Laying out the queen bed quilt...

The past two weeks have been a blur and I apologize for not posting more. The whirlwind of cleaning and organizing has slowed down to a manageable pace, finally. My brother and his son were here over this past weekend. Gaston (not his real name!) is contemplating attending Arizona State University in Tempe, which is right next to Phoenix, so they extended their stay for a couple of days to visit.

We had a great time, walked all over the ASU campus and spent Saturday afternoon at the Desert Botanical Garden. Unfortunately, we didn't make it over to see the installation by Patrick Dougherty that you see on the main page at the Desert Botanical Garden website. Gaston had to get back and do some homework so I'll have to see it next month when I go with Mom to see the wildflowers.

I've managed a few stitches on my feather stitch sampler but that's about it. I'm hoping things slow down soon so I can get back in the groove of stitching on a regular basis. I miss it! I also miss crazy quilting so I'm definitely going to have to do something about that.

Meanwhile... I have put together a few pictures to show you (in case you are interested) how I put together each quarter of the bed quilt (I need to figure out a name for it) I'm making for our master bedroom. The quilt is my take on this lovely quilt by Lisa Call New Works and Inspiration (scroll down).

First I lay out the 15.5" squares, making sure I had one of these in each corner of the quilt and then just spreading them out from there.


Next came the 10.5" squares, making sure to spread the colors around fairly evenly.


Then I added the 8" squares, snuggling some of them together and others by themselves.


The 5.5" squares are next...here is where I started to make sure that I had "blocks" of pieces that could be sewn together easily...


and lastly the 3" squares, finishing out the quilt quarter. Some of the lighter 3" squares are laid out together to break it up a bit.


and... this is the state it has been in for nearly 3 weeks. I'm hoping to get some work done on it tonight... keep your fingers crossed!

Algerian Eye Stitch

After all the kerfuffle with everything in my everyday life it is good to get back to some stitching. Although I'm behind (nothing new there) here is my contribution to the Algerian Eye Stitch round-up from Sharon B's Take a Stitch Tuesday.


I've always liked this stitch, although it has been quite some time since I played with it. It adds so much to freeform embroidery, too. I think I tried to have too many "spokes" on some of them, but it's all a learning process!

Now I'm off to spend some time cruising through everyone else's contributions and possibly... just possibly, contemplate working some feather stitches this evening.

Have a wonderful weekend, ladies!!

I love you guys!!

MMMMMMWWWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!



Thanks so much for all the kind comments! I know in the grand scheme of things, Meniere's is pretty small potatoes but it's gonna mean a major lifestyle change for me and I so appreciate everyone's good thoughts.

When "life gets uppity" as we reach the "age of findings," the knowledge that "it does get better" and I actually "have a diagnosis" makes me feel so much better. To hear from someone special who welcomes me to her "nasty little club," and oh, baby... to know I'm "finished with disasters for awhile" sure does help! LOL!!!!

Thanks, guys... you made my day!

Real life has been interfering...

with trying to get any stitching done. On top of the small wreck with my van ($12,000 damage and 3 more weeks till it's fixed) and the broken tooth (root canal last week and gum surgery tomorrow so they can attach a crown) I have been bothered with increasingly frequent dizzy spells (as opposed to my usual ditzy spells). I had a fairly severe ear infection in December and when I went to my doctor, I happened to mention to her that I had dizzy spells quite frequently so it took me awhile to catch on to the fact that there was something wrong. Being a good little doctor she referred me to an ENT.

So, after a brief visit wherein we discussed my dizzy spells he sent me to an audiologist to be evaluated. After two 2-hour sessions in which I was made VERY dizzy and rather nauseous and a follow-up with the ENT, I have been diagnosed with Meniere's disease. Lovely. Good news... I have excellent hearing with only minimal loss in one ear. Bad news... I have to go on a very low-salt diet in order to reduce the incidence of vertigo and to keep from losing my hearing.

Mega bummer. Do you know how much I love salt? Gah!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I get to learn to cook all over again and what I make will not taste quite right. Yes, I can do it and it will be a good thing all the way around but it is rather frustrating!! Of course it also tells me why I've had dizzy spells for years as well as periods of nausea (that both I and my former doctor thought was heartburn) for no reason. Oh, yes... and the tiredness... apparently it is rather tiring to get these spells. So far 2007 has not been conducive to getting lots of creative work done.

My brother and his son are coming on the 22nd for a few days to check out Arizona State University, and then (oh, joy of joys) my mother will be here for the month of March. Adding these two visits into the mix has been adding extra work on the home front as we try and get everything together.

Would you like some cheese with that whine, Marty?

Why, yes... but please make it low-salt!

----------------***************-----------------------

On a happier note, I have joined two webrings, Susan's "Around the Block" and the TAST Webring run by Debra Spincic. The buttons are on the sidebar. Also, in case you haven't noticed, I reworked my blog roll a couple of weeks ago so do check them out and see if you find something special.

I'll be back with quilting content shortly. Promise.

Cretan stitch

Morning ladies!

I finally found time to do some stitching on my sampler of Creten Stitch for Take a Stitch Tuesdays (TAST). For this sampler, I'm using a lovely medium green 32 count Belgian linen. So far I have used some #5 perle cotton, silk floss and a Caron Impressions blend.

I'm planning on several more lines of stitches but this will do to give you a taste of what I have been doing.