Trip and row and guitar case

It may be difficult to believe, but I do intend to update this blog more than once a month. It's just been a very busy December. I know, excuses, excuses. But we did spend several days on a trip to Wisconsin. We took Amtrak and got a sleeper car. It was great! No complaints, except that our room was hot, especially on the way out. I'm not a good sleeper, so this mostly affected me. Molly was fine, though. When you get a sleeper car, you're considered first class, which means you get free meals and you get to hang out in the first class lounge for layovers.
I also did a little (very little) sewing. Last Christmas, after a scare, RT bought a Wii. This fall, after I found out about the breast cancer, RT went out and bought Beatles Rock Band. I wonder what I need to do to get a new sewing machine. Anyway, Molly especially loves it and she has become quite the Beatles aficionado. Since we had practically unlimited baggage restrictions on Amtrak (another plus), we decided to bring it. We wanted to transport the guitars carefully, so we went to GameStop and bought a case for RockBand guitars. Unfortunately, our guitars were too big. So, at 5:00 the evening before we were to leave, I decided to make a quilted guitar case.
This baby holds two RockBand guitars, separated by a quilted panel. It's not quite done; I want to add a zipper to the top. For the trip, I had to saftey-pin the case together. It just made it look more badass if you ask me.

Yes, those are little batik rainbow skull and crossbones, thanks for asking!
I also finished my row for my round robin, only a month late. Oh well, as people keep telling me, I have a good excuse.
In health news, I will probably start radiation next week. This is sooner than expected. I'll find out more at my simulation appointment tomorrow.

After a long absence

Sorry for my absence. I admit I've been lax in writing lately. I guess I've found what falls to the wayside when I'm feeling down: this blog. I keep up fairly well with facebook (if you read this regularly and you're not my facebook friend, do it!) but not with this. I guess it's because I'm limited in words on facebook status updates.So anyway, in cancer news, I've had my first surgery, this past Wednesday. I got the pathology report today and found that it is only intraductal, which means it's not gone to my lymph nodes and I won't need chemo. So that's good. The bad news is, even though they took out a chunk the size of my fist, they were only 1 mm away from the cancerous cells on the edge closest to my feet. So they'll have go back in again, probably this coming week, and do more surgery. This hit me fairly hard. I've been pretty good about putting up a happy face about all of this. Tonight, not so much.

I have gotten a few projects done, though, for Christmas. Molly's flannel quilt won't be done because the shop machines are off to their mechanics for a good cleaning and overhaul. The shop machines (especially the BabyLock Quilter's Choice I've been using) have a good inch and a half more space to the right of the needle than my rinky dink Kenmore machine has. When quilting a twin size flannel quilt, this is a very important inch and a half!

However, I did make Molly a pillow.
And I made a gardening apron for my father in law. He's from Wisconsin, don'tcha know. My husband made me take three photos before he decided his gut was sucked in enough for posting. Sorry, honey!
And I made my in-laws a log carrier. Both of the last projects are from the Sew & Stow book (this link is to Amazon, but you can also buy it from our shop).

No photos today

No photos today. I'm starting to pack for a three day quilting retreat. I've never been on one and I'm very excited! I hope to have lots of photos to share with you when I get back Sunday night.

In cancer news, I'm going to the surgeon this morning for a consultation. I hope to have an idea of what my treatment will be after the appointment. However, I go straight from there to school (for Molly's ballet) and then to work, so I won't have much time to think about it. Tomorrow morning, I will take Molly to school, then pick up Amy to go to the retreat.

In dog news, I never did get around to telling you about Snickers's escape. She managed to get out one morning (a Monday). She was picked up by someone who lives in our neighborhood, and was kept in their yard for the day. She didn't have her tags on because she was wearing her Bite Not collar because she's had a lot of itching due to allergies. Anyway, she managed to escape their yard, too, and was found wandering Hungary Road the next morning by some other people in our neighborhood. They took her to a vet's office and then found my listing on Craig's List. So we got our 14 year old friend back. She had some gastrointestinal issues for a couple of weeks (which required two steam cleaner rentals). Recently, we discovered fleas on her and the cat. We must have fallen behind on applying FrontLine to the dog. So, we've FrontLined the dog and put something similar on the cat. They don't seem to be horribly bad, but I noticed bites on Molly's legs. I sure hope we can get rid of them. I've felt itchy ever since this discovery. Any ideas?

Oh, and Brittany loved her quilt!

New pattern

Molly has a birthday party to go to on Sunday so I decided to try making something. I started on Friday. Did I mention my deadline problem? Anyway, here's an image of it in its compact form:
Here it is opened up.
Still not sure what it is? Here's a hint:
Yes, it's a fold-up tic-tac-toe board using the chalkboard fabric. I didn't like the way the roll-up chalkboard actually rolled. The chalkboard vinyl has no give, so it gets ripply when you roll it. This has fabric sewn in between the pieces of vinyl, so it can fold. The white stuff is elastic to hold the chalk.If I made another one, I'd do some changes. The way it folds, you can't have a full sized piece of chalk in the leftmost holder as pictured or the chalk would break when you fold the board. And I would make a way to make it look more finished. I'm not happy with my topstitching. But it's a prototype. Do you think this would sell at craft fairs? The million dollar question: how much would one pay for such a thing? It's for a girl who's turning six.

Joy in the New Year

I'm joining in the Joy in the New Year challenge at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. I love Jacquie's work. The idea is that you count your UFOs and then, however many you finish by January 1, you get that number of entries for a prize. Join in! If you're like me, you need a deadline!

Addicted to deadlines

I have a problem. I can't seem to get things done (quilting-wise, anyway) unless I have a deadline. Case in point, Brittany's quilt. I missed her graduation because I knew she didn't need the quilt until she went to college. Then, before September, I had a bunch of deadlines at work -- samples for a gift fair, class samples, etc. "Oh well," I thought, "it won't get cold in Texas for a while anyway." I worked on her quilt and had it 99% finished, and I found a flaw that I wasn't sure how to fix (I discovered a seam that had not been sewn together properly, but the quilt was all quilted). So I put it off. Then Halloween (and the associated costume) was looming. And then we lost the dog and I got cancer and things went all to hell.Front and back

I'm ready to mail it. I haven't trimmed all the threads and I haven't washed it (because I don't have a front-loader), but I'm sending it anyway. I'm so sorry, Brittany, that you had to wait this long.
How it looks on a bed.

Does anyone else have this problem? How do you get through it? I feel pretty shitty about it.
Obligatory Molly pose.

Halloween and bad news

Molly's costume came out great! She was Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. I took a few liberties with the costume to make it more wearable for her. Monica from the shop helped me a LOT with the dress and cape.
I've been gone again because it's been busy. I mentioned in my last post something about doctor appointments. I found out Wednesday that I have breast cancer. It's early -- stage zero, actually -- so that's good. I'll know more after I meet with the surgeon next week, but I will probably only have to go through surgery and radiation. I'm hoping for no chemo.