One Sick Puppy

My darling dog Shadow has not been feeling up to par this past few days. I will not go into detail except to say that it involves both ends of her and two visits to the vet.(so far) She is eleven now so we worry about her.

I too have been feeling really tired lately so I went to the doctor to get some blood work done.  Not sure what is up but since the gastric bypass there are so many things it might be (low something or other) I wanted to get it checked.

I have several projects on the go but no energy to complete any of them.

I have one thing to share. I completed a McKenna Ryan Christmas panel a few weeks ago and instead of quilting it I opted to have it framed. I think I would have quilted it if I knew ahead of time the cost of framing. Yikes.

Crazy Quilt Block

I have redone the block for my online Crazy Quilt class. I went shopping on Saturday and all of the lace applique pieces that I need for my class were in pastel pinks, mauve and blues. So I as much as I like the creams that I originally did (and I will use it later) I redid my block in whites and greys.
I like it much better than the original one with the pieces I have to go with it.  The colours are much prettier in person. Two of the fabric swatches (upper left and lower right ) are in fairy frost. So they are pale grey with a white sparkle on it. Two of the swatches are in freckles also pale grey.

Vintage Singer sewing machine

A couple of months ago I came across a picture in a magazine (Chatelaine) which featured a small apartment and there was an old table made from a Vintage Singer Treadle Machine.  Naturally the important part is the base, the top was made of a tree slice. It still had the natural curve of the tree and it had been finished beautifully. Not quite like this but similar.

So imagine my excitement when coming home from Quilting a couple of weeks ago I came across one on the side of the road, just there for the taking. OMG I was so excited. I could barely pull over quick enough.

I wrestled with it trying to get it into my SUV (they weigh a ton) Finally a lady came along and offered to help. When I told her what I was going to do with it. She was thrilled she said that it belonged to her mother in law and she would be happy to think someone was going to use it.

Now I want to say right off that I would not take apart a good machine and table. We are talking a machine that in my mind is not salvageable and  covered in major rust. If I could find a good machine, I think I would use it but this is in really bad shape.

I started today taking apart the top, machine etc. and the only thing worth saving it the base and it is in wicked condition. I am really looking forward to working on it. It will need a lot of elbow grease, with lots of steel wool, sandpaper and perhaps a power tool or two. Finally a fresh coat of black rust proof paint.

There is a man at our local market who makes and sell beautiful wood pieces, bowls, and cutting boards I am going to see if he can help me by make a top for my treadle base and it is going to be a desk for me.

The Not so Long Hot Summer

Yes it has been a while. About a year since my last post. No further weight loss but I have had my other hip replaced and I am feeling great. We are attending the gym most mornings and I am still going to my aquafit classes.

Since I have missed such a long time I am not going to try to update on everything but just the most recent.  We are working on hand quilting a new Navy and White Quilt at my church group. It is one which we were commissioned to do. No pics yet but I will get some. I do have pic of one we just completed a while ago. We had some orphan blocks donated with the extra fabric so we worked on putting it together and it is now for sale.

It is sage and hunter green.

Also I have just signed up online Crazy Quilting class and had to take pictures of our supplies. Looking forward to getting started on it.

Before I go here is a head shot of me on the left before my surgery and the one on the right was taken a couple of weeks ago at Quilt Canada. Yup all smiles now.

New Hip and Further Weight Loss

I had my hip replacement surgery on May 7th and I am really happy with my progress.  I came home from the hospital a day early ( only in 3 nights in the hospital) and my Physiotherapist says that I continue to be ahead of schedule in terms of my progress.

I went shopping with my Mom at our local farmers market at the two week mark and with the aid of a walker was able to walk the entire market, something that I have been unable to do for a couple of years.  I am down a total of 95 pounds now and I am sure that is making things much easier.
This morning we went to the Market again and I carried a 10 pounds bag of potatoes back to the car.
I could not believe how  heavy they were and then I thought I have been carrying around almost 10 extra of those bags for years. No wonder I had such difficulty walking.

The weight loss has meant that I have had to buy a few new pieces of clothing and don't think that wasn't fun. I went into our local Penningtons (large size clothing store) last week. I told the lady I had no idea what size I was and she said about a 1X. I picked up a top and pants in those sizes and held them up. I looked at my Mom and said there is no way these are going to fit me they are way to small. Anyhooooo I tried them on and low and behold they fit. I could not believe it.  I usually hate shopping because nothing fits or if it does it doesn't look nice but that day was different.  I felt great.

We had our final Quilt Guild meeting luncheon before the summer break. I was met with lots of compliments both on the fact that had lost so much weight but also that I was getting around so well since my hip surgery.  This first photo is of me last March on our bus trip to the Lancaster Quilt Show the lower photo is of me just a couple of weeks before my hip surgery. I have lost another 10 pounds since then. I am really keen to continue. I won't say exactly how much more I want to lose but I have a way to go. I won't tell you that it is not difficult because it is. Just because I can't eat as much doesn't mean that I don't want to eat more and I still have cravings for the usual things like cookies, ice cream and candy. Don't let anyone tell you that gastric bypass is the easy way to lose weight. It is just another tool to help but it is still hard. I am now off all my diabetes meds and reduced my blood pressure medication by about half.  The hip replacement surgery has meant that I am no longer taking any Tylenol#3 and a regular Tylenol does the job. I may have to have the other hip replaced but hopefully I will have a little more recovery before I have to worry about that.

 

 

I leave you with some photos of a workshop that I took recently that taught us how to make these Quilt Blocks in an easy way. It was a great day of workshop fun. I learned a lot.  

Blooming nine patch

 

The Blooming 9 Patch class was great. The pattern came from this book.

Actually the picture on the cover is the Blooming 9 Patch.
I chose my fabrics in black red and white prints.
Things like an accurate 1/4 inch are important. That is something I have never been really good at.
I hope to have all of the blocks finished by the time we have our next class in April.

At guild the other day we had a local quilt shop owner demo some new products.
I bought one of the Clover
 Nancy Ziemans  Pin and
 Stow which was not cheap ($16)  I am not that impressed with it because the pin holder part keep sliding around while it is on your wrist.


I also bought a jelly roll,
for a real bargain. It is Moda, my sister and me (Ticklish) very pretty bright sherbert spring colours, for $31. I am making one of those 1600 strippy quilts.

Next time I will have lots of pictures for you of some of the projects in the works.

Photo Update.

I know that I promised I would update my blog more regularly and I will eventually get around to it. I have a Quilt class on Monday  "Blooming 9 Patch" I can hardly wait. But today I am cutting all my fabric and am really busy. I did however want to give you an update on my weight loss. So far I am down 70 pounds since the beginning of October. Here I am in all my Glory.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all! It is now almost three months since I have had my surgery and I have lost 55 pounds. I certainly feel my clothes much looser and I can see a difference in my face but I still don't fee a huge difference in myself.

 In this first photo I had just begun my pre-op liquid diet, which lasted a little over two weeks.

Since my surgery I try to avoid, all of the white stuff, sugar, white flour, white pasta and rice.   My portions are much smaller and I try to keep my calories down to about 800-900 and keep my protein count up to 60-90 grams per day.

I no longer take any Diabetes medication and my high blood pressure meds have been reduced.

Over Christmas I did have a few shortbread and a couple of pieces of Christmas cake but they were only treats and I do not eat them any longer.

The later photo was taken on New years day.

I have made arrangement to have my first hip replacement surgery on May 7th. I am so happy about this and am really looking forward to restoring my health.  The other hip can be replaced about 3 months later, if need be.

Our guild Kawartha Quiltmakers is preparing for a show in the spring of this year. I am looking after the demonstrations by the Members. So they will show some hand work and machine piecing if space allows.

So I will be busy working on the preparation for the Show and many other needle work projects. I am currently knitting a shawl, crocheting an afghan and I have started a cross stitch quilt top. That says nothing of the UFO's I hope to complete this year.

By my next post I hope I will have updated my list and some photos of these projects.

Today I will leave you with a photo of  a late fall sunset.

Home and feeling great

On October 19th we headed to the hospital early in the morning. When we arrived we found that my 10:30 surgery time had been changed to 1:00 pm so I send Hubby home. The surgery was to be about 3 hours and then of course some time in recovery. So it ended up I was not in my room until 7:30 pm.

Once in my room I had a nurse checking BP, temp, etc and every two hours. I really felt pretty good. I had a room mate for the first night, but she left early the next morning so I then had a four bed ward all to myself.

I was discharged on Sunday and we stayed at a Holiday Inn for a couple of nights just to be close to the hospital, to be on the safe side.I was feeling pretty good only a little sore and tired but other than that I could not get over how easy it all went. The surgery was laproscopic so I am treated to 6 tiny incisions on my tummy.  

It felt so good to get home.

During the weeks prior to the surgery and since I have been on a purely liquid diet. So I can say at this point I have lost almost 40 pounds.

Tonight was a real treat, I had a poached egg on toast. My first real solid food.

My only pain is that in my poor arthritic hips. I hope that pain will improve as the weight comes off but if not I am prepared to have the surgery to replace later next year. I hope that 2013 is going to be my year to reinvent myself.

This has been one of the hardest things I have ever done and it will continue to be but I am determined to make this work, this time.

I take a new Journey in my life

As I was sitting on this scooter (in March of this year) enjoying the ride, I was also in a great deal of pain and feeling shameful.  I had been away on a bus trip in which there was a lot of walking. I have arthritis in both hips and week of traipsing from store to store left me in agony. Each night in our motel room I would rub myself with liniment take painkillers and anti-inflammatory pills and rest up for the next day, all the while cursing my weight.

By the time I came home I was in such pain it took me two weeks to recover. I went immediately to the doctor and asked for a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon. My appointment was for six months down the road. I knew that the Surgeon would likely take one look at me and say you need to lose some weight before I do anything. 

I talk to my family doctor about my problem and he asked me if I had ever considered gastric bypass surgery. I immediately said no I don't want that. 

I had only know two people who had ever had the surgery and both had put most of their weight back on. The doctor told me that is not the case for most people, that the odds were very good that I would keep most of it off.  I told him I would think about it. I had him put my name on the list for the Orientation and thought I would at least listen to the information.   

In the meantime I came home and read lots and lots and lots about it on the internet and the long and short of it is that after many assessments and appointments I am having my surgery on October 19th. 

Right now I am on a completely liquid protein, low fat diet of Optifast until the surgery, so even though it is Thanksgiving here in Canada, no Turkey for me. 

I am nervous, excited and yes a little worried. This surgery is not without it's considerable risks but I think it is worth it. I have a lot of health issue that will be helped by losing weight, so I need to do this. Oh yes and the Orthopaedic Surgeon is happy with my decision and says he will be ready to replace my hip when I and my Surgeon say I am ready. Wish me luck.

My New Kitchen

On September the 10th,  hubby and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. While we both would like to travel it is not a good time right now. We have darling furry girl who is 9 now and my Mom who is in her 80's but in great health. Mom does not mind looking after Shadow for a night or two but not any longer than that and we don't want to put Shadow in a boarding kennel.
I am in need of hip replacement surgery so that too kind of puts a damper on going anywhere we would have to walk.

So we have decided that instead of a trip for now we are going update our kitchen. We replaced our kitchen floor, installed a new range hood. a new granite counter top, with a new sink, tap and a glass and ceramic tile back splash. The picture I have of the old kitchen  are not great but here they are. The funny thing is that the counter we chose is called Carnivale so I said to my husband, I guess this is our Anniversary Cruise.

Old Kitchen

New counter and backsplash

Close up of Granite called Carnivale

New Granite top and  brown sink tap is brown too but had not been installed

New Floor

A Furry Guest, Christmas and Carnival

I was out today at a meeting for our Guilds Quilt show. The show is not until May of 2013, but if you have ever had anything to do with a show you know how much work it takes to organize.
I belong to the Kawartha Quiltmakers' Guild so if you are interested in attending our show please check out our website.  My friend and I have taken on demo's so we will organize our guild members to set up all kinds hand and machine demonstrations. By the way I am web mistress for our Guild too.

Hubby took this picture of bunny rabbit who spent several hours on our front lawn today. I know they are prolific and invade gardens eating everything but darn they are cute. He let him get quite close to take this picture.

 On the left you will see the finger tips and beautifully turned ankle of yes, none other than Darling Hubby.

He is holding the first creation to come out of my newly refurbished
sewing room.

It is a Christmas table runner that I have made as a gift for someone leaving a group I belong to. I was amazed that for someone who does not collect Christmas fabric I managed to come up with a pretty nice selection of it.

I have so many scraps of strips left I may make a few placemats for Christmas.

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

The weather is starting to cool down a little this week and although we have had some rain we could use more.

We are now working on updating our kitchen so I will have some before pictures for you soon. We are planning a new floor and new granite counter tops and tile back splash.

It going to be our 35th wedding anniversary next month and we decided that this would be our gift to ourselves as we are not going anywhere special this year.

The colour of the Granite we have chosen is called Carnival. I told hubby that was fitting because it costs as much as the cruise we won't be taking.

Updated Sewing Room

I have been remiss in posting for some time. I guess I lost my mojo. Part of that is because my sewing room was not, in my estimation giving off the right essence to produce any either quilty or written.  Sooooo anywhooooo, I decided to do something about it.  It took me a couple of months to come up with an idea and then I was off and  running.

I am working with a very small room, so my idea was to keep it light and bright and try to keep as much as possible behind closed doors so that I would not be distracted by mess when trying to create. First I decided on purchasing a couple of cupboards. (I actually had a home improvement guy do most of this for me) he added some additional shelves to them for even more storage and so the fabric piles would not be to high. He also put together a tall bookcase to hold all of my quilting books. The shelves are adjustable another great feature.

Then I needed a large work surface, cutting table and a place for a second sewing machine for when my friend comes to visit. I thought about using a counter top. So my so guy went to Home Depot and bought me a an off the rack 6 foot counter top and two small bathroom vanities which were slightly higher than kitchen units.  The vanities are at either end and again gives me extra storage. I had my guy put one shelf up high on the wall so that I could store some of my UFO projects and scraps. I have put up a peg board above my counter top and purchased a new 19 inch flat screen which takes up a quarter of the space of my old TV. I also had my guy make me some doors for a small bookcase that I had and then I sanded and  painted the whole thing white. That was my contribution to the room. That and the endless fabric folding I did to fill my cupboards.

He also took a couple of large chunks of wood and made me two rulers holders. I also had him build me a big top for my ironing board which I am going to pad and cover.I have some more pictures to hang and a cork board to mount but all in all it is ready.

Old Room

Old Space

Fabric drawers before

book case before doors

Here are some before and afters of my lovely sewing space.      

Shot from the door, new cabinets and the bookcase with new doors added, my beloved Janome to the right.

new book case and I have moved my computer

my folded fabric

my ruler holders, piece of wood with routed slots

Countertop with bathroom vanity ends, pegboard above and small TV on the right 

Storage shelf above, eventually I am going to change to all white containers.

Counter tall enough for small drawers on rollers to fit underneath

Hubby insisted on taking this picture of me in my newly organized space.

 

I will leave you with one last photo, on the bus trip to Pennsylvania we went to the quilt show in Lancaster, which you have seen pictures of in my last blog.  I rented a scooter to see the show because it was on three floors and much to see. My hip would not have allowed me to enjoy the show otherwise. Mary on our tour took this photo of me and although I am not one for having my picture taken it is not bad.

Next time I will have some pictures of what I am working on now.