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!

my productive year

2010 has been an extremely productive year for my sewing. not just quilts, but sewing in general. i've made some skirts and dresses, 2 pincushions, countless bee blocks and swap blocks of every kind imaginable, a few embroidered tea towels, matching ties, a gorgeous pillow, a ton of hexies, a placemat and who knows what else inbetween... whew!!

but what i've made most of this year - QUILTS! lots and lots of quilts!!

these are my non-QOV quilts:

what's not included in the above are the WIPs. the 2 tops hanging in my closet, waiting and waiting... in one hoop, i have a quilt i started for the sisters outdoor quilt festival, but decided i wanted pearle thread instead of the thinner quilting thread. that one needs to be unstitched and redone. i have my wonky stars quilt put together and half hand-quilted, sitting in the hoop for months, neglected for the below quilts:

there are 10 QOVs in this group. that's TEN quilts of valor started and finished in 2010. not included are WIPs... like the "atlantic seas" QOV that is driving me nuts since i started it in march. by the end of this week when i ship a box to D.C., i will have donated 12 QOVs this year. that's an enormous amount for me to have made, but i had that request from the navy and i felt that i could do it. there are 4 QOVs left to make for that request and they'll just have to be put on hold.

after wednesday of next week, i will have to put all sewing, drawing, crafting, etc on hold for my shoulder surgery. i'm not looking forward to this. i know i need a break and rest, but 6-12 weeks of recovery are not my cup of tea, you know?

holy cow. i made 19 completed quilts this year. that's an average of 1.58 quilts per month. luckily, 9 of those were done by volunteer longarm quilters, but still! i need to get one more done before surgery for a baby due in late january/early february. looks like i'll be putting an IOU in the gift box.

happy holidays and happy crafting everyone!!

it's christmas eve

it's christmas eve and the house is ready for our holidays. we're keeping it a bit low-key this year since the kiddo is with his dad until sunday afternoon. but boo helped me decorate:

these little houses and cottages were all painted by my grandfather. he's sent me a few at a time during the last few years and this year he sent 3 for boo for his own collection. my grandfather wasn't able to paint a single one during this year since he's been ill and his hand shakes from the medicines. i'm afraid to say that it might be his last christmas with us and it makes this little village just a bit more special.

my tree is decorated with my hodge-podge of random ornaments. i love traditional and the oddest ones i can find. every year, i try to add at least one new ornament to the mix.

the rubber chicken is one from last year. isn't it fantastic? he's nestled in between parts of the traditional german "brides" ornament collection - the rabbit and the basket of flowers. oh! and that's a fortune cookie in glass behind his head.

and below are two of my new ones for this season:

however you choose to celebrate the season, enjoy it! i'm headed to church for our candlelight service later this evening and then spending a quiet night with snappy. maybe i'll finish binding that other QOV tonight while watching a classic movie.

holiday happenings

happy holidays everyone! tomorrow is the winter solstice and tonight is a full lunar eclipse, so there are all sorts of fun things happening during christmas week. i kicked off the weekend with baking.

boo and i decided to make some cookies to send to his dad's house before his cub scout pack meeting. here we're mixing up a batch of pfeffernusse cookies - lovely little spiced german cookies...but i used a new recipe instead of my grandmother's. not quite the same bite to them, but that's ok. boo loved them anyways.

i think i've shown you guys a picture of the lego advent calendar, right? well folks, here's the best one so far!!

yes, you are seeing that correctly. it's santa in the shower. boo made the shower on friday before school, then stuck the dad figure there (in the words of the kid: "he needs a shower because he's been on a long trip"). yesterday morning, i made the santa. he's naked. i made a naked lego figure (in the words of chickenfoot: santa scrubbing his butt). i can only imagine the blasphemy for making a naked santa in the shower on a sunday morning.

before i made santa, i was picking up a little bit of junk in boo's room while he's out. under a pile of homework, i found his wonderful letter to santa.

isn't he just the sweetest little boy?!? i love this kid. but no, i am not getting power a puppy to play with... one dog that pees on things in the house is enough. and he's not a puppy...and he's housebroken. the dog just thinks i brought him his outdoors indoors with the christmas tree. yesterday, he peed on the tree and tree skirt twice. we've cleaned. we've cut branches off the tree. we've steamed. we've yelled. today, power is locked up in the kennel while i'm at work for the first time in 2 months. ugh.

sewing is going slowly right now. i did finish binding a QOV on thursday. need pictues... no sunlight right now... i have one more to bind and make labels and presentation cases for both, then i'll ship them off to safe harbor and hopefully before new year's. i'd like to get these two on their merry way while it's chilly and our sailors need some warmth.

i get the results of my shoulder MRI today. we'll see if i need surgery or not. let's hope for the no surgery option!

HMQG - a group shot

look!! we finally have a group photo!!

it's not everyone from saturday's meeting/party, but it's a great representation of us... this is almost all of our original guild members in one photo! and we always have at least one furry friend at a meeting.