Painful season

  Returning after my leave of absence......While I have been reading some blogs, not much else has been done.   It has been a painful 2 weeks, as nerves seems to be healing/reawakening in my feet and back.  On the one hand I celebrate that I can feel anything including pain, and on the other hand it makes me irritable and cranky.   Changes in weather seems to stir things up even more, and this is the seasonal time for weather patterns to shift and storms to appear.

   Yesterday was a bit better, and I kept looking at the wall hanging project I took on for the quilt guild's boutique.   Happy face pumpkin---a Daisy Kingdom printed panel-- needed binding.   I had appliqued it to a large hunk of dark green polished cotton that I found lurking in the stash closet.   I decided not to add the dimensional parts after I did the applique.   I used a thin batting  to stabilize the whole piece.  For the quilting I added the puffy polyester batting....ugh to work with.  But it gives a lot of relief to the quilting stitches......and it was fun to do some playing on the machine.

  With lack of sensation in my fingers it is difficult to hold a needle and stitch....like would be needed to add a hanging sleeve.  I opted to add huge, big diagonal corners to hold a dowel or stick.

He should be cute on a covered porch  or front door for the fall season.

  Other than a few sting blocks, I managed to make a few mug rugs. These will also go into the guild boutique at the show.  Using printed panels again, I kept them quite simple with minimal stitching.

  I finished one book, started another, made a few loaves of bread, pulled a few weeds, enjoyed the back porch, and annoyed Sir Old Man to no end.  This painful season is making him crazy, but gives him incentive to work on the pullout shelves for the kitchen.

  Truthfully, I am improving, only much slower than I like.  Energy level is up a notch, stamina has come up a tiny bit, and the biggest gain is in my cognitive functioning.  Read that as brain/mind/understanding, etc.  That alone is happiness, as it has been a long road to get here.   The brain fog moves in occasionally, but I am able to overcome it by focusing on one thing.  I still "lose" words in mid-sentence, but I cope better with that too.

   I have to do the necessary things before the pain creeps in.  That does not always leave much time for things I want to work on.  Instead I grab those few minutes when I can for all the projects I want to do.  I only take the nerve pain pill at night because I can not function during the day with them.  Tylenol can keep the pain at bay some days.  Pernicious Anemia has not won yet:)

  So for June, I will once again keep a simple list.  The only thing I am putting on it is to quilt the nine patch top that is pinned and ready to go.  Anything else I  begin, plan, or work on is gravy.....something extra.
Happy stitching.