A friend purchased a jacket made from an old quilt and asked me to “shzuzh” it up (not sure how to spell that sound). She gave me no direction, anything I wanted to do. Make it better, whatever I wanted. A challenge.

After I got back from Ireland, I started researching ribbon and design possibilities. I made a decision and ordered 4 different organic cotton ribbons the same week that I had an appointment with a dermatologist to look at and biopsy a spot on my scalp. The ribbon arrived the same day the results came in – basal cell carcinoma.

Two days later, I was back in the dermatologist’s office for a more extensive procedure. I came home with instructions for wound care plus 2 weeks of downtime. After a few days of staying home and doing absolutely nothing, I got started on the jacket: hand stitching, tunneling between the layers, 3/8 inch at a time.

Blanket stitch around the patch.

Today I met Deb, hoping she would like the design I came up with. She liked it!

This was a good project for the first days of recovery. Soon the stitches will be removed and the next phase of adjustment will begin. And I’ll be able to ride a bike again.

means Works in Progress. I have many. I decided to finish one of them. Six small embroidered and quilted pillows.

I needed a portable project, found one in the embroidery drawer, got the 3 colors of floss ready and other supplies, not intending to start on it at all. A week later, I have three of them embroidered and one quilted.

Glory is quilted. Liberty is basted, has blue lines drawn, ready to be quilted. Rabbit is basted and needs the blue lines which disappear when a light mist is sprayed on.

For the past four weeks, in between everything else, I’ve been working on a lined coat using two colors of denim from my stash. I added a few embroidery details at the hem and the triangles on the upper pockets.

A clothesline and a bicycle in one embroidery design – I had to make this. And I was able to use a lot of scrap fabric to finish it.

Jim and Lucy asked if I could figure out how to make a bag for the right side of Jim’s wheelchair – something to hold his wallet, a remote control, a special pocket for his cell phone. It was a fun project to figure out and took 3 fittings to get it right. And I used more scraps.

It’s always nice to see where something landed. This is Abbey in Virginia with the 50 Bikes for 50 Kids quilt.

Previously I shared the completion of the t-shirt quilt

and a very good Sunday watching football and finishing Sophia’s Christmas gift. *Note the blue fabric in the background.

In between, I finished an embroidered pillow for Adrienne – a thank you gift for all the Joe Pickett books and inviting me to Hawaii last fall –

and a blouse, which turned out (grrr) not to fit me, however it fit Terri just fine. And she liked the print and material.

Then it was time to finish project #5, a blouse that Phyl and I had cut out in January 2022 – ONE year ago – the blue material in the above picture. And nothing went right, I spent several hours trying to figure things out and finally called Phyl in frustration. Her advice was to set it aside and think about it. Whew! So, while I ponder a solution, I think I’ll adjust the blouse pattern and keep working on another little embroidery project. No idle hands in this house!

The day after I got back from Montana, I got right to work on a project with a deadline. I needed to get started because I wasn’t sure how to make it happen. I started with a stack of t-shirts on Thursday morning.

The goal was to use one shirt from each year that 50 Bikes for 50 Kids occurred to eventually make a wall hanging. By the end of the day, I had this arrangement:

On Friday I went to a great nearby quilting store, Fabric Garden, and bought two fabrics, a white to narrowly frame each piece and a basic black cotton called “grunge” in the color “little black dress.” I cut, sewed, and pressed for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Saturday, a second trip to Fabric Garden to buy more fabric for the backing and binding. I made great progress only to be stalled by not having a big enough piece of batting. I bought the batting on Sunday and started the minimal quilting by machine – LOTS of pinning.

On Monday, I sewed on the binding, folded it over and hand stitched it on the reverse side. Done!

Next, I will deliver to Becky at Jibe – it’s a gift for Abbey Stumpf who brought the 50 Bikes for 50 Kids idea to Jibe and organized the event each year it happened. She now lives in Virginia with her husband and children.

Latest sewing project: 25 eggs.

A new location for the carrots: