June UFO Linky Party at Cat Patches

Hello July First.

The first of the month means it's time for Barbara Stanbro's FO Linky Party at one of her blogs: Cat Patches. The best part about Barb's monthly link-up: Nothing has to be finished; you see, it's all about starting a project. Finishing is optional. That's my kind of party because my mojo hasn't yet figured out how to read a calendar and often a project won't be completed within a calendar month. Others are finished in a couple days but that's not to be taken for granted.

So June's project is Karen's Pastel, which was started in early June, finished, mailed and arrived in South Florida where it is the "perfect everything-size, weight, colors and infused with love in every stitch" Karen professes with a catch in her voice. Brought me a few tears too; we're physically a continent apart and it's emotionally hard some days. Would have preferred to deliver this one in person.

It finished at about 65 by 75 inches or so.

Batting is cotton and bamboo-half and half. Quilting was done on my low-end Singer with lots of rolling and shifting, it finished up lightly quilted with a wacky binding.

Linking up to NNT at My Quilt Infatuation and Richard and Tanya Quilts Link a Finish Friday.

Sunny Cat-urday !~!

Staying awake was never negotiable.
Sorry, if you, my silly human, got that impression.
It's called beauty sleep for a reason;
how about you take a nap with me ...

It's not like She could push ME !~!

Is it ?~!

Poetry Interval

Sorrow

by Robt Browning Hamilton

I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow;
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.

Teri, on right, and I attended our high school band reunion in June 2005.
The last time I saw her alive.

Karen's Finished !~!

Animal Party under the newly completed Quilt.
Quick before it leaves for its home in the Tropics.

The binding has many faces: the backing, a patched together side and one side where I turned the flimsy over the back and sewed it down. Totally non-standard way of doing things but HEY !~! Who makes the rules ?~!

The backing fabric with the front turned over at the top.

The completed quilt for my dearest sister. Pastels for you, my soulmate.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addicts' Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? and also Richard and Tanya's Finish Friday and Amanda Jean's Friday Finish. Also Quokka Quilts, (TGIFF) a Down Under blog I just found thru one of these linky parties--I love these.

Karen's Flimsy Finished....

... Unless I decide it needs borders !~!

Out of my usual range of colors, I struggled for a while trying to make this work.
In the end I like it. I think the mauve consistency makes a statement. The distribution speaks to my need for a design wall. Aaaaaaand, it was supposed to be five blocks by eight blocks. When I set it up on my bed, I set it up as six by seven... I had an extra four blocks from my test piece and so I used two of them that were mixed into the pile from when I was playing with them last week. I didn't realize my mistake until well into the block-sewing-together portion of the project.

So the backing will be for another day's perusal. I want to eat banana bread and watch tv. This was the last week of school for Baby Boy's mother so we're essentially off until mid-August. We'll get a few jobs between the rain drops but it is our slow season and we'll have fun eating down the food stuffs and using up the craft supplies while we do household cleaning and sorting that is hard to do with a curious toddler on my lap.

Happy Summer.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday, Linda at Natural Suburbia, and Richard and Tanya's Link a Finish. Give these great blogs a look-see - there are some amazing works of art being made this month all over the world and we can see some of them at these links.

Musical Interval for the Weekend

 Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah

Thursday Arrived on Little Cat's Feet

and since we have no baby tomorrow this is the beginning of a three-day weekend. Woo Hoo. Sewing machine, get ready; rotary cutter are you sharp ?~! I cut and stitched and cut again Nine-Patch blocks for Disappearing Nine-Patch but I DO NOT like the way they turned out at all. Fabric I think is the prob. Hmmmm... The fabric patterns are not compatible, the layouts look weird to my untrained eye and the strip set I bought to go with the blocks doesn't seem to want to fit anywhere. Perhaps some pictures will help...

What do you think? Too many patterns for the piece? Do I need more solids and fewer prints?

Thinking time again....

Ormond Requests a Quilt for His Nights

My husband wants a quilt for his side of our bed. First time he has asked so I must put something together. I will use my blues and purples again and work with big blocks so I can see the patterns in their glory.

Frankie Graduates and Looks toward Uni

An ad on Craigslist in early Dec 2002 brought me to the family for whom I still occasionally look after the younger daughter and have coffee with the kids' mom. When I started Frankie was in first grade at Head Royce and Lucia was an infant. Frankie graduates high school Saturday; I couldn't be prouder to have been in her life this last decade plus. It took only a couple days for me to fall in love with both girls back then when they were adorbs. One just beginning to cut teeth, the other losing her baby chompers and talking funny.

We had all kinds of fun: ski weeks in Tahoe, horses to love and care for, Las Vegas for the weekend just us four girls, countless swims and soaks, walks and trampoline bounces, dogs and cats and chickens Oh my !~! On a very basic level Frankie and Lucia are as dear to me as if I had birthed them myself.

Saturday morning, June 7, 2014, Frankie dons her cap and gown and walks across the stage to receive her hard-earned diploma as Valedictorian; next stop Williams in western Mass. It has been an amazing experience watching her grow into womanhood before my eyes. She's creative and smart and compassionate and loving in her heart and in her soul. May she find all she seeks in her life and let each step she takes lead the way to Peace.

Both girls read and write voraciously for fun and school.

Lucia and Frankie in their new sweatshirts.

Have a great weekend, likely won't see you until next week altho one never really knows for sure, does one ?~!

Recommendation for Recovery Website

It's Loaded w Links

Although my recovery is solidly in place after thirty years, I know there are millions of us who need help along the way and it is with that intention, I link to this list of resources from Addictions and Recovery. I know that I am only one sniff away from "why i quit".

Here's how I know...

We sold a motorcycle in pieces to a bright young lady from southern France and helped her put it together and make it safe for her to drive these luscious roads for fun. As a thank you, she brought us Beef Bourguignon and a bottle of wine from her region. She poured three glasses and I brought mine up to toast, allowed it to touch my top lip and then nearly fell off my chair when every Alcoholic Neuron began firing in my brain and I began planning where I could "tell them" I was going while I actually went after more alcohol. I didn't even get the alcohol into my mouth and my brain went nutty-kooks on me. I wasn't planning to drink the toast - I find the taste is not to my liking so I don't yearn for it or miss it. But boy-howdy was I surprised by my reaction to the simple droplet.

I remember a talk with my own mother, who shares my alcoholic gene which she too conquered, wherein she explained to my adolescent self that some people couldn't even have a little bit of it during communion without it being a problem. In the instant described above I recalled the chat with mom with crystal clarity and sent out a silent "Thank you for that info !~!" to my mother who was still alive then. Later thanked her on the phone; we had one good conversation before the undialyzed fog took her ability to form thoughts. I still work on her obit for this blog. I lost it the other day in a power failure-dang, there should be an automatic back up, no? This is Blogger.com