Sunday, May 06, 2007

A wild and wooly week

Babysat AJ from Wednesday morning at his house, brought him home at 5:30 that night and took him back home Friday afternoon. I know why they give 3 year olds to young people! He missed his Mommy big time this time and asked me a few times if I could "drop him off at his house to see his Mommy and Sissy". (It's an hour and a half drive to "drop him off".) But we had a good time. Thursday was cold and windy, so we didn't get to play outside much to ride his new bicycle, but we took it home with us on Friday so he could show Daddy and ride it there. I pretty much collapsed when I got back Friday afternoon!

Saturday my quilting buddy and I went to the Sinnissippi Quilt Guild's Quilt Show in Rockford. Walked the show and the vendors for about 2½ hours. Good show, but nothing spectacular. I took pictures of some of the longarm quilting I liked just for ideas. We had lunch at Mary's Market and came home.

I rested for an hour and then we left for a bowling fundraiser for my best friend's grand niece. Gianna was a perfectly healthy baby girl that because of some medical mismanagement at birth, had bled out completely by the time they delivered her and they transfused her and brought her back, but she had gone way too long without oxygen and is profoundly brain damaged. The doctors told them she was blind, deaf and dumb and would never walk -- her parents researched everything and she has been receiving hyberbaric oxygen treatments since very early on. She is not blind, she is not deaf, and with braces and lots of help, she can stand and sit. She has had one stem-cell transplant and is much more focused since then -- you can call her name and she will look right at you now. She can't speak -- but who's to say she will never. The fund raisers are to pay for the very expensive hyperbaric treatments, which have helped immensely and possibly for another stem cell transplant. If I remember correctly, she will be three in July.

Anyway -- pretty exhausting week, so today I stayed home and recouped. I stitched the binding down on the Block of the Month quilt: It is ready for the last class next Saturday.


Then I finally stitched the label to the Quilt of Valor -- it will be going out as soon as I find out where to send it. And then I stitched the Heartstrings quilt together:


I need to make a backing -- will definitely not be piecing it much -- there are sure a lot of seams in this quilt, not to mention an extra layer of muslin. I want to finish this one by the 21st so I can take it to guild for donation.

And finally, I spent an hour or so working on my hand applique project today. I'm appliqueing small circles and having a lot of trouble keeping them round, so had to stop and look for my Circleze templates -- found the larger one, but not the smaller one, so now I need to clean out the shelves in the clutter room so I can actually find things again!

Gratitudes:
Once again I am reminded how blessed we are. There, but for the grace of God, go I.

AJ conversing with Bob at dinner on Wednesday night. He also ordered (at an Italian restaurant), "chicken nuggets, with honey, fries and a drink"! His language skills at age 3 are amazing.

An entire day to play in the sewing room -- to fondle fabrics and actually finish some projects.

7 comments :

Carolyn said...

Your quilting on the Block of the Month looks great...it's hard to believe you haven't had your machine all that long! Sounds like you could use a nice nap...I'm exhausted reading about your last few days! :o)

Mary Johnson said...

Wow, you've been so busy. Both quilts look great. It amazes me how different all the string quilts look based on the fabrics in our stashes.

Mine turn out very bright - I attribute it to all the strips and strings leftover from the donation quilts I've made for children's charities over the years.

Melanie said...

AJ is a "cool" kid....Love the string quilt.

Hanne said...

Great quilts Joanne :-)

Judy said...

Nice quilts! I like them a lot! You will make two people very happy with your charity donations.

Bonnie K. Hunter said...

Love the heartstrings quilt! String things just tickle my fancy! ;c)

Bonnie

atet said...

I saw a technique on another blog for keeping circles "round" while appliqueing them. It is on Anna Maria Horner's blog and she has a tutorial for "super circles" the address is:

http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com