Let's face it, quilting is a sedentary activity. Our beautiful stitches and piecing are not created while running through the poppy fields on our way to Oz. Yes, at times we are more on our bottoms than our congress should be. I just wish it was up to quilters to decide major tax or health care issues. Hmmm-a sewing machine for every family...smile. I digress. Quilters need to be more on the move. While I've been at the hospital and busy making my Grandmother's Flower Garden/Tillies Mosaic hand sewn quilt, I've not let the time go to waist. We must stay busy and keep the little grey cells moving. Besides the little grey cells in our brains, we must move our feet for exercise. Being downtown, 
I'm closer to the 
Louisville Zoo than when I'm in Crestwood, our home. The Zoo 
has a great program, called Zoo Walkers, in which you can walk a little over a mile, in the mornings from 8:00 am to 10:00am. I've been doing this and it's a wonderful time to check out all the animals. If you go be sure to visit the new tiger exhibit. 
Also in the morning the animals seem to be more active, at least some do. 
One of the favorite's is the baby elephant. It was born last year, and I doubt many events raised 
more attention for the Zoo than the blessed event. 
If you have little ones, there is a new waterpark. My other favorite is the meerkats. They have been given a box 
to play in. Just like we humans, don't waist your money on those fancy toys, sometimes our kids get more fun out of playing in a box. The Zoo Walkers is just what it says. You have a well marked path and healthy tips all along the way for you to break up the walk. One mile doesn't sound like much, but it's mostly uphill, but only if you start 
at the correct starting place. As I'm walking I am aware I'm the only one walking in this direction. Those other savvy walkers have figured it out, walking downhill is easier, so you start at the end and walk to the beginning if you want an easier walk. Ah well, maybe they are walking around twice, to my once, but, I kinda doubt it.
Join the Zoo! Besides the Louisville Zoo, you can use your membership to zoos and aquariums around the country.
Well, once again, Jennifer 
and I will spend 5 nights at Kosair Childrens Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. My 23 year old has a classic children's disease, Ewing's Sarcoma in the jaw. So, I'll be spending my time on my little chair/chaise lounge and working on my hand sewing project, the Grandmother's Flower Garden. We are on chemo treatment number eight in our protocol. There are 14 total and 31 radiation treatments. It will be interesting to see how we are going to get to the Brown Cancer Center, where they do the radiation.
It's strange how I seem to think of it as "we". But, believe me it does affect the whole family, whether we like it or not.
So, needless to say I'll be out of the blog world for a while. There are computers at the hospital, but, they seem to always be busy with kids on them, which is fine with me. It amazes me how tough these little cancer patients are. They can't be wimps an go through the,what I'm sure must seem like torture at times, the treatments the must endure to get better. The androgynous toddlers-they are all bald-that wield their way through the halls in their walker or in red wagons. Happily pulled along by concerned parents and grandparents.
Besides making my Grandmother's flower garden/Tillie's Mosaic quilt, which is the best hand sewing project I can recommend for waiting on Doctors, and at bedsides in hospitals, I've been enjoying other sensory perceptions.
The new Indiana Jones movie was like being on a ride at an amusement park. I never really engaged with the movie-action or script. But, you got to see it, because it's picks up somewhat from the original movie and I guess it's okay. If nothing else, they brought back Karen Allen who, a while back was a really great actress that seemed to drop off the planet for a while, but, now we can see her again. She's knitting, I understand, so she must be a great person, maybe could have been a little better if she's a quilter, but, knitting is good...smile.
A better afternoon spent is watching a French film with subtitles, the Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It's about the editor of Elle Magazine who has a stroke at the age of 42 and how he writes a book just by blinking it out to a nurse. The French really are cutting edge movie makers and some of the scenes in this movie are impossible-I won't give away anything. This is an interesting movie and the soundtrack is awesome-I recommend buying that, the variety is wonderful, U2 to Tom Waits, luscious.
The book I was given as some fluff reading is Stealing Shadows by Kay Hooper. It's a nice page turner with detective/psychic/serial killer finder/person...you know what I mean. The book is a romantic thriller and I usually shy away from this type of thing, but, I started reading it and couldn't stop.
So, there you have, may while away the time while I while away the time ideas for you.
Ain't Life grand...smile
Well, cancer has not completely got me down. I have had a lot of down time, running my DD #1 back and forth to radiation everyday and will for the next 6 weeks, while going through chemotherapy every 2 weeks. This stuff is way not fun. I'm not even in the ballpark of no fun, compared with Jennifer. Ah well, this time next year, it should all be a bad memory.
Someone called from our wonderful church today. They got my name mixed up with Jennifer and said they'd keep us in their prayers. I guess God knows which is which, so it okay. Our church is getting so large, I know it's impossible for someone to remember all however many thousands are now attending. But, I've never met this new minister and have been attending said church for 12 years now. I don't go every time the doors are open, but, I was going every Tuesday to lead our church quilt group, Northeast Quilting Friends. I haven't attend but, once in the last several months because I don't want to be a downer to the group. The last time I came to the meeting I cried. The ladies have managed quite well without me. What did I expect? Helplessness? A complete loss of quilt abilities? Nope, they did just fine, when I came back the one time. Ah well, what will be, will be and the quilting group goes on.
Anywho, here's Jennifer in her radiation session. It's quite the science 
fiction setting, but, it's no fiction...lots of science. Life does go on, everyone has their own soap operas to manage. 
Speaking of newest, my niece had a baby boy, Daxton. She sent pictures of him dressing in his 
Oklahoma State University outfit, of which Boomer Sooner is the mascot. So, in honor of our new Boomer Sooner, here is my original design of an OU baby quilt! Hah! Who needs a pattern. 
I tried a new boarder technique where I made the center blocks and then laid the border on top of the red blocks then did a raw edge 
appilque curving to add some visual texture to the straight blocks. And everyone wants to the back, so here it is, flannel. 
I don't always feel like blogging, but, I still like to read them. Here is a blog I found that has lots of interesting information about the Portland Quilt Market. Blue Moon River is written by a budding new artist in the quilt world, that I'm sure will become one of the newest sensations.
Don't you just love to find bargains? Now we quilters won't skimp a lot on our fabrics, but, finding good quality quilting material on sale is always a good thing. Nope, there was no fabric at the Dollar Store, Dollar Tree to be exact, my favorite of the dollar stores, in this area at least. There was, for me a repurposed item. It's original purpose was for scrap booking, that much maligned big competition for the quilters disposable income. Maligned because there's probably only so much in the way of hobby money to choose by each of us to spend on entertainment. All you scrappers know, you can rack up a lot of expense in the paper products/decorative items to be added to your lovely legacies of albums for the family. Like us quilters, you can drop a small country's national budget on your said hobby as well, but, oh what a legacy we both can leave. Maligned might be too strong a word, maybe to our treasured quilt shop owners, because they wish you were buying fabric instead...smile.
Anyway, this is what I found, a Scrapbook Envelope. 
It's original purpose I suppose was for holding delicately cut pieces of papers, pictures, or any other paper product so it wouldn't be crinkled-wrinkled..eh?...eh? Do you see where I'm going with this? You guessed it,
after doing all that piecing and carefully ironing
the seams all in the same direction, there's nothing more irritating than having to do all that work over again, because it got wrinkled while awaiting completion of the other blocks! So, I repurposed, a scrapbook envelope, which is a little larger than 12 inches, 
which is a pretty common size for a lot of patterns. Besides rigid and clear, it also has about a
3/4 inch depth so you can store several. So I bought several to hold my blocks in the various stages of completion. 
And it fits nicely in my Elenore Burns' project bag! 
One last thing I got was the cute little box to hold my one inch hexagons-not a brilliant find like the block holder/scrapbook envelope, but they were cute and I must have been in hyper organizing mode...smile.
AND THEY ALL COST $1.00...double smile....
I'm closer to the 
Louisville Zoo than when I'm in Crestwood, our home. The Zoo 
has a great program, called Zoo Walkers, in which you can walk a little over a mile, in the mornings from 8:00 am to 10:00am. I've been doing this and it's a wonderful time to check out all the animals. If you go be sure to visit the new tiger exhibit. 
Also in the morning the animals seem to be more active, at least some do. 
One of the favorite's is the baby elephant. It was born last year, and I doubt many events raised 
more attention for the Zoo than the blessed event. 
If you have little ones, there is a new waterpark. My other favorite is the meerkats. They have been given a box 
to play in. Just like we humans, don't waist your money on those fancy toys, sometimes our kids get more fun out of playing in a box.
at the correct starting place. As I'm walking I am aware I'm the only one walking in this direction. Those other savvy walkers have figured it out, walking downhill is easier, so you start at the end and walk to the beginning if you want an easier walk. Ah well, maybe they are walking around twice, to my once, but, I kinda doubt it.
