Go Red!

I’m wearing a red sweater today, in honor of National Wear Red Day for the American Heart Association.  They recently moved into the suite next door to my office, and today everyone who wore red is participating in a big group photo in the atrium.

February 1st is National Wear Red Day (February's First Friday) to raise awareness of heart disease in women.

Symptoms of heart attack in women are different from symptoms a man has when he’s having a heart attack.  I know something about this because the ex-wife of a cousin of DH had a heart attack last year, and no one could believe it at the time.  She had no chest pains, no achy arm or any shortness of breath… she thought she had the flu.

She was finally convinced to see a health professional, I don’t remember the circumstance, and they said ‘yes, heart attack’.  Everyone was stunned.  She’s always been active, was in fairly good physical condition for a woman in her 60s (better than I am, for sure!).  I think stress was a big factor, she has her own business and it’s pretty demanding.  But no one recognized it because they didn't know the symptoms.

If you need to know what women’s symptoms are, here’s a list from the American Heart Association:

·        shortness of breath

·        pressure or pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen

·        dizziness, light-headedness or fainting

·        upper back pressure

·        extreme fatigue

Here are some good ways to avoid heart trouble.  Keep your blood pressure under control, maintain a healthy weight, eat right, get a good night’s sleep and have a support system. Oh, and don’t smoke!

Heart attack is the number one killer among women, more than breast cancer, lung cancer, accident or anything else.

Learn the symptoms, avoid the pitfalls, live long and prosper!

By the way, having a hobby helps to relax you,

Sew On!

Many Hands Make Light Work

A couple of weekends ago my church quilting group met for our regular monthly get-together.  We normally meet for three hours or so.  We layer and pin there because we have big tables, and then divvy up the various projects and work on them at home.  I usually kit things up and cut, others sew tops, another lady does the machine quilting, and two or three people do bindings and sew on labels. 

Every month we have to sort through things because the room we have in the 'multipurpose' room is so limited.  We have big plastic tubs, bags and boxes.  We try to be organized but it's hard when you can't see what's in some of the boxes and tubs.  We tried labeling them but things change so that was kind of a bust.

Anyway, we had taken off the month of December for obvious reasons, and we had to think hard about what the plan was for 2013!  Our leader says we have enough baptismal quilts for a while and we were discussing the various charitable opportunities.

When it was time to work, we couldn't find much to be layered and we scratched our heads a little.  Hmmm, seems like we had more stuff in progress!  There were only two or three kits in their gallon sized baggies, and our show and tell was a little sparse over the holidays.

So out came the bins and boxes and low and behold, when we counted up what we had in progress we had over two dozen tops!  Three or four could use some borders, and the rest were ready to be layered and quilted!!  Wow!  We have an embarrassment of riches!

Barb's off to buy some more batting, and I've got borders to cut.  Susie is machine quilting... busy busy busy.

Sew on!