Peace on Earth!

Yogi and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas,

And the Happiest of New Years!!

Lookie What I Got...

Oh my gosh!!  What a lovely surprise!!  I received THE most WONDERFUL mail today!!

My dear bloggy friend Maria, from Life on the Block blog waaaay over in Australia, made and sent me a surprise gift!!

Maria has the cutest little Jack Russell terrier named Lucy!  This photo is from Maria's Life on the Block blog.                                   Isn't she adorable??

And Yogi and Lacey are bloggy friends, too!

Maria made me this wonderful mug rug with my sweet Yogi on it!!

 Is this not the cutest mug rug EVER???  I sure think so!!

Thank you ever so much, Maria, for thinking of Yogi and I, and taking the time and energy to make this gorgeous mug rug and send it to me!!  You sure made my day!!  Thank you!!

Tell Lacy that Yogi wishes her and You all, a special and lovely Christmas and a most blessed New Year 2016!!

I’m Still Alive!!

I have been totally engrossed these last few weeks since I last posted, in getting back on both knees/feet.  I’m still going to PT twice a week and doing lots of exercises to ensure I get full mobility on both new knees.

(image from Google)

I’m mastering my stairs , so I have spent some well deserved and needed time in the sewing room!

My dear Daddy just turned 95!!  So, I made him a new quilt, which I can’t show you yet, as he reads my blog and I’ve not given it to him yet.

My sister and her friend are driving both my parents up to northern Virginia from central Florida the week after Christmas!  We all can’t wait to see them!!  They’ve never seen our house here in Haymarket!

I also made some new fun Christmas placemats.  I love this design using a disappearing nine-patch with some cute modern prints.

The rickrack adds allot and the backing is an old Daisy Kingdom print!!

I made myself a new tote bag for guild from scraps leftover from The Sewing Box collection.

I made two new throw pillow covers for the library for December!!

One in red and one in lime green!!

So, I do promise I’m keeping busy and as pain free as possible!!

Yogi wants to know how you all are doing and what’s keeping you busy these days!!

Veterans We Love

Happy Veterans Day to my hero… my wonderful Daddy who will be 95 this month!! 

This is my parents on their wedding day!!

I’m Still Here!!

First off, thank you ever so much for the emails and sweet comments from you all!!  I appreciated every single one!  They really brightened my days so much!!

I was so mad at my orthopedic surgeon, back when he told me that the second knee replacement can be even more difficult than the first, because everyone else like my PT and friends who have had both knees done separately, all told me the exact opposite.

Well, he was right… at least this time with my second total knee replacement.  This second recovery has been very different than the first… and not in a good way.  Sigh…

But, I finally feel like I’ve turned the corner.

I’ve finally made it upstairs!  Yay!!

And I’ve put the walker away and am using only a cane… although not real steady with it yet!

But, even with all this drama, I do have a quilt to show you!!

I made the top before I had the surgery, and had a dear friend spray baste the quilt sandwich, instead of pinning it, like usual.

I’ve been hand quilting it in the Big Stitch style for the last two weeks.

I’ve really enjoyed using the thicker thread and hand stitching 1/4” around the inside of each leaf, and then stitched in some freeform curved lines in the background.

I finished the binding and label today!  Yay!!

I am ready to get back in my sewing room for longer periods of time… I can handle about an hour with my leg down, then I have to go back down and put my leg up and pack on some ice.

But, I am getting there!  Slowly but surely… one day at a time!!

Yogi has been patient with me during the rehabbing.  But I think he can’t wait to get back up in his bed on my sewing table, too!!

So, what have you all been up to these last three weeks??

Sew and Tell

Well, I just got back from LAST grocery store shopping for at least three weeks!  Actually quite happy about that… HATE grocery shopping!!  Don’t you?

Anyhoo, got a spice cake in the oven, and spiced apples in the crockpot.  I made two big pots of soup last week, which are frozen for later. 

I also made four tins of baked ziti, two tins of chicken pie, and two tins of chicken enchiladas last week, and all are also in the freezer, so my husband will just have to thaw, bake and add a salad, while I’m laid up with the new knee!

House is clean, laundry done, and all is ready for my total left knee replacement surgery on Monday!  But before I am incommunicado, I want to share some more things I’ve made lately!!

First off, before I had my right knee replaced on July 6th, I knew that putting my ten ton laptop on my lap/knees after the surgery was NOT going to happen,

I bought a cool Zagg keyboard for my ipad, which pretty much turned it into a tiny laptop!!  But I needed a case or cover for it, as the old one does not work with the new attached keyboard!

I had a stack of Mary Engelbreit squares leftover from a previous quit, so I used them to make a simple cover with a velcro tab.

It has worked really well as I recuperated from the surgery… very light weight and easy to use on a little padded lapboard I bought on Amazon!!

Our guild summer challenge was to do something “out of your box”…

so I DID!  Paper piecing is very out of my box!

I did make many mistakes…but learned as I went!

While the process does ensure accuracy, and wonderful points…

it’s still not my cup of tea! 

But I have LOTS of respect for those who do it!!

I also needed some modern looking placemats and table runner to put out in September with my “Back to School” decor.

I had some cool apple fabrics in my stash, so I added a few coordinating blenders…

and made big nine patch blocks which I cut into quarters and voila!!

The disappearing nine patch technique!!

I used the same brown word print for the center squares in all the nine patch blocks.  Really love how these turned out!!

And finally, going by how long it took me to get up the stairs to the second floor in my home after last knee surgery, and how long it took me to be able to sit in a regular chair and bend my knee at a 90 degree angle comfortably…

it was almost four weeks before I got into my sewing room to sit and sew!!

So, I have put together a big maple leaf lap quilt top

which is all sandwiched and ready to be quilted… HAND QUILTED !!  By ME!!! In the much easier Big Stitch style with pearl cotton thread!

So, I am ready for my knee surgery on Monday!!  YAY!

So, keep your fingers crossed for me, OK?  I probably won’t be fit to post for a few weeks!!

Yogi says hello and hopes you all are loving the cooler autumn temps!!