Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic

Another Charleston Update

So, if you follow my Tweets or Facebook, you know I am still here in Charleston.  On Thursday, a few minutes after I booked my flight to go home on Friday, we heard from Dad's doctor re: some test results.

And as it turns out, the worst is true.  After 38 years of fighting an autoimmune condition, 14 years of living with an ostomy, the last year of horrible bile duct infections and so much more, my dad has inoperable liver cancer.  Even if he were healthy enough to survive chemo or surgery, the tumor is in a place that can only be resolved in 15% of people...

Dad has chosen to stop fighting, and we strongly support him.  There is no chance to beat the cancer, and the solutions available to prolong his life in the interim of painful and invasive.  We are now working with Hospice and plan to take him home on Monday.  While his doctors think he could last a while- the cancer is not super rapid- the infection and other issues are fairly serious.  Dad is ready to go, and our goal is to see him through it, to love him, to make him comfortable, and to get him to see his backyard gator again...  (Their house backs up to a lake where a gator often makes his home... and Dad loves to watch him.  The photo below was taken from just off their back steps.)

I plan to stay here in SC with my mom and dad for as long as possible.  Rich and the kids are flying down tomorrow, Sunday, and we're not sure how long they will stay.

My internet friends have been a source of incredible support for me in the last week, and I am so thankful for all the virtual love and real prayers headed our way.  You are all amazing, and I know I'll come back and ask for more support before this is over.  And after, too.

Today a care package from Sunne arrived at my hotel room, full of everything I'll need to make some nice simple knit-without-thinking-about-it socks. Knitters and quilters are the best people in the world.

The kindness of friends is truly the most amazing gift in the world. 

Thank you.

Please pray for a good, painless end to my dad's long, hard journey.

Still in Charleston...

I need to start by thanking every single one of you.  I have not had the time or energy to reply to all the amazing supportive comments but please know that you are really helping me through this.  I can handle posting Tweets from my phone... but entire emails are exhausting right now.

The situation here has been a rollercoaster.  My dad came in and was worse than anyone thought.  He is fighting back, but, he has been fighting all these for 38 years- since well before I was born.  A LOT is wrong right now, and I think I can honestly say this is the beginning of the end.  His spirit has been the main thing pulling his body along for a very very long time, and I think his spirit is wearing out.  No one should have to fight as much as he has...  he got dealt a really shitty hand in life and he rose to it amazingly. 

Tomorrow I am flying home for a few days- will see Annie in her big play (break a leg at opening night tonight kiddo!)  I plan to regroup, repack- much more underwear and yarn this time and also my kids- and return next week.

On the crafty side, I finished a sock here at the hospital but don't have the energy to cast on #2.  Turns out lacy thinking type knitting=not good when you are stressed and distracted.  Dad's kidney DR is a knitter (and a new ravelry friend of mine, and a quilter too!) and she has hooked me up with an LYS- tonight is thier late night and I might take a much needed therapeutic trip over there...

Charleston, once again. For the same not so great reasons as last time.

About sixteen months ago, I told you about how I had to rush down to SC as my dad was in the hospital and not doing well at all.  He recovered, as he always has, from a myriad of complicated and awful illnesses and conditions that have plagued him for nearly 40 years.

But it turns out that maybe he didn't get all the way better that time, and an infection has actually been raging in his bile ducts for the last almost year and a half.  (He takes anti-rejection drugs, like after a transplant, to fight an autoimmune condition and these drugs may have let the infection go unchecked for all that time).

His doctors have been trying to treat the infection for the last 6 weeks or so, since it was discovered.  Unfortunately, he's been getting worse.  Thursday he was hospitalized for aggressive treatment, and I flew down first thing Friday.

I hadn't seen him since March, and he looks awful.  I am very very very worried, and I am putting all this out onto the blog to ask for prayers, good thoughts, karma, juju, etc.  Anything you could send his way, he needs.  So does my mom, who has been by his side for nearly 40 years, most of them plagued by all these illnesses.

Thank you.

Here's dad a few weeks ago, doing one of his favorite things in the world...I'm hoping he will soon be up and able to catch some more great ones, but, it doesn't look so good today.

Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and on that Farm he had a lot of bunny hats.

You'd think that fabulous new stash system of mine would have me inspired to be working on projects left and right.

Yeah, not so much.

I don't know if it's the summer weather, the knitting addiction, or simple laziness, but I have not sewn a stitch in weeks.  I've got a quilt basted and ready to be finished, but that's it.  I even sewed the binding half on another quilt, and left it to sit on the floor.  Eventually I'm sure I will get my mojo on, but right now, I'm not going to fret over it.

I did just finished some obligation knitting- another bunny hat. 

This one is going to be auctioned off  this weekend at my office's annual fundraising gala.  There's an entire basket of items knitted by staff- and the basket even includes lessons!  I've also been convinced to donate a custom-knit animal hat to ANOTHER organization's auction- the buyer can pick adult or child size, colors, and their choice of bunny, cat or horse...  I'll be knitting animal hats til the cows come home.

Heh.

Dakota blues

Now that this quilt has finally made it to its new owner, I can show you the final pictures.  

Dakota is the newest addition to the family of an old friend (his older sister got this quilt when she arrived).  I have a feeling he is going to be a very mischievous little guy- he tricked everyone into thinking he was a girl at ultrasound #1, but revealed himself truly in #2.  Good thing I was running behind on starting his quilt, or he might be rolling around on something pretty and pink right now!

When I discovered Project Improv, it was the perfect starting point.  Rather than use a pattern, I bravely played with fabric and my own ideas.  That's really tough for me- so I started really simply with this one.  But I think simple worked well.  I quilted it super simply too- diagonal lines across the quilt in a soft yellow thread.  The back is a minkee-esque fabric, a soft yellow.  I had big wild plans for the binding- a fabulous wavy striped batik- but I went with a simple dark blue batik instead for a calming element.  So it turns out I accidentally made the quilt in the colors of Dakota's mom's alma mater- go me!

Working on this one was a wonderful journey- making a quilt for a friend's new son AND enjoying the creative process- I think I am luckier than Dakota.  Now to finish the next Project Improv piece AND get inspired to start a new one...

Stash, a whole new way

A monumental amount of work went into this:

And this as well:

The all new fabric organization system!  From one bookshelf AND a bunch of storage bins to 2 bookshelves.  (The books- knitting and quilting and other crafting- have moved to the family room.)  There is still some fabric stashed- all the scraps, flannel, non-quilting, and a few special pieces (vintage elvis collection, xmas.)  But the rest is out where I can see it and sorted by nothing but color.

Well, except for that bottom shelf of Kaffe...  but there's so darn much of it.  And it is so happy together... So let's pretend that shelf doesn't exist.

But the rest of it is all mixed up.  There is no longer any designer division.  Novelties lay next to solids lay next to batiks.  It's so much fun.  And it's also a really easy way to see my color prefences: bright bright and more bright, and no brown, please!  Who knew I was so obvious?

I'm looking forward to playing with my new system and making some wild and crazy quilts, after I finish a few in-process pieces lying around...  Which hopefully will happen in the next few days.

7 balls of yarn, one hundred billion stitches (or so), and one very happy 8 year old...

Browsing around Ravelry a few weeks ago, I stumbled up a simple, fabulous pattern for a child's twirly skirt.  Annie had recently pretty much outgrown the one and only skirt I had knitted for her.  (The nerve!)  So I showed her the pattern, which she loved, and we went to Michaels armed w/a 30%-off-your-entire-purchase coupon.  After much, much deliberation, Annie settled on a wild and crazy color combination, and I got started knitting.  We went with Lion Brand Micro Spun- inexpensive and machine washable with a nice drape- and in colors Annie was wild about!

Boy, oh boy, oh boy, that was a long knit.  It went everywhere with me for a few weeks- even a Rockies game!

It was super simple- I adapted it to knit in the round to avoid any seaming.  But by the time I got to the 4th color, there were four hundred and ninety- 490- stitches per round.  Dear god.  The first row took less than one ball.  The 4th?  2.5!  Take  that times 20 ish rounds... well... you see why I was ready to dance a dance of joy when I was ready to bind off!  (Well, that and also a fun dinner guest arrived at the same time...)

The Hubby helped me figure out the i-cord machine I recently picked up- we do NOT recommend the micro spun w/the machine- and he cranked out the drawstring!  A true family effort- if you count the bunny ears that Henry is giving me in the above photo...

And then, two hems sewed, and one fabulous twirly skirt, done and ready to test out!

What do you think?  It twirls beautifully!  She loves it, it fits, and- the best part- she wore it Monday when we had to go to the dentist and run a huge pile of errands.  Everywhere we went, people were crazy for the skirt!  Such a great day for my ego...  Plus, I up-sized it a tiny bit by making each stripe 1" longer and the waist a bit wider (hooray for the drawstring) so she can grow for a while and still be able to wear it!

A Weekend Full of Eye Candy

I was a lucky lucky lady this Saturday- I ditched the husband and the kids and spent the entire day at the Denver National Quilt Festival.

There was loads of eye candy- as always, it's kind of overwhelming.  You can only take in so much beauty, talent and inspiration before you hit sensory overload...  I took photos of my favorites for later perusal.  In case you didn't know where my loves lie, you will see that I favor modern, bold and bright quilts over traditional and less bright ones...  I would LOVE to see photos of someone else's faves- I bet it would look like we went to completely different shows!

To check out what inspired me, click the badge below. It will take you to a Flickr set of my photos from the show.  You can also see 2008 by clicking HERE and 2007 HERE.

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called Denver National Quilt Festival, 2009. Make your own badge here.

It seemed to me that the show was far less crowded than in years past, and that fewer quilts were on display. It also seemed that the vendors were not so very interesting- great for my budget, blah for my shopping.  Fabric you could get anywhere, boring patterns, etc.- or it could be that I personally am frustrated by traditional quilting at the moment and took it out on what I saw? 

I came home with very very little new fabric- which is just fine- but I was sad that there was less to be inspired by- not so many hand dyes or prints, and the folks who made my favorite X rated fabric from last year were not in attendance :-(  I'm not sure is the lack of attendees and vendors was due to the economy or not, but I hope next year is back up to speed!

Meanwhile, I'm going to bask in the photos I took and be inspired.  Unless I get depressed by seeing so darn much talent and start thinking "I could never do THAT."  Guess I'll just have to get braver.

Snowy Sewy Day

Some of you may have heard that we had a wee little bit o' snow in Denver over the weekend.  Just a tiny little foot or so dumped in our backyard over 24 hours... 

But it was my favorite sort of snow- CO spring snow!  Here today, gone tomorrow.  Basically, we got a fabulous Saturday Snow Day in the house- I sewed, the kids did crafts and watched a movie, and The Hubby chilled when not helping with said crafts.  And then, it all melted away, leaving us with temps near 80 degrees by today!

Before the weather got so darn gorgeous, I did take advantage of that snow day, as I mentioned.  More pink/purple/orange blocks!

Hooray!  I seriously could have kept going and going and going, but...  this is a baby quilt and I wanted it to be a manageable size for the baby.  When finished w/white-on-white borders, the blocks come in at 12 inches...

See?

Isn't it fun?  I've been enjoying playing w/out borders lately but I really really love this matryoshka fabric for a little girl.  And it ties it all together so nicely. And makes the size just right.  And also is good for me- using up that much of one of my favorite fabrics has been a big step in my battle against hoard-itis!Actually, many of the fabrics in this quilt were ones I would have previously hoarded.  Like some of those amazing new Brandon Mablys.  My god, I want them all. Oh- and wait til you see what I picked out for the binding...

But what is fabric for if not to be used and enjoyed, right?

Now I need to get of my bum and baste and quilt these last two tops.  Both are for babies not yet here, but, they will be eventually. And I have one more to go.

I also finally finished the 2 blocks for Jacquie's Project Improv auction quilts.

They are *finally*getting mailed tomorrow, I swear!

And then, after we survive Annie's big 8th birthday on Thurs and our first time ever hosting a slumber party on Sat., I'll move on to another Project Improv piece.

Free at last!

Deb wanted an update on my new fabric organization system, and if it has helped shake me out of my rut.

What do *you* think?

I'm awfully pleased with this!  I let loose and worked on two of my biggest issues- 1) the matchy matchy fabric and 2) hoarding my faves.  See all those recognizable designer pieces in there?  I was really careful to try and avoid more than 2 of any one line.  And see some of my faves in there?  I cut pieces out of fabrics I have been hoarding for ages.  And you know what?  It felt GREAT.  Having the fabrics sorted by nothing other than color really did help me- I pulled anything I liked, regardless of what category I might have put it in before.   My focus fabric is that Heather Ross matryoshka.  It has such great colors in it, and is so adorable.  Everything else built around it. And by the way, did you happen to notice that I managed to make my pink and orange quilt into a pink and orange AND purple quilt?  It's a gift, I tell you.

So here's where I'm going with these: 9 improvisationally pieced blocks of varying sizes, to be finished off in white on white, and put together w/white on white outer border, then REALLY bold binding.  I whipped out 6 blocks last night while watching the first 3 episodes of Buffy on Hulu.

I would have gone on longer, but I really needed to sleep.  As soon as I finish our taxes tonight, I'll make more. And more. And more!  Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!