The last three months of 2016 were pretty eventful for family and friends. DS put his condo up for sale and made an offer on a house (pending sale of the condo). The condo has not sold as of yet and we're getting pretty anxious as he really wants the house.
To make things easier for Realtors to show the condo, DS's cats are "visiting" us. Read that to mean they have taken over and are ruling the roost.
A dear friend was diagnosed with early stages of colon cancer, had all the pre-op tests as well as the surgery. All in about 2 months time. It would have happened sooner except she had a two week vacation planned which postponed the surgery. The operation was successful and she was back home in time to celebrate her Christmas with family and friends. With no chemo required. Something to be very grateful for.
Back at the beginning of November I managed to fall down some stairs. Did I land on my well padded back side? No. That would have been too easy. Instead I kept my balance and landed on one foot. Which did way more damage. A torn hamstring and nerve damage. An ambulance ride, numerous shots of morphine later along with multiple x-rays to check for broken leg or hip and I was sent home from the hospital with some pretty strong muscle relaxants and pain killers.
The gal and guy with Edmonton Emergency Services were great. And had a wonderful sense of humour. When they arrived to take me to the hospital I informed them that according to the "cat" scan my injuries were between my knee and hip. They looked up the stairs and spotted the two cats looking down and immediately caught on as to just what kind of cat scan I had. That set the tone for the trip to the hospital.
Time and physiotherapy are taking care of the healing. I am now able to sit for more than a few minutes and walk without a walker or cane. My sewing room has been calling me and I've been able to spend a few minutes every day at the sewing machine. Not much, but every minute is great therapy. Of course I'm still using my injury as an excuse to avoid cooking and cleaning.
My injury made for a very quiet Christmas. We were fortunate to have friends from BC stop by twice over the holiday season. Always wonderful to see Carol and Terry. We miss them a lot.
Since it's been months since I've blogged I can't remember if I mentioned finishing my oldest UFO quilt top. I started this quilt years ago and got carried away. It was going to be large enough to cover two queen sized beds, I'm sure.
So the blocks and partially finished top were put away and forgotten about. Just before my fall the top was pulled out and I realized that there wasn't much left to do. Remove a few blocks at the top and bottom of the rows. Then stitch three rows together and one top was finished. It still needs to be quilted. The backing is ready. I'm waiting for my friend JT to have a top to quilt and then both of us are off to Sparrow Studioz for a quilt lesson and time on their long arm. This is a gift from JT and I'm looking forward to the experience.
So what to do with the left over blocks. Put them together the opposite way of the quilt above. It made a smaller quilt. Probably twin size. Where as the first quilt is definitely a king size. I'll be quilting this one at home as the size is much more manageable.
Another top was finished in October. I had tested a pattern for Eileen Hoheisel a while back. I needed a quilt that was just a bit larger so I added a simple border. Now to get it quilted.
The Block of the Day Challenge is over. At least to the point that we have instructions for all the blocks and how to put the final borders on the quilt. Because of my leg I am almost two months behind. This is one (okay two) quilts tops that were not completed during the challenge year. So the pressure is on to get these blocks finished.
Why the pressure? Two reasons. The blocks will come off the designer's web site soon. And while I have the e-mail instructions saved, sometimes those instructions are not as clear as the ones on her website.
Another reason....well December 21 I had another laser procedure on my eyes to deal with the on going complication from diabetes. During the procedure I was informed that I need cataract surgery. My consultation with the surgeon is this week.
Now there might be a long waiting period before the surgery can happen. But once it does happen, my time in the quilt room will be over for a number of months. At least there is surgery to correct the problem for which I am grateful!
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