Pinwheel Party

A good friend of mine is expecting her first grandchild in February. Of course, as a quilter, we all think, "I need to make a quilt." Yep.

So I wracked my brain (small as it may be) and played in EQ7, and looked through books and wracked my brain some more (ouch). Finally, voila! I found a great quilt pattern. It's from the book Pinwheel Party by Ellen Pahl. I loved all the quilts in the book, but one really spoke to me...Twice As Nice. Here's a photo of the book cover and her original version of the quilt.

I had ordered a Lily and Will FQ stack of fabrics from Fat Quarter Shop specifically for whatever quilt I was going to do, since the color scheme for the baby's room is going to be blue and brown (it's a boy! LOL!), so I thought that I had all the fabrics I would need. Well after playing in EQ7, drawing and coloring the blocks to suit my color scheme and to get the requisite amount of each color fabric I would need, I came up short for what I envisioned. (I only used one brown to represent all the browns, one blue to represent all the blues, and one background to represent all the backgrounds. This makes it easy for me to know how much total yardage I need for each color.)

So what does a quilter do? Well, go to her stash, of course! Luckily, I have quite the stash and was able, I think, to mix it up well enough that will give it a scrappy look, yet not be able to tell which were the original Lily and Will fabrics and which are my choices from my stash. I hope you agree.

Now the next question is whether I start cutting and piecing it now, or after I get back from my cruise with my Dad to Hawaii. We leave next Saturday, the 22nd, and get back on February 8. I know I want to start it now, but if I don't at least get the top together by the time we leave, my OCD will drive me crazy knowing I wanted to get to that point before then. Ugh...

Quilting quandry,

Suzy

I'm Going On A Quilt Cruise!

I'm soooo giddy I can hardly stand it! I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I'm also excited to be able to take classes from Bonnie Hunter herself! Check out her blog for more information and read about her exciting quilting life and beautiful scrap quilts.

This is my first quilt cruise, and I am very lucky that this cruise is sailing out of Port Canaveral, which is only about 30 minutes from me.

I've taken the liberty of posting the photo info she had on her blog. Hopefully I'm not stepping on anyone's toes. Bonnie, if you're reading this, just let me know and I will be happy to take it down.

Quilty hugs to all,
Suzy

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

I'm planning on returning to blogging on a regular basis and returning to some semblance of normalcy.

Thank you to everyone who supported me during this difficult time in my life.

Life goes on,
Suzy

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