Monday, January 31, 2011

Just had to go to the quilt shop today....

HI Y'all!! Above is a snapshot of Rosie Posie Pudding Pie...the best poodle in the whole house!! She is gaining weight, folks...she is a little chow hound! She like to grab a quilt block in her mouth and run like lightning to the back of the house...'round and 'round we go!! She is such fun...

Anyway! I have made some more nine patch/churn dash blocks. I love them!! I really want to thank each of you who swapped nine patches with me...thank you so very much...I treasure these blocks. Each one is so different and fun!! Julie S, one of our mavelous swappers is considering doing this style of block too...it was her idea in the first place!! Would you like to join us??
TADA!!! I finished the dolly quilt!! I decided after making sashing, etc., to see what options I had to set the blocks, that I really loved Lori's setting the best! So...poor me...sniff...I just had to go to the quilt shop for some fabric, the blue, for the setting squares...I had such a great time!! I love our local quilt shop...the ladies are so sweet there, and talk about heavenly reproductions!! They have a whole room for Jo Morton!!



Also...a word about comments. I just love to hear from you! I will answer back...but if I am delayed, it is because I am at work for several days...13-14 hour days, so I will always answer back on my day off!! I am so thankful for each of you...you are very special to me.


Julie

Friday, January 28, 2011

Dear Jane progress and Doll quilt!

Hi everyone!! Lori of Humble Quilts treated us all to a doll quilt quilt along this January...here are my completed blocks. I love them so much, thank you, Lori! Here is a straight set...and...
Here is the original set. I do not have much midnight blue...so am decided how to set them. I love playing with these blocks!!
I found this book at the store...Kim of Magnolia Bay Quilts wrote this book!! She has a wonderful blog...the book deals mostly with making quilts from 2.5 inch strips...how fun is that!! Some gorgeous quilts are in here. Kim has a new book out too!!
Dear Jane...how in the world did you ever come up with all these tiny block ideas? One...
Two....
Three done today! I noted that your blocks were not all perfect...and so I will make mine not perfect too, to match you. (As if I had to try to do that, LOL!)






*****************Nurse's notes*********************

I am working in the new Heart Hospital, as well as the old ICU in the old hospital. Both have their good points...it is exciting to work with the MI's, the bypass surgeries...but it is also fun to work with the little old people who just happen to be very, very ill in the ICU. One thing I love about the new hospital is the view!!! I can see miles and miles...the school next to the hospital with the kids all running around, and white church steeples in the town poking up out of the trees...it is really a pretty view...and we can see the sunsets around here!!!

********************************************************************


Have a great day!!


Julie

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Happy Aussie Day!!!

I just want to wish all my dear Australian friends a wonderful celebration day!!! I know it is almost over...I hope it was wonderful for each of you!!!


Julie

Monday, January 24, 2011

Plannings...part two!!

I meant for this picture to go on the previous post....so, here is what I am doing with my 3 inch nine patches we swapped last year!! All scrappy...and so much fun!! Julie S...are you ready to go??

J

Plans and plottings!



HI Y'all!! I have been thinking of what projects are really important to me...that I don't want to leave as a UFO...and my Dear Jane quilt is one of those. I think I can get a row done every month...and that will make sure I have the middle done this year. That leaves the triangle portion for next year!! I added four blocks today, and I am putting them together as a whole, as I go...keeping the end in mind and knowing that I will be tired of it when all the blocks are done, I have elected to join them by rows immediately, and then the rows together when I am done with each row. I see the trip around the world pattern forming in the middle, and I love it!!
Recycling...I bet you recycle containers too!! This is a box from work, sturdy plastic, that syringes come in...dozens of these containers go into the hospital trash each day. I am using some of them for my Barbara Brackman Civil War Blocks. Just the right size!!
Here are all four blocks so far...she will have one block a week on Saturdays...great fun!!

Remember all those nine patches?? I am making sister's choice scrappy blocks from mine!! That is what I decided to go with. I have been cutting...and cutting...and cutting!! I have them all cut out, just need piecing time to get them together!!


Everyone, have a super great week!!


Julie

Friday, January 21, 2011

Bits and Pieces and BOM obsessions!

HI Y'all!! I am just so ticked with these little tiny quilt blocks...you can still catch up and make this darling quilt too! See Lori's blog Humble quilts here!! These are under 4 inch finished.
Above is Barbara Brackman's latest civil War quilt block...until tomorrow that is!! She posts a new one each Saturday. I am bound and determined to keep up!! Please see her blog here, it is full of history too, and this is going to be a really fun quilt!!
Here is my first Birdie block from Little Miss Shabby...please see her!! For some reason, my pattern printed out a lot larger than the block that was supposed to be 8.5 inches, so I just made it larger...I am going to use all my polka dots for the edgings on each block. Fun!
I just made these out of the scrap bins...1.5 inch and 2.5 inch bins. I don't have any idea what I will do with them....



So, if I do all the BOM's I want to do, I cannot eat, sleep or work!! Sigh...so I will just do what I can and enjoy seeing the rest!!!


************************Nurse's notes****************

The hyperthyroid patient:

She (me) has had all the testing, scanning, ultra sounding done...and had my big reveal doctor's appointment today...I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease. I learned that it is associated with other autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus. So, now I just need to decide how to treat it, with thyroid killing drugs, radiation, or surgery. I am not a big fan of any of these options....but will consider each carefully and prayerfully and make a decision this weekend and go for it!


Thanks for letting me share...since this is my diary of sorts, this helps with the catharsis part of dealing with all this...


Have a super week!!


JulieK

Monday, January 17, 2011

Now I remember!!!

HI Y'all!! I am participating in Lyn's block of the month...a stitchery BOM!! It is really fun...please click here and check it out!! I will trim all the blocks at once, when they are all made.
I had forgotten about cutting this UFO out...now I remember...this was a jelly roll!! I wanted to use it all, so I cut it up into 2.5 inch squares, and this is what I came up with. This is my UFO # 6, in progress for January, for Judy's UFO challenge. I have a little more sewing to do, as you can see, but it will be twin sized when finished...just right for a donation quilt!!
To use up all the squares, I am making this border. I should have very few squares left...and the binding was already in the UFO bin! Yahoo!!!





I hope each of you is having a great day!!


Julie

Friday, January 14, 2011

Pieces and parts,...part two!!

HI all!! Can you stand just one more picture of this quilt?? Most of you will recognize the blocks from Bonnie's Quiltville mystery from this holiday season...but I set them differently, and did a different border too...the original border was all on point and bias, and I am too stretchy a kind of gal!! So, I made this one...and really like it!! I would really like to thank Bonnie, for stretching my wings a bit, and coaxing us ever so gently into making a brown, and red, and pink, and green quilt!! I really love it...it grows on me, and I have left it out all day to admire all the colors. This kind of reminds me of Prickly Pear Cactus, so that is the name of my quilt.
The border...you will see is the leftover pieces and parts from the original border, plus extra parts I made too...it was such fun piecing!!!



Now, down to the business of the year!! I am supposed to be working on UFO's.. but Bonnie's quilt is the first one I wanted to finish. I am supposed to finish number 6...this is a snowball and nine patch quilt on my list. Funny thing is, I have no memory of these fabrics whatsoever or cutting this out...now this was not so long ago!! That memory thing kind of scares me...but it also means I learn new things every day...LOL!!! I think the memory thing will get better when the thyroid is fixed. Anyway, I dragged the number 6 UFO box out and laid it out, and discovered that all the blocks are made, and I just have to sew them together. This will be a donation quilt, which is double good for me...a UFO conquered and a giving too...


Have a great day!!


Julie

Monday, January 10, 2011

Pieces and parts

Hi everyone!! I have finished all the blocks for the Bonnie Quiltville mystery! Including the alternate neutral string blocks...but I chose not to use them, as mine were really bulky with the fabric foundation. Instead, I played around with all the pieces and parts and came up with this. I made cornerstones of some of the border strips, kind of a nine patch....I just love that, and the graphic nature of the red zig-zags...love it all!! It is a saturated with color quilt, to me...and the neutral pieces kind of glow! Altogether, just a really fun quilt. Thank you, Bonnie!
Close up...I still have to make a border of the pieces and parts...that is yet to come.
Lori of Humble Quilts is having a doll quilt-a-long!! She posted another step today, and I am done with that...come on next step!! This is proving such a fun quilt to make...would you like to join us???


Have a great day!!!


Julie

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Adding to the Constellation!

HI Y'all!! Barbara Brackman is hostessing a block of the week this year, all about blocks from the Civil War. She is a wonderful quilt historian, and I have read every book she has written. (dont' you just love the library?) I just had to join in! Above is her North Star block...
And her Catch Me if you Can block....both were fun and quick to do. Don't you want to join in? Please see her new blog!! Just click here...
What do you do with your leftover connector triangles? I am going to make pinwheels from each block we make...maybe I can have enough for another quilt!! Really...what do you do?? Her pattern does not make the blocks this way...but anyway, I did!
The roll top desk design wall.....




**********************Nurse's Notes*********************


I went by a room several times yesterday while working at the hospital, and heard a quiet murmuring voice...I stopped and listened for a second on the way to the linen closet, and heard a darling man voicing a quiet prayer..."Please dear Lord, continue to bless me as you have this past 91 years, and see to those who look out over me..."....it was so sweet, and heartfelt...He was just a darling man...not my patient but a blessing to me none the less.



The hyperthyroid patient (me), is going for a nuclear thyroid scan on Monday and Tuesday...a two day test, so then I will know what in tarnation is going on with the thyroid storm!!! Not a real thyroid storm, if it were, I would be deathly ill, but I call it my own little private thyroid storm, kind of a little whirlwind instead of the full tornado!!!



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Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!


Julie

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

More progress...


And some more of these blocks done...A lot of quilters are scrambling to get their centers of this Quiltville mystery quilt done before Friday, when the final clue comes out. I have nine more of these blocks to complete....and I am thinking of ways to set them. I know Lori, and Kathy, and Cindy and Wendy and Michelle and Mary Lou and Gail and Jeanne
are all working hard on their quilts...will we make it???



*******************Nurse's notes**************************


The patient was a psych patient, and talked and talked and talked..., and just generally needed a lot of attention. The nurse was in the room, and while glancing at the monitor to record the vital signs, noticed a "lead off" alarm...and noticed the patient was quiet, which was very unusual...and then looked at the patient, who rolled her eyes back in her head, and fell back in the bed. This was not a No lead off situation, she went from talking and smiling to totally flat line (asystole) in two seconds!!! Code called, successful resuscitation at 10 AM. The patient was resuscitated and was totally fine, talkative, just fine!! At 12:10...the same thing!! Resuscitated in a few seconds with Epinephrine and Atropine and compressions...back to talking away again! 13:30... code number three!! Got her back again, just as fast...and screamed for the doctor to come and put in a stat pacemaker each time she coded....


And the patient got her pacemaker, and was so sweet and appreciative, and went home!! And came back and visited and was just a doll...her family said her personality was totally different after the codes and that she was so much better! The end!! The very happiest ending for all!!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Rolling on...RRCB!

HI Y'all!! I hope your New Year is rolling along wonderfully! I have been working on the Quiltville mystery, Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll...and here is where I am in the process. I have all the pieces and parts done, just a matter of putting it all together now. And I guess that is just all for today!!! I would love to know how you are doing on this one, if you are doing it...


Have a great day, all!!


Julie

A finish

Hi everyone!  I have been kind of obsessed about finishing this jacket.  I used a lot of scraps!!!  Above you can see the large, angled patc...