I'M STILL HERE!

Hi Everyone, Sorry for my long absence. I finally got my sling off after 7 weeks. I guess I didn't realize how long it was going to take to get back to normal. Even after this long, I can't lift my arm enough to reach a light switch or hold a phone to my ear. It is finally registering that it is a long recovery.  Oh well, I go back to work soon. I didn't want to use up all of my sick time. Never know when I might need to use it again. If I had this surgery during warm weather, I would have been back already because I wouldn't have snow and ice to worry about. At this point, I see why I was given 12 weeks off. I'm not really ready to go back, but only two of us do my job, and my co-worker is going on a well planned ahead vacation soon, and I have to be there if I can. I have been working on a few things. Thanks to having a Pfaff with the dual feed, I was able to sew a little. I did a couple of 7" Dresden plate blocks

Easily sewn and then hand appliqued to the block. I made these with 5" charm squares from the Moda "Etchings" collection. I cut each block in half and cut 2.5" pieces. I think that I got about 6 out of each charm.

 I've been knitting, I finished up a couple of things and started a new project.I am knitting a GIRASOLE throw.  it is really pretty.

I made it one other time with a lighter weight yarn.THIS IS THE SHAWL  The yarn is straight from Scotland and fairly scratchy.  The current piece will be soft and  huge.  More of a throw than  a shawl.

This past Christmas, like every Christmas, I put it off so long that I didn't get planned gifts made.  It is hard for me to think of decent things to get the people that I work with.  It's not like they are all quilters or knitters.. nothing easy like that.  We pretty much only have work as a common interest. That being said, they can't do what I do, so if I make them something, I know that it will be a gift they won't get from anyone else.  I thought I would make them all rice bags, because they have liked them in the past.  But I got sicker than a dog just before Christmas, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't just sit and work on them.  So, they didn't get anything.  But, in the past week or so, I have been able to get my arm up enough to get these done.

I used a free pattern from lazy girl designs.  HERE is the link. It is long enough to wrap around your neck, or wrap around your knee. I wanted to make the little bag to put them in, but I just didn't get around to it.

I bought this cute iPad cover from Terrie Sandelin's etsy shop Daisy Fair

 It features The "Gastlies"  with the knitter's.  I know that I could have made this myself, but, I probably wouldn't get around to it.  I like all of her fabric choices, and I don't have to chase down the prints or make it myself. It is reasonably priced when you consider fabric is $10. a yard, and by the time you buy the fabric.. 1/2 yd minimums most places online, and pay for shipping, it's a deal to buy it finished.  And we should help our fellow crafter's when we can. Plus the whole instant gratification thing.

Hopefully, it won't take me so long to get back again, now that I can actually do something besides whine.  I hope that you all are surviving the winter.  Hasn't been too bad here.. or the Summer heat in the down under...

Keep stitching!!!
Teri