post-op . . .

So, it is finished. And without a whole lot of to-do. The doc did a great job -- took him about two hours. A chunk of donor hip-bone, two 4" serrated screws, and two sheets of some special bone-growth promoting material. I am feeling pretty bionic . . . or at least I *will* be, once I'm not feeling so puny!

Look at this side view . . .

It's pretty long -- I think he inserted it at the base of the heel (from the outside) and screwed it in to be pretty flush with the outside bone.

So this is what I came home with. A white cast and oompa-loompa toes. LOL! I keep the cast on until October 10. I'll go back in for a checkup then, he said he'd cut off the cast, check everything out, and put a new one on with a hole cut into it somewhere, so he can attach a gadget that stimulates bone growth/health. I'm not really sure about all that, because he told this to my daughter and hubby, not me.

And, the doc sent me home with some pretty decent pain meds . . .

And Todd stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some pain meds of a different nature . . .

Haha! What good caregivers I have!

Like my candy-corn sock?! Is this not perfect for me?? My darling friends, Carol and Chad, brought those to me yesterday! Love 'em! Joc came over and sat with me and fixed me lunch and ran some errands for me. We piled up in my bed (which is where I'm already piled) and watched movies!

And you know what else?? I got to feel MM2 moving around! Yay!! She was just a kicking and a fluttering! So precious, so very, very precious!

Thank you for your kind thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes! Oh yeah, and if you're looking for the giveaway post, click HERE!

:)

scheduled...and a fall giveaway!

But first, let me share a photo I *did* manage to capture at the Jamboree on Saturday. The Flint River Praise Team came out and sang a good set of some of my favorite praise & worship songs, but they saved the best for last ....

Brother Carl Tate came up and sang "I Sing Because", one of my all-time favorites!

Finally, at 5:15 this evening, my surgeon's office called to tell me what time I need to be there tomorrow. I check in between 9:30 and 10:00. Which means an afternoon surgery. I'm starting to feel a little anxious. Ha! Who am I kidding? I'm starting to feel a LOT anxious! :)

I did decide that Todd and I both deserved a good "send-off" meal . . . so I made our favorite crock pot dish, tenderloin and sauerkraut.

And yes, I used a crock pot liner. I'll never cook in my crock pot without a liner, ever again!! Haha! Let's see, I also have baked sweet potatoes, pork gravy, and for dessert, ice cream sundaes. Good thing I have until 1:00 am to eat. LOL!

And guess what else?!? This is post SIX HUNDRED!! WhooHOO! Of course, since I've had this blog since 2003, it's really about time, don't you think?!

So, in honor of post 600 and the onset of autumn, I'm doing a little happy giveaway . . .

Just some fun things like . . .

Mini cutters in fun fall shapes, candy corn ribbon, candy pumpkins, some fun fall fat quarters, and my personal favorite . . .

Sticky, sparkly press ons! One set in fall leaves and one in (what else) CANDY CORN! (Don't you worry -- I got one of those to keep, too!)

All packaged in a darling little pumpkin basket!

And who knows . . .

There may also be some chocolate in there somewhere . . .

Maybe. ;)

Now, for the win, all you have to do is be a follower and leave a comment telling me that you're a follower. Pretty simple, right? Make sure you leave a comment ... whether you're a new or a faithful follower.

*And* for a second chance, blog about this giveaway on your blog, and come back and leave me a second comment, telling me you've done so and the link back! Again, simple ... two chances, two comments! Oh yes, and if you are a 'no reply' blogger, you MUST leave me an e-mail address to contact you.

I'll leave this giveaway open until 6:00 p.m. (CST) on Monday, October 10th. My birthday. See how fun this is? I'll celebrate *my* birthday and give someone else a *prize*! Definitely fun stuff!

:)

out and about . . .

A last hurrah for me . . . before the surgery, so-to-speak . . . Joc and I went to lunch at Emma's today. She was so sweet -- she even picked up the tab! We got there earlier enough (ummm, in fact, we were the first patrons of the day) to have our choice of all the specials! I got chicken pot pie and chicken & sausage vegetable soup, and Joc got the spinach quiche with a side of the same soup. We purposefully got different entrees so we could share. ♥

We also had a lovely pot of Tuscany Pear Red Rooibus tea. I mean it was GOOD! We split a large pot and drank every last bit of it. And I got a little package of it to go. Because. I. Can.

From Emma's, Joc & I headed to one of my favorite LQS, Patches & Stitches. Joc went in for me and picked up a little something-something to go in my GIVEAWAY which I'll announce tomorrow!

And then, we went to the grocery store. Once we got there, I rode in one of those motorized carts, and Joc pushed the regular cart. She even followed me home and put groceries away! We'd just settled in for a visit when I realized something. I was reading through (again) the information my surgeon's office sent me when I read that I was supposed to make an appointment for pre-op labwork at least TEN to FOURTEEN days before my surgery. It's two days before my surgery. YIKES! I called and they told me to come right in. Whew. After a hundred million questions and a quart of blood, I was good to go. My surgery? I'm having my exaggerater removed. LOL! :)

On my way home, I stopped by for a last pre-surgery visit with Sawyer and his mommy and daddy. Kim had made some apple cake and shared it with me. SO good!! Sawyer was as adorable as ever. He is definitely all boy. What a delight!

And now, I'm off to bed.

599 posts.

:)

best laid plans . . .

It was totally my intention to be able to post number 600 today, along with some sort of a design wall *and* a giveaway, but it's just not going to happen than way.

On Friday, a dear friend, mentor, and really, the man responsible for Todd and I becoming North American Mission Board missionaries, passed away very suddenly. Harold Sellers was the Director of Missions for our Madison Baptist Association. He was a very personable, witty, and godly man. Really, I think he may have been one of the biggest champions of our ministry and our work out here at the camp. When Todd and I were commissioned, I was so touched that he and Ron Lynch, the MBA Church Ministries Director, flew to Tampa for the service and took us to dinner afterwards. He always had a ready smile and kind word, and he constantly looked for ways to serve others. A very genuine, caring servant of the Gospel.

His funeral was today, and there's no doubt that he'll be much missed, just as there's no doubt he's praising in the presence of Jesus, now! As Paul says, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Today was also the day to turn in our quilts for our Fanfare Quilt Show which starts Friday. I got up this morning and remembered I'd never tacked on the hanging sleeve for display. I was stitching on that in the car on the way to the funeral.

Add to it all my mobility has severely decreased due to the lack of ibuprofen or aleve! Tylenol is better than nothing, but it doesn't work on the swelling and pain like the other two can.

Ah well, this is post 598. Two more -- perhaps I'll have the presence of mind to post tomorrow, so I can share my fun giveaway on WEDNESDAY!

:)

slap worn out . . .

And would you believe I don't even have any pictures of the event? I was too busy running this way and that! Whew -- as much fun as this event is, it's a LOT of work putting together and cleaning up after!

I *did* manage to get a picture of my offerings for the door prizes. I realized yesterday I'd pieced the little candle mat together, but hadn't quilted it. YIKES! So I did some simple machine quilting on that, and threw some black binding on it, which I liked. At first I thought I'd want to do brown, but the solid black looked better. There was already so much going on in this little topper, a solid was definitely called for!

This was won by Joc's sister-in-law, Julia. So it stays in the family!

And then there was the candy corn wreath. Funny thing was, it was won by a man. The first question he asked?

"Is it edible?" Sheesh!

And lastly, I offered up my "Leaves and Acorns" table topper. I love this. Giving it up for a door prize will definitely prompt me into making another!

Yeah. This really is a favorite of mine. It was won by a dear woman whom I very much admire and respect and love, so that's nice!

Our weather was simply gorgeous. God couldn't have given us a better day for an outdoor event! The BBQ was delicious, and our two musical groups really were phenomenal. And we had lots of great help.

And this is post #597! :)

So. About that nap . . .

:)

whiling away . . .

So. My life in pictures.

Last night was spent with him . . .

His daddy makes it obvious from whence his silliness comes from!

Such a sweetheart!

Today is spent creating things like this . . .

for this . . .

in preparation for tomorrow's this . . .

After which I'll spend a day and a half doing this . . .


So that I'm prepared Monday to put a sleeve and label on this . . .

And get it turned in for next weekend's quilt show.
Which I won't be able to go to, because I'll have gone in for round two of this . . .

And had I known I would not be allowed to take any ibuprofen,
aspirin, Aleve, etc. for the next six days, I'd have waited another week
before scheduling my surgery!

And . . . only THREE more posts before a giveaway!!

:)

more on eq . . .

So I have to admit, I was a little amazed at all the responses I got on my EQ post. Isn't it funny? I really thought I was the only one who had this software/tool and didn't quite know what to do with it, or how much it could do for me. And a lot of folks wanted more information on the Yahoo! groups. To be honest, if it had not been for Sarah at Sarah did it!, I'd have never known any more myself. And since one of the benefits of quilty/crafty blogland is to learn and share with each other, here's a little more EQ info . . .

I know of -- and belong to -- three EQ Yahoo! groups. There are:

Electric_Quilt

EQ5_EQ6_EQ7_Fanatics

And my favorite, and the one that seems to get the most traffic, EQ7_Users_Only. The description from the group site for EQ7_Users_Only is:

All "EQ7 Users" are welcome to join.

This includes Quilters that have upgrade to EQ7 from earlier versions of the EQ Program and Quilters that have purchased the EQ7 Program for the first time.

Sorry, we will not be discussing earlier versions of the Electric Quilt Program on this list nor will we be discussing how to use the Quilt Design Wizard Program.

This last group is the group that has the lessons challenge. Basically, you complete two of the EQ provided tutorial lessons a week, and upload an exported image from each completed lesson onto the group's photo board. The moderator looks at the photos and offers hints/tips if necessary. We don't do the lessons in the same order that EQ has them in their help section, and I learned that the hard way. *But* the way that the moderator has reorganized the lessons makes SO MUCH MORE sense. EQ has you starting with quilts -- the group had us start with blocks. Which, when you think about the construction of a quilt, starting with blocks makes sense.

Like I said, the lessons are just the ones EQ provides. If you go to the "Help" tab, and look about halfway down the menu that comes up, you'll see the EQ Lessons (PDFs). (Clicking on the pictures will make them easier to see detail.)

Clicking on that line will bring up another window which contains the table of contents of the EQ Lessons, which give you just enough information to know what it's about. Like I said earlier, the group challenge had us start under EasyDraw Blocks, which made the most sense to me.

Once you've clicked on a particular lesson, another window pops up, with the lesson itself.

I like very much that they set out the goals of the lesson, right from the get-go.

The other thing I really liked about the lesson setup is the diagrams that accompany the instructions.

They were very clear and to me, made the difference in the quality of the lessons. If I was unsure or just completely didn't get what the instructions were saying, I knew I could look at the corresponding diagram and figure it out. *And* they do tag the illustrations with the step number they belong to. Good stuff!

You don't really need to join a Yahoo! group to take these lessons, but I reiterate that I *personally* needed the structure of a schedule, the accountability of a deadline, and the threat of being dropped from the challenge (not the group -- just the challenge) if I missed a deadline. Haha! Yeah, I know that about myself and it's okay.

In the process (I've finished the first eight lessons) I've learned a LOT! And the lessons build on each other, so you're not apt to forget the things you've learned in lesson one, by the time you get to lesson ten. Which is really good for me, if you get what I'm saying.

The EQ blog, Do You EQ?, also has great helps, a Block of the Month, BOM challenges, **freebies** and giveaways from time-t0-time. In fact, I believe there's one going on right now.

And of course, their website, ElectricQuilt.com is a terrific resource as well.

Look at the menu across the top -- videos, stuff specifically for newcomers to EQ, and then my favorite tab, the FUN STUFF!

There's more lessons, clubs, the blog link, and lots of free downloads! My particular favorite is the Fabric of the Month. Yes. Free fabrics -- from the popular designers -- each month! It's great stuff and very easy to use and pull into your EQ fabric library.

So. There you have it. If you have questions, ask away! I'll answer what I can and refer what I can't! This post puts me that much closer to 600 -- only five away to a GIVEAWAY announcement! Hurrah!

In the meantime, here's a little treat that Kim texted to me last week . . .

Isn't he a darling?!

:)

button, button, who's got the button . . .

I guess that would be ME! Not just *a* button, but TONS and TONS of them!

Well, a lot, anyway.

A couple of months ago, a quilty friend of mine was having yard sale -- and in that yard sale she had lots of quilting/sewing related stuff: fabric, threads, books, gadgets, etc. She wanted some help getting the word out to our other quilty/guild friends, and I offered to post to our list and share at the guild meeting. I also went by and did my personal best to alleviate her from some of her quilty stuff. I'm just nice that way.

She had a huge thing of buttons that she had collected from an assortment of places . . . her mom, her husband's mom, and her grandma. Lots and lots of buttons. I went through and picked out some the day of the yard sale and was really tickled with my find. I have a thing for buttons, and really have enjoyed saving/collecting them. After adding what I'd gotten from the yard sale to my button jar, it was pretty full . . .

But then I started seeing all these fun crafts. Really fun crafts ... like this button purse, and these button wreathes, and this button monogram, and these darling little button flower pins, and more button letter art and even a pillow monogrammed with buttons.

And do you know what I realized? That my button jar wasn't enough.

So I called my yard sale friend and asked if she had any buttons left, and if so, how much would she charge me for the whole kit and kaboodle. And you know what she said? She said the very kindest thing. She said, "How about I just give them to a friend who was very helpful in getting the word out about my yard sale to people who would be interested."

And last night, she brought them to me at our guild board meeting . . .

Scores of buttons!!!

Blue buttons . . .

Orange and yellow buttons . . .

Such pretty green buttons . . .

Do you see the prices on some of those buttons?! I was amazed!

Big, ginormous buttons . . .

And little itty, bitty buttons . . .

Fun, flower-power buttons . . .

And a whole baggie full of tiny children's buttons . . .

I am in button heaven. And . . . I need a couple more Mason jars, too.

Ah, and before I forget . . . this is my 594th post. Which means post 600 is impending. SIX HUNDRED POSTS!!! I see a giveaway in the VERY near future. Stay ... posted!

:)

designing in eq7 . . .

Hey, at least I've been designing something, somewhere! Todd and I have been waaaay down in Alabama -- almost as far south as you can go -- in Fairhope. We attended a conference on Thursday and Friday, and stayed through today to get a couple of vacation days in. And while there was no on-the-road sewing/quilting taking place, our trip was quite lovely and I'll share more on that later this week. Hopefully. This coming Saturday is the jamboree up at the Camp, so we'll be pretty busy!

In the meantime, I did find some time to play around in EQ while I was gone. It's a good thing I took my laptop! I started a lessons challenge in the EQ7 Yahoo! group I'm in. We just wrapped up the second week. I had uploaded the first week's lessons just in the nick of time, and then went ahead and uploaded the second week's lessons very early, knowing we'd be out of town when they came due. On our way down to Fairhope on Wednesday, I read an e-mail that led me to understand I'd done the WRONG lessons!! And I only had until Sunday night to get back on track!

I did -- and I have to admit, I'm having a lot of fun playing around in EQ and learning to ropes, so to speak. The lesson challenge just involves completing the tutorials provided in EQ, but I need to accountability and the threat of a deadline to keep me honest! LOL!

So today, on my design wall, is a smattering of some of the exports I've done from my EQ lessons . . .

PatchDraw Block -- using a circle grid. I also figured out how to upload free fabric libraries, hence the fun Halloween fabrics!

EasyDraw block -- just your basic 9 patch-in-a-9 patch.

Yeah, it's looks like something for a baby girl, huh?!?

Found Civil War reproduction fabric. Couldn't resist!

Just playing around. Like I said, it's been very fun! Worth the time and effort.

If you haven't already, you should head on over to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times and see what is happening on Design Wall Monday!

I'm off to do laundry, grocery planning and shopping, and general unpacking and tidying.

:)

here and there . . .

I'm slow to post lately. I'm so busy, busy, busy -- what with grandbabies and ministry and the upcoming Fall Jamboree at the camp (and a long weekend at a PLACE conference), I am barely getting in stitching time, much less blogging time! (Just ask one of my favorite blog-keepers how far back I had to go to catch up on reading! LOL!)

ANYway, I *did* manage to squeeze in some sewing time. Do you remember that fabric Jocelyn gave me to make into a runner for her "reveal" party? (I'd insert a link to the post, but it was only two posts ago, so I feel a little silly doing that!) I loved that fabric. It really tugged at me. On the way over to her party last week, I took a picture of that fabric and posted it to Pinterest (my new addiction), with the caption that there would be a skirt in this fabric, this time next week. That was last Thursday. I finished it two days ahead of schedule . . .

Tah dah!! And the fabric was so feminine and flirty, I decided it deserved a little extra flounce, so I gave it a built in slip with a little something-something at the hem . . .

So it *swishes* when I walk!! The funny thing is, when I told Jocelyn I wanted a skirt out of it and asked her where she got it, she told me she had bought the end of the bolt. I almost cried. But she gave me what was left from piece I'd made the table runner, and I made it work. I was determined! Can you guess what I'll be wearing on Sunday??!

I should go back, now, and make a pattern from it, so the next time there won't be so much guess work. It went together pretty quickly, but it would have been so much easier if I'd been working with pieces cut from a pattern! (Yet another thing to add to my to-do list!)

Perusing Pinterest last night, I saw a really cute felt rose, and decided one of those in goldenrod yellow would be perfect, pinned to the shoulder of the black sweater I'll be wearing with my new skirt.

It took ten minutes. Ha!! And I think it's really cute.

I *always* have time for this little fellow . . .

Kim worked the kid's consignment this week, so I volunteered to watch Sawyer. I can't get over how grown up he's getting!! He's so darling and busy, and he runs everywhere! Luckily he's also very obedient; if he wasn't, I'd never be able to catch up with him! He hung in with me that morning, too. I had errands that took me all over creation. He didn't complain a lick, and he was so sweet to everyone, everywhere we went. He did take a four-hour long nap that afternoon, though! I don't blame him -- I would have liked to have done the same!

He also spent the night with me this past Friday. We got up Saturday morning pretty early and rode the golf cart down to unlock the gate (we had campers in the camp all weekend -- and will pretty much every weekend into December). On our way down the hill, we came upon four or five deer that were still bedded down. We sat there for quite a while just watching them. Sawyer "mooed" and all I could say was that those were deer, not cows. But I couldn't give him a sound that went with them! Perhaps next time, I'll make that blowing sound they make. When we finally started back up, all of the deer got up -- and most of them ran, too, which made Sawyer's eyes go wide! The lead doe--who was maybe 30 yards away at most--just stood and watched us move on. I don't think Sawyer took his eyes off of her, he was so fascinated.

And he's such a happy charmer. I've said it before and I know I'll say it again -- he just melts my heart and makes me smile. He's a joy!

:)