This last week has been extremely difficult, I'm glad I don't have many like it. A month or so ago I went to the doctor for routine blood work and found that my kidneys aren't functioning properly. The doctor said sometimes they get that result when a person is dehydrated so I made sure to drink a lot of water and had the test redone last week. The results were worse and my kidneys are failing. There could be a lot of reasons so I am trying not to worry, I see the nephrologist on the 11th and we will go from there.

I still managed to get this done. My grandmother pieced this quilt, she died in 1980 when Ambrosina was a baby so it probably was in the seventies. Most of the fabric is definitely seventies, and mostly ugly too. She used everything. There are pieces of an acrylic sweater in it. The squares weren't very square and didn't match in size. It was very difficult to quilt, going through all those layers and she zigzaged the raw edges of the seams together which added a lot of bulk. I remember aprons she had out of some of the fabrics. When I was working down one side I didn't notice that I had pinned a great big ol' wrinkle in the backing and I had several rows quilted before I realized it. I decided to leave them in as part of the rich heritage of the quilt (ha ha).

If you look closely you can see it in the bottom corner and I don't care! It's done and I am going to send it to my sister who will appreciate it for what it is. When I get the money for shipping that is. Sigh.

David and I are being sued in small claims court. It is for a doctor bill. We applied for debt forgiveness and they stopped sending statements so we assumed that it had been granted. We never denied the debt and were making payments on it, small ones, but still making payments on it when they stopped sending the bills. That hasn't helped the stress levels and I thought David was going to have another heart attack when we got the registered letters. I contacted my caseworker and she is trying to get us in touch with a financial assistant that can give us some idea what to do about it.

Just one more thing in life's experience I guess.

The kiln and potter's wheel went to a new home this week, now we have the money to take the bus out and see the kids and grand kids. Last night David texted us that they were going to be in Arizona for the summer so we don't know for sure when we will go. We have to wait until after I see the specialist until we decide anyway.

 What a cute little tummy!

My sweet assistants Happy and Waddles have been extra sweet and funny the last few days. They always know when we need extra attention. We had to move the plant so Waddles wouldn't chew on it and get sick.

We went to my favorite thrift shop after I had my blood work done and I got a bag of scraps. This was flour sacking. I don't run across it very often any more. Most people call them feed sacks, but I remember that mother got flour in them. One summer she made us all matching shorts out of them. And that is dating me!

And this is the next bag out of the bottomless tub of UFOs. Not really bottomless. I was able to put a couple of unquilted tops in it to get them out of the way so progress is being made!

And of course, the eternal hexagons.

Hard to see on the quilt, but they are Grandmother's Flower Garden shaped blocks and star blocks to be alternated. I'm only getting a good start on them, but they are interesting.

So that's it for a while. Things won't change until I get some of the hand work that remains on some of the UFOs done. No complaints, it could always be mending!

My grand daughter Jasmyn's turtle quilt. Yes, another turtle quilt. I have her brother Ben's top done and will quilt it soon. That will make it half of my grandchildren that have one. I think the grandsons  here would prefer cat quilts, so, I think I may give the turtles a rest for a while.

The back. Thankfully I found half a tub of fabrics that I can use for backs, it will keep me going for a while. Piecing the backs takes more time but with my budget I have to use what I can. No complaints though, things could always be worse and frequently have been. Glass half full.

We are getting more snow today, very wet snow. Maybe it is the last! Fine thing for the first day of Spring!

Mammogram and ultra sound this morning. That's done with for another year. Things haven't changed with the three (I thought only two) masses that they are watching so they think I can go back to once a year. That's good, encouraging news, although I have been readying myself for just about anything it seems as if I can relax for a while.

Tomorrow David will be seventy years old. I can hardly believe it. Does it catch everyone this way? I'm married to an old man. I don't feel like I could be old too, but I am getting there. Sigh. Still, it's better than the alternative. Rather an old man than being a widow. He hates it that he can't do the things he used to. I think it's a lot harder on him than me. I can still sit at my machines, he, on the other hand, was always very active and physically busy and now he spends most of his time sitting. Just sitting, he needs to spend more time at the sewing machine!

I finished this hexagon top over the weekend. I was getting close last week so I sort of let everything else go to get it completed. It's not quilted yet, that will probably happen next time I baste. I keep thinking I am about done with hexagons until I come up with another idea I want to try. I also have a lot of basted hexagons I want to use up, so I will keep plugging away at them.

I also got a lot of help quilting Jasmyn's turtle quilt, which I finished this morning, but too late to get a picture. That I will do in the morning so that it can been seen tomorrow. Then it's back to the UFO tub to see what I can get completed this week. Also, tomorrow I will have my mammogram, possibly an ultrasound. They are still watching closely the mass in my right breast that was biopsied last year. That's fine by me.

It will cut into my sewing time in the morning, but that can't be helped. I was scheduled for two weeks ago, but we had a blizzard that afternoon and I had to reschedule. Otherwise things have been pretty uneventful, most days are just about the same. I don't find it boring, excitement is over rated, contentment gives me serenity. And the boys are home from school, that seems to me to be plenty of excitement, and noise. Time to go say hello.

I think that I must be on a once-a-week posting right now. I don't seem to have a lot to write about right now. I am just working away at the machines doing what I love to do.

The little six inch Ohio Star blocks are coming along really good. Probably about half of them done.

I worked a little at these doll clothes patterns, but since some of the pieces were mixed up with other patterns it was mostly just sorting them out. None of them got completed.

And today I basted four quilts ready to be quilted. The vintage Fancy Nine Patch.

This One Patch. It's over forty years old and I didn't make it. It was pieced by my grandmother and it was in her possessions when she died. Ambrosina was a baby when I got it and I am finally getting around to quilting it.

My granddaughter's Turtle quilt.

And this Boston Common's one patch, also not one of mine. Someone gave it to Ambrosina and she asked me to quilt it for her.

So, of these four, only two are mine. These are the last two that I have to do that I didn't make, I will be glad to have them done and out of the way. They are the oldest two left to be done also, so I am catching up!

I could have done a fifth today, I had enough pins left to do another one, but I was tired. These will keep me busy for a couple of months, I don't intend to hurry. Hurrying was last year. This year I will just keep plugging away and enjoying what I am doing.

I finished binding this hexagon quilt early today. This quilt started out as an idea. When I got to a certain point I found that I wasn't liking it so I decided to just get it finished by adding little rosettes until it was square. Then I found that it wasn't turning into a square, but a diamond so I started filling it in with odds and ends of leftover hexagons just to get it finished. I think I like it though, now that it is done. Anthony really likes it, he made a point of mentioning it to me. He doesn't often come out and say what he likes, so if he likes it that much he is going to get it when it comes through the laundry.

That is the last one I had basted so I spent the rest of the morning getting backs ready for five quilts so I can get them basted once I get to the store for batting.

The back of it is a really scrappy pieced one. I was running out of stuff to use for backs so I used a lot of odds and ends. I had already decided to put my walking foot on the machine and just do a grid with straight lines so I wasn't too concerned with the thickness of extra seams because my walking foot can handle it.

In my opinion done is better than perfect.

This is the next project out of the UFO tub. I am down to one tub of UFOs from two tubs, so I can see the progress. I remember buying the pink fringe, but I don't remember where I put it although I saw it somewhere recently. All I have to do is remember where. I will work on the other ones first and do the pink last. Maybe by the time I get to it I will remember where the fringe is. There are not too many places it could be.

David just went out to work on the car. Yippie Skippie, maybe we will have something to drive soon. I hope so I am so tired of this being stuck here until Ambrosina has time to take me where I need to go. And we are not even talking about where I just have desire to go but don't actually need to go. That probably sounds like a complaint, but it is not meant to be. Just a plain statement of fact. I can't wait to have wheels again!

Oh well, what happens happens. I am just thankful we made it through to another (almost) Spring.

Signs of Spring are in the air! This morning as I sat sewing upstairs, a bird flew up and roosted at the entrance to my little bird house hanging outside the window. No picture I would have had to take it through two panes of glass and a screen and it wouldn't have shown up very well. I'm happy though. It's supposed to be up into the fifties over the weekend.

I started quilting this, the last basted top, this morning. I wonder what these Asian characters say. Perhaps ignorance really is bliss. Ambrosina said they were probably cursing at me, which made me laugh, I didn't really think it was important, I just like the red. I got two thirds of the way with the quilting, it's not very big. I am using my walking foot and just quilting in a straight-line cross-hatch. I want the piecing to be the focal point not the quilting.

It's a fun quilt though.

 A dog with an orange bow.

 Chessmen.

 Cows.

 Musical symbols.

Kitties and a squirrel. The pink flowers there are from a dress I made for my trousseau before my wedding. Every now and then I run across a small piece of it. I loved it but it didn't fit after a couple of pregnancies. It never would fit Ambrosina. She's a big boned gal and was bigger than I was by the time she was fifteen. My waist was seventeen at the time of my wedding. Things do change.

Anyway. I should be able to finish quilting this quilt tomorrow and get a good start on the binding.
Then I have to piece backs for the next batch to be basted. I'll pull them out of the tub down here and take them upstairs so I know what I will need to do.

Now that it's warmer I will have to get started on my spring cleaning down here. And that's another story, I don't really have the enthusiasm for cleaning that I have for sewing. Does anybody?

I also hear that the boys are home. Time to see how their day went.