Last Show Quilt

Carol here ~ 

Happy Thanksgiving week! I made vegan bread for the vegan grandson yesterday, will make yeast rolls for the rest of us today.  Yum!

This is the final quilt that we entered into shows.  It's a doozy! 

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening, in the studio. It is a tad too chilly for a fire. It’s a good evening to cuddle up under a few quilts. 

Today I spent some time and cut up more of a blowdown that blew a large oak tree into the Mud Pond. I got what I could last winter off the ice. With the water level low now I put my new waders on yesterday and removed a bunch more from the pond. Today I worked on the 12’ or so that was on the land. After managing to cut it up I had to split it once with a maul and splitting wedge so this old man could even lift it. It is all up by the shed and split and stacked. A nice little round wood pile, all hard wood. 

Dan's Ramblings: Show Quilts Part 4

Dan here ~

Thursday again. I heard an interesting thought on that whole time moving faster as we get older thing. His idea is that as a child we encounter a wide variety of new experiences often multiple times a day. Hence the day is new and refreshing. As we age we get into routines and usually very little new happens in our lives. I know this makes sense to me as pretty much every day is about the same as the day before. Except for meals. I try to have a few days between the different meal ideas. Those ideas are very different than my quilting ideas, there is a lot of repetition. Maybe I need to take up skydiving or something for a new and exciting thing to do. I have a good idea that my immediate new experience will be how well this years snow removal goes.

Show Quilts ~ Part 3

Carol here ~

Continuing on with our show quilts, the next three are mine.

SHOW ME THE WAY HOME ~ designed, pieced and quilted by me. This one received a Purple Ribbon (excellence) and Best of Show at Maine Quilts, was displayed at Innovations and Machine Quilter's Expo.

The Mariner's Compass blocks were constructed with Brenda Henning's paper piecing technique.  I then surrounded it with flying geese heading north, south, east and west, set on point.  I added the partial compass blocks and bordered the quilt with a favorite block, Rangeley Stars.  The quilting is all freehand using a variegated thread.  (what was I thinking?) 

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Carol would be upset if I failed to tell you about the coffee debacle. 

I got up Wednesday morn and made coffee with our Keurig coffee machine. I pushed all the requisite buttons and walked off to do something else while the coffee was doing it’s magic so my day could receive it’s initial charge. 

I came back to find out I left out one step, put the damn coffee mug under the machine. Oh what a mess. The little holder under the cup (that’s there I’m sure just for this reason) does not hold a 12 oz. cup of coffee. Be real, how many of you brew an 8 oz. cup? Not me, I brew a 12 oz. mug and if I don’t drink it all I throw it out. But had I only brewed 8 and I wanted 9 oz., well you know where I’m going with this, I would have to brew another mug. See my point, plan ahead. You won’t waste that much water. Take it from me, and I have to go get all my drinking water. 

Double Trouble

Carol here ~

DOUBLE TROUBLE and ORDER IN CHAOS were the first two scrappy quilts that Dan pieced, probably in late 2018, thus beginning his obsession with scrappy quilts. CHAOS got quilted but DOUBLE TROUBLE never did so this week I got it loaded on Lena Longarm.

Mostly Good News

Carol here ~

We had another early Wednesday morning in Topsham this week, didn’t get my blog post out so figured I’d just wait until today.

The good news is my red blood count and my white blood count are still good. The better news is the result of my monthly check on my myeloma markers ~ they have decreased over 50% in one month of treatment. Doc says I’m well on my way to remission! Yippee! He said he started my treatment fairly aggressively and that I am responding well to it. Let’s git-r-done!

The not so good news is I hurt my ribs/side. No idea how, I have been so careful. The PT thinks it is the muscles along side my lower ribs. Of course, I am babying it which is throwing the rest of my back off. Fingers crossed I didn’t do anything to my spine. I have one more week before my follow up with the spine surgeon.

So, two steps forward, one back.