I know. I’ve not posted in a while. Life got busy, well you know how that is.

Since last summer I’ve been struggling with shoulder pain. After trying shots, that only worked for a few months at a time, and some physical therapy, I was forced to have surgery.

Before Surgery

I follow Alycia at http://AlyciaQuilts.Blogspot.com  and in February she shared a quick quilt along of another of her Quilt of Valor patterns. I downloaded the steps planning on making it after I finished testing two patterns for Fabric Cafe.

As it turned out, my shoulder had other plans. Finally I was unable to do any cutting or sewing. I have some marvelous quilting friends that a week before surgery did most of the cutting for the Quilt of Valor top. Each block was packaged in zippy bags all ready for me to sew once I could sit at my machine.

The last few weeks before surgery were spent stocking up on groceries, meal planning, and otherwise preparing the house for the weeks of recovery.  Oh, did I  mention this is my dominant arm?

Post Surgery – QOV Block Kits, Four Patch

It was about 4 weeks after surgery that I first got into my sewing room. Thanks for my precut “Block Kits,” I was able to do a bit of sewing. I chose the simple 4-patch blocks which began with strip piecing. My energy level was still very low so I worked  just a few minutes at a time.

After Strip Piecing I needed to cut the units for the 4-Patch Block. This was a bit difficult to rotary cut so my quilty friends stepped up and cut them for me. I wasn’t ready to use the rotary cutter much.

Post Surgery – Quilt Of Valor Block Kits, Flying Geese

Slowly my strength was improving and now I worked on making Flying Geese for the Star Blocks. Since I  needed 24 for each block, I used the 4-at-a-time method and chain pieced them. There are four sets of 6 Stars which meant I had to make 96 Flying Geese.

This required more ironing. I never realized how heavy my iron is! It is a Chi and is actually lighter than a Rowenta I have.  So my left hand learned how to iron.

In making the Flying Geese, I started using the rotary cutter but had to take frequent breaks. Then it took me some more time to trim the Flying Geese.

Over the next month I got 2 sets of Stars made and the Flying Geese for the final 2 sets. With the 2 sets of 4-Patches already made I even was able to assemble the 1st row!

This Weekend

So, this past weekend, after a break to make a top for Fabric Cafe last week (I’ll post about that later), I was ready to make the final 2 sets of 6 Star Blocks.

Saturday morning I got into my Sewing Room, did a little cleaning/ organizing and sat at my machine to turn it on. Guess what? To my surprise it didn’t turn on! Nothing on the screen. No noise when on button pushed. It was sewing fine last weekend and we hadn’t had any bad weather or power surges. Why?

I did the usual checklist:

• Power cord plugged in – ✔️
• Outlet have power – ✔️
• Battery Backup/Surge Protector on – ✔️
• Power cord worked on another machine – ✔️
• Unplugged for 15-20 minutes (hoping for a reset) – Still won’t turn on

So I called my repair shop. I hoped they could talk me through something else to check. No luck. It has to go to the shop. Appointment made & my daughter helped move/set up another machine so I could get to sewing.

Morning was wasted. Time to rest & have lunch. I returned to my Sewing Room and spent a little time to re-aquaint myself with the machine. You know, different buttons, threading differently and locating feet & bobbins. Finally I was ready to get started.  First was sewing the Red Stars on Cream Background.

Sunday’s goal – Make Cream Stars on Blue Background. Chain Piecing I stitched together the left column, followed by the middle column and finally the right column. Once ironed the 3 units were combined to complete the Star Block.

I have PT on Monday & Wednesday, but I hope to get some rows sewn together this week.

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I am so happy I had this QOV top to make during my recovery. I’m looking forward to getting a lot more time in my sewing room..

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Hope you are making progress on whatever you are stitching this week!

Happy Stitching!

Quilt Mouse