Today was my first day off since mom came home from rehab. Bill went and picked up Grace this morning while I showered and got mom up and dressed. We hadn't made any plans for things to do today, and I remembered that there was a blues festival in Tacoma that we missed last summer, so I looked it up and it was happening again this year and happening TODAY! I must be psychic. :)

So, after we got a little errand for Bill run, off we went to the Old Town Tacoma Blues Festival. There were numerous acts playing for free in the Old Town park, and for a measly $5, you could get into one of the smaller venues and see other bands play. We paid our fiver each and wandered behind the Mountaineers Club to a delightful little walled garden and watched two very good bands play.
Little Bill and the Bluenotes was first, and they had a guest vocalist for a couple songs: the lead singer from the Wailers! Wow, they were good. After a break to swap gear on the stage, we watched Chris Stevens and the Surf Monkeys with guest harmonica player Jay Mabin. That guy could really play! Check out his mad skillz here.

We soaked up a good five hours of REALLY good music on a beautiful summer day.

Then we got home and I took Grace back to Belfair, and saw an owl, coyote pup, and lightning on the way home.

Then I walked in the door.

Bill was about ready to throttle mom. She spent half an hour click-a-click-a-click-ing her controller on her power chair (which is annoying enough). When he finally went to check and see what in blazes she was up to, she was crashing her way through my quilt studio to go to the laundry room to get her laundry from the dryer. After that, she trashed the laundry room to crash her way back out through the kitchen to haul her laundry into her room.

Number one, she's not supposed to go through the studio in her chair because those are the narrowest doorways in the house and her chair doesn't fit through them unless you line it up just right and even then it's a squeeze. Number two, there is not room to move her chair by the laundry machines because it takes out the coat tree and our shoe baskets. (She even lost the handle off her chair control stick in there and didn't bother to say anything.) Number three, I always take care of her laundry for her, since she can't reach the closet rod, can't put towels away under the sink because either she can't reach or the chair is blocking the cabinet door, and usually ends up dropping her clean clothes on the floor when she tries to fold them.

Of course, I tell her that she KNOWS she's not supposed to go in the laundry area or through the studio because of numbers one and two above. She tried to pull the "I can't do anything right!!!" wail out but I cut that off right away. I told her to pack that bull pucky back up because she wouldn't be getting chewed out if she didn't do things that she knows she's not supposed to do.

Sheesh, if she's trying to punish me for taking a lousy day off and leaving her with Grace for the day, she's doing a fine job of it. I just love coming home to dinged up doorframes, a disaster area in the laundry room, a thoroughly pissed off husband, and a sniveling mom.

NOT.

Copy Editor! I come across so many instances where people obviously used a spell checker and not their brain when checking for spelling errors. For example, in this article, they wrote the phrase "to basque in the sun". Um, that should be 'bask', as in to lay out and soak up, not 'basque' as in the northeast region of Spain.

Edit-just came across another one: 'like a bolt of lightening'....errr, making something paler? Try 'lightning' for the bright noisy thunder making things in the sky.

I come across several of these homonym errors every week, either in the paper, on the 'net, or in the books I'm reading. Yes, it's a real word, but it's the WRONG word by context.

A good job for a detail-oriented reading freak like me, eh? Ah, to be paid to read books and articles and catch those sneaky little errors before the copy goes to the printers... Sounds heavenly.

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In other news, mom's been 'graduated' from home health and our first PT appointment at the clinic is today. Tomorrow she gets her internal medicine pre-surgery checkup, and next week she sees Dr. Ginny for a once-over and a medication refill. I haven't got the schedule for the orthopedics pre-op appointments, but the surgery is scheduled for August 13th.

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And, lastly , for your enjoyment, this blog entry that I found wandering through Flickr's cat photos. I love Love LOVE these two drawings and even printed them out to frame. This is my kind of art. I just adore the cat sleeping on the girl's back while she reads in the 'before' picture.

Bill and I got two fence posts and panels up and swam in the lake twice this weekend. The three of us went to the house of one of mom's friends for a barbecue potluck and fireworks. A lovely time was had by all and everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) wanted the recipe for the 'Crack Snackers', aka Bacon Twists, aka Holiday Bacon Appetizers.

Best of all, this evening I finished book #100 this year, and it was awesome! I loved the first trilogy by Maria V. Snyder, and the first book of her second (picking up the life of a small character from the first and running with it) was fabulous. Storm Glass is definitely worth reading, but you might want to pick up the first three (Poison study, Magic study, Fire study) first. Some of you already have Poison study, because I gave copies of it to several people that year for christmas after I first read it. It's that good. I read the first book in one sitting, Bill read it in two sittings (darn work anyway) and his mom read it in one sitting. Good stuff.

Other thoroughly enjoyed titles from our family-shared reading are the '...In Death' novels by J.D. Robb, Medicine Road by Charles DeLint, and most recently, Dog On It by Spencer Quinn.

Happy reading, everyone!

One of the blogs I check often is by an artist named Andrea Zuill. Her artwork that she does is delightful. I just found out that she's not only selling stuff through Etsy, but through Zazzle as well.
I looooooove this t-shirt!
http://www.zazzle.com/gornak_tshirt-235631900382222071

I am so thankful that I stopped and took a few minutes to chat with the receptionist at my dentist's office after my appointment. Had I not, I would have been in the middle of this:




This was a scary wreck. I was about five minutes or so behind this accident, and just happened to be one of the cars creeping past when the officers told everyone to stop and pull over so a tow truck could come in. I was dismissed by the state patrol officer after about ten minutes after the driver of the minivan was loaded into the aid car because I was not a witness.

Y'all be careful out there and make it home in one piece, okay?

My fourth find was on the other side of the lake in the vacant land. The blackberry bushes are blooming like mad, and only a madman would want to pick those flowers! Thorns everywhere! At least this means we'll have a good crop of berries in a couple months. Instead of a picture of the boring brambles, I took this one:

The Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) has clusters of tiny bright red berries just covering the canes. I startled a huge band-tailed pigeon just before taking this picture. He must have been having a late dinner or early dessert of sweet berries.

This vacant land gets a lot of sunshine during the day and so I was able to find some summer flowers that haven't really started blooming elsewhere. I remember seeing acres of these next flowers when we visited Alaska a few summers back:

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) grows prolificly wherever land has been cleared. It's one of the first things to shoot up in areas that have had a forest fire. The seeds blow for miles on their downy fluff in the fall, almost like cottonwood snow.

I walked past a nice horse that ambled over to say hello over his fence. Just beyond his fence (and a good thing since they're known to be toxic to livestock) was a stand of these:

Common Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). I have fond memories of teaching my then 3 year old nephew the names of some wildflowers one summer day. We had fun picking off single blossoms and wearing them on our fingers like little hats. He surprised the heck out of his parents later that week, pointing out the car window and saying very distinctly "foxglove!"

On my way back around the lake I kept a careful watch for another flower along the edge of the road. I found this next instead!

An abandoned duck egg! Nearby was a patch of Bedstraw (Galium aparine) that had some duck feathers caught in the little burrs. (I love playing bedstraw tag on walks in the woods. We rarely make it far without a piece of it hanging from our clothes somewhere where our companion hung it on us!)

I did spot one last flower on a warm patch near the pavement. This is Heals-all or Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris):

I bet even my husband could recognize this one. I few years back, I was doing some research on the medicinal properties of native plants. This flower, which usually blooms from July through September, can be picked along with its stems and leaves, crushed with some water to make a poultice, and placed over abrasions and bruises to prevent infection and speed healing. Knowing that he was going hunting that fall and usually came home from such trips with scrapes and bruises, I pointed it out to him often and reminded him of how useful it was. He didn't need it that trip, but I file it under 'potentially useful information' in my brain anyway.

As for something tangible to remember these flowers by, I'm thinking of making a quilt with images of the flowers on it. I just tried a new technique of coloring with colored pencils on fabric and I think this will make a pretty wall hanging for summer over our fireplace...

I read a number of crafters' blogs, and one is that of Froken Skicklig", a doll maker in Europe. She has an upcoming giveaway that involves a very specific task: pick seven wildflowers and make a little something special with them. Well, I decided after finding my first wildflower, not to take them home except as pictures. Here they are in order:

No more than I got out the door to go for my wildflower walk than little miss hummingbird did a complete orbit of me to let me know that the feeder needed refilling. With a smile and a promise that I would remember, I headed out before the sunlight disappeared behind the clouds. My first stop was the community well house road. It's still early for these tiny darlings, but they are so rare that I decided unopened flowers are better than none:

These are Spotted Coralroot Orchids. (Corallorhiza maculata) They have no leaves whatsoever and grow in buried rotting wood. My grandpa always made a point of sharing with me whenever he found some somewhere in our community or nearby parks.

A black headed grossbeak in all of his orangey goodness flew overhead as I walked back down the road, past where I planted a group of native flowering shrubs. I had to reserve my plant order months in advance for the local conservation society plant sale. I got some Camas bulbs and red flowering currant shrubs also, but they finished blooming weeks ago. I was overjoyed to see these blooms, as they're the first on any of these shrubs to flower:

This is Mock Orange. (Philadelphus sp.) I'm not sure which variety, but they do have that very faint citrus fragrance that gives the genus their common name.

Wildflower number three: I actually trespassed a tiny bit onto the cow pasture across the street because these sweeties were peeking out from under a clump of trees about four feet inside the fence:

I love Twinflower! (Linnaea borealis) This tiny groundcover makes a mat of glossy green leaves and sprouts up these matched pairs of pale pink bells. We used to have these growing under the trees in our old yard, along with little yellow wood violets and starflowers (both of which bloomed earlier, in March and May respectively.)

More tomorrow...

Give me a deadline when something has to be done, and I'll usually get it done well in advance. For example, in college, it never failed that all the classes' big projects were due the same week. I would work on the papers and such as time permitted and inspiration struck. Sometimes I would have the last of the quarter's papers done at least a week before they were due. Then, while everyone else was slaving away pulling all nighters the weekend before stuff was due, I'd be off playing and sleeping.

It's still the same way now. When I participated in Doll Quilt Swap 6 this spring, I had my partner's quilt finished three weeks before the first day to mail. It seemed to take forever for the swap to finish! Now I've signed up for the Scrap Quilt challenge, and it's supposed to be finished by July 25. Um, I finished mine today. The worst part? We're not allowed to post pictures of the finished quilt until the deadline!

You see, I had a new technique that I wanted to try. Best thing to do then is to start with something small. Small meant portable, and I took it along on Father's day and played with it before supper. It was looking so good, I pulled my scraps that evening, hence the picture in the previous post. I couldn't go anywhere yesterday because mom had the OT, the visiting nurse, and the PT all come to see her, so I puttered along on it. Today I got woken up early by the bath aide calling, and since I was up, I worked on it some more. Next thing I knew, I was scrounging out pieces big enough for the backing and piecing the batting, and it was quilted!

I'm totally happy with the way it came out. It's going to be tough waiting a month to share pictures of it!

I decided to start on the 'scraps only' challenge quilt today after we got home from BBQ at Bill's brother's place. I figured I had the most scraps in pink, so did a quick dig through my 'pink & purple' bin and the 'unsorted scraps' bin and came up with the following palette pile:



(I also posted this over on my Flickr page so people can make comments on it.)

It will probably need a thin border of green, just to balance all the pepto-girly-piglet-pinkness. :)

My pea plants may have been knocked down by the downpour Wednesday, but they're still producing great gangbusters. I've been getting an oversize handful of peas every other day. The picture there is three pickings, for a total of 3/4 pound of peas! And there's tons more to come!

The other picture is of the Nasturtiums blooming their little heads off. Grandpa used to eat the whole flower, peppercorn-like seeds and all. I tried that once and just about burned a hole in my tongue when I bit down on a seed. Now I just eat the petals in salads, but mostly leave them on the plants because I like looking at them just the way they are.

As if I didn't have enough going on, I signed up for another little quilt challenge. The details can be found here, but essentially the entire quilt has to come from your 'scrap bag'.


I know, I know, my 'scrap bag' is six rubbermaid totes. See them there in the lower right? Those two stacks of bins are my color-sorted scraps, aka everything smaller than a fat quarter or in weird shaped pieces. There are lots of weird shaped pieces, thanks to so much of my scrap stash being leftovers from cutting out costumes and clothes back when mom worked at the theatre in California.

My biggest problem will be deciding what to do, since I have an overabundance of material to choose from. I guess that means it's time to go fondle fabric for a bit...

The garden is looking pretty much the same, except that I harvested the biggest head of lettuce (left it too long, the outer leaves were BITTER!) and also a whole quart bag full of snow peas! I should have that many more again by the looks of the flowers still coming out on the plant in a week or two.

My poor lettuce...I had to wash each leaf individually to make sure there were no gastropod interlopers in our salad. I must've washed off a half dozen little tiny slugs. At least the inner leaves were still tender and tasty. I had enough from one head of lettuce for three salads and to take some next door where they were immediately incorporated in some BLT sandwiches. :)



On to mom's appointment. Mom got another set of x-rays done and everything is looking fabulous. Mom is pain free in the hip, physically and emotionally doing well, and the surgery and recovery went so smoothly that mom is able to have her right knee fixed as soon as she wants. Originally, we were thinking a good 9-12 months between surgeries, but mom is able to have that obnoxiously painful right knee fixed late this summer or early this fall! Amazing.

Now we're just trying to get home health set up and going, and they're not sure whether mom qualifies for it because she might be 'too mobile'. *eye roll* She's only mobile because she has a power chair and a lift van. She's not walking more than a jerky step or two and transfers are still a bit dodgy. I don't care. If she wants to go to play cards at the Y tomorrow, I'm taking her and they don't have to know about it. Mom's morale is the most important thing to me right now.

We had a lovely long weekend up at Salt Creek County Park. We got up there late wednesday and took a nice long walk every day.

Wednesday was just a wander around the campground and up to the kiosk and back. We saw two deer in the entry meadow and a mama and twins on the ball field.

Thursday we took the coast trail into the adjacent DNR lands and walked the mile out to the cove trail. Then it was down the switchbacks, past the waterfall, and onto the beach where we rested and explored the tidepools before tackling the trail back up and the mile back to camp.


Friday we made the drive up to Hurricane Ridge and wandered around there amongst the snow and scenery. The wildflowers there a just getting started blooming where the snow has melted. The male deer are just starting to sprout their fuzzy stumps, and the rest are shedding. The best parts were seeing a blue grouse fly up to a tree where it posed for us to both get really good looks at it through the binoculars and the scent of the alpine phlox as the sun hit the newly opened flowers. Heavenly! We stopped at another waterfall on the way back down and a very bold and naughty buck was trying to mooch a snack off a couple eating lunch at the parking area.





Saturday we went rock hopping and tidepool exploring at low tide before lunch, and then after lunch and a nap, we tackled the hike up Striped Peak. I looked up the trail when we got home and found out that it's a 1000' climb to the top, and the half-goat mountain climbers use it as a winter training trail. We made it, but I didn't take any pictures from the top because we were in the clouds up there. It was kinda wild watching the bottoms of the clouds shredding on the tree tops just above our heads! My calf muscles are still griping at me about that one.




Sunday I slept in and then we headed for home. We had the furniture to put back in mom's room and I wanted to visit with mom and make sure everything was set for discharge today. Bill also had some computer updates to do at work that he can't do when the shop is open during the week.

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Today was homecoming day! Of course, I had to go to the dentist first this morning and get a new mold made for my permanent crown. (The last one didn't fit and they have to order up a new gold crown for me. *sigh*) Then it was off to Northwoods to pack up mom and go over the final paperwork for mom's discharge. Yay!

The only hold up for busting mom out was that they had neglected to plug in mom's power chair (that she didn't use while there, incidentally, along with the unused walker and C-Pap machine...grrrrrr...) and I had to plug it in and let it charge for about half an hour for it to have enough juice to get mom to the van and into the house.

Since we got home, mom had lunch and then chatted as I set up her meds for the next two weeks. After that, she asked me to help her do some PT exercises (woo hoo!) and then help her into her recliner for a well-deserved nap. She only did half the series of exercises (half are done sitting, half lying down) but some is way better than none! The medical rental place delivered and set up mom's hospital bed this afternoon also.

Tomorrow morning mom's got her 3-week post-op follow up appointment with the surgeon in Tacoma. Then it'll be getting scheduled with home health for PT, OT, and bath aide. (All doctor recommended and GH approved, thank gawd!) Mom says that she wants to go to the YMCA for cards & coffee on wednesday, and I said it's a date as long as it doesn't conflict with a home health visit.

And somewhere in there I need to get the display cabinets' safety straps reattached to the wall and mom's dolls put back in them! In the meantime, here's proof that mom's home and a view of the new floor also:

It's June and my garden is half happy! I say half, because the peas, tomatoes, nasturtiums and lettuce are doing very well. On the other hand, the green onions and carrots have completely fizzled, and something has eaten most of the sweet peas, half my beans, and chewed holes in my broccoli:



Today I went out and tickled my tomato blossoms to encourage pollination. My 'bush type' peas are growing rather taller than the package said they would. Best of all, I was able to harvest some of my snow peas for tonight's dinner!

So I had that meeting with the staff at Northwoods yesterday. (I was about five minutes late because I had to get my idiot cat Cosmo out from under the deck and back in the house before I left. I've got the scratches to show for it.)

It all went great with the therapy gal. We confirmed exactly how high mom's bed is and they're going to work with the hospital bed at the facility at that height. If it's not working out with mom's hip precautions, they'll notify GH and order up a hospital bed from Apria for us.

Then we got to the nursing coordinator. She's supposed to call mom's surgeon and get the orders to take the staples out since they're healing and starting to itch. Then she went over the medications and I found out why mom's been so sleepy. I figured it was because of the percocet, but she's been taken off that now. Then I found out that they've been giving mom her once-a-day-at-bedtime meds IN THE MORNING! That's been fixed now and hopefully that'll help mom be a bit more alert. This is why the care conference is supposed to happen at the beginning of the stay.

Mom was having some trouble after lunch with her legs cramping up, but I checked with the nurse and mom had just had her meds and they hadn't had time to kick in yet. I talked mom out of her panicking and she was napping by the time I left.

Mom had her review with the doctors and therapists today. GH decided to 'letter' mom through this friday, with discharge happening at the soonest next monday. This means that Bill and I can sneak off for a long weekend away! Yippie!

Of course, the RV hasn't moved in nearly a year, but my dear father-in-law has offered to try and get it pulled out of its hole for us and park it next to the carport tomorrow while Bill's at work. That way I can start getting it cleaned up and loaded for a short holiday.

Also on the mom front, she has been taken off the Hoyer lift list for transfers. Good thing, since the sling rubbed a hole halfway through mom's skin on the back of her thigh. The charge nurse said she was livid when she found out it had happened, and reamed the techs a new orifice for letting it happen. She did much better swinging her legs out of bed and getting stood up using the transfer pole when we visited on Sunday. Still very very slow, but she got there!

No surprise, mom's got another UTI, but they just put her on an antibiotic to take care of it. Of course, the antibiotic is affecting the coumadin, so they've had to adjust the dosage of that. They've also put mom on a potassium supplement and upped her gabapentin dose. They're doing an excellent job keeping track of mom's labs and adjusting as needed. Oh, and mom is now off the Percocet. Yay! No more stoned mom! I told them that mom usually has alternating doses of regular tylenol and tylenol with codeine at home for pain management. They said they'll run that by the doctor and try that if her pain starts bothering her again.

I also took mom's articulated knee braces up today. Hopefully they'll help with mom's transfers and therapy, making her knee joints more stable. I carefully labeled each one with her name and which leg it is for. (Note to self: buy a silver sharpie. They write on black stuff really well.)

The flooring guys will be here to remove and dispose of mom's bedroom carpeting on Wednesday. They will be replacing it that same day with a new layer of underlayment and install the new cushioned vinyl flooring. The only thing I need to do in there before wednesday is disassemble mom's bed and move it out. Everything else is out, including the baseboards (thanks again to my wonderful father-in-law!)

Everyone keep your fingers crossed that we do get away later this week!

Got a call this afternoon from the nursing home. They want to do a 'care conference' early next week, and scheduled me for noon on tuesday. Oh joy. Normally they do this soon after someone is admitted so they can talk over what care and rehab is needed and make goals. I WAS hoping we could at least get away for a few days, maybe sunday through wednesday, but noooooooo, they just have to have this stupid meeting.

I am in dire need of a break where I can just get away with my hubby, relax, and not have to worry about mom. It's damned depressing to realize that there's no way for it to happen anytime in the foreseeable future.

Bill and I went out to dinner tonight and then for a nice drive in the night together. We just got home and it sure was nice. 'Nuff said.

I'm watching a girl hummingbird tank up as I type...looks like I need to refill the feeder!

I've just about worn out my welcome with the therapists at Northwoods. I must sound like a broken record, always harping on what mom needs to be able to do to come home and how I still can't get any straight answers from anyone on how they determine when mom will be sent home.

They did get mom a transfer pole yesterday, along with a bedside commode so mom can get used to trying to do things like she does at home. Of course, it was a comedy of errors. First, they had the maintenance guy put it up, then adjust mom's power chair, then he had to move the pole because they forgot to ask which side of the bed its on at home. Take down the pole, move the bed, put the pole back up. Oh yeah, and get mom dressed then sit her back in a wet bed so she has to change again. *sigh*

At least mom has her power chair again and she's more mobile around the facility. Her driving is all right, despite being a little stoned from the percocet. We spent a little time down in the dining room, just hanging out after mom's therapy and my 'caregiver training'. (Mom was able, with me lifting about half her weight, to use the transfer pole to get from the bed to the commode, and then into her chair. She needed lots of help, but she did it.)

I was able to speak with GH's nurse practicioner Teri about mom's care before I left. She was super nice to talk to, and explained how they come up with a discharge date. First, they plug mom's stats into a program that covers rehab times across the country. A 76 year old female with PD and a hip replacement usually takes 9-12 days to rehab before going home. That would put mom's discharge at next thursday or friday, the 11th or 12th. They also review how mom's doing every three to five days and decide then how well she's been progressing and how much longer she might need to stay. The therapists know how long mom's been authorized to stay, and try to rehab as if that's all the time they will have with mom.

Finally, some straight answers! What a relief. I was actually able to sleep last night.

I felt so good after talking to Teri that I stopped in to the flooring place to look for a replacement for mom's carpeting. The fella there narrowed it down real quick to a single line of cushioned vinyl that comes in 16'4" rolls that they have in stock in their Seattle warehouse. That gives me a 4-5 day turnaround from telling them to do it and it being done. I narrowed it down to two choices:



I'll take the samples up and let mom pick which one she likes best. (Jasper picked the one on the left.) After my dental appointment, I'll stop in at the flooring place and get on the install schedule.

Speaking of the dentist, I finished all but sewing on the label of the quilt last night. Voila!



I sure hope he likes it!

I went up to see mom this morning right after I ate breakfast. I had a chance to talk to the nursing coordinator up there and she said mom's been 'lettered' through next monday. That means that GH is willing to pay for her to be there at least that long. Usually, they discharge someone on thursdays or fridays, so the soonest mom will probably be booted out is NEXT thursday.

I checked into their respite care up there, and their facility will only do a full month at a time, to the tune of ~$6k. Ouch. When I got back from that, I called M&M where mom rehabbed before and they offer respite for 4-5 day chunks, for ~$275 a day. Still hella expensive, but the person I spoke with there said I might ask GH if they would consider transferring mom there to continue her rehabilitation once Northwoods kicks her out.

I also took the time to email mom's regular doctor and ask what's up from GH's end. They say it's up to the rehab staff at Northwoods when mom's good to go. Of course, Northwoods said that it's GH that likes to get people out as soon as possible. Dr. Ginny's nurse gave me the name of an official person to ask tomorrow about goals for mom's therapy when I go up there for 'caregiver training'. They also asked me to bring mom's power chair so she can be more comfortable and more independent wheeling around.

While I was there, mom was doing her exercises with the therapist. We talked a bit and they are going to see if they can have a transfer pole set up by mom's bedside like she has here at home. I watched mom do some arm exercises using one pound weights, and leg exercises with a one pounder on the rehabbing leg and a two pounder on the other. She wimped a bit, but tried again and did all the exercises asked of her. The last thing they tried was a transfer from sitting in the chair to sitting on the bed. Mom couldn't do it even with assistance, but she did almost stand before her leg started to cramp up on her.

I found out also that they've got mom as a Hoyer lift transfer, which is a sling thing that picks you up on a contraption like an engine hoist. Um, mom really needs to be able to stand to come home. "Oh, they'll get you a lift at no cost if you need one at home." No thanks, she's got to be able to move better than that to go home. Really.

On to my quilting!

I up and decided to make a quilt for my dentist. Don't ask me why, I think I dreamed it or something, so I did it. Besides, I was wanting to do more curved patchwork and this just clicked for me. So, knowing that my dentist likes to travel all over the world to take photographs of eclipses and comets and other astronomical events, I put together this quilt for him:



Neat, huh? I also incorporated my version of Iris Folding in the shooting star in the middle block. here's a close up:



And I also tried a new quilting method where the design is done in two colors of thread in two passes for each area. I used both silver and gold threads, and had very good luck for my very first time using metallic threads on the top and not in the bobbin. Here's a close up of the quilting, which are silver stars and gold suns in case you can't quite tell:



Now I just need to bind, label, and put hanging corners on it before my appointment on Thursday right after lunch. Eeek!