I had back surgery March 28, 2023. The pain from the compression fracture and herniated disc has been alleviated with an L3-L4 lumbar fusion. The surgery was laparoscopic and spared me a large incision. The surgeon still did all the same work internally, so there was a healing process from the surgical wound. Currently I am pretty comfortable. Physical therapy has been completed, and while I have good mobility and am pain free, I need to build strength and endurance. I will call on the services of a personal trainer for that. I still have to limit time sitting at the sewing machine, but I have been working on a memory quilt for a friend from his deceased wife's clothing. I have also done quite a bit of EPP and knitting, which require no time at the sewing machine.
Besides the memory quilt and EPP, I need to finish up a quilt for a friend's grandson who became a US citizen last October. I am using a pattern from Gyleen Fitzgerald in red, white, and blue. It only needs one more column to finish it up. I will send it to a longarmer to be professionally quilted.
Last weekend our guild had a retreat held at a location new to us. It was a wonderful venue and quite an upgrade from our previous meeting place. The sewing room was large and we each had our own table. The room was so big and we were able to spread out, that it seemed almost as thought there were fewer of us than there were! The food, served buffet style was excellent. We have booked our retreat for the next two years.
Since I am feeling better, I have been traveling some. First was a three day trip to Eureka Springs, AK, and then a12 day road trip to Santa Fe, NM and Colorado. I rode a narrow gauge steam train in Colorado which was spectacular and the highlight of the trip. From there we traveled north through Rocky Mountain National Park and then home to St. Louis. Two weeks ago I traveled to Livonia, MI (Detroit area) for a reunion with people I worked with prior to retirement. We stopped both coming and going in Kalamazoo, MI to visit a friend's daughter. She is also a quilter and asked my opinion of the Singer Featherweight. Since I have three, the response was what you would expect. She will be visiting Missouri at Christmas and I will gift her one of mine. Since two of the three that I own were given to me and I don't use them all that much, this will free up one of them and make her happy. A win-win situation.
Favorite photo from Santa Fe trip
