a gwen marston weekend

happy sunday evening!! i had a wonderful weekend... did all of you? i was cleared on wednesday by my doctor to stop wearing the sling - 3 months to the day! i also got confirmation that i was indeed taking a road trip to the north side of dallas to enjoy a workshop with gwen marston that i had signed up for in early-mid march.

i got to meet tia in person after 2 years of emailing and ordering her wonderful campfollower bags and flickr stuff. she was the one who told me about the workshop and asked if i was going. thank you so much for letting me know!!!

my sewing space is on the left and that's tia on the right as we were setting up for the morning. my table partner and tia both have featherweights. so did a couple other ladies there. i think iron maiden needs a little brother or sister that is a wee bit more portable since my shoulder is still healing...and they pack so small and pretty.

we then moved on to show and tell. not only gwen's amazing quilts, but some made by other attendees. they were all inspiring and so very different using gwen's "parts department" and collaborative quilting ideas.

we had a few demos as people requested help or ideas. the one above is using the "strata" or fabric you made yourself. you can cut it a variety of ways, such as at a 45 deg angle and then cut strips for borders or fillers. or you can then cut that 45 deg cut into blocks and voila! instant string blocks without the paper piecing. i haven't cut into my strata yet, but i definitely will. it was one of the few things i had finished before the workshop.

linda, gwen, tia and myself

at the end of the day, we just had to get a picture together. the laughter rarely stopped...the sewing and ideas overflowing....and a great group of women all together in one room. it was well worth the 5 1/2 hour drive on a bad shoulder - that was also the first drive in 3 months that wasn't 5 miles from home!! i cannot wait to get back to working on my parts quilt.

"project park" challenge for HMQG

good afternoon and a uuuuggggghhhhhh-happy monday to you! i'm dragging a bit with the time change - are you? the last 9 1/2 weeks have been lacking in the good sleep department after surgery, so taking away an hour of tossing around in bed didn't help me much.

for example: this morning, i showed for PT at my 8am timeslot. the receptionist looks at me and informs me that i'm not on the schedule. i am... but not for another 2 hours... my 8am appointment was for work and our monday morning meeting! oops.

oh! and happy PI day to you! i think i'm going to grab an apple pie on my way home tonight and have 3.14th of it for myself. :)

there are a few readers out there who know all about the picture above. it's something i've been excited about since october when we picked out the fabric line and it's finally ready to rock and roll.

HMQG is doing their own charm pack challenge. we chose kate spain's "central park" line from moda for our charm pack and some of us named it "project park." our rules allow us one charm pack and a 1/2 yard of additional fabric to be used on the main project of our choice. if you make a quilt, you are allowed more fabric for backing and binding, but nothing more than the charm pack and up to the 1/2 yard. if you make a tote bag - same thing, but you're allowed more for the lining since it's not the main portion of the project. there are about a dozen and a half of us participating and i can't wait to see what everyone is going to make. we received our charm packs a couple weeks ago and we have until the april meeting to complete the project. woohoo! now...i just have to get started on whatever it is that i'm making!

this weekend, i managed to baste the baby quilt with [K]'s help. i set up my extension table, picked out a lovely warm pink thread and attached the walking foot. this is going to be my first real quilt with the walking foot... as of last night, i had two lines stitched. and then i was too tired. so much for being faster than handquilting and free-motion, right?

check back soon - there should be updates on project park after this saturday's HMQG meeting in our brand new home!

sewing and a season

i'm starting to get back into the swing of things. in ways, literally! the shoulder still can't move in all directions and we're working on that. 9 weeks today and counting. but i've cooked dinner a few times - all simple and easy dishes and i started sewing again this week!! hooray me!!

don't get me wrong, i LOVE all the family history i've put together over the last month. i'm still utterly obsessed with finding people and get really irriated when i know they exist, but can't find documentation on their parents or siblings. argh. there have been some interesting finds as well. some i knew nothing of, some my parents knew a little of, but didn't mention before, etc. like i have a missing limb on my tree. and i'm told that one of my ex-husband's distant cousins was married to gen. sam houston, so when i get to that point on my son's tree, that will be exciting! and i've traced some lines of my family back to 1650 or so. that's not easy when they're all in germany and i'm here, but thanks to one of my dad's cousins for his side and a book on my mom's side, i've connected some of them back to us.

ok, ok... here's the sewing. i mentioned it already... first up, is {k}'s baby quilt. i started it before surgery and had everything pinned and set up. i had a modern quilt envisioned even though this was not it. but when i found out i had to have surgery and be out of commission for a couple months, i quickly threw it together. my niece was born a week and a half ago, so now it's time for me to get off my butt and move in as high a gear as i can.

i put the borders on last week and wasn't thrilled. the story blocks didn't line up how i wanted and i didn't catch that before surgery. wish i had. but i'm not ripping out the seams, so it's just going to stay this way. {k} will get a better quilt later in life. once the yellow borders were on, i still wasn't excited over it. maybe it's the disappointment of not sewing anything and then i made something too fast without a plan? so i took some suggestions and added a darker bottom border.

i did trim the bottom yellow a little and it's hard to tell in this picture. snappy said i should use the green so it would look like grass. so i did. and it's ok...ho-hum... still not what i pictured when i bought the adorable fabrics. but...this is it and i'm sticking with it. hopefully they'll wear it out quickly so i have an excuse to replace it with something better.

next up: "bee pieceful" block for february.

this is the first start-to-finish project i've done in 2 months. took me a couple days to put it together so i could rest the shoulder. it's ok as well... i'd like it better if i hadn't seen so many of the other gorgeous blocks kathy has already received from her other bee and this one. i have a very hard time using my rotary cutter and couldn't do too much. but hey, it is my first actual project since surgery!! we all have to start somewhere again, right? and this is mine.

on to the season - lent! yesterday was ash wednesday. this is the first year snappy has really been associated with the lutheran church and i'm still very proud of him. it's also the first year boo has taken a huge interest in church, our lutheran heritage and faith. boo was so excited he wouldn't wash the ashes off his head when he went to bed. he was disappointed they rubbed off during the night.

snappy decided he's going to be traditional and give something up. his choice: sodas and french fries. a fantastic decision since those are some of his vices. my choice: fabric purchasing. i'm going on my fabric diet now that i'm getting back into sewing and there are so many beautiful temptations out there. i need to use what i have and not buy anything unless i run out of something during a project and need more of it. one thing that i am going to do over the next 40 days is make more with prayers involved... i've wanted to make prayer shawls and have yarn for it already. now is the perfect time, plus, my shoulder doesn't have to move nearly as much as sewing requires. my church doesn't have a prayer shawl ministry, but my mom's does. my church is extremely active in making quilts for everything possible and sending them out to areas in need. both are noble and wonderful ministries and i'm going to give back in both.

progress report

last night, i gathered up the wonky star blocks from the HMQG and laid them out to see how it looked.

looks like matisse gave it her stamp of approval... so i grabbed a box of pins and the hubby and we started pinning the blocks into rows. that alone wore my shoulder out. but there's a start to finishing this QOV top and i have a plan for the backing with all the great wonky star blocks that have colored backgrounds. that will take some time too. and cutting. i can't quite use a rotary cutter just yet.

after that, i sat down and stitched 4 seams on my new niece's baby quilt. it's been pinned into rows since 2 days before surgery. there are 2 rows of 3 blocks now with a sashing strip cut out and still waiting... i also have to press seams. hmm. ironing... um... while the shoulder wasn't quite up to the super simple sewing yet, i like to think that maybe picking up the quilt helped my SIL along. she went into labor this morning!

OOOOHHHH!!!! i just got a text message from hubby that baby {k} was born about 2 hours ago and he got a picture. the picture didn't come through on my phone though. argh. ok. he said he didn't get the picture on his phone either, so i feel better, but i NEED a picture! i have a niece in families of boys!

HMQG and a QOV

i'm still here....and i have a QOV start to share with you.

about the same time that i had my shoulder surgery, i put out a call for help to the wonderful members of the houston modern quilt guild. i needed help finishing the 4 remaining QOVs from my navy request last spring. well... they're coming through! this past saturday at our monthly meeting, these wonderful ladies above (and a few others not pictured) showed up with wonky star blocks. 20 of them. plus a handful of red/white/blue string blocks to start me on the next one. i am so thrilled with all of them and cannot wait to put them together soon!!

i had my 6 week check up with my orthopedic dr. this morning. he said i'm doing well, that i look great (and he complemented my glasses) and to ignore the PTs... since "they're new at this." hah! i don't think i can tell my one PT that dr. m said she doesn't know what she's doing. especially since his wife is one of the PTs there too... they do know what they're doing and they've helped a lot already, it's just the one thinks i have to move all over the place already. she thought that from day 1 of being allowed to move the shoulder at 3 weeks post-op. that was part of my problem... i wasn't allowed to move for 3 weeks and the ligament he purposely tightened was REALLY tight. so, she causes me lots of pain, lots of tears and lots of me going "oooowwwwwwwwww."

so now i'm allowed to take the sling off more when i'm home, get used to moving it to get the natural flow back when walking. no public places without the sling for another 6 weeks. sheesh. my elbow is really bruised today for some reason. but hopefully, i can start sitting at my sewing machine by the end of the week. i'm practicing typing with two hands again, but in short spurts. good thing i type fast.

i have had huge sewing withdrawals. to make up for it, i became obsessed with ancestry.com and started 3 family trees for each person in the house. goodness.

while i'm recovering...

the fine members of "bee pieceful" are making me spiderweb blocks. mine is the top left corner and the rest are what i've received in the mail so far.

i've had the blue butterfly fabric for years. i found the tag that had a date from spring 2004 on it... really. the yellow ladybug and white bug fabric were collected shortly after. there is one more i've been saving for my bug quilt - a white on white butterfly print - that will probably be used for a border. with the bug fabrics, i also sent everyone purple and aqua solids, the grey/black polka dots, a stripe and then mixed up some mottled pinks, and a couple yellows. i asked if everyone could throw in a few coordinating scraps from their stashes to give me a little something to remember them by when my quilt is finished.

i guess i lucked out this year having my month be the same month i had surgery. now i just need to be able to sew soon so i can start working on this:

HMQG is helping me work on one of the remaining 4 QOVs for that big request i had. they're making wonky stars so the quilt can twinkle. three stars came home with me at our january meeting and i'll get the rest of them at the february meeting in a few weeks. i'm hoping i can start to do basic strip piecing by then so i can get the top put together and out to the longarm quilter. maybe i can get hubby to piece the rows together for me...

PT on the shoulder itself started friday. first time my shoulder moved in 3 weeks.... ouch... today's visit was so not fun! but i can dangle my arm and move it on my own more than the weekend, so that's progress!! and i used two hands to button my pants. yippee! small steps, but ones nonetheless.

i'm still here...

52:2
Originally uploaded by greeneyedsilversmith

just trying to recover from shoulder surgery the first week of the month that ended up more than we expected. my arm is in a massive sling for another week and a half before the therapists move my shoulder for me.

one handed typing is hard and much of my daily activities are little to none right now.

i'll be back later!