Oh, Dear

I just spent about 20 minutes looking for my tape measure (which was buried under fabric), and now that I've found it, I don't remember why I wanted it! At least I got my cutting table cleared off...

A new source for quilting and quilt blogs: Quilt Qua. I haven't had time to check it out completely, but looks like a great list of quilting blogs and more.

My pictures aren't uploading to Picasa...hmmm! I wanted to show you my new seam ripper, but that will wait.

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O.K. - now 12:00 and I just got back from another trip to the vet. Mac began looking as he were in pain, so another phone call, and off we go again. This time, Dr. C. admitted him and began fluids. I'm suffering from a little anxiety, but at least I don't have to watch and worry because now I know he's being cared for. Just hope I can afford to get him out because I've spent a month's salary on Mac's health care since January. The growth removal and biopsies, the gall bladder removal, the ultra sounds and check ups, and now the pancreatitis.

Liberated Stars

I'm working on a few liberated (wonky) stars for the Bush Fire Project.
The blocks are 12 1/2" (12" finished), so it was a good way to use up some scraps. I could also make some smaller blocks of about 4"-6" and use even smaller scraps just to get through the scrap pile.

So many projects on my mind, so many books to read, and there is still ordinary life to get through!

Had a long, chatty lunch yesterday with Thomas and caught up on what has been going on with him and the park group. I do miss Tai Chi and the friends who used to get together 3 times a week for Tai Chi in the park, that was in addition to classes 3 times a week!

Although a few of our group are still attending classes, several of us have drifted away in the last year or so. Even getting together for lunch is difficult. Mike is often on the road from Van Couver, to Florida, and back. Nina has been busy with work, and Beth has been going back to school, Thomas is teaching Tai Chi a couple of times a week in addition to classes, and I've switched to yoga. We were so close for years, but directions have changed over time.

After lunch, I went by the library to pick up my interlibrary loan books that had come in, then to Fabric Boutique for some thread, then to my visit with Laddie. I was looking forward to getting home and relaxing with one of my books, but instead, things got really hectic.

When I got home and let Mac outside, I noticed blood in his bed. On the phone to Dr. Core, then bundled Mac up and dashed to his office.

The exam and ultrasound did not reveal what was causing the problem, but he took some blood for testing and gave Mac an injection of some antibiotic and a narcotic to ease his stress.

Dr. C. called this morning to check on Mac and to tell me that Mac has pancreatitis (again). I'm to continue with the medicines he gave me yesterday and to watch Mac closely in case he needs to make another trip to the office. So far, he seems to be feeling better. Hang in there, little fella'.

Finally!

Finished the binding last night. I enjoy this process for some reason, the penultimate step, the "almost finished" feeling. The final process for me is washing and drying the quilt to achieve that homey touch. I'm disappointed, not so much in the quilt, but in my careless mistakes...some of which I corrected, some of which I did not.

In spite of all the mistakes, I hope it will make one of the mothers-t0-be in Debra's Pregnant Teen Project happy, and goodness knows the baby won't care.
ACey commented on the colors. The colors were a matter of what I had in my stash, but I realize now that I was influenced by the aqua and red combinations I've seen and loved in fabrics and in quilts and in room decor. When I finally decided to use the last of this Kona cotton aqua (that I've used frequently), the way it looked with the red just felt so much better than the other blues I'd auditioned.
I probably won't get this in the mail until Monday as my day is full. Highlight - lunch with Thomas!

Busy Binding

Finished the quilting, finally. It isn't great, but so much better than what I ripped out. Made the binding and applied it before going to yoga last night, so that I could do the hand stitching while watching television when I got home.Got about half the hand stitching done.
Have any of you watched Fox's new show Lie to Me ?

I was so disappointed that it wasn't on last night, evidently the next episode is March 4. The show is based on Paul Ekman's research into facial expressions and what they reveal.

I'd read about Ekman's research last month in Blink ( reviewed here on my book blog) and found it fascinating. What synchronicity that the new television show premiered shortly after I'd read about about Ekman's research!

Our facial expressions and body language are often involuntary, and Ekman has categorized hundreds of minute expressions that can last for less than a second, but that can reveal much more than we realize. Ekman's Diogenes Project research shows that reading these "microexpressions" can be reliable in determining whether or not a person is telling the truth; his research has made him one of the preeminent psychologists of the 20th century.

Anyway, the new series is fascinating, and you can watch previous episodes here. You can also take a test that shows how well you can read "microexpressions" here. Remember that the expressions are very, very quick!

Wednesday Wanderings

I made up for some of the time lost yesterday. The cowboy is from an old Alice Brooks design, in a book about applique I checked out from the library: Applique Quilt Revival by Nancy Mahoney.

Mahoney made a few changes to the original orientation of the block and produced a really cute quilt with 20 blocks. I just wanted to try the applique so I made one block with scraps and then added borders.

At least this is progress...after taking out all of that stitching yesterday, I managed to get back on track.

Me and Murphy

An addition to the stash, from Z & S Fabric's sale.Yesterday, I did get back into the studio...and experienced Murphy's law. I pieced the back for the little cowboy quilt, pin basted the quilt sandwich, and began quilting. First, problems with tension. Next the feed dogs refused to drop. Adjust, fiddle, fiddle. Unstitch. Start again.

Ahhh, things began to work pretty well. Until, I discovered that when I'd pushed the quilt forward and pulled it back, I'd picked up a large scrap of fabric and quilted it -- thoroughly quilted it -- to the back. Damn. Damn. Unstitch. Damn. This was a long and arduous process. From the beginning this quilt has been cursed. OK--I know that each and every problems (except for the feed dogs) was a result of my haste, carelessness, or wrong decision, but still...

I was so glad yesterday when it was time to get ready for yoga so I could put the (damn) thing down and go work out some of the tension in my back and neck.

This morning was my dental appointment, and when I got home, I finally finished unstitching. Hope to go forward with more caution!

On to things that make me smile:

Erin sent me these pictures of Mila and Max: the first is from Valentine's Day and the second from Miss Mila's Mardi Gras parade at school.And here is Bryce Eleanor with her daddy at Saturday night's parade.Today is Fat Tuesday and the last of the parades. Tomorrow begins the Lenten Season.

Monday Musings

Amelia and friends hosted a lovely shower for Holly on Saturday.

Mimosas and petit fours go together quite well. There were other libations and foods as well, all delicious. Holly received some wonderful gifts, and the shower was a great success!

My intentions to be better about the studio have not panned out, but today... for sure! (she says with fingers crossed)

Saturday Showers

With Heart and Hands has some terrific lists for free quilt patterns, here and, specifically for Project Linus, kids, and babies, here. I've included the link in my sidebar, too.

I've got to get ready to go to a baby shower right now! And, of course, it is raining.

Problems and Packages :)

Have been MIA lately. Not entirely missing, but certainly away from the computer. I started working on a baby quilt using a cute cowboy applique pattern as a way to hopefully get myself back in the sewing/quilting zone. It began as an experiment to see how one of the blocks would work out, then I decided to put the single block into a small quilt.

Unfortunately, I decided not to follow the complete directions for the block, which was a mistake. It doesn't bother me too much as I 1) learned to be a bit more thoughtful when deciding to skip a step, 2) was using scraps and small pieces from my stash, and 3) didn't originally plan anything more than a practice block. It can be salvaged is my favorite mantra.

Things were going along gang-busters and then new problems cropped up. What to use for backing fabric? And what the heck happened to my huge roll of batting? Where was that large queen size roll? I have lots of nice size pieces, but none quite large enough for this; I know I have a queen size roll somewhere! Ah, well...maybe not.

So yesterday, in addition to my other errands, I added a visit to JoAnn's. Surprise, JoAnn's had no Warm & Natural in prepackaged rolls. In fact, no cotton batting in their usual packages. On to Hancock's. Again, no Warm & Natural and no Hobb's. What gives?

(And the waiting! Both JoAnn's and Hancock's had only two people in the store, and one in each store, didn't appear even when called. Women lining up to get fabric cut. Women in line to check out. The lines grow. No help appears until people begin contemplating leaving their purchases and the store.)

Hancock's did have one brand of cotton batting (their brand - Sew Perfect), so I bought a queen size package of that. I've never used this brand before. Have any of you?

Good Mail! After a long period of trying to use my stash and my scraps, I made a couple of online purchases last week, and yesterday the first package arrived. Now that was a pleasant surprise!

The 1/2 yard cuts below came from Pink Chalk Fabrics.
Some Katie Jump Rope Posies, Midwest Modern Garden Maze, and Henry Alexander's Yen Rose Red, Mod Dot Red, Jewel Mobile Aqua, and Tillbrook Toadstool Green. I love them! Bright and cheerful!

My errands and visits yesterday took most of the morning, and after a break for lunch, most of the afternoon; but I got them all done, including the shower gift for Saturday and the paper to wrap it in. I often assume I have enough appropriate paper and then have to go back later because it came up a little short. This time, I bought 2 rolls of paper, cute ribbon, and the card, so the wrapping will cause no problems.


Latest documentary: A Century of Quilts: A Century in Cloth. I had seen a portion of this PBS special some time back, so it was a pleasure to see the entire film. My only complaint: not long enough.

Hero Dog

My niece emailed this video. It is pretty amazing! (turns out well)

Reading Pillow How-To

I'm not too sure about this tutorial. Most of you could whip the pillow up in a jiffy just by looking at it. I'm still fiddling with the idea and have not yet decided the best solution for the page holders. Oh, well, here it goes:

Measure your pillow and add 3/4' to each side. The pillows I bought were 12 x 16, and for this pillow, I cut 2 pieces 12 3/4' x 16 3/4".

Heavier, home dec fabric works much better than regular fabric as the pillow needs some stiffness. (none of the pictures show the color accurately)

I've done the back two different ways, but this is the simplest. (See the bottom of this post for a two-piece back.)

Sooooo...you have 2 pieces the same size for front and back, and a piece the same length as the pill0w and 6" deep for the pocket.

Turn under 1/4" along the top of the pocket piece and press; turn under 1/4" again and sew to finish top edge of pocket

Pin the pocket to the front piece and pin.
Mark the pocket with chalk or water-soluble pen. I have made 3 pockets, a small one on each side, a larger one in the middle on mine. Two lines of stitching.


Sew the pocket from the bottom to the top of the pocket and back stitch to make it secure.I've done the page holders differently on every pillow. You can see the variations at the bottom of this post.

For this pillow , I decided to start at the bottom instead of the top and to use some rat tail that I already had (no elastic on this one). The rat tail was too bright, so it had to have a strong coffee soak to dull it down. Experiment with how long the ribbon/rat tail should be to hold your book securely, including enough to wrap around the buttons.

Pin the ribbon/rat tail to the center of the right side, at the bottom of the pocket.

Pin the pillow back to the front, right sides together (you can tuck the ribbon/rat tail in one of the pockets to keep the loose ends out of the way). Leave a large gap at the top to stuff the pillow in!Sew. I used a 1/2" seam on this one (but I found the pillow sizes varied slightly...maybe because of the stuffing or brand). I know that isn't what the picture shows, because I just put the fabric under the foot and snapped the shot. Should have paid more attention.
Turn the pillow inside out to see how the pillow fits. I've had to go back and make a bigger seam on some pillows. One pillow was just too puffy, and I took some of the stuffing out. When the fit is satisfactory, trim the corners to reduce bulk, turn again, and stuff the pillow in, pin and slip stitch the insertion opening.
On this one, I covered some buttons with the same material and sewed them to the top of the pillow. On another, I used vintage buttons.
When you're ready to read, place your book on the pillow and wrap the rat tail around the buttons to secure the pages, put a book mark, high lighter, pen, or whatever in the pockets,and its good to go.
I hope this makes sufficient sense. Such an easy process, but explaining it seems iffy.

Page holder variations:

covered 1/4" elastic version
elastic band version
grosgrain ribbon and buttons at bottom version
I have done the solid back on two pillows and the envelope back on two.

Here is the envelope back being pinned to the front. Instead of one back piece, I cut two pieces long enough to overlap and finished the edges and then pinned it on. You can insert and remove the pillow much more easily.
I have a couple of other things I want to try for holding the pages, but I'm a little tired of the darn things right now.

If there is anything I can clarify, please let me know, and I'll try.

Barkus and Meow Parade

I'm not big on Mardi Gras Parades--with just a couple of exceptions, of course. Barkus and Meow is simply not to be missed! Sponsored by Pet Savers, many participants were adopted in past years and more were adopted yesterday, no doubt. We took Bryce Eleanor to the festivities and had a great time.

There were dogs of all sorts and sizes, a couple of cats, some guinea pigs, an adorable pot-bellied pig, and miniature horses.

Click on any picture to enlarge.I took dozens and dozens of pictures!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope all of you are having a great Valentine's Day today!

I'm waiting on the arrival of Bryce Eleanor. Amelia and Chris are going to Dallas today for their annual pre-Oscar Night, Academy Award Nominee Binge. They try to see as many of the movies that they've missed that have been nominated for awards. Oscar Night is a big night in the Chandler household.I've been playing with embroidery again. It is what I do with my hands if I'm watching television. These have no purpose other than I find it a relaxing and enjoyable thing to do in the evening.Yesterday, I watched 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, another Netflix documentary that was beautifully photographed and very interesting.

The Orphan Train by Dry Branch Fire Squad

Sam of Book Chase told me about a song about the Orphan Train. (Another double post.)
Thanks, Sam!

The Orphan Trains

One of my goals in my Renaissance Mind self-challenge was to watch 2 documentaries from Netflix a month. Last month, I watched 3-- two were interesting, the third was not so great.

The other night, I watched this month's first documentary, and it was fascinating! I'd never heard of this particular segment of our American history, and The Orphan Trains was so fascinating that I made Fee watch it with me the second time.

During the 1850's, a young minister named Charles Loring Brace was stunned and saddened by the abandoned street children in New York. I've read about these abandoned children many times, but was totally unaware of Brace's solution to the problem. He formed the Children's Aid Society and began shipping the children to farming communities in the West, hoping that loving Christian families could take the children in and save them from the horrible conditions they faced alone on the streets of New York.

Everything was well-documented. Names of children, where they went, entries in Brace's journals, letters from the children and their new families, etc. From the 1850's until 1929, the Orphan Trains carried over 150,000 children from New York to points west.

Some of these situations didn't work out so well; despite the efforts of the Children's Aid Society, many potential families were no better vetted than foster families are today and the check ups on situations were difficult and spotty because there were so many placements. Some families undoubtedly saved the lives of many children; other situations must have been terrible disasters. Photographs of the children taken by Brace's photographer and by the families that took the children in tell a remarkable story on their own, but the interviews with many elderly individuals who rode the trains to new homes from the early part of the 2oth century are both engrossing and touching.

Brace worked hard to save the children who wandered bare foot and slept in door ways, but he grappled with the dilemma of what to do to help:

"When a child of the streets stands before you in rags, with a tear-stained face, you cannot easily forget him. And yet, you are perplexed what to do. The human soul is difficult to interfere with. You hesitate how far you should go."

The Orphan Trains is a remarkable story and a remarkable documentary. I highly recomment it.

More information can be found here (and these are just a few sites):

Charles Loring Brace
Orphan Trains
The Adoption History Project
The Children's Aid Society
National Orphan Train Complex


Cross-posted at my book blog.

Life's Little Difficulties

(Oops, thought I posted this the other day. Found it in drafts.)

First, some textures, then the difficulties.

Now, the difficulties. I was going to do a tutorial for the reading pillow yesterday, but the one I was working on gave me some problems. The two that I'd done previously had been out of home dec fabric, but the third was out of regular fabric and just wasn't heavy enough, the elastic bands drew up too much on the lighter fabric. Working on a solution now. Have added some interfacing, ripped out sections to re-adjust the bands, and will see how that goes.

Also, I'm not accustomed to tutorials, so some of my pictures aren't quite right. I may have to make another pillow to get it all the way I want. I've already spent more than twice as much time on this pillow as on the first two, which went together so quickly.

Oh, and as Erin used to say when she was about three, "I just got an idid!" An idea that might solve one of the problems on the next pillow...

In fact, I think I'll just go ahead and start over with a heavier fabric and come back to this one, which has given me fits, later.

New Reading Pillow

New pillow is complete. Recognize the fabric? This one will be going to a dear friend.The pillows will make good gifts for readers, and I have another one in the works.

Mac's surgery went well. Dr. C. said it was a good thing we didn't wait. Mac is doing well and will be able to come home today!

This and That

Today's textures are from an old clock that Laddie gave me years ago because I loved it. He had quite a collection of old clocks, some of them elaborate and beautiful. This one has been on my mantle for over half my marriage. It isn't very large and isn't very fancy, but the pendulum is pretty--although it could use polishing.
Mac had his appointment with Dr. C. this morning. Unfortunately, he will have to have the gall bladder surgery. Tomorrow morning. Neither the best nor the worst news. I hate that at his rather advanced age, he has to go through this, but the likelihood of it rupturing is a deadly threat.

I really am going to be sewing today. Not just saying that I will be. Really.

Book recommendations:

The Mighty Queens of Freeville, which I reviewed on my book blog, is a pleasure to read. Debby, you'd like this one, it is a memoir by Amy Dickinson and Freeville is in upstate New York.

The Seance by John Harwood-- good Gothic fun! My review.

Sunday Pics

Amelia had a girl's weekend at a bed & breakfast in Nachitoches this weekend. We kept Miss Bryce Eleanor as Chris is in Minot, N.D. There was a lot of time spent on board books and walks and singing and dancing. :0