My Mom’s Christmas Gift

Wow, this post is long over-due. I was inspired by my friend Jessica, who yesterday posted about a Christmas pillow she made for her mom!

For Christmas 2011 I made my mom a hand-quilted gift. My local quilt shop was selling a pillow pattern they call “Texas Patch ‘Em”. Here’s a photo of their finished product: 

Immediately I thought of my mom. She loves this great State of Texas. My quilt shop has so many great Texas-type fabrics – cowboy stuff, wildflowers, bandanas, etc. I sorted through the fat quarters and picked out a nice assortment for the pillow top.

I photo-copied the pattern before getting started. The more I stared at the enclosed shape of Texas, the more I realized that I wasn’t happy with it. Maybe it had smooth edges to make it easier to sew. Maybe it was just the artist’s interpretation. Whatever the reason, it just wouldn’t do for me. For those of you who aren’t so intimately familiar with the shape of Texas, he’s how it normally looks.

So I made some minor adjustments to the pattern. The pillow-top flew together.

I traced my pattern on a piece of Steam-A-Seam Lite, and pressed it onto the back of my pieced squares. After cutting on the lines, I pressed my Texas-shaped patchwork onto the background fabric. I played around with some scraps left from cutting. I wanted to see whether the edges would fray or peel up over time. I pressed these patch-work scraps onto some background scraps. Yep, it looks like they might fray a little. I tried another piece with some Fray Block. OK, it looked like I had the fraying under control, but it might peel up over time. Time to add some decorative stitching! I used more scraps to play with stitches: narrow blanket stitch, wide blanket stitch, stem stitch, overcast stitch (I kept wanting to call it simple continuous, which is the medical term for that pattern). I left the pieces out for a few days, and eventually decided on the overcast stitch in #8 pearl cotton.

This was the first time that I had pieced batting, because I didn’t have any pieces that were big enough without cutting into a new package, and I hated to cut into a big piece for a 16″x16″ square. I did some reading online, and boy are there a lot of different opinions on the “right” and “wrong” way to piece batting! In the end, I zig-zagged them together by machine, making sure the edges didn’t overlap, just butted against each other. When it’s inside the quilt sandwich, I can’t feel where the seams are!

All this was happening during my Radiology rotation. I was on Large Animal Radiology for the first week. LA rad is known to be quite slow. Most days we shot rads (x-rays) on one or two horses. So there was plenty of time to sit around and sew. I hand-quilted the pillow top in white #8 pearl cotton. I have to say that I love the look of the heavy thread, but I had a hard time working with it. I tried a larger needle to make a bigger hole to pull the thread through, so I would have less thread-drag. I tried a smaller needle, so I would have less needle drag. I tried with and without Thread Heaven. It still took a lot of effort! I probably should have contacted my friend Jessica, since she has numerous projects hand quilted with pearl cotton.

Did you know that if you get blood on a white sewing project, you can remove the stain by immediately treating with hydrogen peroxide then soaking it in Oxi-Clean when you get home? Yep, it works! I ended up hand washing the entire top with Oxi-Clean when I was done.

I used a colorful bluebonnet fabric for the back of the pillow (the bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas) with a simple flap closure.Pin much?

I made French seams on this pillow cover. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t unravel or fray if washed.

Next time I think I’ll make the seams on the outside. Afterwards, I realized that they would have made a nice accent. Oh well. I was much too lazy to pull out all the stitches.

I’m quite pleased with my finished product!

And my mom seems to like it too!

Annalycia’s Baby Quilt

When one of our classmates from Ross announced that she and her husband were expecting a baby, I knew that I wanted to make a quilt for her baby. However, this announcement came during 7th semester – our last semester on St. Kitts – which was a very busy time. Although I could have purchased fabric online and had it shipped to the island, I knew that I’d have little time for quilting. So I daydreamed about quilt designs and waited until we moved back to the USA in May 2011. I settled on [this design by...] and dove right in.

This was my first attempt at paper piecing. I photocopied the designs onto regular printer paper, then roughly cut out the shape of each unit. It took some trial and error for me to figure out how to cut fabric pieces that would flip over nicely to cover the desired area. Eventually, I started mass producing the smaller units. I took my time with this. I didn’t worry about how long it was taking. After all, the baby was due in September.

Next I assembled my blocks from the smaller units. I love the precision I can achieve by pinning through the matching points on the paper pattern!

I wanted to press my seams, but first I needed to remove some paper from the finsihed seams. This was extremely tedious. I put the blocks on a lap desk, and I sat in front of the TV. I had trouble ripping out paper from between the seams, so I dug through my medical instruments and pulled out some thumb forceps. Eventually I worked out a system to make it go a little bit faster. Still, this took a LOT longer than I had planned and now there were little bits of paper all over the house too. I sewed all the blocks together to complete the quilt top. Except that it wasn’t complete because I had to rip the paper out of the seams that I’d just sewn. I spent more time in front of the TV. At least ripping out the large pieces of paper behind the main fabric piecs went a lot faster.

Finally, I could press the quilt top and assemble my sandwich. I used a fuzzy purple flannel for the backing.

Sometimes it’s difficult for me to convey the passage of time when I’m telling a story. By then, it was September and the baby had been born! I was a little late, but at least I could add her name to the quilt label. I ended up quilting it in a simple diagonal grid in a purple thread that matched the dark purple fabric on the front. I used Mettler 50 weight 2 ply cotton thread in the top and bobbin.

While I kind of wish I’d taken the time to do a more intricate, pretty pattern, I was also out of time. I wanted to get the quilt to Annalycia and I needed to start studying for my national veterinary board exam.

With each quilting project that I undertake, I learn more about myself as a quilter. I learn about what skills I’m capable of, what skills I could probably do well if I practice, and also what type of sewing/quilting methods I enjoy. After this project, I can say that I do not enjoy paper piecing. Wait, let me revise that: I don’t like paper piecing on regular weight printer paper. I also learned that I prefer a lighter color quilting thread that matches the lighter fabrics and will sometimes cross dark fabrics, vs. a darker thread matching the darker fabrics that occasionally crosses the lighter fabrics.

All in all, I’m happy with the finished result, and the recipient likes it too!

The Small Animal Emergency Day Shift (and a bit about how the small animal hospital works)

My day starts before dawn. I need to be inside and ready to go by 6:00 AM.

6:00 AM:  The hospital hallways are darkened. The ICU and ER have only half their lights on so the patients can sleep better. The hospital is mostly quiet at this hour. Only the overnight crew is here – a few doctors, 4 or 5 technicians (nurses), and sometimes some janitors. Their soft conversations are punctuated by blips and beeps from the vital sign monitors. I’m in the ER doing 6 AM checks on patients that came in overnight and are waiting to be transferred to their respective services in the day time. I help with any treatments they may need. Then I wait. Perhaps someone woke up to find their pet unwell. Perhaps no one will come in for hours.

7:00 AM:  The lights are on and the ICU is very busy now. Fourth year (senior) veterinary students have arrived and have started to check in on their patients that have spent the night in ICU. The students must read over the notes left by the overnight technicians; do a full physical exam of their patient; create new orders for IV fluids, drugs, and treatments; write up their findings on the patient’s ICU sheet and on the computer; AND find their supervising doctor to discuss all this…by 8:00 AM. While the ICU is bustling, the ER is still quiet. We’re in our own little world here.

7:45 AM:  There are a few students still in ICU, rushing to finish the morning’s tasks before their rounds begin. Some people are running to the scale down the hall to get an updated daily weight for their patient if they forgot to weigh them earlier (which I often do).

8:00 AM:  The morning hour of madness has passed. The hallways are quiet because all the students are in rounds (small group discussions). Nothing changes in the ER. We see emergency patients or we round with our doctor or we sit around. I’ve started bringing craft projects to make the time go by faster.

8:30 AM:  Owners and their pets start to arrive in the waiting room. The front desk staff is busying checking in everyone, getting appropriate papers signed, and generally making the students’ lives easier by organizing everything.

9:00 AM:  Dedicated rounds time is over and the phones in the rounds rooms start to ring. The front desk calls to let each service know when their patients have arrived. The ER shares a workspace with the Primary Care rotation. Primary Care sees patients just like a regular non-emergency vet’s office would. The PC students are busy seeing their first patients of the day too. If things are slow, I’ll play with the puppies or kittens that are coming in for their first wellness exams.

10:00 AM-12:00 PM:  PC rolls right along, seeing many patients. ER may be busy or not (usually not). The shared workspace can get quite busy and noisy.

12:00 PM:  The PC students leave for lunchtime rounds and to volunteer at the local animal shelter in the afternoon. The workspace is oddly, but wonderfully, quiet.

4:00 PM:  The evening shift ER students arrive. We have two hours of overlap to get through the busy (or not) early evening rush. This overlap also allows the day students to brief the night students on any patients that will be in their care overnight. The next two hours can pass in the blink of an eye if we’re busy. If we’re slow, it feels like I’ve been through another day all over again.

The regular routine and rhythm of the rest of the hospital help me know what time of day it is. Otherwise, I have no idea whether it’s light outside or not. I’m in the ER bubble, in the middle of the hospital, in a land with no windows.

The night ends when I’m dismissed by a doctor. Sometimes they’re so busy that they don’t notice that the day crew has been on for 13 or 14 hours instead of 12. Sometimes, though, we’re actually let out on time. I would love to go home and get things done around the house or work on a sewing project. Instead I usually flop on the couch. At some point I’ll make sure I have clean scrubs and lab coats for tomorrow and pack my lunch for the next day. Then I set my alarm for 4:30 AM (ugh) and sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow.

Sneak Preview

Coming Back

Hello, my long lost friends! I’m sorry that I have abandoned you for 6 months. I truly am sorry. Clinical year has been pretty busy, but not so busy that I don’t have time for blogging (most days). I fell out of the habit, but I’d like to start giving you updates once again. I’ll have to wait a little while, though, because I’m taking my national veterinary board exam (NAVLE) this coming Tuesday, November 29, and I need to continue studying for that in the meantime. This board exam determines whether I’ll be granted a license to practice veterinary medicine in the USA. Also, I’m trying to finish a quilt by next weekend, and I haven’t really started it (because of studying for the NAVLE).

Sooo, perhaps this post is a bit premature, but I wanted you guys to know that I’m thinking of you and to give you a little bit of something to look forward to!

PS. I’m aware that I’ve made these promises before (like here, here, here, and here). I’ll try to do better. Let’s call it an early new year’s resolution, shall we?

First-time Auntie Quilt

[I created this post almost 4 months ago, and now I can finally share it with you!]

Over the last few years I’ve saved inspirational photos of baby quilts. I’m the oldest of four kids, and all of us are married. It was only a matter of time before a grand baby came into the picture. In the fall of 2010 I found out that my youngest brother and his wife are expecting! I’m going to be Aunt Becky! So exciting! I opened the folder of saved baby quilt photos and flipped through them again. I knew that I would need a project that could be completed rather quickly (during the Christmas break between 6th and 7th semesters). I also didn’t know if my brother and his wife were going to be learning the sex of the baby. My eyes were constantly drawn back to this zigzag quilt. I’d never cut and sewn triangles before, so I let the idea stew for a little while. Then I saw this tutorial on easy triangles from squares. I dug through my stash and played with colors, only to find that I really didn’t have the colors that I wanted. I still needed some blues, greens, and bright yellows (it’s all back in storage in NY *sigh*). So I purchased a layer cake of Moda’s Lollipop.

It was exactly what I needed to supplement the fabrics I already had. My mom’s step-mom came to visit just before Christmas, and she brought the fabric with her. I popped it all in the wash (I prefer to pre-shrink) with a Shout color-catcher sheet (love those things!), then played around with my beautiful new fabric.

I didn’t properly measure, but everything turned out alright. I had size issues with both the triangles and the binding being too large. The layer cake fabrics started at ~10 inches square each. The edges were pinked, which helped minimize fraying in the wash, but they all came out slightly smaller than 10 inches. Some were as small as 9.5″ on a side. I decided to cut them all down to 9.5″ square to clean up the edges. I guess I thought that my squares would all end up a little under 5″ each, but I forgot about how the fabric would be opened up (damn hypotenuse!). As I laid out each color zigzag, I started noticing how big this quilt was going to be. Oops! Well, the baby could grow into it. Thankfully the batting I had was just big enough.

This quilt went together really quickly. I squared-up the big squares one day, stitched colored squares to white squares in no time on another day, then spent some time slicing my big squares into little ones. It only took me a day to piece the quilt top too. I had been thinking about this one for so long, I knew exactly how I wanted it to look.

When I machine quilt, I usually pin baste. I don’t have safety pins here. Sure, I looked at the grocery store, but they always seemed to be out. I had some spray adhesive left over from the Nativity wall hanging. I’ve heard that spray adhesive wears off after a few days, but I knew that I was going to be quilting this one quickly. I taped the backing fabric to the kitchen counter top, and I took it slowly, doing a small section at a time. I was really pleased with the results. I got flat layers, and they stuck together.

I quilted this one by machine using white Mettler 100% cotton on top and in the bobbin. I stitched in the ditch on either side of each colored zigzag, plus a line parallel to that through the white zigzags.

I used a multicolored striped fabric for the binding. I knew I wanted this quilt to be durable, so I made double-fold bias binding and machine stitched it. I used this tutorial to make continuous binding. I played around with the binding a bit, holding it to the edge, folding it over to see what it would look like. I really should have tested it on some scraps to see exactly what it would look like. It’s a bit wide. It still looks OK, though. I stitched the binding to the back with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Then I folded the binding to the front and top-stitched it.

Here’s how the back looks. The binding stitching just looks like another line of quilting.

I learn something new with each project I complete. From this one I learned:  Always measure, especially if working with triangles (my in-your-head geometry failed me). I also learned that I should measure and test a small amount of binding before cutting all of the binding.

All-in-all, this quilt was done in less than a week. Here’s the finished product:

Update:  This past weekend my family had a baby shower and gifted the quilt. It was a big hit! In the meantime, my brother and his wife have learned that they’re having a BOY! So exciting!

Almost Back to Blogging

Hello, my long lost internet friends!

This semester has been insanely busy, as you can guess by my lack of blogging. For a while, if I wasn’t at school or studying, then I was sleeping. Then if I wasn’t sleeping I was apartment hunting or online car shopping. Occasionally I had a moment to myself when I could plop on the couch. I’m sorry that I didn’t take that time to come here and share my experiences with you.

We’re now making our final preparations for our move back to the USA. We have several suitcases packed and everything else is in organized piles. Throughout the semester we’ve been selling lots of stuff at 7th semester sales. We still have some stuff left over, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it. Our roommate will be staying in the same apartment, so we may end up just leaving her a whole bunch of things

In the middle of all this, last week some happy stuff happened:

• I turned 30 years old.
• We went on a fabulous catamaran trip to Nevis courtesy one of our professors.

And there was some sad stressful stuff too:

• Our car died. Thankfully the radiator just needed to be flushed, but those were an anxious few days while we waited to find out it that was all. You see, we’re still trying to sell this car.
• I got a call from home that our dog (an 11 year old lab/newfie mix) had a “tumor” (for the medically minded, it was described as an ulcerated well-circumscribed 1.5 cm intradermal mass on his sternum). Given his age, my mind immediately jumped to neoplastic (cancerous) lesions. We bit our nails for a few days until we got results – just an abscess (cytology results said suppurative inflammation with mixed bacteria)! Hooray!

All these things going on around me are kind of stressful. There’s a lot to do in NYC while we’re there for 3 or 4 days:

• We have to move a lot of our boxes around in my mother-in-law’s house.
• We need to take the dog to the vet for a recheck on the abscess and to see if anything more serious is going on.
• We have tickets for a Broadway show.
• We want to put in an appearance at the animal hospital where Michael used to work.
• I’d like to go out to long island to see a friend.

Then we go to Texas and:

• Buy a car.
• Go to a friend’s wedding.
• Move to our new apartment. Buy some furniture.
• Set up new bank accounts.
• Unpack so we can find our professional clothing for our orientation.
• Start our clinical year orientation May 4.
• First rotations start May 9.

I hope you’ll understand, dear internet friends, if I’m not posting here for a little while longer. I hope to be able to provide some weekly synopses of the fun things I did this past semester. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I’d like to point out something that I’ll miss about this island…the view from my couch: