Quilt update: first row

I got started!  Found a great baseball material to go between each of the tshirts. 

And then I found this great puzzle piece (Autism symbol) in the same neon colors of the tshirts to tie it all together!  Not sure about the back yet.  I might do a fleece?

Roadtrip to the Ham

Had a good road trip to Birmingham.  T'dawg is doing well with his physical therapy.  I went with him to see the doc.  He showed us a lot of pictures from the operation.  The bones, rotator cuff and bicep tendon all looked good. Whoo hoo!  The labrum was torn in two places. The doc ended up putting in 5 anchors (two for one tear and three for the other).  And said he thought from the fraying, that part of the tear was an old injury.  Likely dating back to his baseball days (4th grade?).

T'dawg said he was concerned, prior to surgery, that nothing would be discovered.  He had a lot of pain.  And he had tried therapy.  But the MRI only indicated a small tear in an area that was not hurting.  The doc said that the MRI was read incorrectly.  But said that he goes more by what the patient says than the tests.  Tests are a good tool.  But nothing still compares to going in and actually looking around.

I had a similar experience with my shoulder.  The test indicated bone spurs and arthritis.  I did rehab but didn't get any pain relief.  So I told the doc to go ahead and clean up the bone spurs.  When he got in there, the rotator cuff was full torn!  So, I didn't doubt T'dawg when he said it hurt bad enough for surgery (and possibly missing football).

Since he is young and in excellent health, he is healing quickly.  He can start getting out of the brace and ease back into driving. No running nor arm weight lifting (legs are ok) for three months.  And therapy will start getting intense.

It was tough to leave him again.  But so good to see the smiling face and the good report from the doc.

Designer Purse for Less

Want a custom designed Vera Bradley purse for less?   The least expensive item is: a placemat!

Fold in half and stitch the two short sides on the wrong side.

Turn right side out.  It could have been either pattern.

See how cute?  I got a pink one too.  I picked out some cute buttons.

The next time I'm in town I will go to Jo-Ann's or Hancock and get some handles.  I'll blog the finished product later this week.  Or you could leave the handles off and use like a makeup bag.

Sew Much Fun

 My new little friend is out of the box!  I made a bobbin and got her threaded and ready to go.

This is already sew (hee hee) much easier than the old Singer my Mom had.  I know I have only scratched the surface of what she can do.  But I'm excited :)

Back in the Saddle

After a long hiatus, I am back teaching Sunday school again.  Debbie, Pam and Nancy were my original teachers, each teaching one month per quarter.  Pam requested a break so Donna stepped up about a year ago.  One day after class we were talking and it was evident to me that Debbie needed a break.  They were wondering who might be willing to teach.  And I volunteered!  I have the extra time and I feel really comfortable with this group of ladies.  I also like teaching only one month per quarter.  It is a lot of pressure to teach each and every Sunday.  I think I'm doing ok so far.  Well, they haven't come at me with pitchforks, nor have I had a mass exodus.

I still miss my former class.  We had such fun and a lot of growth.  I must say that it is harder to teach with bulk material, that is material made to fit the masses.  It was more enjoyable and I think beneficial to be able to direct the class based on the ladies' interests and spiritual needs.  It seems that the bulk material often covers the same books of the Bible over and over.  And completely misses some of the others.  It also has a tendency to skip passages, so you can squeeze the entire book of John into one quarter of study.  But you know me, I'll cover all of the verses and I'm not one to read your study guide to you.  I will dig deeper to inform, challenge and get you thinking.

The project begins...

Yippee yahoo...I found the tshirts.  Now I just have to master the rotary cutting tool. I look like a kid that loves to play with band-aids!

 But I did manage to cut out 30 blocks.  And iron on fusible interfacing. 

Now I have to decide how to lay it out.

I like the look of this big block quilt that was featured on PBS' Sewing with Nancy this weekend.

Time to get the graph paper and start doodling...

Saddened

Thursday night, I got the bad news.  My former neighbor and friend, Jimmy had died.  He was up in Nashville at Vanderbilt hospital for heart surgery and passed on the operating table.

It hit me pretty hard.  I think it is because it was the same heart valve replacement surgery that my Dad was supposed to have had.  The doctors decided that Dad was not strong enough to endure the surgery.  And that made me so mad.  How dare they!  I wasn't ready to hear that. But I know now that they were correct.  Dad did not live much longer and was able to go home, as he wished, to pass quietly in his chair.

The difference was that Dad knew he was not a candidate for surgery, even before the surgeon turned him down.  But Jimmy was so confident that the surgery would go well. That he would be home by today.  He had so much that he was eagerly looking forward to doing this spring.  He was so confident, that no one expected complications.

The funeral on Sunday was somber.  It should have been a celebration of his 88 year life and his home-going.  But the shock factor overshadowed it all. 

My only comfort being that I will see my friend again someday...

Post surgery

By Friday, Tdawg finally got to take a real shower.  He was a happy camper.  The therapy has been going well.  He worked at first on his forearm and hand, getting everything back to normal after the nerve block. Now he is working on getting the shoulder moving. Even though it says no sling.  He only had it off to shower.  He said it hurts to have it off.  So much for being a rebel.

Surgery

Well, Tuesday did not go as I had hoped.  Cletus got sick over the weekend and ended up spending five days in bed.  I don't know if he technically had the flu...but he had a high fever (over 102) and was a mess.  He finally went back to work last Thursday.  Not sure he is completely well even now.

So, I was going to have to do the surgery thing by myself.  I thought about leaving Buddy home, but Cletus was not well enough to see to him.  The morning did not go as planned (does it ever).  I was so anxious about not getting up with the alarm that I woke up at 3a and could not get back to sleep.  Not the ideal way to start the day.

As it turns out, I left on time but had to go back to the house and ended up leaving late because I wasn't feeling well.  I did manage to get to St Vincent's in Bham before they did surgery.  Tdawg had left for Bham several days prior, when we realized how sick Cletus was.  Tdawg surely didn't need to get the flu/virus right before surgery!  And thankfully a friend drove him from campus to the hospital.

This is how he was when I got there.  Saying he was having a wardrobe malfunction (one shoulder gown) and thinking that he hadn't had any drugs.  Hmm.  I think maybe he had.  He was hilarious!

After awhile they took him off to get a nerve block.  Because of that, after surgery, he was not groggy at all.  Not to say that he was in a great mood.  He was good for the nurse this time, but surly with me. Last time he told the nurses: "For the love of Mike, will you please SHUT UP!"  He was boo boo faced in this pic because he wanted his phone and I wasn't sure it was such a good idea.

The surgery itself went well.  The labrum was torn in two places (top and front) and the doc put in anchors.  With therapy and the brace (6 weeks) he should be in good shape and well enough to play this fall.

Before too long, he forgave me.  And when he woke up a bit more, I let him have the phone.  The nerve block, surgery and recovery took a pretty good while, so it was 5p by the time he was ready to go.  Sadly, that meant that the hospital pharmacy was closed and I had to drive in the rush hour traffic.  Ugh!

I am getting old AND turning into my mother!  I get a bit snarky when I have to wait two light changes.  I don't like driving in traffic.  Or after dark.  Or very far.  So five o'clock traffic on 280 and I-20/59 is a nightmare for me.  But we made it without incident back to campus.  His friends got him something to eat while I got to get the pain med prescription filled in a seriously sketchy area of town. I'm glad we made it out of there without an incident.  For some reason, Buddy didn't want to take off his sunglasses in Walgreens.  Being 6'6" and with the big coat and the dark wrap around sunglasses...he looked mighty questionable!

I got back to campus for a second time.  And Tdawg set up with pillows and a movie, an ice pack and pain meds.  And took off for home.  He had set up pretty much 24/7 care from some of the pre-nursing students.  (after having him as a patient, they may end up changing their major!).  I started home and stopped for dinner.  While at dinner, I realized that I still had Tdawg's therapy instructions.  He was starting therapy at 10a the next morning on campus.  So I went back (third time) to campus...and then on home.  I got home about 11p.  Seriously the longest day ever.