Creative Paper Quilling by Doreen: It's Been So Long I Don't Know Where To Start!

Hi Everyone,

It’s been so long since I’ve posted to my blog, I almost don’t know where to start! I guess back in 2011 is as good as any time to start to explain, all that’s gone on. The last time I posted was Aug 31, 2011. My mom happened to get terribly ill that night, which lead to 1 6 to 8 week recovery. So, all my creativity was put on hold for the most part. Then in November 2011, we got accepted into a housing co-op, we had 2 months to prepare before our move in on Jan. 27, 2012. So again, I didn’t do much quilling, as we were busy with Christmas and packing for our move…

Two weeks before we were to move,. I slipped on ice and fell on my back. Thankfully my hood cushioned my head! Then one week before we were to move, I saw my glaucoma eye specialist, who found something wrong with my left eye, which I was already partially blind in. Monday Jan. 23, 2012 I had to see another specialist. I found out, I had a non-cancerous tumour (a mass of blood vessels growing in my left eye resulting from an early childhood injury), and a detached retina. I had to have emergency surgery as soon as possible. I wanted to wait until after we moved, but my doctor said my eye could end up hemorrhaging. So on January 26, 2012, I went in for vitrectomy surgery. This was the day before we were moving! I suddenly had 4 weeks off work, which sounds good when you’re moving, but I couldn’t do anything!!! I could bend down, I couldn’t lift anything. My mom had to come and stay with us, because I could even cook. One would never think an eye surgery would be so serious and disabling, but it can be! 2 weeks into my recovery I developed a blood clot in my eye and had to have another vitrectomy surgery. This gave me another 2 weeks off work. Our place was in such disarray, and my mom and I really couldn’t do much. With Bill working full time, unpacking and organizing was a very slow process.

This ended up being one of the worst personnel experiences of my life! I had severe headaches for weeks, I lost almost all of my vision in my left eye, going from about 15% to about 5%. I always thought I couldn’t see much so it wouldn’t be a big deal if I went completely blind, but I found out that 15% vision was a lot! Then to top it all off, the second surgery they put an oil bubble into my eye, which I ended up having to have a 3^rd vitrectomy surgery, in June 2012, giving me another 6 weeks off, and finishing off my eyesight in my left eye. I can see a little bit of light, but it is mostly dark and gray, and it has shrunken significantly. All this was to save what sight I had, so I would lose my eye. I was then told that eventually I will lose my eye and have to have prosthetic glass eye. I am not looking forward to that at all! If I had known I was still going to lose it, I would have just refused the surgeries in the first place…

I could go on about everything I went through, but I
won’t bore anyone any longer! Let’s get back to my paper quilling and card making!

So needless to say, I did not do much quilling for most of 2012. I did however make a few cards, and do a couple of entries for The Calgary Stampede. It was there 100^th anniversary, so I just had to enter! The first couple are mother’s day cards, and then a father’s day card. As you can see I still love making my easel cards. They lend them selves so well to quillinq.

Cards before in easel position

My 3rd surgery was much better that the first two. And by that, I mean less pain, and complications to the anesthetic. The next projects were done just before and after my 3rd eye surgery. They were my Stampede entries, to which I won 1^st in class and 2^nd in Section for my quilled sunflower thank you easel card and embellished envelope. And I also won 1^st place for my quilled framed piece, which is an all-black silhouette of a cowboy on a bucking horse in a black shadow box frame. I did this especially for their 100th anniversary.