Dear Jane Left Side Triangles

This completes all the triangles for the Left Side. Some are really easy and some are incredibly not so easy. I omitted some of the teeny appliques. The goal is to complete the top by the end of the month. I can do this.

So now this leaves only 16 more tris and 2 corner kites to go. And I dared to pull out the fabric for BTCT and precut some sections ready to prewash, since you do not easily wash an 11 yard piece all at once.
Blessings,
Chris

Denine: High Fever

(This is another except from the story I wrote about my profoundly handicapped daughter Denine who was born in 1973 and died in 1979. Writing her story brought closure and incredible healing to my heart. I have been encouraged to publish it and am presently editing it.)

            In January 1975 I was pregnant with my second child. My husband Ken got a dreadful case of tonsillitis and was home sick for a couple of days.  As he waited in the doctor's office, I carried Denine in a bitterly cold wind to a nearby store to buy a chocolate bar. I never thought how cold it was for her.

            The next day she started to run a fever.  As she got hotter, I bundled her up cozy and warm in a baby quilt and cuddled her.  I made a doctor's appointment for the afternoon.  One thing about our family doctor was that we always had confidence in him that they would see us today when we were sick not next week when they could work us in.  As the hour approached I took Denine's temperature and it was 105.5 F. I called his office and asked if he would come to the house to see her. He would not. He said to bundle her up lightly and bring her in right away. I was scared.

            She had picked up the flu and was very sick. She was admitted to the hospital in Brantford right away. We went through the usual routine of charts and forms. This time she had her love seat and soother. I took her a carton of yogurt and wheat germ which she liked to eat.  They lost her soother.  That same day I picked up some baby pictures I'd had taken a couple of weeks earlier. She had progressed in her therapy to the point of being able to sit alone if we positioned her just so and gave her something to get her attention.  When distracted, she fell over. She could sit for 3‑4 minutes.

Denine age 18 months

            I went home from the hospital several hours later to my sick husband and told him all that had happened.  He said, "Maybe she'll even die." 
           "No! She can't die! She's my baby! How dare he say such a thing! Doesn't he care about her at all?"
            He was being realistic.

            At bedtime, I went into her empty room. I looked at her crib and her toys and clothes.  "No she can’t die!  God, please don’t take her from me. I couldn't bear to lose her." I did not release the pent up tears. Two days later, she came home, perfectly healthy but a bit weaker. 
           

Blessings,
Chris

Dear Jane Triangles

I have been progressing on the triangles this past week. My goal is to complete all the triangles before I leave for New Brusnwick in 3 weeks to be with my daughter as she gives birth to her first baby. I can do this, but only if I stop playing games and focus to stop making so many errors. One would think that after 169 blocks 30 triangles and 2 corner kites, that I would have figured out how to make a block right first try. Problem is, each one is a completely different pattern and I did not mirror the patterns before printing them off 3 years ago when I originally prepared the foundation patterns.
I will reset that triangle between these two since it is out a good half inch.

Right side 12 & 13

Left Side 12 & 13

Bottom Row 1 & 2

Yes, I can do this. I am itching to get started on DJ2 in brights. Just have to decide if I will do it on white or black background. Guess I should make a few test blocks and ask my granddaughter's opinion. She loves everything that I do.

Blessings,
Chris 

Dear Jane Update

If I just stopped playing games and reading blogs I could complete this thing faster. I finally finished all the triangles for the top row. I did #7 over since the first one was too yellowy and did not blend in. So I am down to 25 triangles and 2 corner kites to go. No pressure. I did 2 today and will complete a third before its time to feed my just turned 1 today granddaughter sleeping over night at the farm for the first time. After all, it is Mother's Day and her 2 older sisters are sleeping over at the other Gramma's. Oops! shes awake now so its bottle time then back to Right Side 12.

Top row

Blessings,
Chris

40 Bags in 40 Days Progress

(The word ladders shows up so I can share this)

Three years ago our daughter flew home for 5 days at her father's request to orchestrate clearing out 2 bedrooms of accumulated crap. My husband told me I needed to have a plan. My daughter said, don't tell me what needs doing. Tell me what it will look like when I am finished. My response with a sigh was that each room would have only a bed, a chair and a dresser. We were close. Each room has a bed, a chair and 2 dressers.

Our daughter is an amazing person with great organizational skills. She recruited the help of 2 close friends who just happen to be professional cleaners and as a love gift to us, they spent 3 mornings totally clearing out and  hauling outside the most incredible amount of stuff. Nothing left with out my approval. They set up selves for my quilting hoard in one of the now cleared out bedrooms - the white room since it is not painted - in a very large walk in closet with 4 sliding panels that are each 4 feet wide and 7 feet  high. It is full. I was busy working on a research paper for school at the time so was down here on the computer out of their way until they called me to sit and make decisions on what quilt fabric was to go and what was to stay and I had to answer immediately as they held it up in front of me. Within 10 minutes they had 8 big boxes of the cheap stuff I was never going to use. I let my quilt group sort through that and the rest was donated. I had most of  my UFOs in project boxes already so now these are neatly labeled and sit on shelves awaiting my attention - not going to happen anytime soon. I have since purchased new mattresses for some of the beds so guests can sleep in comfort. It was time.

I had wanted to put in new windows for years but there was way too much stuff blocking access from the inside to allow workers to get in and do the replacing. One year ago we finally did replace all 22 windows in the house. Now we can open any window in the house whenever we want and the upstairs windows can now be washed from the inside. No more ladders to remove and replace storm windows.

My 40 Bags in 40 Days is up to day 12. I started the day after Lent was over since this is not a Lenten project. And since this is my challenge, I am not bound by rules that I have to do exactly 1 bag each consecutive day. Among other stuff, so far I have cleared out a big bag of old socks from the laundry room, worn out cassette tapes from a kitchen drawer that is now filled with place mats and hot pads, expired stuff from several kitchen cupboards when I was looking for sunblock and a glue stick from my quilt room. The glue stick got a wave of response on my facebook wall but, I spent an hour putting away a lot of gadgets and tidying up so I could begin completion on my Dear Jane quilt and I decided to stop using UHU glue since it does not wash out so nicely after all. I have switched to Elmers. I decided not to post before and after pictures, partly because I am too embarrassed with all the clutter and junk, but mostly because that would take precious time away from quilting. And as I was putting away a large depression glass dish in the china cabinet, I opened the lower doors and drawers to see what was inside and glory be I found the original manuscript for Denine's story and am now persuing publishing options. Interesting what you can find when you respond to a dare like 8 one hundred dollar bills. End of story.
( But wait! It was supposed to be Quilt Ladders. Oh well. Too late now.)

Blessings,
Chris

CCCQ # 21

Easy peasy. The baby took 2 naps today and I got it done. Center looks is crooked but so what.

.

CCCQ # 21

Baby's awake so back to grand-parenting which I love.
Blessings,
Chris

Denine: Why is She so Stiff

            The doctor explained that according to the development graphs, her head should be a certain size at a certain age.  And if it was not, there was a problem.  Perhaps her brain was not growing as quickly as it ought.  Up until this time, eight months, she had been gaining weight progressively. We discussed the possibility of admitting her to a Toronto hospital for extensive testing.  Since we lived a long hours drive away, we asked if she could he admitted that same day.  He would see what he could do.

            We found our way to the hospital and went through the usual channels of admittance.  Why do they always take so long?  They gave her a hospital gown and  sent us to a waiting area.    Six hours  later,  we  were  informed  they had a bed ready.  So we were escorted to the allocated room and then began the second phase of admittance.

            What specific problems have you noticed?  What does she eat?   Does she sleep on her stomach or back?  What does she not like?  When did she laugh first?   etc. etc. etc.

            She was finally settled in for what we thought would be 3 days of extensive testing.  We were wrong.  She got pneumonia while she was there.  She also cut her first four teeth in hospital.

            Towards the end of the three weeks, the doctor was going to do an operation.  They felt it was necessary to insert a shunt from the brain to the stomach.  I understood that this would be a small tube to drain cystic fluid that was putting pressure on her brain.  The date and time were set.  We waited at home and waited and waited.

            The doctor was supposed to call after the operation.  He did not.  After waiting all afternoon by the phone, I called him at the hospital.  After a long wait on a. long distance line, he finally came on and said "Oh, we didn't do the operation this morning.  We shaved the top of her head and drained off some fluid and filled it with air and discovered there was no pressure being put on the brain so we did not do the operation.  You can pick her up tomorrow."  And he gave us a time to meet him at the hospital.

            Were we so unimportant that he could not call us to tell us?  Or was he just too busy?

            We arrived, at the hospital at the appointed hour and had to wait for him. After awhile we were ushered into a small classroom with a blackboard..  The doctor preceded to quietly and simply explain the type of brain damage Denine had.  How severe it was.  And what he would recommend that we do.

            It appeared that very early in my pregnancy, about 8 weeks, that the fetus suffered a stroke of some sort, blocking blood vessels to the brain.  As the organs were in the formation stage at the time, there was a reduced blood supply to the brain that was just beginning to form.  He then drew a diagram of the brain on the board and started to cut out pieces here and there to show which parts had not formed.  By the time he was finished, nearly half the brain had been removed.  The vacant parts were filled with fluid.  They thought there was pressure but there was not.

            This was  such a very rare thing that there was no documented record of it having  happened  before.  Her condition was so severe there was no hope of getting better. His recommendations were rather drastic.  He said, "If I could have my way, I'd take this  child away and never let you take her home."  I  think he wanted to spare us what he knew was ahead.  He was wrong.

           We gathered Denine and her things and prepared to leave the hospital.  We had to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy downstairs.  Fortunately we had enough money on us.  It was not cheap.