Buried Treasure

With the sewing machine in the shop, I've spent the last week going through my photos.  Thirty year's worth of pictures.  Whew!  I'm weeding through photo albums, keeping the good pictures.  It's freaky how much I've throw away.  The plan is to digitize the ones I keep. 

It's been quite a trip down memory lane.  I'm looking forward to share some of my favorites on Throwback Thursdays.

In with the photos were a variety of old cards, including this birthday card my sister made for me.  Guinea pig, quilting and tea!  My favorite things all together!

Comparing Fleece

When I bought a batch of fleece on-line last October, I happened to buy one yard of micro-fleece.  I wasn't sure about it, but how could I pass up those flamingos?  It seemed very thin when it arrived but I decided to use it anyway.

Months later, it seems to be holding up as well as the other fleece I from that batch.  The interesting thing is that the micro-fleece seems to slough off hay easier than anti-pill.  The hay doesn't cling like it does to regular fleece.

Of my older fleece, I'd say the anti-pill fleece has held up better than the blizzard fleece.  The few pieces of blizzard fleece have lost most of their fluff.  My anti-pill fleece has taken a beating and still looks pretty good.  I will be interested to see how well the micro-fleece looks after a few years.  All of them seem to wick moisture well.

If your guinea pigs have fleece bedding, what kind is it?  Anti-pill?  Blizzard?  Micro-fleece?  How well has it held up for you?

Becalmed

Quilting my pillow didn't get very far.  I had some kind of wavy pattern going on with the blue patch.  It wasn't quite what I had planned, but I thought it worked.  I was having problems moving the fabric around freely and the foot kept catching on the seams.  I think I ripped out as much as I stitched in.

In addition, my sewing machine sounds like a washing machine with an unbalanced load.  I decided to suspend my sewing projects and bring the machine to the repair shop.  They told me the backlog was a three week wait.  Ugh.

In the meantime, I'm cutting pieces for a new quilt, sorting through old photos.  Maybe I'll start on some more earrings.  I'll have stuff lined up for my Singer's return.

Guinea Pig Spaghetti

Corn season!  I picked up a big bag of husks this week and shredded the lot for drying.  That left a mound of corn silks, which looked to me like a plateful of spaghetti.  Doesn't it?  It just needs some tomatoes on top to complete the picture (however, I'm unwilling to share my few that have ripened).

I grabbed Pinniped and Cannoli to take some photos.  Pinni was more than happy to sit right down and start munching.  Cannoli, as usual, was a bit shy.  She wolfed down a mouthful of silk, but as soon as I moved her to get a better shot, she was gone.  Made a beeline out of the living room to the home base in the kitchen.  Better to hide where it's familiar than to eat good stuff in a strange place.  Noli is such an odd guinea pig.

Liquifying Pinniped

I've switched Pinniped's daily fluids from subcutaneous to oral.  I had a hard time getting the full 30ml into her the first few days.  It took more sittings than I had time for so she got needled every couple of days.  But Pinni has caught on.  She's either developed a taste for lactated ringer's solution, or she's figured out that if she drinks what I give her, she doesn't get poked.  We have a new routine in place of the quick (but stressful) two-person evening shot.  I draw the fluids in the morning, squirt it into a clean baby food jar and feed it to her throughout the day using the 3ml syringe.  Pinni goes through 10-12ml at a sitting; if I'm lucky I can finish off the fluids in two sittings.  When it's time for evening meds and fluids I announce:  I'm off to liquify the pig.


Pinni's pretty funny.  She pulls the syringe like I'm not giving it to her fast enough.  But I don't want to plunge the syringe too fast - I'd hate to choke her.  I can tell Pinni's had enough when she either starts dribbling fluids or when she grabs for the syringe from the side instead of straight on.  I wish all feedings and medicating were this easy.  Down the hatch!

Good girl, Pinni.  Oral fluids may interrupt my daily schedule than administering a subcue, but it makes everyone much happier.  If she keeps this up, I may have to return my collection of butterfly needles.  Oh, joy!

Who Let the Pigs Out

Wheek, wheek, wheek-wheek!

This summer has been pretty good for spending time outside in the yard.  Pinniped and Cannoli had several afternoons in their pen while the weather was dry and sunny.  But we had rain and thunderstorms last week, so they had to stay in.  Friday cleared up and was a perfect day for an outing: sunshine, not too hot, and dry.  There was much happiness!

The grass had grown quite a bit from the rain.  Pinni wasn't sure what to eat first - the wide-bladed grass or the clumps of clover.  She kept chewing as she moved from one spot to the other.  Cannoli preferred whatever she could find under the house.  She's so hard to photograph!  That chicken runs and hides whenever I come near (Pinni, as you can see, could care less).

Ipswich River Sanctuary

It's been several years since our last visit to the Ipswich River Sanctuary.  I was excited to feed the birds.  We usually make the trek in the fall or winter.  Monday was our first summer visit.  What a difference!  The ponds were lush and green with lilies and dragonflies.  The Rockery was so quiet and still, it seemed as if no one else was at the sanctuary. 

The birds were pretty quiet, too.  We walked around the pond and listened to the croaking frogs, but any peeping trees seemed far away.  We came across a couple of shy titmice who watched me, but wouldn't risk taking seed from my hand.  A lone chickadee took the seed I offered.  This was not the flock of curious birds I've met in the past! 

Pieced Pillow Tops

I have too much going on.  It's taking forever to finish even a small project, because I keep getting interrupted to work on something else.  There's just not enough hours in the day!

I've finished two 16" tops for the pillow. The diagonal strings piece is so bright and cheery.  If I made another one, I'd change the colors of the center square.  But other than that, I'm happy with the results.  It will be my little piece of String Theory when that quilt goes to it's new home later this month. 

I think the spiderweb panel is really pretty.  It's my favorite of the two.  I've never pressed open seams on a quilt before.  Quarter inch seams are a pain to press open!  But the results are terrific - the middle of the webs were much easier to line up and stitch through.  I wish I had done this with Northern Lights.  Lesson learned!