To Do Tuesday on Friday for the Week of 4/23/2024

It's been a couple of weeks since my last to do list.  We were traveling for one week and once we got home, prep for knee surgery made it a lot harder to do the stairs.  So I've been sticking with hand work pretty much exclusively the last 3 weeks.  Since that's the only thing that was on my "allowed" activity list, it didn't seem worth it to do a new to do list.  By Wednesday, I was pretty bored with hand stitching and just restless. The knee is fully weight bearing, meaning nothing is going to fall apart if I walk on it.  But the knee and the rest of my lower leg hurt continuously no matter if I'm sitting, standing or walking. A new distraction was needed. 

So I Googled how to go up and down the stairs after knee surgery. It requires crutches. (Yes the knee is weight bearing, but it hurts like heck to go up stairs without assistance).  I practiced going up to the first landing (4 steps) and back down to see if it was feasible.  Once I mastered that, it was time to try for the whole staircase.  I made it to the sewing room and actually turned on the sewing machine and sewed a few seams. Using the foot pedal is a bit strange, but it's not painful.  It seems surgery took more out of me then I expected, it's tiring to sew for very long.  But now that I've made it to the sewing room, it makes sense to put a list together.  

To Do List for 4/23/2024

1. Butterfly Medallion:  Continue as back up project if the stairs seem to much. 

The first half the butterfly is finished. I've moved the hoop to do the center body and part of the remaining wing.  I may not get much more done on this if I'm able to spend a lot of time in my sewing room. But till I'm walking normally, I'll keep it on my to do list. 

2. Rhododendron: Work on adding last border. 

The strips are cut and assembled, but I need to cut them to size.  They may be more of a challenge as I'll need to measure the quilt top to do that.  Laying the top out on the floor and measuring that way is probably not going to happen because I'm just not that mobile yet.  We'll see how far I get with this.  Maybe My Guy will help me get those measurements.  

3. Guild BOM: Cut out pieces for April block.  

Even if I don't get it assembled, the May block will be out soon and then I can finish both off together. 

4.  Wild and Goosey: Continue to make purple blocks for April

I finished off one block on Wednesday and have 2 more in the works.  If I can finish those off by the end of the month, I'll be in good shape to start in on May's color. 

5. Indigo Way: Continue as leaders and enders

I need to cut a few more component pieces to finish off the B blocks that are left to make. 

That's my to do list for the rest of this week.  It is tiring to sew, the foot pedal isn't totally comfortable to use right now. If I make any progress on projects 2 through 5, I'll be happy.  Linking up with To Do Tuesday over at The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric.  

Just Hand Stitching

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted a Monday post on just stitching stuff.  The eclipse trip, along with prep and recover from knee surgery has limited my sewing room time.  So my stitching efforts have been focused on my long term travel project.  My goal was one full thread of stitching time each day while we were on the road. The first top wing of the butterfly was finished off last week.  

Since I had to go off my anti-inflammatory before surgery, it was really uncomfortable to manage the stairs, so I kept to the hand stitching all of last week.  The hoop got moved to allow for stitching on the bottom half of the wing. 

So the plan for today is to finish off this half of the butterfly.  I'm hoping to cut back on the pain medication today so that I'm not sleeping so much (I slept 6 hours during the day yesterday).  We'll have to see how that works out.  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts, plus Slow Stitching Sunday.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 16 of 2024

I've been a bit scarce on the blogging front this week.  There hasn't been much to post.  I had to stop the anti-inflammatories a week before surgery and it hurt to move without the medication. So other than handwork, there wasn't much stitching stuff going on with me.  Surgery was on Friday. Whatever they gave me during surgery worked till Saturday morning.  When it wore off, my whole lower leg hurts now.  I started the pain medication about noon yesterday.  If you see any errors below, that may be a factor.  

I only made it up to the sewing room one day last week, but I kept up with the handwork the rest of the time. I even managed to get my 15 minutes of stitching time before we left for the hospital on Friday. Of course I couldn't have breakfast or even more of downer, any coffee. I definitely needed something to take my mind off that.   

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Apr = 20/20 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 111/111 days
• Success rate = 100%

So I've managed to keep my 100% stat for most of April.  The short term goal is see if I can finish April with that metric.  We'll see how that goes.  

How did you do at working in some stitching time this week?  

1. Gretchen 2. Frédérique 3. Julie in GA 4. maggie f 5. Karen

6. Deb in Canada 7. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 8. DonnaleeQ 9. Quilting Gail 10. Bonnie in Va

11. amanda 12. Dq 13. Andrée

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Week 108 and 109 Photo Challenge: Birds and Frozen

It's been almost 4 weeks since I posted about the family photo challenge.  Both Grad Girl and I struggled with the photo challenge for week 108.  

My knee problems were limiting my mobility, so it was hard to get out to walk.  As Grad Girl was a bit time strapped due to lab work, we extended this challenge for another week.  During our trip to Texas, we visited the Monument Hill/Kriesche Brewery historic site.  My Guy hiked the trails, I found a bench to hang out on finally found my bird shot. 

Kate: Soaring

This is one of the black vultures that were riding the updrafts from the valley below.  There were four of them just hanging out and riding the winds.  It's not the best picture, but it's the best I could manage with my lens. 

My Guy definitely had a advantage with this challenge, it's one of his preferred subjects to photograph.  He didn't disappoint.  

My Guy: Northern Flicker

This Northern Flicker's coloration allows him to blend in with the bark of the tree so well. My Guy has incredible eyes when he's on the look out for the birds.  Northern Flickers are woodpeckers. They can be found throughout the continental  US, while their breeding grounds include all of Canada up into Alaska. 

Grad Girl is managing two concurrent projects, one of which is new.  So she's been putting in a lot of lab time.  Consequently, she had to get inventive. 

Grad Girl: Queenie's Birdie

Queenie does love her toy birds, especially her red ones. This one at least still has it's feathers. She's pretty good at plucking them all out over time.  

We finally drew a new challenge card after we got home from Texas. 

My Guy said once it was drawn that it was definitely the wrong season for this card.  Which just means we have to look a bit harder for subject matter.  I didn't have to think to hard to find my photo. 

Kate: Yummy Frozen Stuff

I love ice cream. But these ice cream sandwiches are all that hang out in our freezer as it's easier to control intake.  It's amazing how quickly a gallon of ice cream disappears from the fridge.  

My Guy struggled with this week's photo, but he still came out with a cool image of a common item.  

My Guy: Cube

Ice cubes have such interesting textures. This photo illustrates that well. 

Grad Girl pulled her image from her lab work (as that's about the only place she's been the last week). 

Grad Girl: Filter Freeze

 

One of the solvents she uses in her reactions freezes as it evaporates and it builds up on the edge of the filter funnel. She finds such cool subjects in her lab. Chemistry is indeed fun.  

I pulled the card for this week.

This is one subject that is definitely open to interpretation. It should be interesting to see what we all come up with this week. 

Stitching Stuff: Week 15 of 2024

I'm a bit late posting this morning. I'm a bit dragged out from all the travel.  We spent all of last week in Texas. The big draw was the eclipse on Monday, but we stayed a few extra days to spend some time with Grad Girl.  I shared one of my photos earlier this week. My Guy used his DSLR and a filter.  Here are some of his shots. 

As you can see in the photos, the cloud cover cleared just before totality, but was back before the eclipse ended.  

As we were on the road all of last week, my stitching time was all hand stitching.  Some mornings I only had time to stitch one full length of thread, but that still met my 15 minutes goal. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/Apr = 13/13 days
• 15 minute days/2024 = 104/104 days
• Success rate = 100%

So I'm still at 100%.  We'll see if I can keep it up through Friday when I have surgery.  It's been pretty motivating to see if I can keep the 100% through April.  

How are you doing with working in a bit of stitching time each day? 

1. DonnaleeQ 2. Frédérique 3. Deb in Canada

4. Shelina @ High Road Quilter 5. Quilting Gail 6. Dq at Dreamworthyquilts

7. Bonnie in Va 8. Andrée at Quilting & Learning

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