WIZARD OF OZ PICS

Karla does such a beautiful job on these swaps. What a lot of work for her. She always does the front cover and they are pieces of art. She even made the suckers she put on it.
The rest are from various gals in the swap. I have really enjoyed going in this and the last one with Alice in wonderland.

Here are some pics of the little booklet she put together. I did not want to take it apart as I probably would not get it back together with all the ribbons, etc. The first pic is the front cover. I did not post all of them but you get the idea.

Hope you enjoy looking at them.

SWAP PACKAGE ARRIVED

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when the postman arrived. My swap package of Christmas pieces from the swap with Jillayne of A fine seam arrived. What a wonderful package she made of it. For each one of us she made a beautiful bag decorated with a flower and piece of jewellery to put our swap pieces into. the bag itself is a wonderful gift to keep and she also included a sweet little heart she made and a lovely card.

The 5 pieces inside are all very lovely and very different. they could be fabric, paper, whatever the artist wanted to make. I received a lovely selection and am thinking of how I will display them. When I made mine with the lace covered fabric and the Christmas angel I also made one for me to keep myself. Now if I could find where I put it I would be happy. I should never put anything away.

2 of the 5 were not signed so I cannot say thank you to them but the other 3 were so I will drop them a note of thanks. If you read my blog and one of the unsigned ones is yours, please leave a comment so I can thank you.

Between this and the matchbox swap I am getting into the Christmas mood early. I rarely make Christmas gifts these days so these swaps are fun.

SLOWLY BACK

Hi to all my friends and family and thnk you for all your emails, cards, messages, etc. It has been 2 weeks today since surgery and I am feeling almost back to normal except for occasional stabs of pain in my stomach. I had my first outing yesterday to see the surgeon and he said I am doing very well and am too hard on myself expecting too much too soon. He said you had major surgery and are doing very well for it. I guess that is just me. Slowly is not my name. He said it will just take time. I have to go back to see him Nov. 3 and if all is well we can leave for Florida the next weekend Nov. 6th. I think that is one of the problems. I am itching to get packing and get down there and get settled for the winter.

I haven't really done any stitching. I can't seem to sit and concentrate on any one thing yet. I know that will change also. My butterfly quilt is packed up and I will take it to Forida to finish down there.

I was in a Wizard of Oz swap with Karla Nathan and my book was here when I came home. I will take pics in the next couple of days and show you some of the great tages I received.
Karla's swaps are always wonderful with her adding her art and making little books of the tags.

I joined the Swap for All seasons with 25 matchboxes decorated for Christmas and with a little gift inside. They are numbered 1 to 25 and it is like an advent calender. You open 1 a day and can make a small tree and end up with 25 by Christmas day. I have a small ornament in each one but did not want to show it in case someone gets one of mine. spoil the surprise. I did them and posted them off before the hospital. I also made one for each of the gals at the CQI retreat but not christmas related. They had a beaded dragonfly on each one with a piece of jewellery inside that I collected all last winter at the flea markets.They can wear them or use them in CQ. I hope I took a picture and will post one if I have one. I was in such a hurry to get them finished I might have forgot.

It is good to be back talking to you all and will not be so long again. This is the longest I have been away from posting.

I'M BAAAAACK!

Not quite that peppy but here. This was longer and harder then I expected but now it is over.

I came home Sunday and have been weaning myself off the meds as they make me feel dopey and nauseated. It will just take time which I am not used to being tied down.

Thanks for all your emails and kind thoughts. I will post more in a few days when feeling better. Hugs FredaB

HOME AGAIN

I left last Thurs. for the CQI retreat in Estes Park, Colorado and returned home last night. I had a great time and it was fun meeting people who I have talked to and read their blogs but never met. Some I had met at Omaha but a lot were new. We ate, slept and tried new things that other people knew and taught small classes. The old saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" certainly did not apply to me. I learned quite a few new things that I will put to good use when I get back to stitching. They were a greeat group of gals to spend time with.

This will be a short post. I did not mention it previously to anyone but today I am doing the colonoscopy prep as tomorrow I go in for colon surgery. On my colonoscopy about a month or so ago they found a flat polyp that was labelled Hi Grade Displasia but I have been assured not cancer. The problem is if I did not have it surgically removed it could become cancer so at 6 am tomorrow morning we trot off to the hospital for surgery to remove a piece of my colon at 7.30.

The hospital stay should be about 3-5 days - hopefully 3.

I will post again as soon as possible. Hugs FredaB