Neil's Chemo Blanket

Cancer is pretty much crap.
Sometime last fall....September or October, my little dog Charlie got attacked and killed by some neighbor dogs. Kind of a tragedy for me, but my sister had a bigger one. Her husband, Neil, was diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer. Yep, one minutes he was fairly healthy, or at least not terminally ill, seemed like the next, he was in severe pain with a two year life expectancy. Truthfully, I don't even know how my little sis was still standing. In her marriage, her husband pretty much drove her to work, made the decisions, etc.

In my marriage, W used to try to get me to learn how to do points and plugs in a car, and learn anything I could, and change a tire. Mostly, as then, he was out to sea for 6 to 9 months at a whack, but then he informed me women outlive their men, so I needed to be prepared. My take on the entire situation was to join AAA so I don't have to change a tire, and get a good mechanic. Oh, and life insurance, etc. If I drop dead, who cares. Anyone can get a maid.

My little sis got married at 18 years old. It was kind of like she went from my parents taking care of her to Neil taking care of her. She is a teacher, and has her kids and extended family to help her, but what a struggle she is facing. Neil was accepted into three clinical drug trials that may be able to help extend his life for six years. They have to travel to Salt Lake City every two weeks for chemo treatments, and also other medications. I understand the medical bills are staggering.

Their family has experienced some real miracles. Their huge home sold right before Neil's diagnoses. Their ward, work friends, family, etc have really been wonderful. I can't say I have been much help. I thought about making a blanket for Neil, as that is what I do, but my cousin sent him two nice blankets. I have 'chatted' with him a little on Facebook, and he really misses ice fishing....boat fishing....his fishing holes, etc. I decided I'd look for some fabric with fish on it. I actually found some. I wasn't certain what kind of blanket to make, how to use my fabric, which design. Also, I do not seem to be able to do complicated. I can plenty of 'easy', but just nothing complicated. I really wish I could produce some of the ideas I can think of, but I do not have the artistic ability to accomplish them. I know this fact well, so very hard sometimes to 'settle' for what I can do. Then, why I feel the need to stick it up on a blog is beyond me. Probably just do document that I did something.
I decided to do a rag blanket for Neil. I wanted to make a rather small blanket that he could haul along to SLC and maybe it would be nice enough to take his mind off of chemo, but also be comfy. I made seven 10 inch strips that were as wide as my fabric. The green fabric was an inch or two longer than the other two fabrics. I should have made certain they were all the same length before sewing them together. As it was, I just made certain one side was totally even, then carefully cut off some of the longer green strips. I made simple 'fish' shapes and transferred them to my green strips of fabric, and used my machine to quilt around them. I would have done them by hand, but it would have taken me a month or so, judging from the last hand quilted blanket I did....and that one actually took me six weeks to complete. I'm in a mode where I am trying to finish up some forgotten projects, so didn't want to be tied up with one project for a long time.

I wrote: I'd

Rather

Be

Fishing

...with my machine and a triple stitch setting and stitched the letters twice with brown thread so they would show up. They are not any where NEAR perfect......but they will have to do. On both sides of the 'Be', I stitched a little worm shape. It didn't turn out very well, either. I might have to explain what it is. Also, the blue color around the fish was my water soluble pen I used--once I washed the blanket, the blue disappeared, leaving just the white stitching out-lining the fish.

I used one-inch seams and then cut them so they would fray when washed into a chenille looking edge. That part turned out ok. I also cut the entire edge of the blanket. I was able to totally finish this blanket this past weekend.

Megan wants me to do a little blanket with cats or dogs on it for her youngest, and I have St Patrick's Day fabric to sew up for the baby group. I have also noticed that I can now write in the dust on my furniture, so I am thinking some housework is also in order.