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

Budding Artist Among Us

Does it get better than this ?~!

Missing Tony

My younger brother would have turned fifty-one today had he not been struck down by a heart attack just before his 48th birthday. He is missed so much by his wife, three daughters, grandkids, nieces and nephews and by his brother and me. I'd like to remember him here.

Jodell and Tony married for over thirty years-childhood sweethearts.

Lynda, Mike, Tony and Cathi in Midwest City OK Aug 2008 to bury our sister Teri.

Mike and Tony

Teri cracks Tony's back for him.

Tony holding Cheyenne, his youngest daughter.

Tony and Teri (both gone now) in Tony's home in Park Hill OK on one of Teri's trips
home from Moscow where she and her family were missionaries.

That infamous hair of ours !~!

Tony and Danyelle, his middle daughter. 

I love and miss you, my brother,
thanks for all you did all those years for the parents.

Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan

Dylan turns 73 on Saturday, May 24th. Bob Dylan has been one of the most influential figures in folk music and popular music and culture since the release of his first album in 1962.

May you see many more birthdays, Mr Dylan, 

you have changed the world with your words.

For that I thank you.

Memorial Day Weekend Round-Up

Purple Blocks is finished except for the embroidery stitching I want to do before I send it to her. Her birthday is July 8th so I have a month or so to get it finished.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation's Needle and Thread Thursday.

Here are some progress shots:

Not sure how much more I will do but I've ordered some good needles that won't tear up my fingers like the ones I am now using are doing.

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Ordered a 20-strip jelly roll of solid pastels for Karen's quilt.

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Got nudged by Montsho about her quilt too. I need to get it together with this one. I promised her an African themed half-size to adorn the foot of her lovely bed. Now she has been married and I still must get it started. Come on idea-machine, do  your stuff !~!

Montsho owns two businesses: Divine Touch, and she is the nutrition consultant and massage therapist with hands from deep in the earth's memory of how we are supposed to feel and function. I receive from a session with Montsho blessings in my body, my heart and my spirit. I am enlightened, enlivened and enriched by her tender and knowingly firm manipulations and generous outpouring of genuine love and care for those under her care. I have been a loyal client for over a decade and it is to Montsho I consistently return for care I can get nowhere else.

She is also co-owner in a lovely shop, Essence Unlimited in East Oakland, that sells delectably scented soaps, lotions, oils and all that fun stuff. She and her son, Santiago Bryant, are having a great time with their newest endeavor. Stop by 3340 East 12th Street, suite 16, in Oakland and welcome them to the business world with a purchase to help them get their feet under themselves.

• 
  

  

  Montsho and her amazingly gorgeous smile that burns deeply inside her soul.
  Gentle, loving, compassionate-would that the world be comprised of people like 'Sho,
  what a different place it would be. I'd vote for her for Mayor of Everything !~!

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I ordered a book, Super Quick Colorful Quilts, with simple patterns that show off your chosen fabrics with large cuts and so I look forward to that. I purchase fabric for the patterns or pictures or depictions on it. The thought of cutting it into unrecognizable pieces leaves me cold so I create designs that showcase the fabrics. Straight lines, square corners, large slabs or stripes with accents of small solid strips intermingled are the major design elements in my work at this stage of my life.

So I am off to the sewing machine, ironing board, and rotary cutter. Ideas aswirl, fingers feeling good. Slept for about nine hours and that always helps with my internal ability to create satisfactorily. Sleep continues to be my most restorative self-care; and the easiest to give myself so I have NO reason not to do just that.

Be safe this weekend. Don't drink and drive. Cook your meat, if you must eat it at all, well done and save the e coli for another day.

Thanks for stopping by; I know there are lots and lots of blogs, I am but one in a sea. Thanks for bobbing by and stepping ashore for a brief visit.

Flower Asks-found on Tumblr

• Daisy:How old were you when you had your first kiss? I do not remember-early teens I would guess, some forty years ago now.
• Carnation:If I handed you a concert ticket right now, who would you want to be the performer? Martyn Joseph
• Jasmine:What color looks best on you? Purple
• Foxglove:Name three facts about your family? We're a blended unit. We've weathered some serious shit. We'll make it tho.
• Allium:What's the best thing you can cook? Lasagna
• Orange Blossom:If you could pick the gender and appearance of your child, would you? Yes
• 
• Calla Lily:If you died right now, what song would you want to play at your funeral? Imagine sung by John Lennon himself please.
• Poinsettia:Favorite holiday dish? Candied sweet potatoes with no marshmallows.
• Oxlip:Would you ever get into a long distance relationship? Yes. I currently am involved with two women several thousands of miles away.
• Primrose:Favorite kind of soup? My own Homemade potato/ham chowder using a quarter pound of butter in a pot of soup.
• Daffodil:What's the most thoughtful present you've ever received? An endorsed paycheck to spend as I pleased.
• Rose:Are you currently in love with someone? Yes, still in love with my husband of nearly thirty years.

• Ansonia:Would you ever become a vegan? Yes
• Peony:What's your favorite hot beverage? Hot Chocolate 
• 
• Tulip:For your birthday, what kind of cake do you ask for? Cherry Cobbler from Ikedas
• 
• Myrtle:Do you like going on airplanes? No, I find them overcrowded with crappy air to breathe and I detest the TSA treating me like a criminal every time I go thru security.
• Hibiscus:Did you ever play an instrument? If so what? Clarinet
• Zinnia:Who was your best friend when you were six years old? My late sister, Teri
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• Poppy:What color was your childhood home? White with red trim
• Hydrangea:Starbucks order? Hot chocolate-full fat milk, whipped cream on top
• Violet:Do you like where you're from? No, that's why I left the Eastern part of the country and came west to Northern California
• 
• Locust:What was your favorite book as a child? Mrs Mike
• Rhododendron:What's the scariest dream you've ever had? Losing all my teeth
• Queen Anne's Lace:Would you rather carve pumpkins or wrap presents? Presents-less messy with greater chance for creativity in my skill set
• Magnolia:Favorite kind of candy? Bit of Honey
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• Aster:Would you rather be cold or hot? Hot
• Marigold:Do you listen to what's on the radio? Not often
• Heliconia:Do you like when it rains? No, it makes my body hurt too much.
• Azalea:What's a movie you cried while watching? The Visitor
• Dandelion:Do you think you're important? Not in the big picture, but to my immediate circle I know that I am.

source: oxlips

Frankie's Quilt--Layout Contemplation

Atop the light blue linen that will be their base-the squares display
their varied colors and styles. No two even close to alike !~!