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Sunday, June 17, 2007

Second Guessing Myself

Despite the beautiful weather here this weekend, we didn't have much fun in the sun. Somehow, someway, my youngest DS has come down with a case of the something or another...poison ivy? Posion sumac? Allergic reaction to something? His Dad had him Friday night and actually for a few days last week since his father was on vacation, upon return Saturday morning they tell me that he was elbowed in the eye on Thursday at the summer daycare. Hmm..okay, eye doesn't look like it got elbowed, but I took their word for it and away we went on our Saturday escapade. First stop...Panera Bread. My all time favorite bagel is their Asiago Cheese bagel with veggie cream cheese. It doesn't get any better than that. After we all filled our bellies, we proceeded to got to several more stores then drive up the road an hour to even more stores. I'm looking at DS and his face is getting red as is his neck, but he's not complaining about anything....okay....we keep on going, gotta get Father's Day gifts, hopefully find some sale Summer duds...and then get lunch because it's now 3:30 and we have been out since 9:30 in the morning. As we are sitting down for "lunch" (chicken wings....I'm a NY'er after all), I take another look at DS and it's not pretty. I now feel guilty for trampsing all over tranation with an apparently sick child. After we finished smacking our lips and licking our fingers we went home and I called his
Dad, who is the consummate worry wort, and he is all ready to take him to the emergency room. I put the breaks on that because he didn't have a feaver, wasn't complaining, wasn't acting funny, had an appetite...it didn't seem to me to warrant an emergency room jaunt. Well, turn the clocks ahead 8 hours, I get up, check on lil man.....and now his eye is about all swollen shut. I gave him benadryl, had a cold compress on him...but that really didn't do anything. So now, I'm doubting my good judgment and wondering whether or not I'm going to get in trouble for not taking prudent measures, so I do what every smart person does and called the person who is an expert on everything...my Mom.
She assures me that it doesn't sound serious....just keep giving him benedryl, get some calmine lotion, give him a bath with some Aveeno Oatmeal bath, and go to the Dr. on Monday. I've medicated him, gave him a double dose of bath packets, did the lotion thing 3 x today....and now we wait for the verdict from the Dr. I'm having a case of the guilts--I hope I made the right decision...I mean he's not going into convulsions, and not complaining about anything...and no feever--he just looks like sh&t, and he's belly is all hivey too. I will kick myself tomorrow if the Dr. says I should have taken him in rather than home medicate, but as a parent, sometimes you just go with your instinct because you don't know any better. Stay tuned--I'll be sure to update his prognosis tomorrow.
As far as crafty things, I'm trying something totally different for my newest endeavor. My latest project comes from this magazine--it has been around for about 3 years, but funny how I just found it or rather this is the first issue I have ever bought.

What you're seeing right now is a mixed media paper/fabric quilt. It's quite an interesting project-totally untraditional and so much fun. I'm jumping in despite the fact there's about 20 steps to this. I normally tune out after step 6 or 7 but I'm trying to be good and go "pretty" much along with the instructions. I do the same thing with recipes--more than 6 or 7 ingredients and 2 paragraphs and there's a pretty good chance I won't be making it. I like simple. KISS--keep it simple stupid.


First step--cut some muslin into designated color pieces---decide on how many colors and cut a coordinating amount of fabric. I skipped that direction (not a good start but I recovered) and just cut several pieces. Next, prepare your glue, get white tissue paper & colored if you have it.



Next-layer and glue your tissue paper to the fabric. I used the colors as a guide for what the main color is to be for each coordinating piece.




after that layer dries, go back and add your interesting papers, pictures, words, and then another layer of tissue. I used both colored tissue and white. While the glue is still wet, add a watered down wash of corresponding color. You can then add stamps, fabric enanchements, doodles after the paint/glue dries. That's where I ended so no more pictures but to give you an idea on how the rest comes together in a quilt, you take a bigger piece of fabric for your next, which will be your background. Do the fabric/tissue/collage/paint steps, but do it in a lighter hue. After that you will cut out your design (in the magazine sample they did a tulip in a window sill) and fuse it on your background. After that stage is complete, you can go back and sew and add your finished binding. Add loops to the back to allow for hanging.
Easy? heck no--it took me a day and half to get as far as I did..LOL. Fun? Heck ya! Each piece comes out totally different. I can't wait to cut my design (which is still unknown..but more than likely will be a flower of some sort) and see what happens with that. My only issue is the sewing part. SIGHHHH..I doubt my machine will go thru these thick layers. I may do it by hand and I may regret that decision...but that's what creating is all about, just make something--you never know when that masterpiece is going to arrive. It sure doesn't appear when you do nothing!
With that said, stay tuned for more updates--warning--it may take me a while to do this, don't be surprised if the finished product is shown around November. That's the way it goes around here :)
******
Swap news--sign ups closed on Friday for all you Summer swappers, so stay tuned, we will have partner info out as early as possible this week. I can't wait to see who my partner is and get this swap started! hehe..I might have found something(s) already--I couldn't help myself!
************
lucy






8 comments :

Raesha D said...

Oh I can't wait to see the finished piece!!! I actually bought this issue too:):) and I made some fabric charms inspired by it. I hope DS is going better. That sucks!
I can't wait to get my partner - I bought a whole bunsh of stuff yesterday and found the PERFECT thrifted item for it:)

Sarah and Jack said...

The doc is probably not going to do much differently other than maybe add prednisone to the mix if I had to guess.

(Says she who had a HORRIBLE mystery rash once for more than 2 months.)

Usually you have no choice but to go with the old gut.

Breanna said...

I hope your son is doing better today. It seems like my children always get sick friday afternoon. Always. Giving me the entire weekend to worry. I am so looking forward to meeting my new swap partner. Thanks for working so hard for all of us!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I hope he's starting to get well... I hate it when the kids get sick and we don't know what to do!!! Sometimes I feel it's worse to take them to the hospital and make them endure the extremely LONG waiting room trauma. If you werent' sick before you went it, you'd be sick by the time you left, know what I mean?!

As for the paper quilt... can't wait to see what it becomes!

Vallen said...

Oh, I want to try this today!1 What kind of glue? Hope baby boy is better. It's scary being responsible for kids!

Mizfixit said...

Lucy,
Hope DS is doing much better today and that whatever it is clears up quickly!

Can't wait to see the paper quilting :) You're so clever that I'm sure it will be quite interesting and unique!

Mama Said Sew said...

Don't feel guilty about not taking lil man to the doctor. There's a lot to be said for mom's going with their gut. Went through a very similar thing with my DS a few months ago. I figured as long as his breathing wasn't affected that he was okay. It took about 2 full days with regular doses of Benadryl before the swelling was gone. Turns out he has grass allergies. Anyway, hope your lil man's doing better! :)

Anonymous said...

I hope all is well tomorrow. trust your instincts! The new project looks like fun.