Update!!!

I've got to admit that when I update every few days it's a pleasant surprise for me to see what I've accomplished.  Although it really isn't much, it seems like I am beginning to see some rewards for my efforts.  Some days I feel like I'm getting nothing done but that is not really the case.  I can look back over the last few days and see that my projects are progressing.

I was supposed to start chemotherapy today but have cancelled.  Calm down - it's not forever!  While my friend Linda (V) was over on Friday visiting, (we had dinner from Mayfair Chinese on Royal York - delicious!) I had an epiphany!  I was reading through the pamphlet regarding the "medication" (Jonathan calls it poison) which Dr. O wants me to have and in going over the side effects and the risks involved, noted the high risk for patients with heart issues.  Since I had a heart attack in 2012 I became just a "wee bit" concerned and made the decision to have a few tests done by the cardiologist before I agree to undergo this chemo.  Just a precaution but personally I'm going with "better safe than dead!"  As much as I trust my oncologist, there are underlying factors that have to be addressed.

Unfortunately, due to this decision we are upping the pain meds in order to deal with that issue.  It seems to be a never ending game, but on the bright side, if the pain dulls it is worth it.  

Speaking of Friday - I managed to get the top done on my Yellow Brick Road and I am really happy the way it turned out.  First, I laid it out on the bed (while changing the sheets).....

Laid out and ready to piece

Then I marked it with small Post It notes.  Yes - I do make mistakes!  There was no way I was going to try to put this together without putting it in some semblance of order so I didn't mess it up.  After Bricks & Mortar I think I learned my lesson......

Marked with Post It notes - I even tried to use different colours for each row

It took most of Friday to get it pieced.  I take a lot of breaks!  In between piecing and pressing I'll sit for a few minutes and of course the TV was on so I admit I got distracted a few times and Linda was over for a few hours, and, and, and....excuses!!!!

Centre done and I'm pretty pleased with it - love the colours!

It was completed with everything put away by the time Jonathan came home from work about midnight.  Jonathan was off Saturday and Sunday so I retreated to my "hidey hole" in the bedroom to resume work on the "big" project!  The Farmer's Wife.  

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but The Farmer's Wife was started January 19th, 2010.  It is now officially 4 years in the making.  All things considered, 111 blocks with sashings and cornerstones, hand piecing which I was not always able to do, I'm pretty pleased with my progress.  Who am I kidding - I never really thought I'd get it done..... Okay, it's not exactly done yet but I have 10 blocks to go and 4 rows to complete - that's pretty close....

So - here are the additional blocks and rows that have been completed......

 Three of seven blocks on Row 12

 Block #95 - Temperance Tree - 42 pieces

 Four of seven Blocks on Row 12

 Block # 84 - Spool - 13 pieces

 Five of seven Blocks on Row 12

Block # 74 - Ribbon - 24 Pieces

  
It doesn't seem like much got done over two days but, there is the choosing of fabric for each block, the marking of the templates and the cutting along with the piecing.  (I have to keep telling myself that so that I realize it's good progress!)

Monday I had grand plans!  I had hoped to have the Yellow Brick Road completed including backing ready to take to Sandy.  Alas, this was not the case, however, Linda (H) and I had made plans to drop her quilts off to Sandy so I took some Show & Share and off we went. Linda had two quilts ready to be long armed, a gorgeous baby quilt, all bright colours with white background in a "coin" pattern and her Irish Chain beige on beige queen size quilt which I blogged a couple of weeks ago.  I brought along my Yellow Brick Road to show Sandy and we have chosen the pattern, leaves, and the thread, a variegated orange.  It's going to be gorgeous!  Sandy showed off a number of quilt tops she has ready to quilt as well - we had a great time and I even made it down the stairs to the studio this time.....

Back home and intentions to get the borders on the quilt and start working on that backing....then to head out with Liz to the Etobicoke Quilters Guild meeting.  Didn't happen....It appears I am only good for one outing a day....  I ended up resting (sleeping actually) the rest of the day....

Yesterday things were better and I had all kinds of doctors phone calls to make, etc. so I got myself moving and motivated.  I managed, although I think it took all day - to get the borders onto the Yellow Brick Road.....

 Borders on - ready to go - oops! wait - need to do a backing......

Houston, we have a problem!  I definitely do not have enough fabric to do a backing.  It is time to hit my stash......

 Fabric left after piecing the quilt - large piece will have to do for binding too!

I knew that I had in my stash yet one more flannel quilt - a panel quilt that I had purchased as a kit.  I found it quickly, on the bottom shelf of my "fabric" cabinet.  I also found yet another flannel kit I had purchased!  I'm not sure when I became so fond of flannel nor do I remember those days but they all have histories.....Luckily, in those days (B.C. - before Cock-A-Doodle) whenever I purchased fabrics for a project I tended to take into consideration the difficulty in finding backing down the line so I usually purchased fabric for backing as well.  It appears that in the case of panel, I purchased two backings?!?!  or close to it!  

 The Panel - Cub Lake Lodge by Holly Taylor for Moda

The fabrics for the Panel quilt - plus the two backing fabrics

One of the backing fabrics for the panel quilt is a "huge" piece of mottled green which will go nicely with the fabrics from the Yellow Brick Road.  That having been said, I will have to make up the panel quilt in order to determine if I have enough backing fabric left over to make the second backing.   I also found another "lone" piece of flannel that will go with the mottled green and if I'm really lucky, we can only hope, I may have enough to back Bricks & Mortar too!  I'm not sure if I'm progressing here or regressing!  At any rate - we all know what my next project is and it appears to be the panel quilt.....

A while back I gave my Scrappy Flannel to Sandy to baste so that I could start hand quilting it with a "big stitch".  Using Pearl Cotton #8 I am slowly progressing while watching TV in the living room when Jonathan is working....so many quilts, so little time!

For now I am going back to bed for awhile (been up since 4:30 when I had to take some pain meds) so I will up and at 'em to do my hand piecing later.  Jonathan is off today so I'm all ready to get some more Farmers Wife done.....

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann 

Determination....

I'm thinking that is going to be my "buzz" word for 2014!  Yesterday I was expecting my friend Linda to drop by so I persevered all morning getting the living room back into a living space.  Just clearing the top of the coffee table when Jonathan takes over the house on his days off is a challenge in itself.  I refuse to take photos of this as it is more than embarrassing, however I totally managed to do it.....

Linda called to say that a dental emergency had waylaid her and she wouldn't be coming but we made plans for another day.  Today my other friend Linda came by to raid the thread baskets - now I only have a few thousand spools left!  She also brought some Show & Share, her beige on beige quilt which is absolutely stunning.....

Linda's Beige on Beige

She also brought her picture album of all the quilts and other quilted stuff she's made and it was fabulous to see!  Sandy (Lindal - Scrappy Gal Quilt Company) will be more than happy to get this quilt to quilt.

We had a great visit and I was able to set up my little hand quilting station so I began stitching Row 8 to my Farmer's Wife.

Everything all there and ready to go

While we chatted, I stitched.  Linda is Dana's mom, Dana is one of Jonathan's best friends and that's initially how we met.  Dana and Fiona (his girlfriend) came by the store last spring and I showed them the quilt I was working on.  They really liked it and I decided that it would be theirs.  Today I gave it to Linda to take to them.  It's one of my favourites and Sandy Lindal quilted it for me so it's been on the Cock A Doodle blog for sure, but here it is again.  My basket of quilts seems to be receding.....

Urban Pods - with the Quick Curve Ruler

Dana is a talent on his own.  Linda had me check out his phenomenal Facebook Page - Dana TheJeweler. You really need to check this page out - it has all of his jewelry designs (well I'm sure not all, but a lot).  He is extremely talented and if you ever need a custom jewelry piece made, you need to see this guy.  At the very least you need to check out his Facebook Page.

   

After Linda left I made lunch, a real meal - tuna fish sandwich and pickles on the side.  Sat down at the computer, played some computer games and ate lunch.

Looking good enough to eat...and I did!

Then I really got down to it!  I finally set up my machine for stitching.  Had to change the light bulb in the dining room too!  That took a bit of energy but well worth it.

Sonia - ready and raring to go....

I have also lost my pressing space in the process of storing boxes (soon I hope to have my storage locker?!?!) so I set up a temporary cutting/pressing space - I knew I bought that
cutting/pressing mat for a reason.....

 Cutting space

Pressing space

Now I have resewn all of my blocks, found another mistake on the other set of blocks, fixed that one and we were on our way.  After all is said and done I got the first two rows together.....YEAH!!!!

 First two rows together and I love it....

This is the pattern so you can see why I couldn't compromise

Tomorrow will not be a sewing day (machine) as it's Jonathan's day off.  I may get something done in the morning before he gets up but that would require me getting up early so we'll see how that goes.

Jonathan worked both today and yesterday in this cold and actually came home at one point today to say - he was getting his paycheck and getting on a bus to Florida to live on the street!!!!  Should I remind him he has a cousin living down there who would be more than happy to give him shelter????  Maybe not, because that would leave me out in the cold - not at all what I really want.  I'm selfish that way.....Chances are he'll enjoy his day off and go back to work on Thursday.

Hope to get loads done tomorrow too - I appear to be on a roll!

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann

Happy, happy, happy!!!

I woke up this morning realizing that I had messed up my medication and forgotten to take my long acting pain pill at 3:00 A.M. like I was supposed to.....okay, no biggie, I will switch it and take the 12 hour at 9:00 A.M., much easier, and then 9:00 P.M.!!!  It worked like a charm.  I think it was a good mess-up!  Of course, what that meant was that I was in pain which for today was not going to be a good thing....

I hopped onto Facebook to see what was happening and waited patiently to hear from Christina as to when she would be picking me up!  Pain or no pain I was going to Sit & Bitch....I guess it was about 11:00 or so by the time we left my house and headed up to Gail's!  I was so excited (and Christina is an exceptionally good driver so I was in good hands).

Arrival - unloading - big hugs (that's the best part) and then straight into Show & Share!!!
We settled in the den and the show began - these girls are just so inspiring and motivating!!!

First - Gail 

 An adorable kit - a Christmas Quilt (not sure if it was ready for this year but pretty darn close to!)

This one is for Halloween (next year I'm guessing!)

Next is Cathie - 

 Penguins, penguins, cute little penguins for Claire (Cathie's daughter)

Check out the quilting on the back - more penguins!  The back is Minkie and so soft and it was quilted by Cathy Petrie who never disappoints.

Gail's quilts above were also quilted by Cathy Petrie, the Halloween quilt has candy corn inside candy corn, always a great theme to go with the quilt, just beautiful quilting.

Now Ann -

A Trip Around The World which in two weeks will be off to her 85 year old aunt in England.

She's going to quilt it herself.

Oh wait a minute, back to Cathie -

 A table runner done with Batik charm squares - easy and stunning!

Stars, and stars and more stars!  Ten years in the making but a Christmas runner 

(for next year) - just has to be quilted.....

Now Christina -

 A very cool Halloween quilt (for next year) she put the "bats" binding on this afternoon

Then me, okay, forgot to get pictures!  But I showed off my Farmer's Wife blocks, the quilt top half done (almost) with the piece I posted yesterday with 10 blocks along with the three blocks to be added.  Next time I'll take a picture or if Jonathan's feeling generous, he'll hold it up for me sooner.

After Show & Share, lunch was in order and it was wonderful as usual, individual quiches (Gail) with a lovely salad (Cathie) and delicious cupcakes (Christina)!  The kitchen overlooks the back yard which was still decked out in Christmas decorations and I tried to take a pic (yes I should have opened the back door!)

 Gail and Dennis do such a great job of decorating, the whole house feels festive!  I love that feeling - it just makes you feel that there is a holiday in the house!  Even the wall hanging in the kitchen gets changed....

It's the Christmas Gingerbread Bakery - so cute!  (not sure what the discussion was about but looks serious....)

After lunch, I needed a bit of a lie down (on the couch), the pain was beginning to bare it's fangs again and I had a good hour wait for my "pill".  I decided to pop it a little early and was up and running in about half the time as normal.

Batteries recharged and off to start piecing.  I was going to finish putting together my Bricks and Mortar quilt. The blocks were all done, it was just a matter of placing them correctly to achieve the pattern - no biggie!  UNTIL - I looked at it and realized that I had made a mistake on one of the blocks.....

On the couch - are the blocks done right.  On the arm are the blocks done wrong

The beige squares are supposed to form a step pattern through the center

This is how the block is supposed to look

Needless to say, when I make a mistake, I make it all the way.... Because I was chain piecing these blocks when I put them together, all 15 blocks were done the same - WRONG!  It is so great to be with friends - Cathie, Ann and Gail helped me unstitch so that I could get them done right.  Didn't get a lot of stitching done today but spending time with friends definitely makes up for that....

I am now determined more than ever to get my sewing machine set up at home so that I can get these righted and put together properly.  There's still another project in this bag I have been toting around that I really want to do and had it not been for the patience of my friends I would've put this one back in the box for LATER!!!

What a fabulous day, and they even listened to me vent about the pain and the doctors and all the other bad stuff - I love you guys!!!!  Before Christina and I took off I had to get a picture of the outside of the Christmas house.....so gorgeous (and there's a lot you can't see because it's buried under ice and snow).

So inviting....you just want to open those presents under the tree!

When I got home, around 7:30 P.M. it didn't take long for me to go lie down.  Since I am determined to keep my blogging record going (4 blogs in 4 days) I am now working on Vancouver time - like time shift on the TV except with the computer.  Sometimes it works - we'll see if I can make it work this time!  You figure out what time it really is - I had a really good sleep....

I am so awake, I may even continue un-sewing....

Have a great day everyone - I sure did!

Jo-Ann