I’ve been in bad shape since being diagnosed with Celiac disease, which is a reaction to gluten in wheat, rye, and barley, which affects the immune system.  I went undiagnosed for a very long time and as a result have a small intestine which is severly damaged.

The treatment is to eliminate all gluten, even trace amounts from one’s diet.  I’m very careful about what I eat, but my health has continued to go downhill. I’m still losing weight and feel lousy all of the time.  I’ve started reacting badly to other foods too, like soy and dairy, and anything with MSG.

 I went to a new GI Dr. to see if he could help me work out what’s going on and get on with healing.  He did some tests, but had no answers.  In Jan. I got much worse. I started having irregular heart beats (PVCs) and loss of balance, and confusion.  It was like my brain was scrambled?  I was referred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.

The Dr.s office was supposed to make the referral to Mayo and send my records.  I was told that Mayo would contact me to arrange an appointment within 24 hours.  The call didn’t come. I waited a couple of days, then called them to see if there had been some miscommunication.  I was told they had no record of me, and was told to have my Dr.’s office call them again, which I did.  I got a call from Mayo and set up an appointment for Feb. 6.   We made travel arrangements.  Then I got preregistration papers in the mail and they all said Mayo Clinic Jacksonville FL. A quick phone call confirmed it.

My Dr’s office sent my records to Rochester, but called Jacksonville.  We quickly changed our travel arrangements. 

After several tests They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, just that “something was VERY wrong”!  I was taken off medications I’ve been on for years, and put on steroids, and they are referring me to the Mayo in Rochester. 

I gathered up a packet of medical records and results from tests, and slides from endoscopes are being sent to them.  The head of the Celiac dept.  Dr. Murry will review everything and contact me for an appointment.  I’m waiting…

I’m down to 103 lbs. and very weak.  I can’t safely go anywhere alone.  I hate losing my independence!  I can’t seem to focus enough to do any quilting, or much of anything really.  I haven’t kept up with my favorite blogs.  The people I’ve met through blogs are wonderful people though.  I’ve had a few check up on me, and send notes etc.

I got a wonderful care package from Martha at Q is for Quilter, with gluten free foods.  Very kind and generous of her…and then today a surprise package came from Barb at Fun with Barb blog.  She sent a very sweet note, along with a book : North Carolina Quilts, and a little quilt!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10303685@N06/6926195187/in/photostream

It’s the Pink Lemonade quilt Barb made from Lori’s (of Humble Quilts) quilt along.  I usually join in on these and really enjoy them, but just wasn’t up to it this time.  I just saw Barb’s quilt on her blog and was shocked that shesent  me this little cutie!  It’s like sunshine to me.

THANKS BARB!

I can’t get pics to load on my blog..I dunno why?  I apoligize for the lengthy post, and for not being able to post a good pic.  It seems they changed the security settings here? Doh!

I basted it on the dining room table by using large binder clamps.  I quilted it by following along the X shaped pieces, quilting in the ditch.  I thought I’d see how it looked once I got that much done and see if it looked like it needed more?

Since the blocks are around 7.5″, just quilting across the quilt in a grid seemed to be enough?

I chose a black and white print for the binding.

You can see a bit of the backing peeking out too.  I used an aqua/white print sheet.  The aqua doesn’t match exact..but it’s a scrappy fun quilt and I think it’s just fine?

I’m happy with how my quilt turned out, even if it’s got just real simple quilting. 

Here’s an “action shot”

There was one by Setsuko Inagawa that was really interesting.  Several of us wanted to try our hand at making some of the fun blocks.

Amy, of Badskirt blog drafted the block pattern.  She wrote up a nice tutorial on how to piece it.

Then Laura, of My New Blog Journey decided to post a quilt along for those interested in doing their own version of Setsuko’s quilt.  She started a Flickr group so we could post our blocks and progress.

My quilt ended up quite different from the one that inspired it.  It was fun to piece a block here and there as I felt like it though.  I used a variety of novelty prints and large scaled prints. I intended to just make a small quilt, but the blocks were addictive and I just had to keep making them.  I opted for plain borders.

I liked the aqua print which I had bought a quarter yard of to use in my blocks.  I decided it would make a nice border and would keep that sort of “busy” look I was after.  When I went back to the store all they had left was 31″.  I took what they had.  I considered making narrow borders, but originally wanted wide ones.  I opted for using my second choice for border fabric and made two sides from each fabric in the width I originally wanted.

I’ll bind the quilt with one of the black prints I used in the quilt. 

That is…once I figure out how to baste the quilt.   I had tables in the basement for basting, but my son moved back home so I had to put them in storage. 

Maybe I can do it on the dining room table?  I thought I’d machine quilt it too?  It’s a “just for fun” quilt.

The blocks are fun to make and would be great for using up scraps.  The block would look great in 30′s repros, or solids, or whatever?  I included clickable links for anyone that would like to try them.

With borders my quilt wil be about 75″x 83″.

I rearranged the corner blocks from the way the original pattern was done. 

I still need to make the four borders.

I need motivation to get moving on this!

I left off some of the circles from the bottom right corner.

I changed the bottom left corner block a bit too.  In Kim’s original quilt this is the upper right corner.

I thought getting everything trimmed and sewn together would give me a little enthusiasm?  It seems my “get up and go” has “got up and left”? 

There hasn’t been a lot of sewing or quilting going on around here, but I did try my hand at some wonky piecing.

I cut curved strips of fabrics with my scissors and chopped and sewed and chopped and sewed to create a runner for the kitchen counter.   Doing this kind of piecing went against my years of trying to perfect precision piecing and it was much harder for me than I thought it would be.

My eye kept editing out curves and tried to make me sew straight lines!  LOL  I’m not thrilled with the result, but it will do.  I’ll play with this free style piecing again in the future for sure because it was fun.

I got a new stand mixer to try my hand at making bread and  some other baking recipes.  I’ve never had a mixer before, but those who have them tell me I’ll love it.  The color I ordered was called Pear.  I thought I’d like to make covers for the toaster and food processor and have a runner under the mixer.  Sort of give the kitchen a little boost of color.  It’s mostly all cream colored with lots of copper pans/accesories.  When I went out shopping for fabrics I found nothing that matched other than a solid that was pretty close in color and called Bamboo.  It was on clearance for $1 yard.  I bought what they had, which was about 5 yards.

I came home and dug around in my fabrics and pulled out some solids of colors that are in the kitchen and adjoining family room. I had no plan in mind.  I thought I was going to find a nice print and keep it very low-key and easy. So much for plans!

Here’s an “action shot”.  I didn’t quilt the runner because I’m not sure if I want to?

Definately needs some “tweeking”!  : )

I didn’t know anyone that quilted, there were no quilt shops, but there was a library!  It had a couple of books, which I brought home and started reading.  This was waaay before the internet.  It was over 30 years ago!  The knowledge I got from those books and the pics in the magazines was sketchy.  There were a lot of blanks.  I saw what I now know as Trapunto.  I loved the look and wanted to try it.  This wasn’t my first quilt, but it was early in my quilting.

I decided on a wall quilt, which I thought could be draped on a dining table as a decorating option if not hung?

I thought if I quilted a nice feathered vine border and then densely quilted the background area I’d get that look.

Umm..well, sort of?  I didn’t realize I was supposed to stuff the feather and vine bits!  LOL

I quilted it ridiculously close. I quilted the bejeebers out of it.  The rest of the quilt isn’t quilted as heavily, so it’s kind of a fail?  It isn’t perfectly square.  I could add more quilting, but it’s kind of pointless to spend more time on it

I was disappointed with the  outcome and folded it up and put it in a cupboard.

I thought maybe I’ll try that again later sometime?

I pulled it out recently and was surprised to see that one of the blue fabrics I used had a fugitive dye.  It’s fading, even though it’s never been exposed to light.

The cream colored fabric is just muslin.  It’s what I could find back then in the years when Polyester was king.  The blues were just what was available in my local fabric store.  Not heirloom quilt quality, so no matter that the quilt didn’t turn out the way I wanted.  It was a learning experience, as I like to say when things don’t go as planned….

Skip forward to a couple of years ago.  By this time I’ve read more books, seen more quilts, and magazines, and the wonderful internet is here! I have a better idea of how to do Trapunto.  I gave it another go…

This time I chose to do a whole cloth quilt.  It has a wreath of Oak leaves in the center, with branches of Oak leaves with acorns coming out from it, in a spoke-like fashion.   Very hard to photograph. 

Like the other quilt, this was folded and smushed into a cupboard so it has creases, and was pinned over another quilt for taking pics.  It’s not pretty.

It’s so difficult to get a good pic on this one.

I did better this time.  I stuffed the raised pieces with yarn that I thread through after quilting.

I’d like to tell you I’m very happy with my result this time…but I don’t want to lie to you.

Seriously, why did I use brown?  The finished piece has the appearance of a very fancy moving pad.  You know, the ones that are used to protect your belongings when packed on a moving truck?

I don’t know what I was thinking?

Oh well…it was a learning experience…..  ;

Today I’m pulling another Double Wedding Ring from the quilt top cupboard.

I’m the one that pieced it.  I didn’t have a destination in mind for it when I made it, I just wanted to try the pattern, so it hasn’t been quilted. 

As you can see by the colors, I made it in the 1990′s when there were a lot of Amish inspired quilts being made.

I’d like to quilt this one. but now I’m thinking it would be a good idea to add another row to the width?  It was made for a full sized bed, and I’m finding that a lot people have Queen sized beds..or larger!  I have a large baggie with extra pieces.  I cut too many, which I do sometimes.  It gives me more options for choosing the pices as I sew them together…BUT  I’m not sure I have more of that same black?  I could applique the edges to a solid of some color and have straight edged borders? I’m undecided..so back in the cupboard it goes..to age a bit.  ;)

This is the only photo I have of the top and it looks a bit washed out?  In real life it’s much richer.

Here’s a version of a Double Wedding Ring I made for a girl my older son was dating several years ago.  She was a sweet girl and came over to walk my dog every day when I had surgery and wasn’t able to do it.

She had some “family issues” and felt a bit lost sometimes.  We had a lot of talks.

She had a love for all things Celtic and I thought if I pieced the arcs with a solid black the pattern might have a Celtic knot feel?

I quilted a message into the corner of the quilt, then whipped embroidery floss around the stitches so the words showed up better.  I don’t know if that method  has a name..but it worked well.  I also quilted in a spider web in the corner of one of the larger areas.  The others have a Celtic knot/floral design.   In Victorian times spider webs were added to crazy quilts quite often.  They were thought to be like a dream catcher and were good luck symbols.

The  message says:

If you’re feeling lonely, or if you’re feeling sad, just wrap yourself inside your quilt, and things won’t be as bad.  No matter where you go in life, no matter what you feel, this quilt will be here for you, it’s something that is real.

Today’s quilt top cupboard offering is a Double Wedding Ring quilt.  It’s the  ”sister quilt” to the Joseph’s Coat quilt I posted last week.   It was aquired at the same garage sale, and was also made by Henrietta King.

The quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted with cotton batting.  The quilt dates to 1930′s-40′s and is pieced from cotton scraps and a good quality muslin.

The pieces may have been  the scraps from making clothing, but they may have been purchased as scraps from Sears or Montgomery Ward’s by mail order?  Both companies sold nice quality cotton scraps for just pennies a pound.  I can  imagine how excited the ladies were to have the parcel they had ordered arrive!

The quilt is in good condition, having been “packed away for years”.  It doesn’t appear to have been used very much before being packed away?

The quilt has a scalloped edge, which is common to the Double Wedding Ring pattern.

The quilting design is very much like a Celtic Knot in the large space and has a cross-hatching over the rest of the quilt.

This pattern was very popular at the time it was made, and the pattern remains popular to this day.  Most quilt collectors have at least one Double Wedding Ring quilt in their collections.

I’m usually drawn to the more unusual versions/colors of the pattern myself.

I’ve included the last pic for those of you who like to see a bit more of the vintage fabrics.  : )

Please note:  Since I changed blog themes the comment icon is now located above the post rather than after, like it used to be.  I don’t know why…it makes it kind of confusing!

One of the fabrics was a stripe on a white background and it has an unusual look compared to the other pieces.

The quilt is hand quilted and has a scalloped edge.

I recently found this quilt at a local garage sale.  It was being sold by the daughter of the quilt’s maker.  She thought it was odd that I wanted the name of the quilter, but when I explained that I like to have that sort of info so I can keep it with the quilt for future reference, she gave me the name.  I told it would be a shame if her Mother’s nice work was just annonymous.

I bought a “sister” quilt at the same time.  It has some of the same fabrics but is a different design.  There are a couple of spots here and there ( me too!) but overall they are in pretty good, usable condition.  The pair cost me $50.  I would spend more than that on just the materials to make a quilt myself, so I thought they were a bargain.  : )

I had to edit out quite a bit, but I was able to save enough to keep the original “flavor” of the blocks.  I hand stitched the blocks together and added a narrow indigo blue border followed by a double pink, and then an indigo binding.  It ended up 34.5″ x41″.

As I worked on the quilt I found optical illusions that changed depending how I looked at it.

I saw light backgrounds with pink and blue stars…

dark backgrounds with pink and white stars…

and pink backgrounds with blue and white stars.  I also saw what looked like Tumbling Blocks that would appear and disappear.  It’s a fun design!  I quilted it by “stitching in the ditch” rather than 1/4″ away from seam lines like originally thought I would.  I was afraid I’d get a “tent” in the centers.  The border has a simple cable design.

I had a few more pieces left that I didn’t want to waste, so I’m piecing some Tumbling Blocks and will either applique them onto a background or make another small piece? 

This was a fun little change…and has one of my all time favorite color combos.  I love double pink!  : )