February 21st Knee Surgery

One week ago today I had total knee replacement on my right knee....yeah can we say ouch....  Healing is going to be a bit slow, yet I'm further ahead where they thought I would be at this time.  They got me up on Wednesday morning and had me walking up and down the halls and up and down stairs.  NO problem.... as it is I'm not anywhere near in as much pain as I was when I walked into the hospital.  When you live with this type of pain and it gradually gets worse with time you don't realize how much pain you really in. So when I slivered off the bed and stood up it was awwwww, that feels good.  I was putting full body weight on the leg just hours afterwards.  NOW it looks like someone took a baseball bat to my leg and its getting better each hour it will still take several weeks to gain back the muscle control in my leg and to build back the strength.

Its really sore and swollen, but time will heal all.

But you can't keep a girl down....Gene ran up and down the stairs several times today getting supplies and getting me all set up at the kitchen table so I can at least get some piecing done.

I need to have my head examined.....WHY would I ever think other than its a pretty quilt that I wanted to make a queen sized log cabin with 8 inch blocks in burgundy and creams....its going to be a gorgeous quilt but with 80  8 inch blocks I'm now wondering how soon I can actually finish it.  I have two centers done today, no I didn't work but just a few minutes so it didn't literally take me ALL day to do these two tiny blocks, but it almost too a pair of tweezers to keep them under control.  The blocks finish out at 3 inches....  two down 78 more to go...once the centers are done the logs will be fast.  Everything is 1 1/4 inches.  VERY TINY....and big fingers don't play well together.  Wish me luck I'm going to need it.  That IS a quarter.....

Here is the quilt that I did for the Coyote Hunt that finished up this past weekend.  I don't think I have ever given a quilt away that I wanted out of my house as badly as this one.

It is a free pattern from Windham Fabrics, a collection  called "Home Sweet Home" as the center panel also states.  Not the prettiest fabrics, but I have never had a pattern that was SO POORLY put together.  I have almost enough left over fabric from the recipe that I can make another quilt.  They wanted the borders to be cut lengthwise instead of across the width.  I hate borders cut on the lengthwise as it gets to tight on the frame leaving the center of the quilts that are all cut on the bias to sag or balloon and make a huge "D" cup area.

First off the center panel was two inches smaller than the pattern required so I had to add fabric around the center to make it the size the pattern said it needed to be before I could even begin to do the rest of the quilt blocks.  Luckily the background fabric of the pieced ones is the same background of the center.  The pattern was stated to be an Intermediate pattern, but it was so poorly written that it should have been marked as Advanced Advanced. The pieced blocks are 12 inch finished, but if you haven't the knowledge of how they were actually put together one would have just sat and cried.  The top and bottom hour glass blocks as they called them were actually WAY to big to fit into the place you were to make them for, but there wasn't any indication that you were going to have to cut them down to fit an 9 inch hole when they sewed out way over sized from that.  The spacers between the pieced blocks were cut to big so if you lined up the sides as they were and sewed them to the center section you were about 3 inches off.....SO you can see just how badly I wanted this out of my life.  I even thought it was operator error and that I wasn't using a true 1/4" foot, but that wasn't the problem....grrrrr it was just a huge mess

I have addressed a formal complaint to Windham Fabrics, but to date I haven't gotten an answer.......

Now am/have cut out two more quilts that I will be working on while I heal from my lovely knee surgery....
i will need something to keep me sane as I wont be able to get into the basement for a few weeks.  Now off to get a few more things cleaned up here...I need to find the spare room and the treadmill. As that will be getting a huge work out when I get home.  Now off to do the dishes and get a few steaks onto the table.

LOOK What I'm getting....Yeah I know I need another sewing machine like a hole in my head, but Gee's could you turn this beauty down.  Its the 160th Anniversary of Singer...model 160.  ITS huge...from left to right its almost 24 inches and stands over 10 inches.  The left side comes off so you have an open arm and the piece that comes off is a HUGE gadget box.  It comes with a snazzy red carrying case and the amount of goodies that comes with is wonderful.  More feet than a standard sewing machine and feet that I don't have with other machines so it does have a future of getting used, and not just be a pretty decoration.  It should be here in February and its killing me to wait....

WOW....two days in a row.  Don't get use to it....:) but I totally forgot a very important quilt.  I've been quilting for what seems like a zillion years, and I have never made a quilt for Gene.  What a bad wife I've been.  I was able to get an AccuQuilt die cutter for about give away prices last year (otherwise I wouldn't have it), and I got with it the  large Tumbler die....when looking at another website just before Thanksgiving I saw a quilt being shown that was given to a soldier that was being deployed to Iraq.  Well to self, "I can do that", so off to the studio I went and literally 30 minutes later and that includes the time digging out the fabrics, the top was all cut and ready to sew.

Well, I have to say I could get use to that, but my only complaint about the system is that there is SO MUCH fabric wasted when you use it....but this was old fabrics (left over from Big Red) that were pieces chopped into some bits and yet some yardage, and then yet not enough so back into the bucket to another small piece.  This die cut pattern makes a nice large lap quilt, almost head to toe.....  He loves it so that is good.

Also as you know I have found a quilt store to teach at, but I also have found a sewing machine dealership to teach beginning sewing in the line of simple crafts or home deco.  The pin cushion is this next weekend, and the candle mat is scheduled for before I have surgery.  The Candle Mat pattern is my own pattern that I have packaged for sell....YEAH my first step by step four color pattern.

Where does one start when one has been absent from here for so long: 

Was able to spend a rainy day at the Columbia County Fair....not much for rides this year as the rain was coming down so hard, we found a tent game and play Bingo....Siana scored big time and won three or four prizes, me I just got a cow...

 Schools in our area got started about three weeks late due to Hurricane Irene, even though we weren't effected personally there were lots of people whom needed help, and lots of items were collected for the needy.  Hurricane Irene's eye went right over the top of us and those in the outer edges of the blow were just about leveled.  The last roads were just opened in the last few weeks, and some of the towns still are trying to get back together.

Then we no sooner recovered from the tona of rain that we got that we got over 15 inches of snow...that was the middle of October.

In early November Siana and I started to interview Colleges...she has since been accepted into four colleges, and now must make the choice of which she wants to go to...  This is a picture of Geneseo, NY

Her choices are:
New England College, New Hampshire
Canisius, New York
Well College, New York
Augustana College, South Dakota

Been busy with quilts as well, one for our bed, a baby quilt, quilted one for a customer for her daughters wedding present and one to be given away at the Third Annual Coyote Hunt for the Kinderhook Sportsman Club.
didn't get a picture yet.

Then came Christmas....to busy to put up the big tree and really to be honest starting to feel really crappy with my knee so the tiny tree was all that we had this year....which in reality was just right...

and all the cookies that I made for Siana's teachers... these were the fun ones to make and so easy....


I will be having my knee replaced in February...looking forward to the surgery so I can get back to quilting full time and life gets back to normal....

In closing here is a small wall hanging to think about and Siana's Halloween costume....

Hope it doesn't take me six months to get back but if it should know that I'm out there some place....

Okay Who Stole Time Again....

I got an email from a friend last night that made me sort of chuckle...it basically said when are you going to up date your Blog... You have left me hanging I want more China pictures. This made me chuckle...I didn't know anyone was waiting and I really hadn't realized it was that LONG since I was here last. SORRY...my bad. So if I do lapse into the unknown...just kick me I'll take care of it.

I can't even begin to tell you how vibrant the colors were on the buildings. When the Olympics were there in 2004 they started to redo the paint on the buildings, and determined to do it just like the originals were done...all by hand and with tiny tiny paint brushes and to use the same paints....so they do seem a bit muted, but they are so so gorgeous. Also the gold paints I understand are made of or partially made of real gold. The wavy roofs are a cement substance that is like our interlocking scale roofs...if you take one off the whole roof slides down.
We were there in April so all the fruit and flowering trees were in bloom...one of the few good smells we were able to experience. The culture shock was pretty intense when you walked outside and the heat was already high and the humidity was making everything drip right away. Making the sewer smells and the un-kept hygiene of many a huge surprise. It was a even bigger surprise to learn that not all homes were as modern as ours here in the USA or even in the modern sections of the areas that tourists were living in. Some of the sections of the cities there are maybe 20 plus families sharing the same toilet or bathing area...not always in the same area. Many of the people that live in these areas have to walk maybe a block away to get to them. Their compounds are very mazed and skinny skinny streets between the houses.

This is one of the crab apple trees in the court yard of the Summer Palace. Which is about 12 miles from the Forbidden City. They whole Forbidden City would pack up and move to this location as it is closer to the mountains and a man made lake that is shaped like a sliced Peach...and the palace area is the center or pit area. The grounds were gorgeous and the winds were blowing off the lake and it was down right cold that day. Also I don't have a picture of it, but there is a concrete boat that can ride out on the lake. But the day we were there it was to windy for the boat to be on the lake so we didn't get to play on it.

Looking out across the lake...and there are walkways and gazebos out on island.

The Great Wall of China....next time on my blog. Have to get busy and get some quilting done and then I need to go run over something so we have some meat for supper......