will not be able to return to the total independence she had before, there is no scenario where that happens. Even before this, she was lamenting that she couldn’t do for herself and she wanted to dispose of everything and just keep the nessary stuff and move into a single room with service, so there’s no sense in paying for a suite that she won’t return to. The home requires 30 days notice so this needed to be done before next week. So although she's on the hook for October, she may save a month or two of paying for nothing. She’ll be in rehab for weeks or months before there’s a decision of where she can go but as it is now, she’s not even qualified for even the assisted living quarters there but that may change –maybe, maybe not. It’s a day by day thing… If she does get back to being able to do for herself with assistance we can look at getting her a room in the same place in the assisted living area (this is where she wanted to go anyway). Also, the bill for the service we got her last November did not disappear as she insisted, it just kept growing! So this will need to be cleared up, we’ll discuss it later but for now I just wanted you to know what’s up: Today seems to be a good day, tomorrow I’ll have lunch with her and watch some tv I hope… so we’ll see...

Mom’s status – Fri Sep 18

2009-09-18T19:50:00.002-04:00

I wish I had better news but today was not a good day for Mom. Her blood pressure is high so they’re giving her pills for that, her sugar is high an they’re giving her shots for that. She’s having trouble swallowing so they’re thickening her water to the consistency of thick tomato soup. What bothers me is that she’s not really engaging in any conversations. I tried talking to her, telling her about the goings on with things but she wasn’t really connecting. She’d mumble about something totally different, She was saying she didn’t know if it was morning, noon or night time. I bought her some potatoes but I didn’t get a even a little sparkle out of her. I spoke with her nurse and she said that she didn’t eat much at the morning. She had some tests done for the swallowing problem She did have an ok lunch. I would have liked to be there at supper but I can’t be everywhere. I brought her a warmer nightgown but she didn’t want it. I brought her t-shirts, she didn’t want them. I brought some warmer socks but she didn’t want them (I put them on her feet anyway and she was happy about that). I regret not leaving he warmer nightgown but I’ll drop it off over the week-end. I told her I wasn’t going to see her tomorrow Saturday but I’ll probably pop over on Sunday. She was not happy with me for being there but I told her I was there because I wanted to be there. I asked her if she wanted a TV but she said no. She didn’t want her magazines either. I wanted to put the telephone beside her bed, she didn’t want it there. I told her I wanted to call her but she didn’t get the fact that she needed the phone in a spot that she can answer! I don’t know what else to do for her.

In case you’re wondering she’s in

Hull Hospital
116 Lionel-Emond Blvd.
Gatineau, Québec J8Y 1W7
(819) 966-6300
WEB: www.csssgatineau.qc.ca (French only)

ROOM 838

Mom’s Status - Thu Sep 17

2009-09-17T07:49:00.003-04:00

I went to see mom on Monday and Wednesday and will do it again on Friday. I’m only staying 2-2 ½ hrs from an original intention of 3 because she becomes quite weary and gets muddled and starts to fidget and gets frustrated because she can’t find the words. Also yesterday – and this made me chuckle – she had gas and was trying to suppress it, would be fidgeting and then tell me to go away. It took me a while to catch on because the last thing I’m thinking about is the sound of gas! Wednesday I got there at noon, just as an orderly was cutting up her mystery beef patty and gravy. I told her I had a surprise and got out a small container of my mashed potatoes which she likes (I had zapped them before getting there) which is the only time I saw her light up but at least she did, so that was good (and she ate them all). She had been cleaned up including having her hair washed so she was a little more comfortable.

I saw the speech therapist who noted that Mom was choking when she was drinking and explained that it was probably because, like the weakness of her right side, there is weakness of the muscles that closes the airway to the lungs. She said they would put on her menu that all her liquids need to be thickened to the consistency of tomato juice. She tested it out and true, mom didn’t choke as much.

However, on the positive side the IV is out, and she is using her right hand better. She is still having a lot of trouble getting food to her mouth but she did hold a cup and drank from it with both hands – which is something she couldn’t do before.

As for the home, I talked with Eric who is the Health Services Director there. He went to visit her a few days ago and he was able to point me in the directions I need to go and give me some valuable information and confirm some of the other information we had. I really appreciated the time he took to explain it to me. She will not be able to return to the suite because she is at the point where she will need help. How much help? That depends on her recovery. Also, based on what he observed, she cannot return to the home “at this time”. She’ll most likely be moved into a rehab center for a while. Perhaps weeks or a month or two. It all depends on Mom’s recovery and how far it goes. Unfortunately she is on the hook for October rent. Only a CLSC caseworker can send a fax to get her out of the lease based on her status which needs a 30 day notice. I’m trying to get to see the person on Friday. However I am taking no chances, I’ve been emptying out her suite of non essentials. Her fridge, cupboards, all foodstuff and cleaning things. Chris and I emptied out John’s desk, got rid of all non-family related cards, envelopes and papers – things like cards from the homes, calendars, envelopes, blank cards. Do any of you want the cards you sent saved for you let me know. Everything is sitting in a Rubbermaid bins. I bought six of them because we’re trying to minimize the cardboard in the basement if they go there and if they end up in my garage, well mice dig into everything (but still, too bad I didn’t get to Carmen’s banker boxes!). They’re four times the size of banker boxes, small enough that I can handle them on my own. So, before I go see mom (and sometimes after), I’ve been packing up stuff. There’s the ‘follows her’ boxes that contain the stuff she’ll need wherever she goes and the other boxes that are things from the shelves and cupboards.

There are some items in her room that will not follow wherever she goes and she and I discussed this when we were looking to move her to the third before new management took over and all the paperwork disappeared. Definitely the white chair that goes with the sleeper sofa, the dinette set. John’s desk will be going down to Carmen so John can pick it up (I’ll be bringing this down to carmen in November like I was going to do last year but I went down in bad weather last year, hopefully this year will be better). These things I will take out over the next while to minimize the bulk move. Everything else will be ready to go somewhere and worse-case, I’ll rent an u-haul and put it in our garage.

Chris has been researching the Quebec health care system. She will get a caseworker assigned that will assess her needs (this is the person I’ll try and get hold of Friday). The caseworker and the CLSC will make recommendations of the type of living arrangements she needs. If she needs assisted living and cannot afford it, there are publicly funded assisted living homes, as well as some subsidized rooms in private homes. The way it works is that the government will subsidize to a certain amount, any extras the person pays. This was good news (thanks to Chris). The place where she currently lives only has partial assisted living, at this time mom needs full assisted living arrangement. They have been rather evasive whether they have subsidized rooms or not. They are only saying that she cannot return there in her current state. His advice was to wait for the evaluation and let’s see what we can do if she can return. I am interpreting that as they may be able to come up with something if she gets well enough to return. She’s on the hook for October so that gives some breathing room. Larry of course dumped the financial and legal issues on me and I’m still processing on that. I hate to fork out several hundred for notary fees but I’ll have to see what needs to be done.

So I told mom that I wasn’t going to see her today (Thursday) but I would be back on Friday for Lunch. She was kind of glad. She doesn’t want to be a burden but I keep stressing that I’m with her because I want to be with her and I truly believe that she can’t take more than 2 hours of a visit , she tires out quickly and then gets frustrated. I haven’t tried calling her because I don’t know if she’d be able to get the phone or if it will startle her too much. I’m assessing it as I visit, maybe by friday. If I knew she would watch TV I would fork out the money but at this time it would probably be a complete waste, she wouldn’t watch it. However there are people up and down the hallways all the time.

Mom's Stroke – Sun Sep 13

2009-09-13T08:01:00.003-04:00

As you’ve probably found out, Mom is surprising everyone. She moved from the emergency ward to a single room on the 8^th floor either Thursday night or Friday morning (single room because she had been waiting for so long for one and this is what they had available so it’s luck of the draw). Estelle and I have been there every day. The doctor is amazed at her progress. She’s not walking but she is moving everything, legs arms hands. There is weakness on the right side and she doesn’t seem to have any feeling in her right hand (she flopped it into her tea and didn’t know it was there, spilling tea on herself). She’s talking clearer but sometimes she searches for her words. She keeps telling us that she knows what she wants to say but can’t find the words.

Today, Sunday, we’ll go visit her again. Estelle is going back to Toronto on Monday and depending on how she is today before we leave I’ll figure out if I’ll go back on Monday or skip to Tuesday but we’ll see today. I would like to be there every day but I really have to get some work done and I don’t have that many vacation days left and I’m finding it difficult to get up as early as I need to. Taking it day by day.

Although the doctor on the 8^th floor finds her recovery remarkable she won’t be returning to her suite as she need more care. Estelle and I have been over and cleaned out her kitchen cupboard and I’ll be going over on Monday or Tuesday with some big bins and do some packing of non-essentials. I’m hoping that she can stay in the same home but they only have two small rooms available on the floor with service. One I know of and I can’t even step into it because it’s claustrophobic it’s so small. The other issue is cost. Mother thinks that moving out of a large suite into a single with services will not cost anything but the truth of the matter is the single room with services is 1200/month more than what she’s paying now which is out of the question because she only has enough coming in to sometimes yes/sometimes no cover her current monthly cost and that depends on the US/CDN exchange rate. She’s been on a rent for life on the current unit for over eight years and her suite’s current market price is substantially more that what’s she is paying. I’m not sure what this management can do or if there is government assistance available but I’ll look into it. I know the previous management offered her a room with service for 350/month more and we were going to wait for a suitable room and do it. However the group running the place split up and when management swtiched over, the paperwork was lost (not to any fault of the current group). I have no idea what can be done at this point. I know a CLSC caseworker is suppose to get connected (they’re our health care connection that can let me know of the options). I’ll talk to the home this week and we’ll go from there. I’ll keep you posted…

Mom's Stroke – Wed Sep 9

2009-09-10T07:51:00.001-04:00

Wednesday: What a difference a day makes. Mother was alert, awake and sitting up. She has dexterity issues with the right side but this was 180 degree turnabout. Her speech is slurred but not that much and you can see she’s searching for the word but she knows what’s going on and can engage in conversation – what a difference between yesterday and today. So when Estelle saw her I’m sure she thought I was exaggerating about her condition but I was vindicated by the nurse who looked at Mom and asked if this was the same person. So today was a good day and I’ll keep you posted if there are changes

Mom’s Stroke – Tue Sep 8

2009-09-09T07:58:00.001-04:00

Tuesday I arrived at noon to feed her but she didn’t wake up very well, nor did she eat well. Only half the potatoes and a few bits of egg and soup. I was also told she didn’t eat much breakfast. However this could be due to the drug she’s being given to control her blood pressure. They told me that she had gained strength in her right side but like I said, she was out of it most of the time I was there. I tried to talk to her but she was groggy and not opening her eyes. I asked her if she was in pain, had a headache, she said no. She knew who I was and when I said Chris was going to come see her when she gets a room she opened her eyes wide. I told her I had to go home to feed the troops she to me to go. We were told on Monday that she was going to go up when a room opened but that didn’t happen as told.

As of Tuesday, 4pm she was still in the emergency ward waiting for a bed. Also, she was still waiting for go for her 2^nd scan, I don’t know what the delay is but I’ll find out today. Perhaps because they have to take her to a different hospital to get it done (their machine is broken so I imagine the queue is an issue) but all it will tell us is if the bleeding is spreading or not, it doesn’t change anything else.

It’s now Wednesday and Estelle is here. We’re going to go over for noon. I figure it’s of no use being there in the morning, she’s just sleeping all the time but she has to wake up and we can make sure she eats. I snuck in some straws and we’ll sneak in her favorite Boost flavor (mocha) if she can take it.

I’ll send out another update when we know something, right now it is what it is, there is no good news but no bad news…

Mom’s Stroke – Mon Sep 7

2009-09-07T07:54:00.001-04:00

Monday she had a problem with very high blood pressure. They took her to be monitored while they tried a drug to bring it down. When they gave her a dose, it went from 220 to 170 but after a minute, it went right back up (I was there the whole time and watched the monitors. They did another dose same thing, so they decided to give her a pill to bring it down. That worked. She finally got to eat some solid food at lunch but not much. I fed her the potatoes and stew, she ate all the potatoes and half the stew but had all the crème of chicken soup so I was pleased with that. I left her at 4pm

Mom’s Stroke – Sun Sep 6

2009-09-06T07:57:00.000-04:00

Mom had a stroke Sunday morning around 7am. The home called me when the paramedics showed up and I arrived to her place just after they left. When I got to the hospital they said she had a stroke in the left side of her brain. They had to take her to another hospital to do a brain scan to determine the course of action – whether it was a clot or a bleed. A clot could be dissolved with drugs, a bleed is a wait, monitor and see.. When they came back they immediately called me in to show me the scan which shows quite a large splotch on her left side. It was a bleed so the course of action is wait and see with another brain scan 24 hrs to see if it’s getting bigger. The right side of her face is paralyzed and drooped, her right arm and leg are very weak but she does have movement in them. She was more alert in the afternoon and hungry but the didn’t want to give her anything but fluids. She was alert enough to complain about me looking cold and not having a sweater – at least that the jest of what I got. Then she rambled on, I couldn’t understand what she was saying but I could see she was going over her morning, then she was trying to move her right arm, twisting and turning it as much as she could. I’m leaving for the hospital shortly and I will let you know later today via email what the next thing is but for now it’s a wait and wait…

I will keep you posted….

Goodbye to Libby & Adam

2009-05-25T06:54:00.000-04:00

These two bears have found a home in England. They’ll be missed from the den but sure to enjoy their new home.

As usual I took their pictures just before they left. Adam sported a bright red bow to contrast with his dark fur, while Libby had a cotton print purple bow I made to go with her lilac coloring.

Fessing up to a bad habit with glue sticks

2009-05-20T05:19:00.001-04:00

Yesterday afternoon I was putting together pieces for the pieced block of my sister Estelle’s quilt, lightly gluing the large angles that make up the four sides of the block. Also at the same time I was doing a little cleaning up of the house, tidying up the kitchen, prepping for supper, picking up this and that, keeping an eye on my bird feeder (creative squirrel getting into it lately and obsessed old gal, me, trying to keep him out, so far so good on the last fix but I’ve said that many times;-) Just the normal afternoon stuff…

This morning getting up to work I walk into my room and there it is AGAIN, an open glue stick dried to a hard rubber blob! I have to break that habit! The glue company must love people like me!

Estelle’s Quilt – Fabric

2009-05-19T21:02:00.000-04:00

I know this is a little backwards since I already am well on the way on starting, but I finally got the last fabric color for the quilt, so I now have all the colors I want for the quilt top.

The main fabric is the floral, the last color I added were the greens. I had originally wanted to do the quilt in lavenders and purples but Estelle wanted it in blues. I picked up a trio of greens at my local fabric store. I will definitely will be using the 2nd and 3rd green from the top, not sure about the top one, we will see…

Estelle’s Quilt – More sewing!

2009-05-17T11:51:00.000-04:00

Lots of sewing this weekend but not much to show! All the little pieces are done, now I’m working on the bigger connections. It’s slow going because I have to align all the pieces so they come out right – if you stitch on the line on one side, you have to make sure it’s on the line on the back!

Lets face it...

2009-05-16T11:54:00.004-04:00

A bear is only as good as the head her or she has - LOL! I usually try and get a good start of a bear's head before tackling the body. If I don't like the head, they don't get a body!

This post has two pictures of the heads of some new bears I'm working on. The first shows the basic head after trimming the muzzle, a little soft scupting of the nose bridge with test eyes so I can figure out the eye size and placements. Test eyes are glass eyes on short pins. I have several sizes so I can play with the locations. This lets me trim, stitch and play around with various placements. The second head in the first picture just has the fur trimmed just waiting for their turn!

Once that's done I install the real glass eyes and finish up the shading around and behind the eyes before I permanently stick them in.

This second picture shows the after. YOu can see in this picture the bridge of the nose is more pronounced and there's been a lot of shading around the eyes to bring out their bearsality ;-) I've also shaded the nose area to start that part out...

Bad Hair Day Bear!

2009-05-16T06:42:00.000-04:00

This little fellow only needs some paw thread before he's ready! I love this fur, you can't do anything with it. This is a smaller version of a previous bear that came from a faux mongolian fur coat that was probably never worn - and I can't blame them, all that faux fur! Now all I have to do is come up with a name.

Baxter waiting his turn

2009-05-09T06:37:00.000-04:00

Baxter is a mohair bear using a different design. I'm still not sure about him, his right leg seems to have a twist and twisted bears don't make it to my web site. I'll have to see if it's fixable.

Estelle’s Quilt – Cut, cut, sew, sew

2009-05-02T08:25:00.006-04:00

I mentioned before that I used Electric Quilt’s (EQ6) Rotary cutting print to get the sizing of the cuts. For this project, the cuts were simple but I did cut them slightly larger to give me some play when I glue the foundation paper to the fabric. I found out the hard way that my accuracy cutting is not always that accurate, so better a little bigger than too small – you can always trim but you can never put back – LOL!

The glue I use is Elmer's School glue sticks. I do a little twist of glue at just enough locations to ensure my piece sticks to the fabric and doesn't move. I then press the piece using a hot iron to quickly dry it. The only thing I don't like about it is that I tend to get sticky after a while - and I also tend to forget to put the cap back on after I use it which is something I have to work on! I'll be using a lot more of this glue when I start putting toether the applique blocks.

The first round of attachments are the single pieces consisting of a single yellow square and four angle pieces which form the center square of the block. I thought I was going to have a hard time getting the angles but they were a breeze!

First I sewed one piece on each side then fitted the others in between.

After pressing here's what the center piece looks like

So I continue with the cutting & sewing, over a while the pieces start piling up!

Happy 91st birthday to Mom

2009-04-29T22:21:00.004-04:00

We celebrated Mom's 91^st birthday today. She seemed to be quite bright and happy for a change. I took the day off work. Estelle and Paul came in from Toronto yesterday. Carmen, Bob and Paul were supposed to come up from NY but they had to cancel because the flu was making its rounds (not the swine flu everyone is antsy about).

We went over to Mom's at 11 this morning. Paul and I walked over to Tim Horton's and picked up four orders of chicken wraps and soup and we ate in Mom's room, it was quite nice. The wraps were great and there were a couple of leftovers for Mom to eat when she didn't like what the dining room was serving. Mom just likes having company and that was the best present. We did give her a couple of nice knit tops with ¾ length sleeves in blue and grey that I picked up from Mark's Work Warehouse and she really wanted a new long bra so I ordered one of those - she may be 91 but she still likes to look nice. She had lost a lot of weight and was complaining that her clothes just hung on her; hopefully she'll try on the tops and make sure they fit before she washes them this time!

Carmen, Bob, Paul & Sylvia sent a lovely basket filled with goodies including crackers, cheese, jam, maple syrup, olives, nuts, jelly beans. Great idea, all stuff Mom can nibble on and things that won't go bad. Flowers are nice but they don't last and can be overpowering in a small room so edibles are great and edibles that last a long time such as the content in the basket are perfect!

Of course we were all upstaged when Chris came in that afternoon. He was unsure if he would be able to make it since he woke up not feeling well. For those that don't know, he is being treated for Lyme and goes into cycles where he feels ill and he was in one of these ill cycles so he wasn't sure if he would make it to Mom's. He did and he had stopped to pick up a birthday card and some scratchy lottery tickets (which he leans over and tells me I now owe him money – LOL ;-) He came in and her eyes brighten right up she was delighted to see him – forget the rest of us! She was upset after he left because she said she could see that he was not feeling well. Heck for me he looked pretty good – she doesn't see him in the mornings!

All in all Mom had a good birthday.

Estelle's Quilt - A least I like to cut things!

2009-04-25T07:58:00.008-04:00

I have been busily printing the pattern pieces from Electric Quilt’s (EQ6) Foundation print option. What’s great about EQ6 is the ability of not only setting the size of the block at the print stage but you can also move the pieces around prior to printing to make the best use of the foundation sheets. Unfortunately it doesn’t let you duplicate pieces when there’s a lot of left over space – and I didn’t want to have fourteen sheets that had only one piece on it!

To work around this, I printed the pattern pieces on regular paper, cut them out and rearranged everything in order to minimize the paper used. Then I simply scanned and printed them on to the foundation paper.

All the patterns for the pieced block were printed using EQ Printables Foundation Sheets. This is a great product for pieced blocks. It's thin but goes through the printer without a problem. I like the fact that I can tear away the product after sewing or leave it in.

I’m making 14 identical pieced blocks, 12 or 13 to be used in the quilt depending on the layout and a spare. I’m leaving the final number to be used in the quilt until after I figure out what appliquéd blocks I will be making. 12-13 appliquéd blocks is quite a lot and I haven’t even started them.

So now comes the 'fun' part, cutting all those pieces. . To keep things tidy, I have all the pieces stored in a scrapbooking case. I love these 14” cases and I have a number of them all containing different projects.

I don't need to be acurate in the cuts becaue I'll just be cutting again once I attach them to the fabric. For now it's just a matter of separating the pieces.

When it comes to cutting the fabric, again EQ6 provides a rotary cutting guide on cutting. I tear a wide strip of fabric and then use the guide to cut strips out of it.

There is a lot of contraversy about tearing fabric, some quilters can be quite vocal in their hate or love of the practice. For me, I love it because I'm gaurenteed a squared piece of fabric. I don't use the first 1/2 to 1 " from the tear but I line everything up based on it. There's nothing worse than having an uneven piece of fabric because it's been cut wrong and I've had some that have been several inches off!

Lets see each block has 21 pieces, times 14, egads that 294 individual paper pieces to deal with! then comes the fabric cutting but for the fabric each block has 37 pieces times 14, or 518 pieces! That's a lot of pieces to put together and stitch and that doesn't include the border strips which will be pieced and all the rest! Egads a good thing I didn't think to much about this before starting it LOL...

Poor little sick Mom – Part 2

2009-04-18T07:54:00.000-04:00

By this Friday she was feeling better but she's been muddled and having a real hard time walking. She did manage to go downstairs using her electric wheelchair a few times. She lost a lot of weight but I restocked her potatoes and brought her some food from downstairs.

I didn't come out of it unscathed. Even though I was real careful, using gloves to handle Mom's wet clothes and carpets and constantly washing my hands after everything, I got the bug on Tuesday and spend Wednesday really sick but was good enough to go back to Mom's and do the regular Friday stuff. I think we both got it on Friday from the salad bar or maybe she got it sooner because she'd been down at the salad bar earlier that week or maybe the same time as me but it got to her sooner of her age. Regardless by Friday, the home had stepped up the vigilance, quarantining those that were sick to their rooms, eliminating the salad bar for a while and posting colorful signage and asking people to clean their hands when coming in. No problem, I had my antibacterial hand cleaner and Lysol with me. I sprayed Mom's unit and kept my hands clean and avoided touching everything!

Adult Bibs

2009-04-18T07:42:00.001-04:00

Mom going to be 91 this year and at that age your hand just isn't that steady. Frustrating to her is the fact that most of her tops have food stains on them, something she completely abhors. She bought a handmade bib from another resident that makes them and was happy to use it but I thought it was the ugliest thing; it actually looks like a baby bib! Then it started to fall apart and look ratty so I took on a project to make her a new one, or two.

I did so searching the net to find out options and found some that looked less babyish and Mom chipped in with sizing so I made a pattern from newspaper. It consists of cut two pieces of fabric for the main piece, one 8 inch strip folded in half and topstitched to create a crumb catcher for bottom, and 3 1/2 strip to create a tube for the part that goes around the neck. I stitched everything together, flipped it inside out and then did a quarter inch topstitch around the whole thing. I wanted to make it easy to attach, oldsters have problems raising their arm and tying thing in the back so I opted for Velcro on the side. Mom loved it but had some adjustment suggestion (she always does ;-), so I made a second one. Now at least she doesn’t look like she’s wearing a baby bib and her clothes are now stain free!

Poor little sick Mom

2009-04-13T19:35:00.000-04:00

On my regular Mom visit Friday, everything seemed fine. We had our lunch together and I did the usual of doing her laundry, organizing her pills and saying yes to everything she said ;-) I had no idea that there was a gastro virus circulating at the senior's home until she called me up on Sunday morning upset because she had been sick overnight, flooded her bathroom and had all her clothes in the bathtub and wanted me to go over to clean it up.

When I got there I could see that water had seeped out of her room into the hallway carpet but when I got to her bathroom it was spotless except for the pile of clothes and carpet in the bathtub. She had gotten really ill during the middle of the night. Fortunately her bathroom is beside her bedroom and she was 99% successful in making it to there to throw up but that 1% was enough for the dainty clean obsessed little oldster she is to get changed, put everything in the sink and wash it before going back to bed. Unfortunately she doesn't have the strength to tighten up the taps so they always run. She's complained about it to maintenance before, besides being clean obsessed she's also very frugal and doesn't like waste so dripping taps bother her, but there are only two full time maintenance guys that deal with a large seniors complex that's half new and half ancient so things don't happen very quickly. Well you know where I'm going with this story. The clothes plugged up the overflow and water went everywhere. I'm not sure if it was Mom or someone else who called maintenance, but apparently there was an inch of water in her bathroom and it was dripping on the floor below in the home's kitchen area which is under her unit.

I have to give credit to the maintenance guy Denis, he came in, cleaned it all up, put everything in the tub and told my mom who was really sick and upset about it, not to worry about it. She said he cleaned it quickly and quietly and he was very reassuring towards her. She called me up later that morning and when I got over, I could see that water had seeped out of her room and the hall carpet was wet also, however her bathroom was spotless and Mom had nothing but good things to say about Denis, which is rare when you know Mom, he was very kind towards her. The stuff in the tub was really soaked so I hauled it to the laundry room and washed, dried and put it all away – everything except the piece of rug in front of the toilet, the backing decided to fall apart in a thousand pieces in the washing machine! I must have spent a good half hour picking up all those little pieces, I was afraid it would clog the machine but I cleaned it all out and it worked fine afterwards. The carpet however was retired, never to be seen again. When I left she was sick but happy that everything was cleaned up it made her feel better. On Sunday I called her up a few times but the staff there was checking in and gave her toast and some salty drink I guess to keep her from getting dehydrated.

On Monday she lamented that she wanted some Boost but didn't have any (she had Ensure but that wasn't what she wanted). She didn't ask me but I went over and surprised her with two packs of Boost and some tidbits to eat. I also wanted to make sure she had some food in the fridge because she wasn't able to go down for meals and she was refusing to pay for meals being brought up. I knew she had potatoes in the fridge because I always leave potatoes on Fridays. She's known as the little potato lady at the home (sounds better in French). She always has to have her potatoes and always asks for them with her meals, so I make sure I bring her some weekly for the days there are none.

Finally finished a bear - Lavender Libby

2009-04-05T15:07:00.000-04:00

I've had a trio of bears hanging around my sewing area since last year but I never got around to finishing them due to one reason or another including the thought of not finishing them because I didn't like how they turned out. Glad I didn't give into the last reason!

I can be really rough on the bears I create. Many a bear I deemed "not good enough" has never made it to my web site. When my sisters come around, they rescue them, but more than once I've torn apart bears, some of them complete, recycling the pieces I could because I just didn't like them.

Finally got one of the three at a finish state ready to display on my teddy bear site.

This is one of three different lavender colored bears. She's the midsized one. Another one is bigger at 23" and is almost ready, just a little shading and sewing required. The smaller of the trio has a completed body but is currently headless! That's because I was going to try my hand at an open mouth bear so I needed to dye the inside mouth the same color as the pawpads but forgot to so now I'm looking at dying the inside mouthpiece separately but I never seem to get around to it.

A Walk in the Woods

2009-04-05T11:59:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how calming a simple walk in the woods is. We are fortunate to live near the city greenbelt which has all kinds of paths used for sking in the winter and walking in the summer. My son took me on one of his jaunts where one of these path runs buy a heron rookery in which the occupants were just getting re-established for the season. Most nests had one bird patiently waiting, while others had a pair that were fixing up their nests. One would fly off to find reeds and sticks and bring them back to their mate who would work it into the nest. I've never seen anything like it and I could watch for hours letting all life's problems fade away. My son has a scope so we could watch the nests closely and more clearly but I still snapped this shot with my little Canon Elph. Its nothing like the real thing but it gives you an idea of what we were watching. Hard to believe it's so close to the city!

Bear Name Tags

2009-04-04T12:08:00.000-04:00

My teddy bear site has my bears but not many have tags because I was only creating a tag when they sell and are ready to go. Here are some name tags that I designed for some of my fellows...

Estelle's Quilt - The First Block done (24 to go!)

2009-04-03T07:35:00.010-04:00

The EQ6 Picture

This is the picture out of EQ6. There were numerous variations of the end picture but this is what I ended up with.

EQ6 is great for letting one play around with layouts of the quilt as well as the block itself.

I created this block to be paper pieced which will give me a percise size. After all there are 25 blocks in the final setting so if my blocks are off, the quilt is off - literally!

Actual Block - Backing

This is a picture of the completed block back. The foundation pattern was printed from EQ6 and on EQ Printables Foundation Sheets. I chose this product because I can leave it in. I've used it before with great results so this is a staple product in my resources. It takes two sheets for each block.

Once I have the foundation pattern printed I print the rotary cutting chart as a guideline to cutting the fabric.

Then it a matter of putting it together. The only part I was really concerned about was where the pieces meet that tiny little yellow square but it turned out easier than I thought.

Actual Block - Front

Here it is. The first from the quilt based on the design from my March 23 post. I was a bit concerned about piecing this together because I've never done angles but it came out pretty good, so that piece is a go!

Angel Frog & Devil Frog Placemats

2009-04-03T07:13:00.011-04:00

Here was a fun little project I did as a surprise for my sister in NY that likes frogs. I used a "Chef" frog cotton fabric on the back and embroidered a frog on each

Interesting story about the fabric. When I saw it on a web site I thought it was the Grinch from Dr Seuss. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a big fan of the Grinch. What else can be said from someone who has 11 identical stuffed Grinches sitting on the family room floor! I've picked up various Grinch fabrics here and there but they're hard to come by now, so when I saw this on a web site that sells out quickly on stuff, I went click-click-click and waited for my prize! Imagine my surprise when the fabric showed up! Five yards of it! The fabric is labelled "Green Griller Bonijean" licensed to SSI, nice fabric but what was I suppose to do with 5 yards of frog faces with chef's hat on an orange red background! These placemats are a great start!

I purchased the embroidery designs from a site called UnFROGettable Designs located at http://www.unfrogettable.com/designs/designs.html.

They have numerous cartoon frogs and other characters for every occasion. If you have an embroidery machine, this is great site to check out for designs. I will definitely be using more of their designs on other projects in the future.

For the placemats I used an angel frog on one and a devil frog on the other - my sister will have to decide which one her husband uses ;-)

I did free motion for the quilting using my new Husqvarna Fabric mover with Stitch Regulator. It took some getting used to but the results were OK, not great , just OK. I had to use a foot that hops up and down to keep the thread from breaking and it was causing some jerky movements and uneven stitches. It's something I will have to get used to.

The binding is machine stitched on the front and hand stitched on the back. I mailed them off to her with some sauce mixes she had asked for so she's expecting the sauce mix but not the placemats!

I don't really like the picture I took, the stippling isn't that pronounced on the real ones!

Estelle's quilt fabric - EUREKA and I found it where?!?

2009-03-30T09:30:00.001-04:00

Ok, I was getting desparte to find just the right blue for this quilt, the local quilt shops didn't have the right colors and I was getting ready to order a bunch of blues of the internet in hopes that one will be right. Last Friday I went shopping for my Mom at Walmart in Hull - of course I can't go anywhere where there's fabric without having a peak - and what did I find? The perfect blue! Of all places! So I bought a bunch of fabric!

So I can finally get started!

Estelle's Quilt - The start of something big, a queen size quilt

2009-03-23T19:18:00.004-04:00

After completing my sister Carmen's lap quilt I wanted to make one for my other two sisters. What I had originally wanted was to do a lap quilt for my oldest sister who turned 70 this year but time didn't permit me doing so. Also her lap quilt kind of grew. What started out as a 50" inch square, just like the first one I did, it's going to end up as a 90 by 96" queen size quilt (that is if I ever get it done - LOL).

I wanted to keep it relatively simple and use EQ6 to do the design. This is what I ended up with, after a zillion of revisions! I didn't want to do too many applique block and I didn't want them big. The blank blocks you see will be filled with appliques and embroidery. The other blocks will be filled with a paper pieced block.

Originally the color scheme was lavender, to correspond with her birth month but she wanted blue to go with her bedroom. I had a really hard time finding just the right hues of lavender and finding the right blue was a real challenge! I had nothing close in my stash. Several visits to my favorite local fabric store yielded nothing and a visit another quilt store in the area but that wasn't fruitful either (albeit I did buy some fabric - no surprise there!). I'll be looking at some Internet shops later because I can't start anything without the right blues!

Circular Tablemat Done! (Finally!)

2009-03-03T07:02:00.007-05:00

Well here it is, finally done! The stippling took a long time. The hard part of it was trying to figure out which combination of thread, needle and foot to use! The thread is a Sulky 30wt in varigated colors. Unfortunately it kept shreading which I was trying to do the free motion stippling. I switched to my machine's Q foot (the foot goes up and down with the needle) and it stopped.

Bear Face Shading

2009-02-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

Here's a sample of the stages of shading a bear's face

After I do a little needle-sculpting of the nose bridge I figure out where the eyes go. Once they're positioned I keep layering shades of brown and black until I like the effects

My favorite sewing stuff - The machines

2009-01-01T14:04:00.004-05:00

This grouping of postings "My favorite sewing stuff" will cover the things I enjoy using and I can't start it without talking about my sewing machines.

The current jewel of my sewing stuff is my Husqvarna Designer Diamond sewing & embroidery machine. I'll never forget when I purchased it. It was the day before the stock market crash. Had I waited one more day, I probably would not have it. I traded in my three year old Husqvarna Designer SE which I adored, however the new features combined with an extra two inches between the needle and hasp on top of an attractive trade-in, well I just couldn't pass on it - and I'm glad I didn't!

I also have a 1959 Singer Featherweight which was once my mother-in-law's machine and still runs exceptionally well. It was my main machine prior to getting my SE, so going to the SE was quite the shock! I had been using the featherweight since my Kenmore died a few years prior to that. The poor Kenmore was down to just being able to stitch forward, every other capability was worn out! It finally started hitting the plate regularly so I figured its days were numbered.

In case of emergencies I also have a 1901 Singer treadle, should the urge to sew during a blackout occur - it hasn't happened yet but I'm ready when it does!

Clairette's Circular Centerpiece

2008-11-09T08:36:00.001-05:00

The centerpiece is a two-foot circle with embroidery placed evenly about. This was a great first project for my new Husqvarna Designer Diamond because it has percise positioning. All I have to do if figure out where I want the designs and let the machine know where to put them.

I did make one big blunder for this project. The blue pencil I used to make the marking - the washable blue pencil. Left residue when I washed it.

Toaster Cover

2008-11-06T12:54:00.002-05:00

Whenever I tried to clean up my limited counterspace my toaster was always an eyesore! So I figured a coverup was nessessary! No pattern was used for this, just measurements and some embroidery patterns.

Wheelchair Pouch for Mom

2008-10-29T11:44:00.001-04:00

Dealing with an aging parent can be overwheming at time. My mother celebrated her 90th birthday in April of 2008. Although she gives thanks for having made it so long, she is frustrated by not being able to walk very far and tends to be quite unsteady on her feet.

I had been looking into electric wheelchairs for some time but they are so expensive and out of our reach and was contemplating a small manual chair but I knew my mother couldn't handle pushing it around. I was blessed with good friend who's mother had one but wasn't able to use it so she gave it to me. Although my mother balked at using one, she now zips wherever she needs to go and for the first time in years, she went outdoors to enjoy the warmth of the sun during the summer. It's been a real blessing because she could not go downstairs more than twice a day and now she goes down as needed.

She was carrying things around in a plastic bag hanging from her handlebar when I decided to make her a pouch. I measured the width between the handle bars, determined an adequent height and width and made the pouch seen in this posting.

I used canvas for the sides and back and did a quilt sandwich on the front. I then stippled the front.

The design is an adaptation of one of the designs found in the booklet called Angels Among Us by Nancy Halvorsen (web site https://www.arttoheart.com/ ) which contains projects and designs all with angels.

2008-10-24T06:32:00.003-04:00

I can't believe so much time has passed without me getting any of my projects on the go! I used to say a little thing called 'work' seems to get in the way and for the last several weeks it's been really busy at work but every thing else in life seems to be picking up steam and every time I sit down at my desk to work on my projects, something else comes up that I have to deal with!

Last Sunday I did redo the centerpiece design for my sister. Originally I was going to applique the whole thing but I started doing some fusing and figured that there were just too many small pieces to make it a practical thing for everyday use. The objective was to make something she could use to put hot plates on so I envisioned something that would be washed frequently.

My new design uses embroidered roses using polyester embroidery thread.

Me starting a blog, yeah right...

2008-08-31T08:54:00.012-04:00

At first it was because I decided I needed a quicker way to handle working on my sewing projects and then I just kept adding, venting so I guess I'm now a blogger. I had started a web site for my sewing projects but every time I go to edit a project I end up doing all kinds of things EXCEPT the project. I was just learning about web development and there's so many things to play around with and try. I have no plans of becoming a web developer, heck, I'm just trying to make it till I retire (less than 5 years and counting:-) . I am so behind in everything that anything that would help make things easier to keep track of would be a bonus, so here I start. I'll probably be back dating some entries as I strip down an old web site. I'll still keep my bear site and I'll post some of their pictures here but this blog will be the ups and downs, sucesses and failtures of trying find inspiration when it seems sometimes that it's an uninspiring path .

My latest sewing project is working on a centerpiece for another sister's table. She has a 55" circular table so I figured a 24" circular centerpiece would look nice. My plan is to do some 12" circular samples to see what I can do. I don't want to do something busy, just plain and hopefully elegant, we'll se how it goes!

Carmen's Lap Quilt - Completed, well almost!

2008-05-10T10:04:00.004-04:00

Here's a picture of the completed quilt for my sister in New York with my sisters.

Carmen is the second from the right, my other two sisters helped sew the binding so we can all say we worked on it.

Initially, it was suppose to be a group project but once I started getting into it to try and split out some of the turned edge machine appliqued blocks and putting instructions together on creating them, I knew it would be asking for trouble if I sent just the fabric out! It probably would have worked if they were raw edge pieces but they're all turned pieces, even the skinny stems. Even I almost threw in the towel a couple of times but it got done and we had some laughs getting together with the binding which is what counts, being together to work on it!

Once the hand basting was done I did the stitch in the ditch for all the squares and the quarter inch around the quilt, measuring and adjust where necessary to make sure my quilt was square. The quarter inch around the quilt was the guide for stitching the front of the binding. I pinned the binding, hand stitched one side and boxed everything up to take to my sister-in-law's house in Fort Edward New York (a five hour drive from where I live) where my other two sisters came in and help hand stitch the other three sides.
We gave it to our sister and I promptly told her that I was taking it back. We all laughed about it because our mother had a habit of giving things to one then taking it back, then giving to another sister, then asking for it back, then giving it another sister - well you get the picture ;-) I actually did bring it back because I want to do some more quilting on it.

Mom speechless, well that's a first!

2008-05-02T10:11:00.001-04:00

When I showed her the quilt for the first time, she thought it was beautifull, that is until I turned it around and showed her the front. For the first time in my memory, my mom was speechless. I'll never forget the look and the lack of comment! Given that I'm pushing 50 and my mom is 90 years old that's a very long time!
Here's a picture of my Mom with the quilt before the binding went on. I wanted her to see it before I took it to my sister's place:

Carmen's Lap Quilt - The last block

2008-05-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

This block was the final block to make for the quilt. Here's the progression of the block from the EQ6 print, my changes and then the actual block.

At first I was going to use the skinny stems for all the stems but opted to use stitching for some. I checked on the web for the correct way to do monograms. The family name is suppose to be the center and larger. First name and maiden name as the small initials on both side. Keeping with the other blocks I added veins to the leaves and matched the flowers that were in the Birds and Heart block.

I used the same sized flowers as in the birds and heart block but thought using just one on each side was too small and the larger version, well it just didn't look right, so I doubled the flowers but still wasn't happy with the results. Just adding the single leave between the two was the detail that I was looking for.

Carmen's Lap Quilt

2008-04-04T09:44:00.005-04:00

This project shows you how starting with one thing, ends up with something completely different but retaining the original theme. While browsing on EBay a few years ago I discovered an applique/quilt pattern hat had had a lovely quote in its center so put a bid on it and won. When it came I was pleased, it was really lovely but I decided I wasn't ready to do a project with large pieces but I did want my project to incorporate the quote so I loaded up my EQ6 and designed a simple 8 inch block for a 50 inch square quilt with some of the blocks in the EQ6 library and then revised everything to come up with something I hope I could tackle.

To make revisions to the block I printed the blocks full sized from EQ6. Then I flipped the paper and sketched out my changes. Here's a sample of what I did to one of the blocks.

The first picture is the original block printed from EQ6 with some of my preliminary changes.
The second is what I did on the flip side of the page. The 3rd picture is the actual block.

For this block I wanted something in the middle. I played around with looping but it wasn't just right. By flipping the page around I sketched some more changes. I reprinted the page and played around for a while until I settled with what you see here.

I like what I ended up with. One stem from the more rounded floral arching around the heart. The little stem piece jutting from the heart give it a more flowing visual then just ending it at the heart.
I also switched the angular floral into rounded rosebuds and added a vein and connected the leaves.

Max the Cat Wallhanging

2008-02-01T13:57:00.001-05:00

Estelle's Denim Hotpad

2008-01-03T13:05:00.002-05:00

This little project was accomplished in a couple of hours. My sister wanted a heat resistant cover for her butcher block located beside her stove, a custom hot pad. I told her to bring me the measurements and an old pair of jeans so when she showed up we went to town. The old pair of jeans were from her pre-wait loss days. I'm happy to say she lost 60 pounds following WeightWathcers and has been at her goal weight for some time now.

We cut a leg off and picked out some fabrics from my stash. The idea was to have the back of the hot pad be completely in denim and the front to be a little decorative. If I had more time I would have embroidered full colored birds but we were a little pressed for time as she only had one day left before she packed up to return to Toronto and she wanted to take it with her.

In addition to the denim we selected a nice calico print and two matching marble fabrirose marble fabric

The embroidery designs were single color birds purchased at the embroidery library

The Whiteleggs Table Runner

2007-12-06T13:10:00.000-05:00

The Whiteleggs are are our neighbors. We shared a joy of birds and had a number of bird feeders with a variety of seeds near the hedge that separates our two properties. It's a haven for little birds of many types. So when Christmas came along, I created this table runner just for them.

Fabric Selections

The main focus fabric is the birds on the bright yellow background. I purchased this fabric a few years ago while browsing in a fabric store. I loved the birds and the greenery, however I did not care much for the bright yellow background but it was the only color available in the store (I believe there was a blue background of the same birds but they were out), so I purchased a few yards.

When I decided to make a table runner for the neighbors, I immediately though of these birds and pulled the bright yellow fabric out of my stash (it was kind of hard to miss). The fabric alone would be a wake up with its bright yellow! I figure I had to tone it down with darker fabrics so into my stash I went. I auditioned a number of fabrics and played with several combinations which I'll discuss in the next section. What I ended up with is shown here. The lighter blue matches the blue of the bluebirds, the marbled red I pulled from the cardinals. The dark blue has a number of colors from the focus fabric.

My first wallhanging

2007-11-01T13:51:00.000-04:00

I did this wall hanging a few years ago for my sister-in-law Sylvia and just wanted to include it here.

This was my first wall hanging when I got my Husqvarna SE. I created the quote from Mother Teresa using my embrodiery software and added the roses.