Quilts and Dogs

Design wall 1-30-12

2012-01-29T22:40:00.001-06:00

It is almost the end of January, my birthday month is over for another year, that is always sad. I have accomplished a lot, quilting wise and life wise. 2012 is turning out to be so much better than 2011, and that is something I am very grateful for. I am surrounded by wonderful friends who share my love of quilts and dogs and biking, and the time we spend together. My design wall is filled with projects I love and I haven't killed DiNozzo yet, although he may not make it through the week. See him hiding from me after the toilet paper incident?

This week my design wall is filled with my mystery quilt for my local guild, River City, so I can't exactly show you that one. I am Beta Testing it! But I am also working on the Tiny Tiny Houses and found the most wonderful sashing material. I started putting together some blocks of houses. Kind of a double meaning. I really mean blocks like subdivision blocks. Check out my first block block! LOL!!

So I am off to a great start in this first month of 2012. And I am planning on a great rest of the year too! I feel good for the first time in months.

I hope yours is a wonderful and forward looking.

Albondigas to all!

glen

Stash Report 1-29-12 and a very very very bad dog

2012-01-29T08:13:00.000-06:00

I did well this week considering I had to purchase the material for the Tiny Tiny Houses sashing. But that was a total necessity as I had nothing here that would do. So I don't feel guilty about that purchase!

I did, however, NOT purchase several things I did want this week. No plans for any of them, but I held back and made no extraneous purcvhases of fabrics I did not need. Aren't you proud of me????

Here is the damge this week:

Oh, I thought you might enjoy seeing the little dog in his last hours of life. He is hiding from the Wrath of Mom because he did this:

(to a whole new toilet paper package I had just brought home from the store. All 12 of them now have fancy edges.)

Stash Report:

I used scraps and fabric I had around here to cut up for the Neighborhood Quilt, the Tiny Tiny Houses, and the Mystery Quilt I cant' show you, then I purchased the sashing and two dotty fat quarters for the Houses (FQs were not for the houses, just for fun!) and the total for the month is:

Used this week: -11.75 yards
Used this Month: -29.3 yards
Used totoal 2012: -29.3

Purchased this week: 3 yards
Purchased this Month: 3 yards
Purchased this year: 3 yards

Grand total REDUCTION of 26.3 yards

And I still don't have space on my shelves! LOL.

glen

Biking week 2

2012-01-29T05:32:00.001-06:00

After the toilet paper incident, I needed to ride. We knew we needed to ride Saturday because of all the stuff we need to do tomorrow. The four of us headed out toward White Oak Lakes again. We wanted to see what the water was doing, remember last week it was high up against the weir, which was unusual.

Last week bridge and bench

And WOW! The water was even higher in the Amite River. You can see it ponding in places I have not seen water before. Even during the Mississippi Floods last year.

Last week Amite River

Here is the Last Week/This Week comparison.

This week near bridge and bench

This week Amite River

And notice the gorgeous day we had. about 62 temps and not a cloud in the sky! The pictures look so bright and beautiful from this week. Funny how much a difference a bit of sun makes.

This week Amite River near trail

We rode 12.7 miles this week, a mile more than last for some reason, and we went the same route I thought. Dan asked me last week, for $100 would you do that again right now? No way I said, $1,000,000 maybe.

This week he asked again, and my price was down to $1000!

glen: Tammany Trace plans are in progress, and the group is growing.

Can you salvage a half eaten toilet paper? No wait, four?

2012-01-28T11:06:00.000-06:00

Do you see that dog hiding in there? He thinks I can't see him. And he is hiding for good reason. A VERY good reason. He thinks he has only moments to live, and he may well. He'd better be saying his doggy prayers.

I just got back from the grocery store whereupon I purchased toilet paper....because, well, it is one of the necessities of life. And I had a bunch of other bags to carry in, so I put it down on the floor in the kitchen. Put my groceries away and then went to check my emails.

I hear a noise, and with DiNozzo noises are ALWAYS bad. I go out and see this:

The photo does not do the scene justice. Here are some close-ups of his romp with the toilet paper.

I have no idea why the toilet paper attracted him, it never has before. There is no smell to it. And he does not get to play with the empty rolls like Max loved to do.

I asked him "WHY??"

He replied, "Because it was there. Yup."

I go into the yard to find him, and look at what he has now! The SEVENTY TWO CENT CUCUMBER! Aughhhh!

I need a whole 'nother blog to chronicle what this dog destroys in a day.

If he lives through the weekend, he will be one lucky little dog.

The Quilt The Swamp Show - you gotta see this report!

2012-01-28T08:56:00.000-06:00

http://beta.lpb.org/index.php?/swi/swi_episode/quilt_the_swamp

Michael, Sally and Mary did a FANTASTIC job on this segment. Makes me proud to rub shoulders with these talented people!

glen

PS: this is a piece I did in 2006 taking a piece of black fabric and doing a sort of reverse discharge. It was one of my earlier experiements with this technique. Michael told me that the resulting red fabric was highly prized by dischargers and not always easy to get.

Shopping

2012-01-27T23:26:00.000-06:00

We went sewing machine shopping today. We looked at three or four machines and I think there might have actually been one sure winner, the husquvarna of course!glen

A "Block" of Tiny Tiny Houses

2012-01-27T08:26:00.001-06:00

Wow! It wasn't until I actually put that title in that I realized those words had a double meaning! I made a quilt block. And the houses formed a block - like a neighborhood block. Get it?

Anyway, since the Mystery Quilt blocks are all together and just need to be sewn together, I decided to treat myself to what I REALLY wanted to be doing--Tiny Tiny Houses!

I cut the sashing up and auditioned 4 fabrics for the cornerstones. Then I made my decision and cut out the cornerstone pieces. They are tinier then the houses at 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch! Wow.

And this:

Became this:

Which became this:

(I don't know why they look all weird, they really are perfectly square)

Which turned into this beauty!

Only 9,999,999 to go!

Good, Better, Best Days

2012-01-26T17:04:00.000-06:00

A good day in a quilter's life is sitting at the machine and sewing all day long, stopping only to occasionally beat a dog for eating a pillow you have taken out of his mouth 14,000 times and threatening to send him back to CAAWS to live in a cage for the rest of his life.....but I digress.

A better day in a quilter's life is having the blocks you are sewing start looking like they are supposed to look after you have made 27,000 errors in putting the blocks together because you are not reading the directions and you think you know how to put a quilt together better than the lady who designed the ~~stupid~~ pattern in the first place and you spend half the day ripping something off each block you put together that morning.....but I digress.

The best day in a quilter's life is when, despite the dog and the cat fighting in the hallway and all the mistakes you made putting the blocks together, the blocks actually go together and lie flat, the seams all meet despite the many many many tiny pieces you have spent the last two days cutting and sewing and trimming. And the quilt top is flat and even and most beautiful! Yes, the best day!

I am sorry I can't show you the quilt, it is a guild mystery I am working on checking my directions and cannot divulge the reveal for another 8 months. Sorry! But it is so beautiful. And I would never have chosen this particular designer's patterns or this particular pattern had I been looking for a quilt to make. Now I love it. Just shows you gotta be open to new ideas and good things will come.

I doubted my color choices immediately after I cut everything out and began to sew the block together. But when the blocks started to live together, they blended perfectly! This will be a fabulous mystery revealed in September.

I can't show you, sorry!

glen

Quilt The Swamp on TV and a Reception

2012-01-26T13:58:00.001-06:00

There is a Fiber Arts Show called Quilt THe Swamp at the Bluebonnet Swamp put on every January by Michael Young and his associates. I usually have a piece in there, but this year was so complicated with Dutch and my mom and some other things that happened that I just didn't have the oomph to get anything together\r for the show. This was the 10th Anniversary of this event, and has become a much anticipated show.

The theme changes each year and has something to do with the swamp. Some themes have been Midnight in the Swamp, Trees from the Swamp, The Swamp in 3-D, Photos from John Hartenak of the Swamp. Always a lot of potential to do a piece for the show.

This year, as it was the 10th anniversary, Michael decided to do a recap of pieces from the last 9 years. I couldn't even get my stuff together for that! LOL.

Anyway, the point of the story is........as Frank says.....Michael Young, Mary Felder and Sally Gordon were interviewed by Louisiana: The State We Are In for viewing on Friday January 27 at 7pm. It will reair on Saturday. The station is one of the PBS locals.

Michael also wants to make sure you know you are also invited to attend the reception this Sunday at 4 PM at the Swamp. There will be finger food and most of the artists there to share stories and answer questions for you about their pieces.

It is well worth seeing if you have not already had the chance to get out there. Bluebonnet Swamp is down Bluebonnet Avenue in Baton Rouge. A fun outing as well because you can walk the trail system they have developed!

glen

A background for some tiny tiny houses and tiny tiny trees

2012-01-25T12:38:00.002-06:00

How the tree looks

A layout of about 20 pieces.

Whew! Finally, on the Girl's Day Out, I found some acceptable background for sashing on the Tiny Tiny Houses quilt. It was the first I have bought in a long long time. And it was expensive! Prices sure have jumped on fabrics. I don't want to get too far ahead without being able to start putting them together. I fear if I get 366 tiny tiny houses and tiny tiny trees and then have to put them all together at one time, it would just become another UFO for future years.

Should have taken my favorite house!

The fabric did not photograph well, the lighting conditions were wrong. It has no white in it at all, it is an antique muslin color around the tiny tiny on point square. And those are not the red cornerstones I will use, I just wanted something red in there to see what it was going to look like. I like it. What about you?

I am loving the idea of the trees interspersed within the houses; giving shade, if you will. So I cut out about 44 tree sets to add to the house sets I have prepared.

I was working on the mystery quilt. I had to make some changes in the pattern, but it is coming along well. I loved my color choices when I picked them out, but as I see the design taking shape, I am not so sure about it. Se la vie.

basset hair

Frank will be home tonight, so I cleaned the house. He will think I have been so neat and clean when he was gone, he will be surprised to see I actually vacuumed the entire house. I have done that, like, 4 times in our marriage. He is the V-Man and owns the vacs and their purchase, upkeep and usage. Not my thing.

I was, however, amazed that just after one room there was this much dog hair in the canister --- and no Swissys in the house. With the Swissys it would fill up a canister for every room. That is why he went to a bagless vac, we were spending a small fortune on bags!

How are you feeling, Charlene? I miss you! I am assuming you made it home OK the other night. The police didn't call me to bail you out! LOL.

glen

Must be a Basset Thing

2012-01-24T09:17:00.052-06:00

I have walked Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs around this neighborhood, on these same streets, down the same sidewalks for 23 years. Never, I repeat, never have any of them grabbed anything carbon based and fought for the right to own it.

Last night was the second time in Parks' Basset history that a Basset Hound did just that.

I decided to walk the dogs early while there was still light since I was going to be walking alone. We left the house around quarter to 5. The two dogs have decidedly different ideas about what a walk is. DiNozzo the Over Effusive thinks a walk should consist of racing between major smell groupings and squirrel sightings. And then there is the slow cat creep for when the squirrel sighting takes place in hopes of actually bagging a squirrel. His body is sleek and heavily muscled, his legs are strong, albeit short, and his chest is powerful. He is conformationally built to run all day in the field flushing rabbits for the overweight feudal lord.

Chloe the Smelly Basset feels a walk should be termed a "smell" and taken slowly and deliberately. When she finds something she wants to smell, she throws her long tricolored body to the ground on her side and stubbornly refuses to be placed upright. Her nose is strategically positioned to be right over the desired smelling area. This happens 18 to 36 times in a mile. Which is why people at home are so amazed when I take just DiNozzo for a walk and we arrive home in 15 minutes after a mile. Chloe is build much like DiNozzo, but a bit shorter. No less powerful and muscled. My vet shakes his head and laughs to himself when we attend an appointment with him. He says in his entire career, he has never seen Bassets with so much muscle base. He thought Chloe was an anomoly, but DiNozzo is leaner and even more muscular.

So we are walking, even though I would not even deign to call it walking what we were doing. And nearly three qurates of the way home. I look down and DiNozzo has a full size pigeon in his mouth. A DEAD pigeon in his mouth. Happy as all get out. Trotting his way home.

Just about the time I notice, Chloe notices too. All hell breaks loose. He is not willing to give up his bird, Chloe wants to steal his bird from him and make it hers, and I want the darned bird away from all of us.

This reminds me of the night I was walking Bonnie Doon and Dutch and Frank was walking Chloe. Bonnie Doon and Dutch walked perfectly together. Like angels, they were. Did everything right. All the time.

I hear a commotion and look back to see Chloe and Frank in a fight to the death over a squirrel that had been hit by a car, rolled over for a day and left to bake in the sun for the afternoon. At some point the squirrel frizbee flies out of the mix of bodies and the din settles. Both Chloe and Frank stood there panting and exhausted, but squirrelless.

Something similar happened with us. Only it was TWO dogs and me, fighting for possessin of a recently dead bird. All squishy and feathery. And yucky.

Somehow, victorious, I realized I now owned the bird. I threw it as fast as I could, as far as I could. Which admittedly was not very far, because DiNozzo attempted to regain possession. I now had to drag two powerfully muscled, low center of gravity dogs who where fighting for their lives to get that bird. I made slow purchase, but step by slow heavy step, we put distance between us and that bird.

Fianlyy, when we were turned on to the next street, and the leashes relaxed a bit, I then thought about the locust incident.

Fortunately, collars were on correctly and securely. We made it home and I vowed NEVER to take both Bassets on a walk together at the same time, ever again.

glen: and I washed my hands about 30 times......

Biking in the Neighborhood with Tiny Tiny Trees

2012-01-23T15:36:00.002-06:00

Lake side of weir

River side of weir

The first bike ride of the year with the group of biker friends. Sounds like we are motorcycle tough guys, huh? LOL. We are actually only bicycle tough guys! The ride took us through White Oak and over one of the lakes outside the area. There is a weir connecting the lake with the Amite River. The weir controls the lake level and thus keeps the beautiful houses from flooding. We have to cross the weir over a neat wooden bridge. This is the first time in several years that I have seen the water so high. I am going to try to find an older drier picture to compare.

We biked 11.8 miles in about 2 hours with a really stiff headwind!

Then we treated ourselves to lunch at Magoo's. Magoo's is the new favorite of the guys particularly because they have Hot Dogs done 5 ways.

This is my dinner

This is Frank's dinner (Hot Dog with bun under a ton of french fries covered with chili and cheese.

I wanted his, but ate only mine!

Then yesterday afternoon I was letting my muscles recover and I cut out another quilt called The Neighborhood from the vast amount of scraps I have stored in various places around the house. And today I cut out Tiny Tiny Trees to shade the Tiny Tiny Houses!

Sashing blocks notwithstanding, I have several options to lay out the trees. They can be interspersed amongst the houses and offer them some shady respite from the sunny days.

Or they can be used as a border around the entire quilt or even just blocks of houses within the quilt. I only have two made so it is difficult to see, you just have to imagine.

Inventing the Tiny Tiny Trees for the Tiny Tiny Houses was a work in frustration. I tend to design my own stuff, which means I have to invent it from scratch rather than letting someone else work out the bugs. Some of my bugs were small but some were big. Like I had the method of cutting 30 degree trees down, got a phone call, and got lost in the methodology! And I sewed the test tree patch on backwards to the foundation paper. And when I sewed the sky sides on the tree one time, I sewed both of them in one patch and searched and searched for the other one in frustration. I made a replacement, and found the original when I went to sew that new one on. Sigh.........

house block pieces

These are some of the fabrics I used for The Neighborhood quilt. It is a 20 block quilt, 10 different houses and 10 off blocks that connect the houses like roads and gardens. Each house is a unique combination of 16 patches that change in color and position. Well, you will just have to see it when I get the blocks working. Each block is clipped together with its components since there is no way I could ever get the right piece

garden blocks pieces

back to the right block. I had to draw complicated diagrams and use mathematical algorithms to figure out how many of what went where.

You can see my drawings over here. I was quite pleased with the way I worked each block out. They will be fairly simple to put together, so I will do them at retreat.

I have a number of quilts to get quilted so I am thinking to spend the rest of the week on doing that.

Maybe. Maybe not.

glen

Design Wall Monday1-23-12

2012-01-22T23:53:00.001-06:00

Amazing that the week flies by so fast. Amazing.

Most of what I have been doing is cutting up fabric for the retreat in March. I have two quilts cut out from the fabric around here, no buying any fabric! Yes! And I am working on my houses still. I have like 40 something now. Look at all of them. They will finish at 3 inches. And I want to make Tiny Tiny Trees to shade the Tiny Tiny Houses. Won't that be fun?

I have been working on my word quilt, but that just needs binding. I issued the challenge to my group from Modern 8 to think of a word that will inspire them for the year. Make a small hanging for their quilt room with that word. The creativity is amazing in that group.

My word was Albondigas. Ever since Spanish Class in High School I have loved that word. It is fun to say......Al -BON-di-gas (and all A's are short vowel sounds). I love it.

When I see it over my closet, I laugh, and I need that. 2011 sucked. 2012 will be much better now that things have changed in my life for the better.

My second favorite word is photovoltaic - a means of generating electric energy by using solar radiation and converting it to current electricity. Frank was researching ways of powering space ships into deep space. The ship used this radiation to bombard a plate and the ship would be pushed forward. It was a means of propulsion. Interesting. It is cool to say as well.

Stash report 1-22-12

2012-01-22T08:23:00.000-06:00

Not much sewing this week, but I did do the January Challenge making a word that would inspire me for the year. I chose Albondigas. Long but pertinent.

My stash this week did not go down much, just the amounts of this piece. But try as I might, I could not find the black fabric I wanted for the 366 Tiny Tiny Houses sashing strips. So I did not add any fabric in spite of my intentions!

Fabric added this week - 0
Fabric added this month - 0
Fabric added this year - 0

Fabric used this week - 1.666
Fabric used this month - 17.9
Fabric used this year - 17.9 (heck, we are calling this 18!)

Total Decrease - 18 yards!

And what is today childern????

2012-01-21T14:51:00.001-06:00

Today is Farmer's Market Day! Yeah! I spent about $26 today for everything.

Today's haul is totally beautiful. I am getting very creative in setting these cute little veggies up for their glamor shot picture. So bright and colorful. Don't they make your mouth just start watering?

So, here is how big the Meyer Lemons are! That is a cabbage there.....not really it is a Brussels sprout, but still look how big the lemon is. My father used to call the brussells sprouts Cabbages Who Forgot To Grow Up. They do look like little cabbages!

And the cauliflower and broccoli was beautiful but not as big as it was a couple of weeks ago. This is about half of them cooked down for freezing. I got some green onions again and cut them up, also for freezing. I can cook with the green onions but not the regular onions. They do add some flavorings. Leeks too, but I didn't see any this week.

And the cabbages were huge. I made two pots of cooked cabbage with some ham seasoning. This is just 3/4 of a head in this dutch oven.

I try to use everything. I took the water I cooked all the veggies in and tossed in some green onions, a cut up portabello mushroom, some spinach leaves, some garlic and some Asian seasonings from my birthday haul. And I have a really nice VietNamese Soup. I also added 7 ounces of sauteed ground meat and that will be my dinner one night this week.

We got the smoker out because I scored some Buy 1 Get 2 Free at Albertson's yesterday. I cooked two pork loins, a pork roast, 12 chicken breasts and 16 pork chops. Yum. The aroma drove everyone crazy! The day before I cooked a whole chicken in the crock pot I got at the same sale for $.59 a pound. Like $2.50 for the whole chicken for 3 dinners! All for about $25!

Frank just brought me a piece of the smoked port roast, to die for! I wish you were here for dinner tonight!

glen

January Challenge

2012-01-19T15:45:00.000-06:00

I was the creator of the January Challenge in the Modern 8 Group. And I really need to get started. The challenge was to create a piece for yourself, to hang in your sewing area/room, that will inspire you for the entire year. It needed to be a word. And I had Tonya's book Word Play in my hands when i dreamed this up in December. Now I can't find the darned book anywhere!

Couldn't find an albondigas picture
but isn't this better?

So I am going to have to wing it on my word part.

First I needed to decide on my word. I collected a list of words I liked and let them stew around a bit while I looked for that book. My words included:

albondigas (my favorite word of all times, it means meatballs in Spanish) Say it, you will love it too! (all the a's are short a's)
al-BON-di-gas! Don't you love it!

calm - which I really need this year
laugh - which is what you do when bassets are nearby
circle - which is what my dear friends do when things are not good, and they get you through
done - which is what I need to do to all this fabric and stuff in my room
clean - I quickly tossed this one out!
save - which is good for money but not for my sewing room
create - to kitchey for me
imagine and dream - same as create
think - which is what I need to do more often

I decided to percolate and see if anything else hit me.

I have a great t-shirt from my dog showing days that simply says Winner's Bitch. Which is the class dog that is better than any other class girl in the ring and she goes into the Specials Ring to compete against all the Champions. Now that is a great word! AND could easily describe me.

So let me go dig and find some fabrics, and decide on my word.

glen: Winner's Bitch is becoming more and more appealing!

Apre-Feliz Cumpleaños and Joyeux Anniversaire

2012-01-19T10:23:00.001-06:00

That is a bit of frenchish spanish there. You get that a lot in South Louisiana. Cajun French is very different from regular French. It is a mixture of the Indian tribes and the Spaniards and the Frenchmen who settled herein the 1600's and intermingled their languages and genetic lines. Most anyone from the small southern towns nestled in amongst the bayous will speak with a wonderfully beautiful lilting accent. I love to listen to them talk.

2007 North Dakota A Frame

In fact if you want a great documentary book about real Cajuns and the Louisiana southern coast go to Amazon and get Bayou Farewell by Mike Tidwell. You can get it for $1.24 even. LOL. But don't click on the book I just copied the picture and those words came with it! Hmmm.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0375420762/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

My birthday was wonderful. A very full day. Lots of steak. No cake. Not a bite even!

2007 Dog Purse

Today I brought Hula to the vet to be spayed and did some errands, but realized I left my grocery list at home. So being at the grocery store did me not a whit of good. I couldn't remember one item on the list. Geez.

So I will sew a bit this morning, do some laundry and then head back out to the grocery store once again.

glen

My Birthday!

2012-01-17T17:21:00.000-06:00

I thought to have a good birthday and I am so far! It has been a long time since I really enjoyed this time of the year. I really do hate having my birthday so close to Christmas and not spread out into the rest of the year like everyone else's seems to be.

But I decided to make the best of it anyway and take full advantage of the birthday part of today.

So.......

I got a present from friends.

I got to go to see Gordon Lightfoot (see the last post for some concert video)

I got cards from the dogs. Really funny dog cards too.

And two presents from Franklin.

And lunch with some friends.

And another present from friends.

A balloon from Frank when I got home, too funny.

I got to take the bassets to PetsMart and get toes trimmed. And we had a smell-a-thon with the dog food aisle. It took us a half hour to make it to the front of the store!

And dinner with daughter and son-in-law tonight at the Steakhouse
And ANOTHER present from them. ( I sure hope it is a good one!!!!!)
Then home to do some Country Dancing with Frank

And that is taking full advantage of a birthday day!

glen

Part of My Birthday Present

2012-01-16T23:18:00.001-06:00

Part of my birthday present was tickets to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert at the Centroplex Theater. It is a wonderful venue for concerts and plays. Dan and Amber and Frank and I go to as many of these old concerts as we can. We have seen the Monkees, Herman Hermits, Grass Roots,

So tonight we saw Gordon. Two of my all time favorite songs is his Sundown and of course The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. He sings so many of the great songs I remember, Everyday People, If you Could Read My Mind, Early Morning Rain. 14 Carat Gold. Did She Mention My Name. Oh, I love them all!

Funny, too, how we think of these people we liked and knew in the 70's and we freeze them in time. It was shocking to all of us to see Gordon now. He is 73 and still touring. His voice is not nearly as strong, but he still stands up and gives you a show.

I did not record any of the songs, but here are a few for your enjoyment. And you can see him now and then.
Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald - 1979
Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown - 2011

A new block of Tiny Tiny Houses

2012-01-16T15:36:00.001-06:00

I made a whole 'nother block of houses this afternoon. I think I ended up with 7 but I thought I had 9. I keep losing them. Hmmmm.

These are my favorites. I guess because they are so bright. I thought I would really like that light one in the corner bottom. But not so much.

I laid out a plan today in EQ for the finished quilt. I was looking for the amount of sashing to purchase since I decided and didn't have enough. I'll keep that a secret as it may change. I went to the quilt shop to check out my desired fabric and the shop was closed! Imagine that, all the quilters are available to go to the shop and the shop is closed! Tells you something there.

Anyway, I laid out the quilt in EQ. And then rethought it immediately because I figured it was going to be over 100 inches. Wow! Maybe that was wrong. It has to be. So I decided to decrease the number of houses, toss in a couple larger ones and add a border of trees.

So I need to start making Tiny Tiny Trees now too.

But not as many houses.

We shall see.

We are off tonight to see Gordon Lightfoot. Remember him? Gee, that makes you OLD! LOL
glen

A very full, full, full, Design Wall 1-16-12

2012-01-15T18:59:00.000-06:00

This is what, the third design wall of the year? And I have to say, even though I have been busy with things, my poor design wall still has those pesky dogs and chickens on it! But I have not done anything with them. In fact I thought yesterday, I wonder where the Outhouse Blocks are? With my luck Judy will call for that number on Feb 1 and I will spend the next 11 months searching AGAIN!

But what I am working on is trying to finish things up. Like UFOs. I just today completed the Polar Bears. They are in the dryer drying.

I am also still trying to straighten up my quilt room. To little avail, however, it is meant to be cluttered. Which is why I am trying to use up stash. I have a retreat coming up soon and plan to make some headway on some tops I have sitting around from the last retreat.

Like this one from Flavin Glover's class, Lanterns.

And this red and grey one from Bonnie Hunter's class.

And these from Judy Laquidara's classes. On this bright quilt I already have put the borders on and it just waits to be sandwiched and quilted. I really need to work on the tension on my long arm. The polka dots are all I have done on that one.

So I guess you can say my design wall is FULL FULL FULL!

glen

Stash Report and a Productive Sunday So Far

2012-01-15T13:16:00.002-06:00

I just posted a wonderfully witty and informative post.....that disappeared into cyberspace.

Let me try to recreate it for you.

I have had a productive Sunday so far getting some work out of the way in my quilt room. I cut up my made fabric into 6 1/2 inch squares so they would store flat and even. Nice

I used some leftover batting to make three batting squares for constructing blocks. I made two 12 1/2 squares and one 8 3/4 square. That got fiber board and batting out of my way.

I finally made the bottom of a tote bag I had gotten in a Bag Swap in CyberSisters a couple years ago. the bag has tons of pockets, everywhere. Outside and inside! I love lots and lots and lots of pockets, don't you?

Stash report:

I cut up a ton of shirts for the plaid bargello from Bonnie Hunter and the pattern said it uses 8 yards of fabrics. So I went with that since it is impossible to tell how much fabric is used in those shirts I cut up. I also counted the Olivia fabric I used for the tote bag bottom.

I used exactly the same amount this week as last week. If I can do that for the rest of the year......I will BUST some stash! LOL.

Added this week: 0 yards
Added this month: 0 yards
Added year to date: 0 yards

Used this week: 8.125 yards
Used this month: 16.25 yards
Used year to date: 16.25 yards

Grand Total: 16.5 yards DOWN!

Seems a lot of people are having the comment problem

2012-01-15T10:33:00.001-06:00

This is what is being said about it:

From Blogger Help

Question: I can post a new post, and a comment, but right after the comment posts, the page goes white/blank and I now longer have any option to do anything, it's totally white. My friends that want to post comments are experiencing the same issue. What is going on?

Answer: Blogger installed a new commenting system yesterday which allows replies to other comments. Unfortunately it has some bugs which they are aware of. If you turn off the embedded comments and choose the pop-up of full page comments the problem should be gone. Hopefully Blogger will have this fixed soon.

How do I turn off the embedded comments and choose the pop-up??????????????????

From your (new version) dashboard page, use the drop-down menu to the right of your blog's title and select "Settings" then on the left hand column choose "Posts and comments" and use the drop-down menu next to where it says "Comment Location" to change your setting. Click the "Save Settings" button on the right hand side of the screen when you are done. I hope this helps.

Hope this helps. I was thinking I might need to take my computer in to Tim. But I think I will wait it out a while and use my Ipad for comments until it gets fixed.

glen

Update: I did what they suggested and it worked! I can see comments again! Yeah!

Update-----Mom's New Stitches

2012-01-14T18:59:00.001-06:00

Frank and I got to the Nursing Home after the Six Birthday Party and she was not back from the ER yet. And Kelly, her nurse, called when we were in the middle of dinner. We left to check out the new stitches

Oh my. She looks bad! She looks like a prize fighter who lost the fight. A huge bandage on the forehead over her right eye, where that bone protrudes. She has 23 stitches. And her face is very swollen, black eye for sure to come.

And she also must have hit the left side of her nose so it is beginning to swell too.

The ER doc gave her some pain meds and some antibiotics. So she was deep sleeping when we arrived. We didn't wake her, let her sleep and heal. Tomorrow she will be sore.

I remember Aunt Edith, my Alzheimer Aunt as we called her (I took care of her for 10 years before she died) fell one time at the Council on Aging. She broke her arm. And said it never hurt at all.

So mom my not fell pain. But the pain pills will help anyway.

glen

Sew In Saturday

2012-01-14T13:51:00.000-06:00

News first:

Well it seems that I cannot read any comments now. I am going to have to take some time and discuss this will blogger. Meanwhile, know that I am reading them on my Ipad and do appreciate that you are following and commenting. I love it, but hate that I can't get them on the computer that is easier to answer them on.

Today is actually two of the Six Friends who have birthdays within 2 weeks of each other, Lois and Diane. So we are having an open house at Lois' house and her fabulous chef husband is doing a spread for us.

And last but certainly not least, my mother fell out of the wheelchair and they have her at the ER getting her head stitched up. When they called me she was already there, so it made no sense for me to pack up and go.

I was at the Sew In Saturday. I worked on the Tiny Tiny Houses and got 6 more accomplished. I now have 32, but as the group LOVED to point out to me, I have 334 left to make. (see me smirking at them).

We had lunch at Magoo's, pretty good food. They even have hot dogs done several ways.

So off to the Open House Birthday Party and then to see how my mom is doing with new stitches.

glen

Auditioning Tiny Tiny Houses Sashing

2012-01-13T06:30:00.000-06:00

So......

Tell me which you like or what you would like to see as a sashing unit. All options would have cornerstones that would be a different color from the sashing itself. Like the black with red cornerstones.

Black

Black dots

black with red cornerstones

Light blue

Dark Blue

Maroon

Comments on my Pity Post

2012-01-12T19:53:00.001-06:00

This is so odd. I cannot get the comments to open on that post about my mom. I did read them once, but then the screen reverts to white every time. I guess it is telling me that there are much larger problems out there than mine.

I do, however, want to let those friends who did comment, that I did get to read your comments, albeit once :-)

And to say, thank you. I know as we get older our parental units get ill and die, and we all face that. I am glad she is not in pain, and has a short memory. Alzheimers is a good and a bad thing. She just doesn't remember.

I thank you again, my friends. For listening and caring about what I feel. It makes such a difference.

glen: now to go kill a dog.........

A Day of Construction.......and Destruction

2012-01-12T16:01:00.002-06:00

Eight from today

I decided to get 20 houses done today. I am not there yet but it is only 3 PM. I still have time to get closer to the mark. I have 8 so far.

Pretty fine neighborhood

But in my defense I had larger problems. With larger ears. Yep, the Destructo Dog himself.

And here is the whole neighborhood of 24 houses. I need to start thinking about the sashing so I can get a portion of the quilt put together as I go. I am thinking blocks of maybe 12 or 16 houses and sashing. Tomorrow I will audition colors. Frank likes light, I like dark. I will show you what I am thinking. Finding two yards of anything round here is a bit difficult. What will work is short and what is 2 yards won't work!

When I started this morning I made myself a nice cup of this new tea I bought yesterday. It is from Good Earth and tastes like those cinnamon red hots we used to eat. And the funny thing about this tea is that once it steeps, it actually tastes SWEET! It is marvelous. I am loving it. This is my second cup.

I go to get a lunch bone for the dogs at lunch time. As we step outside to pee, I notice something in the yard that looks strange. Purple. What do you have that is purple? I ask DiNozzo. He shrugs and grabs his bone and goes off to the living room to mucnch on it. I go investigate and find this:

At least they are clean

My box of tea! I was quite perturbed with him and I discuss this fact with him and he promises to be better after lunch.

I get a few more houses done and they are clamoring for their 3 o'clock bones at 2:30 so, thinking to be nice to them, I get up and stretch my legs a bit. I notice something white on my red carpet in the hallway. Upon investigating I find Frank's tightey whiteys from the clean laundry I put on my bed BEHIND THE BABY GATE.

I am a bit angry with DiNozzo and I discuss this fact with him and he promises to be better after his snack.

THEN.......

I walk into my bedroom to put up the tighty whiteys and find this:

WAS the cat's bed

Poor cat will be very angry with DiNozzo, that is her bed.

I decided if my house was going to stay intact I would have to kill DiNozzo. He is a very lucky dog at the moment. He is outside waiting execution.

glen

Isn't it funny how things work out?

2012-01-11T09:37:00.000-06:00

At Trey Yeun
about 6 years ago

When we were growing up, it was obvious that my mother favored my brother, who is 5 years younger than I. it stemmed, I think, from the fact that I was not a girly-girl who wanted to be in laces and frills and dresses and do girl things. My mother named me after the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz because she envisioned a pink, blonde head with heaps and heaps of curls, and lots of sweet smiles. I turned out very Italian, dark straight thin hair and totally a tom boy. She would tell me how disappointed she was that I was not like Glenda on the movie screen or the kids in the Leave It To Beaver sit-com.

When I was 16 I was not allowed to take driving lessons at school like my friends. It was my cousin Terry who taught me to drive in his beautiful little 240Z. We had one TV because they didn't want TVs in the bedrooms. The same with the phone, I was not allowed to do more than call my girlfriends to confirm a time to meet or something about school. When Kenny turned 16 they bought him a car, he had a TV and a phone in his room.

When I was 17 and a Junior in high school and all my friends were making plans to attend some sort of college or training program, I was told that girls didn't go to school and that they were saving their money because Kenny needed to go to college. Funny, now I have two post graduate degrees and was Valedictorian at Southeastern Louisiana University after finishing a 4 year undergraduate degree in 2 1/2 years even.

When my father died, my mother gave Kenny his car. I got his cuff links.

about 10 years ago

Now that my mother is in the nursing home and hospice, I am the one making the decisions, paying the bills, and watching her slowly die. My brother has told me not to expect money to care for mom from him. Go figure. All that college education they gave him didn't teach him about humanity.

I am not even sure that he or his family has been up here to see her since she moved to the nursing home last year. But who knows.

I made my peace with myself a few years ago, it still upsets me though. To think I now have charge of the one who wanted the other. But I stepped up to take the job.

moving into Assisted Living 3 years ago

So yesterday I made the decision to remove the medication that was supposed to increase her appetite and stop the weight loss. We knew from the beginning two weeks that it really wasn't working anyway.

Isn't it funny like that, by all rights and priveleges, Kenny should have made that decision.

glen: or at least pay attention

Prizes will go out this week and the girls are coming over!

2012-01-10T08:37:00.003-06:00

The girls are coming to the house today to do some Tuesday Quilting. I have asked the bassets to be on their best behavior and both say they will. I know only one of them will. The-One-Who-Shall-Be-Nameless will probably spend most of his day outside looking in. he can look so pathetic like that sometimes.

Winners - I have five piles sorted but was hoping to have more stuff to put in each of the piles. I pulled out my pattern stash and decided on a few I was never going to make. And now I have a ~~few~~ bunch of stacks of books to go through. You all are certainly going to be winners!

For some Eye Candy here is a reversible Cotton Theory quilt I made in 2005. I still have it and use it on my bed on the nights I can't get enough covers because the ~~stupid~~ sweet bassets are hogging all the covers. It is queen sized and a heavy quilt because of all the double seams but I love it. The other side is lighter than this side and just as pretty.

The Looney Bin quilt is the first one I made for Andrew when Carrie started to become serious with him. I figured he was worth a quilt if he was going to get cozy with my daughter. And it impressed the heck out of his mother, which I thought was a nice touch for a boy who had the potential to become my son-in-law.

Both are machine pieced and machine quilted on my domestic head.

glen

Design Wall Monday 1-9-12

2012-01-09T06:19:00.001-06:00

This week, the design wall is not a design wall actually. It is the design...uh, ironing board I guess!

This is 280 2 1/2 by 18 strips for a plaid bargello quilt from Bonnie Hunter's book. I had a ton of shirts from the 99 cent rack at the resale shop. My basket was overflowing.

I also cut out a strange star quilt from those same shirts. But the basket was not depleting quickly enough so the bargello strips had to be cut as well. I will have 8 yards for the next stash busting report, yeah.

From Yesterday's post:

I have a ton of shirts from the 99 cent pile of the local resale shop that I have collected over the years. Every once in a while I use one or two of them. But i thought to really decrease the amount of shirts with a couple of quilts. Retreat is coming up so I thought to cut up some quilt and use the retreat to put some tops together. Like I really need more tops......but I digress.

I put them into the double sided plastic container I purchased. Remember that great find for $4 a couple of days ago? Perfect. Here are the pieces cut up and arranged into separate compartments. They can't get lost. They can't get mixed up. Perfect.

DiNozzo was pretty good this week. He did steal some veggies from the counter, and the last tomato I had planned on using in the salad tonight. But other than that he has actually been a good doggy today. Oh, wait, Chloe says he did harass her tonight with the squeakie tearing around at high speed and jumping on the sofa on top of her a couple of times.

Good quilting and have a great week!

glen and the bassets

Stash report for 1-8-12

2012-01-08T11:28:00.000-06:00

Added this week         0
Added in January        0
Added in 2012           0

Used this week         -8.125
Used in January       - 8.125
Used in 2012           -8.125

Net gain/loss            -8.125

I cut up the shirts for the Scrap stars for the majority of the busting. The other yardage were the bindings for the polar bear and the snowball mystery quilt and the backing for the polar bears.

So a successful week clearing out yards.

From Nature to Oz

2012-01-08T11:13:00.000-06:00

It was a very very busy day yesterday. One of the most rewarding things I have done was to give Dorothy's Last Moment in Oz to Margaret. She fell in love with that quilt when I invited her to attend the guild meeting where the Movie Challenge was unveiled. My quilt won an Honorable Mention that night. But that is another story of cliques and alliances.

I made "Oz" to show that scene where Glenda the Good Witch (yep, that is who I am named after, my mother wanted a frilly little girl with gorgeous blonde curls, I disappointed her) touches her wand to Dorothy's Ruby Slippers as she is clicking her heels and saying, "There is no place like home, there is no place like home, there is no place like home." She goes flying back to Kansas and Auntie Em. It was her very last moment in that magical land of Oz.

Margaret loved that quilt. I really meant to give it to her a year ago, but for some reason it was still sitting on my shelf. After I made the quilt, I had two offers to purchase it. I chose not to sell. Margaret's eyes grew wide and she hugged me tight as she realized what was in that bag.

See Dorothy's anatomically correct knees? I love them. No cellulite...yet. But she is still young.

Last night we had dinner with Renee and Michael and the boys watched the Saints win. It was a fabulous night and I ate my veggies like a good little girl! LOL. Yes, Paula, I did.

We laughed and shared stories and just enjoyed being with each other. Michael was in the Williams Sonoma store the day I bought my cappuccino maker, and I still owe him a cup of capp!

I put them into the container I purchased. Remember that great find for $4 a couple of days ago? Perfect. Here are the pieces cut up and arranged into separate compartments. They can't get lost. They can't get mixed up. Perfect.

Here is the other side that holds the test block. This block was the strangest block I have ever put together. It wasn't until Paula said, oh, it is on point within the block, that I understood exactly why they did it that way. Very strange and very confusing at first. Can you see how it is done? Bet you can't.

Saturday morning we headed to the Farmer's Market and saw Paula, Glen, Monie, Carrie, Adele, Rene and Michelle. It was like having a party there!

I bought a ton of vegetables.

Check out the turnips and the brussels sprouts. The broccoli and cauliflower. The green onions.

Now, I am hungry again!

Meat stuffed eggplants are on the agenda for tonight.

I leave you with you mouth hankering for some of these beautiful fresh babies!

glen

Foreclosure Quilts

2012-01-06T15:01:00.000-06:00

Since I am so busy today, I give you some eye candy and a very interesting design aspect.

http://designskool.net/kathryn-clark-foreclosure-quilts/

A Fun Filled Day of Sewing

2012-01-03T16:41:00.000-06:00

Ohhhhhh! I was so bad. I did not send off my checks for the investment club at the end of the year and now they are upset with me. I have gotten 3 phone calls from them today. Accounting lady is really not happy with me. Too bad, the investment club was the furthest thing from my mind when my dog was dying! I did, however, get a nice check from the club for last year. It will keep me in quilting supplies for a while!

I spent the day sewing with Paula and her daughter Kim. Kim was working on a Bow Tucks Bag in LSU colors. Here she is quilting the front panel. And this is the pocket she finished. It will be on the front of the purse. I should have taken a couple of shots of the fabric. Too cute LSU fabric combined with some tiger print.

The whole time we were working Anna the Cat was right there with us supervising. At one point I thought she might lose her tail on the cutting table. But Paula was careful to cut around the tail parts. Anna is so sweet and she LOVES fabric. What more can a quilter ask for in a kitty?

Here is the project I was working on. It is a vinyl tote from a shop in Northern Utah. The kit contained everything you see here. I would have done the handles in a different fabric, but it does go with the bright flowers on the tote. I am thinking I need to go to Hancocks and pick up some of that fabric and make a tote for Patsy for our Cruise. Won't she be surprised, unless she is reading this post, then she may still be surprised! LOL.

The vinyl is not like the table cloths but is actually fabric covered with the chemicals that make vinyl (I guess that is how they do it.) I is soft and pliable. The shop owner told me that I needed to sew carefully because the needle leaves holes in the vinyl that do no heal like they do in normal fabric. So don't make a mistake. The portable machine I use, a small Brother, handled the fabric nicely. No problems.

glen: another long time UFO done from about 5 years ago!

Polar Bears Nearly Complete

2012-01-02T16:42:00.000-06:00

Yesterday it was dinosaurs and now it is polar bears! Judy L called number 5 in the UFO Challenge and that happened to be the dreaded Polar Bear Quilt.

It started out as a kit in Alaska about 6 years ago. It was a wall hanging and I really liked it. But my problem came at home with no wall space to put it.

I decided to make it a quilt by adding a second section. The blue fabrics have the effect of the Northern Lights.

The two sides are mirror images of each other with polar bear families on both sides.

I never could figure out what to do to quilt it, then it became unloved. But now it is nearly complete except for the binding. I did an all over meander in a light blue thread that matched the Snowball Mystery
perfectly!

The backing is left over from the borders and pieces with a cotton sheet

from the Purple Cow.

The Polar Bears will go into the closet and wait for someone to need a quilt. I am sure whoever gets it will love it and I will love having another UFO crossed off my list! Yeah!

glen
.

Design Wall Monday - 1-2-12

2012-01-02T06:06:00.000-06:00

Wow! The first design wall in the 2012 new year! This is what is on my design wall, but it is not what I am working on.

I am ACTUALLY working on these Tiny Tiny Tiny Houses from the Build a Scrap House blog. We are to do 366 house, one each day. But I know there is no way I am going to make it a whole year so I have to get in as many as I can now so it won't end up in the UFO list for next year. So far I have 16.

And then on top of all that, Judy called for #5 which is Polar Bears on my list of UFOs. Aughhhhh! It is a UFO because I HATE it.

glen: maybe I will just go shopping ---- I do have that 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby........

Winners from the Giveaway

2012-01-01T19:23:00.000-06:00

So far only 4 people have sent me their info. So that means there are 6 more out there.

I will give you another few days and then divide the stuff up between who ever has sent me their info.

This is NOT what I am giving away, but haven't you always wanted your own elephant?

glen

I Feel Different Already!

2012-01-01T09:04:00.000-06:00

I do, really. In fact, as we were standing in Adele's driveway watching the boys shoot off fireworks that looked like the scatter bombs in Iraq, I felt different the second the clock digitally flipped over to 2012 and 1 second.

Carrie is going to send me some of the fireworks pictures I took with her camera, I did manage to forget mine.

But the best picture of 2012 so far is this one.

Happy New Year and I hope this is the best year ever for you and me!

Oh, and NOW I can show you the Tiny Tiny Tiny Houses! Yeah! I know you have been waiting for this momemt, I hope it exceeds your expectation! LOL.

I do like the black as the sashing. I will have to look for some black in some of the fabulous sales that are still going on in the stores right now. Jeanneke uses red cornerstones and I think I will use blue. Or green, just to be different. I had the houses on a piece of deep blue and they did look good. Lynn Roddy Brown said she likes to use a deep purple for borders on quilts that have so many colors in them that you often can't pull out just one or two main colors.

Maybe purple even. We shall see. The year is ripe with possibility!

glen

Tiny Tiny Houses

2011-12-31T18:59:00.000-06:00

I now have 16 houses done. I should have 17 but one had a tragic accident. In fact I think I have made every mistake possible about now.

Like I said, the learning curve was steep. But I do have a nice system worked out. And when I was at Office Depot making copies of my Lotto Block entry for Block Lotto, I came upon the most wonderful find. It was the perfect case to keep all my tiny tiny tiny pieces for the Tiny Tiny Tiny Houses.

And it was in the Clearance Shelf. I asked the copy people to price it for me and it was $4.00! I ran back and got the other one as well. Can't beat that with a stick, as they say. See the sections? I have the sections labeled with sky, door, window, etc, so I have them separate and contained. The large section in the front is where the scraps go so I can riffle through them for the gables and such.

My system is to pin together sections so it is easy to just grab a window section and match a door section to it. Then I put them in the appropriate section in the carrying case. When I run out of pinned sections I can sit in front of the TV and make more.

I can tell you a funny story about the carrying case.....now. It was certainly not funny when it happened. I must admit, I did say a few bad words. The case has a top section and a section that opens from the bottom The idea is that you can turn it over and open it up. The bottom section is perfect for finished blocks that can lie flat. So I tossed my completed houses in there. Well, I picked the case up, and wouldn't you know, I had not made sure it was totally and completely secure.

Every piece of scrap and window unit and door unit and sky and roof and thread and lost earring fell out. All over the table, my lap, into the trash can and all over the floor.

I was not a happy girl. But I picked them all up and got them back into their respective sections. Every once in a while I do find a door in the window section, or a sky in the roof section. But most are happily living within their own sections.

I had to show you this Tiny Tiny Tiny House section. See that Basset in the window? It looks like my house! (except that the window is 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch.

glen

The Three Legged Dog, Dinosaurs and a Serious Sinus Shutdown

2011-12-30T15:53:00.000-06:00

Will 2011 ever end? Pleeeeeeeease??????

It is a good thing I have lots of patience. When I left to run some errands 4 days ago, I put DiNozzo in his crate and tossed in a Milkbone. Normal procedure. DiNozzo uses the crate Dutch had when we were on the show circuit. It is huge! Dutch, as 120 lbs, could stand up and turn around comfortable so I know DiNozzo at 55 lbs and short as a stump is way comfortable. But when I got home and opened up the crate, he came out on 3 legs. What??????

Chloe is now sleeping on Dutch's bed

Is it some unwritten law around here that a dog can only have three good legs? Bonnie Doon had bad hips and her left one sometimes gave her a bit of trouble. Dutch had a right front leg in which he tore a shoulder muscle when stadium jumping. And Chloe the Smelly Basset has that torn ACL from when I fell over her and ended up with my own knee surgery. Three good legs, all of them.

Is that not pathetic looking?

Now DiNozzo. So I did when I always do for dogs. I treat for 1 to 2 days and if it isn't better, head out to the vet. In fact, I knew already the vet would say, Rimadyl twice a day and rest. So that is what we did.

DiNozzo did get better. He was no longer limping on day 3 so I stopped the Rimadyl to see what would happen. I really had no idea where he was hurting. His patella was not moving, he had no tenderness in any leg part, nothing wrong with his foot or toes or pads. I was stumped. So off to the vet.

Vet laughs at me. He always laughs at me and my three good legged dogs. He pushes and prods and pulls and pokes. All the P's. Then he runs his fingers down DiNozzo's back. In the lower back section he is weakness. Sciatica. Can you believe that? Yep. So he is on......let's hear it......Rimadyl and rest!

I have my first actual finish on a UFO for 2012. Even though it is in 2011 on Dec 29, it is actually for 2012. I needed to get it off my floor because it involves more than just a quilt. It involves a whole sack full of dinosaurs. I bought the dinos from a garage sale for $8 and the quilt is from my stash. I don't really have too many kid fabrics, but most of them went into this effort. A great stash buster and UFO finish. Oh, can I claim this on my stash busting report maybe???????

last but not least, not least at all, because of all the cleaning and sweeping and moving of stuff it stirs up all the dust and fabric fibers. Which in turn causes my sinuses to object. To top that off, yesterday, and he swears he did not do this, I picked up the Windex Vinegar Cleaner I was using to clean surfaces and blinds and shelves as I went. The top sprayer thingy stayed in my hand but the bottle with ALL the liquid fell to the floor. I was on the stepladder and it poured out over a large area of the floor and stuff. So the smell was quite strong despite the fan and an open window.

So I can't breathe, I have another three legged dog but I have a dinosaur finish!

glen: 2012 where are you?????

Stuff I can't show you........

2011-12-29T22:02:00.000-06:00

I have been cleaning my room, you would be so proud of me! I actually cleaned off a corner of my quilt table! This piece of my table has not seen daylight in, like, three years! It was soooo happy.

Then I organized my shelves. I took projects that were coordinated fabrics and a pattern (whether it was a pattern or a magazine with the pattern in it) and put them in plastic boxes and shoe boxes. The boxes fit on the top shelf up to the ceiling. That moved a lot of stuff

from the floor by the door where you could barely get into the room!

I can't show my houses yet. Not until the first of January. But I have 8 in progress and 4 or 6 finished. I spent yesterday working on cutting out tiny pieces to make it easier to paper piece the bottom part of the house. I think I got this conquered.....I think.

Aren't these windows too cute? A lion and a hippo are looking out of their houses! LOL.

I also can't show you the center block I made for the Cotton Robin. It is too cute! So instead, you can enjoy this one I did for the 100 Blocks from Quiltmaker Magazine. Well, I tested the block for them, I didn't design it! It is in Volume 3. It is my most favorite block I have done for them. I really love it.

I have been piling up a bunch of stuff to give away. So everyone who responded to the last post, send me your address and I will send you something in a package. It will probably be next week before I get back to the post office to mail things, but that should be OK.

You are ALL winners! Yeah!

My email is obed101(at) cox (dot) net

It feels so good to be back in the world after Dutch, my mom, and all the other crap that has happened recently. I am quilting with 2 separate groups a couple of times a month, I am doing the Cotton Robin, I created the Mystery Quilt for one of my guilds. I am in two local guilds. A group of friends are planning a quilting cruise this year and we have a couple of retreats in the works.

2012 doesn't have to work all that hard to be better than 2011 !

glen: Paula and I said we were going to stay drunk until 2011 ended...........

A Giveaway!

2011-12-27T09:54:00.000-06:00

I have another Giveaway! It makes me feel like I am actually de-cluttering when I give stuff away. But I think deep in my brain I realize this is not really solving my problem. I would need to fill about 5 large shipping boxes to make any difference. But that is not the point. And you have to trust me for pictures. My camera is dead because I left it plugged in to the computer last night.

To win something leave me a comment and please tell me what you do to keep your sewing room clean. I really need that advice. Then of course, the random number generator will pick for distribution. There is always lagniappe in the boxes. So you definitely come out ahead just by commenting on my blog.

So.....WAKE UP OUT THERE! LOL

I have a pattern from Calico Carriage called Post and Beam. It is interesting and takes fat quarters for the center. The whole quilt is 60 x 60. I won this in the auction probably last year rather than this year. Maybe even two years ago.

I have a pattern called "A Charming Farmhouse Kitchen Scene for Machine or Hand Applique in an 18" Hoop". Oh wait, tht is the description. It is called Morning Coffee. It is cute and I really like it, but I will never do applique.

Then there is the Mystikal Mardi Gras King Cake table runner pattern from The Quilt Cottage in New Orleans. This is a valuable commodity because The Quilt Cottage is no longer around. It is 21 x 52 inches.

Then I have a grouping of 11 patterns I have collected from books, stores and shows. They were all free and two were from books checked out from the library. Bad Me! I really can't toss them! They are so cute, all of them. Daisy Crazy quilt, Butterfly Garden Party, Indonesian Floral Star, Debbie Mumm's Seasons, Robin Pandolpf's Tickled Pink, Joanne Porter's Spring Flowers, Quilt For The Cure and Bonnie Benn Stratton's Thanks Be to Auntie Lue, A Star Gazing Santa, some paper pieced hearts, Falling Leaves Quilt and Flying Flags Quilt. Is that more than 11. I might split these up and make them go with some of the others so more than one would go to a couple of people.

I also have a Quilter's 100 Block Coffee Mug.

I am sure I can dig up some more stuff as well.

.

The Amazing and Astonishing Tiny Tiny Tiny Scrappy Houses

2011-12-26T23:33:00.000-06:00

Yes, as Charlene said, they are tiny! LOL. I didn't realize just how tiny until I sat down to put on together. Don't let their size fool you either, it took me nearly an hour to finish one tiny little house.

Let me tell you, the learning curve was very steep.

But I worked out a lot of kinks. I am not allowed to show you any of the houses until the first of the year. So I will show you bits of what I did and tell you how I fixed it.

First, I had a problem getting the pattern right. I printed out, well, attempted to print out, a 3 inch block. I got a 2 1/2 inc block, a 2 3/4 inch block, a 3 1/4 inch block, a 5 1/3 inch block and a 4 7/8 inch block. Even a 10 inch one. But I could not hit the 3 inch block. So I decided there should be one in EQ that would work.

No such animal. So I tried redoing some of the houses in EQ to look like this one, no dice. The measurements just weren't working. I even tried to draft one on my own. And decided to work to maybe anther size like a 4 or 5 inch block.

Too many of not the right size

I found some blocks in two of my miniature quilt books that would work, one even looked like it was where Jeanneke's block came from. But after inadequately tracing a couple I gave that idea up.

So I went back to working on the block she provided. And finally I got that printed out at a perfect 3 inches. Problem solved......whoa! Wait......NOOOOOOO! I printed 10 copies of the entire post.........Augh!

So now I have my 3 inch block. I decided to paperpiece it. I modified one part to make it easier to piece. And I began to cut some fabrics for the sizes. Only cut one wrong and had to rip only two pieces out. I always mess up the very first piece for some reason.

Pre-sorting the scraps

I was really proud of my little tiny tiny tiny house. I showed it to Frank. He looked at it and said, it doesn't look like hers on the computer here. How are you going to fix it? Aughhh!

The second one was easier, and the third was much better. It will be a lot easier to chain piece the sections. So I spent a couple of hours going through my Bonnie Hunter Scrap System and cutting up some scrap pieces to make about 100 of these tiny babies.

Pieces cut for about 100

It will be an impressive quilt. Maybe one that will make everyone at the quilt go, "Ahhhhhhhhh!" during show and tell. I can see it now, when I unfold the quilt, they all collectively gasp in amazement at the beauty of my tiny tiny houses. And they are all astonished at my ability to sew such tiny tiny houses. It will be a wonderful feeling, standing up there, basking in the glory of the collective amazement.......oh, but I digress.

I cannot just do one a day, I will do more. I can see how people are hand piecing these, they are so tiny! I love them though.

This is my last design wall of 2011. Next week I will gladly enter 2012 and cross my fingers for a much better year!

glen

Build a Scrappy House in 2012

2011-12-26T11:16:00.012-06:00

"Friends are the fruit cake of life - some nutty, some soaked in alcohol, some sweet - but mix them together and they're my friends."

I read this the other day, can't remember where now, but I loved it. And in honor of my friends I thought me might just play together a bit every day.

We sit and watch Whose Line Is It Anyway every night. I have seen them a thousand times but they are still hilariously funny. When I watch TV however, I must be doing something else. I used to crochet with cotton thread the little things like doilies and edgings. But I can't see that close anymore.

I have done quilling with paper, cutting up my scrap leftovers, studying, reading and cooking while watching TV. Paying bills, massaging a dog or two or three. But I digress.

Lately, I would do handwork like bindings. I had several quilts stacked up waiting to be bound. Then last year I hand quilted the Lemon Lime Quilt. All done now, I put the Blue Jean Quilt together and got red cotton to hand quilt it with. But I can't seem to find the red.

So now I use my IPad to surf the quilting sites or play word games while I watch. And I came across this fabulous blog about building houses out of scraps in 2012. Jeanneke is from the Netherlands and came up with the idea of doing a house a day and a larger house on Leap Day. Her quilt is fabulous. And I immediately lusted after one like it. I am SOOOOO in this project.

If anyone would like to join me in this I can set up a linky thing to allow you to link your houses for the week to one place and we could show off our work on a set day each week. Like Judy L does with her Stash Report and the Design Wall.

The blocks are 3 inches by 3 inches and are just regular houses. Some people are paper piecing them, some are hand sewing them, some are doing it the machine way. Some are making them a bit larger. I think you should practice on a couple and see if you like them this small. One person said she could not work with that size and upped hers to 5 inches using EQ technology.

Jeanneke said if you do a three inch block, you can get all 5 house piece from a 5 inch charm square. That is an incentive to do it small.

The houses can be done in any fashion you want them. Scrappy like this one. All one color, it would be breathtaking in rainbow pattern or even one color on brilliant white. You decide. Controlled colors, or not. You are the contractor.

If you want to sashing and cornerstones to be all the same fabric then you can set it aside now or wait till you get a grouping and see what you want it to be. I am unsure right now, so I guess I will wait. I do like her black sashing though......

If you want to be WOWed, check out her quilt. That is what I am lusting after!

http://buildinghousesfromscraps.blogspot.com/

Jeanneke will start on Jan 1, 2012. I plan to follow along and group with you here, because the end date to sign up on her blog was 12-15-11. I can post back to her blog with our main link so we will be involved. Do you have any idea how many people are in her group? over 1200. Yes. All those zeros!

You can get her pattern in a link on the side bar and she does have an English translation pattern.

So, join me in building a house a day for the next year. It will be spectacular! You bet!

glen

Christmas is Over

2011-12-25T18:19:00.002-06:00

There is always a sadness in the air when the sun sets on Christmas Day. I remember one year I was in 5th grade. My beloved Ganny had died the year before and Papa was in Houston with his mistress, whom he had kept hidden for all those years before. He came to New Orleans and brought some presents for Kenny and me. His presents were usually stuff he

had rounded up from old houses and junk shops and reworked. This year it was radio units for both of us. I was in my bed, my parents came in to tuck me in and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was playing on that radio. My dad wanted to turn it off, but my mother said, let it finish. Christmas is over when you turn it off.

I have never forgotten that moment. And now, Christmas is over. And I always feel sad.
We were at Carrie's house for lunch/dinner with Andrew's parents Bobby and Fayne, and his brother and wife Michael and Amanda. No Tristan this year, so his present went home with Amanda.
Carrie's house was beautifully decorated. The table was elegant. Everything was wonderful. She has such a way with putting things together, her house looks like a picture in a magazine. I guess that is what she is good at doing, such a creative and artistic mind.
She had Brussels sprouts, collard greens cooked in bourbon, au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, bow tie broccoli salad. Fayne brought spiral ham, spaghetti and cheese and sweets. I supplied some chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie and biscotti. It was a fine feast.
After dinner we gathered and distributed presents. Andrew opened his BBQ grill (we all pitched in and bought him a really nice one), Carrie opened pearls from Andrew and a Kitchenaid Mixer from me.

Our present from Carrie was interesting. She told me when I opened it I was going to feel violated. I was totally intrigued at that statement. I opened the wrapping to find the oil painting of the plantation that hangs in my dining room. She had "stolen" it from the house and we had no clue! Taped to the frame was a voucher for a weekend in that very same plantation!

And now Christmas is over. The sun has set on the day. And I am sad. The worst part is my brother has not even called or sent a Christmas card or contacted me about our mother. I wonder where his kharma is sitting tonight.

Merry Christmas until next year, glen

Happy Holidays to all

2011-12-25T10:33:00.000-06:00

My street in snow

This year we did not put up a tree because this is not a happy year. Frank did put up some lights on the outside of the trees for me must to let people know we were still in here.

Here is a tree from some year in the past.

Spillway opens due to massive flooding

I hope your Holidays are fun and all you want them to be. Let's look to 2012 for a new beginning.

Here are some photos from the year past.

LOts of CAAWS activities

Easter at the Plantation

glen, Frank, Chloe the Smelly Basset and DiNozzo the Over Effusive Basset

My beautiful friend Diane from Early School

The loss of Ralphie Tebbe

Losing my beautiful boy Dutch

Matt wins the Regional Science Fair

Tropical Storm LEE

Lighting the way for Papa Noel and DiNozzo is Jewish

2011-12-24T11:22:00.000-06:00

In Louisiana, we have a lot of traditions that separate us from the rest of the world. And most are designed to encourage drinking and partying till the wee hours of the morning. One such traditions are the bonfires on Christmas Eve along the river. Mississippi River, that is, the ONLY river of any importance.

So the Cajuns build these mighty structures on the levee and on Christmas Eve, they light them. Drinking and dancing and playing music as only Cajuns can do! The purpose of the bonfires is to light the way for Papa Noel to come to their homes.

Huey P. Long's
Sunshine Bridge to Nowhere behind

These structures are magnificent and huge and now require a permit to build. Every once in a while one will collapse and kill a couple of people so they build them often in memory of someone. Like this one. Most are pyramid shaped but some do get quite elaborate.

What precipitated this was a picture in the paper showing 5 structures on the levee in Convent, east of us. Frank travels the plants all along the river so he knew just where these were. We tossed the bassets in the car and headed out. I have no idea where Convent is, so I took along a DiNozzo Throw Up Kit just in case he did the nasty like when we went to the Santa pictures in New Roads in the rain. We never found the bonfires.

We found only these two structures, but we found that DiNozzo cannot ride in a car for more than PetsMart distance. The dog park is closer than PetsMart, so he is fine going there.

And we decided that since he tossed his cookies both times related to a Christian Festival, he must be Jewish. We knew that Dutch was a Baptist.

Just look at how pathetic DiNozzo looks. Chloe was trying to soothe him by laying her head on him. We had to stop and clean out the car in Burnside. We turned around and took DiNozzo home after that. He looks so bad, I felt so sorry for him. You know, he is definitely related to Frank! Too bad they both can't drive

Happy Hanukkah all you Bassets out there!

glen

Sewing (what is today? oh yeah) Friday

2011-12-23T16:42:00.000-06:00

Frank has been off most of the week and will be off into next week. He has a ton of vacation stacked up that he can't pass through to next year. He can carry about 1/2 over but he has been in this business for 35 years and gets a ton of time off!

So he is home.....and you know what that means. I have been out running **his** errands with him for the last two days. I run errands for **us** by myself all the time but he can't go into the grocery story without a uterus nearby.

I cajoled him into helping me sweep the floors so I could mop this morning. He did a lousy job, says you need a uterus to sweep well. I mopped well, so I guess it is true.

I rewarded myself with an afternoon of sewing. I had the dog quilt that has been sitting around here waiting for a back and quilting. So now it is done. I just did it on my domestic Husky. Simple straight lines in a chevron. I pieced the back using some fabric from my stash. A nice large dog print and some yucky green that sort of went with the dog colors. Are you not impressed that I have a space in the middle of my quilt room CLEANED OUT enough to almost accommodate a lap quilt? Yes, impressed you should be.

The Dog Quilt will go to one of these places:

1. The staff at the nursing home,

2. Southbound for their Regional Specialty, or

3. CAAWS for some award, or

4. The boys who live with their momma in my rent house.

Have not decided yet. I got the boys and their momma a gift card from Walmart but forgot bring it by. I need to do it tomorrow before Christmas.

The front of the quilt is one of those 1600 Strip Race Quilts made from about 38 dog prints I have collected over the years. I still have dog prints. But this one looks pretty intense, so I won't do this pattern with the rest of them.

Sewing feels good. Tomorrow Frank said he will help me tune my mid-arm and work on the tension so I can put some quilts to bed on that one. Hee, hee. He may just grow some ovaries before this vacation is over.

glen

15 Minutes with Norma's scraps

2011-12-23T07:39:00.000-06:00

Well, it was more like two hours, but it was still the concept and involved Norma's scraps. She gave me a bag of scraps when we were sewing on Tuesday. I have always wanted someone to give me a bag of their scraps. Don't know why, but I read on other blogs about the "wonderful bag of scraps" someone gave somebody and they made a prize winning quilt. So I have always wanted someone's bag of scraps!

I began to sew the pieces together and worked diligently for several hours. At some point I decided it needed to become a pillow. I had purchased some pillow forms with the big idea of making pillows for everyone for Christmas, but that crashed and burned. So I still had them. Next year....I swear....I will start my Christmas stuff in June!

Anyway. Back to the pillows.

I had been reading some tutorials on pillows and the various ways of doing them. In the end I just made the envelope and stuffed the form inside, like a reverse birthing. Then I forced myself to immediately sew the opening closed. If that didn't happen right then and there, it was still be open for the next three years.

Oh, and I just thought about this. I could have added the scraps from Dan and Amber's quilts. Darn, Darn, Darn. Then I could have given them that to go with their quilts.

I did finish the quilt top.......thanks to PAULA! She was my cutting and ironing angel for two workdays!

Thanks Paula!

glen

I can't wait for 2011 to be over

2011-12-22T21:22:00.001-06:00

And hopefully things will stop coming at me so fast and furious. and I can get some quilting done. Every year I promise myself to begin christmas presents in June but I never do. Do you?

My mom's nurse called me this morning and said it looked like the cast was too tight and her toes were turning purple. They had gotten her an appointment for the ortho doc this afternoon. The doc said things looked fine, but he cut the cast off and replaced it with another one not so tight.

Her leg looks like it is healing well. And her toes won't fall off now.

And here is my 15 minutes of fame over at Taco Boudreaux's new restaurant.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Taco-Boudreauxs/319031374788747

Check me out!! The very first customer!! Good food. And good service. I hope the Restauraunt has a great future

glen

Lose Weight at Walmart?

2011-12-22T14:57:00.002-06:00

Prevention Magazine says you can if you do these things:

1. Park way way way out! Walking in can burn calories because aerobic exercise is the best way to lose weight.

2. Start shopping in the Produce Dept. Veggies and fruits are naturally fat free and low calorie so going here first will definitely help you lose weight. Cooking fresh is way much healthier than canned or frozen stuff with additives.

3. Walk the perimeter of the store. Walmarts average 185,000 feet square so that is about 1/2 mile and with your walking to and from your car you will have nearly 3/4 of a mile with no effort at all.

4. Buy Great Value brands. Walmart has lowered sodium by 25% and fats by 10% in its store brand. But make sure you look at calories before you buy those cookies!

5. Buy exercise equipment at Walmart. If you need something shipped, have it shipped to the store you get free shipping! Save money and burn calories.

I guess you CAN lose weight at Walmart! LOL

glen

Mystery Quilt!

2011-12-21T09:53:00.001-06:00

I have the Mystery Quilt decided for River City. I talked with the pattern Author yesterday and she graciously gave me permission to use her beautiful quilt pattern for the guild. She said this was the first time anyone had asked her to do this, and we talked about how some of the other pattern authors had handled my other requests.

I am so excited to to have this beautiful quilt as a Mystery. Of course it will be very different from the last two. The simple blocks make a secondary pattern that will WOW everyone at the very end. So I am pleased with my choice on this one.

Can't wait to see how it turns out? Me either! LOL. And you certainly know that the pillow shown is not mine, not my type of thing, So that is a mystery too!

glen: and it seems to be a requirement around my house that no dog should have four good legs. DiNozzo went into the crate yesterday perfectly fine while I was at lunch. Then when he came out of the crate he did not use his back leg all afternoon. I gave him Rimadyl around 4 and he began to use it near supper time. Can you belive this? I told him whatever he had better not be terminal!

Quilting today

2011-12-20T09:18:00.000-06:00

Today is quilting day with Paula and Norma. I have one to finish up and several baskets to make still for Christmas. I will be working hard and furiously on these challenges to get them finished by the deadlines I need!

Another reason I have no time to sew......

2011-12-18T20:22:00.000-06:00

For the last two days CAAWS has done the Santa Photos at PetsMart. Friend Dan was the Santa again and I took pictures today. Mari took them yesterday.

Here are a few great ones.

Hugeaux the GrandDog

And of course, my beautiful GrandDog Hugeaux.

I am totally tired.

glen

Now I really feel old

2011-12-18T09:41:00.001-06:00

One of our dearest friends passed away several years ago. Janice was an incredible personality. If she was in a room it was filled with not only her but pure love as well. She was generous with her self beyond a fault. She loved deeply and lived every second with gusto and bravado. When the illness took her, the world lost a truly good soul.

she'll probably kill me
for posting this one!
But I do love it

I had the privilege of being friends with her and Howard and their three girls since the late 70's. And through those years I watched the girls grow up and become beautiful women and incredible mothers.

One daughter, Tammy, send me this. It was an incredible Christmas present and makes me miss her momma so much when I hear it. For no other reason than that Janice would be so proud of her granddaughter.

Tammy's daughter, Vivian, has an incredible voice. I never realized how good she is. This is her audition tape to the major music schools in the country. Keep in mind, she is just entering college next year so that makes her about 17 or 18 years old. Enjoy what will certainly be the beginning of an incredible career.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=aad3f09bc191996d&resid=AAD3F09BC191996D!138&parid=AAD3F09BC191996D!136&authkey=!AFe94yOXwwVlb3Q

Me and Santa and Amber went to the Nusring Home today

2011-12-16T16:52:00.001-06:00

And spread some cheer!

Unfortunately it did not cheer me up. While I was there the nutritionist told me the megase my mother is taking to increase her appetite is not working and she continues to lose weight. They can only administer it for another week then the only other option is a feeding tube. I have already vetoed that. My mother was very upset about Stan's kids putting one in him. I know she would not want it for herself.

Then Just as I arrived at the nursing home, i get a call from the vet saying that Dutch's ashes were in and I could pick him up.

You can see why I don't need any more crap in my life right now. Charlene stopped by this morning with some of her wonderful hugs. She was on her way from one daughter's place to another's. I am sending good healthy wishes to her sick daughter. She couldn't let me be the only one at the hospital this week! LOL Not a way to have a competition, dearie!

Like I said, this year has not been a particularly good one, but it is nearly over. Paula and I plan to stay drunk until it is over! LOL.

The CAAWS Volunteer Appreciation Party was nice. Gave out a lot of awards. Had fun. Ate good food. Here we are enjoying not having anyone immediately sick or dying or mean.

glen: laying in a supply of heavy alcohol for the next two weeks!

Geaux Promotions - Top Dogs in What They Do

2011-12-15T10:31:00.000-06:00

If you need some promotional item for your business or organization, these are the guys you need to go to. They go above and beyond the call of duty. And they are just downright nice guys. And they are local. And they care. And they love animals!

Geaux Promotions

Chris or Alex

http://www.geauxpromos.com/

Baton Rouge - (225)924-3289 (92-GEAUX)

New Orleans - (504)208-5100

Isn't that Baton Rouge phone number great?

I picked up the Volunteer Awards for CAAWS today and they not only had upgraded the glasses, but they matched CAAWS with a customer who graciously donated the money for the entire order.

Talk about incredible.

Thanks Geaux Guys
and Magnolia Title

So give these guys a call. They are worth it! Thanks guys, from the bottom of our furry little paws!

A proud Momma brags on her girl

2011-12-14T09:41:00.001-06:00

Carrie usually calls me on her way home from work just to check in and see what is happening. Yesterday she had some exciting news!

She passed the test for her licensing! YES! Whoo Hoo!

To take the licensing exam you must graduate from college with an Interior Design degree and you need to work under a licensed designer or architect for about 3 years. And pass the exam of course. The exam is a grueling 4 or 5 part exam over two days.

You cannot call yourself an Interior Designer unless you hold this license. So all those who have that behind their names are licensed. And now Carrie is too! Whoo hoo!

See my beautiful girl there? (She looks like me of course.) She landed a job with Crump Wilson Architects just out of school. She had worked for Dixon Smith Interiors while she was in school. They loved her there and she got lots of good experience working in some of the finest homes in Baton Rouge.

May 2008

LSU Graduation

And the other pet peeve I have is that a lot of people think Interior Designers do sofas and curtains. But that is actually an Interior Decorator. They decorate. What Carrie does as an Interior Designer is to study work space and living spaces and design the lighting, the people flow, where to put the walls inside the building, what materials to use to build the building and she works with the architect to complete the building. She actually manages job sites as well.

I am so proud of her! All those years of drawing houses and walking though the furniture stores and vacant houses have paid off. She loves her job and now she has crossed another bridge to a greater future!

You go Girl!

Love Mom!

A Day of Sewing With A Friend - ohhhh it feels so good!

2011-12-13T20:01:00.002-06:00

Today I will spend at a friend's house on a mini retreat sewing all day long! It feels good to be looking forward to something like this.

After spending a couple of nights in the hospital with my mom it will be good to be sewing again. And not worrying about how Dutch is doing when I am away. Yes, this will be good and I am glad for it.

Yesterday I received Dutch's pawprint from my vet so I know his ashes will be coming in a week or so. It brought a few tears to my eyes for sure.

Off to get ready and pack my stuff up.

Thanks to the help of my good friend Paula, I was able to complete all but two of the blocks for the BQ quilt today. It is awesome! I am totally in love with this pattern and these fabrics. They are batiks from the Laundry Basket Batiks from Moda and are in the Sweet 16 and Believe groupings. They are perfectly marvleous.

I see that they do not photograph as good as they look. In person the colors are perfectly blended with maroons, greens, browns and golds. I am so sorry it does not look as good here. Just take my word for it. Paula is not keen on batiks but she fell in love with this one!

Like an Indian Giver, I will give the quilt top as a present to the person for whom it was intended and then take it back to complete the quilting. It will be just wonderful!

glen

Judy L's UFO Challenge

2011-12-12T20:55:00.001-06:00

Well, since I got ~~so many done in 2011~~ not many done in 2011 I figured I needed to do it again this year. So here is the list of the ones I ~~will definitely do~~ probably won't do either in 2012.

1. Elephants fro Sri Lanka
2. OUthouse blocks (yes, they did surface at some point and hopefully I can find them again when the # is called)
3. Christmas Scrappy
4. Scrappy X blocks
5. Polar Bears
6. Cow I and Cow II
7. BQ Quilt
8. Paperpieced Cats
9. Blue Jean quilt
10. Feathers
11. Any one of Judy's Quilts (maybe the Connect the Dots class)
12. Any one of Bonnie Hunter's Quilts

Design Wall Monday 12-12-11

2011-12-12T07:44:00.000-06:00

I spent a little time, well 4 hours actually, cleaning up the center of my quilt room yesterday. It was something I really needed to do since I can barely get in there anymore. Everything that has no home ends up in MY quilt room

I have not sewn in such a long time because I have been spending time with Dutch in his end days. He lost the battle to bone cancer on Tuesday and I spent the rest of the week crying and walking with the bassets in what seems like an empty house. I miss my beautiful boy.

My design wall is not for publication this morning. It is a present for someone who reads this blog, so I can't show it to you or tell you who is the lucky person! But you can have this hint! The countdown to Christmas is facing me, and this year my quilted gifts will be small. This is the only quilt I will give.

Matt, my biggest quilt fan, will have no quilt from me for probably the first time in his life. But I may can make it up with these fabulous fabrics after Christmas!

Hop on over to Judy L's to see more design wall mondays.

I did make some Panettone, a traditional Italian Fruited Bread, this Saturday. Against all odds. I have never made it in the new convection oven so it was a bit done on the outside. But it was totally perfect on the inside! DiNozzo jumped up and ate half of one bread as it was rising so I ended up with one large loaf and one small loaf. And I didn't tell Frank. I know the Swissys would never have done anything like that.

glen

Baking Disclaimer

2011-12-11T10:46:00.000-06:00

I have to say this. While the Panettone was waiting to go into the oven I turned my back and DiNozzo ate 1/2 of one of the loaves.

I was so angry at him I could have killed him.

So now I have a large loaf and a small loaf.

glen: we won't tell Frank.......................

Baking for Christmas

2011-12-10T20:19:00.001-06:00

I am baking several fabulous items for inclusion in the Christmas baskets for this year. I made a group of Double Chocolate Biscotti that has a hint of cinnamon and lots of chocolate chips. Frank was cleaning up all the crumbs that happily formed when I made the cuts for the individual pieces. Look into the oven and see the logs baking. With biscotti you first bake it into two logs then you cut the logs on the diagonal to make the pieces. You can see the almonds and the chocolate chips in the pieces.

Then every year I make a wonderful old Italian Christmas Bread called Panettone. It is like a fruitcake crossed with a brioche. Filled with anise! I love the anise. I usually also make an Anisette Toast but not tonight. Maybe tomorrow after the parade.

Here is the Panettone rising. Yes, it is a yeast bread. It is sitting on a heating pad. (That greatly upset Frank who thought I was going to burn the kitchen down.)

The second rising is going on right now. For some reason this dough is not as firm as it should be. I am hoping that doesn't matter when it is baking. Hmmm..........

It has the same citron fruits as a fruitcake so I generally make a fruitcake or two as well. SO.......

I do have two fruit cakes in the oven as we speak. They need to bake for three hours so it is time to rest and type up this blogpost.

I love this cookbook. It is the one my mother had when I was a young girl learning to cook by making desserts for the family. I cooked most of them listed in this book over the years. And I still cook from it. My Panettone recipe is from its pages.

Fruitcake is mixing in the bowl and the citron has soaked in Coconut Rum overnight. The recipe wanted dark rum but I only had the coconut. The coconut is from the last cruise to the Caribbean so it is probably well rested!

Here are the fruitcakes as they bake in a slow oven.

I think I will dance a bit, Frank is watching that Tom Hanks movie where he is lost on an island with a volleyball. So I guess I will dance with my short dogs and wait for the fruitcake timer.

Yes, I get the joke, I guess I am a little fruitcake crazy for dancing with the dogs!

glen

Dutch was a Baptist

2011-12-10T10:25:00.000-06:00

Yep, Dutch was a Baptist. How do I know? Easy. He did not approve of any dancing at all. If anyone danced or exercised he would go crazy. He would bark and jump and go after you with full intentions of knocking you over to make you stop dancing. He was not as definitive about card playing, but for sure there was to be NO DANCING in our house if he could help it.

Making sure
no one dances inside

Making sure no one
dances on the carport

Not sure why, but he always did that. I even did an article on extinction training using his aversion to me exercising for the Southern SennTiments Magazine. Obviously it really didn't work on Dutch. Even until a couple of days before his last, he rallied from his bed to tell me not to play so rough with DiNozzo because it simulated too closely with dancing for his tastes.

So it was with some hesitation that I purchased Just Dance for the Wii. I had been wanting it, but respected Dutch's religious preferences. And for the first time in 10 years, Frank and I danced in our living room.

We sweated and huffed and puffed. But it was hysterical! So we decided to dance tomorrow too.

Sometimes the only bed
leftover was the small one

He was somewhat superstitious as well. He did not venture under ladders because of the bad luck that awaited him on the other side. And overall in his life he was one pretty lucky dog.

The bassets? I am not sure what religious beliefs they adhere to, but it is definitely not Baptist! They dance with abandon!

glen

Lost

2011-12-09T11:23:00.000-06:00

I finally feel stronger. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and then laid on the sofa all day wrapped in Bassets. This morning I decided I needed to get back into the world so I made a quilting date for Tuesday, a lunch date with Carrie today and thought to clean the bathrooms.

Cleaning the bathrooms sounds simple but it is a 2 hour job. One is pretty quick and easy but the master requires intricate work. The huge tub and all the corners and tilework is jut time consuming. But it got done and my house smells pleasantly like pine oil. Sort of Christmassy even!

Yesterday I made a Santa Sack for my friend who will be the Santa at the PetsMart Photos on Dec 17 and 18 at Millerville for CAAWS. He has a Santa Suit but wanted a Santa Sack to put some stuff in when he goes to the nursing homes. He will be at the Staff Party for Nottingham where my mother is now. And he will visit the residents after that. Then he will go and visit the place where our friend George was in his last months. I went to the Dollar Store and filled his Santa Sack with a lot of goodies like coloring books, bright squishy balls, children's picture books with bright colors, card games with bright colors and my favorite things those woozle sticks that make a weird sound when you turn them.

Of course I didn't even think to take a picture so I will have to do so when I see him next. Basically I made an oversized pillowcase like that Hot Dog Method but before I rolled it up I made two button holes in the top section just above the flange. I put that to the outside. It took some thinking to get it right so I suggest you put it all together first so it is right the first time.

I have never made button holes on the Husqvarna. And was too lazy to ~~get the instruction book out~~ find the instruction book in my messy mess of a room. So I tried a few things, that obviously didn't work. And ended up making button holes the old fashioned way.

I threaded some white cotton rope from the ribbon section, you know that soft stuff, I have no idea what it is called. But I put that thought the top section of the pillow case and it made a fabulous Santa Bag.

I love the picture of the two Santas on the very top. That backdrop was hysterical. After we set it up, took all 200 sets of photos and sent everything out for printing, when the pictures came back, it looked like two boobs in just about every picture that wasn't a close-up. LOL. We still laugh about that one.

glen

glen

Chloe in Santa's lap, Dutch and Bonnie Doon

He was walking on all four feet when he crossed that bridge

2011-12-06T18:36:00.000-06:00

Bonnie Doon confirmed it, Dutch was walking strong on all four legs as he crossed the bridge tonight.

His leg had swelled and I just couldn't let him hurt any longer. It was time for him to find Bonnie Doon. And she waited for him with Pepsi nearby.

He celebrated his 10th birthday a week ago today. And surprised every vet at the office. No one thought he would make it this long. He stayed with me for 6 months past what the vets gave him. Osteosarcoma is painful yet he never showed pain until two days ago. I knew it in his face. He could no longer get up by himself and he started slipping on the patio on the way to pee. Amazingly, that dog never messed in the house all though this, he always made it outside. He was that good.

He never wanted help, if I touched him he would stop and move away. So I let him maneuver on his own as he could and just made sure he was steady.

He was my Champion, he was my protector and he was my baby boy. What, oh what will I do without him now? Bonnie Doon, take good care of him, he is sometimes afraid and needs your strength to help him.

I love you all, my beautiful dogs, my life. Bonnie Doon and Pepsi is there with him. Bonnie is the one in charge and Pepsi is the quiet girl on the sidelines. I feel her in the wind that blows my cheek tonight.

Walk strong, my boy, walk strong. I love you with all my heart.

one of the best pictures I have ever taken

2011-12-06T07:07:00.001-06:00

This is from the cruise to Key West and two places in the Bahamas. I find it interesting that the most beautiful photo from the entire cruise, and maybe the best picture I have ever taken is of the morning of our return to New Orleans.

Just look.

Design Wall Monday 12-5-11

2011-12-05T07:08:00.001-06:00

Finally, finishing a UFO and actually getting to work on something. In the essence of time, I just used my domestic and did meanders for the quilting.

This will go to the Christmas Party at the nursing home my mother stays in called Nottingham Regional Rehab Center. They will use it as an employee gift. I have a couple more I would like to finish and get out as well, so they may get about 3 or 4 of them if I have time.

I used the leftovers to make the back of the quilt. And it still needs to have the binding sewn on and down. And I guess a label should go on there as well. The backing gave me fits. See the light fabric in the middle? It did a fine job of bunching up while I was quilting from the tops side and I had to take the entire section out and redo it. Pain in the patooty!

Anyway, it is one of my favorite guys. I love the fabrics, they were ones I bought on sale about 5 years ago and hoarded them until last year. Then I hoarded the top because I loved the fabrics still!

I am always afraid that when I cut up the fabrics I won't like them as much anymore. So I often hate to cut up my fabrics.........do you do that?

glen

Stash Busting

2011-12-04T19:52:00.000-06:00

I want to join in on the two groups who are recording their Stash Busting efforts this year. So in preparation for the beginning of the year I am buying all I can get my credit card to hold right now! LOL.

Not really, although Frank says it seems that way. I could not resist some of the great sales that have come my way in the last two weeks and consequently two packages have arrived at my doorstep so far.

One is greys and neutrals. Can't wait to see what this turns out to be. Have you seen the newest Quiltmaker Magazine? There is one in there that is calling my name and this fabric seems to be just the ticket. Can you see the zebras in there? Oh yes! And the rocks with the ice will be part of the wolf quilt that will be done this year.

And the other order was some fun fun fun stuff like the leaves. Lipstick pink and flaming orange! Hmmm. The photo does not seem to show any great differences but believe me they are different.

Racoons

The rest of the boxes filled out two collections. One is the most adorable racoon and the other is farm animals. I must have animals on the brain right now.

Farm animals

I love them both. And notice they are both greens. The farm animals are fat quarters in the entire collection of 17 fabrics. the Racoons are half yards in the whole collection. The stripes may just end up in the Kaffe Fassett Stripe deal I have going on.

New and fresh. Modern and GREEN! Whoa.......did someone say green?

glen

Biking, beets and just being Dantastic!

2011-12-04T15:08:00.000-06:00

I am still looking for a good mystery quilt for the guild this coming year. If you have any ideas for me, let me know. If I have to pay for one, that is fine, I have done that before. I need one that will take us out 9 or 10 months. I am considering a paper pieced beauty, but am still want to look at traditional options.

Because the threat of rain was fairly high for Sunday, we hit the bike trails on Saturday.

We headed to the Farmer's Market to pick up some beets. Those beets I got last week were so good I wanted more. I told the Farmer how good they were and he doubled my batch! I got 4 batches of beets for $4.00. Can't BEET that with a stick! LOL. (Don't you just love veggie humor?) See the beets sticking out of his bike pack. I also got some sweet sweet Meyer Lemons.

At the Arsenal Museum we rode up the steep embankment that holds the cannon that overlook the Capitol Lakes. The Lakes reflect the Capitol Building and provide lots of trains and park space.

Here are Frank and I sitting on a cannon.

There were lots of families taking pictures for their Christmas Cards. We rode by one woman breastfeeding an infant on a bench and the boys were all like.....did you see that? We have all been married for a thousand years, you would have thought they would have seen that before, huh? It still knocked Dan over the embankment!

We headed back to the State Capitol Building again but this time BEET a path toward the Governor's Mansion for a quick wave to Bobby Jindal. He must have been BEET and sleeping in because we did not see a soul!

We rode past the Dept of Environmental Quality Labs into the Industrial Section behind the Mansion. It was quite interesting, not a person was around on a Saturday. We did see a couple of police cruisers on their BEETS through the area just making sure everything was fine so we didn't feel so alone.

We wanted to eat at Capitol Grocery in Spanish Town but they were not serving food on the weekends. See the sad flamingos? They are the symbol of the Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade. We headed toward Chelsea's instead.

At Chelsea's we literally ate under the overpass. That is the front door you see there. The food was incredible and we decided to head back there via the golf course trail next week and get the food we didn't order this time. Dan said the place was Dan-tastic. We all agreed, but Amber gave him the evil eye. What can we not say?, she asked. Dan-tastic, he replied. But it really was Dan-tastic!

Then on to Carrie's house to make biscotti for her office. I also brought the makings of almond bark. We made Chocolate Almond Biscotti, Chocolate Cherry Almond Biscotti and Almond and Orange Biscotti. My favorite was the Chocolate Almond but the Chocolate Cherry was superb. The two long loafs are the Chocolate Cherry ones waiting for their second baking. i still have three more I want to make for this year.

The boys watched LSU end their season's play without a single loss by BEETING the Georgia Bulldogs. LSU fans are so fickle, they love winners and hate losers. When the LSU season is 11 and 1 they want to fire the coach for losing that one game.

glen

Edwin Edwards

2011-12-02T23:07:00.009-06:00

Flash back in time to 1969. I was living down the street from Frank and his family and he had just asked me out. I had these go-go boots that were white and came to mid calf and boy were they the rage. Everyone who was anyone had them. I saved my baby sitting money to buy me that pair of boots. Maybe it was even 1968. Nancy Sinatra had a number one hit about them. These boots are made for walking and they are gonna walk all over you...da da da da da na na na. I can still hear her singing it.

Frank later told me he wanted to ask me out earlier, but he hated those boots and refused to date a girl who wore them.

My dad was all over Nancy for her anti-war stand in the Viet Nam War. . He was a Navy man from WWII and neither he nor my mom liked our music or our generation--- Elvis or the Woodstock or the Beatles. So we felt like they didn't understand us. And they didn't. We were the Hippie Generation.

My dad, a staunch Republican had registered as a Democrat in Louisiana in those years. In Louisiana we had a primary system that held if you were not a Democrat you would not get to vote in any of the primaries because of the lack of Republican candidates. So everyone registered as Democrat. Dave Treen was the first Republican Governor in a long long time. Like since 1877. And After Edwards, came Buddy Roemer, who you are hearing a bit about in the current Presidential Race. Also a Republican. And I know his wife Scarlett. I went to their wedding, something about young blondes as wives of these politicians.

When I turned 18 in 1969 my father advised me to register as a Democrat even though he did not believe in their advocacy. I took my first stand against him and registered as a Republican. Even in those days I knew where my heart lay.

So why Edwin Edwards? Edwards, now 86 years old, served as Governor of Louisiana for four terms. Two consecutive terms as governor with David Treen in the middle, and two consecutive terms again. He was as loved as he was corrupt. He was well dressed, flamboyant and corrupt. He served 10 years in federal prison for 17 counts of racketeering, extortion and money laundering along with his son Stephen who was convicted of 18 counts. Basically he was convicted for being paid off for issuing gambling licenses in the state. Although he is guilty of much more, they were never able to convict him of anything else. Frank served on the Grand Jury that investigated his background at one point but was not able to convict him. Edwards frequently took trips to Las Vegas where he paid for his losses with briefcases full of cash money. He was very candid about his misdeeds often saying, it is illegal for them to give, but is it NOT illegal for me to receive! He is as slick as Slick Willie Clinton. And Louisiana drank the kool-aid. For four terms.

Edwards was there tonight at a fundraiser for the Shriner's Motorcade for Children. We were given tickets and were able to meet Edwards and his third wife Trina. Trina was a correspondent to the 85 year old Edwards in prison. Tonight, she worked the crowd like a politician, she surely bought herself a "position". Sexy and young, she brought Edwards water during his speech and yet danced with the good looking young Shriners for fun while he talked with the older crowd.

We got there early and introduced ourselves to the Governor. Frank told him he had worked for his campaign at LSUNO ( Louisiana State University at New Orleans or LSU-NO now turned UNO -University of New Orleans) during his first campaign run for Governor. Back in Frank's unenlightened days when the state was enamoured and drinking of the Edwards Charisma. Edwards was taken aback at first by Frank's statement, then said, that was in 1971. Frank, now the one taken aback, said , Yes, it was.

The old Coyote still is sharp. There are many in this state who would re-elect this man as Governor. He can't run, being a felon and all, but if he could, it would be a definite race for Bobby Jindal.

I think, also, of this man who controlled the state with a power beyond normal means, what he is now. Coming to events like this Shriner's Motorcycle Fundraiser with maybe 80 people, a wife who is obviously a gold digger looking for a life beyond his grave and Democrats who still fawn over him when he speaks.

Kharma............

glen: but I still paid $20 to get my picture taken with him! You bet that means points in Louisiana, still to this day! Of course, I'd had about 37 glasses of wine and my dad was spinning in his grave by now......

That bad dog of mine

2011-12-02T14:46:00.001-06:00

Guess who! Yep, DiNozzo.

He has chewed yet another leash. But you would think that he'd be costing me a small fortune in Designer Doggy Leashes. Actually he is not costing me anything except shipping charges.

Lupine makes a wonderful line of dog collars and leashes and harnesses. You can find their line here:

Lupine Collars and Leads

They have a fabulous array of styles and colors. They retire designs and bring new ones out every year. You can still get some of the retired designs until they finish the roll of material.

The leads are sturdy, pretty and secure with a quick snap on device to hook up a wild and unruly dog jumping for joy at being walked. But the best part of the entire Lupine experience is the lifetime replacement guarantee. They are losing money on DiNozzo.

This is the third leash they have sent me. He keeps snacking on them. But they replace them at no charge to me and never ask questions. See on the tag where it says, "even if chewed"?? Dutch has had his for 10 years now. And it is his original one I might add.

DiNozzo has had three sine April. Need I say more?

I think if you need a new collar you should look at the Lupine assortment. Can't beat the guarantee!

glen and DiNozzo

Winners for the book giveaway

2011-12-01T08:07:00.000-06:00

Since only two of you were awake enough to post for the book giveaway, both are winners. I am sending out two books, not sure what the other one will be just yet, but each will get one.

Thanks Jill and Renee!

I have another couple of things to give away this Christmas season, so keep your eyes open for stuff!

glen

An Amazing Thing Happened Today

2011-11-29T08:51:00.000-06:00

Dutch turns himself
green somehow

Something happened today I thought would not have a snowball’s chance in you know where. It is the most amazing thing.

Dutch turns 10 today.

He cannot walk more than outside to pee or to come to the kitchen to eat. He sleeps most of the day. But he does not appear to be in much pain. I know he must hurt but he does not give indicators that he does.

He appears to be happy, as happy as a Dutch can be. He never was a happy or demonstrative dog. But he is still alert and watchful. And protecting his family. He had a serious growl fit from across the room when the photographer from Santa CAAWS delivered the photos for me to sort and mail out. He was definitely not happy with her.

Day he won his
Championship in Houston

Bonnie Doon
taught him that

He eats well, drinks and pees a lot, and sleeps well.

What more can a dog ask at 10 with terminal bone cancer that should have killed him 5 months ago?

My Dutch made it to his birthday. That is an amazing fact.

Bonnie Doon and Dutch playing

glen: and I still cry