Circle of friends request!!!! And lots of quilts

Good morning!  I found this piece of blue for the first outdoor border on my leader and ender quilt.  Hurrah!  Now to find something for an outside border and call it good!

I took this quilt out of the quilt closet and it really intrigues me.  Very folk art!!!  I think it must be hand quilted.  It is in the line-up for that!!

Wish I had these flowers growing in real life, in my garden!

Sending this one off to the quilter, so that will be fun to get it done.

My friend Mary in Idaho sent a whole bunch of pretty patient pillows!!  These need stuffing and sewing up, but they are so pretty, and so nice to support a nodding head in a chair, or an injured limb, or an IV site, or to brace a surgical incision.  Thank you so much, Mary, of behalf of our patients!!!

I will finish these today.  They are then sent through the "robot" at the hospital that sterilizes before giving them to the patients.  

Nancy in Wyoming sent me socks!!!  WOW!!!  I have very small feet, and it is tough to find socks, except in the kid's section.  Nancy made these for me...and I adore them. Thank you so much!!  I am working on my knitting, so I can knit socks someday.  

I am working on this project!!  Annie, my darling friend near Seattle, sent me some half square triangles.  I immediately was inspired and started working on this quilt, but ran out of the green...working with scraps presents challenges, right?  Annie sent me the rest of her fabric!!  WOW!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

So, Janet in Utah saw this, and she had a green fat quarter...just what I needed of the SAME FABRIC!  What are the odds!  And she sent it to me.  And I AM THE MOST SPOILED WOMAN IN AMERICA, NO DOUBT!

THANK YOU!!

Speaking of CIRCLE OF FRIENDS!

I received an urgent request, from a great friend, and famous quilter.

Please be on the lookout for a fat quarter package of Moda "Indian Summer" by Edyta Sitar.  

She really, really needs it.  Thank you so much!!  Can you check your stashes??

 

Julie

Leader and enders coming to a close.

Hurrah!!  My 2021 leader and ender quilt is in one piece!!  Lots of 2.5-inch scraps in this quilt.  It is very busy!!! I chose the blue sashing to try and calm it down a little bit.  

I plan on a blue border, just a small one.  I am delighted to get to this point!  Old time scrappy quilts are my favorite.

 You cannot see him well, but on the crook of this tree is a squirrel taking a nap.  He as just darling.  and in big news!  We got a sprinkle of rain yesterday!  Amazing!!!

Julie

Just a little bit progress while being on call for the hospital

The Churn dash quilt is back from being long arm quilted!  

The binding is attached, but not sewn to the back yet.  I love it, and the whole quilt is much brighter than the pictures.  Thank you, Chook!

 I made a few more of these blocks, and have a bunch more cut out.  Hurrah!!

Hope you are having a good day...I have to go to the hospital now, to take a heart from open heart surgery. Bypass x 5!

Julie

Starting a quilt from a gift!

The gift was the half square triangles.  They were so perfectly made, I just HAD to make something from them, stat!  These are the blocks I made from them, so far.  I do not have any more of the green, so I will go shop for a similar green today, so I can continue.  That is the breaks when working with small pieces!!  The half square triangles are sort of purplish, so this may need purple sashings?  hmmmm......that is the fun of things, to figure out what is next! Thank you so much for these! 

 These are the last four leader/ender blocks for my quilt, from last year's challenge.  My 2.5-inch bin did not go down one bit...

It is so hot here, that I am mostly inside these days, except for my morning walks and also to mow the ever crisping lawn.  How are you faring, wherever you are???

Julie

A baking day: (I must have been temporarily crazy to bake in this heat!)

I had a wild idea that I needed to bake cookies for work and a loaf of bread for us, today.  Whew!  It was great fun, actually!!  The "kids" at work love cookies, so I wrap them individually so they can slip them into a scrub pocket and have them anytime they get a break.

I baked an herb chicken, and cut up a watermelon and made coleslaw, so I have food made ahead for a bit.

I made a test block of this one, above...and then??

 I cut out a whole bunch more, 35 blocks in all.  I used only pieces from the 2.5-inch-wide strip bin.  It still looks as full as ever...I think I fluffed it up.

Julie

Miscellaneous...

Well, goodness sakes.  I thought I did not have any dark blues, so I went on Amazon, and found a super-duper good deal, and these arrived, which are mostly NOT dark blue.  

And then?  I found my cache of dark blues!!!  Crazy girlie!!!  I will use these blues for another quilt!!!

The little glass bottle that this plant resides in is a medication piggyback from work. We throw these away by the hundreds every day.  I asked my boss if I could have a few from the trash, and he did not care, so I washed them out and then I root these and other plants in them.  Just trying to help use things again, as we throw away so, so much in this society.  All the food that comes up on trays, even if it is never touched pre-packaged food, and never goes into a patient room, is thrown away.  So much waste!!  I understand why, but it pains me, nevertheless.

My darling friend in Australia is going on a big trip in her caravan!!!  I think a caravan is a camper (as we say in America).  I just love hearing about her adventures, and where she is going, and I am following her updates on my map, and then I look up and learn about the places she is going to.  I love it! Thanks, Lyn!!

Ahhhh, the Appalachian trail!!  A mecca for hikers and nature lovers, this trail has always appealed to me, and it is some 2000 miles long, beginning to end.  I just ordered and received this book.  It is the story of a lady, an OLDER lady, who hiked it beginning to end!  I cannot wait to read it!!!

 

Julie

Slow stitching Wagon Wheels, and other scrappy goodies

I am so pleased to get the borders sewn onto this quilt!  Yahoo for an oldie but a goody.  

These are just bordered pinwheel blocks, with a circle appliqued on top.  I think of my forebearers, coming west in a covered wagon, thus the name "Wagon Wheels".  Hurrah for a finished quilt top!

A friend used her embroidery machine and made these towels...sorry the lighting was awful.  They are pure white towels. 

Love this one too!

A lady volunteer from the gift shop gave me a sprig of a plant in a pot.  She said it was an angel wing begonia.  I put it in the back of the house, by the sunniest window, and have been nursing it along.  See the leaves, that form angel's wings?  Thus, the name...I did not know this and am so happy to have it flourish!  I love the pink blossoms that are appearing! 

One tomato plant is thriving in the heat, not sure how, but it is putting on tiny little baby tomatoes.  I continue to water them, but in 108-degree heat here in Texas....they are suffering.  Poor babies!  I just thought of something...I will bring the ones in pots into the back room with the begonia.

I make sure any outside animals, like raccoons, possums, and cats that wander by all have water to drink.  TOO HOT!  

My zinnias continue to bloom, however, if I water them morning and night.  I love their simple, colorful blooms.  Practically foolproof flowers!  See my toasty lawn? this is with watering every day!

My favorite pink! 

A large white bloom...lovely!

Hope you all have a lovely day!

*********************Nurse's notes*****************

A lady came in with a heart attack, sick as a dog, coughing, wheezing, could not keep her saturation up until she was on high flow oxygen. Fever, severe headache., very high inflammatory makers.  Sure enough, a covid induced heart attack...inflammation is a key in this infectious disease.  She had two positive tests yet was adamant that she did not have covid and that we were making it all up.  

Sigh...OK.  Until then...she is in isolation. I tried very hard to teach her about why she was getting anti-viral meds, and all about what had happened...she was having none of it, and I was stupid, and the hospital was too, and the doctors knew nothing.  

Ok, dear...I will continue to care for you, anyway!!!!!!!!!  I hope she feels better and can grasp more later on.

**********************************************

 Julie

Buckling down to it!

I have worked really hard on this today!  In-between cleaning house, I sewed and sewed and sewed on this!  Yahoo! One piece is always better than many!

 Closer.  I like the little nine patches!

Have a great day, each of you!

Churn dash update...I guess it is every Monday!

Good morning!  I sewed three more churn dash blocks!!  Hurrah!!  Only a few more to go!

I am trying to eat more veggies each day.  On work days, it is harder, but this is my selection for today.  I just washed them, cut them up, and baked them with a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Lots better than junk food!

I have a zillion of these blocks cut out.  Truly a whole bunch.  Would anyone like to adopt this UFO?  I will send them all to whomever wants them first!

 I have lots of these blocks, all cut out.  Would anyone like these!?  I have the blues cut out, and you would need to add whatever neutrals you would like.  

Just let me know if you would like to adopt these projects.

Have a lovely day!

Julie

OH lookee! A new squirrel just ran by!!

Hello!!!  Is everyone staying cool out there?  Or warm...depending on where you are.  It cooled to 86 degrees with a brief rain shower this afternoon and we all rejoiced!!!

My quilt guild had a recent sew along, using these blocks.  They ae so simple...and would be a great quilt of valor, put with more blocks...so off to the races!  SEE HOW THOSE SQUIRRELS GO?  Hahaha!

I made this little purse, using a block that was gifted to me.  I added the top strips and a zipper and interfacing.  

Tada!  A little wristlet!!  Lori, you will recognize the block.

ON the free table at guild:  One wool yarn ball.  I am still trying to knit in the evenings. 

A selection of pinks!

A very odd brown, which I loved immediately.  I left tons of things for people to pick up, too...so I guess I left more than I took.  Win/win!  Anything left gets tossed in the garbage, so....

 I found this pattern online.  I adore it!!  Scraps rule!

I hope each of you is doing fine!

Julie

Churn dash update for Chooky!

Happy Monday!

I sewed five churn dash blocks this morning.  Yahoo! 

This is my total so far.  I am progressing right along.  Thank you, Chooky, for a fun quilt along!

https://chookyblue.blogspot.com/2022/05/churn-dash-sal.html

It is never tooooo  late to make some churn dash blocks and join the fun, you know!

This is where I am getting my nine patches from.  There are a LARGE number of nine patches in this box.  The boxes are thrown out by the dozens each day, from the hospital, as saline flushes from IV's come in these boxes.  I have a dozen of them that I use to organize my projects, and use them over and over.  Recycling!  Reusing!  

I just loved to piece, and pieced a ton of nine patches! Some of these were from a swap, as well.  

 A lady from the quilt guild handed me a bag, with all of these small scrappy quilt tops in it!  I cannot get them quilted all at once, but going along, I will get them quilted and in the hands of people who can enjoy them.  Thank you, Miriam!

########################Nurse's notes##########################

I was the charge nurse yesterday, at my work.  But...our lone nursing assistant called in sick.  Honestly, I think it was because she knew she would be by herself and worked to death!  So what to do?  I called everyone I knew (PCT's) to come help...no one could.  So, I became the nursing assistant, as well as the charge nurse.   I had a blast!!!  Vitals signs every four hours on 18 patients, passed trays and picked them up three times, up and down to bathroom and up in the hallways helping patient to ambulate, changing linens, doing baths.  I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A closer connection to these precious patients, striving to get well and get home.    NO thinking involved...just work.  NO trying to titrate drips, adjust ventilators, balloon pumps, impella machines.  Just work.  

Work does a body (and brain) good!!

###############################################################

Old sayings...Mrs Goodneedle had a wonderful post about old time sayings.  One I remember from momma was, 

"Don't you go borrowing trouble!"  

So tell us all a saying that you remember from days gone by!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I loved reading the ones here:

https://strawberrypatchquiltworks.blogspot.com/2022/07/old-sayings.html

Julie