Heeeerree's Gracie! Here is Gracie's quilt top with the borders. The 2nd picture is one of the latest ultrasound. If you tilt your head to the right, and look closely, you can see that it is a full frontal view of her face. You can make out the eyes, nose, mouth, forehead and puffy cheeks! I think she's going to look like her brother!

Gracie's Quilt.. The top picture is of the pieced backing I made for Gracie's quilt. Gracie is my granddaughter who is due to arrive September 12, via C-section delivery. The bottom picture is the quilt top, before borders are added. I am hoping to do the borders today or tomorrow, then have it quilted by my August 26 Quilt Guild meeting. I haven't decided on the quilting yet. I will probably do it in bright pink thread, though! I would like to do it by hand, but not sure time will allow that! It feels good to be quilting again, though!

Broken hips, puppies, life and death.... It's been quite a while since I posted...life has really thrown us some major curves this year, and July was probably the worst yet. My parents and niece and nephew were here visiting from South Carolina when they got a phone call on July 2nd that my gma had fallen and broken her hip, leg and shoulder. They were trying to decide whether to go home, or let the other 8 bros and sisters handle things. Then, on July 3, my mother in law fell and broke her hip. She had surgery on the 4th of July....some fireworks for us, huh? Mom and Dad ended up leaving on the 5th, and Gma had surgery on her hip and leg on the 7th. She wasn't strong enough, though and passed away 6 days later, on July 13. It was her choice for them to not put the oxygen mask back on her. She said she was ready to meet Jesus, and so she did. It was sad, but she'd been sick a long time, so almost a relief to know her suffering was over.

On the 10th, I went get mother in law from the hospital to bring her here to our house to recover and was met at the door and informed she'd taken a tumble in the hospital and had broken the other hip AND her elbow. She also had a huge gash over her eye. So...July 11, she had surgery on her elbow and arm. It will be quite a while before she is able to walk, even with the aid of a walker, so she will be in the hospital for a while yet. They talked about putting her in a nursing home, but we said absolutely not.......not after the last year she went thru with her husband in there. So, the hospital is "putting her up" til she is self sufficient enough to be able to come here. We can't afford to stay home with her all the time, and we can't afford to hire a nurse. If they want to send her home before we are ready, then they can hire us an aid. She has good days and bad days. We were called one day and told that she was unresponsive. Luckily, she came out of it...they think it was a build up of the oxycontin they had been giving her for her pain. She is no longer on any narcotics, just some tylenol for pain as needed. So we are hoping she is finally on the road to recovery. She is 81 years old, though, so mending is slow. Last weekend, we were able to take her little dog to the hospital to see her! They both seemed to enjoy the reunion!

Meanwhile......Our doggy Angel is enjoying having a playmate....or, sleepmate as pictured below!