whew!

A lot of busyness going on, living every minute with as much oomph as I can muster!  A little trauma in our lives last week when Ian had to have a tonsillectomy, not a good experience for a 2 year old that has no concept of what's really happening to him!  After surgery, he stayed overnight with his papa, mama and favorite things near:  pillow, blankie, trains, ipad, juice, monkey and videos to distract from the soreness and strange surroundings.  Recovery has been a rocky road at home, with the most irritable and hard-to-please child that I have seen in forever!  Well, he is progressing, and that is excellent.  The tonsils had to be removed due to hypertrophy, causing airway and swallowing problems.  So the fact that he will be able to sleep without apnea and snoring is wonderful!

And while big brother was struggling, Baby Jack was giggling!

I got to spend a lot of time with Jack over a few days, which was great.  And now I'm playing catch-up with getting 3 patterns ready for display and purchase at Bear Patch.

These use the new 2014 Quilt MN fabrics, and are part of a large display and collection at the store.  If you want to know more, head on over to the Bear Patch blog where I will be showcasing projects over the next few days.

16 In Between is a makeover of a pattern I made 4 years ago.  I enlarged the blocks to be able to use the 2 1/2" strip packs and the pictures panel that are part of the fabric group.

16 In Between

 This pillow is probably my favorite thing that I have made lately, I enjoyed the process and the result is pleasing.  I have some good tips in the pattern for getting a really nice professional finish to not only the pillow top but the back, as well.  I have to credit my mom with helping me come up with the name "Stix Mix".  I was sitting in her kitchen with my computer, working on writing the directions, and pondering variations of pattern names.  We were looking for words rhyming (since that is my thing!) with sticks or stripes or strips.  She was mixing up something, as is usual for her, and up popped Mix and Stix, and it stuck!

Stix Mix

 And thirdly, Ring-A-Ding, a twofer, since I have both a circular and oval tabletopper in the pattern.

Ring-A-Ding

And to make things easier with pattern-writing, I had a great view of Silver Lake from the kitchen window and deck.  This is a small lake in the middle of farm country in northwest Iowa.  The town of Lake Park is situated next to the lake, and houses surround part of the shore.  But there is a state park and city park and undeveloped land on a large portion of the shoreline.  It's not busy with boat traffic, although the occasional pontoon, motorboat and jet-ski can be found.  It's a tranquil spot.

Silver Lake, Iowa

And then it's back home to enjoy my own little spot of tranquility, with the not so tranquil city and bustle nearby!  One final word of advice for all of you--make sure you have a working carbon monoxide detector in your house!  Last Saturday, ours detected CO and alarmed.  Not life-threatening levels, but not good for your health.  The fire department came and verified that it was a legitimate alarm on their meter, as well, and they summoned the energy company who narrowed it down to a problem with our oven.  It's the same oven I had before the remodel, but it had been disconnected for about 2 months, then put back into place and something is amiss.  Anyway, I'm glad we had the detector in place!

it's all about MN

The past 2 weeks (or so) have been all about Minnesota as far as my work and sewing and quilting go. August 2nd is the kick off for the statewide quilt shop hop.  This is a coordinated effort by many (~90?) quilt shops to promote the idea for customers to get out and visit old fave stores and new treasures.  There is an official passport that is stamped at each store, and depending on the extent of your travels you are eligible for prizes and gifts.  At Bear Patch, we invest a lot of time and effort into making it a special event for the 17 days.  We give out little freebies to each person, prizes to qualifying quilters, and treats!  Debbie has a direct link to the Pearson's candy factory, and buys cases of their mints and mini salted nut rolls to give away.

We also have cases and cases of the special edition Minnesota fabrics on hand, and we create as many samples of neat projects for inspiration as our little fingers can manage!  I have 2 new patterns designed and 1 makeover of a previous pattern in the works.  I really thought I was way ahead of my planning and would not feel rushed and hurried to get them finished on time.  That was about a month ago, and then life happened!  I was gone for a family trip followed immediately by back surgery (planned) for Bob, which really required a lot more from both of us than I had ever anticipated.  No, I didn't have to go under the knife myself, but being the helpmate is a job of its own.  Bob's limitations continue for several more weeks--no lifting (over 5 lbs), no bending, no twisting, no housework, no yardwork, etc.  So I am trying to cram a lot into my days.

Out of the cramming has emerged this--

Slug Bug

 and this--

Wound Around

The first quilt is not nearly as yellow as it looks in the picture, I still have to put on the binding and then I will take a "real" picture to show you.  It feels good to get this far!  I have been putting up frequent posts on the Bear Patch Blog highlighting the Minnesota projects at the store, so hop on over there if you have an interest.

On a side note, I tried out a new thread (new to me) on the Slug Bug quilt for my longarm machine quilting.  This was a polyester 40 wt. variegated thread from Aurifil.  When I was at the Portland Quilt Market we (Debbie and I) did a little shopping and visiting in their booth.  We love their 40 and 50 wt. cotton threads and have a big supply at the store.  I am always interested in new threads that are appropriate for my quilting so I have what my customers want.  This turned out to be just the right color combo for my Slug Bug quilt.  I photographed it in a lovely natural surrounding to capture a great still life!  Other longarm quilters will appreciate the beauty, I am sure.  It ran pretty well in my machine, it did get a little twisty a couple times but that could have been partially due to the fact that I was running faster than usual.  It has a nice bit of sheen to the fibers.  Now I just have to figure out how to get more of it!

Aurifil 40 wt. polyester thread color 5512

Now it's off to work at the store, a day of moving and sorting and lifting and pulling to get merchandise ready for the 3 day annual summer sale that starts tomorrow!  It will be an ibuprofen cocktail at bedtime tonight!

keeping afloat

There are days when I don't feel like much gets accomplished from my never-ending mental list of what I would "like" to get done.  Days when it feels like I am only treading water to keep from going under.  That often gives me a feeling of frustration, unless I stop to remember that much of that to-do list is self-imposed. 

Today was a day when I feel like some good things got done, not necessarily the things I "want" to do, but still needing to be done.  We try to keep on top of things for maintenance and upkeep of the house, and that means keeping it neat and clean.  So today the floors got washed and the bathroom shower got scrubbed.  Library books were returned and checked out, groceries were purchased.  Nothing earth-shaking, to be sure, but examples of those non-glamourous tasks that make the world go round.  We value our home and belongings, and feel lucky that we are in the spot we are in.  And happy to have some spare time for our pleasure and entertainment.

I have spent a lot of time over the past 5 days in hospital halls and rooms.  My husband, Bob, needed to have some back surgery, a first for us.  Now, one would think that since we are both RN's, that we would be in a good spot to go through an experience like that.  Indeed, we probably managed the process better than many.  But it still kind of knocked us off-center, and now we are trying to regain our equilibrium.  Things are overall good, with no complications and good people that helped us all along the way.  Now it's a matter of managing the pain and discomfort and limitations to mobility.  He has to wear this hard molded brace that covers his back and abdomen whenever he is not laying down.  This makes it really challenging to do many little things that we take for granted--putting on socks (he's not going to wear socks for 3 months), sitting down (he's using a straight backed dining room chair), take a shower (he wears the brace even in the shower and we now have a grab bar and stool) and the list goes on.  We keep reminding ourselves that this is temporary!

So I don't have much to show for wonderful projects completed!  So here is what I have been dabbling in:

Clamshells (2" across) using paper templates and sewn by hand.  Slowly.

A new quilt pattern for the Quilt MN fabric.  Most of the sewing is done.

Cutting and sewing blocks from a group of Denyse Schmidt fabric.

The Denyse Schmidt blocks will make this quilt.

Cutting out pieces for 4 sizes of fabric "buckets" using the pattern by Atkinson Designs.

So that pretty much sums it up for now.  I definitely need a few sewing days!