Give me Your Anything Else

Did you know, if you read other people's blogs you don't have to reflect on your own?  That's what I've been doing the past hour or so and it really helps. 

So just this once, you tell me what's going on at your place.  I'm listening to 80's music, redo-ing my sewing area, and sewing pockets to hang on all my sewing stuff for places to keep things like scissors, and as a family member who was always wonderful to me has recently past away I can't seem to keep focused on any one thing.

So tell me, what are you up to on this beautiful overly hot Saturday?

Magic Seeds Grow a Magic Cactus

Earlier this afternoon my daughter said something that I just had to share.  She told me that if we had magic beans we could grow a magic cactus that would reach all the way up into the clouds and then we climb it all the way up to heaven.

The top photo is what our cactus looks like now.  Not really Magic, but it does grow pretty fast.  This second photo is of the "trunk".  The entire plant could have fit into this photograph when we first bought our house.

While Jessica's creative mind is a bit different than what is traditional, there are times I very much wish I could climb a cactus if only for a visit.  Our cactus is pretty much thorn free with the tiny "2mm" thorns mostly only found on the new growth, but I still wouldn't let Jessica touch it for the photo.

Check up and Check in

Today was annual checkup time for Sunny and Tiny. I've been a bit worried about them so it was nice to hear how great they are. Sometimes I think my cats must be charmers to become divining rods for compliments. Or maybe that's part of the vets job? I don't know they see so many animals. I did in fact ask my sister if she knew of any "ugly" cats and she is certain that there are such things. I've never met one myself.

For a while now Sunny has had his own trading card over at Blue Buffalo. The makers of our cat food. Feel free to head over there and check him out.

Earlier this evening my daughter told me "Sunny went poop!" Followed quickly by "we need to bag it up and take it to the vet!" The things children say sometimes. It cracks me up.

Today was in fact a hard day for Jessica. She missed Kitty very deeply today, and I even though I try my best to love and support her, I feel like sometimes it isn't enough.

Tonight I am watching out the window at my "special needs" Cardinal. Perhaps some of you remember her. The cardinal with only one leg that visits my bird feeder quite frequently. Tonight I can't help but worry a little about her. She is curled up in the bottom "bowl" of the feeder. She's been sitting there for about 10 minutes, and now it's past 8pm. I hope all is well with her as watching her visit everyday brings joy to my days. Since those first visits we've learned a bit more about her. She does have two legs, but one has no "toes" at all and she seems to like to keep it out behind her to keep it from being banged around. Ahhh hark, the Cardinal has flown. It's so nice to see her depart this evening. I'll be looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow. Perhaps she too just needed a quiet moment. Feel free to read more about her and see a few photos here.

UnPlanned Clean?

Is there even such a thing? Well today at my house there is. I started by putting away two chairs from the kitchen table, but before I could do that I felt like I had to clean under the table, and so it went. Interestingly everything in my house is clean except the top of the table. Yep, strange I know. Of course that's where I sew so maybe that's part of it.

Currently I have two pairs (or is it three?) of my sister's pants eagarly awaiting repairs. I tell you what - maybe it's just me, but I find stretch denim to be more likely to spring holes. And we wont bother to explain why it's a pain to repair, I think that goes without saying.

One of the holes is just a straight line running with the line of the fabric. I think I'll just satin stitch that one up and cover it with a patch instead of embroidering on it. That way it wont wear and rub annoyingly on her knee. As for the rest, I'll think about them later.

We have a new air conditioner! I'm so glad, I can't even begin to tell you how rough it's been with heat indexes over 100, not to mention record breaking temps.

Jessica seems to be dealing with the loss of Kitty pretty well. I wont pretend to know what goes on in her smart little brain, so we're taking it one day at a time. Yesterday was not a good day for me, but "my momma told me there'd be days like that".

The Tucker went out of my Ticker Day Parade

I wasn't going to post tonight, as I didn't really feel in the mood, but it was so pleasant to drop in on stitchinpenny tonight that I felt perhaps a wrap up on the day might be just the ticket.

Today I finished up the two rows for Amber's quilt. I haven't decided if I will post photos ahead or wait until Amber tells me it's safe in her hands and she likes it. I know I'm such a sucker for a surprise. It's the last of my commitment to the large group and it does fill me with a bit of peace to have it done. The finished size is supposed to be 84"X84" I haven't measured it, but it's big, and heavy and did I mention hot?

With no air conditioning here in Central FL we've been cooking, I have no doubt it was over 95 in my house today (but I didn't dare check that thermostat for fear the sight of it would make me melt!) I can not wait until we replace the air conditioner. I tell you what there is a reason why some people only quilt in the winter time.

I am not so well, I pushed myself to hard today and my foot is furious. My heart is most especially heavy when I am alone. The sun has mostly set and the noises of the night can be heard through the open window, but I haven't turned on the light. It's hard to turn and know that Kitty isn't there, that I wont hear her voice again hollering for dinner. I have never buried a pet that I have loved so long before. I keep seeing her over and over in my mind as she was after she past and I have to remind myself that wasn't my gal.

I once heard somewhere that our pets look like us, and when I had Kitty in to the vets office before Christmas last year I was sitting on the bench looking at everyone and thinking how true that was. The woman with perfectly shaped brown hair with a dog just the same, a huge burly man with a Husky larger than I'd ever seen before. Our three furred friends include the proud regal looking Sunny with a tender heart. Our long and lean 8 pound Tiny, beautiful finely boned. Then we had kitty 18 pounds at last check. She's the one that looked like me and now that she's gone I can't help but realize how very much the same she and I were. It's as though there is a hollow spot not even tears can fill up.

Love your family and hold them close, be they furred, feathered, or skinned because none of us know what the future holds.

It's all in a bunch of work...

Wow I am so tired! Rob stayed up watching a movie last night, and knowing I couldn't sleep with that particular movie on, I just kept reading my new book. We didn't get to sleep until after 1AM, what a fool I am! I'm completely dragging the ground today.

But I have great news! The 2 sets of perinatal quilts are done! Remember those are going out to Bridging People and Places Charity, and I have worked on them since I began quilting! They range in size from 8" - 26" square.

The single one is my favorite of all of them, that being a bit funny as those Log Cabins has been an issue for me (getting them the correct size for the Block Challenge). I'm not going to give you closeups of the others, but you can see the first ones I made by clicking on the charity quilts below. Each one is different some are bound with satin. That was my first choice, but at $4+ per package, it didn't seem worth it. I can't imagine how much money it would have taken to bind them all. Some of them are bound using Eleanor Burn's scrappy style quilt binding. Now that I like! You take the scraps from your quilt and put them together to make the binding. Some color combinations this worked better with. For instance shades of yellow scraps looked better to me than the shades of blue and yellow scraps. I enjoyed this project, and am glad to send them on their way to their new homes. May others find comfort and peace in what I have created.

My heart is still heavy, but they say time heals all wounds. I'm not sure about that. (as Elvis plays "I'm so lonesome I could cry" in the background)

While I worked on the charity baby blankets, I had the new sewing machine embroider the flowers for the blue quilt I'm working on. I'd like to have 20 when I'm finished, but size of the fabric, ect. will surely come into play (gasp, I haven't bothered with the math yet, oh no!) LOL! I have completed 8, I feel that's good progress for two days.

I'm thinking about joining the local guild again. There are some problems over that, but I'm struggling, a huge part of my day is sewing, or thinking of quilts and of course taking care of Jessica. It really puts a stopper on what I can talk about if that's not interesting to the people around me. I wonder about that. How did I get so wrapped up and interested in doing, quilting, and creating? And what did I do before? I can't really remember...

Unfinished Projects Challenge

Spider Lilly's in the Moonlight, sometimes wonderful things happen that we never planned. These Lilly's were right in that very spot in when we bought the house, and right next to it is a Spineless Cactus that has grown from knee high to as big as a man in the time we've owned the place.

Hi everyone, one of the members of the quilting board has issued a challenge to finish our UFO's by the 31st of December, those are unfinished projects that were left for a period of time. Abandoned. Lost. Forgotten, for whatever reason. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the project itself, but rather other things that needed to happen first, a different project, children. Whatever. Any project that has been left for a period of time is eligible. I have really taken this to heart, and have been working diligently on my first UFO. The Perinatal Quilts. I love working on these really I do, but life has gotten in the way a couple of times.

As some of you may know this is grief work for me, so it's very emotional and raw. Okay not so raw now but certainly tender. I had wanted to get them done and in the mail to the charity by Christmas and this has just been the drive I needed. Currently I have 16 done! Of my two part set of 20, number seventeen has it's binding more than halfway on and then it's down to three. Perhaps I can even have them done by the end of the month. It has surprised me with these. What started out as just ten tiny little quilts, how long could it take? Has turned into at least 20 blocks and an untold number of borders. I'm here to tell you that's a quilt! One nice big quilt. No photos of this UFO will be posted again until it's done and ready to mail. I'm hoping by not posting I will continue to stay motivated.

What are your current UFO's? It doesn't have to be quilting, it could be any craft, perhaps it's the flower bed that you haven't done anything with. Just think if you winterise it now, it will be already to plant in this coming spring. Of course if you plant Gladiola's, Tulips or Daffodils you wont have to plan in the spring at all.

My other UFO's you all know about. The red 18 point star quilt that I love to hate. Honestly, I'm afraid when I cut it down to fix it I will mess it up and then I'll be out of the right kind of fabric or something. DH tells me I should create the block as I think it needs to be on a completely different fabric (scrap of course) to be sure it will be the right size. I think he's right, but tell me what can I do with a 17" triangle filled with half square triangles? LOL!

The next one is the Blue applique quilt. It needs a couple of things a butterfly embroidered on the basket handle, rosebud blocks to go all around for the first border, and then hopefully embroidery flowers of all types to go around. How many of you can see that in your head? Trust me it will be beautiful I just know it. Anything dealing with embroidery is on hold until my thread order gets here. Oh there goes the mail man! It's here! Finally!

Now with all that excitement where was I? Oh yes I've also been waiting to finish the Bargello until the new thread got here. since from here on out it's a quilt as you go, I needed thread to match the muslin I plan to use on the back. You can see it in the photo the smaller of the two big spools. Boy I hope that Maxi-Lock thread works out swell. My New Machine has made even Sulky Rayon make lint! I'll write a review after I've used a bit of it.

Now see that pretty purse clasp? Oh how I've wanted that. Just knowing I have it to make a little kisslock change holder, or perhaps a small purse just delights me. I was thinking about using it on my Halloween trick or treat challenge, but I might like it to much to put goolies on it!

Oh and those teal blue string beads? Those are to fix my sister's pants. Then have little sequins on the pockets and while she didn't point it out I noticed they were coming off. So I'm replacing them with some of these, I'm planning on hand sewing them on real good that way I can get a couple of passes through the bead with the needle.

Any other UFO's? Oh yes, I'll need to quilt all of the quilts above, and the last heart baby clothes quilt, but one thing at a time. I think I have enough to keep me busy till the end of the year!

An old HS friend of mine is having knee surgery, so I was thinking of sending a care package, but you know that's just one of the little things we do at the drop of the hat because we want to.

The Development of a Quilt...

So it's Monday already? Wow, I feel like blinking the sunshine out of my eyes in surprise. Let's see here...

Cats My mom is sort of seriously looking for a new kitten. At first I was surprised, but the bottom line is that we all grieve differently and how we choose to deal with it is part of what makes us who we are. She has found a delightful little girl rather a long ways away. I'm to the point now where I feel like writing the check and mom can figure out how to get her home. Trust me she's a doll.

Shopping As for shopping the Disney sundress I wanted is out of stock in my size. Wisely I got out the tape me measure and low and behold I actually guessed my size wrong, so I can get the smaller size that is still in stock, nice perk hu? DH is going to order it and the matching sundress for Jessica when he gets home later this after noon. Also on the order is a new Minnie Swimsuit for Jessica, we'll have to have one our vacation later this year. Me? Oh well I figured I can take in a pinch on each side of my old suit that never did fit right.

Sewing I sewed and sewed yesterday. Well not really. As you know I've been cutting more fabric. It's all cut btw! Yippie! Nice little squares for me. So that gave me more of the applique fabric squares that I was using for the practice nine patch. So I took all of those and laid them out which gave me another 8 patchwork blocks, that are completed, for a total of 12 blocks. This has been making me crazy because that's not really enough to get a quilt out of, a wall hanging perhaps. SOOOOOoooo! After much thought and effort, I will be using my fabric of the month club stuff to make long cabin squares (assuming of course it will look good that way) which will be combined with my nine patch blocks to form a BORDER around a 27" block. On there I will be embroidering a bunny and hearts from a quilt from my childhood.

The fabric I will be using for the large middle block is vintage salvaged from an old set of cradle bumper pads, formerly mine of course. Don't worry I'll be posting photos for you as I work on it. Currently the vintage fabric is soaking in vinegar because I pulled a huge stupid three years when I seam ripped the stuff. I very very dumbly suck the fabric in my old wood bookcase headboard, thinking "away from sunlight good, put away good, away from getting messed up WRONG, the stain from the wood even though it was stained at least a decade ago LEACHED into the fabric making it look all dark and dingy, gross. So like I said it's soaking and hopefully will come out.

My dd received a birthday party invite from her cousin for the day she is supposed to go to there house while mom, my sister, and I got to the Preforming Arts Center. She is so excited about she has been hauling the invite around for about a week!

Tomorrow my hubby is off to go help my mom with her toilet, this will be oh I think the third week he has done something with her toilets. All I can say it's it's a good thing at least one of us has a husband to share around fix it duties, or is that doody? hehe