A Heartfelt Thank You

I just wanted to post a public thank you to all of you who supported me mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally while dealing with Chris's illness and passing. Words cannot express how much that support meant, so I won't even try to verbalize it. Just know that having you all there for me/us made a difficult journey less so. As I once read somewhere, "the nicest things are often things that none of us can touch."

Thank you for being there,
Suzy

In Memory Of My Forever Love

My Forever Love

Chris Martin Prickett

December 15, 1951 - October 13, 2010

Heaven Awaits

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down -- when we die and leave these bodies -- we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life.

2 Corinthians 5:1-4

Update

I thought I'd check in and update all my friends and family who follow my blog. I wish I had better news to share, but I don't.

Chris has lost another 10 pounds in the past 3 weeks. He is now down to 136. His blood pressure is a little on the low side -- 100/50, and is now on both Methadone and Morphine for the pain. He is not eating or drinking much, and had a really, really rough week last week. Despite it all, I take him to his bowling leagues on Monday and Tuesday mornings. He is totally exhausted when he gets home and sleeps the rest of the day, but sometimes I think the bowling is the only thing that keeps him going; and if that's the case, I'm glad for it.

Please keep us in your prayers,
Suzy

P.S. We had to rehome Lexie, but she is now part of another wonderful Christian family with two young girls, aged 3 and 7. She is doing well and is very happy being the only furry member, with two little girls to keep her busy and active.

A Blogging Break

Just wanted to let you all know I'm taking an official blogging break. Not much quilting going on here anyway.

Chris is not doing well. He has lost most of his voice and can barely swallow. He has had quite a few serious choking and major coughing episodes and is now having quite a bit of pain in his back and chest to the point that they have now prescribed morphine for him. Hospice visits regularly. He is now down to 145 lbs. I hate seeing him like this and am scared and depressed that he may not even make it to our 31st anniversary on October 6. Yet I don't want to see him in pain and suffering.

In addition to my stressing about Chris, our older dog, Lexie, is sensing that he is dying and has become terribly aggressive toward our younger dog, Tasha. She has literally tried to kill her several times and we have had to crate them, letting only one dog out at a time. Yet, Lexie still tries to attack Tasha while Tasha is crated. Lexie has been on "puppy Prozac" for almost 4 weeks now but there's not much of a change with the aggression. Now I'm also scared and depressed we'll need to rehome one of our dogs.

Yet through it all I still have faith in the Lord and his Will, and know He has a Plan for us all. Please add us to your daily prayers.

In His name,
Suzy

A Whole Lotta Sumpin' Goin' On

I haven't blogged in several weeks because it's been crazy busy around here. Good and not-so-good crazy busy.

Let's see...

I've been quilting on and off and finally have a top put together. It's pastel tumbling blocks that I cut with my GO! cutter. Let me tell you, that GO! cutter is the best thing since sliced bread. I still haven't decided whether I want to put borders on it. Right now it measures 79-3/4" x 57-3/4" (unfinished). I'm thinking borders will give it a more finished look, and in my mind's eye I see three borders -- the inside border being solid white, a center border being the leftover pastel scraps somehow pieced, and a final white outer border. But I don't want the finished top to be gi-normous. I've played in my new EQ7, but nothing is speaking to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

More prizes from my block design have been coming in. I get very excited when the UPS guy stops in front of my house. In the past couple weeks I've gotten a $50 Gift Certificate from Electric Quilt, 10 quilting-related DVDs from Nine Patch Media (one of which is THE Roses of Remembrance DVD), and 12 books from Martingale & Co. They accidently sent me a duplicate of one ("It's A Wrap II") so they are sending the corrected book, and I already had "Follow-The-Line Quilting Designs Volume Four". So, I'm either going to hostess a giveaway here on my blog for the two duplicates, or donate them to my Quilt Guild. The Roses of Remembrance book will be arriving in August. :o)

Next up is more family time. Chris is now in the hospice program (he's lost 20 pounds and is having difficulty swallowing). So while he's feeling fairly good and is still up and around, my sister, brother-in-law, niece and my dad decided to come for a visit from NJ last week. We had a wonderful time together. Gosh, I miss them already. So between family visits and visits from hospice (nurses, counsellors, pastor, etc.), and my trying to squeeze in some quilting time, we've had pretty full and fast-moving days. I am grateful for hospice, though. At first it sounded so scary and so final to have hospice involved in our lives, but it is a very positive thing for both Chris and me. And we thank God for our blessings every day.

Hugs,

Suzy

Kids Quilt Camp 2010

Guess where I was last week? No, not the fabric store, silly. I was volunteering at Kids Quilt Camp. I even managed to coherce Kathy (the "eh, I'm not really that into quilting") into coming and we both had a blast. The kids were so great and sucked up the knowledge like the sponges they are. Most amazing was that I would say 70% of the kids had their quilts completely done by Wednesday. Guess what they did the rest of the week? Worked on piecing quilt tops for charity quilts! How awesome are they! I'm so proud to be part of this group.

Friday was Show 'n' Tell with their families in attendance where they showed off their completed quilts and even got to show the 3 (yes three!) finished charity quilt tops they completed by working in groups. Great fun was had by all.

This year I had a cutie pie named Catherine. She was such a ray of sunshine and so outgoing. The clown of the group, she had us all laughing at her antics. These kids are all so much fun to be around.

I'll leave you with some pictures from Camp so you can see for yourself how much everyone (volunteers and kids) enjoyed themselves.





Each one teach one,
Suzy

Sedona Sunset and the AccuQuilt GO! Cutter

This weekend I had a blast with my new GO! Cutter, which I purchased a couple weekends ago on sale at JoAnn Fabrics in anticipation of the $100 gift certificate I would receive from AccuQuilt as one of my prizes for the Roses of Remembrance quilt design (which I recently received, BTW).

I cut, pieced, quilted and bound this quilt in only 2 days! It's 20" square and was so much fun to make! I call it Sedona Sunset.

For the half-square triangles, I just used some leftover charm squares from my Bali quilt (still in progress) that didn't match the color scheme.

If you have the GO! and want to duplicate the quilt pattern (feel free), I used the half-square triangles from the value die that comes with the Cutter, the 1-1/2" strip die for the inner border, the 3-1/2" strip die for the outer border, and the 2-1/2" strip die for the binding strips. Easy peasy.

A GO! convert,

Suzy

My Prizes Are Starting To Arrive!

What fun to check the mail every day! The UPS/Fed Ex guy is now my BFF. LOL! Just check out my first arrival!


Aren't they GORGEOUS! $500 worth of Island Batik fabrics to die for! The large stack on the left/bottom are 1-1/4 yard cuts. The large stack on the right/bottom are 2 yard cuts. The two other stacks are FQs. There are also 18 hand-painted 5" squares and two very large hand-painted murals.

I can only dream what to make with them all! Although I did use one of the yellow FQs for a wall-quilt top I just completed. Pics of that coming soon...

Batik crazed and loving it,
Suzy

A Memorable Trip

We're back and we had a wonderful cruise! Being treated as VIPs didn't hurt either! LOL!

We have lots of pics. We took about 80 and are awaiting the pics from Heather and Rachel, too. I'm thinking of uploading them all to either Facebook or Picasa. Haven't decided yet.

Food, fun, family. It was all amazing. Anthony got a little motion sick the first night, but was fine after the first full day. To see his face at the show (Toy Story - The Musical) was priceless. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Disney's island, Castaway Cay, was beautiful! I was able to get the massage, but Chris wasn't. Apparently if you have cancer they can't do a massage for fear it may cause it to spread or whatever. They did give him a complimentary hand, foot and scalp massage, though. We also were presented with two complimentary robes. Comfy!

But the highlight of our trip was a private invitation by the Captain to tour the Bridge. Anthony even got to sound the horn (which was shaped like a Mickey Mouse face) while we were leaving port. How exciting!

I could go on and on about the trip, but will blog more once I get the pictures posted.

Cruisin' fun,

Suzy