Still Sick

I've been fighting off something different since December and now it's almost March.  I'm tired of being sick.  I'm taking some more time off from blogging and hoping that whatever I have is the last of being sick.  I haven't ridden a bike or walked in a couple of months other than a couple of miles during that time and it's breaking my heart not being active.   I'm hoping I'll be strong enough by the end of June to be able to do 25 miles.

I've been feeling crappy while on the prednisone and figured the chest tightness and breathing issues was part of side effects.  Today I was feeling really bad and wondered if I should make an appointment and ask as I'd stopped the medication a couple of days ago.  I figured I'd give it a couple more days and go from there.  I hate doctor offices and figured if I called up asking about chest tightness they'd make me go to the ER instead of just checking me out.

However; it turns out I took my daughter's appointment for a physical as she couldn't make it due to baby sitting and figured it would be a waste if I didn't at least ask.  Nurse totally freaked out when she took my temp and said it was 102.  Doc took a look at my heart and lungs and wondered if I had pneumonia and wanted an x-ray.  Thankfully no pneumonia but the blood tests said I had some kind of infection.  He sent me home with some antibiotics and said to come back in 5 days.

See you in five days...



 

 

Log Cabins and a Quarter Century Ride!

I'm so excited!  I signed up for a quarter century bike ride in June with another lady that has a fat bike!  I've never done a group ride or a sponsored ride so I'm terribly nervous.  I always ride by myself or with Jamie when I can get to Lincoln with my fat bike.  25 miles isn't that far but I worry about being with a lot of other people.

You should have read the legalese for this activity.  LOL.  Umm..I ride at my own risk facing death and destruction every time I go out on a bike, why would that be anything new for a sponsored ride?  But yeah, I know.  There's always some idiot out there looking to sue.

Quilting:

Since we had snow last Thursday and Friday I got out a log cabin fat quarter kit that's been sitting in my closet for about a year and started on it.  The cutting directions were terrible but finally got it all sorted.  If you find the cutting directions are bad, sit down with another sheet of paper and work out the numbers.  The widest cuts should be FIRST if you write patterns especially for fat quarter quilts.

Regardless of the terrible cutting directions I got 59 blocks done but messed up the last block.  The finished quilt is set on point so cutting across the blocks as the pattern says should prove interesting.  Here's the partial layout of a few blocks to get the idea:

 
I had far more fun with my Cameo last night making a birthday card for my FIL:

I'm still amazed at how intricate the machine can cut patterns.  I hadn't planned on making the card this small as I didn't think about resizing when it came up on the screen.   The card fits inside a letter size envelope as you can see.  Every detail is perfect.  Now to mail it out to him.   

I don't like prednisone and not sure it's helping with the bursitis.  I haven't done anything in a week but I still hurt.  I hope I'm up to riding this quarter century in June.    

Review of "Modern Quilt Patterns" from McCall's Quiting

I got the surprise of my life when I was asked by McCall's Quilting to review a free ebook called "Modern Quilt Patterns".  Inside are three beautiful quilts with full instructions.  It's in PDF format and ten pages long. 

Scrolling down is awkward when you are used to reading left to right so it's easy to get lost in directions and scrolling can be a pain.  I'll let them know that.  If there is a setting on a PDF viewer that lets you read like a normal book, it would be great to find it.

The first quilt, "Baubles and Beads" has lots of potential for scraps and colorways.  It would be stunning in blues/greens or blues/golds.  It's really easy to make but I would strip piece the center parts instead of the directions given.  It's my favorite out the three and will plan on making it some time this year. 

"Rainbow Rhythm" is made of half square triangles done in various colors from greens, blues, purples, pinks, silver, whites and reds.  The only problem I have with fat quarter quilts is that patterns never give a visual on how to cut the strips on the fat quarter.  I'd cheat and use Thangles with this because I'm lazy. 

If you can get past the pinks/purples and loudness of the third quilt, "Lemon Squeezy", it's a quilt-as-you go project.  The directions were kind of hard to follow until I realized it was a strippy pieced quilt and you just make sure the lengths are what is required in the pattern.  The quilt is sewn on the diagonal using the seams as the quilting.  It would be cool to use different colored bobbin threads to create a pattern for the back of the quilt.

Again, thanks to McCall's for asking me to do a review.

How Was Your Day?

Woot!  After several months of not touching a sewing machine I was up and ready to go today.  Sometimes you just need a break to rediscover your love and I've needed it.  With it snowing outside, it was the perfect day to cut tons of fabric for a log cabin quilt.  Who needs a Go! Cutter when this works even better?  I'm not about to pay 80 bucks for a 2 inch strip die when this ran about 13 bucks and can cut whatever widths and lengths I want.

Of course since it's been snowing, I couldn't resist a ride outside on my Mukluk.  The gorgeous white snow was calling to me.  My son took pics of me outside on the road.  I took a spin around the neighborhood and had a blast.  This bike rocks in the snow and eats it with ease.  Too bad I don't have pics of all the people staring at me while passing with their cars.  They were probably thinking what nut is out riding a bike in the middle of a snowstorm?

Went to the doc yesterday about some pain in my upper thigh.  Turns out I have bursitis and he gave me some prednisone to take for a week.  I'm falling apart.

If you're in the middle of this storm, stay safe..even if you have a Muk to ride outside.  

Feeling Better

Finally feeling a LOT better.  Don't know what I picked up but it wasn't fun.  The rest of my family only had a couple of days while I had two weeks.  You don't realize how much you need your hearing until you lose it to being clogged.  That full feeling drives you nuts and everything sounds muffled.

Thanks to a tax refund I was able to get a laptop and..gasp..it's not a Mac.  If it blows up on me, I'll never buy from Microsoft again.  I also got my first pair of real shoes for running.  Now that I'm feeling better I can get outside.

I've discovered a new love of paper.  I'll never do the scrapbooking thing, but have enjoyed making some stuff.  I bought a Silhouette Cameo cutter off of Amazon and purchased the upgrade of Designer Studio.  If you are looking to dump your Cricut and don't want a big machine, this is the perfect one.

Here's what I made for Valentine's Day for my hubby with the software and some purchased SVG/PNG files.  You can buy digital paper and print out your designs on card stock.  Hubby loved it.

I haven't done any quilting because my red fabric seems to have disappeared and I need to order green thread for the other quilt.  I was at JoAnn's and saw Kona had some really great red fabric.  I should have bought half yards of several reds to see if any of them matched what I have.  I have a kit in my closet that I should probably start or keep working on my log cabin quilt.

Sick

I hate depression and I hate being sick.  I haven't touched my sewing machine in months and even my poor bike is sitting in the garage feeling neglected.  

I'm still here but taking a break.  I'm crawling back into bed and hoping to feel better soon.  Two weeks of a cold really sucks.