Back, and My Back

Hello! Is anyone still here? 

I've been away for a while, and courtesy dictates I should explain. 

I've had to take an involuntary break from sewing these last few weeks. You see, I had been having backaches and a horrible pain down my leg for a long time. In the past year the pain (which I've since learnt is sciatica) had been getting progressively worse. I finally went to get it checked in early January. An MRI showed a herniated lumbar disc, aka a slipped disc. In doctor speak it's S1, L4-L5. 

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_disc_herniation

I have no idea how I got it, I have no recollection of any particular incident (or accident!) that may have caused it, but that's not really surprising as the medics say the herniation looks many years old. I must have left treatment to the very last, because as soon as I was diagnosed the pain came fast and furious. I was reduced to a wheelchair. Painkillers did little. Physiotherapy did nothing. The level of agony was such that I was prescribed immediate surgery (twice!). But it turns out that I'm a real chicken when it comes to these things because I found myself wheeling myself as far away from the OT as fast I could.  

By luck, a friend suggested something called acupotomy, which is a scary version of acupuncture. At the time the thought of being stabbed by a hundred needles seemed infinitely more attractive than having my back sliced open and my insides fiddled with, and anyway I was pretty desperate by this point, so I willingly submitted myself to a string of intensive acupotomy sessions. I had never hear of acupotomy before, and it's really something to be experienced to be believed, so I'm not even going to bother trying to describe it here. Thankfully, it seems to have worked, and I've since graduated to one (painless) acupuncture session per week. 

Happily I'm now up and about, although I still have residue sciatic pain in my leg and haven't quite resumed my previous levels of activity.  But I have to say that I'm so, SO grateful to have recuperated this far. There were days when I couldn't walk more than a few steps and inevitably some low moments followed where I wondered if life would ever be the same again. I'm sorry if all this sounds a bit dramatic, but pain does things to your mind, do you know? 

Anyway to cut a long story short, I've now re-entered the sewing room, and am slowly, carefully, trying to pick up where I left off. 

You will not believe how I'm SO looking forward to playing with fabric again, creating more fabric things and sharing them with you in this forum. Taking this break has also reminded me not to take things for granted and to always, ALWAYS count my blessings. Every single day.

To my Yummy Hubby, I can't thank you enough just for being there. To everyone who takes the time to visit this blog, please know how much I appreciate you. I wish you all health, faith and happiness  and as always, happy sewing! 

Finishing Touches (a wordless post)

Belated New Year Wishes

I know it's a bit late, but happy belated new year to you! I hope this year brings much love and joy, and especially of the fabric kind :-)

2014 has been pretty busy for me so far - at work it seems that we're hitting the ground running, which I suppose isn't such a bad thing, so won't  complain too much. Although this blog has been a little quiet, I've actually been doing a fair bit of sewing, and you know that's always a good thing, eheheh.

First up, I pieced enough string blocks from this post for a cute little runner... 

and I've actually got that quilted too. I haven't taken a photo yet, so that will have to wait for the next post. 

And then I found an old project - little hexagons! - already pieced together and forgotten. The hexagons are pretty small, with each edge measuring less than an inch. I must have started it yeeaars ago and forgot about it :-( Anyway, the entire piece was about 16 inch square - so I trimmed it up, added a border and a piping edge ....

... and made a throw cushion cover for my sofa, huhu!

After that I made a little coin quilt top, rather like the pink one I made earlier, only this is the boy version:

This is the pink version I made earlier:

Coin quilts are the easiest to make, so if you've not attempted one, you should! I had planned to use a flannel backing, as I had purchased some flannel online by mistake(!). There seemed to be just enough to back this quilt, but thank goodness I washed it first because it shrunk big time! Change of plan now required.

Aaaaaand... I've started a couple of other projects too - a result of playing with my fabric. 

A simple patchwork square quilt, but using only the floral fabrics from my stash...

.... I'm having mixed feelings about this fabric pull, but we'll see.

And another quilt I'm going to make using a charm pack and some coordinating fabric. 

I really hope work will be manageable next week, because I'm in the mood to finish these! 

Happy Sunday everyone :-)

Last Finish of 2013

One last post for this year, to show you the last finish of 2013.

Remember how I said to finish my Scrappy Trip Around the World was a target for this year? Well, I haven't quite done that yet, but what I do have is a finished quilt top! And that will just have to do :-)

Lots and LOTS of little 2 inch squares.

All in all, it's been a great sewing and quilting year, and I feel very blessed and grateful for all the fabric fun that I've had in the past twelve months.

I'm feeling a little sentimental now that another year has come and gone, BUT I'm also looking forward VERY much to the new year :-) What about you?

Hope everyone has a great, happy and safe one!

With lots of love from us here at A Fabric Case - mmmmmmuah!!!!!

A Happy Photo

This was what my hallway looked like one night not so long ago ...

I love these photos... because it shows a home filled with quilts :-) *happy*

Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday :-)

Umar's Quilt @ The Make Life Quilt

The quilt has been presented, so I can now show photos!

This quilt was made especially for Baby Umar, who is the splitting image of his mummy :-)

The centre panel was sewn from one pack of Moda's Make Life charm pack, using this tutorial from the super talented Alison at Cluck Cluck Sew.

All I did was add some coordinating strips on either side of the charms. And voila, perfect baby/toddler quilt size - about 42" square.

The main fabric for the back is something from Moda's The Ladies Stitching Club - so cute with all the multi-coloured buttons - with a centre strip to match the front.

A little close up of the snowball charms:

I actually did something really, really brave and free motion quilted the edges of the snowballs. It was my first time free motion quilting straight lines and I have to say it was kinda a nerve wrecking experience trying to keep all my lines straight and my stitching even. The result is not perfect, but then again, with quilting its never supposed to be, right?

I hope Baby Umar (and his Mum!) likes this little quilt!

Wishing everyone a belated Merry X'mas and Happy happy Holidays! 

The Memory Quilt (and a couple of other things)

I've been thinking. Maybe I should rename this blog 'The Lazy Blogger' ehehehee.

I'm sure you know how it is, sometimes you just get caught up in everyday things, blogging gets pushed waaay down the to-do list. Hmm, maybe that's a potential new year resolution - to blog (and sew - yay!) more often?

Anyway, since my last post I've finished my Memory Quilt. I'm so happy to declare this one done. This was such a labour of love.

I finally got it quilted ... with a lot help (not!) from one of the Meows, who INSISTED on 'helping'.

Then the binding went on ... because theres so much going on in the quilt, I chose a solid binding. One of my favourites, it's a dark navy blue - think it's Admiral Blue from Moda's Bella Solids. Stitching the binding was exhausting, because the quilt is actually quite heavy with all those scraps. But it's all so worth it in the end.

The quilt has been getting much, much use. It lives on the living room sofa now, and we all love snuggling on/under/with it when we're hanging out. So much that I haven't even had a chance to put in in the wash yet!

This quilt is a definite keeper :-)

In other news I've also finished up the Make Life quilt for a friend's new baby boy. Have I told you how I love this collection? It has such happy happy prints!

I haven't presented it the quilt to her, so I still can't show it to you. But here's another sneak peek of the finishing process ...

Hope everyone's having a happy Sunday!