Finally Part 2 of retreat and a status update.

I know it's taking forever. LOL But Knee replacement got here before I could finish....  

Elly took these squares and turned them into a beautiful top.  I think this is the biggest top she's sewn since she joined our group of quilter bee's. 

It turned out beautiful.

Anna was working on a modern wedding ring type block. Love the scrappy look.                               Connie was working on blue and white quilt blocks.   

Pat finished up her basket weave top. At least that's what I'm calling it. And Jane finish up a cute Jelly roll top. Love the colors.

 

Donna Marie finish her top up. She started it a couple retreats ago and now it's completely done. 

She also finished the back to her round robin quilt from 2018 I think.  The stripe down the middle were some left over blocks.

Kim R. was working on some cute cute bunny blocks. Sew cute

Jane finished up some reading pillow bags. Too sweet.                                                        

Our Friend Donna Lynna made these clappers to sell. You iron your seam and place this wooden block on top and it helps give you a nice flat seam. She had different handles on each one.

Bekki was working a jelly roll bag. It is so cool. Lots of work went into this bag.

Connie made a new bag.  Anna showed us how to make this bag a few retreats ago and Connie made one but gave it away so she made a new one. Very Pretty.

One of Diana's projects.  She put some work into this one and had wash it with color stain catchers. The red bleed into the white.

Donna Kim was determined to finish this top and succeeded.  Came out great.

Several of the ladies escaped on Wednesday evening for a margarita or two. Some came back happy.   Lol. No names released here. 

We played a game of Left Right Center on Wednesday sometime before the margarita's. Several retreats ago Vicki got fancy and did her money in origami shapes. And now they show up at every retreat.  Vicki and Donna Marie are the only two I believe that have gotten fancy with their money. LOL Everyone has a favorite at the games. We started playing with $1 bills so the ladies could spend their winnings on fabric or crafts. Whatever floats their boat.  We have a heart with a bow, a turkey, a dog, candy I think, and a fox. The Fox or was it a cat, was the winner this time. LOL

Just when you think you're out you could become a winner and that is just what happened to Kathy.  

      

Snapped a picture with Kathy and Connie.

You know it's hard to capture a picture of 20 ladies. LOL Jane's sister Donna Christian stopped by for a quick visit and took some pictures for us and then I jumped out and put her in the picture.

What made it more fun was the wind. 

Now look how good everyone one did when Donna Christian jumped in.  LOL

Before we knew it our time together was up. Even though the choice of food being primarily carbs, it was pretty tasty. But we would have preferred a more balance choice of meals. You live and learn.

Everyone was out of the retreat by noon. Folks were trying to beat the rain.

I got home and the stormy weather hit a few hours later and a tornado hit just down the road. Our neighbors were shaken but safe but all their outer buildings were destroyed. It's crazy how tornados work

Our electricity went out at 7pm when the tornado hit down the road and didn't come back until the next morning at 5:30am.  ugh.

When I got up I went to work on finishing my scrappy Kaffe 
Fasset Log cabin.  It's at the quilters now.

Have I mentioned how much I love these ladies I quilt with.

The prizes I came home with from several or all of the ladies. Bekki embroidered my a wall hanging and Donna Lynn made me a heart shaped zipper bag. The ladies gave me a gift card, an African violet that so far is still alive, pin cushion, book mark, finger nail file, handmade bath scrub, lip balm and truck pincushion, a beautiful hand crafted card from Robin with a gift card. I don't know how I got sew blessed with these ladies.

And thanks to several of the ladies who provided door prizes. Our retreats couldn't be without y'all.

Health update: David is doing fine since his heart cath and scare. Now he has been my care giver since 4/26 when I got my knee replacement. I'm on a walker until PT thinks I'm strong enough to move to a cane and so forth. My PT started 2 hours after surgery. I ended up staying two nights in the hospital because I kept getting dizzy but doing okay now. I continue to do PT 3 days a week in College Station. Went to my 2 week follow up and the doctor says my incision is healing up nicely and my progress is where it should be. I have lots of swelling of course around the knee but that's to be expected. I have 8 weeks to get the range of motion from 60 now to 130. Yikes.  David is an awesome awesome caregiver. I've even lost another 8 pounds since surgery. Another win.

Joe, my stepfather got a thumbs up on his pacemaker surgery and can now have this eye surgery but he's on his own since I still can't drive.

He got mom placed in a home in Conroe finally. I haven't got to visit yet but will as soon as I can drive the 2 1/2 hours there. Right now just riding in the car hurts.  Joe said Mom did seem content when he's gone to visit. 

Once we get me moving better it'll be time to get David fixed up. Between his knee, his shoulder and even the hand he had surgery on, he needs some loving care.

Well that's it for now. I've been sitting in my office chair for 25 minutes and my leg is telling me about it.  Hugs to all.

Until next blog post....Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions.

"Oh the places we will go" Dr Suez Books and Quilts oh My

Let me start with David and saying he is doing well. He may have over did it Wednesday 4/10 working in the garden beds. He ran some errands and was feeling pretty good but Thursday he was feeling a little off. This man of mine has a hard time being idle.

Thursday 4/13 was the G3 book club meeting. Our book was 1984 by George Orwell. Oh wow. All I did was ask what did you think of the book.  And the rest was history. I'm sure a lot of my readers may have read this book back in high school. The book was disturbing for some of the gals due to the similarities to present day events in the world. This is why one of the girls picked this pick to wake people up. History being erased, the idea if you don't think like the party you're an enemy etc etc. I had Pam write the recap of the book and meeting this time. And one of the things she mentioned was sources state that Orwell modelled the authoritarian state in the novel on Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. Another gal brought up this connection to Stalinist Russia and talked about the fact that many things in the book really happened. During and after WWII there were many atrocities and there was no privacy in the East. It was a great meeting with lively conversation for sure.

Friday 4/14, David seemed to be better Thank Goodness. We drove to Tomball/Spring and had lunch @ The Cotton Patch with his brother Gary and His wife Lynn. Had a great visit. After lunch David and I drove down the street to the surgeon's office. Knee replacement conversation time. Surgery is scheduled for 4/26 and I will be staying over night since we'll have such a long drive from the Woodlands back to Gause. As the date nears I get more anxious. The knee is unstable but I hate having surgery. Uggh.

Saturday was spent preparing to go on quilt retreat that has been on the books now for over a year. I love going on the retreats and getting to re-connect with all my quilty friends since we live all over the place. But this trip will be a tad different. 

Sunday arrived and I'm all packed except for a few last minute items. My long time friend and sorority sister Sheryl arrived and we transferred her stuff to my car and off we go. I made a side trip by Pamela's to drop off the twins their Easter Bags I made up for them. The bags had bunny ears but no face. Wait where's the face?! Oh they want me to draw it. Awesome so I did and then filled each bag with one chocolate easter bunny, 2 bottles of bubbles, Gold fish and Nilla wafers. And would you believe I forgot to take a picture of the bags. I added the boys names too. Sheryl got to meet Kaleb's family when we stopped. They were down for a visit and burgers. The kids got a new grill and Kaleb was the grill master. It was funny the boys dumped everything out of the bags and went for the bubbles. Maybe Pamela can take a picture of them for my next post. LOL

So off Sheryl and I went to Texas Quilt Barn in LaGrange. I wish I could say I was excited to try a new place but there were a few issues. I have been organizing 2 retreats a year since 2013 so it's not my first rodeo. I won't bad mouth the place because other people may of had a wonderful experience but when I could never tour the place to see the layout which wasn't bad but I had no way of informing my ladies what to expect. And there was a slow or lack of communication.  We arrived and everyone was buzzing. All 20 of us were ready to see our friends and get to sewing on unfinished projects or start new ones.  

I got set up but didn't start much of anything since I was going to have to leave early the next morning to go pick up my step-dad Joe in Conroe and take him to have a pacemaker surgery. I left one of my friends in charge and she had notes of what I needed to happen and then they could sew away. I would be back to the retreat sometime Tuesday as long as everything went well with Joe.

Monday 4/17 I got up and drove to Conroe, Texas to pick up Joe and get him to St. Luke's hospital in the Woodlands. I dropped him at the front door while I tried to find a parking space. I found a spot in the free parking garage and got lucky and caught the golf cart guy to take me to the front door. Found Joe upstairs waiting to be called back. They finally called him back and after prepping him they called me back to sit with him until surgery time which was supposed to be at 1pm but the 2 surgeries in front of him were running behind. Yeah go figure. Joe finally went into surgery around 2:38pm. A little late. Surgery went great and the his doctor came out to talk with me. I liked his cardiologist. Around 5pm they called me back again to sit with him in recovery.  He was actually fairly alert and doing great. Just after 6 they told me to go get the car and I could take him home of course after they gave me all the discharge info.  It was kinda funny because Joe got a little upset because he asked the nurse to repeat something and the nurse said "you're still under the influence and you won't remember and for now I'm talking to her (meaning me)." Joe was still a little miffed when he got in the car but he got over it.  I was staying the night just to make sure he didn't have any problems and then his sweet neighbor Rick was coming over the next morning and was going to stay with him until Wednesday afternoon.  All went smoothly and Joe is doing great.

I headed back to the retreat Tuesday around 11am. I made one pit stop in Brenham at Hobby Lobby to buy fabric for backing for a quilt I had hoped to finish and hand off to my quilter at retreat. Got the fabric but didn't finish the quilt. I did finish one boy quilt and handed it off to her but had to mail the other one that finished at home a couple days later after retreat was over. Pictures of both will be in a later post. But I will share some from retreat.  My friend Donna Marie made this cute room assignment chart.

This is a bag I made to carry our wool ironing mat, cutting board, rulers, whatever. And I personalized it with her favorite color and embroidered her name on it.  Donna Lynn was the first to receive one. I now know what to do on the next one to make it easier I hope. Not bad for my first attempt. I told her, hers was the prototype.  It measures about 28" x 26" give or take.

Anna (on the right) was the first to finish up a top. And Kim got her blue quilted top back and got the binding done.

         

Love the blocks that Sandy Y was working on.  And you ask "How many quilters does it take to repair a featherweight?"  LOL  Obviously these 3.

Bekki and Donna Lynn were hands on and Kim R. decided to google and found the answer. They were all going in the right direction but the machine was being difficult.

Denise turned these blocks into a quilt top.

Love it. Can't wait to see how she backs it. She always uses scraps or excess blocks from the top to the back.

These two (Robin & Sheryl) do an art called felting. Sheryl made 2 scarves. And Robin made a backpack and she modeled a hat she had made. They manipulate with water and towels. It's quite the process.

 It looks like she's holding a turkey.

From turkey to finished product

I love each and everyone of these ladies for their over all support and contributions for door prizes. You know when you mix 20 different women personalities you could end up with drama and/or conflict but everyone in the group gets along really well. It's a great group of ladies.

I'm gonna have to split this up or it's gonna become a novel. So stay turned for part 2. But you'll have to wait until after my surgery tomorrow 4/26.  Wish me luck. I was hoping they'd make it a bionic knee but no go. So I'll settle for one that works. 

Until next blog post....Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors