kitchen chairs

Dear Mary and Jeni,

Dear Mary and Jeni,

Well, to tell the truth, so far it is only one chair. But the fabric is almost finished for the other two. Now I have to look around for a 4th chair to recover and paint. It doesn't have to match, but I would like it to be close in size. These are wonderful 'lady' sized chairs. Not too big and my feet reach the ground!

I have been having fun doing this project. It started from a picture in Fons and Porter's Quilting Magazine this summer. First I did the little footstool and now I have these chairs that I found free out on the curb in Mayville.

They were sort of a maple color and the seat was glued down with crud under the sides of the upholstery and they smelled of smoke. However that is all in the past and now they are just as cute as the dickens.

I hope I get them finished before I have to return to Minneapolis next week.

Love,

Nancy

What is up on the Design Wall

Hi there Mary,
I have been working like crazy on my quilt for Operation Migration to raffle off during this years migration. I went into Faye's on Thursday to do some extra work on it and got all the hexagons finished. Like the previous two it will be a One Block Wonder style quilt. I have two versions. The white triangles are supposed to represent the cranes flying behind an ultralight. The only difference is that in one quilt the ultralight is shown with two triangles and in the other quilt it is shown with six.
I am fairly sure the six sized one is a better proportion to the cranes. I haven't decided which I will use. At this point the triangles are just placed on top of the area where I intend to sew them.
I hope to get the top finished and to the quilter before I come back to Minneapolis.
Love,
Nancy

Good News

Hi Mary et al,

I went for my 6 month checkup with my Nephrologist this week and I am still stable. My creatinine is 2.3 which means this is 3 years now since I first discovered I have PKD and I am still 'stable'.

When I first went to see the doctor in 2004 he talked very seriously about how I should start looking for a donor kidney. This week he said that I can continue with the 6 month visits (instead of quarterly) although I still have to have blood tests done at the three month intervals.

I am still on the National Kidney waiting list but I am only eligible for a perfect match. Unless my kidney function goes to 20 or below I won't go on that wider list. Creatinine of 2.3 is above 20% but less than 25% so I am ineligible. YAY!

So I still carry around the cell phone and wonder every time Jim calls it if it is the kidney people. Since it is a Trak phone it is fairly expensive and I don't use it much otherwise (unless the car is in for service.)

So any of you who tried to be my donor, and you know who you are, can put this worry on the back burner. I am trucking along quite well. I am still looking for a donor but that is just in case.

I try not to eat much of the wrong foods. I am helped in this by my taste disorder which is getting better but still thinks chocolate is roadkill. I also get to take naps with no sneers at old age because they say PKD can make you tired. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

However I still stay up late at night which I never used to do. I find myself up often at one a.m. I have talked to several other people who are diagnosed with diseases and they have told me they do it too. It is that feeling of treasuring the time you have, not wasting it with sleep. If it seems illogical to take naps and stay up late I can only say logic has no part of this at all.

I am going to Faye's Henhouse All Cooped up quilt retreat this weekend and have 3 projects to work on. Dylan's quilt is finished so I can play on anything I want.

Love to you all,

Nancy

Quilt in a book

Yes I am so excited. Maxine Rosenthal, the quilter who wrote the popular "One Block Wonder" quilt pattern/book is doing a second one showing variations and she asked me if she could use my black and white crane quilt in it. (This quilt book is a cult classic already, people are traveling across the country to have one block wonder meetings).

I said yes of course.

So I had to send the quilt off to California to the offices of C&T Publishing and they are having the quilt professionally photographed. Then they send it back to me and I donate it to Operation Migration for their raffle quilt. Maxine and her co-author, Joy, also asked me to write a blurb for the back of the book cover. They admitted to using my name. I admitted to using it too so we were all happy.

I suppose the book will be out this fall. If things go well it should be out by the International Quilt Market in November but I don't really know when it will be published. I get a signed copy.