My Rooster In Drag

I did all this by hand.  No fusing.  It was all needle turn hand appliqué.   And it took weeks and weeks. I didn't "know" how to fuse.  My Rooster is perhaps 48 by 60.  The only thing I would change is the background.  Too flat.  No landscape.  I did have a teal feather boa around the rooster's neck the first time I showed it.  And I stretched the quilt over stretcher bars.  And it stayed that way for a long time, until it  came off the bars and I added a sleeve and binding.

A reader reminded me of it's existence in a post from October of 2005.  I slipped the photo out of that post and into iPhoto and finally got to crop and adjust the color.  I stayed to read a few of my posts from October of 2005.  I was more literate.  Even charming.

Back to work today after four days of feeling terrible.  It's either ragweed or black mold.  I spent Monday evening with a bottle of water and bleach, spraying the main bathroom walls with bleach to remove the little black specks which, because they vanished in the bleach, must have been black mold.  I think my illness developed when the window guy removed the trim from the window in my bedroom, to measure for the new windows.  But, once I noticed something was wrong--I went looking for any other moldy spots.

That night I smelled a musty, damp smell coming from the window as I fell asleep.  The next morning I woke and began sneezing.  My nose started running like a faucet.  By Saturday the inside of my nose felt like it had been bathed in battery acid.  Then it started dripping down to the back of my throat.  My head was swimming.  I was hot and sweaty and then cold and clammy.  Now I am coughing.

The little holes in the window framing have been plugged.  I no longer "smell" the "smell".  That doesn't mean the mold is gone or safe.  I think that will happen when the old window is removed and the new one inserted.  After I spray everything with bleach and fill any holes with spray foam insulation.  That window has generally been "open" 24/7 for the past 20 years; winter, spring, summer and fall.  So, it follows that the wood would have gotten wet, damp, moldy.  And the window faces the dark, damp woods.  Where even more "natural" mold lives and breathes.

I did research and did you know that there are more mold spores in "Fresh Air" than there are in anything else?

Every day I feel a bit better.  Today was not the best.  Since  a damp greenhouse is a wonderland of mold and mold spores.  I was hyper sensitive and smelled the damp and musty everywhere.  The inside of my nose feels a bit raw.  I may have to go to work with a mask over my nose and mouth.