My Recent Adventures

I know many have e-mailed to inquire as to what has happened and to express their care and concern.  Thank you so very much....I have to say I feel very loved and that is a wonderful feeling :)

Last Saturday I went to my Machine Embroidery Guild (MEG) meeting for a wonderful presentation on machine embroidery greeting cards given by Ellen Snyder.  I had a great time and loved Ellen's power point presentation...it was excellent!   Another member, Carol, brought some hand made greeting cards from Germany that are thought to be from the 40's.  I took several close ups in preparation for a blog post (wasn't expecting the title to be "The Adventures of Calamity Jane" that's for certain!

I really enjoyed seeing these old cards and could certainly appreciate the time and effort put into making them.

This was also my first visit to Quilt Heaven's new location.  Wow, what  a big beautiful store Lois has....if you live in the area, stop by and check it out.  I took a few pix of the shop to share.

 

Oh....I gotta tell ya it was also the last day of a sale, 25% off all fabric and an additional 5% if you finished the bolt.  Yep....you know I  did some shoppin'....and then some more shoppin'.......  Taking my sack of fabric to the car and leaving to have lunch with my girlfriends from the MEG meeting... I was very happy.

That happiness came to an abrupt end when I broke my ankle.   Suffice to say since then, time has passed in a new way.  I had 3 fractures and a dislocation which basically means I was in a world of hurt like I never knew possible.

It was Wednesday before I could get my thoughts together and I still don't recall much of  Saturday night through Tuesday.  I was taken down for Physical Therapy on Wed. and when I returned to my room someone had cleaned it nicely.  Yep...that's my quilt....I took it with me in the ambulance to help me feel safe when they took me back to Toledo Hospital Saturday night late.  My quilt provided many opportunities for conversation and of course much warmth and beauty to an otherwise un-fun place to be.

 

This is an inside view of my 7 days spent in and out of a narcotic haze.  See all these arrow buttons?  Do you think they all work? Nope!  Try to figure out which ones work and which one's don't while on narcotic pain killers is a very tough task indeed.  I pretended they were "needle up/ needle down" indicators and I was sewing...at least I was doing something I enjoyed...LOL.

Laying there I heard several things over the PA that mostly didn't make sense at the time but are quite humorous to me now.  The first was a Code Brown being announced.  Following the Code Brown came a description of a person and that they were in the West Wing.  My narcotic haze translation:  

Someone has had a toileting accident in the hallway...no...they wouldn't be giving a description of there person would they?  Oh don't tell me they are describing the the person as a brown person....I give up, I'll ask someone later.

When I asked I was told a Code Brown is a missing person....a patient who is not in their room and should be.  I was so relieved to know there were no potty in the hall...LOL.

Time as Relative

We've all heard that one...how long does a minute last?  Typically it doesn't feel like a minute is a very long time but since this accident...I  know know the entire length of 60 seconds VERY well.  When 60 seconds is attached to another 159 of it's friends and the pain is so intense all I could do was pant....well....I can tell you I have an intimate awareness of the passage of a minute.  There were several of those hours this past week and I never want to experience those again if at all possible.

THEN there were "THOSE THREE MINUTES" yesterday when time came back in to the center of my conscious awareness.  It was 12:58 on Saturday, October 19th and I had laser focus....what was I doing you may wonder?  Trying to sign on to Quilt In A Day TV for the 1:00 (my time) airing of Lady Eleanor's 35 Anniversary Party. 

There was a blank screen where you see Lady Eleanor and I was in a tizzy.  There was no way I was going to miss this program...I had my phone charged in case the ambulance transport arrived on time (little chance of that happening I thought) AND just to be 100% CERTAIN I would miss it I had my computer completely charged so I could watch while in the ambulance going across town to the Rehab Center.  The screen was blank until 1:03 when I started to hear the music play and my heart raced and I was back in my happy mode and time was fun again.  Hooray for me!  I was fortunate enough to watch 42 minutes of  Lady Eleanor and her beautiful family celebrate their 35 year Anniversary...then my screen went blank again and the streaming stopped.  I won't focus on the end....just those fun wonderful 42 minutes I so enjoyed.  Those grand babies are sooooo sweet :)

Congratulations Lady Eleanor....you sure are one very lovely role model inside and out!  I say "role model" and  I'm not referring as much to your amazing quilting career (you Quilt Hall A Famer you!!! :)  as I am to the fine woman you are and the fun you bring to what ever it is you are doing.  We need to make a beautiful red carpet just for you...a scepter  and a throne too!   Will someone get right on that as I'll be laid up for a while yet.

Last evening I lost all track of time while looking at every piece of sale fabric at Quilt In A Day....don't miss their big sale...you'll be very sad if you do! 

Until next time....thanks for hanging out with me here in the Rehab Center :)

Kelly

Golden Tapestry -Anita Goodesign

Can you believe the beautiful quilt that hung in my booth at Kaleidoscope of Quilts is a beginners project, Golden Tapestry from Anita Goodesign? It's true...Golden Tapestry is honestly a beginners project!!!  My girlfriend, Diane Giveins made this for my booth and I had people oohing and ahhhing over her quilt.


 Diane used Silk Dupioni for the background and borders.  I think the color combination really makes this quilt spectacular.  She used  Floriani Gold Metallic Thread and had absolutely no problems with the metallic thread :)  Warm N Natural was used for the batting and Diane used 2 layers of Floriani No Show Mesh (one layer vertical and one horizontal).

Each block is stitched out separately and then joined.  Below you can see that the design stitches the quilting first.

The the gold work is stitched.  Notice the outline stitching around the design, that is the outline for joining the completed rectangles.

The completed rectangle can then be trimmed -- see below.

After joining the two rectangles, the bird gets his bum attached...(couldn't resist)

After the rectangles are  joined, Diane suggests that you hang it on the wall for a few days to get a feel for how well you have stitched the rectangles together.  I think that is a great idea for all quilts honestly...that way you can see if you need to make any adjustments before you finish.

The border is completed the same way as the rectangles of the design.

The quilt is then bound as you would on any quilt.  If you make the Golden Tapestry and decide to enter it in a quilt show, it is best to add a backing and then outline several of the motifs so that the piece is quilted. 

Diane brought her Golden Tapestry to show last night at our Black Swamp Quilt Guild meeting. 

See how simple this project is to do!  Even I can manage this one :) 

I have it on good authority that if you purchase the Golden Tapestry from I Have A Notion® that you will get free lessons at the Machine Embroidery Guild (MEG) workshops.  The workshops are every third Monday of each month. Click HERE to learn more about MEG.

Appreciative Smiles,
Kelly