Update On Cole

I want to do a quick post on Cole.  I have given him his injections now for 9 days.  We have 84 days total to do.  He is such a trooper about getting his shots!  After each shot he "angry eats".  He is eating better and acting more like himself, if not even MORE loving than before.  As you can see in this photo he is still quite thin.

He is much more alert and himself for sure.  You can see his shaved belly here.  The vets had to shave his belly and some neck fur for all the diagnostic work.  I love this photo of him!

This doesn't look like much but he has NEVER laid on my lap.  At home he would lay next to me and roll on to his back to have me pet his belly.  Last night he climbed into my lap for his pets!

 So we are continuing our daily shots.  

He is eating better and gaining weight.  

He ate half a can of wet food this morning!  

We are continuing his Go Fund Me campaign.  The link to donate is located here. 

 The meds are $90/vial and we need a minimum of 30 vials for his treatment!!! ($2700) 

Plus the diagnostic expenses, and you can see those on the Go Fund Me page.  I have some money put aside to pay for some of it but we are so grateful for all of the donations we have received so far.  If you can donate we would be so grateful!  Please keep us in your prayers too!

~XOP~

On The Road To Franklin NC

 We have set off on our way to meet our new grand baby.  There are a few stops along the way. We travel with the boys loose in the truck cab.  

Cole settled right down but this leg of the trip Finn was pretty restless.  I snapped a pic of my boys all together.  

That face!

As I said, Finn was restless and was on Chris's shoulders for quite awhile. 

 He seems to need to be near the driver at all times, whether Chris or me.

Look at my good boy!  He likes to sleep on the center console.

 We drove part way to Walton KY for the first night.  The church we belong to has a parish there.  We stayed in the school parking lot overnight then got up and went to mass in the morning.  If you ever get a chance, the church is beautiful!  The mass is in latin and it is a beautiful one.

Chris didn't realize that the screen door needs to be FIRMLY shut or Cole will get out so of course he did.  We were out in the dusk trying to cajole the cat to come out from under the camper.  Sheesh!  

We finally got him out and back in the camper.  

Then on Sunday we headed out for Franklin, NC.  

That is where the RV quilt retreat is being held. 

 I had to back out as my daughter wanted us to isolate as much as possible before the baby comes.  

We got to the RV Great Outdoor park around 4 PM and they took us to our site. 

 It is right across from the clubhouse.  This is so cool! 

 I can watch the comings and goings of the quilters without being in the clubhouse! 

 I did "meet" the person running the retreat and several others, at a VERY safe distance.  

This is our campsite.

We climbed to the top of the "hill" and this was the view.

At the office, where I checked in for the campsite, I was able to get a retreat shirt too.

Finn was SO tired out from all his antics in the truck.

On Monday, Chris was able to take Finn out in his cat sling for a walk.  

Finn cries until Chris takes him out, LOL.  

They sit together outside at night too.  Oh these two!

There are cabins on the other side of the hill so we walked up the VERY steep hill to check it out.

I thought to snap a pic at the bottom of the hill after we got back down.  

It made me realize I need to work harder to get into better shape, haha.

I will stop here for now.  

We only have good connections to the internet in the am but I will post as I can.

.

Cole is doing much better.  I will post an update on him soon too.

We are still doing his Go Fund Me, and you can click here to donate.

Thank you to anyone that has donated.

If you can donate we would really appreciate that so much!

~XOP~

A Quick Sewing Update

 We are busy, Busy, BUSY getting ready to leave to go see the new grandbaby when he arrives.  I have been itching to sew but with all that has been going on with Cole too I have not had much time.  He is doing much better, we are only at day 4/84 of the injection journey but I am hopeful!  This was him sleeping next to me after his shot today.

If you are interested in donating to our Go Fund Me we would really appreciate it.  As he gains weight, his dose increases and so does the cost.  You can find the page here.  Any amount, no matter how small will be so very appreciated!  If you are not able to donate, please say a prayer for us and share the link.

I sewed some new masks for myself out of some cat fabric I had.

I used the Creative Grid template and found the small worked best for me.

I had made a couple of little "left over" quilts from the bear minky I had.

I finally quilted it by stitching in the ditch.

I was so happy to have it finished but it needed binding.

When my middle daughter was small, she had a blanket with a silky edge.

She couldn't say "silky" she used to call her blanket her "See-see".

So I decided to bind this in satin too.

This will be baby Robert's "See-See"

So now we are packing everything up for the trip to NC.

It has been a LONG day today. 

 I'm thinking tomorrow will be a longer day.  

We are driving part way tomorrow and then on to the campground we reserved in Franklin, NC.  

I was supposed to be at a quilting retreat but I had to back out to stay safe for the baby.

We decided to camp there anyway.

OK, that's probably it for awhile.

~XOP~

Fall Camping

 As you saw in my previous post, most of the weekend was spent worrying about Cole.  We did get out and I did do a little sewing.  This is our set up.  Notice the pet tent?  Cole loves this while Finn, not so much, LOL.

The fall colors were just beginning to peep out.

Laying on this quilt on the couch looking out the window was Cole's favorite past time.  

While Finn just wanted to sleep on the pillow.

We have this sticker on the outside window and it was such a great pic with the reflection of the trees.

My sweet hubby kept asking me if I wanted to sew.  I just wanted to sit and be anxious all weekend, but he knew better.  He kept asking if I wanted my sewing table set up and I kept saying no.  He was like, I'm just going to set up your table.  Then I'm just going to set up your sewing machine, haha.  So just to make him happy I got my stuff out and sewed a few new masks.  I used the new Creative Grid template and it was so easy to use!  I made us each a few new masks but honestly my heart was not in the sewing. 

I made myself a black cat mask with the spooky trees on the other side.

I made 2 more MSU masks for hubby. 
This size is the medium. 

 I think it looks giant because of the angle of the picture.

I guess that having a little "normal" was good, especially as you know, my Monday was not a fun one!

~XOP~

All You Need Is Love and A Cat

 This past weekend should have been a fun time out with my husband and the boys.  Instead it was a weekend full of lots of anxiety as I was working through all the information I received on Thursday at the vet.

On Thursday, Cole stopped eating.  He has always been a fussy eater but he finally stopped.  He had gotten so thin and I was worried that he might have some kind of blockage.  My regular vet couldn't see him so we went to the ER vet.  They were amazing!  They did blood work and x rays and other tests, but could only do just so much to get to a diagnosis.  My choices were grim.  Lymphoma, IBD (Irritible bowl disease), or FIP (Feline Infectious Perotinitis)  Both Lymphoma and FIP are fatal.  Or so I thought.  I remembered that someone I knew in the quilting community had treated her cat for FIP.  I reached out to her and she connected me to the FIP Warriors that operate all across the US to provide an experimental drug for FIP treatment!  

 FIP is caused by a mutation in a harmless type of coronavirus found in cat GI tracts. It causes them to lose their appetite, severely lose weight, and is often accompanied by a fever that doesn't respond to antibiotics. There isn't an official treatment for it, but a lot of folks who have had cats with FIP have found success using the drug "GS-441524."  The doctor that has done the research on this is Dr Pederson at UC Davis.  You can read his publication here.  It has about an 80% cure rate!  It involves daily injections of the medication and the meds are VERY expensive.  It is about $90/vial and Cole will need around 30 vials for his treatment (84 days).

This is after we got home from the vet.  You can see how thin he is now.

 So I ordered a month's worth of the meds while we waited for Monday and a trip to the veterinary specialists at The Blue Pearl.  We spent the entire morning there waiting to find out if he had cancer or FIP.  OMGosh I can't even tell you how horrible this was for me!  I had to wait in the car and could not be with him.  The doctor was thinking cancer.  They did an abdominal ultrasound and wanted to draw out abdominal fluid to check for cancer cells.  Also a chest x-ray to see if there was any cancer in his lungs or heart.  The x-ray came back clear!  The pathologist read out the cells in the fluid, no cancer!  This narrowed the diagnosis down to FIP (which at least gives us a chance!).  Lymphoma, even with treatment, is a true death sentence.  They are going to run a pcr test on the fluid to confirm the FIP.  That will take a few days.

So we came home.  Luckily when we got home the meds were waiting for us!  I loaded up a syringe and gave him a sub cutaneous injection.  First of 84!  

I had put some of my money aside for a cushion that I am using to pay for the vet bills and for his meds, but it is more than I had anticipated.  I can NOT just let him die without trying to give him a chance.  My daughter helped me set up a Go Fund Me page to help pay for some of the vet bills and medication.  It will cover about half, I hope of the vet bills so far and his meds.  We have a long road ahead of us as far as his treatment and recovery.  Our vet would not work with us to monitor his progress, which was disappointing.  The Blue Pearl doctor we saw will be the one to continue to manage Cole and his medical issues so I am sure the vet bills will continue to come. If you can donate, even a small amount we would be so grateful!  If you need you can paypal or venmo (out of the country) and if you can't donate, and we understand that too, please keep us in your prayers!  Also, if you can share the link, that would be amazing too.

Cole is the BEST boy and I am going to do everything possible to give him a chance at a good long life with us!

Thank you for listening and for donating!

~XOP~

Making A Quilt From Leftovers

 I made a quilt recently that I used some bear Minky for the back.

I had some left over so I looked for a pattern that would showcase the left over Minky.  I think this pattern could also be made with a large block for the center and that would be pretty cute too!  

Or Minky squares.  The possibilities are endless! 

The pattern is by It's Sew Emma and it is called Menagerie.  Here are the 3 quilt tops I made using this pattern.

Isn't this so adorable??

I used my Bloc Loc ruler to make the HST for this perfect.

I love my Bloc Loc rulers!

Here is a quick look at how to use them.

The ruler has a channel diagonally down the back of the ruler that locks into the seam as you can see.

I use my rotating mat.

I lock the ruler into the block and trim the top and the right side.

You can see the trimmings here.

Then I spin the block and slice the ruler to the desired size and trim the tip and right side again.

Again you can see the trimmings.

Now you have a perfectly trimmed block to use in your quilts.  

This will make it much easier to make your points line up when you sew them together!

Just a quick shot to show you what I had left over from all my trimmings of all my blocks.

I used the 9" Bloc Loc ruler for this block.  I am hoping I can get the 12" ruler too.

Their flying geese rulers are on my radar too.

I have not tried them but I bet they are as good at the HST rulers.

I have all the HST sizes except the 12" one.

I hope you have found this useful!

Enjoy your day today!

~XOP~

Jessie and Josh's Wedding Quilt

 Yesterday was an amazing day for our niece.  It was her wedding day!  After several reschedules and a much smaller reception she is now a married woman!  Congratulations Jessie and Josh!

Of COURSE I made them a wedding quilt.  It has been killing me that I could not share the quilt with you all.  I still don't have a full photo of the front as this beauty was a beast.  It was king size so no place at my home to put it that wouldn't end with it covered in cat hair.  

I can show you a bit of it though.

I used the Framed Folk pattern to make these gray and white blocks for the front.  There is just one row of the blocks with the gray borders on either side.  The entire rest of the quilt is just white.  LOTS of negative space!!

The quilting pattern was one by Anita Shackelford called Modern Mix (I think).  

I wanted a few special elements so my quilter put in 2 Celtic knots.

You can see the binding peeking out.  That took me around 8 hours of hand sewing to sew it down.

On the back, instead of an actual label, I paper pieced the first letter of their first names, their wedding date and the initials of "I Love You More", which is something their entire family says all the time.

This morning her mom sent me a photo of the happy couple with their new quilt.

Congratulations Jessie and Josh.  We wish you a long happy marriage!

~XOP~