What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It’s been quite a week.   The date for  Robin’s second knee replacement had finally rolled around, and on the day prior he needed blood tests done, and we were both asked to take a RAT test each, to prove we were Covid free.  Luckily the tests were negative, always a bit of a worry as we had one friend who had his surgery deferred for quite some weeks as he had caught Covid.  The alarm clock was set on Tuesday morning for 5.00am, and we were out the door and driving at 6.00am to Palmy in ...

What could be busier than a 5.00am wake-up call?  Just as well we set the alarm on the cell phones to get us up early one day last week, now we are retired our mornings are no longer ruled by alarm clocks.  Robin was having a procedure done at the hospital and we had to be up, showered, dressed and on our way bright and early.  Driving to the hospital takes about 50 minutes but we like to allow about an hour, just in case.  And just in case it was, when we came to a complete standstill behind ...

So, this is a post about Quiet Time. As you can tell from this photo, there's lots of resting and quiet time going on here. This was taken at my parents' home in New Hampshire last week. It was Augie's first road trip and he did extremely well in the car; you would have thought that he was a seasoned road-tripper! He rested nicely on his back seat platform and did what he was supposed to do

So, this is a post about Quiet Time. As you can tell from this photo, there's lots of resting and quiet time going on here. This was taken at my parents' home in New Hampshire last week. It was Augie's first road trip and he did extremely well in the car; you would have thought that he was a seasoned road-tripper! He rested nicely on his back seat platform and did what he was supposed to do

Autumn has well and truly arrived.  Cool mornings and evenings, the sun is rising later and setting earlier, but we are still enjoying nice crisp sunny days.  It’s time to ring the changes and hang my Autumn quilt up.  I love the rich golden colours in this quilt.  The centre baskets came in a kit sent to me from my pen friend  in South Dakota.  I wanted to make it bigger so put the baskets on point and added borders to make it a wall hanging size.  This was the first time I tried circular spiral machine quilting.

Baskets ...

Don't worry, I haven't had a fall.  This is how we remember to alter our clocks when daylight saving comes to an end.  It’s “Spring Forward” at the start, and “Fall Back” at the completion.  This important job belongs to Robin, he is the clock fixer-upper in our home.  I must say that I'm always most impressed that the computers and cell phones can do this task all by themselves!

We've had a busy week.  Robin had his procedure on Saturday morning so we had a drive up to Palmerston North Hospital.  I was well ...

I’m getting there with my baby quilt, using up some of those multitude of flag blocks I made a while ago.  This week I’ve been assembling the blocks, adding borders  and making some scrappy binding.  I keep pieces of leftover binding in a basket, and found a length of pink which will go nicely.  Being Murphy’s Law, not nearly long enough of course,.  But I could work with that,  I chopped it into smaller lengths and added various pieces of pink to make it a long scrappy binding..

Dark blue floral borders

The weekly physio sessions are ...

It was an early morning start on Tuesday with the alarm clock set to 5.00am.  After Covid had disrupted the hospital surgery lists for the last two years, the day had arrived at last.  We departed from home at 6.00am, arrived at the hospital at 7.00am, and Robin was soon settled into his room.  Questions asked, tests taken, including the ever important RAT test, and then he was changed into his hospital gown.

Several weeks earlier the surgeon had told us, “Don't get Covid”, and remarked that several patients on the theatre list had to be ...

You may recall that I had a spinal operation last year, and I have been waiting for a follow-up MRI to check things out.  My appointment at the hospital was scheduled for 6.00pm the other night – and these procedures can take an hour or so.  When I expressed my surprise at the lateness of my booking, I was told that they have appointments from 5.00am in the morning right through till 9.00pm at night!  Guess they have a big backlog of appointments to get through.  But first, I had to take a Rat test at home.   Luckily ...

No, they haven't been to London to see the Queen, as the rhyme goes?  I found them all rolled up and hiding in the wardrobe!  This small cat quilt was layered and safety pinned together, ready for machine quilting.  Obviously, I had a tidy up, and put them away, so I'm pleased I found them.  Although I searched high and low through the photo albums I can’t find out when I started this project.  What I do remember is that the pussy cats came as a small panel, I sliced them apart, then sewed the sashing strips ...

No, we didn't travel by helicopter, but we have only just returned from a quick visit to New England with my Mom and Dad; this trip had been planned for months. It ended up being a different kind of visit this time, as my mother was in the hospital for the duration of our time there, she suffered a compression fracture a few days before our arrival. Due to a shortage of nurses, and hospital staff

No, we didn't travel by helicopter, but we have only just returned from a quick visit to New England with my Mom and Dad; this trip had been planned for months. It ended up being a different kind of visit this time, as my mother was in the hospital for the duration of our time there, she suffered a compression fracture a few days before our arrival. Due to a shortage of nurses, and hospital staff

Tales from Ward 7

During my stay in Ward 7 I had a visit from a young male physio who was just completing his training.  It was Pink Shirt Day, not that I really knew that.  Anti-Bullying Day is a day when people wear a pink shirt to symbolise a stand against bullying.  But the physio staff have their own uniforms and instead of a pink shirt this young man was sporting a topknot tied up with a pink ribbon.  He was at pains to tell me all about it, and said his female colleagues had made him do it ...

To make things easier for hospital visiting Robin moved or caravan closer to Wellington to reduce the travel time.  The day arrived for my spinal operation and I was whisked away.  The six hour operation went well, the surgeon told us, and I am now sporting a 10 inch scar down my backbone..  Must say that the neurosurgical team were so professional and certainly inspired confidence. I was hooked up to all sorts of equipment,  and the nursing care was excellent.  Although it was difficult to lay prone on my tummy for some time each day.

As expected the next ...

Our two weekly Sew Wot get-together was a little different this time.  Helen was our hostess and she had arranged for us to meet at Fox’s Cottage, our gorgeous local quit shop.  She was concerned that two of us (back and knee problems) would have trouble climbing up the flight of internal stairs at her home, so arranged our morning at Fox’s Cottage instead.  Isn’t that wonderfully thoughtful of her.

Our local quilt shop

Sandra was minding her cute little grand-son Harry for the morning and he was so good, smiling at everyone, and taking an interest ...

Its been another busy week – I’ve been doing a bit of this, and a bit of that.  I’m sure I've told you that it is Autumn here in my part of paradise, so it was high time to get my little hand stitched Autumn wall-hanging up on the wall.  It’s not new so no doubt you have seen it before.  The bald eagles from Juneau, Alaska,  also got a time out of the cupboard - I had purchased this kit from the local quilt shop in Juneau.  We enjoyed a week or so staying there way back ...

We have certainly had a busy week.  After our Caravan Club weekend rally we drove down to stay at Petone for several days.  With a couple of appointments during the week at Wellington Hospital it seemed sensible to stay here, then we wouldn't have the long commute from Levin to Wellington and back.

It was nice to meet up with friends during our five days at Petone.  Rae and Bruce from Foxton were also staying here, they had a family 21st birthday to attend, so they decided to stay on site for a couple of nights. They  travel around ...

For the most part, (as far as I was concerned) the screened-in porch project was finished, the ceiling and light fixtures were installed, the screen units were in place and we found furniture to make sitting out there comfortable and enjoyable. It was not, however, ready to pass inspection; not yet.  We had yet to install safety railings on the inside of the two elevated window walls. Normally

For the most part, (as far as I was concerned) the screened-in porch project was finished, the ceiling and light fixtures were installed, the screen units were in place and we found furniture to make sitting out there comfortable and enjoyable. It was not, however, ready to pass inspection; not yet.  We had yet to install safety railings on the inside of the two elevated window walls. Normally