Heat miser: heat me, sir!

We'd decided to keep the thermostat nice and low this winter. Things were going well (and we could see it in the heat bills) until Echo's arthritis started acting up and she could barely get around. So we turned the heat up, stationed the big comfy kitty pillow right in front of the heat vent, and added a space heater for good measure. (Of course Echo won't stay too long in any one place, and has since moved into a cardboard box in a different room, but Eisa sure loves it.)

Speaking of heat misers, we recorded and watched the Heat/Snow miser holiday special... was the original "Year without a Santa Claus" THAT bad? (IMDB says no.)

Here's a bit of the original here. LOVE that they got the original Heat Miser voice actor back 34 years later! Go, Mr Heat Miser, go!

I like quilts too

Truffle today

Click the photo to see a larger-than-life version, complete with dusty face from exploring under the bookshelf :)

Truffle's categories

Food:
- anything mom is eating (see also "toy")
- flying things (e.g., a moth)
- crawling things (e.g., a spider)
- anything that is sitting on the surface of the floor (watch the vacuum cleaner get a good workout!)
- anything that sticks out (e.g., pencil in a pencil cup, corner of a book, curtain holdbacks, etc. He is teething.)

Toy:
- anything mom is eating
- plastic eyedroppers
- anything that can be rolled with the paw
- water in a cup or bowl
- suds
- ice cubes
- a nail or a ding in the paint (see also "anything that sticks out")
- door knobs and handles
- Eisa's tail

New kit on the block

The tall, dark, and handsome (and somewhat cross-eyed) gentleman on the right is my new kitty, Truffle!

We had gone into the shelter to talk to someone about possibly fostering a cat... but after we met all the adult cats, the shelter manager took us to meet the kittens. I sat down and within 30 seconds, mr. kittenpants was up on my lap purring his little heart out. I knew I was dooooomed :).

I put in an application to adopt him the next day :)

(If you want to see Truffle in a silly mood, you can go to the other kitten's page here and click to view the video.)

Happy birthday, Eisa dear

Happy 17th birthday, Eisie!

Then:


Now:

Homes for snuggle quilts

We went down to a cat shelter today, and I brought two of the small kitty quilts I'd made a few months ago in honor of Finnegan. (I posted these earlier, as backdrops to a photo of a very expressive Echo, but if you missed them then, you can view them here, now.)

I gave the quilts to the shelter manager, and she was quite enthusiastic about them. (In fact, she encouraged me to think about selling my quilts, and even started brainstorming about places to do so locally. How nice of her! :))

The positive reaction made me feel good (unlike the lukewarm reaction of the other shelter), so I think if I end up making more of these small quilts, I'll be donating them here.

The mind at rest

I take great joy in wordplay and (sometimes terrible) puns, but always thought that was a waking phenomenon.

Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was out in the woods and stumbled upon four black bear cubs. They were all clustered together inside a hollow tree trunk, drowsily playful and very, very cute. My first impulse was to pet and snuggle them, but, having seen dozens of nature documentaries over the years, I had better sense than that. If there were cubs, there would be a mama bear not far behind.

And indeed it was so. A quick glance revealed mama bear on the horizon, heading my way, with clear intention in her gait. I yelped and took off as fast as I could go.

My friends, watching from a distance, didn't know what had happened at first. One moment I was peering curiously into a old tree trunk; the next, I was streaking across the field toward them at top speed. Then they saw the bear behind me and hightailed it on out of there after me.

In real life, a bear can run at a rate of approximately 30 m.p.h. Fortunately for us, this was apparently the world's slowest bear. We hurled ourselves through the doorway of a conveniently located wooden shack (love how these things appear just when you need them in a dream), slammed the door, and slumped to the floor, panting our sedentary lungs out.

Then I woke up... and thought how absolutely strange it was that I had dreamt of being chased by a bear. I hadn't been to the zoo. I hadn't even been in a toy store. My day had been entirely devoid of encounters with any kind of bear, real, fictional, or stuffed.

And then I realized my brain's inspiration: a conversation about mooning people and being mooned.

How does that fit?

I was streaking across a field with a "BEAR BEHIND."

O brain of silliness, I salute you!

Iterations

I promised to share the evolution of a quilt here when it was done. I'm not sure that it's all the way yet, but the layout is close enough (pre-border) for you to at least get a sense of things.

I began with the idea that I wanted to build a quilt using a standard split nine patch block. Making fabric choices somewhat at random can give a nice effect, but I chose instead to put it together square by square. (Click on any of the small photos to see a photo that is large enough to see the individual fabrics.)

This was the first iteration. You can see that, with the exception of the center, this version sticks pretty strictly to the split nine patch block.



After I slept on this idea, I decided that the sharp contrast between lights and darks was too sharp. I also found the yellow "propeller" in the center to be a pretty heavy handed "X marks the spot" thing. So I made the corners consistently dark, broke up the propeller blades, started replacing some of the lightest lights (like the ice blue polkadot) with darker fabrics. Here it is in the middle of implementing those changes. Already I'd be hard pressed to find a single split nine patch in the bunch.



Here I finished implementing the changes. Another improvement: the center is no longer surrounded by chunky rectangles, but now contains a pinwheel. Ah, much better.



At this point, there were a few color issues that were still bothering me, like the isolation of the light green squares, and the need to tweak some of the light oranges. Here I've switched out the pale blue triangles adjacent to the green squares for green triangles. Still thinking about the orange options...



...to be continued

Blurry 'Belle

Little Eisa is very unassuming, and never gets possessive of my quilts. However, I left this one on the kitchen floor for a while, between the tying and the trimming, and she went to sit on it a half-dozen times.

I snuck off and grabbed the camera, and managed to snap a single, blurry photo before she became self-conscious and left. Maybe I'll try to entice her back for another session after the quilt is done. Til then, here is my blurry Dorabelle!

Reading other people's blogs

Do you ever randomly look up and read about people online whom you used to know? Would you want to know if someone looked up and read about you?

A former classmate of mine wrote in to our alumni magazine with an update not long ago. He mentioned, among other tidbits, that he and his wife now have six kids.

I remembered having heard the names of the first three kids quite some years ago, and thought at the time that the parents had a certain naming flair. Being a good name geek, and always on the lookout for unusual naming choices, I was curious to know what they'd called the three younger kids, so I plugged their names into a search engine to see if I could find out.

It turns out that the family has a blog. It's well-written, engaging, funny, touching, and has lots of great photos of kids and sewing projects. They face some interesting challenges, and reading about those has made me think a lot too. I think I'll want to follow along with this blog in the future.

But I don't feel comfortable telling them I'm reading - somehow this feels like I'd be forcing myself on them or intruding into their lives. Is this wrongheaded? Since they have chosen to write about their lives online, they are clearly okay with having people read what they've written. They link to the blog from their ebay storefront - essentially, they are inviting every Tom, Dick, and Harry to pop in whenever they like.

But are the rules different when it's a Tom, Dick, or Harry whom you know? Would you want to know if someone you knew (even someone with whom you hadn't spoken in 10 years) were reading your blog? Or would you rather remain happily ignorant?

Great Scott!

The scottie quilt is done!



Now that the quilt has been delivered and I don't have to worry about giving away the surprise, I can also show you the backing (a charming print by Heather Ross). It may be hard to tell since the scan is a little bluer than the actual fabric, but the color of the scottie's ball on the front was selected to match the color of the brown doggy's ball on the back.

Quilt kits redux

Ever wonder what happened to the quilt kits that I made as gifts for people about a year and a half ago?

(Refresh your memory here by viewing kits 1-5, kits 6-9, and kit 10)

The following kits are done:
- Kit 1 (Tabitha's)
- Kit 2 (Heather's) << updated!
- Kit 5 (Karmen's). I've misplaced the photo of the finished quilt, but here is a photo of it in progress so you can see the border/backing she chose.)
- Kit 8 (closeup of Becca's) (and another showing the backing fabric) (Completed Sept 2009)


The following kits are in progress
- Kit 3 (Deserae's)


What a good job they're doing!

The quilt in question

If anyone is wondering what has happened to the creation of the 100 Good Wishes Quilt, I apologise for keeping you waiting. With the current rate of allocations, it will be 12 years before we meet the Panda. At that rate, it will never happen as we will be too old. So I am feeling a little disillusioned. I guess I need to see some good news before I get excited about the quilt.

Refocusing

I feel like I have not been making particularly good use of my time lately, so have been trying to refocus on my creative endeavors a bit.

"Things that are sitting on the To Do list" doesn't necessarily make for an interesting post, though, so I promise I'll keep it brief!

I was able to track down some of the fabric that I wanted for the backing of the scottie dog quilt. It is a very cute and happy print. I now have the whole thing sandwiched and pinned, and am in the process of quilting it in the ditch with variegated thread.

I am such a sucker for variegated thread. The color changes make it visually flicker in and out of the surrounding fabrics on the front, which adds a little bit of extra fun :)

Small world

Took time out from updating the board last weekend to go and give platelets. The woman across from me was a real champ - arrived later than I did but finished about 20 minutes earlier. (I have some issues with the anti-coagulant they use, so they have to do everything slower with me to make it work properly.)

We were chatting a bit afterwards. It turns out this was her first platelet donation. She had been inspired to come in to give after her dog passed away from lymphoma; this was something she felt would be a fitting tribute.

Small world!

Don't take my picture, mama!

Regarding snuggle quilts

To the relatives who have recently visited and admired the photos: Hi, and thanks for the kind words!

Regarding the supposed silliness of spending time on fancy quilts for animals, I don't know if it is a silly thing to do at all. I think the animals who have these in their cages just may end up getting a little more attention from human visitors. If you saw a colorful quilt in a kitty or puppy cage, wouldn't you want to pause and look? That would give the animal a little more time to charm you. Might you not then be a little more likely to bond with this pet and take him or her home? :)

I do have a few more snuggle quilts to photograph, but these will have to wait til the camera battery is up and running again. I may try giving these to the emergency vet clinic that took care of Finny. They were so nice to him, and I'd really wanted to do a little something for them too. We'll see!

Charlotte's web

"It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both." --E.B. White, the last line of Charlotte's Web.

I think from the first time we read Charlotte's Web, we think about it as a story of friendship. But given this last line, would it pay off to start from the beginning and think about it, too, as a story about the power of storytelling to make things happen?

The community came to view Wilbur the way they did through the words Charlotte chose to describe him.

Did Charlotte, by granting Wilbur the self-confidence that someone believed in him, and giving him a goal to strive towards, also actually turn him into someone who could accurately be described in the words she wrote?

Does calling someone's attention to a quality they possess - nascent though it may be - inspire them to cultivate it?

Acrostic

When people make a donation to the surgical fund at our vet clinic, they are given the opportunity to make a dedication on a 3" x 1" plaque. There is a corner of the vet clinic set aside these plaques. It is very affecting to read the dedications and think about how much love is behind those words.

As I had mentioned to some of you before, I was pretty blocked on what to write. How do you sum up anyone in just a few words? Ultimately, I decided that if I gave myself a framework in which to work, it might come together a little easier.

I chose the acrostic form, and came up with a draft. I asked DH for suggestions, telling him a few ideas I thought we might want to include. He suggested that we substitute "noble" for my original "nimble." Here is the final result:

Funny, impish, nosy, noble,
eloquent, gorgeous, adored.
Never-forgotten.
Finnegan (1992-2008)

Eisa goes in to see the vet at the end of this coming week, so we'll take the paperwork in at that point.

Appreciation

Went down to drop off the four Snuggle mini-quilts today. None of the people there had any idea what we were talking about. I showed them some information, and recognition still did not dawn. (We ended up waiting 30 minutes for the shelter manager to show up, and she, at least, knew what they were for without the explanation.)

It got me to thinking about how the way that people or organizations receive your gifts (be they material items or gifts of your time) makes a big difference.

Our Project Linus coordinator does a wonderful job with this. She sends her volunteers photocopies of the thank you letters that the hospitals, shelters, etc., send to PL so we can see that what we do is making a difference. This keeps us feeling positive and enthusiastic about the organization and about our roles in it. It makes us feel appreciated.

I think there is probably a lesson in here for me about trying to show more appreciation when people spend time and effort on me as well.

So, for starters: it means a lot to me when people respond to my posts here. It makes me feel that you are listening, and that you care. It also inspires me to keep going here, so if you enjoy my updates, know that your responses help to make them happen! Thank you all, very much!

PJs

We went to JoAnn's last night to pick up some thread. Of course I could not get out of the store without browsing. In the sale section, I found some flannel for $3/yard, and we were able to stack a 40% off coupon on that, which made it a very good deal indeed.

The flannel is ice blue, and has little white kitty faces and fossil fishes in pink and aqua and white, as well as a non-standard rendering of feline speech - "meiow." The fabric was manufactured overseas, so I am just declaring that to be a regional dialect of Cat ;) [Found a semi-blurry pic online, if you are curious]

I bought 5 yards intending to use it to back Snuggles, but I've kind of fallen in love with the idea of using some of the yardage to make PJ pants too.

(Even Stacey and Clinton can't taunt me too much for age-inappropriate garb if I just use it as PJs, right?)

You are what you quilt

Here's the first round of tops for the Snuggle quilt(let)s:



You'll notice that I did end up doing a bunch of Crazy Quilt blocks in the end. They may be slower to sew, but to me, their spontaneity and randomness makes them more fun to make than Disappearing 9 Patch blocks. Plus I get to use all the tiny pieces that have been sitting in my scrap bag forever!

Whee, flying monkeys!

The monkeys and their quilt are currently flying on their way to Michele, and should be there tomorrow before noon!

Here is a shot I took immediately after I tied off the last knot in the thread I was using to stitch the back of the binding. (If you click on the image to see the larger version, you can see a bit of a dimensional look to the squares. That's what happens when you stitch "in the ditch" between blocks. It is a pretty neat effect.)

Not a mad cow

Yesterday we went in to the local Red Cross blood center to fulfill a little goal of mine.

We'd tried to give blood as a group back on 9/11. It seems everyone else in our area had exactly the same idea, so the blood center was swamped, and since my type O+ sister was pregnant (with Liam) and could not donate, and none of the rest of us had especially useful blood types, they told us to come back another day.

The next time I tried, they'd put the Mad Cow disease restrictions in place. I had spent a quarter abroad, which meant, I thought, that I was no longer eligible to give at all. I felt downhearted, but consoled myself that my type AB+ blood could only be used by 3% of the population anyway.

However, while having a conversation with my friend Katie, who works at a blood center, I learned that, while AB+ isn't that useful as whole blood, it is actually the universal donor for platelets and plasma (components of blood). Once I heard that, I had to see if there was any possible way for me to donate. (After all, platelets are used to help cancer patients, and this could be one more thing I could start to do in honor of my Finny.) NB: I believe that AB+ actually is only the universal donor for plasma, although there is conflicting info on this online.

So I wrote to my overseas center to see how much time I actually did spend in England. The response I got back was crystal clear: quarters are always exactly 11 weeks long. I was safe by a week!

I thought I would see if I could get DH to donate blood at the same time so we could make a morning of it. He was reluctant at first, and finally admitted to a fear of needles. But after some negotiation, we struck a bargain, and he agreed to give it a shot.

Yesterday was the day. We both passed the screening, so he headed to the general area to wait to donate blood, and I went off to give platelets. I will spare you the details as I know some people don't like to hear about medical things, but I will just say my experience wasn't too much different from giving regular blood, except that it took longer. DH was able to go and drop off a box of Linus quilts with our coordinator while I was still lying back in my comfy chair watching the movie they'd set up for me.

When I was done, I walked over to see DH talking with one of the receptionists. They were talking about the next time he was eligible to donate - seems he had gone ahead and started booking his next appointment on the spot! Apparently he not only got around his fear of needles this one time, but has moved past that fear for good! :)

Blocks and socks

The people from the no-kill shelter called me back today. I am glad I spoke with them before I got started, because I wouldn't have made the snuggle blankets big enough otherwise. (The website says the small size snuggle blankets are about 14" square and the medium 20", but the woman said that 24" would be ideal for them.)

I think I will try making a big nine patch made out of crazy quilt blocks alternating with plain blocks. Maybe I can make some progress on using up some of those random scraps in my scrap bag. I am sure my enthusiasm for this will wane once I see how many hours it actually takes to make crazy quilt blocks, so I have a plan B in mind - to make some Disappearing 9 Patch blocks.

Anyway, this is all for the future. Tonight's plan is to get the sock monkey quilt layered and pinned.

Charities

I was going through some old email and ran across this link to an article and video on Project Linus, which is the charity for which I make quilts. They are wonderful, and I always want to do more to get the word out about them, so take a peek: Project Linus brings comfort to Kids.

Based on a comment from someone on one of my quilt groups, I am also looking into the Snuggles Project that makes teeny snuggle blankets for shelter animals. This seemed like a great opportunity to use up some of the things in my scrap bag that I don't seem to be able to find a place for in other projects. I called our local shelter last weekend to try to get information about what size they prefer, but haven't heard back. If I still haven't heard back from the time I am ready to get started, I guess I can just measure Eisa and Echo and make the size that would best fit them!

Surprise for Kira (Shh!)

My sister and BIL are planning to have Kira start on the cello after she turns 4 in August. (She has met her proposed teacher and has observed a few lessons, and is completely on board with this plan.)

She'll be learning via the Suzuki method. The first piece they always learn is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." So when I found this tiny child's locket on Amazon, I couldn't help but buy it for her. My plan is to send it out as a little surprise after she learns her first song.

Do you think I should print out a tiny photo of her to put inside of it (even temporarily, to establish the idea that it can contain something)? Or should I just leave it up to her to decide?

Blocks for the kitty quilt

Tam requested that I share where I am on the kitty wall hanging for Finny's cancer clinic.



I am still pretty uncertain about how it is coming together. Sometimes when you are auditioning fabrics, there is a moment where the colors start to sing. That's when you know you are good to go. I haven't gotten to that point (yet) with this one.

I may pull some of the individual blocks and substitute others. (For instance, I need to move past my crush on the stars and moons background fabric in the upper lefthand corner so I can admit the color won't really work unless I add at least one other warmer blue into the mix). The hyacinth blue sashing between the blocks is also not set in stone, and the potential border fabric is so up in the air that I am not even showing it.

Part of the struggle is that I really want to get the emotional tone right. The colors need to feel calm and meditative, and avoid coming across as unthinkingly cheerful on the one hand, or brooding and dreary on the other.

Of course, it is all on hold while I work on the monkey quilt!

For Michele

We narrowed possible striped fabrics down to the two below. (The stripe in the earlier photos did not make the final two: the colors aren't quite right.)

So,

1) Which of the following stripes do you prefer? (Click for a larger view)

a) the narrower of the two stripes (a solid red on white)



b) the wider of the two stripes (a stripe with some mottling and color variation within the red)


Here is a close-up of the two stripes next to the red, for comparison

2) There are two possible fabrics we are considering for borders. In the second of the two quilt photos, you can see the starry fabric as the left border and the darker hand-dye below and on the bottom half of the right right. (If you want to see the pattern better, the starry fabric appears in the background of the close-up shot of the stripes above. The hand-dye is the fabric you see as the border of Caedmon's quilt, and in all of the quilt shots I have taken prior to today.)

Which do you prefer?

Kira's sense of beauty

"If you ever forget Finnegan, all you have to do is look at the picture"
-- Kira, on being complimented on her Finny artwork

I love her faith in the power of art. It's not just her own art, either. When she feels out of sorts, she asks Liam to play his violin for her using vibrato; and when he does, it genuinely makes her feel better. :)

Revised thoughts on aqua

I had two different aqua fabrics that I thought would work in the monkey quilt - one with swirls and one with vines.

The earlier photographs featured the swirly fabric. (It was the first one I cut, and I didn't want to complicate matters by making changes in the colors we weren't ready to play with yet!)

Initially I was planning to offer both as options, and then have Michele make the call between them. However, after handling both fabrics, I can feel that the vine fabric is of noticeably superior quality. For a wall hanging, the thickness of the fabric might not make a lot of difference, but in a baby quilt (or any other quilt that will get a lot of wear), I really want to use top quality materials.

Therefore, I would like to propose that we eliminate the swirly fabric from consideration, and go with the aqua vines instead.

Monkey business

Okay, first comparison:

1) In the following photos, you see two different options for the block in the top lefthand corner - a red striped fabric or a dark brown one.

Do you prefer:

a) A monkey quilt that includes a red striped fabric

b) A monkey quilt that includes a dark brown fabric


2) Do you like where I am going with it so far, based on the above images, or do you want to see more monkey squares?

I can do this by substituting monkeys for one of the existing blocks. So, if you would like to see more monkeys, which one other block would you like to have me remove? (ETA: You can see a few examples of this in the Comments)

Michele's decision will of course prevail in the end, but your feedback might help her make up her mind, so everyone should absolutely feel free to chime in!

100 good wishes necklace

I ran across this delicate little 100 good wishes necklace online, and had to get it for Sandie! Isn't it pretty? I thought I would include a link here for anyone else who is looking for a lovely little thing for a good wishes quilt partner, for someone adopting from China, or just for a friend. :)

More monkeys

My friend Michele has commissioned me to make a baby quilt for her nephew. (The baby shower is 31. May.) She fell in love with the look of Caedmon's quilt, and the aqua sock monkey fabric in particular, so I ordered some more monkey yardage online a few nights ago.

The tricky part last time was finding just the right shade of accompanying aqua blue to bring everything together. This is something I'll definitely need to audition in person, so I am making plans to go on a grand shop hop (hopefully this weekend - depends on when the fabric arrives) to find just the right thing to make the quilt work.

Hopefully I'll have some stories to share along the way.

Recycling

After going in to sign our tax forms on Saturday, we drove out to Worcester to a sewing/quilting expo. Several years back we had gone to something similar in Lowell, and had found a number of beautiful and unusual fabrics; so we thought this might be an opportunity to pick up some lovely additions for the kitty quilt.

It turned out that this event was more weighted towards sewing than quilting, so there wasn't a whole lot of quilting fabric, etc., we hadn't seen before. However, we did have a nice experience that I wanted to write about so I'll remember it.

We had decided to bring in one of of our Envirosax (the olive bag from the Retro series) to hold the fabric we were trying to match, and to carry whatever other fabric we might purchase along the way.

When we were paying the cashier for our admission tickets, she was very taken with this bag. I mentioned it was a reusable grocery sack, and it sounded like this was a new idea to her, so we talked about it a bit. As DH and I were walking away, I told him it was too bad we didn't have another bag to hold our junk because the woman had liked this one so much. Voilà - he pulled one of the other bags out of his pocket.

Now there's a sign if I've ever seen one. So I went back and told the cashier we wanted to give her the bag she had liked. She was so surprised and delighted (it was really cute!). She tried to press some money on me, and I tried to avoid taking it, but she eventually won out by telling me she was reimbursing my expo ticket price. ;)

I don't know how she will end up using it (e.g., as a grocery bag or not), but I am enjoying imagining that just maybe she might start a mini-trend for reusable grocery sacks in her circle.

"I luv yoo Finugin"

This was the message Kira wrote on the kitty drawing she sent me.

Impressive writing skills for such a little kid - but I admit I like the sentiment even better.

A little kindness means a lot

We went into the cancer clinic today to pick up the box with Finny's ashes.

There was one other patient there, a boxer dog named Lily whom we had met before. We waited to approach the desk til she and her owner had checked out. As an owner, you know that some of the treatments may be hard on your pet in the short term, but you do it because you believe that the measures you are taking will ultimately have a good chance of helping your pet get through his or her illness. You are relying on your sense of hope. The last thing you need is to see someone sobbing over a pet who didn't make it.

So we waited. And in the meantime, I brought out my deck of Pantone color swatches to get a better read on the paint colors in the lobby, because I am working on a wall hanging for them. I also took out 6 of the squares I had made to see which were the best matches, and to check if any might need to be set aside.

Lily doggie and her owner left. And we talked with the techs and the vet for a bit. We told them about the wall hanging, and also asked if there was some piece of equipment they needed that we could donate in Finny's honor.

Our vet said she'd confer with her colleagues, and reiterated how much they all had loved Finnegan. Then we kind of couldn't avoid the reason we had gone in any longer... so we picked up the little box and brought it home. NOT the way we wanted to be bringing my little boy home again. :(

When the mail came, I saw that we had an envelope from the cancer clinic. I wondered if there was a bill we hadn't resolved. Instead, it turned out to be a sympathy card from everyone at the clinic. They all had signed it, every one of them, and the ones who had worked personally with him had written sweet little notes.

I don't know if I have ever heard of a group of doctors doing this, not even for a human patient.

Finny was very important to us, but this small act of kindness made us feel like he had mattered to others as well. And that means more to me than I can say.

Good-bye, sweet Finny

This morning the vet called. She said Finny still hadn't really been eating and they were worried about some of his recent test results. She said they wanted to go ahead and put in a feeding tube; but said before they could put him under to insert the tube, he'd need to be stabilized. After the tube was in, we could come in, be trained on how to use it, and then we could take him home.

Within the hour, she called back. My sweet boy had taken a sudden turn for the worse, and we needed to come in right away. We rushed in and they took us back to see him. They were giving him meds through the injection site in his paw, trying to get his numbers back up. He was just lying there under a little heating pad, and didn't respond to us at all. :(

When they did an x-ray, they discovered what looked like a perforated intestine, due to the cancer. Immediate surgery was the only option - but with dropping blood pressure, bilirubin levels, potassium, etc., he would not have been stable enough to survive surgery.

They carried him to us in a little red blanket, and we snuggled him and told him what a very good boy he was and how much we loved him. Then the vet came in and gave him the last injection. He was gone before she had finished.

I miss my sweet boy so much already...

Finn, again

The veterinary ultrasound revealed a thickening in the intestinal wall. After a new barrage of tests, we believe that cancer cells are infiltrating the wall of the intestine, causing ulceration inside of the intestinal tract. (This may also have been keeping him from absorbing all the nutrients in the small amount he was eating.)

We're starting on a new type of chemo tomorrow. They'll be keeping him in the hospital for at least three days to get him going and also to feed him intravenously.

It will be a very long three days without seeing his sweet face looking up at me or having his warm, soft little self curled up beside me at night...

(Hoping it is just three days)

Kitty update

Finny had lost more weight at his last vet appointment, so they did a full round of tests. We feared the worst, but, surprise, the results were the best they'd been in a year. Very encouraging.

The vet did ask me to double up on his appetite pills to see if we couldn't get him to fill out a bit. That should be doable, I thought.

But despite the additional chemical motivation, he's been less interested in eating than ever. It's pretty much 5 bites of food and he's done. I can coax him to take a bit more if I feed him from my finger, but then he turns his back on the plate, and a battle of wills ensues as I follow him around the room begging him to take just one more bite. (I am sure this looks pretty comical. But an empty tummy seems to makes him feel worse, so it is important to try to get him to eat.)

We think the current round of issues can be attributed to the pancreatitis. While it's a relief to think that it's probably not the end stages of the cancer, it is still hard to see him like this.

I am trying him on a new pill to see if it helps. And I think I will also let him take the lead on eating today. I know that every ounce I can get on his body now may give us critical leeway later, but I think maybe a day off from the feeding stress would be a good thing for us both.

The Lotus-eaters

On Superbowl Sunday, one of the quilt stores in the vicinity had a pretty impressive sale. I was trying to exert some kind of self-control, so when I saw a gorgeous Kaffe Fassett lotus leaf fabric, I told myself sternly that it wouldn't work for any of my current projects, and left the bolt there on the shelf.

I kept thinking about it, though. And as we were standing in line to check out, DH made the mistake of asking if I had gotten everything, or if there was anything else I wanted. I admitted sheepishly (from underneath my great stack of fabric) that that there might still be one more thing. Just then, a woman walked by carrying the lotus fabric. "THAT one!" I blurted out.

The woman glanced over at the exclamation, so I smiled and explained I was considering getting some of the fabric too. Could I have the bolt after she was done getting her piece cut? Well, she cradled the bolt possessively to her, and told me she was buying the whole thing(!) for the back of a queen sized quilt. Alas. I expressed regret that I had missed my chance earlier; but assured her (on a more positive note) that her quilt would be beautiful. She paused, and said reluctantly that she supposed she could let me have some of the fabric if I really needed it. But it was abundantly clear that she really had hoped to take it all home with her. And since I didn't have an actual plan for it, and couldn't really justify making a request without it, I politely declined.

But I couldn't get that fabric out of my head. I saw it around in other colorways, just not in the shades I loved the best. Maybe, I sighed, it would just have to remain another of those missed opportunities, one of the unattainables of which you dream...

Then today we ventured into town to one of our less-frequented quilt shops. And there it was, my beautiful lotus fabric!

I scooped up the bolt and headed straight for the cutting table. As I handed it to the woman who was doing the cutting, another customer craned her neck over and started ogling my fabric. "Oh, that's a beautiful print!" she said, "...How much are you getting?"

And suddenly, I found myself struggling to resist the urge, like the woman at the last shop, to claim that I "needed" the whole rest of the bolt! I am almost sure that I blushed as I pointed out the other colorways in a rather transparent attempt to redirect her attention elsewhere.

Consoling myself for my foolishness later on, I recalled that no less a literary personage than Odysseus spoke of the addictive nature of the lotus, and how it drove all sense and other thoughts from one's head:

"[O]n the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be.... They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-Eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and ... were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return"
(Book IX, The Odyssey)

Tennyson, speaking in the (collective) voice of Odysseus's sailors, spoke of the lure of the lotus (or lotos) in terms befitting drug addicts.

So, all things considered, methinks my wee addiction to such a delicious lotus fabric may be not entirely without precedent.

Me also thinks that I should restrict use of such a dangerous and addictive fabric to the backing of my own quilt, so as to avoid being accused of being a pusher!

Fun with pixels

I found a Scottie dog block online, and it occurred to me that if I blew up the size and extended the background a bit, I could make the block pattern into a really cute one dog baby quilt. I showed it to DH, and he said that the doggie needed a ball to play with too, so I added that in. Here's what the resulting quilt pattern looks like:



I have a deep gray fabric with a nice mottled look that could work very well for the doggie; the background will simply be a variety of light and medium-light blues; and the ball will probably be red, unless I simply have to use red for an inner border, in which case I'll just play and see what looks best.

Simple, cute, and nice light-dark visual contrast for a baby. :)

Recollections of a young mother at Pearl Harbor

I've been transcribing the old typewritten manuscripts of my grandparents' memoirs. I wanted to share this excerpt about my grandmother's experience in Hawai'i during Pearl Harbor. (She seems to have written it up separately from the rest.)

My grandmother and I weren't close, but I find her writing voice to be warm and engaging (if old-fashioned in her attitudes towards things like race, gender, etc.), and wish I'd had a chance to get to know this side of her.



December 6th, 1941, was a Saturday in Honolulu, when all good wives were busy cleaning, washing and ironing, and baking in order to be ready for the return of husbands the next day from a two months submarine overhaul in California. None of us had dared to return to the States, because gossip had it that we might not be allowed to return to the Islands. My mother had kept urging me by letter to return to Seattle for weeks; but I didn't want to leave, in case Warren would get IN for a few days.

December 7th, I was bustling around getting 3 ½ year old Sally ready for Sunday School, and 1 ½ year old Nancy ready to join Kay T_____ (the Exec's wife) and myself at Diamond Head to watch for the subs' arrival. Suddenly, Air Raid signals screeched and whooped, and the radios blared forth with, "This is an attack. The Japanese are bombing Pearl Harbor. Everyone stay inside. No cars allowed on the streets, etc. Remain indoors and listen to the radio."

Bits of news, rumors, etc., circulated all day long -- one bomb reportedly made a big crater on the golf course, only 2 blocks away, and bits of wood, etc., landed in our street. But we stayed mighty close to home, with just an occasional neighborly confab in nearby yards.

The Captain's wife, Marian M_____, was as calm as she could be over the telephone, and it was so helpful to hear her steady patter of logic as to where our men might be, or their plans.

Blackouts were in effect after dark, all lighted rooms had to have dark shades, and in order to go from rooms to outside, one had to turn off room lights first, so as not to leak any sliver of light to the enemy. We had lizards that climbed our walls and curtains at times, and it was an eerie feeling to hear those little noisy creatures scurrying in the darkened rooms; if frightened, they would drop their tails and scurry away in haste, leaving wiggly tails behind.

We actually lived some 9 or 10 miles from Pearl Harbor, and there were several hills between us and there; but no one could be sure where the Rising Sun emblem would dip, and shower civilians with bullets, or, whatever.

I really was too occupied with the youngsters to be TOO terribly concerned; but, at times, various neighbors came by, and we'd wonder, "what if…." The retired tugboat skipper, Captain M_____, who lived behind us (and owned ours and surrounding houses) had given us waiting wives an open invitation to come to his house, and stay on his porch, etc., to spend our time with drinks and such. But, we were all too busily keeping our children, and heads, together in our own houses. He was a steady comforting man, even though a bit on the "jolly drinker" side.

Word came and circulated, through our dear Marian M., that the ship would be [in] on that day, the 9th, and that buoyed us! Finally our men returned, and for five days we made the most of every hour as a family – talk of returning to the states being at the head of the list. All families had to be put on a list for evacuation, and everyone, but the smallest of children (Nancy included), was issued a gas mask. Even though we were all "listed for evacuation," we always held out a hope, our men would return for one more family reunion before we left. Warren did come in, some time in January 1942, to find an empty house, as I was in the hospital with a strep infection, and the gals were in a private child-care home. But with Warren's return, we all returned to our house on Rooke Avenue for a few more days together. Evacuation for us three females came on two days before the next patrol return; but when the Government says, "now is the time," one obeys; and we embarked on the Aquitannia [sic], a lovely big ship that was made available for service families in late March. We took extra time in crossing the Pacific in order to evade any possible enemy subs; but actually saw none. We WERE being escorted, however! Landed eventually in San Pedro harbor, where my aunt and uncle from nearby Los Angeles took us in charge.

A few days later, we three took a train to San Francisco, to pick up our car, that had been transported back to the US several weeks earlier. And soon after, the gals and I were headed for home in Seattle, and the welcoming arms of parents and grandparents.

Written by Roberta A. W_____, August, 1983


I wanted to append a link to an account written by a woman who was 11 years old at the time of Pearl Harbor, and remembers her experiences very vividly. Sounds like they were quite a bit closer to the chaos.

Thanks for the memories

I mentioned earlier that I'd asked my mother to write down some of the stories of her life. On my birthday, she sent me 18 single-spaced(!) pages covering her life from birth up until we were born. I am absolutely thrilled to have this, and am looking forward (but not impatiently) to the next installment. Soon she'll get into memories that overlap with some of mine, so that will be pretty interesting. I do have some of my childhood memories written down (stream of consciousness style) but I don't want to influence what she writes, so we will have to compare later on.

I was feeling a little brash tonight, so I barged in and emailed my father to see if he would do one too. And... he said yes(!!!) I can't say I'm not somewhat flabbergasted, but I'm awfully grateful.

You know you're addicted when...

...you purchase a 40-yard roll of quilt batting in one fell swoop.

Now all I have to do is figure out where to store it!

We want change

I took a package down to the post office today. Earlier I'd relocated a plastic container full of coins, so I filled up my pockets to see if I could do the whole thing without breaking into the paper money.

(Yeah, I probably sound like a dork. DH finds it a pain to carry change, so it's my job to deal with it. Otherwise he starts casting longing glances towards the CoinStar, and if I'm not careful, we end up with a gift card for something we don't need.)

Sometimes cashiers are irked when I hand them a hill of coins, but the little old postman was not just content to accept them (along with one limp dollar bill), but seemed actually delighted to do so, telling me he had been running low on quarters.

Over all, it was a satisfying little exchange. I lost a glove on the way, but on the other hand ;) I disposed of a goodly stack of coins, sent out a surprise to a friend, and made the postman smile all in one fell swoop.

Shameless plug for a friend

If you haven't been over to take a look yet, Anna has a couple of new bags for sale on her blog. Check them out!

My turn to get choked up...

This is too lovely not to share, although I'll use pseudonyms since it's a public journal...

Dearest Fionn and DH

First of all my belated holiday wishes to you both.

Fionn, thank you so much for the beautiful quilt which you made for me and grandpa. I put it on him and showed the 2 nurses (1 day nurse and 1 night nurse). They both haven't seen anything so beautifully sewed. Including myself. Soo beautiful. I thanked your mother-in-law [hee hee, this is her daughter] for the pictures she supplied you. I thank both of you soo very much.

Whenever somebody comes to visit papa and me I take it out the quilt to show them. I am soo proud of you, DH, J., and S. I shall cherish it with love from you guys. Thank you. I love you all.

Mahalo!
Grandma and Grandpa

P.S Thank you and go out to kau-kau (eat) [referring to a check she enclosed]

The monkeys made me do it!

I know I wasn't supposed to start anything new... but when I was in my studio, my eye fell upon the yard and a half of cute simian fabric, and before I knew it, I was monkeying around matching fabrics. (Oh well!)

EDITED: Potential layouts removed; view the final monkey quilt here!

Save stress: sacrifice a sock

If you have been tracking my progress on the To Do lists below, you may have noticed that one of the lists grew before it was completed. This is the story of how and why.

I pre-wash all of my fabric. In certain cases, a single cycle through the washer on Hot may not lift out all the unbonded dye particles. To cover such cases, I try to send a test sock or other white item (ahem) through with the fabric to check for colorfastness. This isn't always a popular move around here, particularly when the nearest white item may not be my own! So if I've recently been caught redhanded trying to pass off the color of some rather pink, er, manties as "a trick of the light," I may find it more prudent to omit this step.

That must have been the case with the border fabric for the little star quilt. Since I've run into issues with dark hand-dyed fabric before, I made sure to verify that all of the yellow stars on the front had remained that color before the quilt went into the dryer. And they were, all well and good. But, alas, I neglected to check what was going on on the back...!

With that heavyhanded foreshadowing, I am sure it is no stretch to imagine what happened when, after ironing the front of the quilt, I turned it over to sew on the label.

Banishing fleeting thoughts of "Maybe I can claim the fabric was always like that," I returned to the laundry room... where, to my disappointment, I discovered a deplorable dearth of Synthrapol.

It may have a name fit for an old-time intelligence agency, but Synthrapol is actually a detergent. (No doubt I have sung its praises here before.) A deeply colored piece of fabric may be so saturated with dye that there may be excess particles that have not bonded with the cotton fibers. When this fabric hits water, these particles are equally happy to go sit on other fabric. That's where Synthrapol comes in: it lifts and separates the unbonded dye particles from the dyed fabric and keeps them in suspension in the wash.

But there was none on the premises and, at 8:45 at night, our options were limited.

After calling around, we found a promising store 29 minutes away. It would be open for another 30 minutes. But, DH cautioned, he had heard the clarion call of "Shoppers, it is now 9 PM" when we were on hold at 8:55, so we would have to adjust accordingly.

Never let it be said that a Prius has no zoom. We made it there in 20. I think the clerks, learning where we had come from, were a little stunned.

But all's well that ends well. My Synthra-stash was restocked; the drive back was uneventful; a few cycles through the wash removed every stray trace of indigo dye. And the quilt finally found its way off the To Do list.

(But surely it would have been worth a lavender sock or two to avoid the whole thing, don't you think?)

One snow angel, no whiplash

It's been warm, and nearly all of the old grey ice lumps melted over the last week. Overnight we had about 8" of flakes. So today, after I dug out the walkway, I lay down on the front lawn and treated myself to making another snow angel.

This time, in the fluffy, pristine snow, it was perfect.

Digging out

I have a number of unfinished projects waiting patiently for me to get back to them. I go in thinking I should make progress on the current stack of projects, and then my imagination is spirited away by the idea of doing kaleidoscopic hexagon blocks! Or I see a quilt using Japanese indigos and think of how I could make inroads on using my own indigos! And lo, another project is born.

But enough. I hereby make the modest resolution to finish at least two of my current projects before I allow myself to do any more than think of anything new.

TARGETS:
1) Quilt with yellow friendship stars: DONE!
- choose fabric for backing from stash
- sew together backing fabrics
- piece batting
- make binding
- lay out and pin together layers
- tie quilt
- baste and trim
- sew binding on front
- sew binding on back
- make mad dash to get new bottle of Synthrapol to fix bleeding dye
- wash and iron
- sew on Linus label

2) Aqua lotus quilt:
- make binding
- finish hand quilting in hoop
- re-do some hand quilting near edges of quilt (stretched out of whack in hoop)
- pin/baste and trim edges
- machine bind front
- hand bind back

I welcome pointed comments and reminders about these tasks if I don't seem to be making any progress! :)

And delivered!

We shipped via FedEx, for no particularly good reason. One positive thing about FedEx (other than the knowledge that, after handing over your box, your wallet will no longer be cluttered with pesky dollar bills :-P ) is that they have an excellent online tracking system. I did relish having access to that information this weekend, to see the quilt make its way across the country; but I especially loved knowing, within 9 minutes of the actual delivery, that it had been delivered straight into Grandma's hands.

When I saw this, I IM'ed DH and he called his parents to give them a heads up. Not long after, his mother called me and relayed the following:

She had called Grandma within 19 minutes of the delivery, thinking that this would surely be enough time for her to open the package, read the note, unwrap the quilt, etc. (Even accounting for my overzealous application of packing tape, this sounded like sufficient time to me as well.)

But after she had signed for the box, she had gone to see to Grandpa. And so, when MIL had called, she had only just gotten out the quilt - and was crying with joy when she came to the phone.

Aw, I think she liked it! :) (What better reaction could you ask for? :))

Really done

Done, note written, everything packed up with foam and packing peanuts and due to be mailed tomorrow. Yay!

The diagonal quilting isn't all that obvious, but if you are curious, I mocked it up (the pale yellow lines) here. The ditch stitching (=quilting in the seam line) isn't supposed to be visible, so the fact that it isn't is a good thing ;)

You know, it's funny... going in, I was kind of dreading doing the ditch stitching, as even little inaccuracies are so obvious. But with all of the ditch stitching I needed to do on this quilt (around each of the photos, between the body of the quilt and the first border, between the grey and brown borders), I started to get fairly comfortable with it. So I am now kind of looking forward to the idea of doing more going forward!

Not quite...

About an inch of one of the quilting threads broke. I saw this suspicious spot when I was doing the binding; and, indeed, that's exactly where it is. It's easy to fix: I can pick out a few inches of stitches in either direction and just stitch that one line. (I'm glad it popped now rather than later as I'm quilting with variegated thread and that'd be hard to reproduce.)

Since I'm already messing with it, I may want to stitch around the photos a bit to stabilize things a bit more. I'll assess in the daylight...

Done?

Current location of grandparents' quilt:



There is no reason this should be a disaster, as I've washed all the fabrics (and even the batting) several times. But please keep your fingers crossed anyway!