Fun For The Lady In The Blue Cast!

Wonder of Wonders....I got to attend 2010 QuiltNebraska, the quilt convention for the Nebraska State Quilt Guild this past weekend in North Platte, Nebraska!

Needless to say I had a wonderful time!  I got a ride out with a good friend and shared a room with another of those quilt friends we meet over the years.  The gals that I usually room with were situated on the second floor and there was no elevator so rooming with them was out for this year.  I was able to meet up with them for dinners and chats at the end of the day though.  Two of them were chairmen of the event so that kept them busy a lot of the time. (They had a third co-chairmen for the convention to work with also.)

I took that "knee walker" along and used it part of the first day and today on the way home but had the use of a wheel chair the rest of the time.  I sure appreciated the use of it as I would never would have been able to get around good enough, carry any supplies or make it to anything on time without it.

Now for the report on my classes.  They were wonderful!

The first class I had on Friday morning was one on Bluework by Donna Friebertshauser from Bayard, NE.  I did enjoy the class and learned a few more things about embroidery.  I have never done much embroidery so any classes are good for me to take.  I will show you the finished project or a photo of the started project when I get a chance to snap a shot of it.  This photo of her to the right is of a stitching sampler she had made.

Friday afternoon I had two lectures the first by national teacher, Sue Reich titled "The Story of Red and Green".  A very interesting Power Point presentation then seeing a collection of beautiful red and green antique quilts.  The group was invited up to the edge of the stage to get a close up look at the quilts

The second lecture was by Carol Kusek from Albion, Nebraska.  The lecture was titled "Teaching Children to Sew".  I picked up a few ideas to use when teaching my grandchildren to sew and some fun projects we might try. 

Saturday all day I was in national teacher, Frieda Anderson's "Small Autumn Mums" workshop.  I loved this class!  First off Frieda must have felt sorry for me and fused my large pieces of fabric, a big help as I wasn't sure how I was going to balance next to an ironing board.  For a precision peicer it was fun to do the free cutting to make this wall piece.  Most of it is cut free hand without the aid of a ruler.

I did pretty well in the morning but by mid-afternoon I just ran out of steam so packed up my stuff and visited a little while longer then retired to my room to lay down and put my foot up.  I did get the background all fused and started on one of the flowers so am sure I can get it finished here at home.

The food was great although they served very large portions.  We had interesting, entertaining evening programs and vendors to shop.  I didn't do much shopping since the vendors were each in a motel room and they could be very crowded, some I couldn't even get in because the displays were so close together.  I was really OK with that though as I really didn't need or want anything anyway.

I was sad to not be staying with the 3 gals I usually room with but Stella and the first floor handicapped room were great.  This year's photo of the four of us in in front of the new raffle quilt.  Will talk about that more in another blog.  You can see I am sporting my blue foot peeking out from my slacks and sitting my my wheel chair.

Sure hope I sleep well tonight as I crashed on my couch with an ice bag for my foot and napped way too long this afternoon.

Lynn

New Foot and Leg Wear

It has been two weeks since I had surgery to fix my broken ankle and today it was time to have a cast put on instead of the plaster splint. (Actually I am not sure what it was made up of - maybe fiberglass like the cast?)

I was ready to move onto this next stage of healing but was a little apprehensive about the procedure.  First the nurse took off the splint and removed all the staples.  The Dr. used staples instead of stitches and I do believe he must have gone crazy with the stapler.

My incision is about 6" long and it must have had staples every 1/16".  Some were ok when she removed them but most were just pretty uncomfortable!  When that was done I did get my leg cleaned up a bit, which by the way was pretty shrunk up.  I have always had large calves that I inherited from my father, plus a little added weight over the years and they are definitely beefy!  I wouldn't mind keeping the slimmed down version but then I would really look odd wouldn't I?  I have been assured that after I get to walking after the cast and compression boot (the next step after the cast) are off I will get my muscle back.

I got x-rays then waiting, waiting, waiting for the Dr.  I just wanted it to all be over so was just a tad bit nervous and got more so the more I waited.  Tried to distract myself by chatting with John who wasn't nervous in the least - he of course was not having to look forward to the Dr. manipulating his newly fixed ankle!

Well, I can say I sure don't want to have to have another cast put on.  It was hard to preserve my dignity and not jerk my leg away from the Dr. or cry like a baby but I managed it barely.  Tonight I am laying on the couch again with my leg up and ankle iced down.  Feeling not too bad but the area where the incision was made is a little sore.  I have taken pain pills at regular intervals today so think that has helped some.  Hopefully I won't have to take them too long as I had been with out any medication for pain for several days, having cut the high powered stuff down to just bedtime a week ago then stopped taking everything.

The cast stays on for 4 weeks but after just another 2 weeks I am to start putting weight on it wearing a special cast shoe.  Another fashion accessory in my future!  The Dr. says to start by putting 25 pounds weight on at first....my question was how do you know what 25 pounds is?  He said to have a bathroom scale available and to press down with my foot until it reads 25 pounds so I will know what that feels like.  Not sure how one manages to walk/hop with only 25 pounds pressure on one foot but guess I will find out.

OK, enough of this technical medical stuff - ha, ha.  Oh, did you notice the color of my cast?  I got to choose a color for the outside layers from many different colors.  I opted for the light blue and right now it looks pretty good but I wonder what it will look like after 4 weeks?

I have not done much hand quilting, just a little here and there.  My fingers don't have the callouses needed for lots of hand quilting so can be very tender and for some reason I just can't stick with it very long to get them built up.  I used to love hand quilting but anymore I like doing the machine quilting more so don't know if that is my problem or the fact that I am quilting through some of the seams on this project and that is hard to do. 

Chatted on way to long but John is gone this evening, TV is boring so this blog got my undivided attention tonight.

Lynn

10,000 Visitors

Just checked my blog counter and the 10,000th visitor just arrived - wooo hooo!  I never expected that many people to find my blog in March of 2008 when I started it.  I have discussed many quilt related things here but also shared some of my life on a Nebraska farm.  Hope you all like the mix of topics.

Yesterday I was so bored and antsy.  I spent the entire day on the couch with my foot elevated and iced down.  The TV and computer were boring after a while and I was reading a good book but that too got old after so many hours.  For some reason my ankle was painful all day but today was much better.  Less pain and today I had the joy of having two friends stop by for a visit.  One came this morning and the other this afternoon.

There is nothing better to take your mind off your troubles than a chat with friends.  I had thought I might try sewing at my machine a little today but can do that tomorrow.  Thankfully today just breezed along.

I would like to celebrate the 10,000th visitor some way .... will have to think of something I can do.  Maybe some sort of give away.

Until Later...Thanks for Reading!
Lynn

Happy Independence Day

Have a Happy 4th of July to all my American readers!  We sometimes get complacent about the freedoms we have but should be especially thankful we do have these freedoms and to never take them for granted.

This year John and I will have a little more subdued celebration since I am unable to go anywhere right now.  John's sister and family are coming this afternoon and bringing dinner then this evening I want to watch the Washington DC concert and fireworks on Public TV.  Will be thinking of my homesick niece who will be in the crowd in DC tonight.  She is doing an internship this summer in Washington DC and enjoying the experience but has gotten a little homesick, especially now during the July 4th holiday.

Lynn

Weekend Update

Seems like time has flown by as well as drug on since my surgery on Monday....how can that be?  The first few days I spent mostly either in my bed with my leg elevated or laying on the couch with my leg elevated.  I did keep taking my pain pills during the first few days and that got me through and I did a lot of sleeping those days as well. 

Wednesday I decided I could get along without constant pain pills so just took regular Tylenol during the day but did take the pain pill before bedtime to ensure pain free sleep.  So far this program of pain management is working and am more alert because I am taking less and less of the pain medication. 

Today I got out a a miniature that I had started quilting on a long time ago but had put it away - probably from lack of interest or I got busy with something else.  I did do a little quilting on it this morning and think it will be a good way to spend some of the many hours I have to fill every day.

The pieces on this Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt are about 1/2" across.  This is a quilt that I have been working on - sporadically for many, many years.  This quilt holds many memories for me of sitting in hospital waiting rooms when my Dad had his many heart surgeries and other times he was hospitalized before his death.   It went to the hospital for the stays with my mother several times too.  A friend gave me the perfect name for it "Lady In Waiting" because of all the times it helped me through those times that were sometimes very difficult. 

I have about 1/3 of the hand quilting done in the center section and now will try to keep at it and get it finished.  It is probably one of my most favorite quilts I have ever made so it deserves to be finished.  There are a lot of things that I can not do now and that can be frustrating but this is something I can do and it will help fill the time with something productive.

Lynn