Wednesday, July 01, 2009

bound, labeled and sleeved



Not sure if anyone but a quilter would use sleeved as a past tense verb.
These quilts have been all but the three above for some time now.
The first is an improvisational piece. I loved making it, each section grew as the scraps around me took it in a new direction.
The second, much more rigid, is beautiful. It will be Andy's birthday present and will hang in his office, bringing home a quilt I have not seen for quite some time.
One of the frustrating realities of being a nurse is dealing with shifts being canceled or being on call. I am never able to totally relax in these situations as even if cancelled, they may call me in anyway, and being on call is setting aside time without knowing what will happen. Both of these are really difficult financially, too, as there is no pay for either.
Yesterday I was ready to take report when they sent me home, but said they might call me back. Binding was the perfect activity as it is busy work, productive, and not tasking. It is always good to have some of that type of work available.
Just this hour I got a call canceling me for this evening, but to stay close to the phone in case admissions come in.
I am not faulting my place of work--great staff, great mission, but this is the industry way of dealing with fluctuating patient census levels. There has got to be a better way.
Later: they called me back in, then sent me home after 5 hours.


The back of the second quilt (adapted from the Moda site) uses up the last of my Senegal chicken fabric. Love that stuff.

10 comments:

Stina Blomgren said...

Lovely quilts!!! Love your scrappy quilts!! :o)

Elaine Adair said...

Your quilts are always lovely, and PLAID is so darned friendly like!

Diana said...

I really like the pattern you used on the second one. It's a great use of the plaids.

Becky said...

I love the quilts. As an OR nurse, I know a lot about call. When the "floors" started sending people home, but expecting them to come back in - one kind of "on call", they finally put up a fuss, and then were paid the same hourly rate for standby as the OR nurses were paid. That was all of about $3-5 an hour, but it did cut down on the "but we may need you later". At least after that you were through for the day.

antique quilter said...

oh love that first quilt
just love all the fabrics and the way you made it into a medallion style quilt
great!
the second one, love the use of red great quilt too.
oh that just doens't seem right.
there has to be a better way
of scheduling

Louise SS said...

Your quilts are so nice.I really like them!

Janet said...

I too just love your quilts, they are both gorgeous, I could have them live with me quite happily. The schedule sounds so unsettling.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

Congratulations on such wonderful finishes! They are all great. I would hate being on call. I had a change in shifts so I had to work one evening. I had the hardest time finding something to do during the day so that I would finish on time before the evening shift. I wound up not getting anything done at all!

Rosalyn Manesse said...

These are such cozy quilts. I love the scraps

woolywoman said...

out here in CA, we have a no cancel policy as part of our contract. It helps, a lot, to know what will happen. Families hate their nurse changing mid shift, too.