Quilt ADD in therapy

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Colorado, United States
Other than my family, the passion of my life is quilting. An eclectic, I love a wide variety of styles and techniques encompassing both machine and hand work. I am a longarm quilter who can work for you. I enjoy any style, from pantographs to all-over to full custom, ranging from traditional to modern. I love bringing vintage tops to life and am willing to work with a challenging quilt top. Instagram: lyncc_quilts

Monday, October 26, 2020

BOMs Away - 2020 means. . . COVID

 


Welcome to the Link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM type project
so they don't stall out in UFO-land!
(Linky at the bottom)


So, Scott and I both have COVID. So does his father, and the timing indicates that we all got it at the funeral for Scott's mom - either from someone there, or in the funeral home or the hall where Dad had a post-funeral luncheon. His father was taken to the hospital yesterday and can have no visitors; I had to go on steroids yesterday, but no ER or ICU, and am at home; Scott, as usual, while he is sick, hasn't been hit as hard as it got me. I am very grateful for that. I find it surpassingly strange that Nebraska does not do any contact tracing. We did our best to get word to all the elderly and medically susceptible people who were also there.

Be careful, everyone, particularly where vulnerable people are concerned.  :(  We are eating aggressively healthy from the moment we suspected we might be getting sick. GONE: sugar, coffee, chocolate. GONE: all dairy, all processed carbs. MOSTLY CUT OUT: salt. With COVID, days 8/9 will tell on whether it is going to hard-crash on you or not. (You start your count on the first day of your symptoms.) The greatest factors contributing to a dangerous crash: smoking. diabetes. advanced age. overweight. high blood pressure. pre-existing medical conditions. So you want to eat a diet that doesn't exacerbate blood pressure, blood sugar surges, or inflammation (thus all those "gone" items).


Every day, we eat fresh-made clear-broth soup loaded with veggies and usually chicken, sometimes a wee bit of beef. Toss in copious amounts of fresh onion, garlic, lemon grass, ginger, turmeric - all natural aids in medicinal boosts. Most likely, your smell is going to be 100% gone, anyway, so the extra onion/garlic isn't going to bother you a smidge. 


Eat plenty of citrus. The natural unprocessed sugar in these is not going to hurt you, particularly since you're not eating bad carbs right now. The vitamins are going to help tremendously, and if you slice lemons and pour hot water onto them (no sugar!), and drink this 2 or 3 times a day, it does a really good job of cleaning out your throat for you and reducing the coughing for a while. Some say it also reduces the viral load your body is having to deal with by washing a good portion of it out of your upper respiratory system. Not sure how much of that is reliable, but, hey. Can only help, not hurt, so I'm all for it.

And roasted veggies with paprika or turmeric sprinkled liberally are great for your other "big" meal of the day. Seriously, as sick as you feel, and as good as this diet hits the spot right now, you're not going to miss the things you've cut out. Although, I'm sure when I feel good again, some hot salmon dip and crackers will be nice. . . or some hot cocoa next time it's snowing . . but right now, no.



I've only had enough energy to do wee bits of hand work on some days. Usually I'm just a zombie staring at the TV if I'm not all the way down in bed. There was only a little bit left to finish Block 6 of my Octopuses Garden project, so I finally have this one to share:

If I weren't so sick, still, I'd be quite excited. That puppy has been in my TV applique tote for AGES. It has four hundred thousand layers.

My method is back-basting, and I absolutely love doing fun inter-layered portions like the curl of the seahorse's tail. It means a dual approach of two different fabric pieces, kinda like braiding. Very satisfying when you finish it.

These blocks also have embroidery on them, but their work greatly exceeds my patience level. So I'm appliqueing all of them in the first go-'round, and then I'll come full circle and do the embroidery.

But now, I am going back to bed. Sorry to be late with this posting. I was too sick yesterday to even think of beginning a post - didn't even realize what day of the week it is. But I'm looking forward to seeing what others have accomplished.  :)

~*~*~*~

Have you been able to do any BOM type work lately? We'd love to see it.  :)

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up, 
and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Monday, October 19, 2020

BOMs Away - and ~Flimsy Alert!~ Wind in the Whiskers

 

Welcome to the Link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM type project
so they don't stall out in UFO-land!
(Linky at the bottom)


Woohoo! Look! My "Wind in the Whiskers" is a finished flimsy!



There is a clothesline and several cute elements (including another kitten, of course) that go over the central field area after the quilting has been done.

I'm super happy that this top is completed. I must say, this pattern gave me more headaches and got put into long time outs far more than any other I've dealt with. I've done other McKenna Ryan patterns without issue. Not sure why this one was so contorted to figure out. And I know I'm not the only one. But it's ready now!


I want to say something. Grief itself, AND the handling of it, is different for every person. Some of us hold it closer inside and do not make a public spectacle of it. Scott and I are private that way - once an initial "announcement" has been made, we keep it close and work through it. We don't post 50 Facebook or Instagram messages a day lionizing our pain. Apparently, some people think this means we don't care about the loss. That could not be further from the truth. If you need to make a spectacle of your loss, that is absolutely fine. Do what you need to do to get through the shock of loss. But it is cruel to mistake others' privacy for not caring, and to repeatedly preach at them in a public manner.

Also, if you (the one person remaining who should unconditionally love) have so much animosity for a person that you repeatedly call him a son-of-a-bitch and an idiot, in front of others (shocking them), to your face, and behind your back, if you wish his child dead, and if you hate me enough to maintain over 90 minutes of ranting about me being a bitch and a whore, you cannot be surprised that we maintain distance. Particularly since ALL of this is based on unfounded and manufactured ideas. I apologize to quilt friends for the nasty verbage - I am dumping garbage out of my heart so that I can let it go. "Allowances have to be made for grief," some tell us. . . but this has been going on for many years. 

I keep telling myself that the best path through these public preachings at us, and the poisonous attacks of bile, is to simply refuse to engage. But after a while, you need a place to vent, you know? Technically, this place is public, but I have an extremely small following, and you quilters understand me far better than most people do. Now I can let it go again and give my energy, instead, to the process of getting this Lupus flare to dissipate. 


I hope you are having a better time than we are. I have to admit, Bad Boy 2020 is the year to have to slog through this dysfunction. The entire year was already screwed up, anyway.  :(

~*~*~*~

Have you been able to do any BOM type work lately? We'd love to see it.  :)

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up, 
and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.



You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunday, October 11, 2020

BOMs Away - A Long-Ago Sunday for Norma and some BOM dabblings

 



Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!
Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 
so they don't stall out in UFO-land!
(Linky at the bottom.)

Kinda just putzing through this week. The service for Scott's Mom will be on Tuesday. We've been scanning in lots of photos to put together a nice digital display for everyone to enjoy. I really like the happiness on her face in this one, as well as the super cute Easter Sunday outfit, circa 1958.


BOM stuff:

A couple of weeks ago, I fused the last block down for my Wind in the Whiskers. Cute little koi pond. Don't think I posted it yet, though.
(The kitten tail and lower bush edges are left loose, as they will straddle the border seam.)



Today, I made the four 3D butterflies and attached them for the Kitten Kaboodle block. 
Oh, and I also made pupils for these kittens. There weren't any in the pattern, and they all looked freaky without any.



So now, this project is ready to be fully assembled into a complete flimsy!  It only has 2 borders, and I would love to just throw it all together this week and have a nice accomplishment to carry me through the upcoming hard days. However, Scott's using my cutting table to finish up the photo tasking - spread all over it, and I'm not about to ask him to let me move him. Ah, well, it'll be a nice Feel-Good accomplishment next weekend.

Oh, also, through this week's TV time, I've done the applique stitching on two more of the Month 4 squares for the Water Reflections BOM. 1 block left to go.


I know I've only been sharing BOM stuff for months now, but that's not at all reflective of the bulk of my quilting work. There's always a priority quilt that gets 99% of my time each week. I need to do at least 4 write-ups on finishes.

The last 3 weeks, though, what you've seen is what has happened. I'll probably move through another week of numbness and seeing only to the basic tasks of daily living. I think I'll use the final assembly of Wind in the Whiskers as my marker for the time to return to normal quilting operations. And I'm dubbing it absolutely OK for that to happen when it happens.

~*~*~

How about you? Have you done any BOM work lately?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up, 
and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Didn't mean for that to happen. But it did.

 Oh, dear.

Grief is not conducive to sticking to no-purchase resolves. I caved on two quilts that have been calling to me all year.

Sage & Sea Glass Star Chain quilt, by Kim Diehl, using her fabric line of the same name:


And Harmony, by Nancy Dink, which will be perfect on the bed of the basement room:


And now I found the pattern for this one, and it would be a great use of all the Halloween scraps I have. Wonder if I have enough of something for the background on hand already. . . "Scaredy Cat" by Jedi Craft Girl.


So, three quilts screaming at me, two purchases. I guess it could have been worse. . . 

And it's cheaper than a psychologist, eh?  

Monday, October 5, 2020

BOMs Away - Goodbye, Mom Caulkins

 


Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!
Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 
so they don't stall out in UFO-land!
(Linky at the bottom.)

Well, in the very wee hours yesterday, we lost Scott's mother. 


While Mom has been experiencing strange difficulties for most of this crazy year, she found out only five or six weeks ago that she had metastasized lung cancer. We were able to travel to her state twice during that time to visit - the first time while she was still lucid and mobile and enjoying company, and this past weekend, where we were able to be there with Dad and Karen for her final days and passing. 

This is my all-time favorite photo of her, at their wedding in 1958:




I have to say again how very, very amazing Scott's sister, Karen, has been. 



She gave up her job and her personal life to move in with their parents so that Norma could stay in her own home until the end. Karen cared for her ceaselessly, using her home health care training to provide physical and nursing care as the needs arose. It was an absolutely priceless gift, one that went beyond anything Karen could have been expected to do, one that came at great emotional cost and had to have been taxing, as she could only extremely rarely leave the house for any kind of break. She is an amazing woman that I am glad to be related to.

The only BOM work I did this past week was some stitching on the current Octopuses Garden block in my hand applique tote, while I was sitting with Norma Saturday morning. In a desire for her mind to have some indication that she was not alone, I just babbled aloud for a while about what I was stitching - "now I'm going to start on this yellow blob on the right hand trigger fish, mom. It's not as tricky as that black tail piece was!"  Kinda funny - inane conversation, but the important thing to me was to make my presence known and keep company with an unconscious patient. I can't help but feel a connection can be "felt" at some very basic level that is meaningful to a departing person. I hope so, anyway.

And I hope you're in the midst of better times than we are right now. 


~*~*~

Did you do any BOM work lately?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up, 
and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.



You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Goal Post October 2020 - OMG & Finish Along Q4

Oh, 2020, you Bad, Bad, Boy.  And hard miles yet to go. . .

The whole pandemic thing that everyone is experiencing*Continuing personal issues*AZ-CA-CO-OR wildfire smoke making our air seriously unhealthy for the last six or seven weeks running*Broken drain connection creating unseen mold issue requiring drawn-out rebuild of part of the house*Parents with truly alarming behavioral issues followed by a rapidly deteriorating terminal cancer situation seven hours away*Thank goodness for a happy little wedding amongst it all*Impending funeral, household reckoning, moving of father-in-law to another state*Fourth quarter, can we just be chill and work quietly through the remaining weeks once Dad is settled?

I am so very deeply depleted today, hoping some formal organization can help provide some quilting therapy. So, for October, my OMG is to get all the quilting finished on my Sew Spooky quilt.

One Monthly Goal October - Link up here





Q4 Finishing Wish List for the 2020 Finish-Along

#2020FALQ4List


This is all on Instagram now, but it's easier for me to see it laid out here.


1. Sew Spooky - about a third quilted on the domestic, finish on the longarm



2. Silky Wool Flannel Kind of Day - in Flimsy stage



3. Garden Friends - in Flimsy stage



4. Anna's Choice - in Flimsy stage



5. Marissa's UCCS Graduation - a few blocks are made



6. Scott's Moose Lake - in Flimsy stage



7. Scott's Morning Stroll - in Flimsy stage



8. Lynette's Dahlia - in Flimsy stage



9. Plums in November - partly quilted by domestic, finish on the longarm



10. Once Upon a Star - I think this has trapunto work finished, needs main quilting



11. Set Sail - in Flimsy stage



12. Dear Jane - in Flimsy stage



13. Modernology - in Flimsy stage