More of This and That

Coming up with a catchy title for my blog posts has always been a challenge, but it seems to be even more so now.  Oh well ... hopefully the content will make up for lame titles?

I spent several hours in the sewing room on Friday. I finished up table topper and squared up both the wall hanging and the table topper.  The wall hanging finished at approximately 36"x36" and the table topper finished at approximately 27"x27".

I decided to move on to an older WIP (work in progress). I was gifted some fabulous signature blocks from Katy over at  https://katyquilts.net.  My plan is to set them with a narrow sashing in black and cornerstones in cheddar, and I got started on the sashing at the last one-day quilt retreat hosted by Jenice at http://www.quiltedgarden.com.  You can see where I blogged about them here: http://nanato4ts.blogspot.com/2015/10/finish-it-up-fridaya-day-late.html. I was pleased to see that I had the side sashes sewn on ... all I needed to do was cut sashing strips, sew the strips to the cornerstones and then sew them to the blocks.  Or so I thought. I had cut all the sashing and cornerstones to make sashing/cornerstone rows and was about ready to piece the rows when I realized that I'd sewn sashing on both sides of the blocks ... which would mean double sashing when I'm piecing together the blocks. Oops!  I'd blame "chemo brain" except I did that piecing last May.  :-o  And if that weren't enough, I just now realized that I cut my sashing pieces for the sashing/cornerstone rows the wrong size ... I cut them 7-1/2" which is the finished size ... I forgot to add seam allowances.  Yikes!  Now THAT I can might be able to blame on "chemo brain"?  Thankfully I almost always buy more than I think I need when buying fabric for specific projects ... for this very reason. I make mistakes. So I should have enough to cut more strips and still add a nice border.  Now I am going to have to cut more WOF strips and then subcut them to the correct size. 

Speaking of Jenice's one-day retreats, I'll be attending her May retreat. I had to skip last fall's retreat because we were in Hilton Head ... and as much as I love quilting retreats, I love being on Hilton Head Island even more. Which is why I will be skipping this fall's guild retreat, too.  

We spent Saturday with DD and her family to celebrate Mother's Day. It was as close to a perfect day as I could hope for.  We watched our Blues win ... they're just one victory away from advancing to the conference finals.  We played some Uno, some Mille Bourne, some Minecraft and some Clash Royale (the last two are mobile device games that the kids play ... and Nana loves to join in their fun).  We had a fabulous meal prepared by DSIL and DH ... pork steaks, grilled potatoes (sliced potatoes, butter and celery salt wrapped in a large aluminum foil pouch and cooked on the grill) and pasta salad.  My heart was full at the end of the day. 

Today is Mother's Day ... Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!  May your day be full of the things and people you love.  

Today is just not Mother's Day. It's also World Ovarian Cancer Day.  If you all have been following along very long, you know that I'm fighting Stage IV ovarian cancer.  So I'm all in to make us women more aware of ovarian cancer.  The media, when covering women's cancers, are all over breast cancer and as a result, funding is high which is great news because it means that the odds of surviving are higher.  Unfortunately ovarian cancer often tends to be overlooked when discussing women's cancers ... which is unfortunate because unlike breast cancer, there is no diagnostic tool to discover ovarian cancer while it's still early and treatable.  Unfortunately the disease often doesn't present any symptoms in the early stages, and when it does, the symptoms are so subtle and are often attributed to other less serious conditions (especially by us women "of a certain age"). By the time the symptoms are severe enough to get us to our doctors, the disease has spread  ... and the chances for a cure are slim.  Please, become familiar with the symptoms of ovarian cancer (http://www.cancer.org/cancer/ovariancancer/detailedguide/ovarian-cancer-signs-and-symptoms) and be aware of your body and any changes, however trivial they may seem.  And if you're thinking of supporting the fight to find cures for women's cancers, please give some thought to joining me in the fight against ovarian cancer. 

I hope that whatever you have planned for today includes a little something that brings you joy ... have a great day!
Kathy