Vampire Stella

Better.

Remy and Edgar Poe

Did everyone have a good Mother's Day?   The cats were on their best behavior yesterday and enjoyed another day in bed.  The cats loved the peace and quiet, all piled on the bed napping.

S. brought me ice cream and good (soft) food to eat. And many cups of tea.  He's a good nurse for someone who is not a very good patient.

I Skyped with the family in Michigan and explained to Mackenzie how I had an "ow-ie" And then we talked about how everyone has teeth--Aunt Gretchen, Grandma, Shiloh doggie, Remy kitty, Mackenzie.  I love conversations with two-year olds; they are very factual.

 

Today, I am finally starting to feel better.  My last sick day off of day job and Starbucks so I better be right as rain tomorrow (or at least tolerable).

I finished reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  I am so happy I had a great, big, well written book to read as everything else made my teeth hurt.

Watching TV, eating, noise, talking, sitting, smiling, forget it.   I didn't even sleep that much.

It was a really great biography and a wonderful insight into a person who has revolutionized our modern life.  It made me love my Apple products more and really really really wish he had developed an iIron. Can you imagine an Apple iIron?  A quilter's dream!!  A perfectly designed, weighted, proportioned, temperature controlled iron.  Perfect steam. Perfect heat for different fabrics. Sigh.


I did venture out of bed to do laundry and iron S.'s shirts and decided that I was going to sew a little.  I finished two blocks of Doc and have the rest sorted.

The color placement is tricky in these blocks so I used my block design board that I made during retreat in February, which I had buried in the sewing room handy and ready to use.

Today was a fun mail day too.  For last month's Schnibbles parade, I won 2 charm packs of the new French General fabric from Sherri.  Thank you so much Sherri!!!  I can't wait to use these in a Schnibble later this year.

I also had a sweet note with some funny stickers from my dear friend Karmen.  Love you Karmen!!  You are the best!  Let's all be jealous of her going to Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City.  I can't wait for the report on all the great new fabrics and wonderful photos. (Karmen is a great photographer.)  Make sure you wear your boots for Sample Spree so you don't get your feet trampled.

Oh and look at how pitiful that is.  I am at 99 followers.  Anyone up for being #100?  I'll do a giveaway soon if someone will round up the number to three digits.  Just sayin'.

Recovering

I am recovering slowly it seems from my wisdom teeth surgery.  Thank you all for the wonderful not-scary stories and all the well wishes in the comments.  Y'all are the best!!  Truly the best!!

The surgeon did have to do more work than she originally thought to get the lower impacted teeth out so I look less like a






cute little chipmunk

and more like a




puffer fish.

Seriously swollen.  Even after bags and bags of ice.

The pain has been manageable with the pain meds I am on. I'm not as sleepy as I thought I would be and I've spent a lot of time catching up on blogs and websites.

I'm also started reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and am about halfway through already.  

The cats have enjoyed having me stuck in bed for three days now and we all are camped out on the bed with toys (for the cats), books, magazines, iPhone, and a laptop. 

Before my surgery, I picked out fabrics for this month's Schnibble and got the pieces all cut. (no cutting on pain meds!!)  I think I can draw the lines for the HSTs but that's about it for today.

I just love Kate Spain fabric and I think Doc is going to be a great fit for "Good Fortune." I'm using gray as a background again and a deep purple for the cornerstones and binding.  Big purple floral is for the backing.

On Wisdom...

...teeth that is.  I am getting my four wisdom teeth taken out Thursday and ...

Public Service Announcement:  fretting, worrying, general freaking out about it starts...

...about now.

Please don't tell me any horror stories about it.

I have been trying to avoid all possible stories about it.  I WILL NOT and HAVE NOT looked it up on the Internets.  (What I don't know, makes my nerves calmer.)

My surgeon already said that since I am older, it will take longer to bounce back.  Thanks, doc! Yes, I know I should have had this done 20 (!!!!!) years ago.

There are IVs involved.  I do not "do" IVs. The thought makes my arms ache.  (I haz IV/doctor/hospital issues).

Also, "do you bruise easy?  There can be extensive bruising."  Yes, I do.  "And swelling." Great.  I am going to look like a chipmunk who went 3 round with Mike Tyson.

My unhelpful dad said "It's terrible. Be prepared to be on the couch.  I was on the couch forever. It was miserable." Thank you Dad.  I love you.

One of my regular customers at Starbucks said "You know there's a nerve that runs along your jaw. You could lose all feeling in your face." OMG! WHAT????!!!?

Good thing "The Walking Dead" TV show is filming Season 3 in the Atlanta area because I'll be an excellent candidate for a drugged-out, shuffling, drooling, bruised face, moaning, chipmunk-cheeked ZOMBIE!!

An Unlikely Schnibble

I finished the April Schnibble "Summer Day" for the Another Year of Schnibbles parade with just a day to spare.

There were a lot of little pieces in this one.

And one Edgar Poe in the top left of this photo (not included in the pattern).

This is a very unlikely quilt for me to make for 2 reasons (hence the title of this post).

1.  I do not like flying geese.  I do not like them in the rain. I do not like them on a train. I do not like them on a boat. I do not like them with a goat.*  There are a lot of flying geese in this Schnibble.  About 1,672 I think.  Maybe a few less.

2.  As my mom said when I bought the charm packs in Michigan, "That fabric doesn't look like you at all."  This fabric is not what I usually would pick but I was branching out and liked the blue, gray, and red in this line.  A little bit too much pink but oh well.  The line is "It's a Hoot" by Momo for Moda.

But here it is, an unlikely Schnibble and I like it.  The directions were perfect and it was fun to make.  Thanks Carrie for another great quilt!!


* with apologies and all due respect to Dr. Seuss for not-quite-from-the-book lines based on Green Eggs and Ham.

Long Time, No Blog

Hello! Do I still have any readers out there? I hope so. It's been awhile, well most of April I guess.  April has been weird.  Just a weird bunch of stuff.   None of which has been particularly good blog post topics so I haven't blogged.  But now I'm back and April is nearly done and well, at the moment, the only thing that is weird is the weather.  It is super windy today and chilly--downright cold after we had summer in March and then spring and then summer again and now we have Chicago weather in Atlanta.  Climate change is unsettling.

Edgar Poe is enjoying the windy weather today (from inside of course). Watching, as I call it, "Poe TV" by sitting on the end of the bed looking out the bedroom window at the bird feeders, bird bath, trees, and shrubs in the side yard.  He likes to watch the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks and often chatters and meows at them.  Today, the leaves in the trees are all swishing around and the birds are trying to fly against the wind.  Amusing for Poe and for me watching him.

I've been working away on the Schnibbles for this month's Another Year of Schnibbles.  All the blocks are done and now I just have to sew them into rows.  Today is a state holiday (the completely archaic Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia) so I have some extra free time today to work on projects. 

At the Silver Thimbles Quilt Club on Saturday.  Pat had some new projects for us for the upcoming months.  One is a great quilt kit that will be available in June.  The other is a two-color mystery quilt.  After much digging and fiddling and hunting in my sewing disaster room, I picked these fabrics as my inspiration fabrics.  

Love. This. Combination. Love it.  A dark denim blue Moda print by Minick & Simpson from their Clermont Farm line and a medium, cool, gray with small geometric print by Paula Barnes (Bonnie Blue Quilts) for Marcus Brothers.  I am mixing in a few other dark denim/indigos and the gray is my constant throughout.  I love this color combination so much I hope it becomes a trend (you saw it here first....and send all the proceeds here first LOL).   I hacked right into these fabrics and got the first steps of the mystery done already.  How am I ever going to wait another month for step 2??!!??   

And for all the Remy fans out there, Remy is great.  Remy is a silly, happy, energetic cat who is curious about everything.  Remy is also getting so big.  Well actually he is growing loooooong--long legs, long body, long tail.

 Here's a photo of Gomez (left) and Remy (right) on a bookcase.  Gomez is not happy that Remy has learned how to jump up there in his (Gomez's) best "leave me alone" spot.

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Happy Spring!

The first iris in my yard. Hope you enjoyed a beautiful holiday weekend.