All the gifts I made throughout the year and stored for Christmas seemed to be appreciated and loved by all recipients.  We had Christmas dinner and desert with the parental units on Christmas Eve and I made these.

Christmas Day we shared with the kids in Colorado via FaceTime.

We were able to open presents with them and visit for a while, which was really nice.  It was still not anything like having them here, where I could hug them and enjoy their extended company, but it will have to do for now.  I started thinking about it and realized that I saw Luke the day he was born, and I won’t see (touch) him again until he is walking.  Life…

As far as I can tell, EVERYONE liked what I made for them for Christmas.  Everything fit every recipient, which was a plus!  I think I am going to continue to make or (in rare cases) purchase Christmas gifts throughout the year.  It really saved a lot of stress and $$ at the end of the year.  So, if you are (or want to be, I’m happy to make gifts for those who will cherish them) on my list, please make sure I have your sizes and pertinent information so that I can make you something that fits.

Christmas for me was pretty cool this year, in terms of gifts, also.  I pooled my saving stash with my Christmas gift money (and Scott’s) and picked out this baby.

She is a Janome 9500 and is totally awesome!  I haven’t done any embroidery on her yet, but I will very soon.  Over the Christmas holidays I was able to finish up one of the two wine colored dresses that had been commissioned last year before I went into the hospital.  Unfortunately, I had to refund the deposit to the customer because of the hospital and recovery issue, but I still want to finish the two dresses for Arwen’s Child.  Here is the first one of the pair.  This dress is called Hope and is available.  The dress is size 6 and would make a wonderful special occasion dress for a lovely little girl.  If you visit my shop, please make it one of your favorites.  I would appreciate it!

The second gift I received was an Amazon gift card.  Yep, it is spent!  Those things don’t survive long in my hands.  Here is what I procured with it.

Finally, I did finish one other project over the holiday.  In 1995, I stitched “Blueberry Homecoming” and now I have, framed, it’s twin piece “Raspberry Homecoming.”  Sixteen years between the two but I can cross them off the bucket list.

Here’s hoping everyone who reads this has a super 2012.

DKF

Second on the list is a gift I made for a friend who is having a baby shower this week.  Since I saw how much my kids keep my grandson in his sleep sack that I made for him, I decided to make one for my friend.  She is a Bama fan, so, the addition of a patch to the front of the sack was a special added touch.  I hope she likes it.

The third gift I would like to mention is the gift of doctors, friends, and pastors who care about me and were there for me this last time I was hospitalized.  During my absence from blog posting, I was hospitalized again for sepsis and it was anything but fun.  This time was not as life threatening as the last, because we caught it sooner, but going to the hospital once a year is not something I am interested in doing.  The sepsis is an issue that, if caught quickly enough, can be treated at home with the appropriate antibiotics.  I just have to make sure and watch closely for the signs.  This is a learning process.  This time, like last time, I really thought I had the flu or something viral.  A few days into it, when we figured out that it was not viral and it was similar to last year, it was too late to treat at home and off to the hospital I went.  Ugh!  I am feeling much better now and back to sewing up a storm!

That brings me to the fourth gift.  I have been teaching a friend to sew for the past few weeks and this week she made an absolutely adorable sleeper for a gift for a friend.  The sleeper was made of fleece and went together so quickly that I decided my grandsons really needed to have one, too.  So, I located some fleece on sale and a couple of patterns and have been whipping these things out like mad.  I think they may be finished in time to get to them as additional Christmas gifts.  Whoot!!

There is much more to post about, but it will have to wait till the next installment.  For now I leave you with this quote:

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ~ Douglas Adams

While the kids were at Disney, I had the opportunity to make my son a kilt, which I did not get a photo of…darn it!  I also was able to put the borders on a quilt that William’s Mimi and I are collaborating on.  His Mimi is doing the cross stitch and I am doing the borders and putting the quilt together.

This week I was able to get back to Christmas knitting and completed this uber cute hat for someone special.  The hat pattern is Dead or Alive? by Knitty.  It was a really quick knit and is modeled below by my niece, Martha.  After modeling for these photos, she announced that she would like an octopus hat.  Oh boy…

The Flower Power test sock knit is no more.  Although I really liked the pattern, the socks were not turning out as I had hoped, so frogged they are.  I am using the yarn from the socks for another Christmas present, though, a pair of gloves, and they are turning out much more to my liking.  Photos when they are done.

Finally, Scott was able to take some wonderful photos of Sara, Bryan, William and Baby Luke while they were here.  Below is a sample, but you can see more from the shoot here.

On a fun side note, we (the family when they were here), got to talking about old, favorite movies and who would have them on disc.  I have always wanted to secure a copy of a cheesy movie made in 1981 called Excalibur.  We checked out the local Hastings and sure enough, they had it.  Awesome!

That is about it for now.  We are headed out to the Auburn 4th of July fireworks tonight.  Scott should get some awesome photos of them, as he does every year!  I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!!

Quote of the week: “It is a lonely life, the way of the necromancer… oh, yes. Lacrimae Mundi – the tears of the world.” ~ Merlin, Excalibur (1981)

I also realized that the holiday knitting I have started was going to have to remain a secret until Christmas.  This just won’t do.  I have to share what I am working on, or else, why blog?  LOL  So, I figured out that if I just show them on my blog without any specific recipient details, it may keep those potential recipients who read my blog from knowing who they are for.  This is the best solution I could come up with for this dilemma.  Of course, the baby and kid items are going to be obvious, but the socks, mittens, etc. shouldn’t be so obvious.

On the health front, my doctor, called me on Thursday and wanted to know why the oral surgeon had me come to his (my doctor’s) office for blood work.  Without my requesting it, he said I shouldn’t need a transfusion before I have the tooth extracted and said he would contact the oral surgeon on Monday to let him know.  I am thrilled to report that they hashed it out and I will not have to have a transfusion before the tooth extraction.  I do have to agree that if it looks like I am about to bleed to death that I will go to the ER for platelets right away…duhhhhhh….  I love my doctor!  He just made my Christmas gift list!!

This week, the kids come to visit us on their way to Disney World.  It will be great to see them and spend some time with them without being in the hospital.  I am really looking forward to that!

Quote of the day: “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”  ~Voltaire

Both pair are now at the turn heel stage.  So, I should have two new pair of socks to show in a couple of weeks.  Also, I was selected to test knit these socks.  Aren’t they a gas?  Of course, I had to order yarn to make them…gotta love stash enhancement!

On the health front, I went to the oral surgeon to see about the third tooth extraction and he does not want to do the procedure until I have blood work done to make sure my platelet count is high enough.  This liver thing is a PITA!  I have had two teeth extracted in the last two weeks and have had no complications.  Because this guy is a surgeon and not a dentist, he wants to “make sure” (read: legally cover his rear) when it comes to my “procedure” (read: pulling a tooth).  I can understand completely, but HATE having blood drawn…  Anyway, after the tooth is removed, I will finally have a partial, something that has been a long time coming.

Quote of the Day: “We are the people our parents warned us about.” ~ Jimmy Buffet

This is the third week of May and it was in the mid 40s last night.  For the past three days we have had rain, wind, and huge clouds covering the sun.  It is Alabama in May, it should be approaching 100+.  Strange!!

With the weather like this, I have had lots of creative time with my knitting needles and my sewing machine.  This week I made a new hat for Luke.

While doing this hat, I confirmed that I really like to do colorwork and so you will probably see lots more colorwork socks in the days to come.

I also found a free pattern on the internet for a very simple zippered travel pouch.  Here is a link to several: http://tipnut.com/makeup-bags/.  The one I used is one of these, but I forget which one.  The other day I realized that since I will never have just one project going at a time, I should come up with a way to grab a particular project and go…  This travel pouch is perfect for sock knitting.  I can put the yarn, needles, completed sock #1 and sock in progress #2 all in the bag.  Having lots of awesome prints in my stash from my quilting days makes the choices of fabrics for the bags endless!  Here are two of them…

Saturday, May 14, 2011, was my 45th birthday.  My mother-in-law made a quilt for me and surprised me with it at dinner.  The most wonderful thing about this gift is that it is a quilt.  Since I have been a national quilting teacher and am able to create virtually every type of quilt out there today, everyone just assumes that I would have lots of quilts lying around my house.  I have none.  The ones I made were either never finished, or given away as gifts.  Funny, the last thing you really want to do after working on teaching quilting all day, is go home and quilt.  So, I now have a beautiful quilt to call my own.  Awesome!  Photos to come later, though, since she has not quilted it yet…Boo

Finally, this week, our little blue truck, the one we got from David when mom passed, has died.  On a bright note, we still sold it for a nice sum and the buyer had it shipped to Indiana.  Who knew that we had an enthusiasts vehicle in our possession?  We are back down to one car for a few weeks.  Ah well, life goes on…

Quote of the Week: “Do not use a cannon to kill a mosquito” Confucius (551-478 BC)

In the meantime, I finished the sock tiger for the baby and started back to work on my Louhi jacket. I am almost finished with the second sleeve and it will be a complete coat one day. I figure that if I work on it between other projects, it will finish itself eventually.

The doctor’s visit happened on April Fool’s Day. We got up at 3:30 am to drive to Birmingham for a 7:00 am appointment at UAB for a liver biopsy. The first thing they do when you are going to have a procedure like this is blood work to check platelet count, etc. Mine was low. This is normal for me. However, they would not do the procedure until it was raised. So, I got to sit in a hospital bed and receive 2 bags of platelets and at 2:30 pm they finally did the biopsy. It was bizarre and not something I would recommend for fun. I had to be awake for the procedure. They gave me sedation and a local (lidocaine) anesthetic then they went to work. While they were using an ultrasound device to locate the lesion, they would tell me to breathe and hold my breath. Then 3 or more times, they went in with a very long needle and took samples of my liver tissue where the lesions were. The doctor had a very hard time getting to the spot she needed to access and ended up going through my two lower ribs to access the spot.

After the procedure, the doctors wanted me to stay for observation for 5 more hours. They were watching for signs of internal bleeding. There was none and Scott and I managed to escape the grasp of the hospital staff about an hour earlier than specified by the doctors. Thank goodness for awesome, intelligent hospital staff that can think outside the box. We made it home by about 10:00 pm and Ebby, Scott, and I collapsed into bed.

I am still recovering from the lack of sleep. As a general rule, I am not the most friendly person when I am sleep deprived. Anyway, now we wait. The results should be back next week. However, this place does not work all that fast, so there is no telling when we will hear something.

Quote of the week: The budget should be balanced, the treasury refilled, public debt reduced, the arrogance of officialdom tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. ~Cicero (106-43 BC)

Twist Collective did a fantastic job with their pattern selection in this new issue.  If only I had the time…

This may be the only entrelac pattern I would ever consider trying.  It is actually very pretty and I can just see it done in fall oranges and browns!  Here is the Ravelry link to the free pattern if any of you are interested.

Till next time…

I have begun a new, sewing related, fiber obsession.  I can’t disclose the details yet as I am making the first one for a very good friend in Ohio.  But, it is almost finished and then I will have a big reveal post.  Perhaps I will incorporate a prize or two…

In other news, I have been knitting socks like crazy and am halfway finished with my year long Sock Knitter’s Anonymous challenge of one pair per month.  Hand knitted socks are so much more comfortable to wear than store bought!  For my Ravelympics entry I decided to try to finish my Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl.

Taking a quick look at the days left in the Olympics and the amount I still have to knit on this thing, I will not finish in time.  However, I do think I will have it to a point where it will be better to finish it than not.

So nice to be back, see you soon…Deborah