Happy New Year....glad it's finally here!

Life Notes:

Finally...back to a normal routine. I think I just may throw-up if I see another pie, cookie or appetizer. Just hand me a Slim-Fast shake and enroll me in a Weight Watchers meeting! It's the first of the year and time to start anew. I love the Holidays but am always glad to get back to normal...whatever that may be.

One thing I know for sure...it sure is cold! The clouds are slowly slipping in front of the sun now. Gray is beginning to be the dominant color. With rain, sleet and snow just hours away the chill is starting to set in. The radar is lit up with the colors of spring..green, blue and pink... oh Spring...how far away you seem! The fireplace awaits to become alive with warmth from the turn of a switch and hot chocolate packets wait patiently in the pantry to steam from a warm cup and be sipped upon....yeah...yeah...yeah....it's still cold outside with Southern Snow on the way...where did I place my Parka and gloves?

Quilting Notes:

Can you believe it! I actually finished two...yes...you see right...TWO quilts in December. One for daughter's dorm-mate. She wanted greens and orange colors. It was a strip quilt and had lots of subcuts but I thought it turned out nice and she loved it.

I quilted it using one of my decorative stitches from my machine. The corner squares were added as an after-thought which is why one is smaller than the other. I already had the border fabric cut and of course had to match the corner square with the border size...oops. It worked out well though.

This second quilt I actually spent about 15 hours on. It was really easy and went together fast. Part of two days to cut and piece and part of another day to quilt. I gave it to a friend of mine who has been waiting patiently for a quilt for over a year.

I was so pleased with this quilt. I just loved the fabric and colors and is much prettier in real life. The camera just could not capture the true colors.

I learned from the previous quilt and waited to cut the border fabric, therefore, my corner squares are the appropriate size. Since time was not on my side, instead of doing the normal binding I got out my serger and loaded it with four colored threads that matched the fabric color and quilting thread color and just serged where the binding would normally be. It turned out great. I finished the faux-binding in a matter of minutes. It actually took longer to thread my serger then to serge the edges! It may be my new standard in edge finishing my quilts.

My friend just loved it. I had to ask for it back though because I wanted to show it at one of my quilt clubs..She laughed, hugged it, then handed it back to me...the sign of a true friend.

Since life is now back to some kind of normalcy I can now get back to blogging and keeping up with other's blogs. I just so love doing that!

Nursing Notes:

All last week I cared for an elderly women whom we will call Alice. She was admitted with respiratory distress, fluid overload and atril fibrillation. She was progressing fairly well...her heart rhythm was corrected and she was breathing much easier with less fluid on board. When I returned to work on Monday, Alice was still there but family had made her a DNR because of near codes and intubations during the weekend from continued respiratory distress. The M.Ds did not expect her to live through the night or even through the change of shift. The off-going nurse even stayed a bit after shift change to help me with Alice if God decided to start her on her new journey and adventure. Alice made it though shift change and family maintained the death watch through out the night. Alice would wake up every now and then and carry on conversations with family and myself. I learned so much about Alice that night. Family had brought in old pictures and photo albumns and talked about how Alice had effected their lives through love and patience. The family was very close and each had several stories to tell. Even Alice had some to tell. When Alice tired and had difficutly breathing she would just drift off back to sleep while the family continued to tell stories of Alice's life journey. Family asked on occassion how much longer it would be and all I could tell them was that when God was ready for Alice he would take her. Family seemed comforted by this and continued to tell "Stories of Alice". Well...God was not ready to take Alice that night or the next day when she was transferred to Hospice care. That night I really leaned about the "dash" between the years of a persons life and I believe that family members while gathering during the "death watch" really turned out to be a "life watch" in learning so much from each other during their Stories of Alice.

Love each other. Happy Quilting. Happy Living!