Starting New

Is there any feeling better than starting a new quilt? (Okay, I'm sure there is, but that's where I am right now! LOL)

Last night I made my first block for the sampler quilt I decided to make from the "He Loves Me" line of fabrics from Maywood. I just love these fabrics, and love the block. I have no idea what other blocks will make it into this quilt...but so far I'm happy!

I'm feeling that adrenalin rush...new fabric, new quilt, new design and no idea how it will all end up. Or if it will ever be finished! But I'm optimistic...and hopefully by late summer it will be on my bed.

Any block suggestions? What is YOUR favorite block???

It's Wednesday Already?

It's amazing how having a day off can completely throw you off for the rest of the week. We enjoyed our Memorial Day. Somehow we wound up with no kids at home for the majority of the day...one was with friends, another working and the oldest is in Florida with a few of his fraternity brothers. We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves since it was so quiet! :o)

My husband fired up our big green egg and smoked two pork butts. We shredded part of one and had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. The remaining meat was put into the freezer to be pulled out on Friday and served Saturday night to our float group. While that was smoking, I finished hand stitching down the binding on my Underground Railroad quilt. Since it's been washed, it's hard to see the quilting in this picture, but I used my Baptist Fans template on it...that design just looks great on everything! I'm so happy to have it done.


Over the weekend, JoAnn's was having a huge sale, so I ran over and picked up two more colors of yarn to make prayer shawls with. These two colors are supposed to be "painterly colors" and will have a soft, gradual striping through the shawls. I'm anxious to start, but won't until I finish the one I have started. Hopefully that will be done soon and I'll post a picture. The book is for the Bible Study I'll be participating in come June. We're studying the book of Esther, I'm looking forward to it since I've never been to a Bible Study before.

I've seen some beautiful work as I head through blogland...I'm trying to be better about commenting, but it's slow progress. But I'm visiting and reading...

Only 15 more days of school here, 13 for me and then I'm heading to Virginia with my daughter to look at the University of Mary Washington. We're looking forward to a little rest and relaxation on the trip, but since we'll only be gone two days, I'm not sure we'll get it. Are there any "must see" places in Fredericksburg we should visit once we're done our campus tour?

A message from our governor

NJ governor John Corzine has made a public service announcement for wearing seatbelts. I'm glad to see he's using his mistake for good! Have a wonderful holiday weekend, everyone!

Things are growing...

Last year I wrote about the landscaping work we had done. We knew what we wanted the yard to look like, but didn't have the equipment or expertise to set the "bones" of our garden. This year has been so much fun...now that the foundation of the garden has been laid, we've had a wonderful time playing in the garden! These pictures are the before and after of our front walkway...I love the transformation...
We've been filling in with perennials and because we have a lot of trees, I'm trying to choose plants for a "woodland garden". I've always loved bleeding hearts and finally found one for a shady area along our dry creekbed. For the front which gets a little more sun, we've planted some foxgloves.
And near the street where we get a lot of sun, we planted some marigolds to complement the black eyed susans that are there...hopefully they will spread across this whole bed eventually!

And look what's growing in our backyard? We've had an empty lot behind our house since we moved in almost 9 years ago and someone is finally building a house on it. Since our house is set almost to the very back of our lot (we have about 18 inches off of our porch!) this new house will be verrrry close to us. But...at least we'll be able to do something with our backyard at long last...because we'll know where it ends! (It also helps that the new neighbors are very nice people!)

And to make this quilty, I have my Underground Railroad quilt on the machine and plan to finish it tonight...pictures following soon!

Tulip Garden Quilt

Many years ago, when my daughter was little, I made this quilt for her. It was a Debbie Mumm pattern for a wallhanging, which I expanded many times over to make this tulip quilt. I used very pastel colors, rotary cut for the first time (I'd only used templates before!) and hand quilted it. I love this quilt, but as she grew older, she didn't want it anymore. I eventually folded it up and got her store bought comforters and put it away. The other day I pulled it out of the closet to take a picture and put it away once again. I'm hoping that some day her child will want it...although she swears she's never having children! But just in case...I'll keep it safe!

Thank you very much for the kind wishes for my youngest daughter. As it turns out, she has mononucleosis! The test showed she's in the convalescent stage, so she was spared the worst symptoms and only has a mild case. This explains her exhaustion lately! She also had an ultrasound today to look for the cause of abdominal pain she's been having, so we're awaiting the results of that test.

As for me, I had a very nice Mother's Day. My two older children had to work so I didn't expect to see my son at all and would only see my daughter in the evening. I headed over to my sister's house, where we celebrated Mother's Day with my parents, my sister and her son and my brother's family. We also celebrated my nephew's college graduation. Andrew, who sent me 2 dozen roses since he knew he was working and wouldn't be home, surprised me with a visit...but I wasn't home! I convinced him to come to my sister's...it was great to see him and spend time with him. After dinner, I headed home to spend the evening with my youngest and my DH. He stayed home with her because we didn't want her around my little nephews, just in case she was contagious!

I hope to get to some quilting this week...I did start to sew the Underground Railroad quilt together but stopped when I made a mistake! Oh well...there's some ripping in my future...

There is a new resident...

in our driveway. Last night we replaced our daughter's totalled 1998 Cavalier with a 2004 Cavalier. She's in love with the car and we liked the price! We went to a place that brings cars in off of leases, sends about 95% off to auction and sells the nicest cars to the general public at wholesale prices. I wish we'd known about this place a few years ago! The cars on the lot were in great shape, the salesman was very helpful and friendly and when I sat down to talk to him, it turned out that he was my boss's husband! Small world! If you live in the NJ area and ever need a used car, I highly recommend going to see Walt at George Yelland, Inc.

Very little quilting has been going on, although over the weekend I got about half of my Underground Railroad quilt sewn together. I hope to get it finished some time this week because every time I open the windows in my sewing room, blocks blow off the design wall!

If you care to, please say some prayers for my youngest daughter. She's been sick since Saturday night and is totally exhausted. I had her to the doctor yesterday and he couldn't find anything specific, except for pain in her side, so he is doing a battery of tests, including one for mono, and a pelvic ultrasound to try to determine the cause of her pain. She's been practicing for her school play, The Music Man, and the performances are in a week and a half...she's missed practice every day this week. Thank you!

Prayers Requested

Patty at Morning Ramble has requested prayers for her beautiful new granddaughter, Mei-Ling. You can read her story on Patty's blog. This little girl is a fighter and her family desperately wants her home from the hospital and in their loving arms. Please visit Patty's blog and say a prayer for this little angel!

Still here...

Just wanted to say thank you for all of the kind words about my daughter and her accident. She's doing well and we're going to be starting the hunt for another car for her...we'll be looking at our first car tomorrow!

I haven't had time to do any quilting at all (can you say withdrawal???) for the last 2 weeks. Today I had a day off from school and used the time to catch up a little on customer quilts. I finished a very large quilt for one customer and a smaller quilt for another. It felt good to be productive! I can't share either of these quilts now, one is for a show and the other is for a fellow blogger, so I want her to be able to share it with you!

Since I didn't have a picture to share, I thought I would share one of my daughter's favorite pets. Cheddar is no longer with us, but he WAS awfully cute!!!

Crazy Week...

It's been one of those weeks, that I'm glad to see coming to a close. On Monday, my 17 year old daughter was on her way to work in the remnants of the Nor'easter. An SUV in front of her stopped, she braked, the brakes locked and she slid into the SUV. Thankfully, no one was injured, the SUV was barely scratched, but her car is totalled. In a way, I'm glad because it was old, had a lot of miles on it and although we kept it very well maintained, I've never liked the car. So, it looks like we'll be car shopping again...one of my least favorite things to do! I do realize how blessed we are though. Our son and daughter, between them, have been involved in 3 accidents. No one was hurt in any of them and they were all weather related, so no tickets were issued. Cars can be easily replaced, although maybe not as fast as my daughter would hope! :o) Another set of parents here were not so fortunate. Their daughter was buried a few weeks ago after her car went off the road and into a tree. I can't fathom the pain they feel, so I'm very grateful that my children have been safe.
And as you can see, she's fine. Last night was her high school's Junior Dinner Dance. The sun came out for the first time all week and they had a beautiful night for it. She looked so pretty, her date was a very nice boy and they had a good time.

Nothing quilty this week, it's been a little hectic around here. I did shorten the straps on my daughter's dress, so I did have a needle in my hand the other day...I'm in serious need of some quilting time! Maybe this afternoon, although I should be out weeding the garden. But, the weeds will be there all summer...they can wait!

Machine Quilters Exposition - Manchester, NH

We returned this afternoon from a very nice weekend in New Hampshire. We left Friday morning and it took us about 7 hours to get to Manchester, NH. It was a pretty ride, we could see lots of areas that still had snow on the ground, especially deeper in the woods along the highway. Friday evening we took our daughter to see "Blades of Glory". It was a funny film if you like raunchy, stupid humor. It did have its moments, but in the end I felt stupider for having watched it! :o) After that we went to T-Bones restaurant for dinner. The food was reasonably priced and delicious...my daughter liked it so much that we went back on Saturday night!



On Saturday morning we headed to the show. There were so many beautiful quilts made by talented quilters. I'm so envious of their abilities! As we were walking through the show, we finally made it to the Breast Cancer Challenge quilts. I knew going in that I was not a winner, so I was fine with it. The winning quilt was just beautiful, such creative use of the fabrics we were sent, I absolutely loved it.Now, if you look at the top picture which shows my quilt, there might be a little something you notice that is different. Each quilt in the show had a card attached that gave the name of the quilt, the piecer, the quilter and a little story about the quilt. However...mine only had a little green card with the quilt number on it. Nothing to identify me as the quilter, creator...anything. Unless you happened to look in the program just to see who it was by. As I walked through the show I saw all sorts of quilts made by people whose names I recognized or by people I knew. Unfortunately, no one would have known I made this quilt. I was so incredibly disappointed that after all the work I had put into it, no one would know I made it, unless they took the time to look it up. Who actually does that??? Going through the show there was only one other quilt that didn't have a name tag on it. I stopped in the office, mainly to make sure the quilt was going to be returned to me since it didn't have a tag on it, but the show organizers were off doing other things, so I was asked to write a note in a notebook with my information. I did that, but it didn't change disappointment or the fact that no one knows I had a quilt in the show. We stayed at the show for about 2 hours, then headed out.


From the show we drove to Portsmouth, NH. It's a wonderful little coastal town with lots of shops and restaurants. We stopped for lunch at the Portsmouth Brewery, where the food was good and the beer even better! I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area! After wandering around the shops for awhile, we decided to cross the bridge and go into Maine where there were all sorts of outlets. My daughter had fun in the Pac Sun outlet and my DH and I looked through the shoe outlets....but he and I came home empty handed. My daughter had no problems spending our money though!


We headed back to the hotel and had dinner, then turned in early so we could leave early this morning. The rain was just starting in NH as we hit the road. We went from a light rain in NH to heavier rain in Massachusetts. When we got to Connecticut there was heavy snow, sleet and rain...all at the same time! New York and New Jersey were just torrential rains. The traffic was much lighter on our trip home than on our trip there, so the trip took about 7 hours each way. It was good to get home this afternoon...nor'easters aren't for the faint of heart! I'm very glad that I wasn't driving.


So, except for my disappointment at the show, it was a fun weekend. Now I wait for the return of my quilt. I've entered it into the NJ State Guild show in June, only because a customer insisted that it needed to be there! I'm curious to see what the judges had to say about it. Maybe they didn't put my name on it because they didn't want me to be embarrassed!!!

New Quilt

I received a letter from the quilt shop I used to work at a few weeks ago. The owner was looking for people to make quilts for the shop. She's been making most of the samples for the 5 years she's owned the shop, or paying others to make them. She said she has so many samples at home that it was time to have others make them! So, the deal is that she will provide the pattern, fabrics for the top, back and binding and batting to the quiltmaker. The quiltmaker will provide the finished quilt, completely quilted and bound. After a period on display at the shop, the quilt will be returned to the quiltmaker to keep.

Well, it seemed like a great opportunity to me! I can make quilts that are out of my usual comfort zone without a huge investment in fabric. If I don't like any of the quilts that she wants made, I can pass on making one. I don't know how often she'll need quilts, but I figured I'd try it.

The first quilt is this pretty little gem called "French Rose Buds" by Heather French. It's soft edged applique, which I've never done. It also required multiple, mitered borders...another first for me. Shockingly, they turned out perfect the first time! I can't wait to get this one quilted so I can see how the flowers fray and curl up. This quilt is so soft and pretty!

I'd like to thank Screen Door for tagging me as a blog that keeps her thinking for the Thinking Blogger Awards. Now it is my duty to tag five more blogs that keep me thinking. I read over 100 blogs, so that's no easy task!

One has got to be IrishLakeQuilter. I've known Judy for a number of years and was delighted when she started blogging. She makes the most beautiful applique quilts and always sets me to thinking that I should make one...although I haven't gotten beyond my Grandma's Country Album quilt that I made so many years ago, but haven't quilted. Judy is quite an inspiration to me.

Another would be Mary at Making Scrap Quilts from Stash. She is very prolific and has embraced wholeheartedly the Heartstrings program which she created. What a wonderful thing to take on and to inspire others to quilt for charity.

My third choice would be PrairieQuilts. Nines makes beautiful quilts, bakes her own bread, has lots of kids and embraces the children of others for long visits and does it all with grace and charm. Her blog is a breath of fresh air!

My fourth choice (please note these aren't in any order, I'm just typing them as I think of them!) is Pages from Me. I love reading about life in Australia and seeing the gorgeous quilts that Mereth makes. I'd love to have the creativity that she has!

And fifth, I think I would choose Quilting Twin, Mereth's sister Keryn. Another inspiring Aussie, Keryn makes beautiful quilts and more beautiful designs for machine quilting. These twins definitely came from the same gene pool and inherited scads of quilting talent!

Now, all this being said, there are so many other blogs I read and admire. I don't want to leave anyone out! I also appreciate all of the comments that everyone leaves on my blog...it's so wonderful to have this forum to show my creations and get honest feedback on them. I'm so grateful that I took the leap and started my blog. I really thought no one would care what I wrote and at the time figured I wouldn't keep up with it. I surprised myself and couldn't stop blogging now, thanks to all of you! Okay, I hear the background music playing...must be time to stop my Thinking Blogger acceptance speech! :o)

A Fun Day...

Today my husband and I took off on an adventure. After running a few errands, we headed to a small town about 40 minutes south of us, near where our son attends college. Mullica Hill is known for its antique shops and farmland...lots of farmland! The attraction for us was a new quilt shop which I had just heard about, that opened at the end of January. The Mullica Hill Quilt Company is the most charming quilt shop I've ever been in, and I've been in a lot of quilt shops! Except for a few necessities, I haven't been just shopping at a quilt shop since my little jaunt last summer for my birthday. I could have spent a fortune in this shop...and pretty near did! Once I made my purchases they were all wrapped so nicely in the bag above. When I opened the bag, the picture below is what greeted me. All of the fabric was wrapped in acid-free paper so that I didn't have to worry about putting it on my shelves and letting it sit.

I did make the one purchase that I intended to...3 yards of red fabric to use as sashing, borders and binding for a t-shirt quilt for my son. That's one of my summer projects.
Then I found this beautiful fabric line from Maywood, which I just couldn't pass up! It's called "He Loves Me" by Jackie Robinson and was just the softest, prettiest fabric I'd seen. Even my DH liked it...and liked it well enough that he held the bolts and didn't blink when I told him I wanted 4 yards of the blue floral and 2 yards of everything else! I did restrain myself, I didn't buy any of the pink colorway! :o)
I chatted with Annette, the owner, and Debbie ( I hope I got your name right!), the wonderful woman who patiently cut and folded all of this fabric. I was thoroughly impressed with the wonderful service and I think this shop will do very well! I know I'll be doing most of my shopping there.

From the shop we headed to the Heritage Vineyard where we had a wine tasting and left with bottles of their blush and peach wines. We also had to take home some apple cider donuts...they're the best!

After hopping down the road to bring our son his Easter basket, we headed home...it's been a fun day! And now I'm off to wash my fabric and find a pattern for a queen size quilt that I can use it in! Any suggestions? I'm thinking stars of some sort....

I hope everyone has a Blessed Easter...

Chinese Coins

The HeartStrings Quilt project is making Chinese Coins for the months of April and May. Mary has written a nice tutorial on the website. Last week at Caps and Laps I was asked if I'd be interested in making a quilt for the basket of goodies they are making for a parishioner who is having a little girl. It seemed like a great opportunity to make a Chinese Coin quilt! So, this is what I've put together in the past two evenings. It measures about 46 inches square, which will be a great size to lay on the floor for the baby to play on, cover her in her crib, or for her to snuggle with as she grows older. I've got enough of the pink leftover for the backing and binding, and I've used all but a few strips of the white baby print, so that is more fabric out of my stash!

It's been rainy and chilly here today. After a trip to the chocolate store to pick up a few treats for Easter, I've spent most of the afternoon doing paperwork, invoices, balancing checking and savings accounts, paying state sales tax, filing...all those fun jobs that are associated with running a small business. Now that's over, so I plan to relax tonight...either in front of my sewing machine or with my knitting. Hmmm...decisions, decisions! :o)

Thank you for all of the wonderful comments on my challenge quilt and the prayer shawl. It's so nice to have this forum and all of the support that quilters give each other so readily. You are the best!

Caps and Laps and other ministries

For a long time I've been looking for a place to donate my quilts, quilting and other (and I use the term loosely!) talents. For a few years I quilted for Camp Reach for the Sky which is a camp in California for children with cancer. It made me feel good to do this, but as time passed I wanted to find a way to make a difference closer to home.

At the beginning of the year, Mary started the Heartstrings Quilt Project. I signed up, hoping to find the time to make blocks and send them off. So far I've sent a total of 30 blocks to the project. Then I realized that I could donate quilts in the name of Heartstrings locally, so that's what I've decided to do.

Last week I stopped in at the meeting of my church's Caps and Laps program. They make hats and blankets for babies, lap robes for for those in wheelchairs and the elderly and they donate to many different organizations. I brought them two quilts which I had made in the last year and the two baby hats I'd knitted. The women were so sweet! First off, they could not understand why I would be giving away these quilts until I reminded them that they were there, making these beautiful baby layettes and blankets and were giving them away because it was the right thing to do. I couldn't stay because I had a meeting to go to, so they insisted that I come back next month and spend some time with them. I hope to be able to make a Chinese Coins quilt for them in the next month as a response to the challenge on the Heartstrings website.

While there, they told me about a Prayer Shawl Ministry that they hoped to start between them and the Daughters of the King chapter at our church, which I belong to. I decided to start a Prayer Shawl for a lady at church who was instrumental in my becoming a charter member of our chapter. I found the pattern on the internet, although the ladies did give me a book of patterns that I could choose from. I'm enjoying knitting it and praying for this lovely lady as I go. I'm sure it will take me forever to finish it, I'm not a very fast knitter! :o)

I did manage to quilt half a quilt on my machine today, but my back was protesting and I had to stop. Apparently I'm going to have to live with some back pain until it gets bad enough for medical intervention beyond muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories. I also removed sleeves and hemmed the armholes from an old dress that my daughter wanted made into a sundress, and fixed another dress that I had made years ago which my youngest will wear in her school play. I still have a shop sample to make by April 25, several quilts to quilt for customers...the list never ends, does it? We've all been there, done that!!! It's a good thing we love it!

Done!!!

My Challenge quilt for the Machine Quilter's Exposition is finally done! I sewed on my little flowers and ruched flowers today, sewed on the sleeve and label, and at the last minute made a mad dash for some Swarovski Crystals to put in the centers of the little blue flowers. That's it...I've done enough. Tomorrow it will leave my hands and I won't see it again until after the judges do. I'm not even sure I want to see the judges remarks...I'm finding that quilting for show takes the joy out of quilting. I'm not sure I'll intentionally make a quilt for show again. The next picture is the trapunto border and the last picture is the applique (with the crystals!) My back is feeling better, so now, once I get over my bronchitis, I can get back to customer quilts!

Challenge Quilt

I just took my MQX Challenge quilt off of the longarm. I know the judges will have a grand time with this one! I've never done trapunto before, never done a challenge quilt for a show and have never entered a quilt in a show, so I call this quilt "Courage". My big mistake was using a thread in the border that was too dark, so in many areas there is the appearance of "thread build up" where I've overlapped the quilting design too much. This quilt is rather stiff...not a good snuggle quilt!

Next comes blocking, binding, rinsing in cold water to remove the blue marks, warm water to remove the water soluble thread, adding three dimensional flowers and maybe a few beads. Of course, I've also never blocked a quilt and have no idea whether to bind first or block first, or how to go about blocking it! This is definitely a quilt of firsts! And it has to be in New Hampshire by April 3rd. I think I can, I think I can...

New Quilt Started...

A few weeks ago when my husband was in Copenhagen, he and I were IMing and he was telling me about the fabulous dinners he was having, how beautiful the city was...and I got to feeling sorry for myself because I wasn't there with him! What to do to cheer myself up? Start a new quilt! So, this is the quilt I started that night. It's called "Underground Railroad" and is from the Elm Creek Quilts book by Jennifer Chiaverini. I have all of the four patch blocks done and about half of the half square triangle blocks. I just wanted to get some up on the design wall and see what it would look like. I used fabrics that I got for my birthday last June and so far I like what it looks like. What do you think?
Today in the mail I received these two Pot Holder kits from a dear friend who lives in Texas. They are paper pieced...I'm looking forward to making them!

Craziness...

Apparently things around here are not going to settle down. It was a crazy week. I went to the doctor on Monday and was cleared to go back to work. The kids were so happy to see me and it was good to be back! On Wednesday my daughter had a follow up doctor appointment for some bloodwork. That was good because it turned out that on Tuesday a girl in her high school was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. The girl is hospitalized and will recover. The doctor recommended we take my daughter back to the school where the county had set up a health clinic to dispense antibiotics to the students who may have had contact with the sick girl. So off we went to the clinic where she was given Cipro.

On Thursday I took her to the chiropractor for her appointment. My daughter's chiropractor (I see a different doctor in the practice) arranged for me to have a free massage with the in house massage therapist! It was wonderful, if you've never had a massage, I highly recommend it! Afterwards I was telling him about my back going out and he sent me home with exercises, an icy hot cream and a TENS unit to use at home. I felt totally spoiled! Thursday was also my husband's birthday, so he and I had an exciting evening. We went to a 50's style diner for dinner and then went to the radiology place so I could have an MRI. Do we know how to celebrate???

Friday dawned with rain, which turned to ice by noon. We wound up with about 4 inches of ice by this morning. The roads were a mess, but we didn't have to go anywhere last night, so I sat and read by the fire.

So, no quilting done this week, except for some machine quilting on my challenge quilt for MQX. I can only stand at the machine for about 15 minutes before my back begins to complain, so it's slow going. I hope to get more time than that in tomorrow...the deadline is on the 31st! The quilt in this post is an oldie. It was made from signature exchange blocks that I got from an AOL group I was with in 1997. This group was composed of about 30 women across the country. We actually were able to get together for retreats twice back then, but after awhile the group fell apart. However, my 4 best friends were part of that group and we still talk almost every day now, even though we are scattered from New Jersey to Arizona to Minnesota to Florida to Texas. Quilting friends are the best!

Quilting...

I have completed Judy's February challenge...only a few days late! I finished quilting my nine patch today...I waited to take my pain meds until I had finished. And I needed them by the time I was done! The backing fabric is now gone from my stash, as well as the border fabric. Two large chunks of fabric gone to a good cause!
Yesterday I knitted another little hat...a pink one to go with the blue. Both the quilt and the hats will be going to the Caps and Laps program at our church...if they want them!

The good news is that I can stand and walk relatively normally today...as long as I take the muscle relaxants and the pain killers. I'm still hunched without them. I also noticed that if you enlarge the bottom picture, I overlapped the Baptist Fans a little bit. That will teach me to try to quilt on the longarm under the influence of happy pills! :o)

Forced Vacation

I was having a pretty nice weekend. On Friday night I saw the high school play with my daughter and her friend. On Saturday I did some quilting. I loaded my blue and white nine patch on the machine and got it mostly quilted. I was accomplishing things. On Sunday morning, the girls and I went to church. We stopped at the store on the way home. I had a full day of quilting planned...I was going to finish quilting the nine patch and get the binding on. Was going to run the vacuum so I wouldn't have to do it on Monday. The best laid plans...

After church I decided to get comfy...flannel pants, a turtleneck and a sweatshirt. I went into my closet, bent over to get my pants off the shelf, and I heard it. Two very loud pops in my lower back. And I felt it...the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life. I dropped to my knees, made it over to the bed and stayed on the floor for a lifetime...or about 20 minutes. I couldn't move. I was lightheaded. It was awful. I managed to change my clothes while I was on the floor, then I crawled down the hallway and scooted down the stairs on my bottom. The pain was tremendous. Holding onto walls, railings and furniture I made it to the sofa and tried to get comfortable, all the while trying not to cry. My daughter wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I was afraid they'd admit me. Since my husband is in Frankfurt for the rest of the week, I didn't want to have to call him and tell him I was in the hospital!

I called the doctor and he told me to take two of the 500mg Naproxen tablets that I have for my migraines. If that didn't help, he said I should go to the ER. It did help some, along with the heating pad, although I still couldn't stand or walk. I found my Vicodin and managed to get through the night.

Yesterday morning I called the doctor. The recording said the office opened at noon. I managed to make it until noon and called again. The recording said they were out to lunch until 1. I called again and managed to get an appointment. The results? One was that the recording was wrong and they were really open at 8:30! Second was I most likely have herniated two disks in my back. I am out of work at least until next Tuesday. I am on lots of happy drugs. :o) I can walk again, albeit painfully. But I will survive. And I have to stay on the sofa with my heating pad as much as possible. So that means...

I've had time to knit the adorable little baby hat you see here. I saw these on Suze's blog, The Thread and I and she was kind enough to share the pattern with me. They work up quickly and are so cute! I plan to make a few and donate them to our church's "Caps and Laps" group which makes baby hats for the local hospital and lap robes for senior citizens. When I finished the hat, I started working on my newest pair of socks.

This morning I started cutting away the batting on my trapunto. It is a tedious job. I worked on it until the Percoset kicked in...then I stopped. I didn't want to cut the quilt top! Although I can't work at the longarm right now, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to stand up straighter by the end of the week and I can finish the nine patch. The good news is that one of the most comfortable chairs in the house is my sewing chair...it's cushy with lots of support. On Saturday night I cut out a new quilt, so I should be able to get some piecing done too. I'm doing my best to turn this into an opportunity to get something accomplished. I'll keep you posted!