Today is the Day- It's All About Me Blog Hop!

Today is the final day of the latest quilting adventure, the "It's All About Me!" Blog Hop.  Madame Samm and Marlene put their gorgeous heads together for this extravaganza of quilting goodness and the results have been fabulous!  Amy Bradley, a wonderful designer, designed the pattern for the pawticipants to use and away we went! We were to utilize the pattern to recreate ourselves in fabric!  Today is my turn and I hope that you enjoy what I made.

BEFORE- 322 lbs

 


Two years ago, on 22 March 2011, I underwent a gastric bypass in order to lose weight.  I had ballooned up to 365 lbs, and was actually down to 322 lbs on the date of the surgery.  Today I weigh 206, and have about 35 lbs to go.  I decided to commemorate what this surgery has meant in my quilts- I made two wall hangings- a BEFORE and After, as you will.  The first photo shows the BEFORE me- long hair and lots of weight! The hair is actually constructed from leftover scraps from a pineapple themed wall hanging that I made for a dear friend- I could not bear to throw away the pieced yellow strips so they became hair in this latest incarnation.  I used a bright pink fat quarter for my sunglasses, and some dachshund fabric for my top.  The quilting was inspired by a wonderful quilter, Angela Walters, whose book- Free Motion Quilting With Angela Walters- Choose and Use Quilting Designs for Modern Quilts, I recently borrowed from the local library in order to improve my skills- 

As my friends in BLogville know, I also suffer from PTSD and depression, and this particular quilt also shows how I feel when in the grip of an episode- I just want to fade away and not be noticed until the panic passes.  I was also very sensitive to how I looked, and self conscious since I was so fat- I wanted to blend into the background due to the embarrassment of being fat (and I was fat due to my own behavior- not genetics).  It became an almost never ending cycle of behavior and I was fortunate enough to finally say "Enough" and start doing something about it- I had hoped to lose the weight without resorting to surgery, since I equated that with failing.  Unfortunately that was not the case for me, so I did undergo the procedure at University Hospital in Cleveland. Thankfully, I did not have any other health issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes  or high cholesterol.

 The next five pictures show the AFTER- the new me!  I again used a dachshund fabric for the top, in order to pay homage to my dachshund babies, Chip, Tasha and Snoopy, my owners and the real reason I blog.  I used the same fabric from the above quilt for the background, and used the same pattern for the quilting- the Basic Swirl found on page 21 of Angels Walters' book.  The hair, which is short now, is also from the leftover yellow pineapple striping, and the same pink for the sunglasses (pink is my favorite color).  However, I used a 2003 Mary Englebreit print for the borders and to embellish the new me, complete with crown! The borders all proclaim- "It's Good to be Queen" I also used two layers of polyester batting to give the second quilt a little more umph, and both quilts were bound in a gold lame binding I bought at Joann's at least six years ago and still had. Both quilts were backed with shiny cotton solids that I had used twenty years ago on quilts for my family- the shine made them very difficult to quilt, even with the slider and quilting gloves the fabric fought me!   

Please check out the artistic endeavors of my fellow pawticipants today- they are fabulous ladies and they are true artists!


Thursday, February 28
Cherry Blossoms
Hill Valley Quilter
Dachsies With Moxie  
I Like To QuiltBlog   
Quilt Smiles
More Stars In Comanche
 Tea Time Creations
Shedding the Wolf
 Life, Quilts, and a Cat Too
 Judy at That Other Blog  
Madame Samm