a scary week

We've just had a scary week. Our son was hospitalized last Monday night, after terrible headaches, plus disorientation and fainting. They diagnosed it as subdural hematoma. After cat scans and an mri, they figured out where there was a tiny leak in the spinal column sac. They applied a blood patch and then drilled a small hole in the right side of his skull to extract some blood that had seeped into his brain and caused pressure and pain. It's more complicated than that, but it would take forever to explain it all.

They think this was caused by an accident last August, when he was on a bike and hit by a car.

Anyway, after the blood patch and craniotomy he began to feel much better. They made him stay reclined, with his head lower than his feet, for more than a day. Now he's gradually sitting up more and able to eat. He was so hungry, he kept saying how he wanted to pig out at Golden Corral! Which is funny, because they don't even have this restaurant around here. He just saw a commercial for it somewhere.

He's still in the ICU, waiting for a bed to open up in the regular part of the hospital. While we were at the hospital, we met so many of his friends and co-workers.

Things seem to be okay now; they are just keeping their fingers crossed that the leak in the spinal column sac has been closed for good. We are so happy to have our son feeling better and more himself.

rituals quilt in progress

This is my Rituals piece, in progress. Matilda looking on as ever.

In this photo I'm trimming and squaring up. The photos were taken from a photo booth strip, circa 1970. Yes, it's me and my then boyfriend, now husband.

This is the binding, ready to go. Actual-size photo strip images are part of it.

The photographs all came from Spoonflower, on cotton sateen. Love the quality! This morning I took photos of the finished quilt. This was a very fun quilt to make.

artful tour of Cardiff by the sea, and V Day

We visited our son in Cardiff by the Sea recently.

It's a great area, and my son loves it there.

It even has its own surfer dude sculpture, that gets embellished all the time by creative types.

Here is a Valentine's outfit I made for Samantha. Not hard, just fun.

I got ambitious and made Belgian Brownie cupcakes for Valentine's Day for my guy. They were good but rich. I had to put most of them in the freezer for later.

Missing Carol

A dear friend, Carol McDaniel, died last weekend. This is one of her quilts, that I bought at an auction a few years ago. She was a true artist and loved art. She was brave and adventurous with color combinations and was always up for challenges. We had some good times over the years - dyeing fabric, a few road trips, lots of sharing whatever we were working on. I will miss her.

eating ice cream video

One more video, this time of my granddaughter eating chocolate ice cream at Main Place in Santa Ana.

Video with soccer ball

This is a precious video of my grandchild playing with a soccer ball with her great aunt Marti. The owl hat is something I made as a Christmas gift, and it's been a hit.

hexagon ball class

I will be teaching how to make a ball out of hexagons and pentagons on Saturday, February 11 from 1:30 to 4:30, at Flying Geese Fabrics in Tustin. Technically it's called the Flannel Baby Ball class, but I can teach whatever style interests people - crazy, contemporary, etc. If interested, call Flying Geese to sign up at 714-544-9349.

Art Quilts Defined, and At the Zoo

"The art quilt is a creative visual work that is layered and stitched or
that references this form of stitched layered structure."

This is the new definition announced by SAQA. Nice, huh? I guess my quilts still qualify. I promise to post new work soon. I just need to figure out the border.

For those into grandchildren, here's another video of our grandchild, taken recently at the OC Zoo. They're only young once!

A Conversation

Cute video of Samantha talking to Grandpa.