Well, this is one of those posts that's in the interest of full disclosure - or, as my mom says, The Truth Will Set You Free. This drawer contains pieced small quilt tops waiting to be quilted and finished:
Wow.
On the left is my bag of bindings, then sixteen small quilt tops ranging in size from 16" x 20" to 60" x 60", one Project Linus quilt that's 50% pieced, and then two queen size quilts that are 25 - 30% pieced. Some of them are from last year, but quite a few are 2010 projects.
I guess you can tell from this that I like the piecing a lot more than the quilting. But I suppose there's more to it than that.
Sewing is my relief. As well as sewing to accomplish projects, I sew to relax and to distract myself from stuff on my mind. It's soothing to feed patches through the machine and watch blocks and then quilts emerge. And if you are working on a quilt, you have to concentrate or things will go awry. It's a nice thing to do to keep yourself from brooding on problems. And since the first of the year, I've been dealing with a new problem.
I had my yearly check-up on January 5th. That evening, the on-call doctor from the practice called me at home and asked me to come back to the office the next day for some more blood tests. "What tests?" I asked. I figured that my cholesterol, which was trending higher, was up and they were going to try to talk me into taking cholesterol lowering drugs (which I was leery of).
"We want to redo the blood glucose test," he replied. "Yours was over 300."
300????? In case you don't know, that's BAAAAAAD.
I have to say now that this was out of the blue. The results of my physical twelve months before were perfectly normal. I had seen the doctor during the summer and fall because he was watching my cholesterol test results, but they did the blood chemistry panel then and my blood sugar wasn't high.
So back to the office I went in the morning. The lab tech stuck my finger and showed me the results on the meter. 345. Oh my. The doctor's nurse came and got me and set me in an examining room. Doc came in shaking his head. "Well, we have a problem."
No kidding. And what's that "we" stuff?
He told me that I had developed type 2 diabetes, the insulin resistance kind, where your body's beta cells may be producing less insulin as you age, but the main problem is that your body is not metabolizing it correctly, allowing your blood glucose to rise. He was going to do another blood test call an A1C, which would show percent glucose levels in my red blood cells and, since red cells stay in circulation 2 to 3 months, would give a snapshot of historical blood sugar levels better than a one time test.
He also gave me a diet guide, a coupon for a free meter, booked me into a diabetes education class and wrote a prescription for a drug which you take my mouth that helps the body metabolize the insulin you make. If your body is not making insulin, this drug will not help, so it's also a way to see if it's an insulin resistance problem or an insulin production problem. You can also do a blood test called a C-peptide test to assess beta cell function, but luckily I respond well to the medication so I guess my little beta cells have not pooped out yet.
So that's my life now. My blood sugar is back in the normal range, my A1C result (which was absolutely awful in January, by the way) is almost back to normal, and I have finished the classes. I walk two miles a day on my treadmill. I've adapted my diet to the new rules, which wasn't very hard except for just about giving up bread and cutting out any refined sugar completely. I've always been a big veggie eater and we almost never eat out, so my cooking didn't really change. I don't want to downplay the difficulty of the transition; it does turn your life around. So that's why I've been sewing so much - to think about something else for a while.
It did hit me a few weeks ago that I don't get a birthday cake this year. I think I need to figure out how to bake with Splenda. I made my husband a German chocolate cake a few weeks ago (just because I can't eat it doesn't mean he has to do without) and that was difficult. Makes me realize that I'm a taster when I cook!
I have a routine in my meals, exercise and such. I check my blood sugar several times a day and I've even gotten used to pricking my fingers. I guess I had a lot of practice with all the pins I've stuck myself with through the years.
And I've lost 20 pounds since January. As my husband says, "The way you're eating, you'd HAVE to lose weight." This is not a diet I recommend.
Well, I'm on my way out to work in the yard. I've got flowers and vegetables to plant and patio furniture to wash and set up. Let me see, have I got everything?
And here is is folded on my desk with its backing and binding. Isn't that backing fabric something else!
The benefit of having a portable design was was beginning to be outweighed by the drawbacks. I got tired of leaning it against the kitchen wall or the bedroom closet doors, and wanted somewhere I could leave projects in place without it being in the way. The design wall is a 40" x 60" piece of foamcore covered with batting and white flannel, by the way, so it doesn't take much room. It's good for small quilts.
And now you do:
Sweet!
Here's a quick view of a Project Linus quilt that I started piecing, oh, about 1 1/2 years ago. Why didn't I finish it then? Who knows? It's very cute fabric called "Brazen Blue Birds" by Timeless Treasures, which has these adorable nervy birds bedeviling an orange kitty. I like the little bordered center pictures in the star blocks which came from a panel, and I love the effect of the sashing, which came about because I had two possible yellow florals for the sashing and decided to use both.
Aren't the colors just scrumptious? This will be a great donation quilt for a little girl.
Wow.
