One week of recovery under my belt!

 We are creeping up on Thanksgiving and every day my back feels a bit better. We are having friends in for the feast and it is exciting to be planning a gathering after all the months of avoiding people. It will be a traditional Thanksgiving with all the trimmings.

Meanwhile, there have been a couple of outings to fabric shops with my peeps. First, we went to Hiawassee and I touched all the fabric in the shop before buying only three yards of goods to finish the 16 patch quilt. It is a really nice shop with a big selection of fun fabrics. They also offer longarm quilting services.

Mountain Quilts in Hiawassee, GA

Every day we have a parade of deer through the yard and gardens. One day we had at least twenty doe and one buck eating acorns like gangbusters in the front yard. Mr Wazoo came running (well, walking quickly...) into the studio and said to come quick! He didn't exaggerate! The entire family was there.

The man came first, staying in the woods, keeping an eye on the girls

It was hard to get a good picture of him because he kept hiding behind the pines.

They all came one by one over Mr W's tractor bridge on the side of the yard. The teenagers kept to the grass, but the sassy mamas starting right in eating the roses. Obviously, they weren't deterred by Bigfoot lurking in the garden, too.

These two got within four feet of me while I was taking pictures. I walked almost up to where they were before they decided to book it to lower ground.

She kept track of where I was the whole time.

Out in the grass, another doe startled easily and would prick their ears up and watch me.

This one stayed by the bridge in case she had to maker a quick getaway.

The herd moved on after ten minutes or so, I'm sure they don't like having people gawking at them while they eat any more than we would.

On Thursday my new apple peeler/corer/slicer arrived from Amazon. I immediately peeled, cored and sliced a Honeycrisp apple the size of a softball for a trial run. It made enough for a two person apple crisp for dessert after supper. Yum! I even splurged and had a lump of frozen yogurt with it!

It is enameled cast iron with stainless steel parts. It should last forever.

I also took in a quilt for repair this week, and set to work on it right away. Not having quilting to do frees up all my time for hand sewing.

I made all the pieces to replace torn or badly worn ones and pinned them on

There were 20 patches to replace.

I also put a pin in every seam that was open. There were some big holes to fix!

There were 61 open seams.

When I replace one this large, I also have to hand quilt it later. It took three days and evenings of sewing to finish.

Three days of non-stop mending had this quilt good as new!

I love a happy finish! It will go home tomorrow.

Because the repair was finished, I said yes to another shop hop with Gail and Audrey. We set off to Ooltewah, TN and Chattanooga Quilts. I love the samples they have hanging around in the shop. Most of them have kits made up with the pattern included. I really fell hard for this neutral sampler, and think it would make a great gift for one of my daughters. I bought the fabric kit and pattern and plan to start sewing it as soon as possible.

I've never made a quilt with such a peaceful palette. It should be a challenge.

We also drove up to Maryville, TN to Mountain Creek Quilt Shop. I didn't get any pictures, but it is a fabulous shop with hundreds of bolts of fabric as well as a huge wool, homespuns and flannel room. If you're a quilter, you can't leave without some fabric treasure.

At guild on Thursday evening we enjoyed a talk and quilt show from one of our newest members, Cathy. She and her husband were missionaries in Africa for a year and she worked with the villagers to teach sewing skills. They loved it and eventually built a sewing center where they make school uniforms for the kids. There was no electricity, so Cathy searched and found treadles for the sewists.  Cathy bought fabric whenever she went into the nearest town with shops, and after a year, had enough to sew this quilt. The figure blocks are called African Princess. Very fitting. She told us of a woman who became so close to her that she named her child Cathy. The names on the quilt are for the sewing group.

Both sides of the quilt are beautiful.

Here is Cathy showing the quilt top to us. Don't you love the colors and patterns?!

You can see some of the names on the quilt as well as enjoy the local school colors of gold and blue.

Here is the block with an African Princess and the name of the special woman and her child, Cathy.

Hre is the back of the quilt. Just WOW! Cathy said she didn't want to cut these fabrics into little pieces. I'm glad she didn't! 

This is Cathy, retired Methodist minister, missionary and talented quilter.

Happy Fall.  Our leaves are almost all off, but we don't care...

Don't you wish you lived here?

Sunday Fun-day

Christmas music in the air and Tula Pink fabrics on the cutting table...what could be better?! I cut out some wide strips of Tula fabrics and some peppered cottons (from Pepper Cory) and set to work making a St.Louis 16 patch I saw on  the Scribbly Gum blog. The quilt uses fat quarters to make a quick, large lap size quilt, so I decided to go for it. I bought a pack of Tula fabrics on a recent shop visit to Ooltewah, TN, and chose those as well as a bunch of peppered cotton solids from the FQ wall at the  Cleveland shop. It didn't take long to cut the strips and make the blocks. After they were on the design wall, I thought they were a bit too simple and decided to add little triangles to the corners. I can never leave well enough alone!

                                                 

Here are the blocks. I did some more arranging and still wasn't satisfied.

I auditioned some Kaffe millifiore colors and settled on the cornflower blue one for the triangles. 

Subtle, but effective to knock down so much clunkiness in the blocks. Maybe I'll add a fun border, too. 

Everything is seat of the pants and fun. Design play is good for healing, don't you think?

Today, I will finish this top and cut a new one. My mind has already raced ahead and thought of what to do with the leftover FQ pieces...a many trips quilt from Bonnie Hunter's blog. 

Off to the races!!

S-l-o-w recovery

The home health representative came yesterday and chided me for doing way too much after my surgery. I think it gives a patient a false sense of security to send them home the same day of surgery with the instructions; don't bend, lift or twist (BLT). I thought I could do most everything I used to do, but quickly discovered it was painful and tiring. Plus, I had a weird side effect from the scopolamine patch I had behind my ear for nausea...my left pupil is larger than my right one. This is called anisocoria, and can be benign or a sign of a life threatening condition. I have no pain with it, and my eye is otherwise normal, so I ruled out life threatening. I just have to put up with  blurry vision on that side for a while.

I am taking it easy, not walking too much, not digging out pots and pans from low cupboards, not picking up anything over five pounds...you know the drill. What I am doing is sewing. Yesterday, I made this top. It's from a flannel layer cake and soft as kitten's fur. I think it needs soft flannel on the back, so I'll make a quick trip to the shop tomorrow to get some. That makes four tops to do when the new machine comes.

The pattern is called Stars Over Minoqua. I bought the booklet for it in Wisconsin the last time I was there. Minoqua is a lovely town in Wisconsin found on a peninsula in the middle of a lake way up north.

I look a bit startled, but because my eyes are so deep set, I have to open them wide to show the disparity in my pupils. This, too, shall pass.

Today, I plan to sew some easy 16 patches and make another top. Bright color and Christmas music will fill my day. What are you going to do?!

Anesthesia makes me stupid

On Wednesday I made a quick charity quilt top to pass my time. I got the fabric at the Quilt n' Kaboodle shop in Cleveland the day before.  I now have three guinea pigs for my new machine when it comes.

                                 

                                          

                                           A vehicle themed quilt for a man

Here is what the fabrics look like.The backing is a plaid in these colors.

My surgery  became an all day affair when the doctor came and told me he had to put me off to work an emergent surgery. Poor old Mr Wazoo spent hours in uncomfortable chairs, waiting for something to happen! I dozed off from 7:30 until 11:15  in the pre-op area, comfortable on my stretcher. Anyway, the surgery went fine and I was in recovery by noon. The pre-op area is in the same room as the recovery area, and the room was about the size of a football field! I am quite impressed with the hospital and staff. We were able to leave about 3 :30. 

At home, I tried to answer all the texts from well-wishers, but I fear what I wrote was gibberish! The drugs I had both during and after the surgery made me pretty stupid. I don't remember the ride home, but Mr W told me I kept up a string of nonsensable chatter. Oops!

Penny was a good girl while we were gone, and wouldn't leave me while I rested in my chair. 

I don't know if she slept while we were gone, but she stayed here until I had to get up and russell up something for supper.

I won't be sewing today. My post- op pain ia bothering me, so I think I'll take a nap!

The countdown

 Sheets in the wash, check; Kong toys filled and in the freezer for Penny, check; gassed up the car, check; showered with Hibiclense and shaved legs, check (does every woman think the doctor will comment if she has not depilated before surgery?)...I will need to go to bed early in order to be well rested for tomorrow's crack of dawn start! It takes about an hour and a half to get to the hospital in Gainsville, so Mr Wazoo plans to be in the car by 5:30. Ugh... Oh well, I can snooze when I get there.

Yesterday, my friend Leslie and I made an impromptu trip to Cleveland after our longarm group meeting. I have been here for almost eight years and didn't know there was a different and prettier route to take. We stopped at two look-out points and passed a few more on the road. The views are long range and gorgeous! I will go this way every time from now on. Thanks, Leslie!

Remember the song, On a clear day, you can see forever...? That was what I thought of when I looked out over this panorama to the north. It really emphasizes the mountains, valleys and the beauty of the changing season.

Really beautiful.

Another over-look had this view to the south. I never realized how some of the peaks stick out because of their heights. The one in the foreground is Yonah, I forget the name of the middle one, and the farthest away one on the left waaaay in the distance, is Kennesaw. Wow! It's awesome!

At the shop in Cleveland, we both purchased some new colors, as well as old favorites, of Glide thread at a lower cost than usual. I bought fabric for another masculine nursing home quilt, as well as a couple of generic background fabrics for a quilt I have floating around in my head. There was a puzzle of the inside of an old fashioned quilt shop that I thought would be perfect for Mr W's Christmas-puzzle-project, and I will most likely get it the next time I'm there. 

Back at home, There was another branch of my family tree to research, and I did just that, taking my Mom's side of the family back to the 1500s. Yikes! My 11th great-grandfather was Hans Schneider, born in 1570! On my Grandma's side, I have gone back one more generation to my 12th great grandfather, Richard Knight Sr.. I find the research interesting and compelling. Figuring out the errors and eliminating people who don't fit the timeline is a little puzzle, and I love puzzles!

Speaking of ancestors, closer to home, my granddaughter made the honor society at the University of Massachusetts. I'm so proud of her to be able to do this after a full year of virtual study. She's back at school and enjoying the campus life.

I need to turn the laundry over and get about my business. The mouse catcher is coming to look at the box traps. Penny found a dead mouse near one of the boxes the other day, and we are concerned that she could have ingested some poison if we hadn't been in the yard with her. I plan to ask the guy about it today.

Until Friday, I am signing off.

Surgery set for Thursday!

 It has been a fairly uneventful week here at Wazoo.  On Thursday we took a ride up to Franklin, NC to show Mr W the Handi Quilter I have my eye on. The mountains were beautiful! We are past peak for leaf peeping, but it was still nice. The trip in both directions was glorious!

If you have never seen them, these are the Smoky Mountains

On Friday, we went to Gainsville for my Covid test, an ECG, blood draw and to give them money... Afterward, Mr Wazoo took me to Wendy's for lunch. Then it was another trip through the mountains, this time the Blue Ridge and our favorite, Blood Mountain. It is a scary trip the first couple of times, but we have gotten used to going over Blood Mountain since coming here almost 8 years ago. We stopped at the top and visited the hiking/gift shop on the Appalachian Trail to snap a few pictures and get the grandson a Blood Mountain Bigfoot tee shirt for his birthday. That and a Lego kit to make three robots, a set of Matchbook construction vehicles, a quilt that looks like terrain with roads and buildings, and four wind-up butterflies that flew out when the box was opened. He's now 6, and a true builder!

Happy Lego boy

The Appalachian Trail going off into the woods atop Blood Mountain

The view south from the top of Blood Mountain, at Mountain Crossing, or Wylasi Yi.

On your map, it is Neals Gap.

Two goofballs trying to take a selfie.

My only sewing of the week was another charity quilt. I got the fabric for this on a recent shopping trip to Hiawassee. They had a sale going on, so I took advantage of it to get some more masculine-looking fabric.

I thought this was a lovely Autumn fabric

 

The supporting fabrics are really nice, too! I'll quilt it later.

Saturday, we rode over  to Clayton and Mr Wazoo bought some more plants for the garden and yard. We got a  blue spruce tree, a spruce shrub, two Adagio ornamental grass clumps, and a little something I thought my daughter would like. She collects Santas like I do, and this guy is too cute to pass up.

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This butterfly found one of the last blooming Butterfly bush plants at the nursery to rest on.

I managed to catch him between flaps of his wings.

This guy has a spring inside and bounces and jiggles when you poke him.

Yesterday we hooked up Penny and climbed to the top of the mountain. On the way, we had two families of deer run by and disappear over the ridge. There were two young bucks, some does and even some juvenile ones. Leaves were falling and crunching under our feet, and the air was fresh and cool. I love it! I took a few pictures on the way down so you could see the house from the backside for once! It doesn't get much better than this.

This is the second tier of the back garden, mostly shrubs and the trellis. Mr Wazoo made the walkway. All the rocks in the little wall were taken out in order to make the walk flat!

The lower garden, Penny's run and the back porch on the house. Penny and I often sit out here and watch the deer, squirrels and birds while I have coffee.

Penny had a good time taking in all the smells in the woods. She slept for hours after our hike!

I took an accidental selfie while negotiating my way up the path.

The tiki totem pole way on the left was a gift from a friend in Florida. It marks the back of our property. Beyond that is the Chattahoochie Forest. 

From the bottom of the  property you can see the lower flagstone path and the gravel path leading farther up the grade. Mr W planted all the plants and shrubs along here.

I'm standing in the same location as above, looking to the left at the house. My studio is where the barn quilt is.

Today, I made a huge pot of vegetable soup and added some more people to my Ancestry trees. I'm taking it easy until I go to Gainsville for the surgery on Thursday. I have total confidence in my surgeon and hope to be 100% after he fixes me. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!