100th Blog Post

I really, really, really wanted this one hundredth post to be about my completed Dear Jane top. Instead, it is about  my almost completed Dear Jane top. I have made 23 triangles and 3 corner kites in the past 6 weeks, so I guess that is quite an accomplishment. The top row and top kites are now attached and the rest are just sitting there on the design wall. I cannot get enough of looking at this quilt.

DJ Almost complete

I have 16 triangles and 1 kite left to complete. I know I could do it all before I fly out to visit my daughter next week who is about to give birth to her first baby, but there are other things to do like have my 6 year old granddaughter over for the weekend and help her with her first quilt and CCCQ and Benjamin Biggs will be releasing their BOMs on Sunday and I want to prep a few applique blocks to take along with me for the 3 weeks I will be away. Also, I am almost completed the second course for my doctorate and if I type real carefully, (not fast or I make too many mistakes) I could have it done and submitted. I have a massage booked on Tues and lunch with a friend on Wed.

I get to babysit for 2 more evenings. Then I will not see those 3 precious little girls until the middle of July after they get home from cottaging.  And today another new quilter inquired about the Go Real Fast Quilt Retreat in the fall. So, I have to finish calculating fabric requirements for the different sizes that are being offered before I leave since all 3 girls taking the course are going to the Quilt Farm annual sale June 21 and can get all their supplies at 40% off. Sounds like a good deal to me. I am going to miss Quilt Canada which is in St Catherines, less than an hour from here June 11-14. But that's okay. Meeting my newest grandbaby is more important right now.

For the past 2 days I sat in a lawn chair in the barn yard reading a text book while guarding the gate so my farmer husband could draw manure out to the field without the cows escaping. I know my Sweetie husband will miss me, but he is used to it. He is on a tractor now with planting corn then haying begins and then when he gets off his tractor about mid November he will have time to spend with me when I get back from a week in Poland and 2 weeks in  India. Oh, yes, plans for India are coming along. This past week I  have had 4 people inquire about joining me. That is SO awesome! It will be 2 weeks Nov 1-14. The main event there will be a women's conference where we will get to encourage women who live in a culture where women have no status or value. You can read more here .

And did I mention that I booked a double queen room for 2 nights for the AQS QuiltWeek in Grand Rapids Aug 21-23? I once attended one in Columbus Ohio.

It is looking like an exciting few months ahead. Dear Jane will have to wait a bit longer. I am still trying to decide how I will quilt her up. Will it be in the ditch on my Brother or will I rent time on a long arm and do a simple edge to edge design? Never used a long arm and have no plans for ever buying one. But then, I never thought I would ever go to India or Poland  or do a doctorate.

Blessings a hundred times over,
Chris

Two More Done

It took most of the day to make the Bottom Left Kite. Not that it was that hard, but real fiddly after figuring out how to do it.  Then the Right Side 4 would have taken about 30 minutes until I had to leave it to go drive a tractor with my Sweetie for a while. Some of these triangles are really easy. I still have 2 difficult ones in the few I have left to do. 

Blessings,
Chris

At The Farm

The cows went out on pasture more than 3 weeks ago, a bit earlier than most years, but we ran out of dry hay in the barn and still had lots of wrapped bales. My goodness, they look so lovely out there on that green green grass. And that clear blue sky . . . haven't seem much of that so far this spring. Still spreading manure and working up the fields BUT the corn IS being planted by a neighbour with his very big and very expensive equipment . . . but it is being planted.

2 year old Elly's day at the Farm

6 year old Ava at the Farm

1 year old Devan at the Farm

Blessings,
Gramma Chris

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.