I know I missed my blog the past two weeks. I have had a lot on my plate. One of our beloved cats, Pearl, was just diagnosed with lymphoma, a rare form T cell-rich, B cell lymphoma. She had a tumor on her neck that we had removed and biopsied at our regular veterinarian. I had to take her over an hour away to see an oncologist that offers radiation therapy twice. Once for the consultation, another for her CT. The CT was necessary to figure out how deep to do the radiation therapy. Too much radiation can generate scar tissue in her esophagus and trachea, which could cause issues with her breathing and eating in the future. Due to this, we decided to go ahead and do the CT. Unfortunately, the scan showed that several enlarged lymph nodes. With my permission, they took an aspirate and submitted that to the pathologist. Those results have shown that the lymphoma has spread, and her best option for treatment is now chemotherapy.
So, my blogging may be off from time to time while we take care of Pearly Pie’s treatments. (FYI – she is the one pictured on my blog.) All of our pets are part of our family. Pearl is the last pet we have that knew Brianna. We lost our dog at the beginning of the year to kidney failure. We aren’t ready to lose another one so soon. We originally got Pearly Pie to help with my grief of my sister, Jennifer’s passing. A year later, we lost Brianna. Pearl has been a great comfort to all of us with our losses. She is an in-your-face, serious cuddler and full of hilarious antics. She makes us laugh all the time, even we are feeling down. Everyone who meets her falls in love with her. She knows how to work her kitty charm! We are optimistic that the chemotherapy will put her in remission and be with us a while longer.
Even though I have been side-tracked, I have still been busy sewing. I finished two small projects but can not share pictures because they are gifts. Once I give them to the recipients, I will share photos. One is a wall hanging, and the other is a small quilt. Today, I finished another gift, an embroidery project, and I started to work on a baby quilt for a friend’s daughter due in September. While I cannot share the embroidery project, I can share some of the pictures of the baby quilt progress.
This baby quilt should be quick and easy to piece. I am starting with two charm packs; these are packs of 42, 5-inch pre-cut squares. For me, the hard part is always figuring out which fabric I like the best. Fabric shopping can take up a lot of time! I was able to chain stitch the main fabric with the background fabric and cut them in half to make two 4 1/2 inch triangles. Then I ironed them open and now have 80 squares. I started to trim them and managed to get a quarter of the way through the stack before deciding to be done for the day. I hope to get the rest of them trimmed to the correct size and arrange the layout on my quilt wall. Speaking of which, it looks bare since I finished the “Quilt Bee” quilt top. At least it won’t be for long!
Purrfectly Imperfect 