New Year

Well, Christmas is over but I just wanted to show our perfectly-shaped tree before it gets taken down tomorrow. My husband and youngest daughter chose it and I was so pleased with it - several visitors thought it was an artificial one because it was so neat...

I did rotate the Father Christmas embroidery when I uploaded the photo but for some reason it did not take and I am too tired to go back and rectify it. It was supposed to be a stand-up Santa but it was designed in a stupid way because to make him stand up you have to lace him at the back, at which point most of the handiwork is out of sight and he becomes extremely thin and looks weird. I decided to leave him whole, stuck him on a door and he looked happy enough. He could also be hung on the Christmas tree but I prefer to have him on a door. It was embroidered on plastic mesh, which I would not use again as it made my fingers very sore when sewing. In fact, although I got this at a very reduced price at an exhibition last year, it really wasn't a bargain as it was a huge amount of work for a small result. At least he's done and he can come back next year.

Keen to get started on new quilts and finishing two borders and bindings on quilts already done but haven't got the energy or motivation to do them. Instead, enjoying my youngest daughter's company with dvds and embroidery until she leaves for England tomorrow evening. My husband has gone to Frankfurt on business today and we have terrible storms, so I'm hoping he can leave early after his meeting and drive back safely while it is still light. I'm also hoping the European storms settle down before my daughter flies to England tomorrow - I shall worry myself sick if the weather is still bad.

Happy New Year to all, I wish you a 2012 full of satisfying sewing, kniting, crochet, whatever you love.

Phew! Finished in time

Finally finished the Christmas embroidery which I began last Autumn in the hopes that it would be done by last Christmas but I was left with the last line unfinished and it had to be put away. I'm afraid I took a very quick photo on our white and grey marble table, which makes the embroidery look a bit grubby but I will post a better picture when I get a frame for it on Monday. I am really glad I made the decision to do this on antique linen as it is very traditional and it just looks right. There are so many beautiful German carols but this has always been one of my favourites - rough translation below:

Oh come, little children, come to the crib,
Come, all of you, inside Bethlehem's stall,
And see what our Father in heaven has done
In this holy night to give us Joy!

It has a really beautiful, innocent melody - I could sing it for you but that would spoil things!

New Quilt - not mine!

Radiotherapy finished, third chemo about to begin - feeling okay apart from diminished hearing (probably from the RT).

My eldest daughter came to Germany for five days recently and we had a wonderful snuggly, cuddly time, watching movies, lots of comedy, eating lovely food and lots of talk. It did me so much good. And this week my sister came out, also for five days and she has not quilted before so, as I was feeling well, I got her a simple table runner pattern and she went through every stage of making a quilt as a learning exercise by making this runner - she chose the fabrics so well and it looks beautiful. Unfortunately, my sewing machine just collapsed and refused to sew towards the end, so my sister had to turn the wheel manually and my goodness, those stitches were slow. But she finished and I am so proud of her. She is going to applique/quilt something in the big orange square when she gets home and has time to think about it more. I really think she'll carry on with this and she wants to do some placemats next so she's setting herself realistic goals rather than taking on a bedquilt and investing in a load of fabric. Luckily, she used to make clothes so has already quite a stash of cottons to choose from.

And here are the two embroideries I am working on (quilting is a bit too physical at the moment but I hope to get back to it soon). The German Christmas carol is a favourite of ours and I tried to finish this for last Christmas but didn't make it - am determined to get it done and framed by this Christmas. The other is the old German Coffee shop which is extremely tiny stitches and very slow progress but I do love the look with the copper thread picking out all the lettering and special features. I will not finish this until after New Year.

Dealing with things

This is a difficult post to make. I never intended this blog to be anything other than quilt-focused, with a little bit of holidays, family and food thrown in. However, my life has completely changed over the last four weeks and I cannot go on with the blog without mentioning it.

My MRI revealed that the pain in my rib was from advanced metastases from an unknown tumour. Health care is very good here in Germany and I spent the next two weeks doing every test imaginable to try to discover where the tumour was. Eventually, a form of breast cancer was diagnosed but still no evidence of the guilty tumour. I was admitted to hospital for a mastectomy and the doctors hoped to find the tumour in the tissue which was taken. The pathology lab worked on the results for a week and eventually found two tiny tumours of a very powerful and aggressive nature. These had sent metastases through my spine. After leaving hospital three days ago, I am due to begin a strong course of chemotherapy next week in order to treat the metastases. Then will come some radiation and any other therapy thought suitable to keep me going as long as possible.

I feel well-looked after, have good medical support and great friends and my husband has been with me at every appointment and completely there for me. After the terrible black hell of the initial shock, something in the human spirit seems to let in the light again and I am able to look positively at life again.

I just want to make clear that I will not be giving a blow by blow account of how I am all the time - this is still my quilting blog and I want to keep it that way but over the next few months I might not be getting much quilting done or anything else to show. I will, however, have even more interest (and time) for reading all my favourite blogs. I have given up my part-time job and am going with the flow.

Slow but steady.

This is my progress so far - I like sewing by hand but am hampered by not being able to sit upright so this is going slowly. I am enjoying it, though, and it is proving a great distraction. I now have to make up the pumpkins to go at each end, then borders and prairie points. I also will have some small pieces of fabric from the kit left over and I think I'll make some matching coasters. Don't know if that plan can include the little triangles below, but if not then they will go into my 'little triangle' box for use later (Bonnie Hunter has made me feel so responsible for fabric that I can't throw them away...)

And here is my little friend, Logan, watching over me - since I've had this back problem, he has stayed close unless he is on his walks with Stuart. He doesn't understand why I can't play with him at the moment but in his own way, he's looking after me.

It is Stuart's and my 35th wedding anniversary today. Unfortunately, because of me, we can't go out and celebrate or go away for the weekend but it doesn't matter. The real celebration is our recognition of how far we have come together and that we are happy to carry on. Good things.

New Quilt beginning.

This is the start of my new quilt but it is not one of the big quilts with my new fabrics that I was mulling over. I'm still only comfortable when lying or half-lying on the sofa - otherwise big pain. Only three more days until my MRI and then I'll know what the problem is. I hope. So I can't sit up or use the sewing machine, which most people would take as a disincentive to quilting. At first I was reading and watching movies etc. Then my hands got fidgety so I managed to do some embroidery. Then yesterday, knowing that the quilt group was meeting and I couldn't be there, I decided to adapt to my situation. Amongst the fabrics that Renate brought back for me from the US when she moved countries was a Thimbleberries Halloween Pumpkin table runner kit. I've never bought a kit before and I don't like Halloween so it was a weird thing for me to buy. However, I do like eating things made with pumpkin and I love Autumn, so I decided to see if I could hand-sew without sitting upright. Well, I can and here is one of the first completed blocks. I feel I'm back in the human race even if I can't work, walk the dog, go shopping or any of the things that make up a normal day. Anxious about the MRI but so much more cheerful being distracted by this!

Almost finished.

Above is the Provencal table topper that is almost finished. One row of machine quilting on coloured blocks remains to be done but I have no idea when I can manage this as I have injured my back and am out of action for a while. I am pleased with the quilting as it was only my second attempt at machine quilting and although it was laborious to keep turning and shifting the quilt while going round the flower petals, I really like the effect and also the look of the back (below)

I have not pulled the quilt straight enough for this photo and it looks wonky but it is, trust me, straight in real life - it is only cyber-wonky!


Am having an MRI next Monday to find out exactly what is causing my pain but until then I am only comfortable when lying or half-lying down. This means I can still manage to embroider a bit but quilting is out of the question (although I do have a little halloween quilt kit packed away, hmmm, maybe I could hand-sew it?) My husband is looking after me wonderfully and I am so glad that he is only travelling once a week now and is able to work from home more. There was no quilt group meeting last week and I know I cannot go to this week's as I cannot sit at all. Thursday isn't Thursday without the quilt group! Thank goodness for BBC Radio 4 and thank goodness for Youtube, where I am watching old episodes of Family Ties (I know it's dated but still so funny and my daughters and I have always adored Michael J. Fox, so I'm on a nostalgia run and it keeps me amused and is non-demanding).