New Neighbors

Our neighbors built a bird house for their daughter a couple of months ago and look who moved in:


And of course there's always one who is still hungry after Mom feeds them:


It's been worth all of the noise they make each morning at feeding time to see a sign of spring since it's been a pretty cold spring!

always,
k

Adventures in Paper Piecing

I belong to a local quilt guild, which is awesome. I never make the classes or meetings because of my work hours, which sucks. My sister's do go, which brings me back to awesome because they keep me updated and teach me the techniques they learn.

On a recent Sister's Day at my sister Jan's house, she taught us paper piecing. Jean being a "Sew Outside of the Lines" kinda girl hated it. I loved it!

It just amazes me that all of the upside-down-backwards sewing can turn into something as cute as this:


Jan also showed us how to do these cool little coasters that will be the giveaway at the guild's upcoming Quilt Show in the fall:


So even though I don't participate in person, I was happy that I, at least, was able to contribute my coasters. We were asked to use fall/autumn colors, so that explains all of the oranges and browns, but I am going to do a set for my house, too, using my favorite fabrics.

always,
K

Peep, Peep

I'm still here! I haven't been feeling very creative lately, so I haven't had much to share.
I was determined to get my mojo back in the last two weekends and it feels good to create again.
Here's the little guy that helped me:


He was inspired by a stuffed Peep that Jean and I saw in a little oountry store on our trip to Lancaster last month for the APQ Quilt Show. I used Jean's trick of upcycling the beaded filling from a thrifted beanie baby to weight him down and now he watches over me in my studio to make sure I actually do stuff instead of just leafing through magazines thinking about doing stuff!

I was also inspired by a flat screen TV cover I found on Flickr by Modernjax that was just too cute for words. (Do you all find inspiration on Flickr too? I've never been disappointed by scrolling through my groups there!)

Apparently modernjax's TV wasn't cable ready because she got those bars that mean the station is off the air. Since I have cable and can always find something on, I tuned my version, which I'm going to use as a computer monitor cover, to "This Old House":


I'm not quite done with it yet,it needs a few little touches, but I'm happy how it turned out. This was pretty out of the box for me. I don't normally just wing it when it comes to creating, I like to follow patterns. (A+B always equals C in my house or there is hell to pay! Welcome to the world of mild to moderate OCD)
Yesterday I wanted to do something, but not get too involved, so I made a Spring-y flour sack towel for my kitchen:



I'm glad to be back in the land of crafting! I hope to spend some more time in my studio today and have another post before too long.

always,
K

Back To Basics

My Mom was a hand quilter. Never once in all of her years of quilting (over 50 years by my best estimation) did she do any part of a quilt on a sewing machine.

She made all of her children clothes on her sewing machine. I clearly remember when all 5 of us kids were at home that she had her sewing machine set up in a corner of the dining room. I would watch in wonder as she cut out a tissue paper pattern, laid the fabric on the dining room table and created outfits we wore proudly. Our family joke is that Mom ALWAYS had rick rack on all the clothes she made us.

But when it came to quilting, she was a purist. She was taught to hand quilt by her mother and she taught us girls to hand quilt.

My first memory of quilting was when my grandmother (Nanny to all of us kids)would come spend the weekend and either bring one of her quilts to quilt or help Mom quilt one of her quilts. The living room would be taken over by the huge quilt frame and everyone would pull up a dining room chair around the frame to quilt a bit. How proud I was at a very young age to be able to quilt with the grown ups. No matter how big our stitches were (and at about 7 years old, they were HUGE)they were always left in and became part of the quilt.

My biggest regret is that I never completed a hand-sewn quilt while my Mom was alive. She would have been so proud.

When my sisters and I started quilting as our main hobby (about two years ago) we went right to machine quilting. It's just so much quicker!

This weekend I went back to basics. I have been sick for a week with an upper respiratory infection and it hurts to breathe. I didn't have the energy to leave the bedroom and venture into my studio. I wanted something to do with my hands while I caught up with my soap opera on DVR, but wasn't in the mood to pick up my current knitting project or embroidery project.

I remembered a plastic tote I had gotten together of some pieces of fabric that my Mom had cut out and never done anything with. It was in the top of my bedroom closet just waiting to be put to use.

Yesterday, I pulled out the tote and started sorting through it. There were hectogons of various sizes for one of my Mom's favorite quilts, Grandma's Flower Garden. Mom probably made about 15-20 of these quilts alone. (Her second favorite was the Wedding Ring, one of which I currently sleep under every night!) There were also about 100 diamonds cut out for a quilt that I will never know about.
I found what I was looking for in the 100 4x4 squares in the box. With very little planning, I began to hand sew the squares together.

I admit to breaking down early yesterday morning as I lay in bed, complaining to J about how horrible I felt. I had a nice long cry as I told him "I want my Mom!"

My Mom was an awesome Mom always, but mostly when I was sick. She was the Mom who when I was sick growing up, I stayed home from school and she made a nest of covers on the couch. I got to watch cartoons all day, no matter how much she wanted to watch Phil Donohue or Mike Douglas. She made a special trip to the grocery store for vanilla pudding and a trip to the neighborhood drug store for coke syrup to settle my tummy. She put cool rags on my head and a paper bag next to the couch in case I couldn't make it all the way to the bathroom when I had to toss my cookies.

Even after I moved out of the house at 19, whenever I got sick, my first call was to my Mom. Many times, she and Dad would hop in the car and drive to my apartment to bring me medicine or just to offer comfort to their "baby girl".

A part of me always misses her most when I'm sick.

Amazingly enough, as I picked up the fabric she had cut before she got sick and began to sew the squares together, I began to feel better. I swear, I really did. Just touching the fabric and thinking of her taking the time to cut out each piece made me feel like she was with me. I cried over some of the pieces of fabric and smiled at others. There were a lot of florals, some brights, some muted and some of the novelty fabrics that she loved so much. (Mom was fussy cutting before fussy cutting was cool!)


I spent hours yesterday and again today sewing those squares together. I didn't finish, not by a long shot, but I got several rows sewn together and started to join the rows today. I am determined to finish this entire mini quilt all by hand. In honor of my Mom and her purist view on quilting.


Anyone who knows me knows how linear I am. Jean constantly teases me about it, Jan joins me in the obsession with perfection. But I am determined with this hand pieced quilt to let that go. I've already made some errors on this one. My squares aren't exactly square. My seam allowance isn't perfect. The colors aren't perfectly coordinated. But I won't be discouraged. This one is for Mom.

Once it's finished it will be my "sick quilt". I will cuddle up with it and imagine getting a hug from my Mom.

These pictures are taken with my cell phone, so they aren't that great, but I will keep updating on my progress with this work of the heart.

always,
K

PS I am so into hand-piecing now, because of this project, that I also started piecing my very first pinwheel quilt by hand. I'll share pics of that one in a later post.

A Good Day For Crafting

This is what it looked like outside at 7am this morning:


Here's what it looked like after J did a little shoveling:


And we are still expecting another 6-8 inches. If it were up to me I wouldn't have shoveled a dang thing, but since we have two neurotic dogs who need a cleared patch of grass, J did it. (Notice the doggy tracks to and from the pee patch in the second pic)

Anyway, it's a perfect day to hole up in my studio and work on....SOMETHING!

Jean and I have started a block of the month challenge (with each other) and I have already finished January's block and have February's cut out so I will finish up February's block and maybe work on piecing a quilt that I have wanted to do for awhile now.

Hope to share pics of what I accomplish later!

always,
K

Dog Days

We have had a busy couple of weeks thanks to this little girl:

This is our new Boston Terrier, Jovi. (Named after Bon Jovi's song Runaway) A friend of mine called me right before Christmas to tell me that she was taking her son to school one morning and as she was loading him into the car, a dog decided to jump into her car and refused to leave. She ended up driving her son to school with the dog riding along. When she got home, she asked around the neighborhood and no one seemed to have lost a dog.

As soon as she told me that it was a Boston Terrier, J and I had the same thought: That dog cannot go to a shelter! My friend kept her for 3 weeks and tried to find her owner with no luck. She called me a few weeks ago and asked if we wanted her.

Now, we didn't want her to go to a shelter...and my friend couldn't keep her as she has a houseful of people and animals as it is, but we had one main problem....this girl:

This is our 10 year old Boston, Blair. Blair is not what you'd call a social dog. In fact, she is the exact opposite of social. She puts up with our two cats, but mostly because they stay out of her way. Her AKC name is Princess Blair of Essex...and she takes the Princess part to heart.

She has about 100 toys (that can be found strewn across the house at any given time) sleeps in the bed, under the covers, and won't allow anyone or anything to come within 5 feet of us without growling and or biting said anyone.

She has really only bitten one person, my nephew, but not for lack of trying. She isn't mean per say (although my sister would disagree) she is just REALLY protective of her humans. In her defense, she did bite my nephew because he was teasing her and got right up in her face when she felt she was protecting me. I still think the trip to the ER was unnecessary, but my sister will disagree. ...loudly.

It deserves mentioning that this was probably 6 years ago that she bit him and my nephew is over it. In fact, he stayed with us for a weekend this past October and he and Blair bonded. When he left on Sunday afternoon, Blair pouted and grieved for a couple of days. We think she thought he was her new "toy" and she kept looking for him in the spare bedroom and laying by the spare bedroom door looking said. But I digress....

We brought Jovi home with much reservations. We just could not not try.

The first night was not fun. Jovi is about 15 months old and just a puppy really. She came in a little skittish and a lot bouncy. She immediately wanted to be friends with Blair. NOT happening.

Both dogs stayed on their leashes and Blair growled and barked and made a general nuisance of herself. As for Jovi, she responded by peeing on the carpet. We were off to a great start...

Day Two started off on leashes again, but after a bit, we took them outside and off leashes. Jovi, who had already bonded with my oldest cat, Sasser, tried to bond with Blair. NOT happening.

Jovi spent a good part of day two on the stairs:

Finally on day three, Blair got the idea that Jovi was not going away anytime soon. (Poor Blair is so not use to sharing her humans!) They started sniffing each other and Blair growled and tried to nip Jovi much less.

On Day Four we took a trip to the vet for shots for both girls and to have Jovi checked for a microchip. (She didn't have one obviously!)

I must take a moment to say I love my Vet. My first job, from the time I was 15 until 18, was working for the local Veterinary Hospital. This was 25 years ago, but one of the vets I worked with then, Terry, is still at the practice. He is the only one I let touch my dogs unless it's an absolute emergency. He is an awesome vet and a good friend....and he never laughs at my neurotic Dog Mommy Emergencies...much.

Anyway, if you have no experience with Bostons, here's the thing...there is a 50/50 chance that they will have an allergic reaction to vaccinations (and dust mites and many other things if you judge by Blair!) So we get the dogs shots, heartworm tests, etc. I wasn't too worried about Blair having an allergic reaction because she just got her Rabies shot...I was more concerned about how Jovi would react...big mistake.

Apparently Blair is allergic to the rabies vaccination when previously she only showed a reaction to her distemper vaccination. Fifteen minutes after we got home, she started drooling...then this happened:

Poor old girl puffed up like a balloon and broke out in hives all over her body. Like I said, I'm use to this, it happens every time she gets her vaccinations. Normally, I just have Terry give her a shot of benadryl with her shots to avoid this, but like I said, I didn't expect it for just the rabies shot.

Well, J is NOT use to this. He's never seen her have an allergic reaction. He flipped out. I swear, if it wasn't so touching how much he loves this dog I would have laughed for a good hour over his reaction. I was working and he was bringing her over to me every 2 minutes. Here is a sample of our conversation:

Him: Does she look worse or is it just me?

Me: Just you

(2 minutes pass)

Him: Are you sure, it looks like she has more hives...or is it just me?

Me: Just you

(2 more minutes)

Him: Seriously, I think her left eye is more swollen than her right? Look. Look. Is it just me?

Me: Just you

(this time he waits 10 minutes)

Him: I think she's getting worse again.

Me: For the love...

Now, keep in mind, I had already given her 25mg of benadryl. I knew she would be fine. After about an hour of this pestering by J, I finally gave in and told him to go ahead and take her back up to see Terry to get a shot of benadryl and some cortizone. Sheesh, good thing we don't have kids, we'd probably have to have a pediatrician on speed dial..or on retainer.

The funny thing about this whole story is that Jovi never had a reaction. Then, a week ago, I'm working again and I hear J say "Hey Kell, you need to look at this" Dang if Jovi's face hadn't started to swell...here we go again! Best we can figure she got bit by a bug or something because one minute she was fine, the next minute - puffy, drooly allergic reaction.

I gave her benadryl, but of course J had to take her to see Terry. I refused to go again. I know Terry was probably laughing his butt off at us. Of course he didn't say anything other than: We need to stop meeting like this.

So, to wrap up this epic post I will fast forward to today. I am happy to report that Blair has almost accepted Jovi into the family and they are even able to both sleep on the couch together without too much bickering. Admitedly this took A LOT of floor work with J and the dogs. Everytime Blair would snap or growl, J would make them both lay down and rub their bellies:

Jovi is the sweetest dog ever. Other than the fact that she has had a few accidents in the house (which is to be expected with Blair bullying her around) and having a "toy issue" (Remember those 100 toys? Well, apparently they are ALL Blair's and she won't share very easily) and one other tiny problem she fits in our little family quite nicely.

The tiny problem? Um..when we got her she was in heat. Of course, since my friend who found her and kept her for 3 weeks has an intact Pitbull, we have a small (and when I say small, I mean HUGE) fear that she is pregnant, but we are taking it day by day.

If you've made it this far and want to hear more about our furbaby family, hop over to my new blog that recounts our insanely crazy life with our 2 Bostons and 2 ancient cats: B is for Boston.

Hoping to have a crafty update soon!

always,

K

Happy New Year!

I have several resolutions this year and one of the big ones is to keep up with my blogging! Between Facebook and Twitter, I've really let my blogging slide, but I enjoy this so I plan to make more time for it.

I am happy to report that my work has allowed me to begin working from home since the beginning of December so I have freed up some precious time and plan to use it wisely!

Now that the holidays are over, it's time to catch up!

My sister, Jean, is really the only person I make homemade gifts for anymore. She truly appreciates the efforts, being a fellow crafty person herself. I made her a couple of things this year.

First was an idea I saw in a magazine (sorry, I can't remember which one and am too lazy to go dig it out, but if anyone wants to know, email me and I'll look for it!) I believe in the magazine they called them towel drapes. I like the name Towel Ties better because the are intended to dress up regular plain towels. The tree pattern is one I got from the magazine, but the snowman and the ornament I designed.

The other gift I made her was a small wallhanging. It's wonky and the border is crooked, but it is my first time doing free motion quilting all by myself. I've practiced and I've had Jean help me before, but I really wanted to take the leap and do it myself. The results were what you expect for the first try, but I knew Jean would understand what it meant! I am no longer afraid to do it!

Jean made me some very cute things, including my very own sock monkey girl. I will post pictures of her on my next post, but if you want to see her earlier, hop on over to Jean's blog at Quilted Cupcake, she posted a pic a few days ago. She also made me some cute things for my home office and knitted me my very own pair of socks. I will post pics of those next time as well. They are AWESOME!

I really wanted to go crazy decorating this year. I planned on it. I meant to...but since I got the word on a Tuesday early in December that I could start working from home and then started just two days later, I have been concentrating on making that adjustment a success and never got around to actually doing much in the way of decorating.

J however knows how much I enjoy Christmas and did all of the decorating himself. The house looked awesome, even if I didn't get to pull out all of the stuff I wanted. He was most proud of decorating the ceiling fan in my home office. Don't ask me why....he's a guy. But I promised him I would share a pic of that. It did turn out kind of cool. I wouldn't dare tell him that the decorations dimmed the light in the room so much that I had to bring in a desk light...

Festive, eh? Next year, I'll make the time. I'm just saying...

Anyway, I planned to spend the New Year's weekend crafting all day everyday. Then I decided that December 30th would be the perfect day to have a root canal. Not the best idea, I can assure you. I spent some wonderful hours with Dr. House's favorite pain medication before I could function without pain again. Happily, by yesterday I was able to put the pain meds away and go shopping.

Jean and I hadn't been to the thrift stores in awhile, so we hit a couple of our favorites along with a trip to Hancock Fabrics to add to our fabric and notion stashes. Since they had Christmas fabric 75% off, I am now in the mood to sew for Christmas....two weeks late.

We got a couple of good vintage sheets at the thrift stores and I came home and immediately threw them in the wash so I could begin a new project with them today. I totally didn't do any sewing today. But I did pull some fabric to coordinate with the sheets so I'm ready when I do sit down to sew. I am the first to admit that I am HORRIBLE with color. Jean can close her eyes and match colors...it takes me an hour and I still think I missed the mark. But this is what I came up with (the sheets I'm trying to match are on the bottom of each pile):

That's it for now, but I do want to mention that I will be a guest reviewer on Jean's latest podcast (due to be released today or tomorrow) so if you want to give a listen, the link is on her blog. It's a really good podcast and she mentions me a lot...so I love it!

Happy New Year Blogland. I'll be back soon, promise!

always,

K