Been Away Forever

Wow, I know it has been absolutely forever since I have been on here, I have been missing a lot of things lately! I haven't been on any of my Quilting Boards either. I have been fighting so much pain since October-November, I can't even remember when it started, not sure how it started, but I had a torn MCL in my left knee. I finally had surgery on my knee on March 6th to fix the torn MCL and to do some clean up of some of the arthritis in the knee. The doctor said the surgery went well, the pain should get better, but it will not completely go away, because of the arthritis. I go back to see him on March 19th and we are going to talk about the right knee now. I could tell the day after the surgery that the pain was worlds better and I've been walking 5-10 minutes at at time twice a day, since then. My wonderful husband went to Red Wing, MN the other day and picked up a treadmill from some friends of ours, they are letting me borrow it, and as of today I started to do my walking on the treadmill. That will give me a better idea of exactly how far I'm going and for how long. I hope to build up to at least 15 minutes a time within a month or so, and then within 3-4 months 30 minutes a time. And if I lose weight in the process even better!! Because of all this pain, I've been "hibernating", or hiding, whichever you want to call it! I haven't sewn anything, I tried knitting and made it about and inch on a project and ripped that out three times and redid it. I slept an awful lot, just because I was so depressed and miserable. The holidays, came and went, nothing spectacular for Christmas gifts, honestly, I'm having a hard time remembering most of them, that's really bad isn't it?? But I do have some fantastic, wonderful, exciting, terrific (any other terms you can come up with that mean the same thing...) news...... I'M GOING TO BE A GRANDMA!!!! TIMES 2 - and no I don't mean twins!!! Both of my daughters are expecting babies!! One is due in July, the other in August! Isn't it funny how things work? I told my children that I didn't want to be a grandma before I was 45 and what do they do. They listen to me, I'm a few years older than that (one never tells these things), but then they happen to both get pregnant at the same time!! It's like some divine intervention or something, just laughing at me - or smiling, not sure which! I am having so much fun looking at baby stuff. Have to make two of everything, just not exactly the same. One likes monkeys for the babies room, one likes, maybe giraffes, or elephants, or hippos. One is having a boy the other we aren't sure yet. It is going to be so much fun spoiling grandkids and it gives me something to live for and to look forward too! That's all for now - I'll try to post more often and a little more each time! And on that note, Good Night, God Bless or as my Father would say Bog Laku Noc (which translates to God, Good Night)

Happy Holidays--Bah Humbug, not sure where I'm at yet.

The last time I posted my brother Sy was here from Canada for a week, he was super nice and bought me a Kindle Reader when he was here - how fun!!!  The day after he left daughter Krista was here for two weeks right before Thanksgiving - She gave me a surprise too, well sort of, it will be here in about 9 months!!!  I will be a Grandma for the first time.

Since then I have had doctor's appointments. - Sort of....My appointment at the University of Minnesota was a bust!!!  They couldn't do any tests without having the test ordered by the doctor at the University.  So now I am on the waiting list again!!!  YUK!  Unfortunately, since then I have been fighting a very, very sore knee that I cannot figure out the cause of.  Don't remember hitting it or falling down to hurt it, but I can hardly walk on it now.  Pain doctor told me to ice it, which I have been doing, so I will continue to do that for a while and see if that helps soon.  I am planning on calling my Family Physician tomorrow to see if he can help me with this.

My husband was so nice and took me out shopping on Thanksgiving evening at Michaels and also Old Navy, we tried to go to Wal-Mart, but I could not get into the store with my cane, and actually got the cane knocked out from under me 3 times, I decided that was enough and I turned around and left.  I didn't go anywhere on Black Friday, Chris did though, I just didn't have the energy after the big dinner for just the two of us on Thursday and the little bit of shopping we did Thursday night.  I did continue to shop on Saturday.  Went to JoAnn's, Wal-Mart, Michaels, and sent Chris to Walgreens.  We are almost done gathering the kids gifts together.  I need to work on a couple of gifts for my godchildren.  And of course I need to finish up my quilt for my exchange gift for my husbands family.  This is my last quilt that I need to make!!!  I would also like to finish the United States Quilt for my husband.  My daughter has offered to at least help with the exchange quilt so that will make a huge difference in my list of things to do and we don't have our exchange until New Year's Eve.


I am going to try to post a photo album to my blog that I just ordered.  It was a free one that I got as a coupon from Archivers from when my Sister Carol and I went to ScrapMania on a Friday night. 

Hope all had a great Thanksgiving!  I really would like to post more often, I hope I will get better some day!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

And on that note,

Good Night, God Bless

or as my Father would say

Bog Laku Noc (which translates to God, Good Night)

Visitors & All Fabric Received for United States Quilt Block Collection Quilt

I'm back again, this disease has kept me down again, but I have adjusted my meds to try and stay awake more during the daytime instead of sleeping all day and then staying up all night and watching TV because
can't sleep.  It's a little bit crazy!  So we changed a lot of the meds I was taking in the morning to the evening hoping that I would start staying up during the day instead of falling asleep an hour after taking my morning meds and sleeping for 4 hours, which would pretty much take up the day, and I would get up and have to take more meds and I would fall asleep again.  This has helped a little bit so far, but I am still adjusting to the change it has only been a week, I expect it will take at least two weeks before I will really be able to tell any difference. 

Visitors have started to show up......Saturday, my oldest sister came over and "babysat" me, so my husband could take off and do something of his choice, since he is always stuck being in contact with me!  We worked on some embroidery Christmas tags, for Christmas Stockings that we are making, with our sisters.  We were able to use my brand new Embroidery Machine that my husband bought me last week!!!  How sweet is that?

My new toy......Brother SE 400....Combination Sewing/Embroidery Machine!

My husband was especially nice to me last week and bought me my very own embroidery machine!!! The machine that I had was one that my sister had gotten at a discounted price but she had never used it, so I had taken it and gotten it tuned up because it wasn't working after sitting in the box for so long and I spent almost $200 on a card reader and software which were required to read the designs or the machine was useless!  Ultimately my sister had requested the machine back over sisters weekend so I am returning it and my husband purchased me a new machine (actually a refurbished machine) from Ebay.  I have used it a little bit making name tags only so far, but I really like it!  It is so quiet in comparison to the other one I've been using!  LOL

United States Quilt Block Collection Quilt - Update:

I HAVE ALL THE FABRIC NEEDED FOR THE QUILT!!!!!!!!!  I received the last state - Ohio - last Saturday.  Now I need to finish copying the templates.  I looked at that book last night and I still have 58 templates to copy and I have already copied over 80!  As soon as I'm done posting this and taking my meds I will be working on templates! I'm hoping to start working on blocks by the end of the week!  I have to decide how I am going to do the back if I want to do a one piece back or if I should do this as a "Quilt as you Go" quilt .  Any ideas???

Now that I have all of the fabric and I am starting the blocks, I will be posting more often on the blog, so that you can see each square as I finish it.  I am so excited about this quilt!!  I truely believe this is going to be my best quilt ever!!


Visitors:  My brother Sy, is here from Canada, until Saturday.  He just came to hang out with me for a while, unfortunately we can't do much of anything, because we have no vehicle at this time, since my son has my car at college.  My oldest daughter is coming home for a 2 week vacation starting Sunday, November 6th through Sunday, November 20th.  I'm so excited, we haven't gotten to spend much time together for a couple years!!

Things are really starting to get busy with the holidays coming up, and they will be upon us, much quicker than we think!  I have so many craft projects that I must complete, including 2 quilts!  I am so excited that my daughter will be here and she has offered to help me this year!  Love you Krista!  I must sign off and get busy working on projects as they need to be done.  This is a morning post, so I can not do my normal sign off!

And on that note;


Good Day, God Bless

Upcoming Annual Sisters Weekend!!!

Things have not been well health wise for me so I have not been able to post on-line for quite awhile.  My Chiari Malformation I and Syringomyelia knocked me down for the month of September.  My right arm is pretty much numb, which makes it almost impossible to type.  Besides it is also difficult to sew, knit and crochet also.  I'm trying to figure out different ways to do all of these things.  Eventually I will get it, please be patient with me.

Thursday, September 22, 2010, is the one year anniversary date of my Brain Surgery! I still am in shock that I had to have brain surgery.  Every day, I am reminded of the brain surgery by  turning the wrong way way or stepping the wrong way!  It still surprises me how seriously this surgery affected my life and will continue to affect my life.

The good news this month is that I was approved for Social Security Disability.  They will review again in 5 - 7 years.  But this is a huge weight off my back.  I don't have to worry about this for quite awhile.  Thank goodness.

Upcoming this weekend is my annual Sisters Weekend!  I believe we are working on Year 20 or 21 I will have to verify this with Amelia (Amy) She should know for sure what weekend it is.
Friday, September 23, 2010, Carol and I are heading up to the farmstead.  We are then going to the casino on the Red Lake Reservation for dinner Friday night.
Saturday, September 24, 2010, we are just hanging out at the farm doing what we want, I think Carol and I are going to go into Bemidji and go to the quilt stores and hopefully pick up some fun fabric!  Dinner Saturday night, Josie is making a Roast with potatoes/carrots, etc.
Sunday, September 25, 2010. is the Vikings game to watch (hopefully I will stay awake this weekend for the game this week) I slept through almost the entire game this past weekend.  And it doesn't sound like I missed much.  After the football game there will be an open house at the farm invitations went out to Aunts; Uncles; Cousins and other people that we grew up with.

And on that note,

Good Night, God Bless

or as my Father would say

Bog Laku Noc (which translates to God, Good Night)

Empty Nest Syndrome again?

My son left on Thursday night to go back to college for his Junior/Senior year.  I know that doesn't make sense.  He should be a senior this year, but he started half-way through the freshman year and he is taking a triple major so he actually has to go through next year, but I'm not sure if he has to go the entire year.  His girlfriend will graduate this year so she will graduate and he will still be there for another year, that could be an interesting situation.


I have been working on my United States Quilt Block Collection more this week.  I now have in hand fabric for 21 states and 3 partial states.  I am still only missing those same 5 states;  Connecticut; Delaware; Kentucky; Louisiana and Montana.  I just don't understand why those states are so hard to find? Do people not quilt in those states? Maybe not.  All of the fabric that I have in has been pre-washed, pressed and is stacked in alphabetical order.

Now I am spending time tracing all of the Quilter's 12x18 Extra Thick Plastic Template templates and then I will cut them out and put them in baggies labeled by the states.  Some states have several state specific templates others have none, and only use the common templates, of which there are 28.  I will trace those and cut them out and keep them in a large baggie.  I'm still trying to figure out how to keep those in order, so I'm not digging through a mess everytime I need one.

Once I have all the templates cut out, I will be able to start cutting out fabric for the states that I have.  I will cut out everything that I have and store it in - you guessed it - Ziploc Sandwich Bags - 125-Count, and then I will sew the blocks in alphabetical order.  Looks like I should be sewing by the middle part of the week, as long as I don't procrastinate to much or I don't have a horribly painful week!  I am really looking forward to getting started and seeing how some of these blocks are going to turn out.




I haven't had any new information on the medical front, which is really frustrating, this weekend, my entire right side has been on fire from my hip down to my foot, and my lower back feels like one of the screws is turning itself out.  I have had these pains before so I know I will survive and I try to just ignore them, but sometimes it gets very hard to do so.  Chris was gone all day yesterday in Red Wing at a family friends funeral, so I was home all alone.  I did get a lot done in my sewing room, all of the templates for the Baltimore's Country Cousins are traced and all the fabric is picked out!  I can start that quilt at any time I wish to!  I may need to get some more Steam A Seam to complete the quilt.  I did also got some rest, which was nice.    Today, I spent most of the day pressing the pre-washed fabrics that came in this past week, seems like fabric comes every day, which means, I have to make sure that I get the mail and not leave it for Chris!  LOL

Remember at the beginning of all of this I talked about a quilt that I made for Chris 10 years ago.  I explained that some of the fabrics were falling apart and those fabrics were from people who are no longer with us.  I thought everyone might like to see what I am trying to replace and why Chris wants to keep it and not let it get ruined any further.  Surprisingly this is one of my first quilts that I made all on my own.  The Ladies Aid from my mother's Catholic church tied the quilt without me knowing.  I was on my honeymoon and my Mother decided to do this as a birthday gift for me.

No appointments this week, I have knitting on Wednesday night, but no-one has RSVP'd, so I may just cancel it tomorrow.  It's to the point where it might be a good idea to cancel knitting permanently since no-one shows up anymore and everyone is going back to school next week. Last Wednesday night the only people that came were my sister and my niece and we ended up running to JoAnn's.  I picked up embroidery thread to work on name tags for stockings that my other sisters made for everyone, and I also picked up fabric for two of my exchanges.  Chris will be heading to Grand Forks for his family reunion which I was so excited to go to, but the doctor informed me I couldn't :(. 




Project help - We drew names for Christmas this week, although I've known since last Labor Day who I had this year.  I make a quilt every year, so the drawing gets fixed for me.  Anyway, I'm actually on my last quilt that needs to be made this year and I need some ideas.  Comments please, I hear the recipient like Teal, but I need something really special for this lady.



And on that note,

Good Night, God Bless

or as my Father would say

Bog Laku Noc (which translates to God, Good Night)

Sorry, I've been gone so long!

My health has kept me away from my blog, not because I couldn't type, but because I didn't want to type.  I was pretty depressed the last couple of weeks, and just not feeling good all the way around, saw the Pain Clinic doctor today, He didn't make me feel much better, but I know that I need to come up for air and breathe normally.  This hiding away doesn't do anyone any good, especially me!!  Enough of the whining and complaining as my son would say - let's try to stay on the positive side.

I received my chickens back they are very cool, I got 6 - 12 1/2" unfinished blocks; 3 - 10 1/2" unfinished blocks; 1 - 9 1/2 " unfinished block and 1 - 6 1/2" block.  Not sure how I am going to put those all together.  I ended up not getting any of mine back though.  I did have my nephew take pictures when he was visiting here so I thought you'd like to see them.  Not bad for a first try!

My fall fat quarter exchange went really well also, I ended up with 12 really cool fall colored fat quarters.  I am very excited by them and again, have to figure out what I am going to use them for, I might just use the fat quarters to add to the chickens to make a quilt then all I need is to purchase the batting and backing!  LOL

Another one of my Chickens I sent for the swap

I enjoyed these to exchanges so much that I'm already signed up for six more.  Two Layer-Cake exchanges - a HO HO HO Layer Cake and It's a Snowman New Year Layer Cake.  The first one is just any 2 Christmas fabrics cut into 10" squares, one set for each swapper.  The second one is one snowman fabric and one snowflake fabric cut into 10" squares.  One set for each swapper.  Then there are two Fat Quarter Swaps - a Batik FQ Swap and a Merry Christmas FQ Swap.  The first one is 12 Batik FQ's, maximum of 4 alike, so I will get 3 yards of fabric and send 4 FQ's of each, the second Merry Christmas FQ swap has not been explained yet, it is not filled with swappers yet.  The final two are completely different - the first is a Mystery Swap - This one we were given the directions to make 48 blocks out of white on white fabric along with any other dark fabric and light fabric such as purple or blue, etc. No pink, or pastels.  This should be interesting.  The Last is an I-Spy swap where you send 10 - 5" charms to each person that can be used in an I-Spy Quilt.  Should end up with at least 100 charms.  This should be fun to make a children's quilt out of.  Now, I think, I best hold off on any more swap/exchanges for awhile, what do you think??

I am still working on my bags for the Gifty projects, I have 4 bags, half way done, 2 of each of the first two projects.  I am on block #15 for the Farmers Wife Quilt and then I will be moving on to the next session.  I have the fabric pulled out at least, so that's something. I have all of the fabrics

picked out for all of the applique for the Baltimore Country Cousins quilt and 2 blocks worth of steam & seam cut out and ready to go.  I am going to start tracing the rest of the blocks as soon as I get done blogging!!

Last but not least:  The United States Quilt Block Collection, this has really taken off, I need to get busy and copy all of the templates.  I am down to only needing 5 states, so if any of you want to volunteer to help, please I'm more than willing to discuss the fabric requirements or e-mail them.

States still needed - Connecticut; Delaware; Kentucky; Louisiana; Montana  
 I really want to get started on the sewing for this quilt, I need to get the templates all copied and cut out.  All the fabric needs to be washed and pressed.  Then each block will need to be cut out and labeled and kept in a baggy.  Once I have caught up to what is here, I can start sewing!!!  I am debating if I want to do the Quilt as You Go technique on this quilt or if I want to have it quilted when it is all complete.  I have to decide that before I start sewing any of my blocks together also.  Wow - who would have thought the amount of decisions you would have to make just to make a quilt?

My son heads back to college tomorrow, so my husband and I are back to being empty nesters again.  I'm really not sure how I feel about that this year. I am going to be sad!  Although the two of us have really been getting on each other's nerves the last couple of weeks, so it is time.  We need our space!  Love him so much, but he's lived away for 2 years and then to move home, and we get on each others nerves - we are a little to much alike.

                                   And on that note,

                                   Good Night, God Bless

or as my Father would say

Bog Laku Noc (which translates to God, Good Night)

My first attempt at Applique exchange!

This week I am sending out my first attempts at block exchanges and fat quarter exchanges.  It is exciting, yet a bit scary.  I have not done a lot of applique and the block exchange for this week is an applique chicken.  The fat quarter exchange is much easier, since I am just picking out a few fall fabrics and cutting them up into fat quarters and mailing them off along with a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) for the exchange moderator to send my new fat quarters back to me.

If you have never done an exchange it can be quite exciting and it is a way to change up your fabric without spending a lot of money, or sometimes, no money at all.  My only expenses for the exchanges this week is my Steam-a-Seam, which is used to fuse the applique down to the background fabric.  I had to buy two packages.  I have decided that if I continue to do a lot of applique I may purchase it by the yard, but I'll look into it further at that time.  I will send out 9 applique blocks three different sets of three.  I will receive 9 blocks back, 9 totally different blocks that I can make a quilt out of, including one of mine, not sure which one though, which is part of the fun! The expenses for the fat quarter exchange was the cost of two total yards of 3 different types of fabric which will give me 8 fat quarters and the other 4 fat quarters that I need I am taking from my stash.   
(Stash = Special Treasures All Secretly Hidden)  As
As with the block exchange I will send out 5 different types of fat quarters, but I will receive a minimum of 12 different types back.  See what fun this can be.  Fabric exchanges can be as simple as exchanging Fat Quarters, Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, all different types of cut fabric measurements.  Or you can make them a bit more difficult and make them about a specific type of block, such as the applique block, or specific brand name fabric, etc.  It can get quite interesting.  Whatever they are about, I am having a really difficult time saying no to them right now, and that is not a good thing! Especially when they are blocks that take time.  I will persevere though.

Nothing new on the United States Quilt Block Collection , still at 13 states.  Could really use some assistance on getting these last few states taken care of.  Maybe if I get a few of the blocks done it will provide a boost for those who don't really understand what I am doing.

I spoke with my Family Doctor today and am going to forward all my MRI's and Operation information to The Wisconsin Chiari Center to see if they will be able to help me. Tomorrow I will call our insurance to see if there is any way possible that they will cover the appointment there or not.  I sure hope so.  For now, I am going to head into my sewing room and cut things out and iron for a while.  Once I have finished that I am going to try to read a little bit tonight.  I am reading a The Quilter's Homecoming by Jennifer Chiaverini, this one has taken a little longer than all the others so far.

And on that note,

Good Night, God Bless

or as my Father would say

Bog Laku Noc (which translates to God, Good Night)