All caught up on my projects!!!!!

It has been crazy, but it has finally settled down around here and I have been able to sew and play more in my art room and MAN, it feels good. It sure does make me feel better mentally to have some time to make things and not feel guilty. Stacie is getting better every day and it has really been fun to have her company around the house. She sits in a garden chair and we talk while I putter around outside or we'll watch something on tv while I sew. She still sleeps a lot and doesn't eat much but that just takes time. Cooper loves having her here. A captive audience for him! Dog heaven. When I leave to work, he runs in and gets in bed with her. It makes me laugh! I have been doing a zillion projects at work too so it has been a pretty creative week. I have been making "go green " shopping bags, silk scarves with beaded fringe and I re-decorated the bathroom. My boss says everyone comments on how beautiful our bathroom is and since we have a home dec dept. she thought it was time to revamp. It was Mary Englebreit now it is French country looking....It cracks me up, but hey, it is my job! Stacie and I made her a tote bag last night. I will share a picture. It didn't take much time with her ironing and reading me the directions. She loves blue and yellow, that girl...She was all happy because her bag matches her quilt.....Not the same fabric, but the colors. I also got caught up on my postcards for "Arts in the Mail"....The Asian swap was harder than I thought...I had to make things out of the fabric I have but I ended up pretty happy with them. I also am still working on my One block wonder quilt....It is starting to look incredible...the blocks are anyway...I am almost done with them and Tuesday I am going to put them up on a board and take pictures and then I will post them. I think this is going to be my Fair entry quilt....I am posting pictures of the fabric...It really is beautiful. I am making it just to make it and learn a new technique. Don't know who will end up with it! My hydrangeas are incredible.....There are these hot pink beauties that I have got to go cut and dry.....I want to hang a ladder from the ceiling in the kitchen and use it to dry stuff...I need to find a ladder first because it needs to be kinda ugly and made out of wood.......and I still haven't painted the kitchen or made curtains....I did recover dining room chairs though...I make myself crazy with all these things I want to do!

Postcards and good news!

First for the good news....My daughter is home and doing better!!!!!YAY and a huge sigh of relief....Thank you to everyone for being so supportive...She has got cards from people she doesn't even know which she has been so surprised and pleased by..This whole thing has been a HUGE ordeal for her and our family..She was in the hospital soooo long that yesterday when I went to get her and we started down the hall, all the Dr's. and Nurses and aides and general hospital people came out and clapped and cheered for her and told her, "don't come back! ".......(meaning, take care of yourself and get well Stacie..) I have been on cloud nine....Now to establish some kind of normal routine again. Things just were crazy! She is thrilled to death to be out of room twenty too....We have giggled and watched bad TV and I have been trying to entice her to eat with any kind of food that sounds good...I spent some time today showing her all the art I get from trades and she is amazed....I put her in the guest room and she had me hang postcards all over so she could look at them while she gets well...That and she is all tucked under some comfy quilts, of course......I got her some herbal mint, ginger and fennel tea that a herbalist recommended for nausea, and she says it is helping. Some of the medication makes her sick but she has to take it anyway.....There is a really cool chinese herbalist in the Seattle area. He looks at you, your tongue and takes your pulse then mixes up all these mysterious looking barks and fungus looking things and then you drink a bowl of it for ten days straight. I have done it the last couple of springs and it really does help...The problem is getting the stuff down.

I made a couple of postcards for swaps on Arts in The Mail.......The first is Mae West for a "Hollywood Icons" Swap and the second is a kimono for an Asian themed swap...They didn't photograph very well, but I thought I would share anyway.....I also have been working on my " one block wonder quilt"...Wasn't sure I would like it but I think it may turn out to be really beautiful.......I cant really post a photo until it is done because it doesn't make sense until then...I am steadily working on it though...So many things to do!!!!!!!!

New pillow, quilting class and daughter update....

Stacie may just be a few days from coming home. They are waiting on one more surgical opinion, but so far, two surgeons are saying a couple more days on IV antibiotics and she can come home. My dad is coming from Oregon to get Daniel for a couple weeks so he is all excited over that! He loves his grandpa..Dad will probably stay a couple days and visit the hospital. I know Stacie will be glad to have the company too. As crazy as things are, they are starting to seem almost normal...It doesn't make sense I know, but in a weird, kinda way......You know what I mean. I finished my felted pillow and I just love it! It is a store sample and the owner really loves it too...It is the first pillow I have ever made. I kind of guessed how to make an envelope back and then I put a button and button hole so you can close it...I look forward to making more of these...There is something fun about stabbing fabric with a sharp needle!!!! Haha....Therapy! I also got a break from Daniel tonight and went to that "one block wonder" class....Now this was some cool stuff....It makes blocks that look incredible...I am still in the cutting phase but will post pictures later...Everyone teased me because you have to pin a lot to match the patterns as you cut and I never pin...ANYTHING! Blasphemy you say?....but true......It felt so good to just talk and relax......

Running on Empty!!!!

Stacie is still in the hospital! Hard to believe, even for me and I am here! She has seen little eighty year old ladies have open heart surgery and come and go in four days so she is getting discouraged...Me too, actually. It is starting to get harder to juggle everything and I look back at raising three kids by myself, running a home and working full time and I don't know how I did it. Today, my patience was very short with Daniel. He got it in his head that mama was coming home today and I think he was acting out instead of saying he was upset. I took him to a friends house and we ate lunch and he played with her grandaughter...kinda....she is a year older and more mature and I could tell she was tolerating him more than anything....I rowed them in a rowboat clear across the lake and I know my arms are going to be killing me tomorrow...good exercise though...Then we swam and he was just obnoxious out there, but boys will be boys and part of it is I am tired. I realized on the way home that I work all day tomorrow and I didn't even think of a babysitter.......luckily, I have a friend who is going to take him to see Stacie and watch him....I just am not used to having a child 24/7.....He even sleeps with me...(and the dog and the cat in a double bed.) I know he has been thru a lot too and needs the extra nurturing. I did make him go to bed early and alone tonight though so I could wind down. After I am done here I am going to go fold laundry, make him a lunch and load the dishwasher...then bed!!!!!!!

Daniel wanted to make his mom something so we got some lavender we picked last week and dried and embroidered on muslin, then he sewed and filled a sachet for her all by himself. I have a singer that I am going to get out of the closet for him and let him have it....He wants to make a pirate quilt to replace the train quilt that is gone now...(so sad) the pictures of him are sewing and showing off what he made. I also took a picture of the most OUTRAGEOUS and WONDERFUL pillow book I have ever seen!!!!!! I am making one of the pillows and you see part of the top with it....it is done by felting silks and fibers and angelina into cotton duck and then it gets even more beautiful...I am making it as a sample for work...It is so cool at work because you can use what you need and do it at work...the sample stays for three months and then you can have it...I forsee magnificent pillows in my future! I will post it when I finish. I also painted my daughter a card and posted a picture...It is my wishes for her...Thank you all for your support, thoughts, wishes and prayers....It has meant a lot to the three of us!!!!!!

gourds and watch faces

My daughter, Stacie is still in the hospital. I am getting pretty depressed about the whole thing and of course she is really down! I guess she had one whopper of an infection, and it keeps trying to come back even after the surgery. I don't know..but I am upset just like she is eight years old all over again. I feel bad that I cant make it go away. Daniel is doing pretty well. he is just lonely for his mom and kids. I don't know any moms with kids on the island...They are here, I just have to figure out a way to meet some for him. Maybe at the sewing store. We went to the hospital today and kept Stacie company again.....She is trying to get back to eating again but having a hard time keeping food down.

Off and on I have been working at the fabric store. I enjoy it , my feet don't! ha ha...I stand all day and the floors are cement so I am trying to get used to it..It is fun to see all the new stuff that comes in. I have to look at all the fabric and books and drool over what I am going to buy. Next week, I am going to take a "one block wonder" class and I bought six yards of this beautiful fabric....It is a quilt that uses one fabric and then you make hexagons and octagons and you get a kaleidoscope effect. By the end, you cant even tell what kind of fabric you used....It is based on

a book by the same name...Cool stuff! We have a yard full of tents this weekend. I have some family camping in the yard...Daniel is enjoying it a lot....There are two little kids to play with. I am not stressing about it..just go to work, go to the hospital and hang out..There is so much to do on the island right now that they are on their own! As far as art goes. I have made some "G is for gourd" postcards for arts in the mail and some "time" atc's for a lottery on fabric atc's...time flies and time to fly....that is about it for now!

Wow, it has been a while, but life happens! This is the longest I have ever gone without posting, but for good reason...I have been having blog anxiety about it! Ha-ha...On the second of July, My daughter Stacie and my grandson came from Redding Ca. by bus so I drove into Seattle to pick them up...Stacie has been a juvenile diabetic since age five. She had been sick with some kind of infection so I really wanted her home. I took one look at her, and took her to the hospital where she still is. She had abdominal surgery on Friday evening and is still in intensive care but now on the mend. She had a huge infection that probably started in an ovary and went everywhere. My grandson, Daniel, who I talk about all the time is here and I have been taking care of him and then my youngest daughter and her two kids came on the night of the fourth. It has been crazy, but hopefully will settle down some. I spent all my time at work, the hospital or doing things with the three little kids. We did have a great time, but yesterday the stress and worry hit me belatedly and I wanted to crawl in bed and sleep all day! Lisa and her kids went home two days ago and I am still picking up toys in the house and the yard. They are so darn cute though it is worth it. I have a huge appreciation for mothers who can create anything now! Daniel is right there every time I walk in my art room..."what are we making" "Can I paint something" can I run the sewing machine pedal? "what about making this or that?'......you get the idea.....haha....I love that he wants to do it with me, but sometimes I miss the quiet! A LOT!

Then where he goes the dog and cat are too so I end up with a full room and a big mess. I did make a set of bird and nest atc's for a swap for some group...Not sure which one. Susan Burgess needed a few more players and asked me, she who cant say no.....Anyway, they were fun to make and Daniel and I had made some paper fabric and we used that. It is the green background that you see on each one. I treated them like fabric atc's so they have timtex in the middle and a fabric back. I really had to think, I got rusty in this short time....Now to go clean up the mess........