I knew it had been awhile since I last posted or podcasted. I didn’t realize it had been over a year. But what a year it’s been. In a nutshell:
Several work and vacation trips back-to-back for about three months
The last trip sent me home with a COVID souvenir which knocked me out of the loop for about three weeks
Shortly after recovery, my MIL had a medical event (still don’t know what caused it) resulting in a month of hospital and rehab center then arranging for in-home assistance—her life changed significantly and she can no longer drive and needs a walker most of the time now—all of that took about two to three months to really get situated—she’s doing well now and we have a niece who my MIL was able to hire as her home assistant for a few hours every weekday which works out really well for both of them.
Several weeks of trying to catch up at work after all of that
After finally getting life back on track and I had time to think about other things, I realized just how frustrated I was about the fact of my knee still hurting after the double-meniscus surgery the year before, which ended up with…
Now being not quite 8 weeks post-op on a total knee replacement (right knee).
Panorama shot of my excellent hospital room at Unity Hospital in Rochester, NY. All private rooms, and very quiet. 10/10 recommend. And yes, that was one of our worst blizzards of February outside that window so I’d sent my husband home before the driving got too terrible.
I’m glad to say that with my knee replacement now in the past and recovery going pretty dang well (all things considered), I actually sat at my sewing machine for the first time in months yesterday. My bad knee was my sewing machine foot-pedal knee, as well as my driving knee, and both activities were fairly painful. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel! I still can’t sit in a “normal” chair for more than about 15 minutes or so because something about the angle sets off a chain reaction of pain and stiffness, but we’re getting there. I’m privileged to have the kind of job I can do much of online and Zooming but last week I was able to spend a little time in my actual office and some face-to-face meetings, and then came home and iced/elevated (and napped) in the recliner I’ve rented from a medical supply service until I’m fully on the other side of this. I was prepared for the idea of the physical recovery; I wasn’t prepared with just how exhausting all of this is. When I first started trying to work again, I had one Zoom meeting for about 40 minutes and slept two hours after. The fatigue is definitely starting to lift but I’m still not back to full speed.
Unfortunately, while on my four-week full-time medical leave I was largely also not feeling up to doing much of a creative nature, but when I was feeling okay, I did some EPP. I do enjoy it, but I also have arthritis in my index fingers so I can’t do the hand-stitching for a really long time. I’m basically just doing hexies as one project and dilly flowers as another with no actual defined plan as of yet as to what I’ll do with them.
I’m using up some charm packs I’d collected over the years so off-hand I can’t tell you what the fabric lines are.
You may also notice the Lori Holt design board they’re sitting on. I ordered all three sizes while I was ensconced in the recliner as they make it much easier to hold the pieces as I’m sewing. Plus I was feeling a little self-indulgent. (Retail therapy got me through some of the worst days of the first couple of weeks, sadly enough for my credit card.)
The Dilly Flowers are from Elise Baek. I bought her paper templates to use to make life a lot easier on myself—I did that well before the knee surgery so that was part of my usual self-indulgence. If I can save myself some steps I will, as those of you who have followed me for awhile well know at this point.
This set pictured still has the paper templates in the outside petals but I removed the innermost paper which is why it looks a little puckered. That will flatten out once all the papers are removed and all the fabric has a little give. (For those of you who don’t know EPP, you generally only remove papers when the piece has all of its sides surrounded in order to help everything keep its shape.)
The flowers have another round of background that turns them into a hexagon but I don’t have a lot of those basted yet to put them on. I should probably work on that this week. These were some of my first efforts and I’m pretty pleased with the results, if I do say so myself. I have been doing a whip stitch and don’t mind seeing a little of the thread on the front. I do want to practice the flat-back stitch but the once I tried it I was a little uncomfortable holding the pieces even with some clips helping so I’m not sure that’ll ever work well for me.
And yes, ahem. Still working on that Storm at Sea. We’re coming up on the second anniversary of the couple it was for. It’s further along than this picture now, but still a long way to go. I’m piecing the blocks into fours at this stage, then I’ll put fours together, etc. I have a chart I’m working off of as my design wall isn’t big enough to get it all laid out at once, nor do I have any other bed, wall, or floor space in my house large enough. I know I’ll see fabrics in places I don’t want to see them when I’m done, but I should be able to keep it fairly randomized—I have the sets of four blocks sorted in such a way it should assist in the randomization moving forward.
Meanwhile, since I wasn’t up to doing much sewing during my recovery, I was watching a lot of YouTube and flipping through my quilt books so I now have at least 15 other projects burning a hole in my brain. The trick will be, once I’m fully functional again, remembering to leave time in my work and travel schedule for creative pursuits!
Oh, and by the way, my daughter who is finishing up their second year in seminary just preached their first sermon (ever!) this morning at the church that is calling them as an assistant pastor. We were able to Zoom in for it (church pews are still a bit beyond me—see previous comment about sitting in “normal” chairs)—so proud! And yes, they did actually look up quite frequently—hard to get a good photo of someone doing public speaking. Anyway, yep, they’re joining the family biz. They’re on their way to have lunch with my two elder sisters, both retired pastors, for a debriefing right now, LOL.
So that’s me and a year in a blog post. I do really want to get back into this blogging and posting habit because I so enjoy the conversation with y’all. It’s just hard to maintain focus at this stage. All I can say is, I’m going to try.
Let me know your quilty goings on!