Turning Twenty!!!!!

 You will just never, ever believe what happened to me this past week at work!!  I had a darling patient at work at the hospital...just a sweetheart.  I met her daughter, and she looked familiar to me.  So I asked if she or her mom were quilters...and she politely asked, "Have you heard of Turning Twenty Quilting?"  WELL OF COURSE I HAD!!!  I was speaking to Tricia Cribbs!!  My heart just flip-flopped...I was speaking to QUILTING ROYALTY!!!  To make a long story longer, Tricia is just the soul of kindness and gentleness and goodness...she was so sweet to answer all my silly questions about her life and career, and guess what?? Tricia gave us one of her NEWEST BOOKS to give away on the blog!!  Now how nice is that??  So just leave a comment about anything, really...how about a fun Christmas experience...those comments will be extra fun to read!  And you will be entered in the drawing.  Please go see Tricia's website HERE.  You will just go crazy like I did...she is truly a talented quilter, designer and person.   Please see her blog HERE!!  I just have never had such a wonderful time at work...I could hardly keep my eye on the ball and get my duties done at work!

 Well, I am back at hand quilting this quilt.  I do love it so much, with all it's imperfections. I don't know how to photograph quilting lines... I outline quilted all the blocks, and the outside border...and then I bound it.  I know, I know, I am not supposed to bind until the very end...but it was ravelling and I pinned carefully and thoroughly...and it turned out just fine.  I am doing double line quilting in all the blocks.  It is super fun, although quite slow.  I have a blister right now from quilting, so have to wait for that to heal up so I can quilt some more.

 All the swap blocks are pieced!!  I just love all these pretty nine patches you sent...and these are the blocks I designed with them.  Now what to do to set them all together...?  100 nine patches means 25 blocks...so one will be a pillow, I am sure.

The wheels are turning!!!!  Stay tuned...I am thinking of a unique way to sash them, or set them together.  It is strange that all these little nine patches came from different quilters...they all go together just perfectly!!




And the BIG THING!!  I have been piecing...and piecing...and piecing....on my postage stamp quilt.  Seriously, hours of piecing.  And the rest of the hours have been spent on cleaning and getting ready for Christmas.  Tricia had an amazing postage stamp quilt with her at the hospital...and it just really inspired me to get after mine and GETERDUN!!!!




Have a great day, everyone!!!

Julie

Crumby quilts are fun!

 Would you believe it?  I still have some crumbs left in the old pretzel tin!!  I made these blocks, all straight edged pieces.  ( I have a bag of curvey pieces...for another crumb quilt...someday)  These blocks are kind of like the old mile a minute blocks, I think.  I sewed the sashing and corner stones all together between last night and this morning.  I love it!!  In person, it has much more electricity than in the pictures.

 A close up...the blocks are 6x8 inch finished, made of two halves 4x6 inch, of crumb pieces trimmed to size.  Then I bordered each block, then made the sashing.  I made two other corner stones and sashing sets before I settled on this setting!!  So those will go into other quilts.  Nothing wasted...

And the whole thing.  I will finish it up with a bright scrappy binding, which is already made.   Wheewwwww!!  Now maybe I can think about the Bonnie Hunter Quiltville Mystery quilt!!!  I am so up in the air about what fabrics, etc to use on that mystery...still thinking!!




Thank you for your kindness and wise words and prayers for me on my last post.  Each of you mean the world to me...thank you for sharing your hearts.



Julie

Creative Chaos!

 I BOUGHT a quilt!!  This is from Jo's Country Junction.  Jo was DE-stashing, and I was lucky enough to purchase this quilt from her.  Jo is moving to her dream house that she and her husband have been working hard on all year.  All I know about the quilt is that is it from Iowa. It is hand cross stitched, and hand quilted. The binding is one inch wide.  It is incredible!!  Please see Jo's blog HERE.

 It is a large quilt too.  Can't you see this in applique???  It is soft and just a very pretty quilt.  Can you quilt experts tell me how old it is?  Is it a kit quilt??

 I have been playing in the smallest scraps.  These are crumbs, and the smallest pieces of fabric I have.  I keep them all in an old pretzel tin, and love to sort through them and use them all up.

 After several different designs, I am sticking with this.  The cornerstones were made a long time ago, for another project, but they did not get used. I just love scraps!!  Do you throw them away, or do you hoard them and love them and use them???  NO right answer here, I just think I may be a little bit nutty for them, LOL!!  Are you too??  Hee!

And plaids!!  My friend Chantal sent these to me...They are soft and just yummy pieces of shirts...I am crazy for these too!  Many thanks,  dear friend!!  See her blog HERE.  Chantal makes amazing quilts...beautiful quilts...treat yourself to a visit to her blog.




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Hey, maybe one of you smart ladies or gents know the answer to this.  I get a comment, and it used to always to my hot mail, and I would answer.  Now the comments don't go there consistently.  What is happening?  Anyone know??

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

I have been floated or cancelled almost every shift I was scheduled for the last few weeks.  I had the opportunity to float to the ICU, where I took care of two multiple sclerosis patients.  Now these neuro muscular disease patients always have a special place in my heart, due to my mother's illness with ALS.  So I was blessed!  Turns out one of these patients is my neighbor...and the other, quite ill and ventilator dependent. I just really loved caring for them...and the best thing?  It was busy!!  BUSY, busy...I loved that, and they want me to come work there full time!  So...I have some soul searching to do...do I go work with the sickest of the sick...or remain in my current job with open heart recovery...which is so slow I can't get any hours!!!? I have been at this cardiac nursing thing for 18 years, in this hospital, and before that six years in another hospital.  Pondering here...thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers about this situation...


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Have a wonderful day all!!

Julie

Design wall!! (floor, as usual)

 Good morning!!  I participated in a nine patch block swap with Barb...please see see her blog HERE.  She did such an amazing job with it all!!  Each nine patch was kind of a treasure, a little work of art to me, carefully pressed and sewn by many hands. Yes, I know I am waxing a bit poetic, but that is the way I felt about it, so I wanted to somehow showcase each nine patch.  So I bordered each one, setting it on point.

 Then I thought and thought about how to set them together.  I use almost exclusively scraps in my quilting, as many of you know.  What could I do??

 I then went to the 1.5 inch strip bin and got out some pretty strips of fabric, and started kind of matching the blocks to the strips.  Not really matching...just whatever at that moment in time I thought looked fun together.  So here is where I am!!

I laugh and laugh when I think of other quilter's gorgeous, organized and beautiful design walls...and the laughter comes when I think of myself, down on the floor with the poodle dog, moving quilt pieces and parts around and wiggling around to the music playing!!! I guess I will never be as amazingly organized or put together as most folks, but I sure have fun!!

 I recently received the most beautiful patterns from Marcie Patch....please see her blog and business HERE!!  Marcie has been a huge inspiration to me for many years, and I count her as a wonderful friend too.  Thank you so much, Marcie!!

Last but not least for sure, I have some piece and parts from a famous quilt!!  At least famous to me...it is TAZZIE's Omigosh quilt!!    Please click on the link to see her amazing quilt.  It is a huge award winner, and she sent me some of her little strips and nine patches that she used in her quilt, and some pretty fabric too.  I am still cutting out pieces for mine...stay tuned!!!


Thank you, Tazz!!


Happy Monday to all,


Julie

Cutting, cutting, cutting!

 You know those bonus triangles?  The kind you get when you sew connector corners, and keep the triangles?  Well...I may have a zillion!  Billion...well, maybe only a million.  I would not want to exaggerate here.  I decided that since I am in a cutting mood, I would trim them all up to a usable size and make SOMETHING!!

 So I did....

I know that this does not look like many, but trust me!  That is at least a million!  Or two hours of trimming.  But I can use them now!  And have a reasonable chance of them meeting at the points...at least a little closer than if I did not make them a uniform size.


I have more...big and little...just considering what to do with all of them!  What do you do with yours???



Have a wonderful day, every single one of you!!  And to our Veterans, happy Veteran's Day!  I appreciate every sacrifice you have made for my freedom and privileges. My Dad is among you. THANK YOU!!




Julie

Design Wall (floor) Monday!

 Good morning!!  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Mine was restful and renewing...just what I needed.  I added the borders to this crazy, wild quilt, to the top and bottom.

 I am finding it just a bit homely and ugly...and am also finding that I like it too!! The tiniest pieces of fabric found their way into this quilt.

 I am caught up with the Temecula Letters!  Honestly, these take longer to cut out than they do to sew.  Quick, quick!!  You can catch up right here, on the Temecula Quilt Shop Blog.

 I have been cutting out lots, and lots, and lots of quilts.  I tend to go through phases of doing that...I sure hope I get them all sewn into something, otherwise, my progeny will wonder what in the world I was up to!!  I am playing with my beloved plaids, above.

Cutting lots of stars out!!  I am loving touching all these homespuns.  Some are rough in texture, while some are smooth and have a flannel-like side.  I love the colors, and can just imagine these plaids on a kilted Scottish warrior of old.  Maybe not the pink plaid...but maybe so!!  My clan plaid was green and brown, I found with a little bit of research.



Thank you so much for letting me blog a little about being a nurse.  It helps to share my experiences with all of you.  Please just skip the nurse's notes if they are not your cup of tea.  I just love being a nurse, so intimately entwined with people's highs and lows in their lives.

Congratulations to Donna K from North Texas!!  Number two was drawn, and you were the number two commenter for the Sandra Dallas book.  Please let me know your snail mail and I will get it to you!!



Have a wonderful day!!!

Julie

A little progress

Good morning!  Blogger is all messed up...at least on this end of the computer!  I have not been able to post a thing.  The pictures are a bit distorted, but above is a little mug rug I finished up and put in the gift pile.

I cut one zillion 1.5 inch squares for the postage stamp quilt. I know because I counted them...NOT!!!  But there are a lot...

And I am joining the party, a bit late, making letters, following the Timecula Quilt shop instructions on their blog.  They are fun and fast!  I will replace the "M", because I don't particularly like the fabric choice I made.  Maybe the "O" too....and I am working backwards, because I am working backwards through the blog posts.

I am working on Christmas gifts too...and will show them when I am all done.

***********************Nurse's Notes********************

WARNING!!!  sad case here!!!

I had a patient....doesn't it always start like this??  I obtained written permission to tell her story...so I am not violating her privacy.

She was a nurse.  And a type one diabetic.  A very large lady, and she had bypass in the 1980's and many stents in the 90's.  She came in with chest pain, and there was just nothing the cardiologists and surgeons could do. Every vessel in her heart was clogged up. Then...she went into congestive heart failure, due to her very weak heart.  Then...her kidneys failed, and she was placed on continuous dialysis, not regular dialysis,  due to very low blood pressure.  Then...her liver enzymes shot up...then...her intestines became ischemic (low blood flow situation), and failed.  All the time, the family kept on saying "do everything you possibly can!".. The patient said..."Hospice for me".  So it was a continual struggle for the family and the patient.  But yesterday, when I had a day off, the hospital called me.  She had passed on quietly that morning.  So it was sad, and yet it was a relief for her, I think...and I also think that Heaven received another angel that day.  I had her every day when I was at work...the room will seem empty, where she was....

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Back to the quilting stuff....

Have a great day everyone, and hug your loved ones close!!

Julie