Martha Stewart and Quilting

Since I've been watching a lot of TV lately, while my daughter Jennifer goes through her cancer treatments, I've happened upon the Martha Stewart Show. I'm so happy that she's bringing her high standards and has such regard for quilters, seamstresses and the like. She's been showing some of the lovely clothes she made years ago, but, seem to be in fashion today. Everything old is new again, styles of quilting and clothing are no exception.

Martha is nothing if not a money magnet. She did not get to be the first billionaire female by missing opportunities to make money. This only proves what a new frontier economic world we sewers live in and probably have known existed, but, didn't want other people to know...smile.

Ronaldinho vs Ronaldo

two of the best for finesse!

Fernando Torres!

What's not to like!

The Beautiful Game

Soccer has not caught on in America and I can't understand it. It is the sport of the everyman size-not the steroid abusing, obnoxious egotists-well maybe there are some obnoxious egotists in soccer, but it takes so much finesse and so long to get a score that it makes it that much sweeter when they do. My new favorite team, for the Eurocup 2008, is Spain. I would have been voting for Turkey, but, they have so many injuries and yellow card penalties, I doubt they have much hope against the big, bad Germans.

Ah well, it's still the beautiful game.

Hexagons, Hospitals and Soccer

Woes my daughter. She's been in the hospital for 8 days and finally we were sent home. While there, she continued to have radiation and needed transport to another hospital for it. We cannot wait until this is over.

So far, so good on the CT scans and MRI's-Ewing's Sarcoma cancer gone. It was in her right jaw and now it's not. But, I gather the little cancer cells have a way of recurring and so she must continue on with this treatment-30 days of radiation while undergoing 14 chemotherapy treatments-5 night stays in the hospital for every other one; 2 night stays for the other half. Jennifer is pretty tough and doesn't whine, but, oh my goodness, I do, to strangers. I can break down and cry in front of the man that is cooking my daughter's falafel. Like fallen leaves on the water, my emotions run very shallow sometimes. It's what mother's do, when their child is hurting.

Make no mistake quilting is therapy. A big part of life, sometimes, is all about the art of distraction. My worry monitor could really make me a basket case if it weren't for quilting. Being in the children's hospital, because Ewing's is a classic children's disease, I have a bed in the room with Jennifer. I'm normally a machine quilting gal, cause you know, I want to finish the quilt in my life time. But, there's no room for my sewing machine, plus, besides all the beeping that goes on, only another quilter would interpret the sound of the sewing machine as a relaxing purr. And so, I hand sew, 1 inch hexagons. We have a king size bed, so the plan, at least for now is to make the Tillie's Mosaic pattern quite a lot larger as the original pattern is only about 5 foot by 5 foot-I'm going to need 7 X 7. Here's my next hexagon flower/center block. The original pattern only has a couple of these toile type of scenes then solid material of different patterns, I think I'll make mine all toile. All quilters, that have been quilting for a while, know that patterns are guidelines. Use the patterns for the basic ideas then feel free to expand or innovate. My innovation is the method of putting the blocks together. Instead of row by row, I like to focus on the toile/flower center hexagon blocks. Scroll down to the label at the bottom of this post and click on the Tillie's Mosaic/Grandmother's Flower garden label to see all of my progress. Don't forget, for a closer look at my pictures, click on them.

My team, Portugal, got beat by the big bad Germans in the 2008 Eurocup!
The remainder of the tournament continues on over the next few days. I want Turkey to come from behind and whoop those Germans!! Don't you love the beautiful game...smile

Quiltmania/Tillie's Mosaic-necessary to complete this quilt!

With Jennifer in the hospital, I'm fortunate to be able to be with her during her treatments. The nurses are great, but, they are stretched pretty thin. So, I'm there for banana split duty. She can't eat a lot or taste a lot, but she does like those. You can see the redness on the right jaw, this is where her cancer is and is where she gets her radiation. She is halfway through her treatments, of 30 total. Chemo goes until Aug/Sept.

In the mean time, I'm hand sewing 1 inch hexagons for my Grandmother's Flower Garden/Tillie's Mosaic quilt. As you can see this is quite a unique pattern. Most patterns are complete in the picture on the front. Karen Witt is a wonderful historian, but, I must say, her patterns are a bit challenging. We quilters do like our challenges, but, my goodness, please complete the quilt when you go to print. Fortunately, Karen did finish the quilt and it was in the really, really great magazine, Quiltmania. This is a french magazine that has wonderful pictures of quilts you don't normally see, I guess because they are in Europe or Japan. Anyway, here is a picture of the finished quilt. I recommend getting both the patten and the magazine, as where one is lacking in information, the other makes up for it.

If you need a close up view of any picture on my blog, you can click on it and it will blow up for a close up!

Exercise for Quilters-the Louisville Zoo

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.