Wow! I'm still going.....

Who'da thunk it!  I really wasn't sure if I could do it, it's been 2 months since I worked a weekend in the store, but, with the help of my friends, Annadele, Andy, Barb and Liz it's been a pretty good two days and I'll be there again tomorrow!

Thought I would share my Alaskan Wildflowers with you.  Last Thursday I dropped into the store and hung it on the design wall so I could check out my border choices.....

 Choices, choices, choices!  I finally decided to take off the yellow floral border and just go with the green and the "field of flowers" and voila!!!!!

 I managed to finish up the borders this afternoon!  Nancy challenged me with the green fabric - it's one of those fabrics that shade from light to dark - well, I took her up on the challenge and I think it looks pretty awesome.....now I just have to quilt it!!!!  On the pile it goes.......

I'm pretty happy about the way it turned out and I'm gonna leave it up on the design wall for a few days.  I'm pretty sure I mentioned the book it came from earlier in the blog....

Okay, off to write the Cock A Doodle Blog - check it out!

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann

Stubborn.......

....that would be me!  As I mentioned yesterday, Barb and I had picked the perfect fabric for the sashings on my quilt but we both realized that there really wasn't enough so I showed you a second fabric I was going to introduce to alternate with and voila I would have my sashings.....

This morning I got creative (stubborn more like).  I was determined to get my sashings out of that fabric I didn't have enough of.  I measured and found that I had a piece that was 14-3/4" x 42".  If I had cut it the normal way I could have gotten 7 strips of 1-1/2" which would have given me 21 pieces 1-1/2" x 12-1/2" - I needed 31.  Soooooo.....I cut one strip of 1-1/2" which gave me 3 pieces and left me with a long piece of fabric 13-1/4" x 42.  If you divide 42 by 1-1/2" you get 28.....so that's what I did! 

 This is what I had left over - luckily there were no mis-cuts!!!!

 I stopped to make a fabulous dinner of left over corn, rice and veggies and fresh salmon....

I even had a fabulous dessert of Blueberry Crumble and ice cream......

 ....and then I finished the centre of my quilt!  I love it and I'm so glad I waited until this morning when I could mentally work out the strategy to get what I wanted.  Two more borders and I'm Done but I also have to fix the mistake - can you see it?????  It's good that I took the photo because it jumpted right out at me once I saw the photo......

I'm a little tired now so I think I'll wait until tomorrow morning to fix it but let me know if you've found it.....

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann

Much better......

I have to say today was a much better day for me!  I managed to get the 12 blocks done on the purple and yellow quilt - am now picking out sashings - what do you think?!?!

Unfortunately or fortunately when working with the "stash" only you have to be a little creative and I am determined to use the stash.  I have half a yard (bought in the U.S. many years ago) of two purples that will have to work together on this one.  I think I've found the right mix.....

Planning on spending the day in the store on Wednesday so if you want to drop by I'll be the "guest" worker LOL....actually am going to try and get back in on a regular basis but we'll have to see how I hold out!

Barb dropped by this evening which prompted me to make dinner.... I barbecued chicken and Kitzesot (it's ground beef seasoned with cumin - delicious!)  and veggies and made some rice on the side.  I have to admit by the time I was finished I was ready to collapse so Jonathan came out and finished it all up for me!  He even complimented the meal - very unusual - but it really was good! 

It seems I'm not getting enough protein so I think I fixed that one today.  My ankles and feet are swelling and the doctor said it's because I'm not getting enough protein.....

Tomorrow I'm hoping to set up "Bernie" to do some quilting - I'm a little behind and there's a pile waiting so really gotta get a move on here.

Off to read and heading for bed....

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann

I've had....

......better days!  Today is one of the bad ones but I'm perservering and just hoping to get through it as best I can.  Everything tastes bad, everything smells bad, I can't get comfortable and everything hurts.....so I'm not a happy camper!

However,  I did want you all to notice that I've added a new Blog to the blogs I follow - it's called Knit, Purl and repeat!  Yes it's about knitting but that's not all - it's also Barb's blog so definitely one I will follow happily....

She's a very good knitter and if we ever get things back to normal at the store I may even consider running some classes.....could be interesting, there are never enough "take-a-long" projects" to have and knitting can certainly be one of those.  My knitting leaves alot to be desired so I could use a few lessons too!

I'm actually going to try and get some more of my Alaskan Wildflowers done today - I managed to finish another block yesterday and they go pretty quickly now that all the "small" blocks are done so I may just get something done......then I have to pick my sashings and cornerstones and my borders....

I'm hoping to drop into the store tomorrow to say HI to the Monday girls so I'll have to get some rest in today too.....

Have a great day everyone....

Jo-Ann

Where was I????

Okay - so I had the third treatment yesterday and everything went well.  You always walk into the clinic with fingers and toes crossed because you never know if the blood counts are good, etc. so that the treatment will go ahead......it's always a crap shoot but so far so good!

I also went to see the doctor on Wednesday afternoon and to have my blood tests.  This is the first time I went to see him on my own and it's the first time I actually listened this time.  Looks like I missed out alot on the first meeting, I was worried more about how I was going to tell Jonathan the news so I missed everything that was said and my BFF Mucie has early altzeihmers and hears everything but remembers nothing.

Turns out that there's more to come....the third treatment is the turning point.  Now we have a CT Scan to see if everything is moving in the right direction.  The next decision is the doctors'  - whether to do 3 more chemo treatments now or do the hysterectomy and do the chemo later......all shall be revealed after the CT scan.

In the meantime my plan is to get back to work!  I'm hoping to be in the store on Wednesday this week and then slowly coming back more and more over the next few weeks.  Life has to start getting back to some kind of normalcy and I'm going to try to make that happen.

By the way - the name of the quilt (purple and yellow) is Alaskan Wildflower and is from the book The Big Book of Patchwork by Judy Hopkins - it came in to the store last month and I couldn't resist the quilt.....it's going to be awesome.....

Going comatose for the next two days (they're usually my worst after the treatment) !

Have a great day everyone,

Jo-Ann