You should see the other guy - Warning - graphic photo

The "other guy" is a large pot-hole.

I retired last September. I had some health issues. That, plus the commute, were just wearing me out. I needed to slow down, recharge my batteries, and get healthy.

Since September, I have dealt with Osteomylytis (bone infections) that led to amputation of first one toe on my right foot and then 4 months later, another toe. I ruptured a tendon in my left foot (PTT or something) and now wear a brace. In that space of time, I had pneumonia twice. Then the doctors found an antibiotic-resistent infection. I took Rocephine antibiotic shots for a week in early February. Hey, how's that retirement working for you, Linda?

Just as the infection was cured, I hurt my back in late February. No idea how that happened. It was a compression fracture of the T10 vertebrae. Two months of pain, pain meds and muscle relaxers followed. I was in a mopey and dopey haze for weeks. Then on April 15th, I had a Vertebroplasty, back surgery. It worked like gang-busters, though my stamina is slow to return. A week ago, I finally thought that I could see light at the end of the tunnel.

I went down to my daughter-in-laws parents house for the annual neighborhood yard sale. It was mobbed. Lots of people walking up and down the street and the large landscaped island. There were even food vendors. There was an air of a festival. I decided to walk up the street a half block while I waited for my husband to retreive the car and catch up to me.

I stepped into a pothole, tripped and fell. Even before the pain hit, I prayed that I had not hurt my back again. I was on my back and folks were crowding around me. Everybody was so kind. One lady wanted to call 9-1-1 but I told her that my husband was just stuck in the traffic on the street. Then I noticed the blood on my white pants. Oh crap, that will never come out. Did I mention that I take blood thinners? I pulled up the pants and my knee was split wide open to the meat. One woman moaned and looked away. Another woman brought a couple of dish towels to cover the wound. I just wanted to get up before my husband got there and saw me laying in the street. The lady with the dish towel wrapped it around my knee and I used my beautiful summer cotton scarf as a torniquet to stop the blood.

Road rash. My elbow is in there somewhere. No photos of the knee. It was just too icky for photos.


9 stitches outside, 3 inside. Bruised arm, ribs and hands. But no breaks. Kneecap intact. What a break. tsk. Will this slow me down from getting on an airplane in 8 days and going to MQS ? Uh, no. They have doctors in Kansas City that can remove those stitches.


P.S. In other good news, the summer cotton scarf came out clean from the washer and dryer. The white pants? My knee tore but my pants didn't. Too funny. Well, they are waiting for second go round in the washer. Gain and the Tide booster stain remover blob did not get all the blood out.

IQ designs - hot and fresh off the grill

I wanted to use diamond motifs in my show quilt. Well, I think diamond motifs look good in a lot of different quilts. The MQS quilt show deadline loomed large and I had to re-think the diamond. But I still wanted a good diamond poin-to-point design.

Trouble was, I could not find anything that I liked. I wanted a curved diamond, maybe even concentric curved diamonds.

Or how about a diamond that could be used P2P (point-to-point) so that the size and shape of the block did not matter. Point A to Point B, click and click.

Oooh, and maybe put something inside the diamond for some added interest. That is what I wanted. I even tried to design it myself using the tools that I have; software, the IQ record function and simply drawing the design. Pitiful.

I don't remember exactly where on the internet I had bemoaned the fact that the P2P diamond design that I had, did not work and that I was not finding suitable P2P diamond digitized design replacements. Which design house had this so-called P2P-diamond motif that I had even came from?

Then I got an email from Shannon Hicks over at Piece and Joy Quilting. She wanted to help. We emailed back and forth. She listened to my requirements and sent me a couple of ideas. Wow, that was a surprise. She even suggested some cool things to add to the diamonds. I did not know that a designer could or would make a design for you. Not exactly customized in the sense that I get the only design. No, these designs would be seen and loved by others. Before I knew it, she emailed me with the finished designs. They are so cool.

I have a quilt in my queue that will look terrific with at least one of these diamonds. Now my imagination will not be stifled by my inability to digitize a design. That is so liberating. Thank you, Shannon Hicks.

MQS quilt is in the mail

I took the quilt to the UPS store today. Adios. $79 for UPS 3-day select guaranteed to be there Wednesday. That includes $10.70 for the "new box" and the cost of UPS Ground return shipping. Here are a couple shots of it. Sadly, I did not have time to mount it on the photo rack for a good photo. But it is done and that is all that matters at this point.

My Vicki Welsh hand-dyes have arrived

Get out your drool towels, girls. I just got my order from Vicki Welsh's Etsy shop. These are so yummy. I told her that I was going to be making a quilt for my husband to take to games. Vicki called it a "stadium" quilt.


Umm, not to put too fine a point on it but.... The blues are clearly the shades of the sky from April to October. And the browns remind me of the infield and one of those browns is the same color as a well-oiled Rawlings baseball glove.

They play foot ball in stadiums. Baseball is played in baseball parks. So this a World Series quilt for my husband, a die-hard Padres season ticket holder. I guess that I should mention that his favorite team is the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the Dodgers home field is not in San Diego. This will keep him warm on the spring night games.

Back in the saddle again....

I just finished a light custom quilt. It's the first one since my back surgery. I SID'd the tiny border and the blocks. I used a vintage flower design from Legacy Quilting in the 4-color block and echoed the dresses. It was already pretty busy with all that fabric so I wanted to take the simple approach. I repeated the vintage flowers in the corners andid Sylvia Sashing (Legacy, too) squares on point
in the borders.

The Russians are coming....

Do you remember that wacky movie?


Well, these Russians are the St. Petersburg Mens Ensemble. They performed at our church, Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church last Sunday. It was wonderful to have them. We were one of the host families to offer acccomodations to one of the musicians. They sing a capella but also have one member who plays the button accordion. They will be in our country singing at churches all over. This is the third year of visiting our church. Here is a You Tube video from 2007 so you can hear how beautifully they sing.

They are (left to right) Evgeny (Eugene in English), Vadim, Kirill (the group's leader). The accordionist is Alexander. Here is another video with Alexander playing the button accordion. They all spoke wonderful English. They used infomercials to study inflection and pronunciation. I was impressed with their English skills. But more than that, their singing was so enjoyable. The songs, some composed by Kirill, were sung in Russian. Their voices are amazing and they complement each other so well. Evgeny is 1st tenor, Vadim is 2nd tenor and Kirill is a baritone. The group sometimes travels with another Alexander who is also a singer.
Of course, what visit to America would be complete without a visit to Starbucks. I kidded Eugene. "you look like a surfer in that T-shirt and shorts". He really did.

We hosted Vadim and it was so much fun to talk to him about Russian. My husband and I were stationed in London in the 70s and had a chance to go to Moscow. This was durinig the cold war. Some Russians were afraid of us and others wanted to buy our blue jeans. We told Vadim our stories about walking through Red Square and a chance encounter with a couple who said they were "students" from Kiev. My husband still thinks that they were KGB agents. LOL.