Medical Update and More

I'm afraid I've neglected blogging since Thanksgiving. Several of you have emailed to ask how I'm doing since my heart catheterization, so here you go.

That heart cath was a week ago today, and it went well. It was my sixth visit to the cath lab in Ocala, so I felt completely comfortable about all of it. Only anxious to get the results. I even teased a tech about needing a "rewards card" because of the frequency of my visits! He was quick to tell me that after ten visits I get a toaster, and that when I reach 20, I'll get a quesadilla maker! Oh boy! Ha, ha.

However, this was my first cath visit where the catheter was inserted through a vein. The previous five visits were for arterial catheterizations. Anyway, in less than five minutes the doc fed the catheter through my right groin to check the pressure on the right side of my heart. He determined that I do not have pulmonary hypertension, as a different doc told me on November 5. I was so overwhelmed with relief that I shed a few tears.

My doc is speculating now that the problem might be at the "cellular level"... that arteries into my right heart chamber may not be dilating properly. Whatever the problem, my heart periodically races and pounds really hard for no apparent reason. Anyone looking at me can see it bouncing in the hollow of my throat. After seeing my doc this week, I expect to get a prescription drug. Of course, I'm not happy about being put on another drug, but the doc told me that if it works, "you'll be on it for the rest of your long, long life." How can I argue with that?

Friends, thank you for your concerns. You bless me. (Hugs.) Psalm 138 has been my song of praise.

I am now, considerably less worriedly, sewing away in my sewing room. Still, I'm unable to share too much because, after all, this is "Santa's Workshop!" So, a few things I can share...

I finished making 10 pattern weights and have been using them a lot! In fact, I wish I'd made them a long time ago! Straight pins are so futsy by comparison. Weights are just the ticket for holding down patterns as I rotary cut. You can see that I used the ties from fabric bundles to wrap around pairs of large washers. This is such a good idea, found on Pinterest.

Several of my Black Friday/Cyber sales purchases arrived. I am plum tickled about getting 47 pieces of Blueberry Park. The designs are over-printed onto Kaufman Kona, so they're a nice weight in beautiful colors. 

Following my usual routine, I prewashed these fabrics before they went into my stash. I did four small loads, and this is the dye that attached itself to Color Catchers. Amazing, isn't it? More dye was released than I expected. The blue fabrics bled the least.

Here's the first thing I whipped up with Blueberry Park. My all-time favorite top pattern: "Tortola" by SisBoom. Last night I wore it to a three-hour line dancing social. It was totally comfortable, and I happily danced to 37 line dance tunes! My legs ached only a few times. Yay.

Another mail arrival was a Mini Quick Curve Ruler by SewKindofWonderful. I was very excited to try it out, so I did.

Here's one block of the free "Mini Trees" pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful. Each of my blocks will finish at 7-1/2" X 13.

Of course, a quilter always has to keep supplies in stock, and when they're available at a big discount, even if you don't need them at the moment, you buy. So I did. 

The 4" square, Triangle-in-a-Square Bloc-Loc ruler will be tested early in the new year.

Something else I found interesting, though if you're a member of the MQG, you already know, QuiltCon West (February 2016) had a record-breaking number of quilt entries: 1810!

Isn't that astounding? One of them was mine... my Prism quilt.

The rest of the statistics...

• Number of quilters: 1019
• Number of countries: 21
• Number of US states: 50
• Number of guilds: 116

The most quilts were entered by MQG chapters in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin. Everyone is supposed to learn in late December whether their quilt(s) was juried into the show.

My quilt pile is growing, so I thought to hang a couple more of them in the guest room. There's one in the laundry room now too. After sewing sleeves onto them, and some rearranging of the guest room wall, here's the room that visitors sleep in at my house. As someone on Instagram commented, "It's like sleeping at a quilt show!" Heh, heh.

Linda