Sister's Choice Quilts

Quick Update

Just a quick update to tell you my father is in the hospital. His doctor is concerned about kidney failure. We have observed that he has not bounced back from his fall two and a half weeks ago, and has progressively shown signs of significant weakness, loss of appetite, and lethargy. My sister Kate and I took him into the emergency room at Stanford Hospital on Sunday, and he was put on intravenous fluids and admitted for observation.

The good news is, that the IVs have really caused him to perk up and to be much more lively. He also has been eating fairly well. Nice to know hospital food is better than our home cooking. lol We hope he will come home today and it will be up to us to be sure he consumes enough fluids to keep his kidneys doing what they are supposed to do.

I know he is getting the best possible care. Having access to a top-tier medical facility is really a blessing. I will keep you posted on his recovery.

How's It Going? It's Going

We are making some changes in my father's domestic arrangements that we hope will make things more comfortable and accessible for him. We have set up a television in his bedroom for one thing. Along with a comfortable armchair. One of my sisters ordered a smaller "adjustable bed" for him. He can raise the head of the bed up for a more comfortable sitting position, which hopefully will also enable him to sleep better. So far, he doesn't seem super impressed, but we have our fingers crossed that these improvements will help him recover from his recent fall. My other sister is taking him to see his doctor today, and it will be so helpful to have her evaluation. We are thinking we need to hire a caregiver to come in daily to help with hygiene matters and other things.

How about some fun quilt-related content?

This pattern, "Lady Tulip" is by Laundry Basket Quilts. I bought it, not to make the quilt as pictured, but for the block patterns contained in it. I seem to make so many sampler quilts lately, that it is nice to have options for other blocks if I don't care for the ones offered in the sew-along. These blocks are all 6", except for the one in the center, obviously.

I recently bought this new Lori Holt book, "Scrappiness is Happiness", which has 32 ideas for scrappy quilt projects. Who doesn't love a scrappy project?

Lastly, I picked up this book by Anna Dineen called "You've Got a Point", which looked intriguing.

I haven't bought this one yet, but I will, just for the quilt on the cover. It is the latest from Red Crinoline Quilts, "Tucked Away Treasures".

If I ever have a chance to start a new project, there are plenty of ideas here!

Hope you are all having a good week. Wish me luck with my dad. I'm up to care for him this Friday through Sunday.

Life is One Big Juggle Lately

Life seems to be one big juggle lately. I am trying to get all my work assignments for September done this month (along with my normal August workload) in anticipation of being in Ireland next month. I've been trying to get my clothes planned for the trip, an activity I normally enjoy. Lastly, my father's recovery from his recent fall is not progressing the way we had hoped. I won't go into detail, but it has been a challenge for my sisters and me.

Anyway. Would you like to hear about my travel wardrobe? I love putting together clothes for a trip. I pick a basic neutral and one or two accent colors. I seem to always pick black as my neutral, and am switching things up this time. This time my neutral color is navy. Navy handbag, navy shoes, jeans of course, and tops in cream, navy, light blue, and grey. I am really pleased with the way things have come together.

I am usually not much for busy prints, but how pretty is this blue floral sweater? It goes with dark jeans, mid wash jeans, and white jeans. It is lightweight and I can push the sleeves up if it's warm (but I'm going to Ireland, so that's unlikely). I love it. I got it from Talbots.

This slate blue sweater and knit pants are from JJill. The sweater is also lightweight and will be comfortable to wear on the plane and when I am lounging around the house or a hotel. The top and pants are an exact match, which isn't showing up so well in the photo. The top is oversized and the pants have an elastic waist. Yay.

This cream sweater is the same as the slate blue one above. I love a scarf to change up the look of an outfit. There are several shades of blue in this one, which makes it look nice with jeans of different shades. A scarf also elevates the look of a super casual outfit I think.

So, there are a few of the items I'll be packing for my trip to Ireland in September. Nobody seems to dress up much anymore, so I expect jeans will be fine for most of our activities. We have tickets to a couple of theatrical performances, and I do have a slightly dressier outfit for those occasions. On a side note, in the first photo, the navy rain jacket on the far left is from LLBean. It folds up teeny tiny into the left side zippered pocket of the jacket! Great for packing and for tucking into your purse just in case. 

Playing around with clothes for the trip is fun and has been a nice distraction from the more serious things going on in my life right now. 

Some Sewing Is Happening

I'm not getting a lot done, but I find if I get up to the sewing room super early, like between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM, I can get a thing or two accomplished. The block above is for Moda Blockheads 4, and is from a previous sew-along I did with Piecing the Past. I just liked the block and decided to use it again.

I have finished enough blocks to say I have enough, but I think I will wait a couple weeks to see what other blocks they might release. I have my eye on at least one block I want to replace and it will be nice to have options. I have loads of fabric left.

Here are my blocks. Can you guess which one I am leaning toward re-doing? Hint: it's a matter of color placement, not construction issues. 

Look who started sixth grade today....Sob.

 

Ups and Downs

I forgot to show you this new little table topper last week. It is made from some older Sandy Gervais fabrics I had in my stash. It's been over a year since I made it, but I think I may have used one of two charm packs to make it. I don't recall using an actual pattern. I think I just made half square triangles in two sizes and put them all together to form this design. I can't even recall where I got the idea.

We had quite a weekend. My father fell on Wednesday. He wasn't badly hurt, but could not get up. His fall detection lanyard didn't go off for some reason. He was alone and my sister didn't get to him for a couple of hours. He was helped up and seemed shaken but not injured. That night he fell out of bed and did himself some harm. He must have pulled a stomach muscle in the first fall, which made it difficult for him to get comfortable in his bed. In his struggle to position himself he slipped onto the floor. This time he scraped his elbow up badly. My nephew was with him right away and called 911. After two CT scans, an MRI, and examinations by emergency room doctors, he was pronounced not badly hurt and sent home.

The thing is, when a nearly 97-year-old person falls, it is a big deal. He was fortunate not to have broken anything but definitely pulled muscles and got bruised up to a degree that means he now needs assistance with every single thing. He can't sit up unaided, he can't stand up without help, he can't swing his legs up onto the bed or a footstool...You get the drift. He is also not eating much and is unable to sleep well, therefore is up half the night needing one thing or another. 

My sisters and I are with him 24/7 now. We are hoping his appetite improves and that his muscle strains get better, but in the meantime, it is a bit of work and we are quite concerned about him.

I bought this adorable Coriander Quilts pattern "Fly Away Blackbird" a week or so ago with the idea I want to make a table runner with these cute bird blocks. I love the yellow and grey Buttercups and Slate fabric, also by Coriander Quilts, but it won't be available until sometime in September. Oh well, no time to sew right now anyway.

Eva starts school this week and is so excited to see all her friends again. It was my husband's birthday yesterday and we had a quiet celebration. I will have my turn with my father this coming Friday through Sunday. As you can see, things are a bit of a mix of ups and downs right now!

Showing Moda Blockheads 4 Some Love

Now that the red white and blue blocks are off the design wall, I have room to put another sew-along's blocks up so I can look at them. And wouldn't you know, once they were all up there, I saw four or five that I just didn't like. It just goes to show that it is a good idea to display your blocks on a design wall as you progress. It is important to see how the blocks "play together". There always are a few misfits. But if you can see them all together, you make better decisions on what colors to put together in your next blocks. 

So I made one new block for this week, and re-made four more!  All the block patterns can be found on the Moda website in the Blockheads archives. 

This is the new block for this week.

This was a block pattern for another sew-along I did a year or so ago. I love those fabrics together!

I remade the yellow/navy print units on this block.

My other Crown of Thorns block looked nothing like a crown of thorns, so I remade it with different color placement.

And here's the last one I remade.

I will continue to play around with colors and placement as I made a few more blocks to finish up the quilt top. I think I need a couple more "pops" of the navy to make things balanced. I think that darker color draws the eye and I want it to be distributed carefully throughout the quilt top.

You may be wondering, how I managed to get any sewing time in, since I have been singing loudly about how busy I am. Well, here's what happened yesterday. I had Eva for the day, and she wanted to invite her bestie over for a play date. They occupied themselves brilliantly all day, doing a complicated project that involved cardboard boxes, fabric scraps, and a glue gun. Honestly, they took over the kitchen counter and collaborated on this activity all day long. 

Since they were working adjacent to my little desk/work area, I really couldn't concentrate on doing my writing job. So I went upstairs and sewed!  Win win. 

Well, This is Progress

It isn't finished, but it's nearly there. I got all the rows put together for the red, cream, and blue quilt I have been working on this summer.

It is a BOM from Piecing the Past called Peace and Healing. At least that's what I think it is called. All their BOMs have names that sound alike, so I can't keep them straight. They have a new one starting up in September with a name so similar I had to email the organizer and ask if it was a repeat of one they had done before! She emailed back and said it was "a new one". LOL The sew-alongs they offer have names like Rest and Refreshing, Comfort and Blessing, Peace and Healing, Comfort and Healing. It makes me dizzy.

Hmmm, I did some checking, and the sew-along Piecing the Past is offering in September looks to me to be an absolute repeat of the Comfort and Blessing one they did summer of 2020. Same name, all the same blocks. So, not new.

I had some major issues sewing the lattices on this thing. Nothing wrong with the pattern, just lots of different-sized setting triangles that I managed to sew on wrong or omit completely so nothing fit right. I finally put my concentration cap on and studied the layout diagram and eventually sorted it out.

I still have to sew on some large corner triangles and get the borders on it. Not sure when that will happen, but it sure won't take as long as me fussing with those lattices did! 

Working with these fabrics and making the blocks each week was very enjoyable this summer. It will be great to have the quilt on my bed next year.

 

Conservative Late Summer Decor

Eva and I put away the red white and blue decor that has been out since May. We aren't full-blown Fall by any means, just some gold colors and lots of sunflowers. This color scheme can stay out until September when we return from Ireland. Then we will go all out Fall. The runner on my hall table is so pretty. Here is a close-up of the design. I got it 12-13 years ago at a decor shop in Carmel. It is quite beautifully made.

This pretty table topper is called Jersey Girl, and was a Schnibbles pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. I'd be surprised if you could still get it.  (You can!  It is on Amazon of all places!)

I remember loving this fabric collection, which has a Western "Inner Cowgirl" vibe. I want to say it is by Urban Chiks? Correct me if you know the name of the collection.

This next little topper is called "Fat Quarter Flourish" by Carried Away. You can get the downloadable pdf pattern from Fat Quarter Shop. It is so darn cute.

Here is an unobstructed photo.

You need this pattern, right? I want to make it again in the appropriate colors for every holiday and season.

I forgot to take a picture of my coffee table, but that's enough for now. It felt good to change things up a bit!

Did anyone notice that I changed up my blog banner? I need to do that more often to keep things fresh. Only it always takes me about three hours, so I procrastinate.

Good Book, Good Movie

My husband and I attended the movie "Where the Crawdads Sing" yesterday at our local movie theater. And you know what?  It was pretty great.  I have to say, the movie version was 95% true to the book version, which is rare. The main thing I noticed was that the movie was perfectly cast. Almost every character in the movie was exactly the way I had imagined them while I was reading the book. 

This is a story where you have to suspend rational belief. An eight-year-old child, abandoned in a North Carolina marsh, lives on her own with no parental support or supervision. And thrives into young adulthood?  On her own? Seriously? And Romulus and Remus were raised by wolves? Ok then, I'm in.

Nevertheless, the movie was really good. If you haven't read the book, you will enjoy it, and if you HAVE read the book, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how well the director kept to the plot. The hardback version of the book is only $12.39 on Amazon, so it's a good deal if you want to read the book before seeing the movie.

Here is a link to the movie trailer, if you haven't seen it. 

Did you have a good weekend? Summer is drawing to a close here. School starts on Aug. 17, so our days at the pool are numbered. This week I hope to put away all the July/red, white, and blue decor and bring out the late summer/early fall stuff. Mostly things with a sunflower motif. My husband's birthday is next weekend, so I ned to plan a fun dinner menu and come up with a good gift idea.  What's up with you? Have you seen any good movies? Read any good books? Share in the comments!

 

Two Delightful Books

I am in the middle of these two wonderful books right now. Usually I don't read two physical books at a time, but I had started The Bodyguard by Katherine Center and just picked up Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt just to see what all the raving was about, and was hooked.

Remarkably Bright Creatures is such a different sort of book. Do you enjoy books about curmudgeons? If you liked A Man Called Ove or All the Lonely People, I promise you will love this book too. Tova Sullivan is a lonely widow in her 70s who cleans the Sowell Bay aquarium after hours. Marcellus is a grouchy giant Pacific octopus who lives at the aquarium, and who is nearing the end of his life. The two form a very unlikely friendship, which will tug at your heartstrings and not be soon forgotten.

The Bodyguard is a romantic comedy about Hannah Brooks, an "Executive Protection Agent" (aka Bodyguard) who gets hired to protect superstar actor Jake Stapleton from a crazy stalker. Jake's mom is ill and he wants to be by her side, so he needs to travel to Texas to stay on the family ranch for a while. Only he doesn't want the family to worry about him needing a bodyguard, so he has Hannah pose as his girlfriend. You can see where this is going. The writing is amusing and the story is sweet and I am all in. Great escapism and full of heart. Author Katherine Center has written several other books which I have enjoyed very much. Things You Save in a Fire, Happiness for Beginners, and What You Wish For were so good too.

Even though I am only halfway through both of these books, I highly recommend them. And just look at those covers, will you?