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.