a little update

So it’s been 10 months since Bjorn’s accident and I wanted to give a little update for anyone interested.

Yester Bjorn got the metal braces off!

Here’s the before and after pictures

So as you can see, his teeth are not straight in his upper mouth!

and that’s because the upper teeth have fused to the jaw bone so there’s nothing else that can be done! it’s how it healed……

He’s had had 2 root canals so far and need another 2 soon, one is not really a root canal for the root of a canine tooth is being absorbed, so it needs to be taken care of and filled because it hits the nerve and he’d then need a real root canal!

We’re starting that next week!

Then a premolar next to that is way high up and there was talk about pulling it out and moving the molars over to fit the space, but with the teeth not moving at all in the front, that can’t be done now.

So what needs to be done?

Well it’s something that can’t be done YET, we have to wait until he’s fully grown, so probably in his mid 20s (10yrs from now) then he’ll most likely get implants or some sort of replacement of the teeth, veneers won’t work as the gap is too much now.

All we know is that it’s $$$$….

We’re still dealing with insurance, though it seems to be set, there’s no case against them, the policy pays a certain amount and that’s it! because Bjorn and the kid who hit him were minors, both under 16 without a driver’s license and I can say it’s enough to cover our deductible and dental work this year and last, but not much left over for the future!

In the big scheme of things though, we thank GOD that Bjorn is alive and well, he’s living and walking, not stuck in a wheel chair or worse…

so it is “just” money and it is “just” teeth…. but still it’s a nightmare and very stressful!

BUT you know what?

Now Bjorn is thinking about becoming a dentist especially an orthodontist instead of some sort of engineer! So that could be the answer to our prayer of why did this happened to him?

He’ll have to decide within the next year if he’s getting an associates in science or engineering thru the early college that he’s enrolled in, so he most likely will go the science route!

If he is motivated and really wants to do it, I know he can! and he’ll surely be a special candidate for it and have a story to tell, his orthodontist now was in a bike accident himself as a teenager and had his front teeth replaced, and that’s what made him pick his career, so I think Bjorn could do it too!

so we’ll see….

Felt ornaments with the GO cutter

I have a cute tutorial on Accuquilt’s blog showing how to make these cute felt ornaments for Christmas!

-Because we’re all thinking Christmas in July right??

The ornaments are made from the circle die

and the holiday accessories die

and optionally you can also use the alphabet die

and the holiday medley die

I thought it would be fun to make something that’s not JUST cotton and quilting, so I used craft felt and embroidery floss and made these 3 cute ornaments in an afternoon

Have a look!

women of the bible and circles

Anja got into my fabrics and UFO bins again! (of course she’s HELPING!!)

well she got into my Woman of the bible blocks and that DID help me bust them out and see how far I had gone, so I decided to make another block or at least prep it.

This one is block #28 Widow of Zarephath it’s called dinner plate and it’s all appliqued and just like the previous appliqued blocks I just prepped the block as I’ll stitch it down toward the end

Last week on Wednesday night I got food poisoning!!

Oh Boy…. I’ve had it before and this time it’s was “only” vomiting!! but it was rough….. all evening and until the middle of the night! Don’t know what I ate, but I think it was something within a few hours as it didn’t make it far, when I’ve had it before it came out of both ends, not this time!

anyways…. Thursday morning I was OK, just didn’t eat anything until dinner time and I was just relaxing and staying on the couch all day and Friday my stomach muscles were hurting!! plus I lost a few pounds! so Hey, that’s a good thing

I was feeling better Friday AND I got a shipment from Accuquilt, I got some circle dies! (the one on the right I already had) now I got my thinking cap on and I’m thinking about what to do with them, I have lots of ideas (as you may have seen my EQ tutorial already)

Could have used some of these circles for the Women of the bible quilt above- oh well, too late!

I have been working on some secret projects, so you’ll see those later

EQ7 Tutorial Tuesday- circles

I just got more circle dies from Accuquilt and have some ideas already and wanted to show how to play with circles in EQ!

When you start a quilt, start with a custom set

quilt/ new quilt/ custom set and then set the size

I chose a square 40” x 40”

Then I created a block and also made that 40” x 40”

(easy draw + patch draw)

on the applique tab, there’s different shapes on the left side

on the heart, click the little arrow to open it up and the first option is a circle/ oval

then draw a circle, hold down shift to make it a perfect circle

near the top you can then enter a a size you want it to be, I chose 8”

you can also click the center button to make it centered on the block

then copy and paste the circle and adjust to whatever size you want again, I chose 5”

something fun is the wreath button (I think that’s only in EQ7)

with the circle selected, click the wreath button

you can then select the amount of the cluster and placing and distance

then click OK and VOILA!

you can then copy and paste more circles and change the size and play more in the wreath maker and once you’re happy with it, add to sketchbook and put the block into the quilt

I came up with this

or something random like this?

Hope you like circles and play in EQ with them!

QUBE sampler QAL Block 27

Here’s block #27, I actually had a different block in mind but realized it was the same as a previous one but colored differently, (it had a four patch inside the star block) but we have NOT done a simple star block like this yet! Who doesn’t love star blocks??

You’ll need dies #1, 2, 4 and 5

You’ll need 3 fabrics plus white (or 2 fabrics plus white if you want the background to be the same)

Cut 1 of #1 in fabric A

4 of #2 in fabric B

4 of #4 in fabric C (of B)

then 8 of shape #5 in white

start by sewing 4 flying geese with the white triangles and #4 triangles

then sew these to the sides of the center square and add corner small squares

and quickly the block is done!

Here’s pics of the participants from last week.

Hannah made this pretty purple block from last week

and Renie made this cool green one

Shayne made this happy cherry block!

and Kaye caught up on missing blocks 13-26 here in such fun colors!

and Patty caught up with blocks 24-26 also in these cute florals

It’s SEW much fun to see these blocks all different, I can’t wait to see the final quilts!

I have a surprise coming up next week!!

I got circles dies from Accuquilt recently and I got a duplicate of one of them, so I’m going to be giving one away!!

it’s the 2,3, and 5” circle die

But ONLY to participants, so if you’ve been thinking about joining and haven’t yet, maybe this will “motivate” you to join!?

It’s “best” if you upload a picture to the Accuquilt QUBE Facebook group, but if you don’t have FB you can email it to me if you want.

Have fun!!

Long arm quilting a modern quilt

A while ago I got an email from a lady in NY, who was room mates with one of my customer’s daughter up there and she made her first quilt and wanted me to quilt it! So she sent me this link to a very modern quilt that was quilted by Angela Walters and asked me to sort of do it like this!!

SURE…. copy Angela Walters?? sure….. umm. and with lots of thread color changes too!

Once I got the quilt I just started playing around on the white part and sort of copied it and sort of did my own thing and sent her this pic

All done!!

very dense and quite fun to quilt!

here’s some more close ups of the quilting

Here’s a bit of the color change, I deliberately went over the lines and didn’t want the change to be very sudden.

With the quilting I sometimes followed the wedges sometimes I didn’t, that’s what makes it fun I think!

She also added strips of fabric for the binding and asked me to attach it to the front and she’d sew it onto the back.

Hope she like it!

(She has a 2nd quilt for me to quilt too eventually)