Working on a new quilt...Lace in the Rose Garden

I've started the second quilt I have to finish. This one has been a long time in the making. I've never made a quilt for myself so a long time ago I started saving fabric's for a lace and rose quilt. This quilt has a lot of hand embroidery around the hex's. I started by doing each block separate. Realizing how long it would take to finish I pulled all the stitches out. Second time I reduced the amount of embroidery. It looked bare and unfinished...rip, rip, rip again. I think I have it figured out this time. I'm putting the top together first. Then I machine sew the hex's down and started the embroidery with a machine vine around the hex's instead of hand sewn. I'll finish with hand embroidered flowers on top of the vine. It's the fastest way I can come up with.

Rita, I will check out the dollar store for candles. I've been buying my candles from a lady who works for my son. They support "Make a Wish" and smell very good. But we all need those decorative candles to have burning while we sew!  

I guess I'll give a medical up date for those who are wondering. After 2 tries at chemo, it wiped out my bone marrow to a dangerous level. Doctor asked me if I wanted to try a different chemo at a less harsh degree or stop the chemo at this point. She added that I should remember it's poison and she could hurt me considering what we already knew what had happened. I took a month to think it over. Then we did a cat scan. We saw that the chemo had reduced the tumor, which was good. We also saw a new tumor on the outside of the lower spinal cord. Not good. 

I've decided chemo is over for me. I am pretty good right now as for the cancer but the RA is eating me up. I can hardly use a needle to sew and holding anything heavy like a cup with any amount of liquid in it is very hard. I drop most items not to mention the pain. I went to Pittsburgh 2 weeks ago to talk to my RA doctor. I do know the risks and what the RA meds have already helped to do. I know there is no study about cancer and enbrel. It could make the tumor's grow fast or it could help out and keep them from growing. Most of all this is no way to live. Without my hands I can't hold onto the walker to even get across the room alone. So come Tuesday I'll be starting the enbrel again. I hope it kicks in fast so life is less painful. Today I cried from 6 am until 2 pm with RA pain. I've been off the RA drugs since December. It's pretty clear it has control of my body, yes, even over Cancer. I'm sure at some point Cancer will take over but for now it's RA and I need to get control of it again. Even having a short life you need it to be worth waking up in the morning and right now waking up is not a happy time from me. 

I'm now on watch for signs of lower back pain that is not usual for me. At the first sign we will do a one time radiation treatment. My hair looks like an Easter chick. I've been watching it to see if it was going to get thicker. No matter now since the radiation will once again make me bald.