Gratitude

Many, many thanks to my blogging friends who left comments about Morticia. Y'all are so sweet and kind and it is much appreciated.

I hope to get working on the OC mystery quilt steps 2 & 3 tomorrow evening. Yikes I'm behind!

A Tribute to a Feisty Lady

Forgive me for a sad post.

I said goodbye to Morticia today. It is so hard to let pets go but she has not been doing well, has been having breathing problems, and it was time. This photo is a couple of years old because ladies should always look their best in tributes.

She had such a quirky personality. I adopted her at 6 mo. old and unlike all my other cats, she didn't like playing or sleeping as a group but preferred to be by herself. She was sweet and funny and feisty and smart. She went through some "terrible twos" for a while and would terrorize my other 2 older cats and the black lab I had at the time so much that she would be put in "time out" in the bathroom for 2 min. till she calmed down. She quickly learned what "time out" meant and soon all you had to say was "Tish time out" and she would march in the bathroom and sit on the bath mat. Even after her terrible twos, she liked to hang out on the bath mat.

She also liked to drink out of the faucet and would meow at the top of her lungs to get someone to run the faucet for her. She never did learn what water conservation was and that we shouldn't leave water dripping during the drought. When my dad remodeled the bathroom for me a couple of years ago, he took out the sink and Morticia threw a fit because her sink was gone. Of course we didn't help matters by repeatedly asking "Tish where's your sink?" And she would meow and meow at us indignantly like she was saying "how dare you remove my sink!" She was really happy when a new sink appeared with a better faucet for drinking. That's how I knew she was really doing badly recently because she stopped asking for water from the faucet.

I am comforted that I could give her a graceful and dignified last day. I have the kindest vet and he really is great with my cats. I took her there mid-morning and Morticia passed away in my arms with no pain. I hope she is somewhere where faucets always drip with cool water and she can be her feisty smart self.

I'll Take Obscure Holidays for $300

Well tomorrow is a state holiday for state employees. Don't check your calendar, it's only a state holiday for a couple of states--Georgia being one of them--Confederate Memorial Day. I cannot believe we still have this day as a day off in the 21st century; it's so un-PC I don't know where to start. But don't look a gift holiday in the un-PC-ness. I'll be spending the day (not celebrating the Confederacy) but celebrating oh I don't know...National Cats and Quilting day. That's a better holiday.

Did get some quilting in yesterday. I sewed the backing together for my Morris Garden quilt. I think it ended up the size of Rhode Island (which is 84"X 98" for the top--add 6" all around for the back). I have no business sewing quilts the size of states, even small states, in my small house. If my house were a geo-political entity--it would be a hamlet. I couldn't even spread the whole thing out. This is why sewing backings is my least favorite quilty thing to do (my friend Becky dislikes borders). This is also why I will never sew drapes, very large pieces of fabric make me crazy.

I also happened to err in my logic for making the backing (actually I don't think there was any logic involved whatsoever). Since I dislike large pieces of fabric, I thought sewing a back out of 10 1/2" squares would be easier. Ummmm it's like making another queen-size quilt....takes a lot of cutting and piecing and ironing.....what was I (not) thinking????? chalk up one life lesson learned.... So now I have this quilt ready for the quilter. Hooray!

Here's a gratuitous cute cat photo. Stella was hanging out in the sewing space with me yesterday. Now this doesn't look very comfortable to me, but she loves to hang out here in front of the window.

Shocking Discovery

I was rummaging around in my sewing space on a mission to get some stash to start cutting for the OC mystery quilt step 2 when I discovered, lurking in an old apple crate, a stash of UFOs that I didn't know I had because they were not on my purple index cards!!!! I was shocked, shocked I tell you. Where did these come from???? Perhaps they were purchased and partially started by a doppelganger who has the same taste in fabric that I do. I also discovered fabric still in it's original bag that had somehow snuck in there also (this is not so unusual).

So I did what every other self-respecting quiltress would do, I put the inexplicable bags back where they came from, found my scraps, turned off the light, and left the room. That doppelganger better get working on those quilts, I have enough to do.

Earth Day

(image from www.noaa.gov)

It's Earth Day! Going "green" has become part of our everyday lexicon. What are you doing to go green?

I have made a lot of changes in the past year and a half--trying to do all I can to reuse, reduce, recycle, and buy organic. There's tons of links for Earth Day info and sites. Here are some of my favorites: Check out your ecological footprint at this site. For some Earth Day info check out the World Wildlife Fund's website or the Nature Conservancy.

Here's some Quilty Earth Day tips I thought of today:
1. make some reusable and stylish shopping bags out of the favorite fabric from your stash
2. reuse the bag from your LQS for your next trip or better yet forego the bag and wrap your purchases up in some yardage.
3. check out the new organic fabrics from Michael Miller, vegetable dyed fabric from Andover, and eco-friendly bamboo or organic cotton batting
4. make a "green" quilt from your green fabric stash LOL!!!

Did you see the Planet Earth series on the Discovery Channel last year? I recorded this series and never get tired of watching it. I am still amazed at the incredible beauty captured on film for this series and appreciate even more this wonderful, diverse, fragile planet we live on.

Sunday Scrambling

Whew! It's been a busy and exhausting week. I am glad it is over. Worked a lot at SBux (busy and exhausting). Too much stuff going on at day job (exhausting mentally).

I got the biopsy results back for Morticia (my kitty) and as suspected she has soft tissue cancer. Poor baby. We had a couple of really bad days this week and one bad night Wednesday when I was up til 3:45 am. But she is doing OK this weekend so that is good. Spent a lot of time with her and we took a couple of really good naps, which we both needed so that was time well spent this weekend. So we are taking it by the day now.

I did get some sewing time in. I finished the borders on my Morris Garden quilt and cut of the backing for it (I'm doing pieced 10" square from the leftover FQs, some yardage, and some leftover bits and pieces. I also pieced the back for "Sleep Deprivation". So I have 2 quilts ready and one nearly ready to go to the long-arm quilter. I have another back to piece and that will make 4 to take to her next weekend. I'm giving her my own economic stimulus package LOL!!!!Did not get started on the second clue to the OC mystery quilt but will work on that this week.

Read two great books which I highly recommend: Dream When You Are Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg and Pug Hill by Allison Pace. Dream takes place during WWII on the homefront and is about a family dealing with food shortages, fiances overseas, dances at the USOs, etc. Really good book. I think a lot of kids would be surprised at how people lived during the 1940s. For instance, the 3 teenage sisters sleep in the same bed and have to share all their clothes. Can you imagine teenage girls doing that today???? Pug Hill is a delightful book about a 31 y.o. single woman living in NYC. The title comes from her favorite thing to do when life is stressful--go to Central Park and watch pugs playing. The author does a great job of creating believable characters and creating a wonderful, realistic first-person narrative voice.

OK must run. Going to visit my friend Pat, then coming home and cooking and doing laundry and feeding cats, and ....and...and the usual Sunday scrambling to get ready for another week.

Forbidden Jelly Roll

Well my Bernina came back from the shop working fine and whatever was wrong with it was covered under warranty so I just had to pay for the cleaning (yea!). I immediately cranked it up and put the pedal to the floor working on a UFO and then....

there it was...

sitting on my sewing table so innocently...

the new Moda jelly roll....

the beautiful cheery ZaZa line....

but I was resolved to work on my UFO (even though it was going badly and I had to unsew and I was getting frustrated)...

there it was so cute and new....

the forbidden New Project...

I felt like Homer Simpson in the Treehouse of Horror IV and his forbidden donut

it was the forbidden jelly roll...

my fingers itched to cut into new fabric.....

must resist...

Whew! now that I got that out of my system, I'm back to working only on UFOs. NO NEW PROJECTS!!!

P.S. This is a great quick quilt from the pattern "Strip Search" by G.E. Designs and none of the points match on purpose! I am naming my quilt "Sleep Deprivation" because it reminds me of all the great ideas I have when I'm really sleep deprived and they never quite connect LOL!