Cancer Sucks

To say my world was rocked two weeks ago is an understatement. Exactly two weeks ago my Dad was rushed to the hospital via ambulance after suffering what he called an "earthquake" on the left side of his body while at work. I was on the road for work and rushed home, packed a bag and started the 1.5 hour drive to my parent's house. Thankfully my Aunt was home and talked to me for almost the entire ride to help distract me from the unknown in the emergency room.

They thought he had a stroke....what the doctors would tell us later that night would forever change my life. My Dad had a brain tumor with a large cyst attached to it, much like a water balloon. Several days in the hospital and more tests we knew that his full body scan was clear and surgery to remove and biopsy the tumor was scheduled for March 18th.

Surgery went well and he was discharged after only 4 days. Friday we got preliminary Pathology indicating that the tumor is rare and malignant. We are waiting on final pathology from the research hospital and he met with his neurological oncologist today to develop his treatment plan.

My Aunt (same one who talked to me on my ride) called me on the 15th and asked me to pick her up at the airport on the 16th, she was coming to surprise my Mom and be there for everyone during this marathon. She said she was bringing fabric and we were going to make my Dad a quilt. The backing fabric looks like tree trunks and is quite fitting for my Dad...I have table that he made out of tree trunks. Grey is also perfect as it is the awareness color for brain cancer.

Saturday night we started cutting and sewing fabric at my sister's house. On Sunday, my sister decided that she wanted to learn how to sew and sat and sewed strips together for 2 hours. We sewed and cut on Monday night after the surgery and on Tuesday I left and headed back home, returning on Friday. My aunt sewed all day Friday to finish the quilt top and on Saturday I basted and started quilting. Quilting was finished late Saturday night and I bound the quilt. I am a crazy person who loves to hand bind so on Monday I started to bind the quilt, finishing late Tuesday night so my husband could deliver the quilt when he went to my parent's house Wednesday morning.

I just Facetimed with everyone and got to watch my Dad open his quilt. He loves it. I hate that these are the circumstances that he got his very own quilt, but I know that quilts bring comfort and I hope this brings him a ton of comfort. The quilt tag reads:

"The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around…Throughout history, "tender loving care: has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing." ~Larry Dossey
"Wrapping you in tender loving care."

Sorry for the cell phone photos...my sister is sending me better, daylight photos and I will update.

Prayers needed

My Dad was taken by ambulance to the hospital Tuesday morning and has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  We don't know much right now...he is having surgery sometime next week to resect and  biopsy the tumor.

I am asking for prayers for his healing and strength.  His doctor is the best of the best and we are hopeful for an excellent prognosis.  Please keep my father and his medical team in your prayers and I will provide updates as I have them.  His name is David.

Thank you!!

Finishing up those WIPs!!

I had some leftover fabric from this quilt and like any good quilter, I saved the scraps with every intention of making a doll quilt to go with the big girl quilt.  Life happened and that pile of 4 inch squares sat on my sewing table for the last 8 months along with the pink receiving blanket that I used for the backing. 

 

 

I ended up trimming the squares down to 3.5 inches by 4 inches to allow for one extra row and quilted with some "straight" lines 0.25 inches from each seam.  It looks beautiful. 

 

 

Of course, I didn't have fabric in my stash that was just the right color of pink for the binding and after the photos were taken, I headed to the fabric store and found the perfect shade of solid pink.  The doll quilt is in the dryer right now and I hope to get it in the mail to K tomorrow. 

Since there was some of the pink receiving blanket left over after I quilted it, I trimmed up the fabric with my pinking shears and made a little wipe clutch (stash busting!) and filled it with baby wipes.   I was able to take some photos of the binding...I love it!

 

 

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday!

 

Friday Finishes

I finished up another row of the 2012-2013 block of the month through Fatquartershop.com. I'm excited for the remaining three blocks and I plan on making the borders and binding this weekend.

 

The block below had to be made and remade twice...I sewed the grey flying geese sections incorrectly...as shown below, the fabric needed to be sewn directionally.  All us well now :)

 



 

After I took the beautiful snow pictures, I realized my last row had all the geese flying south...

 

so after some seam ripping I have fixed the row so half my geese are flying north and half my geese are flying south.

My girls and I played with scrapbook paper, glitter and mod podge to make initial letters for their bedroom doors. They will be surprised when they get home to see the letters hanging on their doors. I spray glued some scraps of batting to the backs to eliminate clinkin when doors are closed :)

 

Happy Friday!!!!

I am linking up with Finish It Friday.

More Butterflies and Babies

My Mom sent me some more photos of the quilt before she shipped it off to Baby E.