LITTLE FUN TODAY

I was in a TJMAXX store earlier this week killing time between a dentist appt. and an eye Dr. appt. who are right across the road from each other. I did not want to go home and then come back again so I went shopping. Last spring Karla from Karlas cottage had a swap with the Alice in Wonderland theme. I was in it and received some really neat tags. We sent in 6 and receved 6 plus Karla set it up as a book with the cover page designed by her. She is a beautiful artist and it was really great. Well what did I spy but this tin and thought isn't that cute but when I picked it up it was heavy. Inside was a mug and a coaster. The whole thing was only 6.99 so the child in me said "buy it". I will take it to Florida and sit in the sunroom drinking tea from my new mug. Apparently they made a lot of different things including a little tea service according to the book inside. That would be sweet for a child's gift.

I am off to Colorado on thurs. morning to the CQI retreat in Estes Park with Cathy K, Leslie E. and 17 others. There are 20 of us all together. It should be a fun time - no set classes or teachers - just us gals and will help with whatever we know if someone wants to learn something. Most of these gals have blogs so it is going to be fun meeting all these gals who I feel I already know. I am flying home Mon. afternoon. It has been 90 in denver so hope it cools down a bit by the weekend.

I have been cooking up a storm for Harv. plus both Sue & Mike are within 10 minutes of us if he needs help. They will be checking on him every day as I will long distance. Just hope our cell phones work out there.

I am not taking my laptop so this will be my last post until I get back. Hugs Freda

THE WINNER IS -

I added up the number of comments I received after the first posting and at breakfast asked Harv to pick a number. He said 23 and that was my sweet friend PAT WINTER.

Pat is a very giving person and always gives very generously so it is nice to be able to send this to her. I will get to the post office Mon. or Tues. and I do have your address.

Now back to finishing 25 match boxes for a Christmas swap I am in.

GIVEAWAY REMINDER

Just a reminder that the giveaway of the needlecase and sewing items ends tomorrow night. I will pick a winner Sat. morning.

LAST FOUR BLOCKS

here are the last 4 blocks from the Christmas tree skirt I just finished.

CHRISTMAS TREE BLOCKS

There are 8 squares sewn together. I normally would put a tassel on the end of each point but they have cats and Jeana said the cats wouldn't leave the tassels alone. They also have 2 large collie dogs. Beauties.

Also I will enter the skirt again and hope they do not switch it sideways. Was a wonky picture. Well still wonky - I give up.

Remember to comment on the GIVEAWAY I showed on Sept. 16th. that will end this Fri. night.

CHRISTMAS TREE SKIRT

Yesterday I finished my son & DIL's crazy quilt skirt. this is the third I have made and the last. I made mine which is a larger, different pattern one and my oldest son and his wife wanted one but I said it would have to be smaller. I found this pattern and made them one a couple of years ago. My middle son & DIL asked if I would make them one (at least she did) and so I made another one. My daughter will get mine - the first one - with all the family mementos on it in the next year or two as we are now staying in Florida for Chiristmas and I have just a small tree.

I will show the finished one today and then show closeups of the 8 blocks over the next couple of days.

GOOD NEWS & CENTER

I just received a phone call from the cardiologist group where Harv had the stress test and another Dr. called to say that it was just fine. So now we can go along as usual. What the blip was they don't know and after all the tests and blood work we will just not worry about it.

I am posting a picture of what I am going to use as the centre of my butterfly quilt. She will be attached to a good piece of muslin before I start work on her and then will eventually be attached to the background diamond shape surrounded by the four beaded corners. I am going to use beads to highlight her wings and some silk ribbon to highlight the grasses at the bottom. I have also dyed a large lace motif to wrap up one side. Will have to wait until she is done to see if that will look good or nI did not want to use a butterfly as I did not follow their pattern except for the layout which I liked. Every block will be surrounded by black. Hope you like my gal. She will be a full siz 8 1/2 by 11 pic.

300 POSTS

I hardly ever look at how many posts I have done but noticed that it was getting close to the 300 mark and today this is it. To honor this I am having a giveaway. It is a sewing needlebook that you hang around your neck while sewing. It includes a small pair of scizzors, package of embroidery needles and a package of long pearlized pins. I had purchased one from Lilla in Hawaii and liked it so well that I made 2. One for my sister in Barrie, Ontario and this one for the giveaway. It may not be as good as Lillas but didn't turn out too bad.

To win this you will have to be a follower and leave a comment before Fri. the 24th. To get another chance please advertise this on your blog and you will get 2 chances. Let me know if you do.

Harv is doing fine and had a chemical heart stress test this morning and we will get results tomorrow. They wanted to do this as a precaution after the little problem in the hospital - even though everything there turned out negative. Hope this will be a good report also. Good luck on the giveaway.

SQUARE 12

Here is the last one. I was so out of ideas by this time I hope this one is last but not least. It has more butterflies on it then any of the others. What is special is I had ordered buttons from Gerry K at OlderRose.blogspot.com and they were here when we arrived home Sat. evening from the hospital. I knew I wanted to use it so added the vine and the little cupped flowers with the button. It is beautiful and so were the others. You must go look at her site. She has an etsy shop now and has beautiful pincushions on there also.

Harv was released Sat. morning and I went to get him and when I got there the nurse said there was a problem and he couldn't go home. They had him wearing a heart monitor the whole time and as the nurses were helping him dress they had a call from the room where they monitor the heart things that his had blipped. Then the long day started. They called in a cardiologist who called for 3 different heart scans, ultra sounds, etc. plus blood work. Well unless it is an emergency time does not move fast in the hospital. After he came back from the scans they called for blood work for heart markers and we waited 2 hrs. for the gal to come up. She could not get into his veins which happened also the day of surgery. It ended up then the anathesiologist came in and finally got the IV in. Well this gal said I can't try anymore I will get someone else up here. 2 hours later Harv ordered supper and had eaten it at 6.30 when the next gal arrived. She was just about to give up and said I will give it one last try and she got it in. then another 1 1/2 until the blood tests came back. Everything was negative and after the cardiologist (who was at home by this time) read it all he said he is fine let him go. At 8.30 we got him dressed and out of there. He does want him to have a chemical stress test and we have an appt. for this thurs. 8.15 for it. Just to be absolutely safe. He said something that made my blood run cold. He said there might have been a small clot that broke away and caused it. He was on 3 shots in the stomach each day plus wearing the leg things that puff up and down. Now we just wait and see.

My cq gals can skip the above paragraph as I put this in for family and friends but I consider all of you friends so you may read it if you wish. Hugs FredaB

ps - I should add the butterfly by the vine is just pinned on. I was just trying it to see if it looked okay and the empty green/grey spot needs something but I don't know what yet. What say you all about the butterfly. Leave it there or take it off?

PURSE FRONT FINISHED

Here are the latest pics of the finished front. Now the question is do I want to bead the whole back and flap. It seems a shame because when the flap is down it covers up half the beading you have done on the front. My options are to leave the back plain because when wearing it over the shoulder you would not see the back. The other option is to bead just the front flap with a small amount going over into the back to maintain the beading look. The next option is to cut off the flap and just finish the purse cut straight across with a snap to close it and a pretty cord for the shoulder strap and with an elegant fabric for the lining. Which ever I choose it will not be done probably until I am in Florida. I took a pic of the tray with all the beads I used in this project. Not an awful lot of any one but you need a lot of changes in size and color to look good.
I will put all these in a box and keep them seperate from my regular beads so I will have the same colors and sizes as I used on the front.

Please let me know your thoughts on what you would do.

Good news is that Harv is doing well and they have said he can probably come home tomorrow. Will have to wait until the Dr. okays it but looking good for tomorrow. He will be glad to come home but they have been so wonderful to him that he is getting a little spoiled. This hospital is more like a hotel. He has a full menu and just calls in and orders what he wants to eat from the menu and it will be delivered to him within 1/2 hour or less. No more set hours. Breakfast from 6 - 10.30 and lunch and dinner anytime before 7.30pm. He was on strictly a liquid diet until last night then they said he could order off the menu. He had soup, roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, warm apple cobbler served with or without ice cream and milk. Thought he was in heaven after a strictly liquid diet since last Sun. but he paid for it later. He felt very bloated and not too well. I told him he had too much and he said he knows now so he took it lighter today. The room has a love seat that opens to a bed if you need to stay overnight with a child or very sick patient. I think I will check myself in. Not really.

SQUARE 11 addition

I was going to mention yesterday that I had something to put on the black corner patch but I had not been able to find where I had put it so didn't say anything. Well I opened a box today (a Laura Secord chocolate box for my Canadian friends) that had little flowers and bits and pieces and there was the little guy. I had bought a bunch of them at the fibre arts show in Florida last Dec. but for some reason only bought this one little guy back to Chicago. He works perfect on that corner because his colours match the ribbon colors on the lace piece.

Harv. had his surgery today and is doing very well. He will be in the hospital for a few days but he is in the new high rise addition to NW Comm. Hospital in Arlington Hts. that just opened in May. Each room is private and like a luxury hotel room. Large flat screen tv on the wall, roll in shower and the room is very large. When I was in there 2 years ago Harv could not get near me in the bed because there was not enough room for his wheelchair in the 2 bed room plus I detested having to share a bathroom with another patient. I guess I am too spoiled.

I will get to bed early tonight as I have been up at 5am for the last 2 mornings and am not used to those hours. It is hard to go to sleep early if you are not used to it but I am very tired so should be no trouble tonight.

SQUARE 11

Here is square #11. I am now trying to finish off #12 then all the squares including the triangles will be done.

I was away from posting as we have had a few busy days around here. Last Fri. I had my first colonoscopy so of course thurs. afternoon and evening were too busy to be on the computer. Fri. all went well except I had 1 small polyp which he removed and I had 1 flat polyp which he scraped for a biopsy. Apparently the flat ones can be nasty. I won't get the results of the biopsies until next Mon. as he is on vacation this Thurs. & Fri. Always when you are waiting for results. Sunday we had a large birthday party at Sue's house celebrating 5 birthdays in Aug. & Sept. between John's family and ours. Great time was had by all. When Sue sends pics I will post some.

Today was Harv's turn for a colonoscopy that his surgeon requested as he is having some bowel and colon surgery tomorrow and he wanted to make sure there was nothing there to worry about. He spent most of yesterday like I did last Thurs. then we had to get up at 5 because he told me we had to get to the hospital at 6 for a 7 procedure. We get to the hospital and the Gastro dept. isn't even open. They don't open until 7. He was an hour off. I could have slept for another hour. Well all went well and we will be early to bed tonight as tomorrow he has to be at the hospital at 6 again for the 7.30 surgery. This time the time was confirmed by the nurse who called just awhile ago to make sure we don't forget. How could we?

This is getting to be like one of those newsy Christmas lament letters. I just want you to know if I don't post for a few days I will be running back & forth to the hospital. Not sure how long he will have to stay in. Hugs to all.

PURSE BEADING

Here are a couple of pics of the purse front. I am still beading on this. The trouble is I get it all set up and I can only work for an hour or so then my upper back starts to kill me. I go sit on the heating pad and read for an hour or so until it starts to ease. At this rate I will never be finished both front and back. Only 2 of the pics I took turned out so will show both but they are very similar. I have completed all the joining on the left side as you see it on the screen and did add a few branches on the right side as I had left too much room on that side when I had first put down the initial rows. IF I did it again I would hink about the first rows and where they go more. You can see there is nothing yet between the far right row and the next one to it. That will be my next days work on it.

I see again that blogger has turned my pictures. When I download them they are right side up. I know how to turn them if they are turned when I download them but it is when I enter them right side up and then enter them in the browser that they come back sideways. Sorry about that.