Newly diagnosed :(

Wanted to share what is going on in my life.  I got a real shock late last week when the doctor told me I had cancer.  After I had a routine exam last month, my doctor had sent me back for a fine needle aspiration (biopsy) for a couple of nodules on my thyroid, just for "peace of mind".    Well, that didn't work quite the way it was planned!  My mind is more worried and nervous than at peace right now.

I didn't know anything about this cancer before, but I'm now reading everything I can find on it.  Did you know that thyroid cancer is the fastest increasing cancer in both men and women in the US?  It is also the most common endocrine cancer.

Fortunately, thyroid cancer is a slow-growing cancer, and is treatable when found early.  That leads some people to say that it is the best cancer to have.  I don't think any cancer is good.  I don't want mine, that is for sure.  I wouldn't want anyone else to have it either.

I'm getting some more tests done, and then my doctor will be sending me to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD for surgery and treatment.  It's a hike from where we live and I'm not looking forward to what is required for treatment, but that's OK.  You do what you have to do.

I take comfort in knowing that it can be treated, but it weighs heavy on my mind.  I've got a family to raise and my life to live.  It just stinks that thyroid cancer has to be a part of it.

My thoughts exactly.

Hugs,
Sylvia

Funday Monday 18

Happy Funday Monday!

I had health-related issues to deal with today, so it's a late start to this posting, but it is still Monday, so it counts!  ☺  

Thank you for sharing your projects last week. I always enjoy checking out what you have done.

My friend and I got a late-start to our sewing fun-day too, but we did get some time to craft today.  Our Fundays will be coming to an end soon as the school year for our kids is about up.  We plan to start them up again in the fall when the next school year starts up.

I finally got to free-motion quilt a bit.  Not sure if you can see, in the first pic below, but this is a large stipple/meander across the quilt.

Please share what you've been up to!

WELCOME to our little weekly sharing party!

Little Funday Monday History...
This past fall, my friend Kathleen (I mention her a lot on this blog) and I made a commitment to get together once a week for crafting.  We chose Mondays to be our day to craft, and we call them "Funday Mondays".    It makes Mondays much more fun, don't you think??

I always have more fun when I stitch with a friend, so I thought I would have a linky party so we can have everyone join for a group Funday.

So...
Please join in and share a link to your post of what's new with you.  Anything family-friendly would be great!  I just ask that you link to a specific post in your blog (not your whole blog).

This party is open Monday - Friday this week, so that gives us plenty of time to come back and share.

Grab my button if you like:

<center> <a href="http://www.sylviasstitches.com/search/label/Funday%20Monday" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://gouldspace.com/buttons/SylviaStitchesFunDay.jpg" /></a></center>

Wednesday's WIPs, Pics, and Quilting in Space!

It's been busy around here lately, but I did get a couple small embroideries done today.

Work-In-Progress (WIP)

My old neighbor asked if I could do another lacrosse bag for her daughter's upcoming birthday.  I used the Monogram Wizard Plus software with the Exact Script font.  It isn't easy to get a section of a thick back pack under the sewing needle.  This is about as low as I could get this monogram on the front pocket.

I've had this overnight bag for a while.  I bought it with the intention to monogram it for myself, but never got around to it.  I finally decided to remove the masking tape with my last name from the top, and do a little embroidery for me.   This was done in BES with the Plumage font.  This bag looks better now without the tape.  :-)

My real WIP is the long-arm quilting I have to do on a few quilts I have in my sewing room.

Lots of classes!!

I'm excited that I got the last spot in the EQ7 class when it will be taught locally (close enough anyway) at the MAQ 2013 seminar in July.  In-person classes for EQ7 are hard to come by in this area.  It will be a 1-hour drive for me, but I don't mind for this full-day class.

I also learned that QuiltUniversity.com will be closing at the end of this year.  (Sadly, the site's dean and founder, Carol Miller, recently passed away).  I decided to sign up for the EQ7 class I've been pondering since they won't be offered again.  I'm now enrolled in the EQ7 Building Blocks class which starts on May 24.

For Mother's Day, DH gave me a credit for several classes at Craftsy.com!  I had links for 50% off of each of the classes I wanted, so I now have unlimited access to  Leah Day's Free Motion Fillers (vol 1 & vol 2), Angela Walter's Machine Quilting Negative Space and Quilting with Feathers, and Ann Petersen's Beyond Basic Machine Quilting.  The links I have in this post are good for 50% off too - except for Angela Walter's classes.

The trick I've found with craftsy.com, is that if you see a class you want on sale, add it to your shopping cart.  You won't have to buy it right away because the class will stay in your online cart at the sale price (even after the sale ends) until you purchase it, or delete it.  So I had Angela's classes in my cart from a recent sale price, and then I got it with the other classes for Mother's Day.

I've got lots of opportunities to learn something new! Good thing there is no time limit at Craftsy. :-)

Pics...

The weather has been odd for May, but it finally was really nice the last couple of days.  Here are a couple of shots I took with my cell phone on my walk around the neighborhood.  I love the open space!  Just had to share...

So Pretty! 

Our puppy Shadow had his first real groom today.  He looks so spiffy now.  Thought I would share a nice pic of him since my last post on him wasn't the most positive.  :-)

What a handsome doggie!

First Quilter in Space!

A friend shared this article with me about NASA sending a quilter to the International Space Station.  How cool is that??  Read the NASA News article here.

Her name is Karen Nyberg.  I did a little searching on her, and found this profile of her at Quilts Inc.  She also has over 800 pins on Pinterest.  Her tag line on Pinterest reads "Astronaut by day.  Aspiring quilter, crafter, artist, runner by night.  Wife and Mommy 24/7."  Now that is a busy lady!

Happy Stitching!!

Puppy Inspired Embroidery

Today's embroidery was inspired by our puppy, Shadow.  He's a cute little guy, but he LOVES to chew!  These are the straps of DD1's simple tote bag that she has used for years for her piano books and lessons.

It became a tasty snack for the puppy last week, so I embroidered her a pretty bright new one.

The italics font and music design came with my machine.

It gave me the idea to share our current growing puppy pains we are experiencing.  Shadow is 6 months old, and a very sweet doggie.

Remember this little 4.5 pound guy in December?

He's now 19 pounds in May!

Don't let that sweet face fool you.  Anything at his eye-level will do for his chewing needs.  I've used the Bitter Apple spray on furniture legs and wood moldings, and he does not bother those things anymore.  But, he is happy to grab and dash under the table with anything else he can.  He'll grab clothes from the laundry basket - socks and towels are his favorites - doesn't matter if they are clean or dirty.  They're equally fun to him.

He likes chewing shoe laces.  These shoes are now slip-ons for me because if I untie them, I'm sure the laces will come out in several pieces and can never be tied again.

He chewed the lacing on the moccasin-type slippers I wore around the house.  I restitched it once before he did it again.

So I decided to wear these flat shoes which have no laces as my slippers instead.  I figured he wouldn't be interested...  I was wrong.

DD3's sweat jacket was hanging in her area like it is supposed to be.  Shadow just had to try a bite...

DD3 has lost at least five Barbie dolls to chewed or missing limbs.  We've learned to close the doors to the rooms we want to keep puppy out of - such as the play room for the toys and laundry room for our shoes.

And paper!  He loves to shred paper - it can be homework, mail, coupons or toilet paper - it's all good to him!  More than once has he unravelled a roll of TP in the bathroom.   He has trained us to close the bathroom doors too.  :-)

I took this photo as I was watching him casually check out the waste basket in my sewing room.  Then he pulled out some scrap stabilizer and darted under the cutting table to shred it!

But, when he isn't chewing, he is such a lovable dog.  He'll want to be with you no matter what.   He especially loves playing and running around with the kids. If you are busy, he'll just curl up nearby and sleep it off until you can give him some attention.  There is hope this chewy phase will pass.

Before Shadow, we had not had a young puppy for many years, and I had forgotten how much they like to chew.  I am so looking forward for this phase to pass.  The kids have now given Shadow a middle name of "Chewbacca".  I think he has earned it.   ☺

Happy Stitching!

Funday Monday 17

Happy Funday Monday!  Hope all the mothers out there enjoyed their Mother's Day!  I got the day off yesterday, and got some time alone in my sewing room for a little treat.

A friend requested if I would monogram her Land's End lunch tote bag.  It is a really thick canvas, and I could not stitch her pocket without stitching it closed.  I did a small initial above the pocket.

My children's Taekwondo instructor asked if I could embroider on belts.  I've done karate belts once before, and it worked ok, so I agreed to do a few belts for him.

My home embroidery machine was not happy stitching on these belts.  Previously, I've done a larger font for this type of belt, but these belts required 1/2" inch lettering.  That is a lot of tight stitches through tough material.  My needles would break, and I tried a variety of different needles to try and make it work.

  

Glad I got them done.  They're definitely OK, but not my best work.  ☹

I've got more "To Do" stitching items this week.  Thanks to the crafty friends that shared their projects last week!  Please share again!!


WELCOME to our little weekly sharing party!

Little Funday Monday History...
This past fall, my friend Kathleen (I mention her a lot on this blog) and I made a commitment to get together once a week for crafting.  We chose Mondays to be our day to craft, and we call them "Funday Mondays".    It makes Mondays much more fun, don't you think??

I always have more fun when I stitch with a friend, so I thought I would have a linky party so we can have everyone join for a group Funday.

So...
Please join in and share a link to your post of what's new with you.  Anything family-friendly would be great!  I just ask that you link to a specific post in your blog (not your whole blog).

This party is open Monday - Friday this week, so that gives us plenty of time to come back and share.

Grab my button if you like:

<center> <a href="http://www.sylviasstitches.com/search/label/Funday%20Monday" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://gouldspace.com/buttons/SylviaStitchesFunDay.jpg" /></a></center>

Monogrammed Duffle Bags & some quilts

It is Teacher Appreciation Week.  It is a week-long celebration in the US observed the first full week of May.  Each day this week, the kids do something special for their teachers.  I found some quilted duffle bags locally, and thought they would make nice little personalized gifts for the teachers.

I usually miss my deadline of Teacher Appreciation Week, and end up giving the gifts at the end of the school year.  I'm happy to say that I made my date this year!  Hooray!  I started these on Funday Monday.  I spent most of my time playing with designing the monograms and trying to decide which fonts went well with each set of initials.  The fonts pictured below are Aidan, Ralleigh, Shelly and Babypoint.  All were created using BES Embroidery Lettering Software.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

My friend, Kathleen, was busy here on Funday Monday too.  She pin-basted a baby quilt that she had recently completed.  She found the fat quarter baby quilt pattern here via this pin on Pinterest.  That quilt sandwich is now in line for me to quilt on my Sweet 16.

Kathleen tried machine embroidery for the first time and monogrammed the corner green panel.

She also worked the border of another fat-quarter friendly quilt.  This pattern is called Cheaper by the Dozen by Legacy Patterns.  She did this one in a black/white/red color combination.

Cheaper by the Dozen quilt

Hope you are having a great week.

Happy Stitching!

Funday Monday 16

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you have some crafting to share!! Sad news is I've got nothing new to show yet.  :-(   I'm hoping Funday Monday will change that. It is Teacher Appreciation Week for my kids, so I've got to get busy to embroider some small gifts for their teachers.  I'll be back to share the items here.   Please share your projects here to help inspire others.  I need some motivation.

Thanks to the crafty friends that shared their projects last week!  Love your projects! ♡

WELCOME to our little weekly sharing party!

Little Funday Monday History...
This past fall, my friend Kathleen (I mention her a lot on this blog) and I made a commitment to get together once a week for crafting.  We chose Mondays to be our day to craft, and we call them "Funday Mondays".    It makes Mondays much more fun, don't you think??

I always have more fun when I stitch with a friend, so I thought I would have a linky party so we can have everyone join for a group Funday.

So...
Please join in and share a link to your post of what's new with you.  Anything family-friendly would be great!  I just ask that you link to a specific post in your blog (not your whole blog).

This party is open Monday - Friday this week, so that gives us plenty of time to come back and share.

Grab my button if you like:

<center> <a href="http://www.sylviasstitches.com/search/label/Funday%20Monday" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://gouldspace.com/buttons/SylviaStitchesFunDay.jpg" /></a></center>