Here is the third pillow I made for our bed. This one is the best, I think. I am having such fun making pillows. I practiced my free motion quilting a bit more and it is getting better. My stitches are becoming more uniform and the curves are smother. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Karen is home today and she sounded so good when I talked to her this morning. I am sure she is enjoying being home with her family. In a couple of weeks she will go back to the doctor and they will make sure all is working properly. However she said there is one thing she can not do for 6 weeks that is going to be a challenge, she can not lift her left arm up. It could pull out the leads to her heart. I spent the day seeing if I could do that and it is really tough. No pull over shirts, no reaching for things in the upper cupboards and the list goes on and on. I hope it becomes second nature to her but I imagine it will be a real challenge for a while. Thanks to all of you who sent good thoughts.

Pillows for my bed

Today I finished a couple of pillows for our bed. I had such a great time making these. I made them with fabric that I have been hording and what better thing could I do with it than make something that I can see and feel when I want. I also practiced my machine quilting skills. One of the pillows I quilted kind of a square roundabout thing and I did some stippling on the other one. I am getting better but I still have a long way to go. I have also made another pillow top and it is ready to baste. The third one will be 4 smaller wonky log cabin squares sewn together. Now I have a question for all of you out there, when you machine quilt do you baste the quilt sandwich together?

Continued good news and pillows

Good Evening, I spent the day waiting for phone calls and making them. I am very pleased to say all is continuing to go well for my sister. The pace maker is in and now it is time for healing to begin. I am hoping that by doing this she can get back to life as it was. She should be able to drive again and be mom, wife and teacher. Fortunately she has the summer off with her family before she has to go back to teaching in the fall. She always puts herself last on the list and I hope she knows she is very important to so many people especially her older sister.

The photos in this post are of my new bed pillows in the making. I was reading Marilyn's blog and she talked about how so many of us sleep under purchased quilts and not our own which we have created. She got me to thinking about my bed which has nothing that I have created. So like her I thought I should start with some bed pillows. So here they are, they are ready to baste and possibly quilt this weekend. I hope to make a couple more since, much to my husbands dismay, I love lots of pillows on our bed.

I also entered a drawing for a box of Amy Butler scraps on Sherre's blog which I hope I am the lucky winner of.

All Went Well

Karen went in for surgery early this morning and has received her pace maker. I have been staying in contact this morning through text messages with her 15 year old daughter. All went well. I am hoping her and her family are all together and enjoying the resolution.

I will update this as I know more but so far so good!!!

Not such a good day.

For those of you who follow my blog you know all about my sister and then yesterday I posted good news of what is going on with her. Now things have changed this morning. She had an episode this morning at home. Fortunately the heart monitor that they put in her chest was still there. She recorded the episode and called the Dr in Montana, only to find out that her heart stopped for 15 seconds. Scary!!! She found out that they worry about it stopping for 3 seconds. So she is on her way to Billings for surgery and probably a pace maker tomorrow. Please send good thoughts north, south, east and west to her. I wish I could be there with her but she has her wonderful family with her and they will keep me posted.

Something New and Some Great News

Yesterday I tried something new. I volunteered to make a couple Log Cabin Twist squares. Here is the first one. This is pieced on paper. It was confusing when I first read about it and decided I would just jump in and give it a try. It was such fun. I have always thought sewing on paper was fun but sewing fabric on paper was even better. These squares will join 88 others made by members of the Gold Beach Quilters for a quilt to be raffled off to benefit CASA. CASA for Children trains adult volunteers as Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA Volunteers. I really enjoy being able to do something I enjoy that will benefit someone.

I am also very, very happy about the news I got last night from my sister. For the last 3 months she has had to be put through a multitude of tests to find out why she passed out. First they thought she had a seizure and then they ruled that out then they thought it was an electrical problem with her heart and they have now ruled that out too. She has been unable to drive for the last 3 months which created additional stress. Yesterday she was given a clean bill of health and also a letter to the State DMV stating that the doctor feels she can drive again. She sounded so happy last night. The may never know what caused the blackout but we suspect that it was a medication which she was on and is no longer taking. I am so thankful that she is healthy and now HAPPY!!! Thanks for all of you who expressed your concerns. All those good thoughts were helpful.

9 Patch quilt-a-long

I have been making a 9 patch a day with many other bloggy quilters. Crazy Mom Quilts challenged us on April 27th to make one 9 patch a day. I now have 63 patches. I am excited about this project. Since I am a hoarder of scrap pieces of fabric it has been such fun to use some of them.
I laid them all out today and have been looking at them. I now have to decide if I want to put them on the diagonal or straight. I also have a pile of squares for a scrappy border. This is the first real quilt that may cover a bed. I am excited and scared about it. Once I get it together then the real job will begin, quilting it.