It’s past my bedtime, so I’ll be brief. I finished up the praying angel square for Mary’s quilt tonight and started and finished the flower angel. Two more are kitted up and ready to go. I’ll start on Selena tomorrow.
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Renée just emailed me this afternoon to let me know that my scissors fob exchange package arrived at its destination – her house! 🙂 I stitched the Halloween Fob from The Sweetheart Tree, with a very few minor changes to make it more of a autumn fob than focused on Halloween. I also included some small cuts of fabric from Silkweaver and some girly goodies (lip gloss). I may have thrown some fibers into the mix, as well; I honestly don’t remember. 😉 It’s always a relief when everything arrives intact, though, isn’t it?
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I swear, when it rains, it pours…
I just found out that Mary’s daughter was in a serious car accident on Saturday night. Like they didn’t have enough to deal with. Her daughter was driving home at night through a remote area, following a friend, driving too fast, hit a set of railroad tracks, went airborne, flipped three times and landed in a marsh 30 feet off of the roadway. If she hadn’t been following her friend, she might not have been found for a long time. They were going to fly a helicopter in because of the remoteness of the area, but we had very high winds this weekend, so they were unable to fly there. The paramedics and police were amazed that she was alive; they fully expected to find her dead in the car. She was partially ejected from the vehicle. It is by a sheer miracle alone that she came out of it with only a broken arm. She was in surgery yesterday to repair the two fractures in the arm and will be in the hospital for a couple of days.
In the meantime, Mary has had two scans over the past two weeks and had a biopsy done on her right lung on Friday. She was supposed to get a lot of rest this weekend, as the first 48 hours of recovery from the biopsy are crucial. Obviously, this hasn’t happened, so she is exhausted. Hopefully, it won’t affect her health too negatively.
Mary sees her oncologist this Friday to get the results of all of the testing and determine the course of treatment. He said before that the cancer is definitely back and that it is metastatic. The tests are to determine where the cancer is located (lungs are most likely, possibly some in the brain) so that they can develop the best course of treatment for her. It is likely to be intensive and aggressive treatment as they’ve caught the lung cancer later than desired.
Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, especially on Friday.
I have requested a quilt for Mary from the SOLAK (Stitches of Love and Kindness) group. I used to be very active with them, but have not stitched for a quilt there in a while, so I felt guilty asking, but if anyone deserves one of these quilts, I think that Mary definitely does. As a result, I’ve been brainstorming as to what squares I can contribute to make things go even faster.
As a result, I looked up and printed out the free angels from The Victoria Sampler. I have a total of 6 in mind, with 4 kitted up and two stitched this weekend. I also want to do a larger design that Mary picked out as her Christmas present a little while ago, called Angels Watching from My Big Toe Designs.
Here are the two that I have done so far. Now to kit up two more and stitch four more!
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Actually, it won’t be in the WTF pile for very long, as I intend to finish it shortly so that I can cross another gift off of the Christmas list.
Tonight, I completed the stitching of the bottom side of what will become a biscornu for my mother. Based on my own color conversion of the design Enchantment by The Sweetheart Tree, you may remember that I finished the top last month. I decided to reverse the colors in a few spots for the bottom, do some small personalization in the form of two monograms and the date it will be given. I left off all of the bells and whistles (otherwise known as beads and paillettes) since this will be the bottom and I want it to sit nice and flat.
So, here are the pictures of the top and bottom together:
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My beloved Aussie twin Anne sent me the most wonderful package of birthday goodies that I received in the mail today. I had to laugh because I knew there was something sizeable jammed into the mailbox when Terry practically ripped it out of the ground trying to extract the mail. Have I mentioned that I think I’m going to write a complaint letter about my mailman? Anyway, when he finally dumped all of the contents of the box into my lap, I saw a big envelope from Anne. I wondered why on earth she used such a large envelope!
So, after we got the poor, drugged-up doggy gal (Phoebe’s still woozy from the anesthesia from her dental procedure today) all settled in, I sat down on the floor (one of my favorite places to sit, too, Anne) and ripped into the package with great fervor. 🙂 Of course, she wrapped everything up nicely. I’m sorry that I never do this for anyone else, since I don’t own anything but Christmas wrapping paper. I should make that a New Year’s Resolution for 2007. But I digress… again. I open the bow (purple, of course), rip the paper to shreds and the first thing my eyes land on is this flabbergastingly, jaw-droppingly GORGEOUS purple bag. Anne brought it back from Hong Kong just for me. I’m so tickled that she even thought of me while on her trip and this bag is absolutely to die for! The silk fabric is primarily purple, but can also take on a red or blue hue, depending on how you hold it. It also has this gorgeous, multi-colored, metallic medallion in the center with dragons in it. Oh, I just can’t get over it! It’s so beautiful, I’m afraid to use it! Inside of it, Anne had tucked a card and three more wrapped presents that were numbered. In the card, she explained what each of the numbered gifts were about (it’s a good thing I opened the card first :lol:). The first one was a stress reliever, which was the yellow star. It’s made out of squishy foam and is immediately going in to work with me tomorrow so that I have something to squeeze when I get aggravated. 🙂 The second is a beautiful star thread sorter. I believe it was made by Jodi’s dad, who does lovely work. I’ve actually been wanting one of these for a while, but just hadn’t splurged on one. I bet I can stitch something tiny, over one that I can glue to the center. Perhaps something with a star… 😉 And the third package is a lovely hardanger sachet filled with lavender. Oh, how I love lavender! It is truly a most heavenly scent. I want to grow my own lavender plants one of these days just so that I can make my own sachets! This one, of course, is going straight in to work with me tomorrow, as well. People will wonder what I’m sniffing, but it is a such a wonderful scent that should also help ease my stress at work. And Anne did such a beautiful job with the hardanger! I’m so flattered that my friends know my love of hardanger and respect it enough to make wonderful things like this for me. Especially since I can’t manage to make any hardanger pieces that I keep for myself. 😉
All in all, an incredible package of gifties that truly lifted my spirits after two days of being ill. Thanks so much, my friend!
I finished stitching my piece for the Scissors Fob Exchange at the Robin’s Nest last night. I even whipped through the finishing quickly while I was at it, despite yet another headache trying to impede my work. I think it turned out great and was very excited to get it into the mail this morning. Too bad I can’t show it to you… yet. 😉
On the home front, I had a sinus-induced (or something) series of aches and headaches/migraines Tuesday and Wednesday that forced me to stay home from work. I’m feeling a little bit better today (enough so to be at work), but I’m fighting a headache and the heating unit is broken again here, so it’s not helping the shoulder and neck muscles that have been freezing up and causing some of my aggravation. I might go home early today, but I might not. Phoebe is at the vet getting her teeth cleaned, so we’ll pick her up on our way home. We should hear from the doctor by 3:00 as to how everything went and when we can pick her up. I might have actually stayed at home today and worked from there if I wouldn’t have been so desperately lonely in the house without her! I’m so glad that everyone at the vet’s office loves her. As soon as they took her out of her crate, I could hear everyone fussing over her in the back and the girl assured me that she would be thoroughly spoiled today. I’m glad that she’s such a sweetie so that people want to take extra special care of my baby!
Ugh! I am so stinking cold in here; it’s not even funny! My teeth are on the verge of chattering. Brrrrrr! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! 😆
Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:
If you were to come across a sampler chart that caught your eye and appealed to you, would you or would you not stitch it if it had a morbid or “creepy” saying on it? If not, why?
If a sampler appealed to me, but the saying that came with it did not, then I would change it or leave it off. No problem. 🙂
I came home to a package in the mailbox, one on the porch and of course a bunch of treasures from my honeybunch. 🙂
First, there was an envelope from Paris. I know Isabelle will be ecstatic to hear that not only did it arrive on time, but exactly on the day! She sent me the most lovely scarf in blues and purples with shimmering metallic woven throughout. I hardly feel sophisticated enough to do it any justice, dear Isabelle, but I will do my best. 😉 She also made up a gorgeous hardanger piece. She really is quite skilled at hardanger, though she’d be the first to deny it. It looks like a Victoria Sampler design to me and is just beautiful. It is going to work with me tomorrow, Isabelle, to hang in my cubicle at work. That way, my friend will always be smiling down on me just when I usually need it the most! 😆 Be sure to take a look at the closeup. Didn’t she do a great job? Thank you Isabelle!
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Next, there was this big box on the front porch. I couldn’t make out the sender through the sidelight, but when I picked it up it was incredibly light. Hmmmm… OH! I know what it is! Sure enough, it was from favorite US-located kiwi, Jo. She remember that I had offered to pay her to make a huswife (at least, I think that’s what one is) like the beautiful one that she made early in September. Remember her glorious pool noodle project? Well, she made one just for me – with purple fabric, of course, and stars, to boot! She even put a button on it in the shape of a heart with a star in it and, not surprisingly, her sewing is impeccable. Oh, and you can’t tell from the photo, but trust me, the fabric really is purple, not blue. 🙂 I can’t wait to go roll up some of my finishes that are lying around the craft room so that they are protected from dirt and my sheer clutziness. Thank you Jo!
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And last, but not least, my treasure trove from Terry. He spoils me rotten, what can I say? It’s a darn good thing I’m such a nice girl at heart! Terry bought me some things I asked for and some things I hadn’t even thought of, clever little boy. 😉 First is a 2 GB CompactFlash card and adapter so that I can load up all of my MP3s and play them in the car. He says it’s so I don’t have to be surprised at what’s in the CD player when I turn it on. I guess you had to have been there to see my face the last time I switched to CD, expecting Black Eyed Peas, only to be serenaded by a slow song from the BeeGees! 😆 Then there’s the book that Robin McGraw (Dr. Phil’s wife) just wrote. I love when she’s on the show and really admire her strength, so I can’t wait to dig into the book and see what she has to say! Finally, the big guns came out when Terry gave me a new digital camera! I’ve been working with his leftovers for a while, a digital camera that we bought before we were married, but I’ve been getting sick of its quirks and shortcomings, so I’ve been looking and agitating for something new. There are too many bells and whistles on his digital SLR camera for me to want to learn just to take quick pics of my stitching and stuff every once in a while. Of course, along with the camera, he had to buy me a memory stick, a reader for the memory, an extra battery (which is a good thing because these crazy things take about 5 1/2 hours to charge!) and a bag.
I’m as happy as a pig in slop. Honestly. I kept poking Terry with my elbow and giving him a big silly grin while I was messing with the camera. Of course, there’s no charge to the batteries, so the fun was very short-lived. So no, the pictures here are not taken with the new camera. But the next ones should be!
Thank you to all of my wonderful friends and family for your thoughtful gifts and your loving birthday thoughts. I love you all and I had an absolutely terrific birthday (my 31st, to be exact)! I’m happy to be what, where and who I am right now. 🙂
Whew! After all of this excitement, I think I’m ready for bed…
My birthday is today. And please don’t fuss if you didn’t know. I purposefully didn’t advertise the event because I didn’t want people to worry about sending anything special for the occasion. A couple of people just happened to know the date…
No worries! I’m having a wonderful day. 😀
