600 had to be special

I am supposed to still be resting and recovering from surgery, but I never did learn what that is supposed to look like so since I needed a quilt for someone in the hospital and I have all of this time on my hands, I figured quilting really isn't that strenuous :) I would be ok putting this top together and quilting it. This makes quilt number 600 that I have quilted. It was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's Chunky Churn Dash quilt and used up some of the scraps we cut at the Teen Quilt day back in early August.

The setting blocks are called Hourglass blocks and my friend Carla helped figure out how big to make them. The Churndash blocks are 12 1/2 unfinished so that means the Hourglass blocks are supposed to be the same size. Well, according to Bonnie Hunter, you add 1 1/4 inch to the size you want, which would make the square to start with 13 3/4. Well, either I can't measure or somebody's math was off because those blocks came out about an inch too big. I cut 4 of them and then messed up and cut 8 blocks at 12 3/4 inches and those came out just right. Someone doesn't know what they are doing. Most likely me :)

Do you see the mistake in this quilt? How did that happen? Ugh. After it has been quilted, I am NOT going to take it out, and I doubt the person who receives it will notice, but double ugh :)

This one is going to my across the street neighbor's band bass player, DJ. He suffered a massive heart attack and I think could use a little hug to help the healing. I stopped in at my son's school today and asked that they make a whole bunch of get well cards too because the band, the Hipwaders, plays at the school every year and most of the kids know the band members. Both of the neighbor boys attended the elementary school.

I'm in trouble now!

Look what just came in the mail! the 3 1/2 inch drunkard's path die. Now, I have both sizes which means endless possibilities for designs. I have the whole week off to recuperate from the appendectomy and between sleeping and resting, I may find a bit of time for quilting. Woo, Hoo!

more quilts in Japan pictures

Take a look at this blog and you will see more quilts in Japan. It is so nice to see the quilts in the hands of people after such a long journey.

My shoulder and side pain are getting a little better today, but my stomach is hurting more. Not sure they actually took care of the problem :( I sure hope they did and didn't just take a guess and start removing body parts that weren't really the cause of the trouble.

I had a student's family bring over brownies last night. That was so nice!

Enough with the excitement already!

Last night, across the way, about 1/4 mile from my house, there was a really big fire. It burned over 500 acres. I guess my court was the best place in the whole city to watch the fire. The next door neighor was already having a party so he had about 15 people out front in lawn chairs watching and talking and parked along the court. Then, people came from everywhere and started parking in the middle of the road, blocking the entire street. I can barely walk after my surgery and I started to get nervous. The fire was moving pretty quickly on the hill and there is a 2 lane road between where the fire was and another big grassy area and my house. I figured if it jumped that road, it would move pretty quickly across the grass area to my house and I wouldn't have a lot of time to get out. At the rate I'm moving, I wanted to have as much time as possible to get out so I called the police to clear the court. I understand wanting to watch the fire because it was really cool, but come on people, don't block the road and block people into their houses!

It was all for nothing. There were lots of fire departments out on scene, most likely because there is a prison just to the right of these pictures and you know they are going to do everything to protect the prisoners so they don't have to move them :)

The fire reached the road, but didn't jump it. It is always super windy around here, but last night it was pretty calm. That helped get the fire under control.

I'm ready for things to calm down A LOT!

Fun Friday-not

Wednesday night, after enjoying a steak burrito from Rubio's at the Open House, my stomach started to really hurt. I felt better on Thursday for most of the day and then Thursday night, it started hurting again. It just kept getting worse and worse through out the night and woke me up several times. By Friday morning I knew something was wrong. I went to Kaiser for an appointment at 9 and the doctor said she didn't think it was anything, but sent me for lots of blood work just to make me happy. When the blood work came back she said she thought I had the beginning of a bacterial infection and was going to send me home with antibiotics. I told her it had gotten worse in the hour and a half I had been waiting for the results. She agreed to let me have a CT scan of my belly. More waiting, drinking nasty iodine die and finally the test, which I had an allergic reaction to. Never had that happen before. They rushed me to the ER (was trying to avoid that costly trip) and when they got the results of the CT scan found out I had appendicitis! Yipee! So, around 8pm last night, I had my appendix removed. I asked, but apparently, they won't let you take body parts home anymore, but I did get lots of pictures of my guts! My doctor looked at me like I was strange, but was really nice because I am a teacher and wanted to show my students.

I will be out for at least a week The worst part was after I got home and the pain in my shoulder and side from the CO2 gas they pumped me with so they could see my insides. That is the worse pain I have ever had in my life and I've had 4 kids and severe migraines!

What an exciting way to spend a Friday. I don't think I will do it again.

Last night and this morning

With the change in my schedule this year, I have an extra hour in the mornings after getting my husband and two older kids off to school. Lunches are made, dishes are done and a load of laundry is thrown in and washed. What to do with the extra time? Well, what would you do? Now that the shoulder is feeling better, I am going to try and get a quilt done in the mornings. Don't worry, if the shoulder starts acting up, I will give it a rest! Promise :)

But I was able to get a quilt done last night and then another one this morning. I'm almost to 600 quilts quilted by me. Wow, in only just over 3 years. That's a lot of quilts. And, I'm almost to 300 quilts for this year alone! Double wow! No wonder my shoulder has been hurting me. About 200 of those have been since March. Sometimes I don't understand the word moderation.

Ok, off to help the little guy with his homework. He likes having the extra time in the mornings as well. Yesterday he says, Mom, you are really nice. I ask, why? He says, because you let me choose when to do my homework. Oh, is that all it takes? As long as it gets done, I don't care if he does it before or after school :) One less battle to fight!

Coming back

I'm back in business! I woke up this morning and could barely tell my shoulder was hurting! Yay! So, I quilted this one before having to head in to work today. This year's schedule has me going into work later so I can drop off my youngest at school which means I have about an hour every morning after getting everyone else off in the morning and getting all of the morning chores done. One whole hour to myself to clean, or sew. Hmmm. What would you choose?

Busy today

I got both of these quilts done today. Both are gifts for my friend at work and her partner who lost their grandmothers within a couple days of each other. They are to take to their mothers who could use a hug. I will let them pick which one they want to give to their moms. While it felt so good to quilt again, I can tell my shoulder will be killing me tomorrow. I do believe it was worth it though. I know my friend is going to appreciate these hugs. I need to make some more of the pinwheel blocks. I just love these guys! I forgot how much I love these because I was so distracted by the drunkard's path blocks. Oh, I get so easily distracted. Too bad I have to work :)

Next!

Obsessed, I think that is the only way to describe what has happened to me. And these pink/green blocks. After 3 quilts, you would think I should be out of them by now? Well, think again! There are enough blocks for one more small quilt. Loaves and fishes I tell you!

I'm hoping to actually quilt this one today (the first quilting I've done in almost a month and yes, my shoulder still hurts!) for a friend at work's mom. My friend's grandmother passed away this week and her mom was the caregiver and had a really hard time. I thought this quilt might be a nice hug for her. I need to get another one done because her partner's grandmother passed away just a couple of days earlier and her mother was also the caregiver. They are really having a hard time. The funerals for both grandmothers are on the same day in two different states. I guess I had better get busy.

I didn't show you this one

It is at Carla's now, getting quilted. I can't believe I forgot to post it when I finished it last weekend. I got the fabric in black and white for my son who is now thinking of different patterns to make for his quilt. I think I may have created a monster :)