Dragon Progress

I figured it's about time for a progress report on the Dragon Quilt.  In the picture above you can see the strands of hexies I've finished in the center.  The strand I'm currently working on is at the bottom of the photo, when it's finished I can lay that one back in the bottom opening, and pick up my next strand. 

Using some batting, I roll the hexies to keep them in order when I take it on the road to sew.  I started with the longest strands first, there are 6 that are full from one side to the other, all the other strands start getting shorter from that point... I have 13 strands completed, and I'm going to guess that part is about 1/5 to 1/4 of the way done.

Right now my contemplation lies in picking out a border color so I can get those hexies made and sewn onto the ends of the strands before I start sewing the strands together.  I've had a few people ask me when I think I might finish this quilt... and I honestly don't really know.  My intention is to have the whole top of this quilt sewn together by August... and then I'm thinking about hand-quilting it too ~ and that will take even more time.

Trust me, no one wants to get this completed more than me ~ my motivation is high, but these things do take time!  This is part of the reason why I'm blogging about it: when it's finished and people say things like "hey... I bet you could sell these,  you could get a couple hundred bucks for something like this!!"  I can laugh in their face and show them this blog.  Hopefully when people see the work that goes into these things, they will consider their statements and realize this is priceless to me.

New Ink

A little off topic today... nothing to do with quilting, but I want to share my new ink:

I had the old rose tattoo done on my 23rd birthday 20 years ago... for my 43rd b-day I wanted to expand on the original rose since I'm living and loving Portland, OR or Rose City.  I picked a Japanese style rose because I thought it was prettier than the original old-school one, and these days I'm "into" pretty tattoos. 

This marks my 8th tattoo, and my 17th time under the needle (some tats take several sessions).  People always ask if it hurts... and I always say "Well... of course it does, silly!"  For me, the pain is worth the beauty, and yes ~ I do think some tattoos are quite beautiful.  I would much rather have pink, orange, green, purple and blue skin than pale white... but that's just me.  

Now off to do some hexie stitching and give this time to heal up!

Fabric and Friends

I've been having so much fun with the ladies from the Portland Modern Quilt Guild lately.  For national quilting day we all met up at a local fabric store called Bolt and did a little shopping, then went on down to Modern Domestic for an afternoon of sewing together ~ so much fun! 

Then a couple days ago I got to join a few friends on a shopping expedition to Fabric Depot for their 30% off sale to gather some of the new Micheal Miller cotton couture solids... mmmmm so nice!  If you haven't touched this fabric, you should.  It's super soft, but with a dense weave and it drapes beautifully ~ I think I'll be needing to make some skirts for myself soon. 

Here is part of my new stash:

The best part of all this is spending time with other creative types who like to sew.  Too many to list, but they all have blogs listed on the PMQG site if you want to check out a bunch of amazing quilters!  Special thanks to Rachel for continuing to give me pointers to make my sewing better and better.  IE: John James needles are so much better than Dritz.  My fingers thank you too!

a health update

This post is not really about quilting, so no need to read any further if that's what you're in the mood for.  This post is a little update about some health issues I'm currently experiencing.  I just saw my doctor yesterday and am a little saddened by my diagnoses, and I thought I'd post whats up because I feel the need to share (why, I do not know).

It's really not a big deal... more of a kick-in-the-butt type visit as to getting back on track with my diet.  I'm being tested for insulin resistance again... my last three tests came back as hyperinsulinic, but she wants to be sure before starting me on a medication, so a fourth test is in the works.  A bunch of other little things like negligible levels of vit. D, Iron, and Zinc proved to be helpful bits of information too.


According to the doc... what this all means to me is that my body is making insulin just fine, but for some reason my cells are not accepting it.  If I don't stop eating simple carbohydrates, my pancreas will give out soon, and there's a higher chance of diabetes and heart disease.  She told me, as if she was giving me a death sentence, that some people really can't have simple carbs.  Here's a link that explains it all better than me.

So if you wonder why I try to avoid sugar and grains (simple carbohydrates)... this is why.  I already have fatty liver disease, and my blood pressure has been steadily rising, and I'm overweight.  I'm also gluten intolerant, so anything I eat with gluten makes me quite physically ill for a couple days anyway. Which means it's high time to get the diet in gear!

Beyond all that, the tests also showed my immune levels (SiGA) continue to stay low.  This is what is frustrating, this is what keeps me so tired and achy all the time... but I need to be more active.  I've been working on this for a few years now, and I was hoping for better numbers.  The doctor is putting me on low-dose naltrexone to help with pain so I can exercise without needing days to recover (hopefully), and more exercise should help in the carb department.

I work hard at not complaining about all this ~ but it is something I deal with on a day to day basis, it makes me feel like a true sugar junkie, and sometimes I just get tired of the whole thing and need to vent!  So thanks for listening... now let's all get back to what makes us feel good... like sewing!

Hello Calluses...

I recently finished sewing binding on the King-sized anniversary quilt... and last week I started sewing the hexies for the dragon quilt together.  Guess what?  I now have some very nice calluses on my little fingers... it makes it SO much nicer to hand stitch anything!  I just wish that you didn't have to go through a week of soreness before the calluses come!  Oh well ~ it's worth it!

This is what I'll be looking at for the next few months:

I'm sewing this in strips that run diagonally in the dragon.  I'm excited to be at this point ~ now I just wish I could sew faster.  I really have to pace it though... my hand and finger joints can only handle so much.  I did find this awesome ointment called Traumeel ~ it has arnica in it and it helps my joint pain immensely. 

Okay, I'm off to do some more stitching...

Binding Time

I recently finished a quilt top for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary... and just got it back from Nancy at Just Quilting who made this quilt come alive.   I'm so excited that it's almost finished!  All I have left is the binding ~ and so here's what I'm working on today.  Yep, I'm taking a break from the dragon for a day or two ;)

The binding fabric is Fairy Frost by Michael Miller... it's really fun, and the bit of gold accent will help the quilt celebrate 50 years.  I'll be able to show it to my local friends at the next PMQG meeting... otherwise you'll just have to wait about a month before I can show it off with pics online!!