Stitch in the Ditch

I think that I last posted about basting my Christmas row quilt. I basted it and then spent a few days machine quilting, stitching in the ditch between the rows and borders. I've decided that some pearl cotton hand quilting would be nice. I have several colors of thread picked out to use. This will make a great project for my surgery recovery...in addition to the knitting...and some hand appliqué. 

Mickey was cold yesterday and the only sweater we have here at the lake for him is his Christmas sweater. So he matches the quilt!

Yes, my breast cancer surgery is finally scheduled. It will be in November. I'll be glad to get it behind me!

Our new furniture was delivered over the weekend. The sofa and love seat are charcoal gray. We were finally able to design and hang a gallery wall in the living area- yes, Denim Cooper has a place now.  I LOVE a gallery wall! See the two copper lamps in the picture? Those are Microsun lamps I bought in June when they had their scratch and dent sale - great light for hand sewing! Later today we hope to finish hanging pictures in a couple of bedrooms.

Thanks for all your love and support!

Moving Along...

My Santa Swell is progressing nicely. I made the other blocks. And then I sewed them all together. Boom.

Then I laid the BIG santa in place on top. The directions call for Santa to be fused to the background around the outside edges. BUT I didn't bring any fusible web to the lake.  I rarely use fusible anymore anyway. So I'm in the process of hand appliquéing Santa onto the top. Do you see where the quilt top is shadowing through the beard? No worries, that'll be cut out from under Santa.

This kit has you sew enough blocks to also make a table runner AND a pillow - so I'll have a couple of more little projects to finish, too.

I had my MRI yesterday...at 6 am...2 hours away. We hit the road at 4 am and were back home around 9:30 am for breakfast and a nap. The results were good!

Next step - one more doctor appt before I make my decision as to which surgery option.  Over the weekend I wrote a detailed pros and cons document on each of my surgery options. It made me feel so much better to get all this out of my head and onto my computer. Making progress...

Today is day 30 of my Whole30 eating plan! I did it! Okay, not quite...I did eat peanuts for the first part of the 30 days and later learned that peanuts are not allowed. I've switched to raw cashews since. Starting tomorrow I can slowly add more foods back in my diet, but I don't think I'll do that yet. I want to eat this way for at least another couple of weeks. Whole30 has made me feel energized. And since I know that I'll be having surgery in the near future it makes sense to me to keep eating as healthy as possible.

Today I plan to baste my Christmas Row quilt. I want to machine quilt it in the ditch and then add some touches of hand quilting with perle cotton.

A big thank you to all of you for the sweet comments, emails, and messages I've received. A special thanks to JM - a blog reader from Australia - she has been sending me a funny email every day and I adore them! Laughing is the best medicine!