Both Wilburs are finished !

Last week, I finished the Big and Little Wilbur quilt-tops.  I mailed them on Friday, and Jodie received them Monday.  It was a couple of days before I heard from her, due to health problems she's having, and I was actually worried that she didn't like my work this time !    Blessedly, she assured me a couple of days later that she was thrilled with both works.

Big Wilbur was a kit, and I hand-appliqued it to look just like their version, except that JoAnn had me add a 6-inch border of a large red floral fabric from the same line.  I didn't take a finished picture of that one.

Little Wilbur was made from a set of half-yard pieces of the complete Purebred line of fabrics.   She left it up to me to come up with a design, setting, size......EVERYTHING.  She gave me the names of several quilt designs that she liked from the Craftsy site.  I chose to adapt the design from a pattern called "Peachy Keen", resizing some of the proportions.  I renamed my design  "Don't Fence Me In", as I proceeded to piece 'corrals' around each of my horses.

 Of course, Little Wilbur was the star of the quilt, so he was top center.  Instead of a corral, he was surrounded by a wreath of roses, as though he had just won the Kentucky Derby (a fanciful notion for which I have absolutely no basis).

 Four 'corrals' encircled printed ponies that were too finely detailed for me to feel comfortable appliqueing on the printed edges.  So I did what I called 'shadowing', leaving about a 1/4 inch width of the cream background showing around each pony when I appliqued him onto his new background of a woodgrain print from the collection.

The rest of the 'corrals' contained ponies or a red-roofed stable that had been fussy-cut from the landscape fabric from the same line.

When the center was finished, I still needed a border to bring the quilt up to a good usable size.  JoAnn had requested that I use the same red floral fabric, and make the border the same size as on the Big Wilbur quilt.  So, rather than be redundant, I designed a 'rail fence' border to enclose the horses in their corrals.  I only had enough of a light fabric remaining to make a single rail, but I think it is still effective.

I was really pleased at the finished quilt-top.  The size was big enough to make a bed-covering for a twin-sized bed, thought it isn't a true twin-size.  She is planning to surprise her granddaughter with this quilt, so I'm hoping to come up with a little bit of a surprise to add to it myself.  We'll see if I find  the time.

Spring is trying it's best to sneak in early this year, with my Buttercups blooming hesitantly, and my Lilac bush leafing out.   I fear that Winter is going to send her scampering back into hiding, biting off all the tree buds, but I surely love the little bursts of fresh color in the meantime !

Hubby goes in for his second 3-day session of this new chemo treatment this coming week.  He is suffering with knee-pain in his left leg (which has always been his GOOD one) this weekend, and his feet keep swelling horribly.  Thank you for your continued prayers for him and myself.   Without God's presence, we couldn't go on.

I am so very thankful for JoAnn providing my 'escape' with these projects that she sends me.  And you should just SEE the box of fabric that she sent my way this week just to clear out her OWN shelves !  God bless JoAnn Gilley !

Catching my breath.

I see that it has been over 3 weeks since I last posted.  And yet, I continue to receive words of encouragement and offers of prayers on behalf of my husband and myself.  Thank you so very much .

My time is not my own anymore, if, indeed it ever was, and I stay busy accomplishing all that NEEDS to be done. When I do have a few free moments, I find myself crashing into a chair for a bit of reading time or computer time when I could be quilting/piecing.  Still, there HAS been some progress on the projects that I have taken on for my friend, JoAnn.

The Erin Michaels design Wilbur, is all finished except for one last patch to be buttonhole-stitched on when I see what scraps I have remaining.  Before that is accomplished, I need to finish the second quilt, which we have dubbed "Little Wilbur".  On it, I have most of the 12 blocks pieced, with the last 4 of that 12 awaiting the 4 appliqued center sections.

 That applique is now done, and I hope to get to assemble those blocks and then the entire top, VERY SOON.

Here's a sneak peek at the Little Wilbur quilt.

Hubby's C.T. scan of Dec. 28th showed that the Bendamustine/Rituxin formula of chemotherapy was not eradicating the cancer.  It showed that his cancer, Mantle Cell Lymphoma, was no worse, but also, no better.  So, on Monday of last week, the 23rd of January, he started a new regimen of Rituxin
/Fluderabine/Cytoxin.  He receives infusions for 3 days, and then waits until the 28th day after beginning of treatment, and has it all over again.  This time, we have not been given a number of treatments that they expect for him to need.  I guess it's "watch and wait".

This past week was very hard on him, as he has been much weakened since the bout of pneumonia that I wrote about in my last post.   He was prescribed 3 antibiotics to start along with this new regimen of chemo, but they caused such constant diarrhea, that we had to request that the doctor take him off of them all.  He did, but that leaves him wide open to infection.

He had a PICC line inserted on Tuesday, the 24th, because they had reached a point where it was terribly difficult to draw blood or start an i.v.  Home health now comes regularly to monitor his health, but they cannot change the PICC line dressing or flush the line, which has to be done once weekly.  This is because they are not the ones giving him the infusion........RULES, RULES.  So, as weak as he is, this means that he will have to leave the house once a week for the dressing change .... twice a month locally, and twice a month at the oncologist when receiving an infusion, or having blood drawn.