Quilt 8: Faster than a Speeding Bullet

My first quilt was a queen-sized bedspread that I made to go with a decorative wall-hanging quilt that my mother gave me years ago. That first project turned out quite well, but there were quite a few good size scraps left (I'm horrible at calculating required yardage). I decided to make curtains for the room (using quilt material will work in this situation, as the window in the room faces into an internal hallway, and therefore never gets direct sunlight).

So today I finally pulled out those scraps and got to work.

Zip zip zip! Just about 5 hours of work and it's almost done - a "window blind" panel meant to simply hang over the window (and keep the room quite dark). Later on I'll add some loops and cording and make it a kind of "roman blind".

Here's the bedspread (and decorative quilt):



And here's the new window blind made with scraps:



Even the batting inside is made up of scraps from other projects! I'm kind-of proud of that.

I added an extra layer inside, on top of the batting. I put a layer of black quilting cotton inside in order to block as much light as possible - so the blind, when it's down, will keep the room quite dark.

My Evil Friend Pauline

So there I was - pretty much under control. The household budget has been safe for a while because I've been unable to drive during my recovery from surgery. Unable to drive means unable to get to the quilt shop. And that means unable to spend money on fabric.

Just when you thought it was safe...

...here comes an email from Pauline (my friend and quilting guru).

She's found a quilt shop in Beaumaris that specializes in Japanese and Australian prints. Now... Japanese and Australian prints are my current passion - I'm mad for both. This is bad - really bad - but because Beaumaris is about an hour's drive from here, I should be safe. My surgeon has approved me for driving "short distances" - but a trip to Beaumaris is out of the question at the moment.

So I'm safe.

Or am I?

Wait... no... UH OH.....

This store has a website - you can order fabric. The online fabric stores I've seen are so horribly designed that it's just about impossible to really "shop". Usually the pages load slowly and are so badly organized that you can't really find things.

Not this one. It's incredible. With one click you can see their fabrics - everything on a single page. And that's not all - you can have the assortment organized by colour, by "culture", by manufacturer and design. And... (oh, this is BRILLIANT) whoever photographed the fabric swatches had the brains to put a 50 cent coin in each picture - so you have a way of seeing the scale of the prints.

Curious? Have a look: Chandler's Cottage

Pauline - where ever you are right now... God bless 'ya, evil girlfriend!

(I feel my credit card a twitchin'...)

May I Please Have "Happily Ever After" Now?

When I was filling out the paperwork for hospital admittance before my recent breast surgery I came across a question that threw me a bit. The question on the form asked if I'd ever been diagnosed with cancer. For the first time in my life I had to answer "yes" to this question. It was not a fun moment. I'm grateful, of course, that we apparently have beaten the cancer and that I'm now cancer free. But still, now I've stepped over a line.

When you have to say "yes" to "Have you been diagnosed with cancer" you end up having to answer a whole lot of other questions (when? where? and so on). I've never felt unhappy about divulging my medical history, but the cancer questions seemed, well, violating somehow. I felt like pulling the person who made up the form aside and yelling "I'm not coming to you for cancer - this is none of your damned business!"

It was not a fun moment.

"So Big"

(... with apologies to Edna Ferber...)

It's been 2 weeks since my "exchange" surgery (removing the temporary breast expanders and replacing them with cohesive silicon gel implants). So far, so good.

The first week I was pretty uncomfortable. Not horribly, but, well, a little. The prescribed pain medication (Endone - and Australian version of Percocet) pretty much took the edge off, but pain medication has it's own problems (feeling woozy and "out of it") so I was glad when I was finally able to keep myself more-or-less OK with just over-the-counter Panadol.

I opted to stay with the larger cup size - and now have "D" cup size breasts. The gel implants have a MUCH nicer shape than the expanders did, so I'm quite pleased. My breasts project upward a little more normal, but the surgeon assures me that they will eventual drop just a bit into a more natural profile. For the moment it's not a bother - I laugh a bit because I have what can reasonably be called "Barbie doll boobs".

My surgeon expressed some concern that I might find this size too large - but happily, that hasn't turned out to be the case. I don't look unnaturally large or overly "buxom" - to the contrary, I think I look kind-of ordinary. And I'm pleased.

Big enough is big enough.

So I'm now 2 weeks post op and feeling better. I'm still not allowed to do much - no heavy lifting, no driving, no lifting my arms above my head (thank heavens the local salon offers hair washing for only about $10 a pop) and so on. Tomorrow I head back to the plastic surgeon and expect to have some of the stitches removed. And hopefully at least the driving prohibition will be lifted.