A pleasant side-effect from surgery.......

and that "side-effect" is.......time to stitch!!!  Actually, I finished the two wool stitcheries in the photo below at least two years ago. Some of you may recognise them as they are from a free BOM designed by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill designs. I "sew-enjoyed" stitching the first two designs and then.....life got busy and I put the project aside. 

Then last fall, I gave it a try again. Got out my wool fabrics and choose the wool for each of the ten remaining baskets. I began stitching the Halloween block right away because it was October and I was stitching this while I awaited the Trick or Treaters. I almost finished the block that night and just have the leaves at the top to finish. Again, I set it aside when life got busy.

Well, life got even busier/crazier when I learned I'd have to have hernia surgery but I got smart. In the two weeks before surgery, I decided to round up some of these projects that always get set aside when life gets busy. I prepared two blocks that I could stitch on during my recovery. Yesterday, I added little white flowers to the shamrock design and only have to add the bunnies eye and a bow. It will be finished by tomorrow. The little basket with the chocolate bunny is all ready and waiting for me to start stitching on it when the first of March comes.

In the remaining days of February, I'm going to stitch a little on another project that has been set aside.  A year or so ago, I stitched this pretty block from from the pattern "Twilight Garden" designed by Jeanne Prue. She offered it as a free BOM a few years ago. This first block is called "Lady Slipper".

And so........prior to my surgery, I gathered wool for this project, too. Tucked pieces of the colors I needed in my wooly basket and this week, following my surgery, I would rest........read.......watch old movies.......and cut out the pieces for the next three blocks! The February block is "Colombine" and that's what I'll be stitching on this week. The second block is for March and is "Poppies". The third block in this photo is for April and I can't remember the name but I think it's something about "Trumpets". I am loving this opportunity to work on my wool projects. I love hand-stitching and simply have not done enough of it the past couple years. I've said it before ......... I love hand-stitching better than machine stitching and that's the truth!

My friend, Sue, brought me a pretty bouquet of carnations and I've received cards from friends and family. I love getting cards in the mail. :-)

This afternoon, our daughter came over and we chatted while I worked on another hand-stitching project. Will share that one soon. Collette and I worked together and fixed a yummy chicken and noodle hot dish with green beans and some homemade biscuits I took from the freezer. My husband has been doing the cooking the past week and he welcomed someone else doing the cooking. That meant that he and grandson, Jacob, could stay focused on racing. They spent the weekend watching everything NASCAR. The only hard part was the rain-delay that meant Jacob had to go home before the race was over. But, it's on tape, so he can enjoy it later. Tomorrow, son, Devlin is coming out and going to lend a hand moving some stuff about and I'm thinking he might be the one cooking tomorrow night. :-)  I think it's time for a cup of cocoa, accompanied by a little more hand-stitching........
Have a good week!
Sandi

Valentine's Day 2014!

Wishing you all a lovely day! Thanks to those who have sent well-wishes for my upcoming surgery. Having surgery on Valentine's Day isn't quite the treat I might wish for but I do wish for good health and so I'm okay with it. I have a stack of books and magazines to enjoy as I recover and a pile of wool quilt blocks to work on so I am prepared. Oh, and the laundry's done and the house is clean and my husband will be doing the cooking for a couple of weeks. Love it.  :-)  

Sandi

The wind blew in a change or two!

Oh, my! What do you think of my "new look"?  My son Devlin came out to visit this weekend just for fun and .......because the wind wasn't blowing and no snow was falling so travel was easy! And speaking of easy......he can do graphic design stuff so quickly and all I had to do was choose a few pictures, then sit back and let him do the work! There's still some more "tweeking" that I'll do with text colors and stuff but this is our start.
I'm so excited to have a "fresh look" for my blog because I think it will inspire me to get back to blogging. You all may remember that back on January 1st, I was hopeful that I would get back to "regular blogging".  Uh, clearly that has not happened. In a nutshell, here's what has been going on the past few weeks.......

First week of January started off quite nicely. We enjoyed watching the annual Tournament of Roses Parade and as always I said...."someday I want to go there in person!"  I want to see how they take all those flowers and make those lovely floats. I also wouldn't mind getting away from cold weather. And yes, we have had more than our share of it this past month. Schools have closed more than a couple of times due to the below zero weather that had -40 degree windchills with it. Luckily, we did not have to be "out and about" on any of the bad weather days. I started a new group at our church (St. Pauls' UCC here in Henderson, MN) called the "Caring Circle". We tied three small quilts in our first meetings (there's an afternoon group and an evening group).  I got my block of the month project started in our Henderson "Sew and Share" group that meets the second Thursday of each month at the Henderson Library. I am sharing my Christmas fabrics so we can all make the project in Christmas colors! Have wanted to do this for a long time and this was the year to do it. So, all that sounds pretty good, right?
But, in between some of those things, we were off to the vet with Kaiser and then to the doctor for me. Kaiser had to have a bit of exploratory surgery as it was thought he had a tumor but it appears it's his liver, very enlarged. So he's on some meds that will comfort him and we'll take it one day at a time. My issue is ... ugh ... a hernia related to surgery I had two years ago. The day after Kaiser had his surgery and we'd been up most of the night with him.......I had to tell Steve that I was not well. A quick call to my doctor, shared my symptoms and was told to go to the nearest emergency room. So, off we went. Some blood tests and a CTScan gave some answers, then a visit for a surgical consult led to setting a surgery date for hernia repair. And guess what.........it will be my Valentine's Day gift! LOL!  That's right, surgery will be the highlight of my day. Don't think I'll have any desire for chocolates. All I want is to get fixed up and then home so I can get back to all the quilting, family, volunteering, church, library, friends, fun stuff of life!

And now.........we're done with the blogging thing for tonight and time to watch a movie and enjoy some popcorn.........
Back soon!
Sandi