Couple of Baby Quilts

While I have not been doing nearly as much quilting as I would like to, I have managed to complete a couple of baby quilts:

This is a different take on the "eduquilt" that I like to make, which has lots of pictures to help teach the baby. This one only has a handful of pictures...yeah, I was feeling a little lazy. It is also smaller than the normal ones that I make.

This is one that I made specifically for the parents as they said they were doing the baby's room in gray and navy. I couldn't bring myself to do navy fabrics, but the gray seemed to work nicely. It is backed in flannel, which will hopefully be soft against baby's skin. This was also a pretty quick pattern to do, and may become a 'go to' for quilts in the future...especially if I ever get around to actually making some inventory and setting up shop on Etsy....

Road Less Traveled



This month for Art Quilts Around the World (AQAW), we were challenged with coming up with a quilt that represented "The Road Less Traveled". Here is what I came up with:

When we were first given the challenge topic, I immediately knew that I wanted to do a Mariner's Compass and I was originally going to add some song lyrics that reflect traveling on a road (e.g., Long and Winding Road, On the Road Again, Highway to Hell, etc.). However, I attended a retreat at my church to kickoff a nine month small group that I am facilitating that discusses our spiritual journey. As part of that, we discussed a Rumi poem:

Come, come, whoever you are
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving
It does not matter
Ours is not a caravan of despair
Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times
Come, yet again, come. 

After reading and discussing this poem, I decided that I wanted to include those words on my quilt.

I really enjoyed this topic. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and for the most part, I think I achieved it. It is far from perfect, but I'm happy with the outcome. I was challenged to find a simple Mariner's Compass that would fit on the size that we work with, and as you can see, I didn't quite make it, however, I'm okay with that as I like the look of how two of the points are chopped off allowing for the idea that it goes beyond the page (I tried to back the compass and thought of having two points extend beyond the actual quilt, but it didn't turn out the way that I imagined, and I ended up removing the backing and going with this). I also hadn't intended to go with a black and white and sepia quilt, but when I started pulling fabrics, this is just what I saw...sort of like an ancient map. Getting the actual compass onto the backing...well that was a challenge. I ended up using my go to material (Wonder Under), but it wasn't as neat as I wanted it to be especially when working with all the added seams on the back of the compass. I'm also not overly thrilled with my wording on the quilt. I used the alphabet that comes with my machine and while I really like the idea, the execution isn't to my liking....for one thing, I didn't put in lines first on which to follow and therefore the text isn't spaced well and it went all wonky. Lastly, I don't like to bind quilts, primarily because I'm lazy and which is why I have a number of quilts sitting in my studio sitting there finished except for the binding. But, I really don't like binding quilts this size because I worry that it can overwhelm the quilt, however, for some reason I felt strongly that this one required a binding, a stopping point, and I'm happy with the final look.

All in all, I'm very happy with how this one turned out. I learned quite a bit about myself in working with this one, so yay me!! 

Leo Update

Because I know that you ALL care about and are worried about what is going on with my baby, Leo.

We went to a new vet yesterday; a specialist on internal medicine rather then a general practitioner in veterinary care. He reviewed all of Leo's medical records and films and took a look at my baby along with getting some oral history from me. He feels the issues are of two different paths (or possibly a combination of both of these):

First, he is immune deficient, which we already sort of assumed. However, he said that this is harder to get a confirmed diagnosis in animals because of there are any number of antigens that could be causing the issues. There is a blood test that can be done that could show a possible smoking gun, so we went ahead and did do that test.

Second, he may have Uncoordinated Cilia Function (although he called it some long technical name). When looking at the symptoms, this sounds pretty likely and even though this is something that normally shows itself in purebred dogs, one of the breeds that is listed is Staffordshire Bull Terriers, which I think Leo probably has a lot of in him. The symptoms are:

• Moist, productive cough that may be elicited by exercise (check)
• Bilateral nasal discharge with mucous and pus (check, I mean he is nicknamed Boogers McSnotty)
• Rapid breathing, shortness of breath, and pale tissues may be observed (he often has rapid breathing and shortness of breath, which always is disconcerting)
• Chronic sneezing and coughing - may produce copious amounts of mucous and pus. Despite dramatic response to antibiotics, patients may have continuous nasal discharge and will relapse after treatment is stopped. (check, check, check...we have gone through SOOO many antibiotics)

So, our next steps are that the vet is ordering material from the University of Pennsylvania where a specific test is performed to identify whether we are dealing with the cilia issue. Once the test kit arrives, we will schedule surgery for my baby. The vet is going to have to put him under anesthesia, do a lung and nasal biopsy along with a lung wash to identify if there are specific ickies in his lungs that we can point particular antibiotics at.

Okay, that is where we currently stand. If my baby had been left to his own devices out in the wild, he probably would not have survived. I love my little Boogers and am at the point where I just want to figure out what the issue is so that we can at least have a path of, if not curing it, at least provide him continued relief.

Really?!?

Has it really been two weeks since I last blogged?!? Wow, time sorta slipped away from me and sadly, I'm not expecting it to get much better in the coming months, so just bare with me.

Work has been crazy busy with my project finally taking off in full force. My deadline hasn't changed any, just the start date got pushed and pushed and pushed, so now we are having to make up a lot of lost time. I'm spending a ton of time staring at the computer building workflows in the system, so when I get a break about the last thing I want to do is write...that's the excuse I'm sticking with.

However, I guess I should give a little insight into what has been going on.

Leo - He managed to pick up a new cough while at daycare a couple of weeks ago and while he was on antibiotics, which concerns the vet that he has become resistant to the antibiotics. With this in mind, we are going in to see a diagnostic veterinarian on Monday to have some more extensive tests performed and hopefully get a plan of long-term treatment in place for him. However, because of this new development, I will not be purchasing a new car as of yet since my down-payment dollars are now going to tracheal washes and lung scopes.

Quilting - I managed to finish up a baby quilt for a friend of mine at work, which I will take into him next week. I have plans for my next small art quilt, which according to my challenge is due at the end of this month....and all I have are plans for it. Luckily, it is a small quilt and I think I should be able to whip that out over the next couple of weekends.

Other - I have signed up to facilitate a bi-weekly study group at my church, which I'm looking forward to. I went through the same group last year and found it to be very interesting and insightful, which is why I am participating again this year. There is a lot of reading involved, but I figure since I've done it before, it will be more of a refresher for me. Luckily, I'm not actually teaching the class, but basically just guiding the participants through the discussions.

So, like I said, some areas in my world are going a little crazy, others are quiet, but sitting and writing isn't really top on my list...even if I did give myself a challenge to follow. I'll try and keep things updated, when I can....it would be really great if I could figure out how to just think my blog posts and then they would magically appear and not actually require me to sit and put fingers to keyboard....