St. Louis 16 Patch Quilt - Finished

This quilt has been done for a couple of weeks. I really like the front and the back and I am happy with the quilting but I don't think the binding is exactly the right finishing touch. I am trying to pay more attention to choosing the perfect fabrics for backgrounds and borders, etc. and not just use what I have in my drawer. I wanted to lean toward a light green shade for the binding and set out to find a lime and cream stripe. Nothing seemed right online and my LQS had a plaid that seemed like a great substitute. It wasn't until I had it sewn on that I realized it was not quite what I wanted. Oh, well - the back looks great!

Here is the link to the tutorial - it is an easy block and will work for so many different fabrics. I used a FQ bundle of Bike Path from Westwood Acres combined with low volume prints as I like a lot of contrast. The back is several prints from the Comma line.

The quilting is a loopy meander. It took me a few days to settle on what pattern seemed best for the quilt and what I felt like tackling. Free motion quilting is still a bit of a wrestling match for me; I sew away and feel rather out of control and don't like how it is turning out and then I walk away. It always looks better when I return and take another look. It's totally fine and will look even better after it has been washed and it shrinks up a bit. I'm sure my quilting will improve with practice.

Finished size 55" x 68"

Calypso SKYP Socks

My latest project is finished and Dave was able to help with the photography. I was waiting for the wind and the rain to stop, then realized we could just take the pictures indoors. Here be the socks!

This is the Simple SKYP Socks pattern, which I have used once before. Actually, I didn't use any of the construction details from the pattern, only the SKYP stitch. I knit the socks according to formulas and techniques that I strung together. They were made, two at a time, from the toe up, beginning with Judy's Magic Cast-on. I increased to 64 stitches, made a short row heel, knit some 2 x 2 ribbing and cast off with Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off. The yarn is from Phydeaux Designs. I have another skein of her pretty yarn left from my original order - the yarn seemed to need a simple pattern as it is quite colorful and has a lot of contrast. The SKYP stitch adds just a bit of interest without getting completely lost in all of the mad color.

The yarn is called Chaussette Sock - the colorway is Calypso

Bonneville Salt Flats

I stayed home but Dave just got back from a nice 3500 mile trip to Arizona on his motorcycle. This is a shot that was taken by some moto folks that he met at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He has more pictures on Facebook and SmugMug.

I have some photos to take of a pair of socks that are just off the needles and a quilt that is finished but I'm waiting for good weather, the right light and an available helper. Everything has to line up - photography is harder for me than knitting or sewing.

Semi-Invisible

My friend, John Corso, a well read guy, sent me this link from the New York Times. I am a nurse so he was right to think I would be interested. The article is a book review and I have NOT read the book but I found myself snorting at some of the antiquated language and the images that it conjures up. It seems intended to salute nurses and yet...

Flannel capes, starched white caps, hand maidens, tentative, submissive - some of this is given as background - but even one of the modern, present-day, university educated nurses is quoted as preferring the old guard, diploma nurses who were "trained" in hospitals. "I wanted to be like them - a nurse who could start IVs on anyone". Another nurse dismisses "turning patients like logs" and "measuring the diameter of bedsores" and the NYT uses "Nurses Highlight Job's Tedious Duties..." as the subtitle. 

Excuse me! I do not think "the glory days of nursing were during World War II". Nurses are, first and foremost, patient care managers. They either do the necessary work themselves or see that it gets done. That patient with the bedsores is somebody's grandmother and it is very useful to know whether her pressure ulcers are healing or getting worse. Grandma gets turned "like a log" to prevent such injuries in the first place. Tedious, perhaps, but important. All professions have tasks and duties that are repetitive or tedious and it is easy to come up with examples. Accountants, lawyers, pharmacists, ophthalmologists ("Is this one better - or this one?"). I have seen some pretty bored anesthesiologists and the people doing the colonoscopies - well, they are not seeing much variety up there, either.

The word, nurse, as a noun is used as a catchall term. The "nurse" who answers the phone is a receptionist. Several of the doctors at our clinic routinely refer to the medical assistants as nurses. Nursing, the verb, can also be confusing. When our son was a baby, I was frequently asked, "Are you still nursing?" and I was never sure which question to answer.

Physical therapy and pharmacy licenses now require PhDs and nurses are still arguing about whether requiring a Bachelor's degree is a good idea. Raising the bar on nursing education was debated when I was in college and, 34 years later, it still hasn't happened. It is a wonderful profession and has been a fine career for me. I encourage anyone who is interested to pursue it at the university level. It is a broad field and there are many paths one can take during a lifetime of work. It is flexible (part-time, full-time), easily transferrable (big city, small town, foreign country) and ever changing. One can earn enough to live comfortably and support a family (modestly) if necessary. It is also a great launchpad for other areas of work and study, within nursing and health care, and in other related fields.

There are millions of nurses in this country and around the world, managing care and helping people heal. I've always thought it was a worthwhile way to make a living.

WIPs

Here is a photo report on the status of the current projects:

Binding for the St. Louis 16 Patch quilt

Calypso socks

EPP Lozenge 18" pillow top

Drunkard's Path blocks
4.5" untrimmed
184 so far

Me and My Boy

Me with Ray and Casey in Las Vegas

Lilacs and a bubble gun 

Calypso Socks