A Lot Of Catch-Up

After being on quilting/sewing hiatus for a few months[see explanation at the end of this post] I quilted the three large baby quilts below for my friend in CA. Hannah does not like tight quilting which I wouldn't consider for a utility quilt especially for a child or a baby. Each of the three has a different quilting design and different threads. Hannah also prefers 100% cotton thread so my default there is something from Superior Threads, usually King Tut or Masterpiece. I also use Connecting Threads Essentials Pro and their 100% cotton, though it seems to be a little more linty.

                   The first quilt has my old favorite Peacock Feathers always appropriate and fast

              The quilt below I used Line Dancing where you quilt block to block with no stopping.

                                                  This quilt has separate border designs.

                 I failed to take a pic of the back of the third, but the large feathering shows up on the front.

                               

                                                       I used E-E freehand feathers

Hannah's quilts are always a joy to quilt, the quilt backs are as neat as the front with all seams well pressed  and the quilts flat and square.

The batting is my default also, Quilter's Dream, I used the 80/20 pink, which sadly, is no longer in production at QD. I used King Tut in a blue variegated on one quilt, King Tut variegated gold in another and Masterpiece neutral in the third.

Now to try and fill in the past 6 months, I hardly know where to begin so much has happened. We found a new single level home in Phx with a nice pool and hot-tub, only 4 miles south of the old house, and after major renovations moved in the week before Christmas. All the packing and moving was laborious and exhausting, not to mention the unpacking which is still not complete with all my quilting necessities mostly still packed.

The bad news is that DH was diagnosed in November with cancer of the jaw and after three surgeries, the last a 17 hour marathon at Mayo in January, they removed the center of his lower jaw and replaced it with bone from his scapular.  He is now in the final days of six weeks/five days/week radiation, so our lives have been severely impacted. He is now cancer free praise God, we hope forever, and soon can look forward to rebuilding what was torn apart!

Consequently I have only had my longarm up and running about a month and temporarily it's in the area where the dining table should be, as we are planning an addition to provide me with a quilting/sewing room and a workshop for DH. So I am quilting under a fancy chandelier, makes me feel like the queen of quilters, LOL.

And below is the "before" picture with the dining table in its proper place. Fortunately the open floor plan is a huge area so we can still traverse the space without running into furniture!! We had to remove a wall and a gigantic "beehive" fireplace to make the one open space.

As goverments typically go, after 5 months the city of Phoenix still hasn't returned the architect's plans for the addition so I am sewing in the library and quilting in the dining room! It beats not doing either LOL, but most of my tools and all of my fabrics/batting are still in boxes and rubbermaid tubs which is very inconvenient and I cannot find my embroidery machine or any of my longarm rulers.

To add to the stress, our little Aussie Terrier developed a draining tract under her left eye last June 2020. In spite of constant vet visits, 7 different vets in fact, two surgeries, biopsies, cultures, antibiotics, anti- fungals and steroids, a CAT scan all over nearly nine months and about $4,500, it wasn't until the 7th. vet  that the reason was diagnosed-a broken tooth that had abcessed. Such a great little dog and so patient through all she has had to suffer in the interim. We had the tooth removed a couple of weeks ago and she is healed, praise the Lord. She is cuddled up beside me wagging her tail as I rub her ears.

We are praying that after Easter our lives can begin to find some kind of "normal" with DH finished radiation and AZ now mask free! Hooray! I hope all of us can now  be freed from the ubiquitous and onerous  flu mandates. 

                                 Nova is very happy she never wore a mask and never got the flu!