More Scrapy
I now have 63 six inch blocks done. Current goal is 108. That would make quilt 63 x 108. My sewing room is a warm room so no evening sewing. I was saying how many MI houses don't' have AC but most of them do have basements. And it is at least 10 degrees cooler there. Think I should clean my floor now or wait until I've done the rest? Doesn't that red piece look too big for discard? I better check it. VBS

Dogs Gone

I have been keeping my DS's dogs for the past month while he and his family moved to Alabama. Top pic is Betsy age 3, bottom is Tess age 8, and right is Kate age 13. Actually the dogs are in route to AL today. I plan to arrange these pics into a collage and make DS a pic for his desk. The dogs were generally good and I was glad to be able to help. The good news is DS has sold his MI house, at a loss of course, and bought one in AL, at an inflated price, of course. Oh, I mean the good news is that he sold his MI house. In his area, for every one sold, there are 18 more on the market. It is even worse where I am as we are so dependent on the auto industry which is in disastrous shape. Hope everyone is staying as cool as possible. We are beginning a week long hot humid spell. We usually only have one or two days in the 90's all summer but this is a whole week of them with heat factor into the 100s. This is so unusual for MI. Lots of people don't have AC. Many summers I never turn mine on but it is being used this year. Big Sigh.

Busy
I have a comic strip that I wanted to copy and put on my blog but don't want to infringe on the author's rights, so I'll describe it. I think it is okay to talk about it. It is from a newspaper a long time ago and stays on my refrig. It is a Frank and Ernest by Bob Thaves. Frank is sitting at a desk reading a book titled "Reincarnation." He asks Ernest if he thinks he has had previous lives. Ernest is sitting at another desk with lots of papers, piled up and dumped all around. Ernest replies that he hopes so because he would hate to think he got so far behind in just one lifetime.

Well, this is my life, just now, well maybe always but even more so just now.

More quilting blogs to follow soon.

50th
Here's something different. I made this pic for my brother and sister-in-law's 50th anniversary. I'm not sure they appreciated my "art" but I liked it and am sure they didn't get another like it. :) It has all kinds of things including various fabrics, lace, buttons, net, whatever. The digital camera did not like the golds. Enlarge to get a better idea.

More Scrapy

Now this is scrapy and I like it. It is 9 six-inch blocks. I think I'll be making more of these.

Today I went to the farmer's market. One of the things I like to get is tomatoes. I've been buying them there for several weeks. First they were from Florida, then Arkansas and today from Indiana. Michigan ones are on the way. Um, um good!

Just Say Ahhh

Thanks for the comments on my blocks. I guess it just goes to show different strokes for different folks so somebody will like it however I do it. VBS  

Nose to Nose

Tess just went to get a drink and Kate took the bed. 

Another Try
I think the simplier the better to show off the great fabrics. I like the second one. What do you think? second pic not laid out carfully enough. Sorry but I think you can see what I mean. 

Scrap Blocks
I've been playing but not real happy with the results. I pulled out lots of fabric and cut strips. I also found a pattern that I had written down and wanted to try it. It was called Strait of Georgia (not the pic). I don't know where I saw it. I played with it and wasn't happy. So I tried this with some of the small blocks. (They are not sewed together.) I'm not sure about this either. Too scrapy? Not scrapy enough? Should there only be one color of the dark? What?

I just saw that it just posted twice. More math. So funny. Thanx blogger for a good laugh. Katie

One of Those Days

If you drop a dozen eggs in a carton upside down on the floor, how many will not break?

The answer is five. Plus three just cracked and get made into the omelet.

Hey, saving 2/3 of them is not bad. I'm having one of those days where I'm grateful for anything over 50%.

Oh, dear, I'm posting math. Maybe it is worse than I thought.

One of Those Days

If you drop a dozen eggs in a carton upside down on the floor, how many will not break?

The answer is five. Plus three just cracked and get made into the omelet.

Hey, saving 2/3 of them is not bad. I'm having one of those days where I'm grateful for anything over 50%.

Oh, dear, I'm posting math. Maybe it is worse than I thought.

Mel's Quilt
My friend wanted a chair quilt for her husband for last Christmas. She choose a panel of fishing theme and some matching fabric. It is the first flannel quilt I have made. Nice cozy quilt for those MI winter evenings in the Lazy Boy.

I'm spending hours working on my friend's stories. We are determine to get them done.

Kipper did fine with his surgery yesterday to remove three infected cysts.

Terrible weather for us - seven days of 90 degrees and high humidity too. FL can take this back any time now:)

Pillows
I spent most of today helping a friend with her Life Story. Also took Kate to the vet for some med for her arthritis. And went out to supper. Then I got an hour in cutting and sorting strips. So I had to pull from my past for something to show. The top pillow is not wrinkled but is very soft and I didn't smooth it out before taking the picture. It is my experiment with the Drunkard's Path. The second pic shows the decorative stitch I put around the green areas. I liked the way it turned out.
Yes, Kipper left a hair on it. It is white, not gray, isn't it?

The other pillow is just crazy patch with all straight lines done on the machine. I like to do this. I made several pillows in this style for Christmas gifts the
year I retired.

Kipper, Sit
Kipper was about nine months old when I first took him to FL. I live in a senior mobile home park that allows dogs. Not many of them do. One day I was walking Kipper around in the park as we practiced obedience commands. I had him "sit" and "stay" on the edge of the grass and I walked away. He never moved. A lady came out of the house and yelled at me for my dog "pooping" on her grass. I tried to explain he was just sitting and was on command so he couldn't relieve himself even if he wanted to. I'm still not sure she learned the difference in the position of a pooping and sitting dog.

More Scrap Strips
I decided I needed some more light colored fabric for contrast. I have lots of off white and some white but needed some other colors. The print near the bottom is just one I liked and had to have some. Is it light too? The bottom blue is for background for an applique I'd like to do someday.

Here's another block I made from playing. And below is another yet. Has anyone ever made a strip sampler quilt?

Doing The Math
It has been raining part or all of the last three days. Multiply four dogs each with four feet to wash every time they have to go out. eeeeek They are predicting dry weather starting tomorrow. But VERY hot again. Kipper got his hair cut very short again today. It doesn't even look like him. I leave part of his tail which just makes him look silly, I guess. But he needs someplace to hide his nose when he sleeps. I also wanted him short as he is having surgery on Friday. He has some infected cysts that just won't heal even with 1,000 mg of antibiotic twice a day for 10 days. You can see two of them in the black part of his back.
When my husband died eight years ago, I went to a financial advisor who asked me how much income I needed. I told him I needed enough to keep my house up. My husband had done all the repairs but I would need to hire these done. I mowed my own lawn (about half an acre) for several years until I had my first hand surgery and have hired it done ever since. I also wanted enough money to be able to fly to visit my children and grandchildren who lived in three different States. And I wanted enough to do some other traveling. And I wanted to have enough to take good care of a dog that I wanted to get. Two months later I found Kipper at the Human Society and he has been worth the cost of keeping him safe and healthy. He is my very good companion. I am most grateful that I have had the income to do all my needs and wants.

Kipper Helps Me Clean Up
Picture 1:
"Hi Mom. Did you call me?"

Picture 2:
"Were you in my sewing room?

Picture 3:
"Oh, Mom, there are so many scraps in there and a lot of them are on the floor.
I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist."















I see so many nice kitties helping their mom's by helping them sew or checking out the stashes or quilts. Kipper never helps me sew. He is not allowed in my sewing room. And he usually doesn't come in unless the time is getting way past his supper time and then he lays his head on my lap and clearly says "Please!"

Why isn't he allowed in my sewing room. Because he loves to help me clean up. You got it. He eats any fabric on the floor. I discovered this in Florida where I use a big dining room table for my sewing. One day I cut 20 squares and when I went to sew them, I couldn't figure out why I only had 19 of them. I looked all over and finally just cut another one. The next morning when I picked up his morning deposit from the back yard, I found my missing fabric square. Kip is such a good dog and never takes anything, even food, from any counter or table, even though he is tall enough to lay his chin on many of them. When he was a puppy, he once took a large piece of ham from the kitchen cupboard. But I caught him before he got to eat it and he got the message that I really would not allow this. He was a quick learner and he wanted to be a good dog. Now if food gets on the floor he figured it was okay to eat it and I agreed. Well, the fabric was on the floor and for some reason he liked it. Later I learned he also eats puzzle pieces that fall on the floor. Oh, me. Yes, I really do feed him dog food which he happily eats.

Today I did some playing with strips and my aim for the waste basket wasn't very good. Nothing to show.

Strip Block
I love the look of Bonnie's strip twist so decided to try it yesterday. My first problem was I don't have those darling bins of precut strips I see in so many of your sewing rooms. I usually refold my left overs and put them back on the shelf. I do have one box of small scraps so I looked in it and found some 2 1/2 inch strips. Great. No. I didn't measure all of them and later found out the reason they were there. They were off a little. As you can see, I didn't end up making the strip twist. It just didn't come together correctly. So I made this block. Not sure what it is but I like it this morning. You can see where I patched some pieces. Using up every bit. Good girl. Now I'm beginning to use dog talk. Oh, me. I think stripping is as much work as making a patch block. Maybe because I had to cut and sew the strips. The second pic is pot holders I made just after I retired nine years ago. They are the sew and flip method so both sides are made at the same time. I liked doing this. You use a batting that is used for hot pads. I can't remember the name of it.

It rained hard last night and is cooler and sprinkling today. It would be a good day to read, nap and watch a video. But today is dog day. I already have taken two of them to the groomer and am washing dog bedding. Tess and Betsy sleep in a big wire kennel that has a raised bed that acts as a hammock. They are very comfortable and it is easy to clean with the vacuum. I'm going to give Kate her bath. She has an arthritic bed in Kipper's kennel he uses to fly to Florida. Kate has taken glucosamine chondroitin for the last few years and I saw how it really helped her. It convinced me to take mine regularly now too. It doesn't seem to be helping Kate the last few months. She is so old. (13 - Is that 91 in people years?) She is now also deaf but sees fine and doesn't miss a meal. It is nice that she knows hand signals but you have to touch her first so she knows you are "talking" to her.

Betsy Pictures
I couldn't get Betsy to stop running to get a picture the other day so here are some taken a while ago. The only way I could get all four dogs even partly in a picture was to wait until three of them were sleeping.
Read on to the next posting.

#@&^$(^!
I was trying to do my own method of a quilt-as-you-go and Friday it became impossible. I can't even talk about it now. I just threw the whole thing.

Needing to play, I tried a whonky flower. It can be done but may be more efficient to do paper piecing or applique. Anyway it definitely helped my mood. The middle is a button.

I'm thinking of writing some stories about my dog Kipper. He is a save from the Humane Society so I can't be certain what he is (other then a very friendly and good dog) but he definitely has a lot of Border Collie in him. Kate and Tess are Springer Spaniels and Betsy is a Luellen, which is a type of English Setter. Betsy is a pointer bird dog. Kate and Tess flush the birds. In order to see, they "spring" up out of the tall grass and it is really neat to see them do this. Kipper does the same thing, even though he is a very tall dog. He is not a hunting dog but has herding instincts. When I got him he nipped people's heels but we stopped that behavior. He still grabs other dogs by the neck (never hurting them but using a soft mouth like the other dogs use to carry game birds, and moves them where he wants them to go. He keeps them away from the gate. When they go the right direction Kipper lets go. No, when the guest dogs leave, I am not going to get him some sheep.

There is an area where my fence is higher off the ground. Betsy wiggled under the fence but instead of running away, she ran around the outside of the fence. I went to Home Depo and got some cement blocks to put by the fence and stop Betsy. They were selling out all their plants at rock bottom prices. Of course I bought four more hanging plants. The woman said they had to make way for their Christmas things that were coming in. I didn't think she was serious but she said she already had snow blowers in. Oh, me.

By the way Kipper could easily jump over the fence or dig under it, but he wouldn't ever do it. He knows he is not suppose to and likes to be a good dog.

Dogs
I am dog-sitting for the month of July while my son and family try and sell their MI house and move to AL. I have a fenced in yard so the dogs like to run around and this makes it hard to get pictures of them. In the first one the dog in the back is Kate, 13 years old, who has her summer hair cut. In the front is Tess, age 8, who badly needs a hair cut. The second picture is Betsy, age 3, who runs and runs and the close up is all I could get today. The bottom pic is my dog Kipper who is 8 years old and being a a very good host. Yes, I do feel like I am running a kennel. But they are good dogs and I'm happy to be able to help my son and family. See next post for close up pics of Tess.

Up Close and Personal
Tess wants to get onto my lap. Hard to get a pic.