Cutting Pieces for December

This last week has been a doozy!   For the first time in my life, I called 911 for an emergency that I was a part of. (Previously I called 911 to report a wreck that I passed.)  This time I was with Mom when she had an incident that scared the stuffing out of me.  It was finally diagnosed as a TIA (trans ischemic attack) with is like a stroke but not as damaging.  I really thought it was a stroke when I called 911.  They present with the same symptoms.  After a LONG visit to the ER, we went home. But my brother and I kept Mom on "observation" for more than 48 hours.  It seems that these things are highly likely to recur within the 48 hour time frame. However, we had no recurrence.
We still have some follow-up medical tests to rule out other possibilities.
---- So that is why I have been totally missing in action.

Today I started cutting pieces for my December Island Batik Challenge.  Here are the pieces I have cut.

All of these pieces with the exception of the yellow are from Jackie Kunkel's line for Island Batik called Electric Desert.  I love this line.  The yellow is one of the basics from Island Batik and it goes perfectly with this selection.  I will be adding some black and gray to these pieces.  So I hope you will be looking forward to my December Challenge post.

Meanwhile, I have my November challenge top left to layer and quilt.  I just need the time and weather to do it since I will baste it on a table outside.  You may remember seeing the triangles that I posted back in August.

This is my first quilt done totally in blue and yellow.  I won't show you the top, but I will tell you that I absolutely love it.

And after seeing a few other bloggers clean out their machines, I decided to remove the bottom cover on my Janome and clean it out. There is no dealer close to take it for a spa day.
This is what I found in the bottom and in the inner works.

That is a lot more fuzz than I expected to find.  I frequently clean the bobbin area and thought I was getting most of it out.  I think I will do this at least once a year and maybe twice now that I have seen what accumulates.

Take care of your machine folks, and it will last a lot longer.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

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