Not Freaking Out...To Much

Ok, I have stopped freaking out, mostly. Dorothy, I thought of you after the second call from the Breast Center [just think, a whole building for boobs!] because you were the only one I knew for sure {at the moment} who had been through something like this. Thank you, and all you others for boosting my moral, and Warty Mammal, you made me laugh!

She said, "I've had a surgical biopsy. Why I mention that, I'm not sure. Maybe it's a companionable thing like sharing potato salad recipes." We all do this don't we, share stories? I feel much better now.....*big ass grin on my face* The hefty shot of Southern Comfort last night might have helped too, considering I don't drink. {Vicki W. suggested wine}

It has motivated me to get some things done, put away, or just plain tossed away! Seriously, will I ever get this or that WIP done? Do I want to finish it?

I did come up with a complete name for a quilt sitting in a bucket, wayyyyyy at the bottom.

"When I am Purple, My Boobs Won't Sag" . I could never get past the purple part of the title. I will drag that quilt top out later and take pix for your viewing hilarious-ity....i think needs to be read phonetically, hill-air-oss-ity emphasis on the oss.

damn damn damn

So late yesterday afternoon, I got a call from the Carol Milgard Breast Center in Tacoma. The radiologist didn't like something he saw on the x-ray and wants more and an ultrasound on my right boob. I just had the mammo done on Wed, and he read it on Thur. and had the lady call me that same day.....does that mean the first mammo was flagged, that the lady saw something, that I need to freak out???? To late, I did. Now I need to joke about it.

In the meantime, while gazing at my fabric collection last night, I decided to purge it. I also want to make a quilt for myself, so I think now is a perfect time. I saw a Tile Quilt Revival book, on a blog as I surfed yesterday, and got to thinking about all the novelty fabrics I have.....anyway, I am going to get rid of fabrics I will never use while I search for fabrics I DO want to use for this quilt. I also need to finish up a few WIPS I have on the table.

Pictures of Basting and Quilting

This is the back of Traveler Quilt. Stitches for the 'invisible' basting are the brighter colors.

I am only using 2 colors for the quilting...amazing, I know, but I figure there is enough going on so I can limit myself for the quilt stitches. The thread is DMC pearl [Perle] cotton, size 8 , I think. A dark red and an aqua color that you don't see yet, but something about the same as the outside border.

You can sort of see the 'invisible' stitches I used for the basting. As I expected. I got the 'invisible' basting idea from Jude Hill, thank you Jude! As I mentioned in yesterdays post, I am not sure if Jude uses smaller stitches on the front for the basting, or a matching thread color. I went with a smaller stitch on the front, and making a normal big giant stitch on the back.

Not So Fuzzled

Ok. So now I am not so fuzzled. Mammogram is done, no big deal, I hope.

I have been working on the Travelers Quilt some more. I have run low on safety pins, so I decided to thread baste this quilt. But not the average way. I decided to try one of Jude Hills' trick of 'invisible' basting. I think she actually uses a matching thread, but I used a colorful one, of course, and took small stitches on top of the quilt. I will post pix later from the other pc. I really don't like quilting over regular basting stitches, I really don't. So I will leave these stitches in. Go visit Jude's blog, she is now doing video of how she works on Slow Cloth as she calls it.

Word Verification...fuzzled

So I was just over at this blog and my W.V. was "fuzzled"..... F U Z Z L E D....that is how I am feeling at the moment.

I have to go have a mammogram today. Not because I should at my age, but because I have been having achy glands in my armpits.

Our efforts to keep the fore-closer monster at bay on my son's house may be lost.

My CollegeGirl is stressed out over classes at the moment, especially Calculus.

So today I feel fuzzled, at least for this part of today. Then it's back to the cup is more than half full!

Traveler Quilt Progress

This is the couching I did yesterday while indulging in my Olympic Spirit. I used a nice bright Sunny Yellow pearl cotton for the couching thread.

I didn't use a flash on these. The colors are truer, here on my PC this way, but the pix are a bit dark.

And this is the backing, ready to be sandwiched.

This was a shirt, size small according to the label. It was one of Mom's fave's, except for the ironing-after-every-wash. So I cut the shirt along seam lines and re-sewed it back together into a square-ish shape. I used the front, back, and a sleeve. If you enlarge the picture, you might see the buttons [cool wooden ones I will probably add to the front] and the lines of the shirt hem that I followed. I need to sew the top to the backing along at least the 2 sides where the raw-edged-silk is unraveling.....

My niece went to places on this planet that possibly had designs like this used in every day garments. She went to Europe, Egypt, Africa-South for sure I know, Australia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Cuba {she is Canadian, so she can go there}, and I am not sure where else, and she wasn't even in the military!

Please Fence Me In and The Traveler Quilt

Dan has begun the railing of the front deck. We decided to use the extra chain link we already had {Go Green!} He has encased 3 sides of it between a 2 x 4 that he cut in 1/2 lengthwise. The top rail is the composite 'lumber'. We have also been discussing the construction of the 2 gates we need. There is a lot of different hardware out there to choose from!

Introducing my next project, Traveler Quilt.

My niece is a traveler, so this world is for her! The color choice just jumped out to me, and felt right, so here's hoping. I am trying to include bits from other quilts/places, that are tied to my niece. She got the silk you see on the outside border. She is the one who had the fun part in the shop in India...she lay on a mattress on the main floor of the shop and the proprietor went around finding bits and scraps and raining them down on my niece! {i am guessing that he had a loft area in which to toss the bits from}

The batik I used for the 'planet' part of one block has color in it that is perfect with the aqua silk, but I need to pull it down to other areas of the top, so I tore strips and have tied them together...not sure if the tied parts will stay that way, but they look cool in person. Anyway, I will couch it down and around and up and over.....kinda like a kite tail flying here and there.

this last picture is a 'map' of some of the things I did.

The squares as a square wasn't working, so I took apart 2 blocks and cut a few corners.....and that gold-ish stripe fabric may be an oddball here, but I used it in a quilt for my brother, father of this niece. The backing will be a shirt of my mom's, grandmother to this niece. More on that later....the shirt for a backing that is. Oh...and the party hat looking corners was a fluke, but perfect for my niece...

A Crow Flew By...

The corner of my eye....enlarge picture to see him better on the roof.

I was hoping he would hop down to the lawn for a better picture, but instead he hopped up to the peak of the roof....I guess to see what was on the other side.

then he flew off to see what was in someone else's yard.

Still working on my latest WIP, will take a picture later.

Crows Fly Home

I was able to take pictures of this outside today as there is a pause in the rainy clouds.

My Valentine Made My Heart Skip A Beat

As I approached my chair this a.m., my heart skipped when I saw this teddy. {our teddy giving goes way back, with a pause of about 10 years in between} The card was tucked in my computer. Thank You Sweetie!

My Cat....

was outside....

with me...

when I had the camera...

Her tail was playing games with her...again...

As for yesterday post about seeing a large bird....here is the tree top it was in.

and where the busy squirrel was taking nest materials....

and all I had were these old eyes of mine to see it all with...the funky spots on my glasses? the non-glare crap that has been coming off.

and...my latest WIP, started many years ago, for a niece of mine...pulled out of hiding to be worked on again. There will be more pix as the days progress on this one...

Creatures

No Pictures. Darn it. I saw a large bird in the top of a tree, yesterday. I couldn't tell if it was a crow, raven, hawk...?? When it finally launched itself from the tree, it had wings spread wide!

While I was still standing there, something to the left caught my eye. The neighbors outdoor swing was moving, but there wasn't anyone on it.....until I looked closer and saw a squirrel was tugging on the fringe, or possibly a worn spot, trying to get some fluff for a nest, I suppose???

Thats all.

Reading Other Blogs

Dorothy asked if I read a blog called Spirit Cloth. Yes, as a matter of fact I do read that one, every day! I have gotten a lot of inspiration and confidence, actually, from Jude's work and attitude. And other blogs like hers.

I have always been a 'big stitch' quilter, so it's nice to see others doing it too. {by big stitch I mean taking a large running stitch for quilting} For years now, I have used perle cotton threads to add to the look of the quilt and am now using my supply of DMC threads, ie: plain old 6-strand cotton floss. Granted, dragging the embroidery floss through the layers of fabric and batt tend to wear it thin, but....

Deborah, the moonlight is part of the Crows piece. I need to take a complete picture of it, then it will make more sense.

I check in on Dorothy and Deborah's blogs every day too!

Story Of The Crows

Christine's comment on the Moon For Crows post is; "What in the world are you doing??"

I am still laughing.......thank you Christine! She's right though, what the heck is this thing???

Story of the Crows

This quilt came about recently when I read of a contest on/at Lark Books. They wanted at least 3 of 5 things on the quilt.

1-birds

2-mountains

3-silver things

4-re-purposed things

5-beads

this brought on an ah-ha moment for me.

When the kids were younger, after moving here to WA state, we noticed flocks of crows flying west at sunset. So we joked about them flying home for the night after spending the day at the beach.

This went on for years, until only Stephanie remained at home and we had moved away from the 'flight path'.

A few days after Steph became College Girl, she called me and told me she knew where the crows were spending their nights.

In the trees outside her dorm .

[even though UW is east of us]

So in the ah-ha moment, all that zipped through my head in less than an instant and I knew I had to make a small quilt depicting this story.

1= {birds} Crows

2= {mountains} Mt. Rainier and the Cascades

3={silver things} alum. soda can bottom and threads

4={re-purposed items} alum. soda can bottom and organza gift wrapping

5= {beads} none, but then I am not done with it yet....

Moon for Crows

Click to enlarge to really see this....My thumb included for size reference....

In relation to the Crows....

The silver threads. I used all three kind of bundled together into a 'cord' and after a fumble of spools all over the living room, I added the mess to stretch the moonlight out into the 'sky'.

The organza type 'fabric'??? has snowmen on it, so I cut around them to use only snowflakes and mesh. Really looks meshy in this shot, hunth?

Adding the Moon

to the Crows piece. I will get a better shot of it when it's done and in the daylight. The flash really blotched it out, but without the flash it was hard to see any of this.

The 'moon' is the bottom of a soda can, I crimped the edges, which is why the circle isn't very round. I used some parts of an organza type 'fabric' that came wrapped around a gift. I used some metallic fibers to couch down the organza and hold the moon in place.

Give A Girl A Sharpie....

And she colors with it....

This canvas bag came with the super pack of Sharpies I got for Steph to take to College. So she colored it. I thought the blast of color on UglyChairFabric was more like what I wish the chair looked like.

So here is the Batt Tree all outlined. I like it this way! I think I will put it on the design wall and let it roost for awhile instead of painting it.

We Have A Plan...

{I found this awesome playhouse and lost the link for it. }

A house plan. Isnt this cool?

LOL....seriously isn't this play house really cool?

Here is the house plan that Ashley and Danny picked for their home. They got to tour through at least one of the current houses being built, to get an idea of the whole thing. I think you can click and enlarge the plans.

Sooner Than We Expected!

Ashley called with exciting news last night, they are going to be building their first home in this area of Port Orchard WA. And it all begins in April...this April!!!!

This is the KCCHA Program they are eligible for. {I call it ka-cha.}

Last time I mentioned this, I had floor plans and a possible land site to show you. Floor plans are still un-decided, I think, I forgot to ask. But at least we know where they will build! For now we call it "the place behind Puerto Vallarta" because the restaurant is right at the corner.

So now I need my Dan {Ashley's husband is a Daniel too, but we all call him Danny} to finish up a few deck projects here before I can let him go help with everyone else. I figure I will be babysitting, which will be important too.

Crows. I am now ready to work on the top left corner where the moon will go....

the lower portion of quilting is done. This whole piece is about an FQ size....

which is 18" x 22"-ish.

And here is the Batt Tree.....and I think I just figured out what to paint in/on this... but for now, you can see I decided to outline the pale impression of the tree. 6 strands of floss, DMC 402 actually, and a fat needle. I had to go through my needles to find a fat, big-eyed monster that would go through the batt without help from pliers!

This looks really easy to do, but as soon as I hold it in my hands, the outline starts to blurr and I can't resort to the ole LSD jokes floating through your minds right now.

I have Rhiley today, she is napping right now. She is now 6 months old, 18 pounds and 26 inches long, or "two feet - two inches" as Ashley phrased it. The number 2 is in a lot of Ashley's life these days.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

The RIT dye batt is done with COTTON batt, not polyester! No wonder it comes out looking so much like felt. Some one should have been more thorough in her research....better yet, she should have DONE some research instead of trusting her memory....sheesh! Sorry Dorothy, I didn't mean to mislead you.

Lipstick...Sarah Palin plant.....hehehe....Christine you are too funny!

A spammer got past the word verification....wonder if there is software for that now? I deleted it, again.

More Crow..and Batting

I have been working on the Crow piece, slowly. I would have even more done if I didn't disappear into pc games in the evening....

Anyway, these 2 photos are basically the same, just one was with a flash so I wasn't sure which would show up better here or on your monitor.

I am doing the background quilting and I quilted the tree.

Now for something different.

I did this last June. Sort of a sun print. The paper tree looks terrific, but the image on the batt is rather pale. So I stuck it all in the "wait until something strikes" area of my design wall. Which is what most of my design wall is, come to think of it.

Anyway, over at 3Creative Studios they have a Technique of the Month project? challenge? thing going on. {Vicki Welsh is part of this threesome, she's the creator of the dyed fabric I purchased to use for a BG for my Dad On Beach piece!} This month it's about painting batt, so of course I thought of this sun print which really needs more done to it....but will I paint it? I don't know, but I am seriously thinking about it.

The original inspiration to dye the batt came from Judy Coates- Perez who did RIT dying with batt, for the RIT company. You end up with a felt, in color, any color you want, finestkind! For the RIT dye, you use polyester batt, which means you don't end up with a cotton batt texture like my piece.

That would be the same feeling you get when a fabric jumps out at you at the fabric store

We May Have a Name

A Lipstick plant. Brandi suggested it in the comments, so I looked it up and here is a nice one I googled. {mine doesn't look like this yet....} One name for it may be Mona Lisa Lipstick plant. Sure does look like a Hoya though!

Oh, Bother

As Eeyore would say. I had to enable word verification after getting slammed with a bunch of comments in an Asian language. I couldn't read them, but the website had girls on it..maybe they were Merry Maids advertising their outstanding skills?

Darn It, I Missed It....

GroundFrog Day starring Snohomish Slew

it was over the weekend! He even has his own website!

A past comment about my Wall of Weird....I have been forgetting to say that I didn't make up that reference to unusual things. I borrowed it from Smallville, the tv show about Superman.

Wall of Weird - A display of random news clippings collected by Smallville High School journalism student Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) on the action adventure SMALLVILLE/WB/2001+. To document all of the strange occurrences that seemingly issue from the town of Smallville since the meteor shower years earlier, Chloe began to collect assorted story in her scrapbook. The collection increased in size and eventually Chloe created a "Wall of Weird" filled with stories that she pastes on the wall of her darkroom and then later in the news office of the school paper The Torch. The wall contains such news clippings as a Time magazine cover featuring 3-year old Lana Lang after she witnessed her parents' death; and a Premiere magazine photograph of former Smallville High alumnus "Scarecrow" Jeremy Creek at a crime scene, who seemingly had not aged a day.

I figured Chloe had the right idea!

Another comment note.

No the plant isn't a hoya, darn it. I once had one, the flowers were amazing! But the vine itself is like the hoya, so please keep searching your memory banks, we may figure this one out some day!