I know. I haven’t written much lately. Nothing really about what’s been happening in our household. I’ve been pretty busy over the past couple months. Busy, and dealing with big things. Really big. Not just Moshe’s illness. But also the things I had to take care of that he did before 24th April. Like his business. And the finances. He did all that. But then came 24th April. Diagnosis. Moshe has cancer in his left kidney. 8th May. Saturday. Laproscopic surgery. Cancer & kidney removed. During the week, recovery just fine. Looking forward to going home. 15th May. Second surgery. Remove the rest of the renal vein with the remainder of the cancer they’d found in pathology after the first surgery, and check the inferior vena cava is clear, cancer-free. It is. Then… complete renal failure. Hold my breath. Wait, wait, wait. After some long days and night, maybe weeks, the kidney slowly starts to wake up. Dialisys machine put away. ICU stand down. My husband slowly coming back to me. More time passed. Days and days. Then to rehab. Then, finally. Home. Still weak. Oh so tired. Thin as can be. Getting dressed is a marathon run. Out of breath. Rest. More rest. And so it goes. Slowly. Slowly. Recovering. Some good days. Some not so good. Some good mornings. Some good couple hours. Not much sleep happening. Most nights none. Most days, little nana naps. Occasionally. Slowly starting to get back into things. Not work, but other things. Sometime visitors OK. Sometimes not OK.

Once Moshe came home, I was busier than ever. Knew it’d be like that. I was on-call 24/7. So, apart from how tired I am, mentally mostly, I haven’t really had anything to write about. Didn’t think that’d make for good reading, day after day. After day. So I basically spent any computer time I had reading all y’all’s blogs, looking at fabric, buying some, dreaming about all the other fabric I’d love to have in the wardrobe in the hall. And, from time to time, I embroidered stitch or two.

I’ve also been snatching 10 minutes here and there to play my piano. Czerny. Brahms. That’s it really. And tonight, I had a brilliant idea! Check this out…

Laura Gunn's Poppy for my piano cover

I’m going to use some of my Laura Gunn fabric that I love and adore to make a cover for my baby grand! I’ve been thinking for years about this, trying to work out just how I can get or make one of those divine, richly embroidered, long-fringed silk covers my teacher Mr. Spivakowsky had for his three grand pianos. Turns out, his wife sewed them herself, and they’re not readily available in a store near you. What to do. I kept wondering where to get some of that silk. Even nearly bought some once, but I don’t think it’d be as nice as I remember his being.

Today, I had a thought. I know. It does happen occasionally. I thought, I need to choose fabric that will have me smile inside when I look at it. Fabric that’ll stir my soul. I opened Hawthorne Threads site, and thought about colours. Blue. Lately, I’m in love with blue. Again. It’s a colour I keep coming back to throughout my life. And then, there it was. Laura Gunn’s Poppy. The most thrilling part of it all was that I actually have a stash of it in my wardrobe in the hall!!! So, what do you think? I think it looks divine over my piano. All I need to think about now is a design. What kind of quilt will I make? I will quilt it. Something soft underneath. Perhaps a shot cotton, one of Kaffe Fassett’s. Anyway, first, the top. Any ideas? It’s got to be something that really shows off this superb fabric. None of those little tiny pieces where you get a corner of something. Know what I mean? It’s got to show this fabric off really, really well. So. What do you think?