Beautiful wedding

Our daughter's wedding was wonderful.  She looked beautiful, as generally all brides do.  It was a couple of late nights for us.  We left Friday morning early on our drive up to Colorado.  We had great weather and arrived in the early afternoon.  The rehearsal dinner was that night.  We rehearsed minus younger daughter who couldn't leave Albuquerque until after 1 p.m.  She made it for the dinner, and there was really not too much to rehearse.  My big part was to stand after the flower girls which signaled Dale to start walking Jackie down the aisle.  I had to dig my nail into another finger to keep from bawling!

I have few pictures, but they aren't great and I am working on my laptop, and so not able to edit well for red eye, etc.  Rosie used my camera since I was more into the experience rather than photographing, and the official photographer took hundreds of photos.  He went to the rehearsal, the hairdresser, the getting ready.  I'm sure there will be lots of wonderful photos.  (I told him I believed in retouching!)  I liked this one Rosie caught of Dale dancing with Jackie.  They were up to mischief!

Lindsay and Geoff looked great.  She is more like her mother, and less likely to dress up.  We all clean up well!  On the left you can see the quilt I made for Jackie & Justin.  I managed to get the quilting done Thursday night before we left, and trimmed it.  I have since finished the binding--I hand stitched it down, which is rare for me.  Thankfully my thumb surgeries have been successful, and I managed to finish it without pain from the hand stitching.


We are now spending a quiet week taking care of the house and puppy while the kids are on their honeymoon.  More pictures after I get back home.

 

Peach blossoms

Our peach tree blossomed out and looks beautiful.  This is an early morning shot with the sun coming through a bit of fog.  I'm hoping the blossoms don't get a late frost, spoiling the possibility of fruit.  The apricots blossomed much earlier and lost a lot of the blossoms, but had enough to put on a second flowering.  We've never gotten usable apricots.

 Of course my chronic procrastination led me to be working all this week on Jackie's quilt, a king quilt 120 inches square! 

Super socks

I picked up my knitting again, and finished these socks.  I actually had very little left to do, just the toe decreases, but since my surgery I had been out of the mood to knit, read, or sew.  Well, these socks are finished, and true to their label, they are super wash, and survived the washer (cold water) and dryer without shrinkage or felting.  I have since started a new pair of socks with Kaffe Fassett's Regia yarn.  The colors are beautiful, and the yarn comes with a 10 year guarantee! 

On the quilting front, I have only seven blocks left to piece on Jackie's wedding quilt which is less than two weeks away!  Didn't get out to the sewing room today, but I should be able to finish the piecing in a few more days, put a top together, and get it quilted in time for the wedding.  I work best under pressure!?  I am a master at procrastination.  Of course I would feel like knitting when I should be sewing!   

Disappointed!

I finished up this little quilt that Pat put together.  First one I've quilted on the longarm in a long while.  As I was doing the binding, I found a spot in the backing.  Looked like a tear or flaw in the fabric.  On closer inspection, I found two more similar spots.

What a bummer, and now I need to be more careful about picking backings!  Since the quilt theme is three little kittens who lost their mittens, I thought some mitten appliques would look okay on the back.  

Pat has offered to make the needed repairs, while reminding me that I really need to get back to working on Jackie's quilt!  Only three weeks until the wedding.  Yikes!  I do work best under pressure though!

Total Knee Card

Two friends had total knee replacements and I made them fabric postcards.  I thought I should make one for the doctor at the VA that did my total knee replacement.  I made one for the hand surgeon that worked on my thumbs, even after my ordeal with a post-op infection last summer.

 

Recovery is going well.  It's a lot of work regaining strength in that leg.  Tomorrow I get the stitches, staples, and steri-strips out.  I think my doctor is a belt and suspenders kind of guy!  It was good to spend some time in the sewing room.  Of course, it is in complete disarray again as only postcard making can accomplish.  I need to get back to work on Jackie's king size quilt...April 17 is not too far away.

 

That's what I'm talking about...

I spent my energy hours this morning making myself a salad for lunch.   

When I was in Phoenix the weekend before last we went to the Olive Mill, and I bought a bottle of their most wonderful Meyer Lemon Olive Oil.

We had lunch there my last day, and it was a wonderful treat.  I had been using Pat's assortment of oils to make salads for us with vegetables sauteed in the oil.  They are amazingly flavored unlike any of the infused oils I've tried to make myself.  We're still working on the Costco roasted chicken we brought back on the way home from the hospital.  

Yesterday I pressure cooked the chicken carcass to make broth, then pressure cooked vegetables which I then put in the blender.  I love creamy soups, but don't use dairy, just thicken the broth with flour, and so I have a nice hearty, creamy vegetable soup awaiting me for dinner. 

Today I seem to have a good amount of energy.  I won't count on it tomorrow, but it's getting a little better every day. 

Hospital food, UGH!

They have a well-deserved bad rep.  I'm not the typical person when it comes to food.  I believe in fresh, simple, ingredients.  Somehow this is not possible at the VA hospital.  The vegetables are canned or frozen.  I was on a salt and sugar restricted diet, and wasn't even given salt substitute!

I don't eat canned fruits, not even the ones I can for my family.  I do can our peaches with a low sugar syrup.  I prefer tart, crisp, apples.  Lindsay and Dale brought me some fruits, oranges, crisp apples, and Dr. Kaufman stopped for a visit with a most welcome basket of Starbucks  instant coffee and a wonderful whole wheat pecan cranberry bread.  I didn't exactly starve, but was more than ready to get back home.  I got my CPM machine up to the requisite 90 degrees so that I could be released!

Monday, my discharge day, my lunch tray was graced with a fresh salad...first one of my stay.  The predominantly iceberg lettuce looked a little wilted, but I had been deprived.  I opened the diet French dressing, and it was such an awful artificial color that I couldn't do it.  Dale moved the tray, the dressing spilled on the bedside tray table and stained the faux wood.  It spilled on the floor and stained the linoleum when Dale tried to wipe it up.  Also stained the plastic lid to the linen cart that it happened to get on.  And they think I should ingest this?  Thanks but a little lemon or lime juice would have been preferable.

Surgery day

I'm backwards chronicling my surgery and few days at the hospital.  The surgery went fine although with a few hiccups at starting my IV by anesthesia again.  The ASU (Ambulatory Surgery Unit) nurse that stuck me for a type and cross match had no trouble, and thanked me for bringing my veins.  Unfortunately anesthesia didn't fare so well, and bruised my left arm up before just going for the antecubital vein on my right.  

Shortly after starting the IV, they must have really snockered me, because I remember slightly the femoral block they did, but nothing after that until I woke up in the same place (pre and post anesthesia are in one place).  I don't remember getting wheeled to the OR or if I moved myself onto the OR table or anything.  That's probably a good thing. 

Next thing I remember is being in a room and asking where my husband was.  The assessment by the surgeon and resident was that my knee was a lot worse than it appeared on x-ray...so I should have something good to work with now!

Still fine tuning

You'd think by now, my method of doing quilt bindings totally on the sewing machine would be old hat.  Last week I decided to try out my zipper foot on the machine.  I like to top stitch my binding very close to the folded edge.  Sometimes, I wander off that edge, and have to go back to get it right.  The zipper foot gives me much better visibility at hitting the target, and has made an already enjoyable task even better.  If you do your bindings by machine, you might want to give it a try. 

This is the last of my current load of quilts, another from Carolyn's blocks that Pat put together.  Lindsay and I are delivering them today.  I have five or six left to quilt, smaller ones, that maybe will let me ease back into spending some time standing after my surgery.

 

Challenging myself

I just finished reading Making Art Every Day, by Debbi Crane, and I'm inspired.  It required a free membership to Cloth, Paper, Scissors, in order to download the article, but very much worthwhile.  I've printed it out to refer to.
 

As I begin my 58th year--yes, I had a birthday yesterday, I want to challenge myself by  doing something creative every day.  I haven't decided what form this challenge will take, but I think it will be very rewarding.  I feel I need the discipline, without excuses.  I think we only find out what we're capable of if we push ourselves.


 

I did finish another donation quilt a couple of days ago.  I have another one quilted which needs to be bound today.  Then I need to get myself together for my trip to Phoenix on Thursday.  It will be a most welcome break before my total knee replacement surgery.

This was another top from Carolyn.  I hope all my friends that have donated to this cause are happy to see their cast offs going to such a good cause.