A.D.D. and/or post- Nyquil Haze??

Where is my camera? I would love to show you pictures of my current quilt-in-progress but I just can't seem to remember where I put my camera.

I headed to Best Buy to get another USB cable for my camera since the cable that came with the camera was not in the pile of USB cables for other techno stuff. When driving to Best Buy I remembered I needed to go to Home Depot for a new garage door opener. Since Home Depot was closer I went there first. When I came out of Home Depot I saw Target and realized I needed to get a few household items. Since Target was right there I went there next. I browsed around Target not even thinking about checking their USB stock. When I left Target and was walking to my car I saw a "Big Sale" sign in the window of Bath and Body Works...well I could not ignore this with Birthday's starting over again. When I left B&BW I remembered I needed a few craft items from Michael's. Well....I spent over an hour there. My husband calls and wants to meet me for lunch....great idea since I was starving. When I was headed home from eating I remembered some food items I needed from the grocery store. I grabbed their sale ad and saw some great buys which I headed straight for. When I arrived home and emptied the car I realized I had never gone to Best Buy for the cable, needed a special battery for the garage door opener and was so excited about the grocery sale I forgot to get the ingredients I needed for supper. And I still don't know where my camera is.

Post-Script: I finally found my camera. I put it in my purse when I was headed to Best Buy. I guess I need a larger camera or smaller purse. I will post pictures as soon as I get some rest!

Happy Quilting! Happy Living!

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!

Happy Winter

Happy Winter to all! I think it's here!

~Life Notes~

It's cold and wet here in the South. Winter has arrived. Today I needed an umbrella and coat. Tomorrow I can leave the umbrella at home and wear a short sleeve sweater and light jacket. The next day I'll probably need the umbrella again and then the next day...who knows...a snowsuit! I do like winter though....especially in the South! Warm thoughts and hot cocoa go out to all who live in a colder climate. Hoping that your furnace doesn't stop working.

Daughter is home now from college. We like having her home...we just need to re-adjust. Hubby was waiting patiently for her to finish her Wii game so that he could watch Sunday Night Football. Everyone wants to use the bigger HD TV at the same time. I'm going to leave it to them and go upstairs to finish my Christmas gift wrapping while sipping on some hot cocoa.

~Quilting Notes~

Hubby could not think of anything to get me for Christmas even though Josephine was suppose to be my Christmas gift. (New Baby-Lock sewing machine I bought in October). He wanted me to have something to open on Christmas morning. So I sent him to my LQS and told him to find Karen, the store owner. An hour later he came home with four gifts. Karen even wrapped them up for him in pretty Christmas paper she had at the store. I've shaken the boxes and lifted the gifts bags to test the weight. Can't wait to open them. Karen has such good taste. I wonder if Hubby would mind receiving a gift certificate from there for his birthday....hum?

I've joined yet another quilt club at my LQS. It's the Silver Thimble Quilt Club. It's hosted by a quilting professional/pattern designer (Pat Wys). Pat calls it the 21st century quilting bee. It's a fellowship of new and experienced quilters all doing something they enjoy. Sounds like fun. I've always liked to sew/quilt with a group.

~Crafting Notes~

I've been making my own Christmas gift labels. These were cut on my Cricut machine. I just received a new Christmas cartridge and could not wait to try it out.

I'll make pretty name labels on the computer and stick them to the back. I would love to use my Cricut die cutting machine more often, but my quilting takes up most of my spare time. The Cricut can cut fabric too. I was hoping on day to try it and cut out appliques. It would be wonderful if I could blend all my equipment to use for my two favorite hobbies...quilting and scrapbooking.

~Nursing Notes~

This segment of notes was inspired by a fellow quilter/blogger/nurse julieQ who does this on her site, which I thought was such a great idea.

A female patient on our floor (I will call her Mary) has just reached her 60th day stay with us. My unit is a short term acute care surgical stepdown unit, so when a patient has stayed as long as she has she becomes part of our family. Mary's body is trying so hard to heal itself but with every step forward towards healing there always seems to be two steps back that eventually occurs. Mary has been with us through Halloween and Thanksgiving and will probably be there with me through the Christmas Holiday. Mary doesn't and really can't come out of her room much because of all the lines and tubes and drips. Mary never has many visitors. Husband is elderly and in bad health and children live out of town. Mary is always on the lookout for someone to talk to and socialize with. Many times I've sat with Mary and chatted with her while completing my nursing charting tasks. Mary is always interested in what is happening in other people's lives and hardly turns the conversation to herself or her illness. The other day one of the nurse's bought Mary an electical candle fountain. It's the cutest thing, about 8 inches long and 6 inches high. It looks like a real candle with flowing wax. This one little gift has been like a fish hook in the water. Hospital personnel, patients and their families walking past Mary's door notice the lighted candle fountain and go in and admire it and ask about it. Mary has made so many friends that now stop by to chat with her. The little gift that was given to Mary has been like a friendship beacon that welcomes everyone to her room. Now Mary seems to know something about everyone now....staff and patients!

Hope everyone has a great week.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Quilting!

Happy Living!

I won!

I won! Givaways are so much fun! Especially if you win! Below are the goodies I received today in the mail from Sandy at http://sandyssewclever.blogspot.com/

Thank you Sandy so much for hosting. It's always fun to get something other then bills and junk mail. I love the books. They are filled with loads of inspiration and the fat quarters are the perfect color.

Hope that everyone has had a great day. Happy Quilting! Happy Living!

Recent Happenings

Remember the challenge fabric from my quilt guild. (The fabric that I tried to love but never could develop a bond with). Here are some of the quilts that were produced. We have such talented quilters in our guild. I was totally taken back.

I believe there were 12 or 13 entries and all were great and well thought out. Just about everyone thought the fabric was definitly a challenge to work with, but the quilts were beautiful. One of the entries was even an apron! Why didn't I think of that?

I would have never thought of fish! I need to hang around these members more. They inspire me so! Great job to all!

I really enjoyed my time when my mother and I were together, both here in Georgia and in Louisiana. We had a great time .

Here are three generations posing with World of Coke 4-D glasses on. We laughed so much taking these pictures we cryed. What a great time we had.

My mother and I sewing together for the first time ever.....as adults. In my younger days she taught me a lot about sewing and crafting, but we never really sewed together as adults. We created great memories while we were together.

Mom really liked her new sewing machine. I was so glad she bought it. She plans on doing much more sewing when she retires at the first of the year. She even bought a layer cake bundle to make a quilt once she retires.

First time ever in her 72 years using a rotary cutter. She did a great job. Way to go mom! Nothing ever holds her back. She always wants to keep learning. I hope that nothing ever holds me back when I'm 72.

Mom and her new sewing machine. She really needed a new one. This one threads the needle itself which was the selling point for her. We were both so proud walking out the store with a new machine. Christmas came early for both of us this year!

My husbands elbow surgery went well. They had him back there for 2 hours! Hopefully this will bring back some feelings for two of his fingers that have been numb since his Tommy-John surgery in January. We will see. The MD said that full feelings may not return for 2 or 3 years...those nerve endings do grow mighty slow. It will be what it is though.

I hope to get some quilting done tomorrow. It's suppose to rain. I always love to quilt in my studio while it's raining. I love to hear the rain hitting all the windows. But....A new Hobby Lobby recently opened so I might swing by there and check out the new store. Hopefully I can visit the store and quilt...if I don't get side-tracked.

Happy Quilting. Happy Living!

Back Home Again!

Then back to Louisiana. And then Back home to Georgia again! My what a traveling woman I have been this past month! My mother is back to her normal self again. Thank you so much for all of your well wishes. I was able to talk my mother into coming back to Georgia with me for the two weeks before going back to La. for my 30 year class reunion. So... one and a half weeks after surgery she traveled to Georgia with me where we had a wonderful time. She even bought a new sewing machine while visiting with me. She attended my quilt guild meeting and monthly strip club meeting. She mentioned how much she disliked her sewing machine so we sat down at one of the Baby Lock's and she fell in love! We left the store with a new sewing machine in tow....also an apron pattern and fabic to make four. She played around with her new machine and finished the four aprons in two days! We had so much fun sewing together. I will download pics shortly. At the moment I sitting in an outpatient surgery unit waiting for my husband. He is having elbow surgery this very minute (second time around).

I really enjoyed being with my mother these last few weeks. I feel we became great friends again. We have always gotten along as mother and daughter and now we have gotten along as friends. Thank you God for giving me my mother. Thank you Mom for being the mother you are. I love you dearly!

Home to Louisiana

Currently I'm back home in Louisiana. My mother had a scheduled surgery late last week with complications developing after surgery and major pain issues. I threw personal items together Saturday morning (along with quilting items), called work to scratch me off the schedule for the week, kissed my hubby, petted Harley (he is 3 years old for those who asked on previous post) gased up the car and off I went. Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day for a drive. I arrived safely in Baton Rouge 7.5 hours later. Being a nurse and having to stay at the hospital as a family member gives me an all new perspective of patient and family life at the hospital. (Those beds...both for family and patients are so uncomfortable). My mother received excellent care though. The nursing and medical staff were great.

My mother is now home and comfortable and for the most part her pain is well controlled. I'm trying to keep her from doing too much. She is 73 but acts like she is 43....always on the move which I'm sure keeps her young feeling. (Right, Mom?)

It's always good to come home. I've not been back home to Louisiana since Christmas. Work and life should not be that busy. I always have such a laid-back feeling when I'm back in La. Maybe I'll get some quilting done, maybe I won't. Have a great Tuesday. Thanks for visiting.

Happy Quilting! Happy Living!