touching base . . .

Greetings!  Just checking in real briefly to update my shoulder progress . . .

Which, all things considered, is going extremely well!  I'm very pleased, as are my PT gurus and my doc. What I need to be careful of is not getting ahead of myself; I feel so good I want to do things it's not time to do yet. Yikes! 

And to say Happy National Quilting Day! I'm totally bummed that I'm not ready to do any quilting (or stitching of any kind, for that matter--typing is exhausting enough), but when I googled "national quilting day", I came upon a link to National Day Calendar and wanted to note here what it said about this {ahem} auspicious and important holiday:

National Quilting Day is observed annually on the third Saturday in March. It is a day that is celebrated around the country with special quilting shows, classes, open museums and much more. This is a day to appreciate and to recognize quilt makers, along with all of their long labor, love and skill that goes into the making of each quilt.

A quilt is a layer of batting or stuffing between two layers of pieced together fabric. Early American quilts were the result of patched together pieces of worn out blankets and clothing. Since they had to weave their own fabrics, there was little time for creative piecing together of colorful, artful patterns. These items were purely functional.

By the mid 18th century Americans were making elaborate quilts designed to be handed down from mother to daughter, often pieced together from salvaged pieces of clothing and other bedding.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Buy a homemade quilt or make one yourself. Use #NationalQuiltingDay to post on social media.

HISTORY

At the 22nd annual show of the National Quilting Association in Lincoln, Nebraska in June of 1991, a resolution was passed and National Quilting Day was started.

Did you read what I read?!?  I feel like I just got permission to BUY. A. QUILT.  A homemade one, at that! :)

I probably will NOT go that far to celebrate, but I have purchased some sweet embroidery patterns and a darling wool sampler pattern during my recovery.  

Let those who can stitch, stitch stuff.  And those who can't, buy stitching stuff.  I'd better recover soon!

Enjoy the day ... stitch a little something and think of meeeee!!  In the meantime, I'll have a spot of tea and stick to something I *can* do . . . 

:)

in and out and again . . .

I had high hopes for February, but they didn't carry me very far, huh? And then I went and had surgery on my left shoulder yesterday, which means March will be very hit or miss . . . 

one day post-op...huge, football-like shoulder pad

the rotator cuff tear, halfway repaired

Because I don't enjoy typing one-handed, and my laptop doesn't auto-correct or do speech-to-text!  LOL!  I know, I know, first world problems!  :)

I purposely scheduled my surgery for the end of February so that I could attend our Stitcher's retreat on the 20th.  What a glorious long weekend!  I love the group of ladies that attends, and particularly love the women--dear friends--I'm grouped with.  The five of us are a group of introverts, so we don't stress each other out!

I worked mostly on handwork. I felt productive at just the right level.  ;)

mug rug sample for April's 'Spring" theme

the third of these sweet little dresses I've embellished with embroidery!

I finished (finally) whipping together my Mod Flower Fall quilt.  What's funny is that I started this quilt at retreat 2018!  

the tables are 5' tables...yikes!

I really hope to have it finished by October of this year for the Fanfare Quilt Show, but I just don't know how realistic that is!

Earlier in the month, Joc and the girls joined me at work for a Valentine's Day tea party . . .

I was solo that day at the office, so it was just them and me, and we had a glorious time!

We also had a guild meeting in there somewhere . . . February was a mug rug swap month,  This was my offering: 

hand-quilted!

And this is the one I received:

It's such fun! The theme was "Think Pink."

This is the sampling of the rest of the mug rugs that were turned in for swap.  HQH membership is so talented and creative!

Our guild's overall theme for the year is collaboration.  To that end, members who collaborate on projects will be able to share their collaborations at the July meeting, and be eligible for prizes!  My friend Gail and I decided to collaborate on a patriotic version of the twisted pole runner, modified!

We're both very excited about working on the project!

Okay, enough for now.  I'm tired of typing!  LOL!

Happy March, happy Spring, happy weekend! 

:)