Zaphod's 12th birthday

My all time favorite famous Meerkats had a bit of a celebration the other day.  Zaphod just turned 12!  That is a wild accomplishment for a wild meerkat. Everyone is now looking forward to his continued health and well being for if he lives to be 4448 days old  (Feb. 12) he will be the oldest Meerkat ever to be studied in the Kalahari Meerkat Project - Go King Zaphod!


Yes Zaphod is still the dominate male of the Aztecs with Monkulus (Maybelline to you North American Animal Planet Watchers).  You can read all about Zaphod's birthday here.


Now here is the heart stomping news Caroline Hawkins and her Oxford Scientific film crew who brought us Meerkat Manor as well as Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins has been back to the Kalahari Meerkat Project and has been filming for a 3D Movie! 3D Movies give me a headache, but I think I'll take a Tylenol when this movie releases.  National Geographic plans to air it in 2D so I'll be able to watch it then too.  Of course the best source for all this info is the Friends of the Kalahari Meerkat Project.

The Quilts of The Great American Teach-In

Yesterday I finished up the second quilt for the second teacher in Jessica's class.  Both panels were printed by Spoonflower.  The first was my radial gradient attempt.  That didn't work out so well and the gradient was lost in a sea of dark navy and purple.  They agreed to reprint it with a solid background for me which while I was terribly disappointed I was grateful to them.  The first was such a mess I was certain I couldn't use it, but the waste not want no person in me decided I should try to salvage the first for the teacher's aid.  That way no matter what happened to the second panel in shipping at least I would have one quilt as I promised the children.

I appliqued a pieced block of the school right over the owl.  It took rather a lot of time to get it just right, including but not limited to the hand stitched playground you see above, so this has a children's novelty backing.

The second one arrived just before I could affix the binding on the first, sadly I was rather burned out at that point so all I could think was UGH more work!  The solid background was darker than I thought it would be.  I had been shooting for a light blueish teal and ended up with more of a primary blue.  I'm so glad I kept it light so the owl would be clear.  I hand quilted around the outlines of the owl which gives him a bit of a fuzzy look.

As I only had one yard of the flannel I'd hoped to use as backing I went ahead and did a diamond on the back.  While neither of the quilts from Spoonflower were what I was looking for the children's crayon art work came out beautifully and I love that it's completely washable.  If I find myself making another quilt of this type I will certainly refer Spoonflower.  Multi color gradients could print quite nicely but a range of a single color I would not recommend.  The owl's eyes are a brown black radial gradient and those turned out just fine.

I'm all done shopping and nearly finished wrapping, and the cold front has just made it's way here, so I'm ready to settle in with a cup of hot coco.  From our home to yours, we wish you a joyous and peaceful holiday.

Dino Day

Here is the top! All 15 little dinos are sewn in and accounted for. I'll be adding a 6" border all around to increase the over all quilt size, but other than that it's coming along just great.

Have you looked into the Federal Weatherization project? Perhaps you qualify, there was a write up in the newspaper about how it is to help make low income households more energy efficient. According to one of the articles I read a family of four can make up to $44,000 a year so don't tune me out. Is there something in your home that needs taken care of? A furnace tune up perhaps? I personally have a list. This is a United States federal program so if you have a need be sure to give your local office a call.