Mom made it through her week in the hospital, and stem cell harvesting has been completed.  She gets to rest for a couple of weeks before the next phase…five straight days of chemo, and then her stem cells will be put back into her body.  This will be the hardest phase of her treatment.

I had some “me” time this weekend.  I worked on my quilt guild homework.  This year, our challenge project is to do a block of the month quilt, of our own choosing.  We can pick any pattern we wish, and just work on it like a BOM, and bring our completed block to guild meeting each month.  The project I have chosen to work on is the Fons & Porter patriotic sampler, that I have quilted for a couple of other guild members.  I really would like to have one of my own.  The only problem is that it has a few more than 12 blocks, so I will have to make more than one each month, to get it finished by the deadline next year.  For this month, I did all the flag blocks.

I’m off to a good start, at least!  And…all of the fabric is from my stash.  Yay! A stash quilting report again…finally.  I know that it has been awhile.

I also pulled this older stash project back out, and made a little more progress on it.  I think it’s been about a year since I worked on it last.  This weekend, I finished the applique blocks by doing the embroidery with my DSM.  It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty happy with it.  It will look great when it’s all quilted, I think.  I started working on the pieced blocks, which are mostly done with paper piecing…even the flying geese strips.  I find it to be slower than regular piecing, but I’m enjoying the process.  I just hope I’m not still working on this time next year.  It would be nice to have it finished by the time fall comes around again, so I can hang it in my house.

I also finished Sheril’s cute Christmas quilt. For some reason, all the pictures I took came out a little blurry.

And, I started the next cute one, from another guild member, Thelma.  I am having some fun on this! Hope she likes it!

(Thanks again to Michelle Wyman for her cute ladybug panto! I’ve not ever used the whole panto on a quilt, yet…but, this is the second time that I have used her ladybug design from it.)

Whew…I’m tired now.  Have a great week!

I know I have not been a good blogger, lately.  Eventually, life will settle down again.  Right now, I am adjusting to my new promotion at work, trying to get a handle on running my department, and dealing with budget issues, and staff shortages.  And, taking care of Mom.  Her treatment regimen is getting much more hectic.  Tomorrow, she has labs at 8:30 a.m., and if her blood counts are up enough, she will be admitted to the hospital to begin harvesting her own stem cells, which will later be transplanted back into her system, after she undergoes a potent round of chemo that will basically wipe out her immune system, and hopefully any lingering cancer cells that may still be lurking.  The doctor said this will give her the best chance of it not returning, though it is certainly no guarantee.  I am fearful that she will not survive the treatment.  The chemo will be administered for five days in a row, a Mon thru Fri.  It will be after she recovers from the harvesting process, which will be a three or four day process.  She seems so much more frail…she only weighs around 105 lbs.  It is taking quite an emotional toll on all of us, but she is a tough little fighter.

I have been working on a very cute Christmas quilt for Sheril, and wanted to post a quick update for her.  I was hoping to finish it this weekend, but I think I’m going to come up a bit short.  I’m so thankful that I have the most patient, understanding clients a quilter could ask for!

So, to help with the waiting…here is a little peek! It’s been a fun one to quilt!