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All a lady needs is…

Melissa — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:47:26 +0000

Lipstick, shoes, and coffee, right?

These were the essentials I had in mind as I designed this quilt for my mom, for her birthday. With the help of the very talented ladies from the Modern Quilting Bee, I was able to get this quilt completed, and it now is being enjoyed by my mom! Her birthday was last week, and the quilt came only a few days late!

The quilt is ~58″ square, and has so much fun to it. Munki Munki patterned pjs (coffee, lipstick, and shoes) were cut up and sent literally all over the world. While the bee members were making their blocks, I was making mine; it call came together SO beautifully! And a very special thank you to Shea who really helped me with the back!

and more upclose:

I used Kona chocolate for the binding, and the back was used with Kona (cream?) muslin – which is SO soft!

There were SO many incredible blocks that went into this (above is Leanne’s, and below is Dena’s) – with so many great fabrics from everyone’s stash!

For the quilting, I did a simple meandering design – and it all came together beautifully!

Momma, HAPPY birthday! I hope that this provides you with lots of warmth and comfort! And yes, there is a lifetime guarantee

29 Days, Day 9 and on

Melissa — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:45:07 +0000

It occurred to me today, when I was writing the first draft of this post that to tell you all the gift would be to put something very personal about someone else on my blog. I definitely don’t mind dishing dirt about myself, but I don’t feel right sharing the intimate details about someone else on here. To summarize it, today’s gift was giving my best friend enough (of Matt’s) frequent flier miles so that she could be with a friend that is dying. She needed to get there on very short notice, and it was such a blessing that we had the extra miles to offer her so that she could get there.

I’m going to withhold from posting about my future gifts here on my blog because I’ve found that they’ve become increasingly too personal to share here (without their permission). I hope you understand!

In other news, I’ve someone really damaged a disc in my back and I have to have two steroid injections on Monday. Under sedation. I’ve never had any back issues, and this have given me a newfound understanding and respect for patients of mine with back pain. This is AWFUL! But percocet is amazing, and I’m grateful for the pain relief.

Bee-Stitched, February edition

Melissa — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:23:46 +0000

I am in disbelief that I’m in SIX bees! How did this happen when I wasn’t in a single bee only 4 short months ago? Things can change fast, can’t they? HA! Anyway, I was forced willingly entered in to another be that started this month, and what a joy these fabrics were to play with! I am making my Dad a quilt for his birthday in March with these same fabrics, and this gave me a little play-time before I dig into my stash. These are for Sarah, and this is for the Bee-Stitched quilting bee.

29 Days, Day 8

Melissa — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:56:40 +0000

Today I gave to the Red Cross for Haiti. It was easy – just a simple text and viola. This was one of many donations to the Haiti relief organizations that we’ve made, but I believe that they all help. We’re supposed to be getting 53 Haitians to our hospital over the next few weeks; I am grateful for the opportunity to help those in need

Modern Tradition – February

Melissa — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:10:52 +0000

Aren’t these blocks beautiful? I’m not being smug – Leanne picked the fabrics out – not me I’ve told her before how much I want to raid her fabric stash, and boy is that ever true now. Her color choices were so great; so vivid! These blocks are for the February edition of our bee, Modern Tradition quilting bee, with the objective being to use modern fabrics in traditional block styles.

Believe it or not, this was my first go at a traditional log cabin, sans wonkiness. I hope she likes how they’ve turned out Happy Birthday, Leanne!!

29 Days, Day 7

Melissa — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:06:32 +0000

If you’re keeping track of my days, you’ll quickly notice that my “29 days” haven’t been so… well.. consecutive. I’m kind of slacking at my goal, and, and now I think I know why. Up until now, I’ve felt like the “real” gifts have to be purchased. Be it flowers or a card or dinner. Why do I think that? I wonder if it might expose a weakness of mine; ie – the better the gift, the more it cost? Ah – epiphany, and what an ugly side. I think I just realized how this 29 gifts thing is going to play out for me. I’m going to either send an email or a card every day to someone. And by card I mean on a notecard. Because this isn’t about money spent, but about the thought – literally the thought of this. The thought being about someone else rather than me.

So, today’s gift was spending ~20 minutes comforting someone who is really scared about her daughter – she was originally thought to have viral meningitis, and then migraines, but now they are wondering if its a Chiari malformation. Which would require surgery. She’s extremely scared, and I was lucky enough to be given the chance to comfort her.

29 Days, Day 6

Melissa — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:02:06 +0000

Today’s gift was simple – I sent my Mom a sweet little note and some chocolates in the mail to bring her some sunshine. I know she could use it. I love you Momma!

29 Days, Days 5 – 9

Melissa — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:52:29 +0000

… have not been such good gift giving days. But, I have not forgotten. I’m going to give myself the gift of forgiveness, and carry on tomorrow with my gift-giving. I’ve been really focused on my own thoughts the last few days, and unfortunately, nothing very “thoughtful”.

29 Days, Day 4

Melissa — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:50:36 +0000

Wow, I’m exhausted! I spent all day with about 300 children. Every year I judge a Lego-League competition, and today was the day! I was fortunate enough to see the research presentation of a number of teams, on the topic of “smart moves” which involved transportation safety, efficiency and innovation. And so that was my gift today – a donation of 10 hours to lots of 8-14 year olds! It was that much more of a gift, considering I worked 28 hours within 36 between Thursday and Friday. I’m SO ready for a lazy Sunday!

29 Days, Day 1

Melissa — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:26:10 +0000

I’ve realized its hard to give at work, in a sense, because my job (anesthesia) is to take care of others, and I don’t feel its right to call ‘doing my job’ a gift to others, although I’m often so honored to be taking care of people. To be trusted by the patient and the family to take care of them at a most vulnerable (and potentially dangerous) time.

So for today’s gifts, I think I’ll count two things: one was taking over a co-workers room early so he could go home sooner since he’d had a hard day. And two, I brought syringes of a medication up to a super nice nurse (Amanda) in L&D so she didn’t have to track them down herself. Not two huge things, but nice, I think.

Tomorrow I work the same shift, and I’ll again be on the lookout for opportunities!