S.W.A.K. ... Something New

I recently started learning about online quilting bees.  Many of the bloggers that I glean inspiration from talk about different "bee blocks" that they're working on or sending out or receiving from their groups.  I really enjoy their creativity and am more than somewhat jealous of their extensive stashes.

Last week one of these bloggers gave a link to their group called Stash Bee.  I got over there and I think I got lost :)  In a good way ... To make a long story short, I ended up in an e-mail conversation with one of the "Mammas", found out they have openings and I'm taking the plunge.  Each month I'll be making at least one block and next June (2013) it will be my turn to submit a block and have everyone send me back their version.  I have no idea how I'll make that determination.  I look forward to the challenge of making quilt blocks I wouldn't otherwise touch and trying new color schemes.

Here's a taste of what I'll be working on for Danny's quilt blocks this month ...

http://www.filminthefridge.com/2010/11/10/a-finished-starburst-quilt/

If you're interested there are several openings that they're trying to fill right now, so it's a good time to jump in.  I really like this one because we use our stashes rather than mailing or requiring specific fabrics.  Hop on over and check things out ... their rules page is clear and you can browse past months to see what everyone was working on.  Hope to see you there ...

Goadsby's Magical Receptors

*Let me start this post off with a disclaimer:  I am NOT in any way, shape or form a medical expert (or even a scientist.)  Everything in this post is based on my interpretation of what has been told to us by our magnificent team of doctors.*

She looked up just as I clicked ... oh, well

As many of you know, my oldest daughter, Samantha, has been suffering from a debilitating headache since January 3, 2012.  Her official diagnosis is NDPH (see this post for more details.)  She continues to be unresponsive to treatments, so last week we got to travel down to San Francisco for another course of DHE treatment--this time with her specialists at the UCSF Headache Clinic.

Things went well.  She reached the target dosage of the DHE (dihydroergotamine) and with a little experimentation, was not nauseous for most of that.  The doctors were concerned with that because nausea is an indicator as to the efficacy of the treatment--basically the more nauseous you are the less effective the treatment is.  Her "drug of choice" (boy that sounds bad) was a combination of Domperidone (the non-alcoholic distant cousin ...) and Kytril--not for everyone, but worked wonders for Samantha.  We had an amazing team of doctors working with us--headed by the two doctors at the headache clinic.  The intern assigned to her, Dr. Chan, was amazing!  She is a first year intern focusing on Pediatrics, but she was so good for Samantha.  She has an amazing fashion sense that caught our attention right away, and when Samantha was having difficulty seeing things through, she was able to talk her through it.

Without going into too much detail, Sam and I agreed that "Goadsby's magical receptors" was the phrase of the week.  I heard Dr. Goadsby himself talking about them with the other doctors using thousand-dollar words that I couldn't possibly hope to repeat, but one of the Neuro-interns dumbed it down for us with that phrase.  Basically they are the neurotransmitters in our brains that act as pain receptors.  Sam's are misfiring and not responding to treatments thus far.  Sooo, the DHE molecules are supposed to connect themselves to these receptors to confuse them into letting other meds through to the brain and therefore break the headache.  Very oversimplified, I'm sure, but that's how I understand it.

So now we wait.  Again.

This-is-so-COOL: Happy Birthday to ME!

Forgive a little self indulgence today.  This has been a month to remember already and I have no idea where time has gone.  I woke up this morning and realized that I hadn't posted since the first of the month.  Yikes!

Last night I came home from work and Rhett showed me our new cabinets.  This was an idea I saw on Pinterest a while back and pushed for in our bathroom remodel.  There's a couple of more things to work on, but here's a preview:

Last year Rhett took me to Best Buy for my birthday.  I know ... woohoo, right?  Well, you know, not really.  He's the best husband ever, but definitely has a one-track mind and uses special occasions to try to keep me more up-to-date ... ANYWAY, he bought me a Kindle.  At the time, I indulged him as he let me browse the various readers and make my final choice, but I've always thought of myself as a traditionalist--smell-and-feel-the-pages-of-the-book, look-at-the-glossy-pictures-in-the-gift-books, rip-articles-from-magazines-I-want-to-keep, always-carry-a-paperback-in-my-purse kind of gal.  And I am, but ... I LOVE MY KINDLE!!  It's like the gift that keeps on giving.  It's small enough to fit in my purse even with the case on it.  I always have several choices of books to read from.  I can read it in the sunlight and there's no glare to worry about.  Even my eye doctor extolled the virtues of this e-wonder when I went in for an eye exam.  When I'm finished with a book, it stores away nicely in a folder and I can easily get the next gem over our home network.  What used to take up two double deep shelves of my bookcases, now takes up six lines on my Kindle.  Don't misunderstand ... I still steal away to B&N every chance I get and I will always keep certain books (Narnia and Green Gables, for example) on my shelf (there are just too many memories and too much sentiment to let them go,) but I have a new tool in my shed that is better in so many other ways.

This past year has also been so full for me.  I've gone new places and learned so many new things.  I started this blog in earnest and I'm really enjoying it.  The original intention was to have a family-share forum as well as  a place to share my love of crafting.  I think most of all its become a way for me to process and evaluate.  This works for my craft projects, but more especially for LIFE.  There is a magic to writing that helps clarify the thinking process.  There have been many posts I sat down and worked out, then never published just because I needed the therapy.  Maybe I'll get better about sharing more, but for now the process works for me.

Since I was a teenager, I always wanted to learn to quilt.  I'd check books from the library and read them and look at the old quilts in the pictures.  I even went to see a play called Quilters with Grandma Heath as a teen.  I loved that you could tell a story with the fabric and construction as well as through its life and lineage.  But no one in my circle quilted and I'm too timid to try something that grand on my own. Well, about two years ago, I decided it was time to bite the bullet.  I had one of those chain mail things were you send the first two people blocks then forward the letter and wait for your blocks to come in the mail ... Well that prompted me to my first basic project (below).  I bought a couple books from JoAnn's and off I went.  I won't tell you how long it took, but I was LEARNING!

I also got the idea for Sam's Trek quilt about that time and went to town on that.  I'm not very patient with the hand quilting, but I can do it and I get better each time I work on it.  This year I plucked up the courage to start machine quilting.  I've got the basics down and love to spend time practicing.  I've got a long way to go, but am loving the journey.  I can totally see how this hobby can become an obsession.

All in all, I can look back at this past year with a deep sense of accomplishment.  I'll never get to everything I want to get to, but I've kept it all moving right along.  I've focused my priorities into taking care of my family and eked out time for other things I enjoy.  I hope you all can feel as blessed in your own endeavors!

Half-baked: A little bit of this, a little bit of that ...

Welcome to August!  I've always loved this month (and not JUST because it means its almost my birthday :) Memories of August include sweltering days poolside, watering flowers in our yard for Dad and back-to-school shopping.  I still remember buying some sweet cords and a brown velour top that I LOVED one year for elementary school.  (Did I just totally date myself?  Oh well.)

Last week Rhett and I removed EVERYTHING from our bedroom for a pretty intense deep-clean.  That meant furniture, craft supplies, clothes and well, you name it was spread throughout the house.  You could barely walk into our living room for almost a week.  The kids playroom literally had paths to the computers.  We took that time to re-arrange things as we put things back in order.  Rhett and I switched our "office" areas.  He now has my old sewing table and that side of the bedroom and I have a longer fold-out table in the living room.  I also gave up my craft closet that stored all my supplies--painting, crochet, sewing and scrapbooking.  Its been quite interesting trying to create suitable new spaces.  It will be ongoing ...

Since I got most of that to a stopping point, I took some time to finish my Tetris block for week 3--YAY!  I'm loving how this is coming along.  This is my first truly scrap project and I think it'll make a fun picnic or outdoor blanket.

Finally, I got some baking done last night.  We have a little "thing" this afternoon at Rhett's work that I'll post more on later, but I wanted to make a goodie tray to take with us.  Both recipes I got from other bloggers.  My favorite cookie ever is Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, so I had to try this recipe that was recently posted.  I made them with my small Pampered Chef scoop--so people would be more likely to munch.  They turned out really well.  They browned up nicely and are soft to eat.  I still prefer my Aunt Susie's recipe (I'll  have to post that sometime ...) that I've had forever, but these aren't bad.  The cinnamon flavor is really strong, so I'll either halve or totally omit that next time.  This other recipe is one that I've made before for ward potlucks.  It always disappears super fast.  I cut it into about 1" squares.  It's a very rich three layers:  chocolate chip cookie, oreos and brownie mix.  The recipe calls for double stuff, but I just use regular Oreos.  It can take 15 or 20 minutes more to cook than the recipe says, so be patient. Its definitely worth the time it takes to cool and set up, so leave yourself plenty of time by making it the night before you actually want it.

A little catching up ...

Today I finally sat down and finished filing through all the days of the Red, White and Blue blog hop.  During the second week, I was away on my hike and the following week I was in SF with Sam, so I never got to see the rest of those fabulous posts.  I pinned links to all of the posts here.  So much amazing talent!  Here are my favorites (other than my own, of course):

( http://quiltnqueen.blogspot.com/2012/07/red-white-and-blueand-give-away.html )

( http://judithhandmadetreasures.blogspot.com/2012/07/red-white-and-blue-blog-hop.html )

( http://quilttaffy.blogspot.com/2012/07/red-white-and-blue.html?showComment=1341557758504 )

( http://quiltingbydawn.blogspot.com/2012/07/celebrate-red-white-and-blue.html )

( http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com/2012/07/lets-celebrate-red-white-and-blue.html?showComment=1341335259645 )

I'm also linking up at the last minute to the second week of the Tetris Quilt-along on Happy Quilting.  I'm keeping up so far and that makes me smile :)

Today actually marked day 12 since Sam had her occipital injection.  Unfortunately there was no benefit from that treatment, so we're working on the next step with her doctors.  We'll keep everyone posted on that.

Adagio: Ritardando (rit.)

After the last couple of weeks I am so ready for a little slowing down.  I loved my hike and have survived San Francisco, but I am so ready to get back into the around-the-house routine and just get stuff done.  I missed my sewing machine and I certainly didn't get much housework done--thank goodness for Grandma while I was gone :)

Samantha and I met with the doctors at the UCSF Headache Center on Tuesday and Wednesday.  They basically confirmed her diagnosis of New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH) with one caveat--there are two "types" of that diagnosis and she has the migranous variety.  Basically her constant headahes mimic migraines in a couple of ways, but aren't really migraines.  But we already knew all that ...  On Wednesday, she received a shot of lidocane and steroid into her left occipital nerve.  That can take 7 to 10 days to feel any positive effect and works for 2 out of 3 patients.  In the meantime, we're fervently praying for her to start feeling some of that relief.

We did get a little bit of sightseeing in between doctors visits, public transportation and the 9-hour drive each way, so here is a sampling of some of the relaxing we did:

 
Finally, I signed up to do another quilt along a few weeks ago and it started while I was in SF.  I woke up early today to work on week one and here it is.  I'm grateful it came together so quickly since I have so much else to do :)  If you're interested, check it out by clicking on the link on my sidebar or at http://happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com/2012/07/tetris-quilt-long-week-1.html.

Have a wonderful weekend!



S.W.A.K.: I'm ho-ome ...

I spent the majority of this week hiking along the McKenzie River.  I haven't done anything like this in years and I had a super fun experience!  I served as a back-up adult for the just-in-case scenario.  My original plan was to stay at camp each day, but I ended up hiking about half of the 23 miles that the others completed.  We started up at the trail head above Fish Lake Creek on Tuesday (July 10th) and ended down by the Hot Springs on Friday (July 13).

http://mckenzierivertrail.com/mckenzie-river-trail-map-

The first day I was driving down and hiking up to meet the group at a couple of different points. I figure I probably hiked about 3 miles or so.  I got to see beautiful Clear Lake and Sahalie Falls.  Unfortunately it was too much for Sam and I ended up driving her home that night.  I drove back early on day two and hiked the whole day with the group after settling into the campsite we were headed to that evening.  Thank goodness for two cars!  It allowed me to store some gear and also for us to have one car at each end of that day's leg of the trail.  We hiked from Ice Cap to Trail Bridge which is 5 to 5-1/2 miles.  It was 3/4 of a mile just from the trail down to the campground.  The next day I hiked about 3/4 of a mile down before I had to go back up to my car at the top of where we started due to serious blisters.  I got the spend the day at Olallie camp with two of our YW.  They were totally bummed not to be hiking but we had a good time playing card games and exploring right along the river.  That last day most of our group packed up to go home, but one of our super-leaders wanted to do another leg, so three of us packed up and hiked from Olallie down to the Belknap Hot Springs which added another 5 miles to the total.  Even though I only walked that one day with my full pack, I ended up with about 14 miles under my belt.  I'm so proud of all of us!

It was amazing to me how much a backpack can really slow things down.  What would normally be for me a couple of hours on a day hike became a day-long ordeal with a couple of longer stops to take the pack off and rest, eat and filter more water. The trails are very well maintained and shared by hikers, campers and trail bikers.

Really, there was NO reception!  We couldn't check in at home in the evenings.  We relied on prayers for our loved ones back home.

 Each day along the trail was so very different.  We had everything from lava fields to lush, Jurassic-looking water inlets.  So much of the water was clear and inviting ... even if it was FREEZING.  I've never drunk straight from a river before.  What a treat to have fresh-filtered water.  That's the life!

 We have a very small YW group with awesome, supportive leaders who rearrange thier lives to let us have amazing activities like this.  We started with three girls and five leaders and had quite a range of experience represented.  Our priesthood leaders would shake thier heads at us in the evenings ... table cloths and green salads apparently are not roughing it enough :)

I didn't get too many pictures because Sam had our camera on the first day and she used up almost all of the battery, but here are some that we had (she took most of these posted here--THANKS!)  I am so grateful to live so close to several wilderness areas and be able to bask in nature's beauties.  I had some amazing time to reflect and meditate and recharge my spiritual energy.

Hope your week was as awesome as mine has been!  Next week I'll be out of it again since its finally time to drive down to San Francisco for Sam's specialist appointments.  Hopefully we'll have some time to have fun and take more awesome pics of that trip.

Hooray for the Red, White & Blue!

Welcome, welcome, welcome!  For those of you who are visiting for the first time, my name is Heather and I am the Reformed Heath'n.  This is my first ever blog hop experience.  I've loved skipping around in other hops and seeing all the amazing projects that everyone was working on.  I thought that was way beyond my experience level, though.  BUT, when I saw spaces open for this blog hop, I knew this was the right one for me to get acquainted with this experience!  I hope you enjoy my project as much as I enjoy all of yours!

Thanks so much to Jane @ Jane's Fabrics & Quilts for organizing this two-week-long event and also to Madame Samm for cheering us all on.  I'm especially excited to be coming to you on Independence Day!  For the full line-up, click on the button on my sidebar.  Here are the rest of the lovely ladies who are also posting for you today:

Jane's Fabric & Quilts

A Reformed Heath'n (you're already here!)

krislovesfabric

Katie's Salt Marsh Path

The Recipe Bunny

Quilter in the Closet

I've always loved this holiday--and anything related to celebrating our pride in the stars and stripes.  One of my fondest memories growing up is visiting the Smithsonian Museum of National History.  I was in second or third grade and recovering from the chicken pox.  I was no longer contagious, but not yet ready to go back to school.  My dad worked at home and offered to do anything with me that I wanted to do for a day.  I think he was a bit surprised that I requested a museum trip :)  In those days, the original Star Spangled Banner was hanging in the entryway behind a protective screen.  They would lift the screen and play the national anthem at certain times.  That day, we planned our trip so we would walk in just before the music started and I could be front and center by the railing.  I remember being in awe of the flag that was so old, that had survived so much and was the inspiration for our national anthem.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/national-treasure.aspx

This memory is why I wanted to do a traditional star block.  After much searching and playing with designs, I found this one that I absolutely love:

(http://www.connectingthreads.com/tutorials/Stars-Intro_to_the_Star_Block__D10.html)

I looked through my 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks by Judy Hopkins and found the one I was looking for on page 227.  It's name is The Sickle, and with a couple of modifications, it is one-fourth of this quilt block.

I used the dimensions from the book and here is what I cut for each larger 12" block:
Main Color:  4 squares of 3-7/8" cut in half on the diagonal to make 8 triangles
                    8 squares of 2"
Second Color:  8 squares of 2"
White:  4 squares of 3-7/8" cut in half on the diagonal to make 8 triangles
           16 squares of 2"

1.  Chain stitch all the HSTs together--half white, half color.  **Note:  The next time I do this, I will not cut the HST's apart until they are stitched.  For this alternate method, see my other tutorial HERE (under Day 3).

2.  Chain stitch all the 2-1/2" squares together the same way--half white, half color.

3.  Press all the seams.  Because I want this to lay flat as a table runner, I chose to press them all open.
4.  Combine the rectangles to make four squares.   Then combine two of the 4-square blocks and two of the HSTs to make the reformed Sickle block.  (I like how these smaller squares kind of look like butterflies.  Opens up a whole new can of, well, ... )  Press the new seams.

5.  Lay out all your squares to create the desired pattern.  Each large finished block is made up of four smaller blocks.  There are tons of possibilities, but this is mine.

Stopping here is the one red, white and blue block, as promised.  Keep going to see the table topper ...

For the table topper, I made four blocks.  One-half yard is all you need of both the red and blue, and one yard of the white.  For the thin border, I cut 4 strips that are 2-1/2" x WOF (approx. 1/3 yard) and for the outer border, I used 5 strips that are 4" x WOF (approx. 2/3 yard.)  I'm planning on using about 2 yards of fabric for the backing and 2 packages of regular old white bias tape for the binding.

I sure hope you all enjoyed the project and come back often to see what's going on around here.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Independence Day!!

**Thanks for your patience everyone.  I had it scheduled to post at 12:01 AM today, but apparently I did something wrong.  Thanks for coming back!**

Hello, again!

I'm very excited about two of my projects right now.  Here is a preview of both of them ...

First is the Red, White and Blue blog hop that starts on July 1st.  This is the first time I've participated in anything like this.  I'm so excited for this, especially because my day to post is on July 4th ... Independance Day!  Not only is this my favorite holiday, I've always had a special love for the colors of our flag.  That day I will be sharing a patriotic square of my own creation and using that design to make a festive table topper.

Second is a quilt-along.  I am making a ruffle quilt with Rachel from Family Ever After.  She was my first official follower and I love her blog.  I was a little hesitant about it at first, but the more I work on it and look at my fabrics, the more enamored I become.  I'm so glad I took a leap and decided to participate before I knew what it would look like!

Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!

More Pinspiration: Fabric Baskets

Over the last several months I've really come to enjoy Pinterest.  Having a virtual bulletin board is an easy way for me to file my ideas away.  Since I follow around 100 blogs on a regular basis now, I come across ideas I really like on a regular basis.  I only wish I had more time to pursue it all now ...  Here is the latest.

http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html

I saw this super cute basket and knew I could do this.  The tutorial is super clear and detailed.  Growing up, my mom always taught me to follow the original recipe first and then add embellishments.  One of these days I'll learn ...  I had a stack of 3" squares lying around from another project fail that I decided to try out.  Following the tutorial, it was very easy to create a re-size using the scraps on hand.  It turned out OK, but not great.  It is bigger, but too flimsy for the size.  I'll probably end up using it with a birthday gift for one of the kids' friends.

Next time around, I mostly followed the tutorial again, but added a few things based on my first experience.  Again, I used all scraps--mostly from Sam's trek quilt.  Here are my own embellishments:

*  I used lightweight interfacing on both the quilted outside piece and the lining.  It got a little tight when turning everything out to the right side, but I took things slowly and it still worked out perfectly.

*  I practiced my machine quilting on the pieced squares.  It is the perfect piece for that since the back side is covered with the lining--no one except me (and now a few of my closest friends) has to know that the tension on my bobbin is wacky.

*  I don't know where I got the idea for this, but when it came time to make the boxed corners on the bottom, I used a piece of scrap cardstock measured from the corner, then placed it over the corner seams and traced with a marking pen where to sew.  It was much faster than measuring from the point each time then using my ruler to join the points on each side or trying to find just the right placement with my quilting ruler.

I took these in to share with a couple of ladies at the kids' school and they thought they were super cute, too.  They stand up perfectly and are the right size for holding small collections like hair accessories, makeup, extra spools of thread, small crochet or sewing projects ...