Eco Warrior

I completed one side of my latest project!

It’s so large it takes up the whole floor!  I couldn’t capture the whole quilt in one picture.

Emma’s helping show scale

Does anyone notice how one row in this picture is different than the others?

It feels great to have this part done!  I’m looking forward to start the other side soon.

A few months ago I made Ryan a case for his tablet reader.. one of his co-workers saw it and asked if I could make her one.  Here’s the result.

On Ryan’s case I did a diagonal stitch across the whole thing, about 3/4 inch apart.  I thought that would take away from the design in the fabric for this one.  So instead, I stitched around the diamonds in a matching thread.  I’m happy with how it turned out.

I’ve made a bit of progress on my patchwork quilt.

7 rows done, only 12 more to go. 

This got me to thinking.. I like to sew, and pick out fabrics and color combinations.  Would anyone like to pay me to sew??

‘Tis the season to be jolly’… To be honest, I haven’t really been able to get into the spirit yet this year.  I think a large part of it has been some health issues I’ve been dealing with for the past year.  Just a fair warning, this is about my lady parts so if you’d rather not know I’d suggest stopping here. :o)  I’ve been trying to deal with all of this in a very quiet, personal type of way but now that so much time has gone on and not much has changed I can’t help but be curious if others have experienced something similar. 

Here’s the story, this time last year I went in for my annual physical and when the results came back, they told me I had an irregular pap.  Since, I’ve been fairly lucky with my health during the years leading up to this point I couldn’t help but be shocked.  I asked what it meant and what was to come next.  They told me that I had a mild case of dysplasia, which means that I have some abnormal cell growth.  Oh good.  After that, I was told to see a Specialist every three months to keep checking on the abnormality and make sure it didn’t worsen.  As months go on, it hadn’t gotten any worse but it also hadn’t gotten any better.  As you can imagine this had an effect on my romantic relationship with my bf.. Very Frustrating!  But that part of my life, I still keep very private.  :o)  Moving on.. finally it got to the point where I was in pain when I was just sitting at work typing so the Specialist suggested a laser surgery that would hopefully remove some of the bad cells.  I agreed to it and am very glad I did.  It was a nearly painless procedure, I was in and out of the hospital in a matter of hours and within a month I was feeling better.  So, I’m thinking at this point things are about to turn around.  Some of the bad cells were supposed to be gone, I’m not in pain, maybe this is it.  I was supposed to see the Specialist this month but I was also due for my annual physical so I went to a doctor instead.  I just got the results back and I’m still coming up with an irregular pap and still need to follow up every three months until I can get a few regular paps.  WHAT.. Still.. ARG.  Luckily, the doctors I have been working with have been very helpful individuals but still this is getting pretty old.  Then to put the icing on the cake, I find out that at this point I’m too old for my insurance to cover me getting the HPV vaccine.  You have to be under 26, so I’ve missed it by months..  When that vaccine first became available it was still questionable if it was helpful or hurtful so I never got it.  Now I find out that I have a low dose of HPV causing these abnormal cells and that if I got the vaccine it would maybe help wipe out some of the bad cells and at the very least prevent me from getting the more severe strand of the virus.  But alas, until I can figure out the next step, I will be drinking lots of green tea.  Another frustrating part is that the virus can remain dormant in females for about two years so if I would have been able to find out about all of this even a year sooner I could have done a few things a bit differently.  But I guess, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

I would love some feedback on all of this but if you don’t feel like responding in the comments feel free to message me and I can respond via email.

Alright, thanks for letting me get that all of my chest.  I hope everyone has a happy, healthy holiday season!

Thanks for the responses on my last post!  

I was laying the pieces out again to see what would look good next together and then realized that I had miscalculated.  I was counting how many squares I needed based on their cut size instead of their finished size (which will be an inch smaller because of the seam allowance)  So, after recalculating for 4 inch squares instead of 5 inch squares.  I now have 200 more squares to cut instead of 45.  :o(  I’m a little bit bummed out but it will be worth it once I get the top pieced together.

Yesterday, we went to the Neptune Festival and instead of taking pictures of people and the beach I only documented the day through pictures of the clouds..

This picture I tweaked a little in my photo editor to push the colors closer to what I was actually seeing in person

Sorry if it’s cloud pic overload but it was just one of those types of days.  :o)   

Believe it or not I am finally starting the quilt for our couch.  (I’ve only been thinking about it, almost starting it and then putting all of my supplies away for almost a year now) Since I couldn’t decide on a color palette, I was looking on Pinterest for ideas.  I showed this quilt to Ryan and he said he liked it better than some of the other patterns I had showed him.  

Image from http://craftyblossom.blogspot.com/2010/12/custom-patchwork-quilt.html

So, now I’ve been busy cutting random 5 inch by 5 inch squares.

The pile on the left is the actual 5x5 squares and the pile on the right is the strips left over.  Before last night I had less than 50 squares cut. 

I stayed up and cut fabric until 11pm.  Now, I only have about 45 more squares left to cut.  Those remaining squares just might need to wait a bit but getting that much closer feels pretty nice.  I might piece together some of my scrap strips to create a few of the last 5 x 5 squares?!  Any thoughts?

Also, I tried laying out a few rows to see how it might look.  Should I just pick completely random pieces to put next to one another or do I play with it a little to make it look random but make sure that I like which colors are next to each other?  I can’t decide and I would love some feedback.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!

Last weekend, hurricane Irene blew through.  The Governor had warned that people should be prepared because they could be without power for up to four days.   Since we hadn’t been through a hurricane yet I felt that we should listen to what he was saying.  I made quite a few trips to the store before the storm to make sure we had plenty of non-perishible foods and plenty of gallons of water.  We still have most of the food and water left but at least they’ll last for awhile so we’re set for the Noreaster season!

We had heavy rain and high winds for around 26 hours straight but that was the worst of it.  Our power only blinked a few times throughout the day.  Otherwise, I was skyping with my mom telling her things were fine and my sister in NY city to see what was happening North of us.  There were only a few twigs laying on our porch and outside our front door once it was all said and done.  We were very fortunate and for that I am very grateful!

The following morning we went for a walk around our neighborhood and you wouldn’t have even known it stormed.  Most of the water was gone, (After raining for 26 hours!  I’m still not sure where it all went) the sun was shining and most people didn’t have much for debris in their yards either.

This was the craziest thing we saw.  Two people in their canoe along the side of their house.  It didn’t look like they were getting too far so the water must not have been too high.  Also, none of the water was very close to their house so I think they were okay.  (Most houses only have crawl spaces and do not have basements)  I hope others around this area were as fortunate as us during this storm!

Where did July and August go??  It all seems like such a blur.  I just had to ask Ryan what we did in July because I couldn’t remember.  I think we mainly worked and tried to stay out of the summer heat.  This area has the opposite seasonal affects on me.  Usually I have a hard time getting through the winters because I’m not able to go outside as much but here it’s almost the complete opposite.  The summers are more brutal with the humidity that the cold of the winters are.  So, I am very excited about fall heading this way!

One thing that happened with turning 26 is I got reading glasses!  I’ve grown a little more used them but at first I was very resistant to wearing them.  (I will mention that I should be wearing them as I type but.. I guess I’m still being a little stubborn about them)

I made two bracelets last month for my Aunt’s friend.  She had a string bracelet with all of these different colors but was looking for something beaded instead.  Each of the different colors represent different types of cancer (pink=breast cancer).  It was really fun to put together.   

A friend mine recently showed me the site Pinterest and I can’t seem to get enough.  (This link should take you to my main page)  If you have any interest in finding out more about the site, let me know!  It’s super addicting with a bunch of great stuff on there!  Has anyone else recently been distracted by this site? 

I have been doing a bit of sewing here and there.  Last month, I made my dad a Father’s day gift using this link Father’s Day tie along with a tie I found at the Salvation Army.  The tutorial is super helpful!!  It made the project so much easier than if I would have just tried to build it from the store bought tie.  Reason being that I would have added steps that weren’t really necessary.  

My dad always gives me crap about being the “Eco Warrior” so when I found this fabric I thought it was perfect.  (Not to mention, he works for my hometown Utility company and was the one who taught me about saving energy, reusing things and recycling)

I also made him a card to go with it.  The card was inspired by one I saw at Barnes & Nobles recently.

I forgot how much I enjoy making cards.  :o)  

My next projects are making another reusable grocery bag and a beaded bracelet.  We’ve used one or our reusable bags so much it’s starting to fall apart at the seams!  I’m going to use the bag that’s falling apart as a template for the new bag.  The bracelet is for my Aunt’s friend and should be fun to put together as well!  I’ll post pictures once these projects are done.   I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July weekend!

The rumors are true- I got engaged!  It’s already been a week and I’ve had quite a few people asking about details and such so I thought this would be the best way to share.  

Last Friday, we came home like normal and were going to start dinner when Ryan asked if I wanted to exchange our anniversary gifts beforehand.  (We were celebrating 2 years)  It didn’t matter to me, so, I gave him his gift first and then he told me to sit on the couch with my eyes shut to wait for mine.  Then, I heard a bunch of noise and things falling over in the next room over.  I wanted to go help but before I could move he said, “are your eyes still closed?” …Yes… Next thing I know he’s sitting behind me telling me to hold out my hands.  As I do, I hear things clanking together.  I open my eyes and there are two rings!!  Not just any rings but two rings I had showed him a few months earlier from Etsy  I was joking around one day and sent him a few links to show him the types of rings I would be interested in.  Turns out, that same day he purchased two of them and had had them hiding from me this whole time.  He said the reason there were two was because he liked both of them and couldn’t pick just one.  Now, I can either wear both or one of the two depending on my mood.

The stone is citrine, one of my favorites.  Here’s the etsy link so you can see the stone better.  The other is a silver band overlapped and held together with a copper rivet.

Someone asked me if being engaged made me feel any different.  I told them no and after I think about it a bit more, it just makes me more excited about our future together!  

Does anyone else have engagement stories to share?  It doesn’t have to be your own.  Here are some cute ones!