The Long Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a relaxing, yet productive weekend here at Chez Nana.

Saturday started with a trip to the local hospital for my weekly blood draw (which are normally done on Mondays but this week's draw had to be bumped up because the lab was closed for the holiday). Once I got home, I headed straight for the sewing room. I discovered that I can watch movies on my iPad, thanks to my Amazon Prime account. We have a tv in the sewing room, but we're waiting for our IT expert (aka DSIL) to hook it and the DVD player up. And not only that, I discovered that I can watch the Cardinals play while sewing.



Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I spent Sunday and Monday afternoons in the sewing room, watching the Cardinals. A wonderful way to spend a long weekend.

Here's where I stopped Monday afternoon.

I am still uncertain how big I want to make this wall hanging. It's going to hang above our bed, which is king sized, so I'm kind of leaning toward 45" square, which would mean I need to make 49 blocks (set 7x7). I've currently got 31 blocks pieced, so if I go with 45" square, I have 18 left to make. I pieced 5 blocks yesterday without breaking my neck, taking breaks to play Word Chums and to chat with DH. So It shouldn't take me too awfully long to finish the remaining 18 blocks.

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

The Week in Review

It's been a busy week here at Chez Nana.

I had chemo #6 on Tuesday ... I'm now halfway through this round of chemo.  As usual, chemo was uneventful.  My WBC is down, and while I'm not to the point where I need to be in isolation, I do need to be very careful when out and about.  Thankfully we're past the winter season so the likelihood of being exposed to nasty germs is reduced ... I've never been that much of a germaphobe, but I'm turning into one, thanks to cancer. Ha!  After we finished up at Siteman, we headed back to the Illinois side of the river to do a little shopping for our master and guest room makeovers (more on that to follow) and grab some lunch.

Wednesday I finally bit the bullet and cleaned out/organized the closet in the master bedroom.  It was long overdue, and I have to admit that seeing it decluttered and organized makes me smile.  We watched the Blues wrap up their 2015-2016 season in disappointing fashion.  :-(  I might feel less disappointed if my Cardinals were playing better. 

I spent Thursday pressing the bedskirts and curtains and with DH's help, I set up the master and guest room.  

The quilt I'm currently working on will go on the wall above our bed.  And this is on another wall.  

My sister sent me this ... just because.  I love it!  And it's perfect as the goal of the aforementioned makeovers is to give our house more of a beachy feel.

Friday I finally got back into the sewing room and was able to get a couple more blocks finished.

I had to stop after two blocks, as we joined 4 other neighborhood couples for dinner.  

Thankfully I have everything caught up so I can spend this holiday weekend in the sewing room ... after I go get my weekly blood draw.  I normally get the draw on Monday before chemo on Tuesday, but the lab is closed on Monday for the holiday. So Saturday it is.

Wishing you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Kathy

The Rest of the Weekend

I promised a picture of my haul from my trip to my not-so-local quilt shop.  

The red will be backing for my two tumbler quilts. The blue on the bottom will be incorporated into my kaleidoscope quilt, and the blue stripe came home with me because I just loved it too much to leave it behind.  And the charm pack will come in handy as I am going to need to make some partial blocks for my Martha Washington's Flower Garden, which is made from Kansas Troubles fabrics. And of course, let's not forget the Kona Snow which is what prompted the trip to the quilt shop in the first place.  

I spent most of Saturday in the sewing room.  I was able to avoid any more unstitching by writing the colors on the papers so I could keep track of what colors went where. 

There's that blue I picked up on Friday. 

I got 7 more blocks finished ... 9 down and several more to go.

 

Paper piecing takes longer (for me anyway), but I enjoy that method of piecing.  It produces sharp points ... although I'll confess that my center points aren't always perfect, but considering that 6 seams converge at the centers, I can live with a little less than perfect. From a normal viewing distance, they are definitely acceptable to me. 

Those additional pieces were pieced on Saturday.  Sunday was filled with church, shopping, lunch, laundry, swapping out the towels and shower curtain in the hall bath and getting out for a walk and to just enjoy the fabulous weather.

(For those who are OCD like me, that's a searsucker shower curtain, not one that needs to see an iron - ha!). By the time I was finished with all that, I was too tired to do anything other than watch the Penguins vs Lightning.

It was a productive yet relaxing weekend ... and I'm planning on continuing with that theme through the week as well.  

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

Kathy

Fun Times in the Sewing Room

I decided to head on over to the quilt shop yesterday morning.  Of course, I came home with more than just the white I went for ... I didn't get a photo of my haul ... I'll share a picture next time.

I was able to quickly piece two blocks.

Just about the time I thought this quilt would come together quickly and easily, block 3 gave me a lesson in humility. I had to unstitch and restitch the final seam twice before I could get the pieces to line up satisfactorily. I had just enough time to give the block a nice press before DH brought dinner in from the grill.  Oops!

Obviously I correctly pieced the right half ... but reverted to the color layout of blocks 2 and 3 when piecing the left half. :-o

Hopefully I'll be a little more alert tomorrow when I head back into the sewing room.

Here's my inspiration quilt:

I wish I could cite the source for this image.  I pinned this quite a while ago but the previous pinner pinned to the image rather than the original website ... I didn't realize it until just now when I wanted to give proper credit.  Don't you just love the secondary design created?  

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

Kathy

Best Laid Plans ...

Monday, after my blood draw, DH and I planned to go shopping for fabric for my next project ... only to discover, after pulling up to the shop, that it's closed on Mondays. :-o  We knew that we wouldn't be able to go on Tuesday (chemo day), so our plan was to go over on Wednesday. Alas, that didn't happen because of this:

That's T#1, with a broken finger. :-o  He was playing a "homemade" handball game in the basement with T#2 and T#3, and in an effort to reach the ball before his siblings did, his hand hit the space heater.  I got a phone call to come watch the other Ts while DD took him to Children's Hospital, where X-rays revealed a break.  They're hoping that he'll be able to switch to a removable cast in a couple of weeks so he will be able to swim this summer, but in the meantime he chose a cast in the color of his summer swim team - Splash red. If you remember, T#2 broke her arm May 2015 ... I think the Ts need to be put in a bubble during the month of May from now on. ;-)

I wasn't able to go fabric shopping Thursday either ... I had a long-overdue lunch date with an old friend.  I'm not sure we'll be able to make the trip today as DH has an appointment with his audiologist just after lunch ... Saturday perhaps?  

At least I was able to spend a little time in my sewing room Thursday afternoon ... I was able to get a start on block #12 of my pineapple quilt. 

After dinner Thursday evening, DH and I checked out our garden. Look!  We've got tomatoes ... ok, they're tiny and green, but hopefully they'll soon be big and red.  #BLT

Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals was last night.  There seems to be a trend here, and I for one am not pleased.  

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

Kathy

Wednesday Hodgepodge

I haven't participated in a Wednesday Hodgepodge in such a long time, and I just felt like this week might be the week to get back to it.  ;-)   When you're done here, why not head over (just click on the button below) and see what everyone else has to say.

1. Tell us about a time you found yourself 'in the middle of nowhere'. Was this deliberate?

I felt like we were "in the middle of nowhere" when we drove along the Blue Ridge Mountains last August. And given our lack of cell service, I'd have to say we probably really were "in the middle of nowhere". 

 

2. What's something you're 'in the middle of' today or this week? 

I'm almost in the middle of my post-surgical chemo treatments. I had #5 yesterday with 7 more to go ... close enough to the middle to count as far as I'm concerned. Ha!

3. At what age do you think 'middle age' begins? What does it mean to be 'middle aged'? 

I'd have to say that I think that "middle age" starts at 50.  At 65, those who are in their 40s are still young ones.  After all, I can't possibly be the mama of a middle-aged woman, now can I?  Ha!

4. Ravioli, stuffed peppers, samosas, deviled eggs, steamed dumplings, pierogis, or a jelly donut...your favorite food (from this list!) with something yummy in the middle. Your favorite not on the list? 

My favorite on that would be ravioli - of the toasted variety. Yum!  My favorite not on the list?   Tortellini. Oh yes, I'll admit that I have a fondness for pasta. ;-)  

5. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying ''In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.'Would you agree? Have you found this to be true in your own life? Feel free to elaborate. 

Oh definitely.  I'm certainly "in the middle of difficulty" and I think this difficult period is an opportunity to show that a positive attitude can make a difficult journey much easier to travel - and certainly more enjoyable. Not to mention that it gives me the opportunity to share where my hope comes from.

6. What's a song you remember loving from your middle school years? Do you love it still? 

We didn't have Middle School in the small town where I grew up (they still don't), so I picked a song from my Junior High School years:  She Loves You by the Beatles. I still love it ... it's a classic. 

7. May 18th is National Visit Your Relatives Day. Will you celebrate? Which relative would you visit if time, distance, and expense were not considered. 

I'd visit my sister Lisa who lives in Austin.  Because she lives so far away, I don't get to see her as often as I might like.  And she's not that far from the beach - Galveston or Padre Island, so you know where we'd be going after our visit. Ha!

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

It's downright cold here ... our furnace ran all day/night Tuesday and is still running this morning.  Ugh! I can deal with the rain - I'm ready for the rains to be done, but it is spring (or at least it's supposed to be spring).  But this cold weather is just awful.  The good news is that it's supposed to warm up, starting this afternoon. Should be delightful by the weekend.

Game 2 of the Western Conference was played last night. That's all I want to say about that. :-(

My phone "died" again Monday night. It happened about 3 weeks ago, and I was able to get it up and running after spending a couple of hours hassling with it. I decided then that if my efforts weren't permanent, I'd not go through all that hassle again.  So it's time to get a new phone!  It turns out that the problem was battery related (not the same problem as earlier). But I can't use a phone with a battery that can't hold a charge, so a new phone was the right thing to do. 

Yes, I know that more than one random thought. Oh well, it's not my fault I have a lot to say today. Ha!

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

The Weekend Wrap-Up

 

 
I’d have to say that it’s time for a Weekend Wrap-Up. 
 
The weekend got off to a busy and productive start with the semi-annual one-day retreat.  I was humbled by the enthusiastic greeting I received from my retreat and guild friends. The next quilt on my must-make list is a two-color blue-and-white kaleidoscope quilt.  I had thought about starting it during the retreat, but it would have helped had I actually done more than think about it ... I knew that I have plenty of reproduction blues but alas, I didn't have enough of a suitable white nor of the purer blues I’m hoping to use.  I’m planning to hang this quilt above our bed and am trying to incorporate more of a beachy feel to our décor, so I’m going to go with purer blues and white, none of which I have enough of in my stash.  (Yes, I have some shopping to do today – woo hoo!)  So instead I worked on what has been my retreat project for at least a couple of years now, my indigo/neutral pineapple. I got almost 4 blocks pieced ... I had one block about 1/3 done, I pieces two complete blocks, and I got a good start on a 4th block. 

Lest that seem like I was slacking, those are almost 14" blocks. I should have, if I recall correctly, a total of 10 finished blocks.

These are a few finishes … the one on the left is quilted and bound while the two on the right are just at the flimsie stage.  Unfortunately I failed to make note of whose quilts these were.  The retreat went until at least 9:00, but around 5:00 I started to tire.  I did manage to stick around for another couple of hours (a girls' gotta have dinner, right? - especially when it includes Italian cream cake for dessert!). Needless to say, I was exhausted when I got home and slept really well that evening.
 
Saturday was a slower day ... which is just what I needed after an exhausting Friday.  I managed to do some tidying up around the house, got caught up on our financial recordkeeping, supervised DSIL’s setting up our new TV, and had some fun with T#3 and #4 while the rest of the family went to the movies with friends. 
 
Sunday was a fairly slow day as well.  I finally got around to pressing the bedskirt for the new daybed bedding set … when we moved in, I couldn’t find a daybed bedding set that I liked at all, so I “settled” for standard twin-sized bedding.  It didn’t take long before I realized that it wasn’t really working and that I didn’t even care all that much for the bedding set I’d chosen.  

I also finished putting away my supplies from Friday’s retreat and spent some time working on my ongoing hexie project (this and that pineapple project feel like they’re never going to get done - ha!).

(Pay no attention to that “old lady hand”.  Ugh)  While it wasn’t nearly as warm as I would have liked, I did get outside for a walkabout … and I noticed that my hydrangea not only has a good number of buds, it’s actually started blooming! 

That light green flower in the center is the flower just opening … this hydrangea blooms white, so the flowers appear to be a very light green when they first open.  You can also see lots of little buds above and slightly to the left of the flower.  My iris are also blooming.

My azaleas are still blooming, too. 

Our garden is doing fairly well.  Our tomatoes are doing well, in spite of the colder weather we had over the weekend.  Our lettuce will be ready to pick in a few more days.  Alas, like last spring, our green beans (the few that sprouted - grrr) seem to have been a tasty meal for some critter.  We haven’t seen any signs of the raccoons that feasted on them last spring, so I’m wondering if it was the rabbits.  DH replanted more green beans … and I was finally able to persuade DH to plant some cucumbers. 

And of course, the most important part of the weekend was watching the Blues win Game 1 of the conference finals.  Let’s go Blues!!

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

An Update

I know ... blogging four days in a row?  Don't hold your breath waiting for this to become a regular thing.  Ha!

Anyway, today we met with Dr. Powell.  He continues to be pleased with how well I'm recovering. The best news of the day:  my cancer marker is down to 15.  Yes, 15!  Less than 35 is considered "normal", and mine was 1,441 back in early December.  And it's 15 now!  Granted, the cancer marker level is not the only indicator of just what is going on, but it is a good indicator of how well the chemo is working.  

He confirmed that we'll do a total of 8 sessions (12 weeks); we did 4 prior to surgery and will do 4 after.  He also wants to me to have a CT scan in a month.  He assured DH and me that we should be good to go on our trip to Hilton Head in September ... which was great news as we had ro cancel our May trip.  

After we met with Dr. Powell, it was time for chemo ... I'm now 1/3 of the way through my 6th session.  My WBC is getting low, so I need to choose wisely and be extra careful when getting out and about; the good news is that it's spring so hopefully all the nasty bugs are history. It was a long day ... we got there at 9:30 and left a little after 3:00. Needless to say, I took it easy the rest of the day. 

Thank you all so much for your prayers, encouragement and support ... all that means so very much to me, and I definitely believes it makes a difference.

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

Kathy

Survey Time!

I DID finish the signature quilt yesterday afternoon.  Woo hoo!  

Except now I'm feeling like this quilt needs borders?  Isn't it funny how what we envision in our minds doesn't always look as good as it did in our minds?  Or is that just me?  ;-)

My first thought was a narrow inner border in the cheddar with a wider outer border in black. I auditioned those fabrics, and I wasn't pleased with how it looked with the sashing and cornerstones on the outer edges.  So my next thought was to remove those outer sashes and cornerstones and add the borders. I really don't want to do all that frog stitching, but I'm feeling like the quilt is calling for the borders.  Here is the audition (although I'm thinking of a 5" outer border instead of 3"?). 

And that's where you all come in ... I would like your opinions.  Leave the quilt as is or add borders? 

Thanks, everyone, for your advice!  ;-)

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

Kathy

It's Going to Be a Marvelous Monday!

But then, every day is marvelous!  Seriously, today is going to be a marvelous day.  While we've got rain in the forecast, there should be a break in the storms that'll allow me to get out and walk. And while it is raining?  A perfect "excuse" to get into the sewing room and sew.  

Speaking of sewing, I got the sashings cut and sewn into sashing/cornerstone rows and got the first row of blocks finished yesterday. And I am so thrilled with how they turned out!  

I wish I could take credit for the choice of black sashing, but I have to credit the clerk at Homestead Hearth who helped me when we visited there, looking for sashing fabric. I didn't have a clue what color to choose ... it was a bit of a leap of faith to agree to her selections, but I'm so glad that I did. I'm hoping to get the rest of the top finished today, but that's pretty optimistic. There's no reason, though, why I cannot get it done before my one-day retreat on Friday.  And I'm already thinking about what to work on next. ;-)   And thanks to Jeanne, I now have a "design wall" ... no more design floor. I ordered  a Fons and Porter design sheet ... I just need to ask DH to get out the ladder and get some nails hammered in the wall space above my closet door (which will be perfect for providing some solid for the sheet to rest against when I'm using it). 

My Blues play tonight ... and my little Blues garden flag arrived in the mail this morning.  Perfect timing! Here's to hoping that I'll be able to keep it hanging for several more weeks!  :-D. 

Tomorrow is my 6-week post-surgery follow up and Chemo #4. I noticed last night that my eyelashes have started to grow back in.  Since I lost them several weeks into my first chemo, I'm guessing I'll lose them again.  And thank you, everyone, for bearing with me on my PSA yesterday. As Janet O. said, when we or a loved one is suffering from a serious disease, we tend to be passionate about it ... so I'm very passionate about ovarian cancer. I pray that at the least a diagnostic tool will be found, but I'm really praying for a cure, too.  But rest assured, I don't intend for this blog to become a stage for endless PSAs.  ;-)

Time to wrap this up and head to my sewing room!  I hope that whatever you have planned for today includes a little something that brings you joy ... have a great day!

Kathy

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

Some of This and Some of That

Ok, I have to be honest and confess that I'm feeling a little bummed today.  On my Facebook feed, I got the daily suggestion to share a memory ... and the memory chosen was a post from our visit to Hilton Head May 2012.  That reminded me that we've visited Hilton Head every May for the last 9 years (except the year we went to Disney World with DD and her family).  Obviously we had to cancel our reservation for two weeks in Hilton Head this year because I'm still in treatment.  We would be in "packing mode" right now, with plans to leave this coming Sunday. We cancelled several months ago when it became obvious that my treatment would extend beyond May, but it really didn't hit me until I saw that memory suggestion on Facebook.  The good news is that, God willing, we're still on for our trip in September.

Tuesday was chemo #3. It was, as usual, very uneventful. But God made sure that I realized just how blessed I am. There was a woman in the chair to my left who was going to have to be there most all the day. And there was a frail older woman two cubicles down who looked to be 95. She must have just been diagnosed today as I could hear them explaining everything in great detail to her and her son.  Please pray for all of us who are fighting this horrible beast.  

We finished up with chemo a little after 12:00, so of course DH and I "had" to stop somewhere for lunch ... we drove to the Hill for lunch. Yum!  I couldn't eat all my tortellini, so I had leftovers for dinner.  Double yum!

Wednesday morning was spent in the sewing room where I finished my tumbler flimsie.  It's almost ready for quilting ... I need to square up the sides and choose the backing.  The quilt will finish approximately 36"x36" so a yard of fabric should be enough.  I need to go through my stash to see if I have a yard of something suitable (I usually grab fat quarters if I'm supplementing my stash). I have enough leftover tumblers to make a smaller wall hanging or table topper, so I started piecing that together.  I'm not sure just what I'll do with that ... right now I'm considering gifting it to an old friend.  We'd grown apart but had made a little bit of peace last fall.  But once I was diagnosed, she's been such a faithful friend ... I'd like to let her know how much her encouragement and support has meant to me.  

DH and I went for a nice walk after lunch Wednesday. I continue to pick up a little speed and walk a little further.  It was such a delightful day (even if it was very windy) for a nice walk so we did a walkabout in the yard, checking out our garden and our blooming plants.

Variegated weigelia (which has overgrown its spot ... it's double the size that the planting instructions indicated it would be). 

One of three of our azaleas ... the other two are lagging behind a little

One of our tomato plants ... beefsteak variety ... blooming already!

I spent Wednesday evening with DD and my Ts.  We went to Build-a-Bear to build Star Wars bears to celebrate ... May the 4th be with you!  I wish I'd thought to take pictures of their bears.  Our dinner that evening was Star Wars themed ... including a 7 Leia dip.  DD is so creative.  

I plan to spend my Thursday in the sewing room ... with another nice long walk this afternoon as it's supposed to be even nicer today (although it's still very windy). And of course I'll be watching Game 4 of the conference semi-finals tonight. Let's go Blues!

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

A Rant, An Update, An Oops and Hello May

May already??  Wasn't it just February last week?

Last weekend was Prom Weekend locally, so of course Facebook was inundated with proud parents' prom photos.  I don't know about your area, but it seems that around here the prom dress style that's popular this spring features a bare midriff and a deep slit in the skirt.  :-o   Call me old fashioned, but seriously?  These are high school girls, people!

I started piecing together rows on my tumbler quilt this weekend ... I have 3 rows together.  I really expected to have more done, but oops, I wasn't thinking when I pieced the rows.  I started each row with a neutral tumbler and alternated between the neutral and a print.  It didn't take me long to realize my error ... if I was going to have the rows alternate, I needed to alternate the tumbler placement in my rows.  So as I add another row to the flimsie, I have to unstitch one tumbler and reposition it.  Ugh!  Here's my progress so far.

You can see here that my tumblers don't have the 90-degree corners that an earlier photo seemed to show.  I'll be spending a good chunk of today in the sewing room, so I hope to have even more progress next time. 

My sleep is still out of whack ... but I'm having more good nights of sleep than I had been having, so I guess that's an upside to this dilemma. I still plan to mention my sleep issues with the oncology nurse tomorrow. 

My Blues managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat yesterday. They frittered away a 3-1 lead but managed to score in OT to win.  The victory was even sweeter because I watched it with my Ts. DD and DSIL were given tickets to the baseball game that afternoon, so DH and I "watched" the Ts while their mama and daddy were gone.  We really didn't need to watch them, as T#1 is 14 and quite capable of caring for his siblings ... I think their mama just used their outing as an excuse for me to spend more time with my precious Ts.  ;-)

Our delightful weather is a thing of the past. It's been overcast and chilly (aka cold as far as I'm concerned) for several days with no relief in sight. I'm ready for the warmer temps to return!  If I'm going to get out for a walk today, I'll have to bundle up. Ha!

DH has put in our garden ... since I ought to stay out of dirt during chemo, the garden is his responsibility this year.  He's planted green beans (after the troubles we had with green beans the last two summers, I would have given up on green beans ... but since he's doing the work, he gets to choose), red leaf and green leaf lettuce, and several tomato plants (8 plants for 2 people?).  I'm hoping to persuade him to add a cucumber plant or two. Thankfully even though DH is doing all the work, he'll be sharing the fruits of his labor with me ... and I'm already drooling in anticipation of a BLT.

We've been working on a puzzle that a dear friend sent me ... it's quite the challenge but we're up for the challenge!  After all, there's no deadline for completion. ;-)

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