2013 - The Year of the Christmas Quilt #3 - Mind Your P's and Q's

Quilt number three was originally name Pinwheels and Patches (according to the quilt book I found it in) but I renamed it "Mind Your P's and Q's." There were two very fun, very unique things about this quilt, 1) I used navy blue in the pinwheels, not your traditional Christmas color and 2) the quilt itself is a shape shifter. You can see the traditional pinwheels one way made of eight triangles. And then by turning the pinwheels slightly, you cab see bigger pinwheels with the four square patches in the middle. You're trying it right now, aren't you?

The fabric for the patches are all scrap Christmas prints that have some metallic thread in them. The back is a gorgeous red and green Christmas tree print on navy and I used a strip of the print to make part of the border around the center pinwheels. I switched the color assignment of white and navy pinwheels for the last row of the border, or did I? It works either way. This quilt was so much fun to make because of all the optical illusions going on!

The happy owners of this quilt are Mark and Pam Allmendinger, my first husband and the father of our daughters, and his wife, who is also my good friend. We are all just one big happy blended family, the Allmendinger/Long/Leiner clan. Pam is also a quilter so I was quite pleased that she was so happy to get one of my quilts. She also owns another one of my quilts, one I made for her and HER first husband. Ah, the world it does turn and turn.... The last very unique thing about this quilt is that Pam told me the night of the give-away, that she had been following my MY QUILT PLACE blog and knew that all the quilts were being made to surprise everyone at Thanksgiving but she did not tell a soul. not even her husband Mark. What a good friend she is! Thanks, Pam!

Foot surgery - check that one off the list; rehabilitation, ummmm, still working on it....

The good new is that we are six weeks into the rehab and I have only one more week to go before the huge cast comes off, I have had two so far, one green and the current one blue:

The contraption you see is my best friend, Zippy, my knee scooter, which has enabled me to get almost everywhere in the house. Unfortunately, Zippy does not climb stairs so I am navigating them on my bum. The last picture is me in my wheelchair, still smiling as you can see. I will not say this has been easy. Some things have been downright tough but the pain was not too great, the doctor says things are progressing nicely and it is almost over. Once the cast comes off, I am four weeks in a clunky old boot and then - freedom! I will be able to drive again by April 1. Whooppee! Once I conquered going up and down the stairs on my seat, my world really opened up. I had been basically living on the first floor but step climbing meant sleeping in my own bed and ... wait for it... getting back to the sewing machine. I starting doing a bit of piecing again the 4th week and have just today finished the 27 little houses that go across the top of the Thanksgiving quilt. I am now working on the 27 autumn leaves for the bottom of the quilt. Then I will put on the side border and the top will be done. I will monogram the back next. Maybe by that time, the boot will be off and I can think about getting it pinned. Maybe I can pin it in the attic as it should be warmer by then and I will be able to walk. Life is good.