It's Spring!

 

The last day of winter

 Today is the last day of winter, here in Florida though its hard to believe it's winter with temps the last few days in the high 80's.  We were expecting rain today and heavy wind but that has changed to mostly cloudy and breezy and much cooler for the first few days of Spring.

It's certainly been spring like for the last few days and the dandelions in the yard have been growing like beanstalks.

These beast grow over 4 feet tall yet the flowers are smaller then a US dime, and the seed puff not much larger yet they fly everywhere.

Each time I look at those dandelions I'm amazed at how tall they grow.  The lawn service should be here next week and those beast will be gone, my seasonal allergies will be happy.

Move those clocks ahead

 Did you all remember to set your clocks ahead one hour?

Goodness where did the time go?

 Goodness has it really been over a month since I last posted?  I think two post I typed up in February went the way of the interweb black hole.  

Anyway it's International Women's Day 

My son was married on February 27th, the ceremony was held at the Margaritaville Resort Hotel in Kissimmee Florida.  A lovely full moon hung above during the wedding reception , the weather perfect and clear the entire day.

I had the angiogram on February 11th, unfortunately one of the arteries in the abdomen was fully calcified and the other one was too narrow to put in a stent, the 3rd wasn't as clogged as it was first thought so that was left alone,  Next option is to treat with blood thinners to see if it helps, and it not possible bypass surgery.  First before any surgery I need to know if it's the cause of this illness that has had its grip on me since last March.  I am at the point where I don't even want to see another doctor because all I get is I have heathy organs which is great and no answer to what is causing the pain.

On the stitching front I finished the February Goddess for my personal goddess of the month embroidery project.

I chose to do The Cailleach, a fitting choice because she is as unpredictable as the winter weather, this is how she progressed through the month:

 I used DMC Etoile floss in C798, using the etoile floss to give the appearance of ice on her clothing, I added a quartz crystal to the staff and a twisted jump ring as a buckle on her belt.  She is stitched on 100% cotton with tone on tone  white spiral, The last photo is before the wrinkles were ironed out.

I haven't started the March goddess yet, not even sure which one I will do next, I am leaning toward Hecate, Airmid or Kali.  Linking here at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching check out what other talented bloggers are slow stitching https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2021/03/slow-sunday-stitching.html

I finished reading the latest Janet Evanovich book, as always lots of laughter throughout the pages, it 

will be entered as a book for  both the Crusin thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2021

and the TBR 21 in '21 challenge.

I just finished A Thousand Days in Tuscany for the European Reading Challenge 2021

I haven't chosen the next book for the European Reading  Challenge yet so I'm not sure where I will arm chair travel next, but I did enjoy A Thousand Days in Tuscany  it's non fiction and I felt I myself was in Italy enjoying the taste of foods and wine that filled almost every page.  She has written a few other books which I plan to read as well.

Happy Groundhog Day and Warm Wishes for a Wonderful Brigid's Day!

 

Looking Back to Move Forward On this Slow Stitching Sunday

The last day of January, the last slow stitching Sunday for this month and some health news updates.

On Wednesday I finally got the results of my CTA scan I had done in November,  I found out I have 3 clogged abdominal arteries which may be the reason for some of or all of the pain I have been having since March 2020. I have to have a consultation with the Interventional Radiology group to discuss stents to open the arteries or other options. It’s been 9 months since all this abdominal pain started and I still don’t have any real answers, My son gets married in less than a month and I would like to be able to enjoy the day pain free and maybe even eat a piece of wedding cake, but somehow I don't think that is going to happen. 

On Friday the doctor did another Endoscopy mainly because the report from the other doctor was either missing parts or written badly and one of the biopsy results was missing.  So my doctor let me decide now or June when it would be a year since the last one,  I chose now I want answers.  The results so far all my internal organs look good and I don't have Barrett's Esophagus (which the other doctor diagnosed). I am so glad I stopped seeing that doctor.  I will have the results of the biopsies in a short time. Now I'm waiting on the Radiology office to call me to set up an appointment.  

There will be light at the end of all this, from Jan 7th to the 21st I had two full weeks of no pain, no nausea and an actual appetite, it was like being me once again but I didn't let myself over do anything because at the start of all this after the first time in the hospital I had 2 weeks of normal and then it all started over.  I will say over the last 9 months I had a few good days but 2 weeks is the longest, so yes light at the end of the tunnel and at least so far the pain isn't bad enough to send me to the hospital, or it is but I just learned to live with it.

Here is a photo of my new glasses I mentioned in my last post. They are light weight clear blue frames, I picked them up on Tuesday, I love how they fit I wanted clear frames but all the ones I like were sold out so I ordered a second pair with clear frames, I like having backup glasses on hand.  I Purchase them from Lenscrafters.

On the needlework side of things for Slow Stitching today I'm going to put in some hand quilting on the first quilt I ever hand pieced. I began in October 1990, over the years I put off completing it and just work on it every now and then but I decided 2021 is the year to finish it. 

Every other block alternates a heart in the center and a red square center.  The heart piece was actually from patch work yardage I bought for just those heart pieces.  According to my Quilt Journal entry October 1990: The cutting and measuring is time consuming as I am using a ruler to make cardboard templates and scissors to cut my pieces (still my preferred way to cut). I spent 5 days marking the pieces and adding seam allowance and cutting all this entirely by hand.

By Thanksgiving day 1990 I have 12 blocks pieced, then put the quilt aside to do some Christmas crafting, on January 5th I had pieced a total of 15 blocks, and on January 12th 1991 all 35 blocks have been hand pieced and on January 22nd 1991 the quilt top was completed.   

Twenty years have passed since I completed the top and according to my journal entry regarding the backing fabric: Bummer my backing is 5 inches too short and I purchase 1/2 yard more than required according to the pattern book.
However, this turned out to be a road trip to the quilt shop in Allentown NJ, my late friend Sandy and I headed to Allentown to the Quilt Barn at least once a month, so the disappointment didn't last.  I did buy the necessary fabric and basted the quilt which according to the journal was my least favorite part. 

I began the hand quilting on February 2, 1991 I put it in the small standing quilt frame I had purchased at the newly opened Leewards, after two hours 1 square was hand quilted, I had the flu and a raging fever at the time. But hey it's slow stitching.

According to my journal after 6 squares I decided to quilt without the frame and just worked with the quilt on my lap, living in New Jersey at the time in a pre-WWI building (very drafty) it was nice to have the quilt on my lap while I worked.  On March 31st I added a loose binding made from strips of muslin to the quilt because the batting fibers were getting in my eyes and mouth wreaking havoc with my allergies, I have since changed to 100% cotton or wool batting.  Funny this more than anything stands out probably because even today loose fibers irritate my eyes quite a bit.  

Another memorable entry in April of 1991 I attended my first Quilt Show and loved it there were two others in April we attended.  I also put the quilt aside to begin plans to move to Florida in June 1991. There would be no other entry until June 16, 1995, My mother passed in 1991 a few weeks after I arrived and my son and I returned to NJ in December 1991 to tie up her affairs in NJ, I had packed everything in storage in Florida.  We moved back to Florida permanently in May 1994 and on June 16th of 1995 I found a quilt shop in Dade City, the one quilt shop in Ocala at the time, the Quilting Bee,  I would see it everyday on the drive to the hospital when visiting my mother had since closed. 

The quilt shop in Dade City was nearly a two hour drive which was fine with me, the shop in Allentown NJ my friend and I used to go to was a long a drive too.  In the time I went back to NJ, I had made several 9 patch baby quilts and taught my son Nick how to hand piece starting with 6 inch squares.  In 1996 I attended my first quilt show in 5 years, in 1997 I began a Joann's Quilt block of the Month, and in August 1998 there are 2 quilt shops in the county, so no long drives to Dade City.  Over the years the quilt shops in Ocala have closed, with new ones opening and then closing as well.  There is one quilt shop on the other side of town which I attended several classes including hand embroidery class in 2015 that reignited my love of hand embroidery, sadly those classes ended when the instructor moved away. My first quilt journal has no entries after August 1998, when I moved back to NJ for 2 years I didn't record anything even though I made a few baby quilts and wall hangings, there are brief mentions of them in the journal. I began keeping a stitchery journal so I record my projects in one volume when the mood strikes me.  Mostly I keep a running list of embroidery floss colors for project patterns I have, and the start and finish dates of my hand embroidery projects.  So today I will enter my first entry into the quilt journal since 1998.

I am linking my post today to Kathy's Quilts for the Slow Sunday Stitching, the link is here take a look there are so many wonderful bloggers stitching up some lovely projects and maybe with a story to share as well. https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2021/01/slow-sunday-stitching_31.html

Before I go just a heads up to anyone interested The San Francisco School of Needlework and Design is having another Stitch at Home Challenge, 

Info can be found here https://sfneedleworkanddesign.org/rules-and-entry-form/

I signed up last night and ideas are swirling in my head, I also have the final touches on the February goddess for my Goddess a Month project and more embroidery has been done on the Brigid's Cross.

Happy Stitching Everyone and thank you for visiting my blog.

Reading, Stitching and New Glasses Oh MY!

 I have been keeping up with my reading challenges this month putting in a few chapters for each book I'm reading until I get to that point where it's time to finish the book.  Once I get to that point all books get put aside and I read through until it's done.

For this last book it wasn't much that the story was good and I wanted to finish it, this time it seems the book lost a few pages or chapters for that matter and it just felt chopped and then the end was rushed and it was quite disappointing.  

A friend of mine sent me the first 7 books in the series, this is number 3 which started off  with a good story and then it wasn't so good and just felt there was a chunk of the book removed, as I was reading I kept checking page numbers to see if there were missing pages.  This has happened before with other books I have read where the story falls apart and the ending is rushed to finish the book.  I often think bad editor. Oh well I'll try the next one and see what happens only because a friend sent them to me knowing I like cozy mysteries. 

I went to have my eye exam on Saturday since it's been about 4 years since my last upgrade in glasses. I picked out new frames and was told it would be up to two weeks before they were ready, well 4 hours after I got home don't I get a text message my glasses are ready to be picked up, I knew I had taken a long nap but I didn't think I slept that long.  So just now while typing this I get a call from LensCrafters my glasses are ready, I asked how is that possible when I was told up to two weeks that the lenses weren't in stock when I was there Saturday?  Needless to say she wasn't able to answer me and just said they are ready to be picked up at my leisure.  

On a stitching note here is the piece I briefly gave a peek at last week, another hand embroidery of Brigid's Cross I started last Sunday.

It's another coloring page from the Celtic Cross coloring book by Dover Publications, this one is not a free coloring page it's a page from the coloring book which I scanned and then printed onto Pellon's Stick and Wash Away. 

My progress as of last night for my slow Sunday Stitching, I'm a day late with my link up over at Kathy's Quilts https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2021/01/slow-sunday-stitching-old-friends.html