Green Storage...

Good Monday to all of you quilters out there! First, I want to say a big thank you to my friend Lyn at http://www.bluebirdquilts-lyn.blogspot.com/. She sent me the most wonderful package, all the way from Australia! The tin is full of lovely reproduction fabrics to go in my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt. They are so pretty! Next, some really pretty buttons, so cute. She then MADE a block for the SBS quilt! A hexagon block, that I will applique to my background, so it all matches. It is lovely! And the scraps from the quilt Lyn made for my son, after I had oohhed and Ahhed over it, she sent all the rest she had. Wow! Thank you so much, Lyn!!

My friend Finn at http://www.finnleah.blogspot.com/ intrigued me with her recent post about how quilters store and sort scraps. At the hospital where I work, all kinds of packaging is thrown out from sterile containers. The above bins are some that are just tossed. I scrounge them right out and bring them home, and use to sort out my projects. The largest ones are able to hold a book or pattern, and fabrics, templates, thread, and whatever you need to finish the project. I love this! The bins are quite sturdy and sterile until opened after all, I just think it is such a shame to throw them out. The blue and small white ones are perfect for units cut out for specific quilts. I have scads of these!

My project, the SBS quilt is all contained in one container. Marked on the side, I can slide it onto a shelf and find it quickly and all the "stuff" is right there!!

Slowly, the blocks are multiplying for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. Hopefully I can finish this in my lifetime! Really, if I did a block a day, it would go quite quickly.

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Nursing update!

Remember the hypothermia man? The one who I call "Mr Freeze", who was a cardiac arrest victim who was put into "deep freeze"? He is off the ventilator, and the minute we took out the breathing tube, he asked, "Say, Miss, can I have a diet coke?" A man after my own heart! He is doing very well and getting stronger each day, walking slowly and rehab is pending for him. Yahoo!!! I am so glad for him and his precious wife too.

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Gratitude's:

Fajitas! Yum!

The book 90 minutes, about a person who was clinically dead, then came back to earth...very intriguing book!

Clean sheets each Monday! They feel sooo good!

Have a super day,

Julie

Re-boot

Today....today, I just did not go to work. Sometimes, I think everyone needs a re-start, a short chance to rest so that we can start producing again. I just hurt all over and do not know why...and for the first time in a very long time, I did not go into work at the hospital. I wanted to take today to be just a rest day, a chance to re-boot, restart, kind of like a computer when you open too many applications at once and it goes down for a short time. Ya' know? :) I do wonder why I feel so sore all over and so very, very tired...

Above is the stringee thingee quilt top. Not too sure if I am pleased with it or not at this point. I am going to put a thin strip of black in the first border for emphasis. Maybe rick-rack for something really different. Then again, I don't think that would be good either. Something thin and black in the first border, anyhow. Any ideas??

What do you think? Black or turquise binding? Majority rules!! This was all an experiment, no new fabric purchased, the only true cost was time. So...

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Gratitudes!

My family, always and foremost. DH. DS and DDIL!

My re-boot day.

Finishing this quilt top!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Thursday!!!

JulieK

Special Arrivals

Could there be a lower contrast picture? Sorry, this batting is on my bathroom counter, but it is quite special. Have you tried Bamboo batting before? Darcie, my North Dakota quilter friend extraordinaire, sent me a piece of her bamboo blend batting to try. It is so soft! This will go into a little quilt in the works already. I like the idea of a rapidly renewable resource like bamboo.

Darcie also made the above felted bowls. I promptly put them to use! They are just right for what I need, and the best of all, they are hand felted by Darcie. Pretty, huh? One has already been claimed by a friend who could not live without it.

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On Father's day this year, we went for a walk, went to church, went out to eat, went for a nap...now are up and working. Except I am on the computer, and it is about to break from the massive weight. (just joshing...) Hope you had a wonderful day!!

JulieK

Stringee-thingee again!

Good Saturday Morning! Above is my progress on the latest string quilt. Wow, the turquise is brighter than I thought!

DH and I harvested these tomatoes from our vines lately. And...the next day, my biggest plant was just stripped bare of leaves! The exact thing happened last year? What kind of critter does this sort of crime? :)

This weekend is father's day, and I wish a wonderful day to each father and family out there.

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The patient on the hypothermia protocol I posted about in my last post is getting better! He woke up and winked at his wife, and squeezed her hand on command. All sign of neurological recovery. Just working on getting him off the ventilator for now.

Other nursing stuff: We, at our hospital, are limited on how much overtime we can work, to a total of 100 hours in two weeks, total time. But the hospital calls every single day for me to come to work. Now, I will get written up if I go over 100 hours, no way around it...yet they still keep calling! Mmmmm, there is a communcation mismatch problem here....I always have 99.6 hours at least! I just think if they need me to work, they need to get rid of that rule...they really do need the help.

Gratitudes:

Tomatoes fresh from the garden

Warm weather

My patient is getting better!

JulieK

Stringish things!

Good morning! Please lookee, lookee at what I received in the mail! I was lucky enough to win Marcie Patch's giveaway...please see her blog button on the right side of my blog. She is an incredibly talented quilt designer and maker, and I won two of her patterns! I have been eyeing these patterns for a while now...and was so lucky to win them. Her patterns are very concisely, well written and fun to follow. She also sent a very nice note and a neat box of quilt note cards. Thank you Marcie!!

Remember the string quilt of my last post? I have been hand quilting it...some of the strings were pretty large, so I jut kind of meandered through the widest strings. Fun!

Strings? Threads? Of course, if you see them here, it must be your imagination. :)

Another string pieced quilt I just started...I love this!! Pretty turquoise in the middle. We shall see how it turns out.

Below is my nursing weekend...pretty intense! Skip right over if you want, but if you are interested, it is pretty fascinating.

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I worked the last 3 days, 14 hours days. I was in charge, which means I am in charge of critical care, 25 employees, 20 patients. And was doing staffing for the whole hospital, deciding where to best utilize staff to maintain and care for each pt. And I had my own patients too. Of course, we were short staffed. Whewww!!! and then.....

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The ER called. "You need to take a full cardiac arrest patient and place him on hypothermia protocol."

Egads!! I have been reading about this and knew we would start this, and the huge medical centers have been doing this for some time...but we just received our cooling hypothermia machine and protocol on FRIDAY! and this was Saturday, and of course I had no idea how to do this. But the patient needed it....I would give it my all.

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So up came the 78 year old patient. He was eating breakfast at home, and just did not feel well, called 911, and the paramedics got there just in time to see him do a nose dive...full arrest, code blue. Shock, shock, shock, epinephrine, intubated (breathing tube placed), scoop and run for the hospital. 1 hour later, he was with me.

Sooooo, we placed huge IV's (central and arterial lines), and ran the equivalent of ice water through him. When he was about 92 degrees F, we placed the cooling machine on him, and kept him cool all weekend. This is in theory supposed to stop the cellular damage of the organs, most importantly the brain. So, temperature measured constantly, blood pressure measured constantly, whoops, low BP, started on levophed, vasopression, epinephrine drips. Too acidotic, started bicarb drip. Sugar too high, started insulin drip. Pt now waking up, had to sedate on diprivan drip. Pt shivering, had to paralyze with a nimbex drip. OH, NO!! V-tach!! Shock, Shock!! Amiodorone drip. Whoops, no urine output, start continuous dialysis. Turn, oral care, turn, careful of his flesh, remember he is super cold and circulation is poor. Foot pumps/ted hose on. I can't tell you how labor intensive this was....just incredible!! And remember, none of the nurse's had been trained on this at all. Hurry up, read and figure it out. HURRY!!

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Today, he is warming up slowly. He is waking up. So we shall see if we saved his brain and other organs. I found out later...he is a hugely important person in the country, a bishop of a church. Not that it makes a bit of difference to me! Every person gets the same treatment, you know?

Thanks for listening...you nurses out there can relate for sure!

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Gratitude's:

Technology, to give patients a chance to live who otherwise would have surely succumbed.

Day OFF!

Telephone, so I can check up on this patient.

JulieK

Strings put together

I was delightedly putting these blocks together (really a lot of fun to work with strings), with the connector corners added, and decided that this was the day! I needed to finish them into a top, and I did...this is what I came up with. This will be hand quilted with dark thread, and red thread through the white strips. I am just so close on batting on the right side...will have to put a larger binding, and that is just fine for a cuddle quilt for the couch.

Have a super wonderful day!

Julie

Trying to finish up

Good afternoon everyone!! I have been busy all AM, after 5 shifts at the hospital, this is the first day off. I have done a little housework, and a little sewing! I have a real yearning to finish things up lately. Above is a little quilt, made from the cast off triangle from Judy's bright quilt. I really enjoyed hand-quilting this one.

I went to the quilt shop, and have been trying to figure out which direction to go with my quilting. I had this book, and coincidentally, the quilt shop had a 25% off if you bought the rest of the bolt sale! I got this lovely Moda solid cream, enough to finish the Sylvia's bridal Sampler. I have made two blocks, and they are so cute at this size! 6 inch finished blocks. I am trying my level best to piece them perfectly, we shall see how that goes. The other piece of fabric is a batic, got it for 1/2 price due to a line of roller printing not even. It will work perfectly for a background for my batic fabrics.

This is one of the quilts I got back from Darcie, who quilted it in a lovely star pattern, all over with swirls and wonderful texture...mmmmm! I have the binding on as you see, just waiting for a spare moment and I will get it sewn down.

Another one ready for binding. This one is pretty representational of my fabric stash, a strip from each piece! I loved making this quilt. Bonnie of Quiltville has the pattern. This one just needs the binding stitched down also.

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Nursing News:

I had the loveliest old gentlemen for patients this last few shifts at the hospital. One was from Italy, and taught me "Bon Georno"!! (someone please correct my horrible spelling) and spoke non-stop about Italy and his childhood there. He was just a delight to care for, despite being pretty sick. Another was an 83 year old gentleman, five feet tall in stature, and about seven feet tall in spirit and grit. He had major cardiac bypass surgery, and was up and at 'em the very next day! Just a delight to care for too, always a quick smile and a joke. Sometimes my patients take care of me too!

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Health:

I have lost greater than 10 pounds lately, and this week! grrrrr.... I am really screwing up on my diet. I must, must not be a back-sliding diet sinner! Or it will be back to the hades of fat pants and double chins!!!

Sincerely hope each one of you has a wonderful day!

Gratitude's:

A Day off, with time to sew (and get the laundry done!)

Family, always.

This computer! It has been so fun to get to know you, through this medium!

Julie