I Like Thursday: Holiday Prep and Sewing

I love, love, love the photos of last week's session with Joey from Salem Pet Photo.  So much cuteness!  I'll be sharing more of them soon.  I got the photos in time to order Christmas cards with some of the prints.  Perfect!

Doesn't it look like Mabel is ready to catch snowflakes on her tongue? 

I liked having a week off.  Got lots done.  Still have too much to do!  Damn - can I retire yet?

Strip Twist Colors

The strip twist quilt is coming together.  I finished buying fabric and was pretty sure I had all the right colors.  I changed my mind about a few fabrics after I cut all my strips (why does that happen after I cut everything?!?).  I took out two; added three more.  At this point, I wasn't too sure how they'd all go together.  Would the quilt be too red?  Too yellow?  Oh, that orange!

I forged ahead and stitched the strips together.  At this point, they're beginning to look like the blocks they'll become.  And you know what?  I'm seriously liking the color.  At one point I was going to skip adding the whites - I'm really glad I put them back in.  I knew the colors felt right individually; it's nice to see they all go together, too.  I hope the recipients (if they're reading this) are liking it, too.

This is most of the paired square strips thrown on the floor my design wall to get a feel for how the blocks will look.  I'm hoping to have finished blocks in the next couple of days - those diagonal seams are going slower than anticipated.  I can't wait to start laying out the whole quilt.  Soon!

Sharing with Freemotion by the River's Linky Tuesday.

The Mooch

Miss Mabel has been with us a good six months.  Some guinea pigs take that long to settle into a new household.  Not Mabel.  She made herself at home from day one.  Boadicea was the only other pig to pull that off.

Mabel is amazingly laid back, has no fear of people (although does not want to be touched and only tolerates being held and snuggled).  She expects all treats to come to her and is confused when I dare suggest she leaves the hammock or cozy for morning pepper.  I joke about the food flying into her mouth.  See?  It appears to be so, even when the lettuce is on the floor!

Mabel is very quiet; I've heard one or two wheeks when she's upset or if she is forced to demand something.  She randomly burbles happily to herself as she trots around the living room.  She spends most of the day sleeping curled up in a cozy, cuddle cup or hammock.

Cleanup Bowl

This coil bowl is my last cleanup project before I move onto my next quilt.  This used up the last of the blue stretch fabric as well as some thin strips of white that were too sheer to work well in the string blocks I made.

I had trouble with the last few bowls I made where the fabric bunched or fought with me.  Not this one; it went together so smoothly.  Even the sewing machine behaved (other than running out of bobbin thread only two rows from the top).

I love the colors.  It's a nice size, too:  about four inches tall and eight inches across at the widest point.

I Like Thursday: Another Thanksgiving

Ah, Thanksgiving - a great day to like things. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed a few days off.  I still have a few more to go before returning to work.  Woot!

Even with the days off, it's been a busy week.  I spent lots of time sewing on my days off.  I finished up the wavy strings blocks.  I had a bunch of short skinny strings that I cobbled together into a pair of mug rugs.  I'm finishing up a coil bowl with the very, very last of the Italian fabric.  Today, I start working on the next wedding quilt.  Yay!

I like that I spent some time this morning talking to my sister.  Gotta call Mom this afternoon.

I like that Rob fixed the thermostat this morning.  The heat had been a little flaky this week then waited for the coldest day so far to fritz out.  But we have heat now.  Love that. 

I like/enjoy/am thankful for the family and friends I have in my life.  I know a lot of good people.  How lucky am I?

Colorful Curves

I'm finishing up this round of curvy string blocks.  I made thirteen of them (last black-and-white one not in photo) before I ran out of strings big enough to do curves on finished 8-inch block.

Every block went together differently.  Some I started with the longest strings and worked to the points.  Others I started with one edge and moved to the other.  I started one crazy block at both corners and met in the middle - that took some work to even out.

Clean Hay?

I'm allergic to Timothy hay, which is why I have orchard grass for the guinea pigs.  Even that can give me a runny nose or headaches if I breath it in too deeply.  It's the dust that bothers me - I can handle the hay without problem.  But the hay breaks apart in the box and the little pieces are easily airborne as I grab a handful for the hay rack.  So every week or so (usually between flakes) I take my dustbuster to the hay.  It's strong enough to vacuum up the crumbs (without sucking up the actual hay).

It seems kind of silly, but it appears to work.  I often don't react to dumping the dust.  At worst, it bothers me once every week or two instead of every day.  So Wedgwood and Mabel get freshly vacuumed hay.  Such spoiled guinea pigs.  But it keeps us all happy.

I Like Thursday: A Lot to Focus On

I'm looking forward to some time off because I suddenly have too much going at home.  Some fun, some not so fun.  I'll be busy!

It's hard to see in the photo, but these are the flying keys from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  They caught my eye on Friday's dance and I had to come back on Saturday to photograph.  The library had a Harry Potter event three weeks ago, and the librarians liked them so much they're still there.  Love that!

Squiggly Strings

My string bag was overflowing like my scrap bag.  I decided to try something new, so I'm making curved string blocks.  They'll be 8" finished.  The first one came out better than I hoped, so I kept going.  I'm trying to make each block go dark to light from corner to corner so that they're not entirely random.  I'm not sure if I'll stick with that design, but that's the plan for now.

A Small Step Downhill

Wedgwood had a really, really good October:  eating, comfort, mobility were all great.  She had no problems digesting veggies, there were no painful days or dealing with really weird bloat.  It has been a lovely respite and an unexpected result of August's surgery.

November hasn't started so well.  There's already been a day or two of not feeling well.  She's had worrisome weight gain - Wedgwood's shoulders remain a thin as her backside gets bigger.  That makes me think the tumor is gaining size and weight.  She's often very bulgy on one side.


Wedg abruptly stopped using the upper levels of the cage last week.  The only exception was Tuesday afternoon, when I was clearly ignoring her demands for lunch, and she leapt up to chew the bars knowing that would get my attention.  I literally heard her go "oof" when she made it to the second level.  (Such an effort had to be rewarded, of course!)

More Cleanup

My bag of small scrap fabric was overflowing.  I usually work on crumb hexies after finishing a quilt but I hadn't made any since March.  I spent last week piecing a lot of browns, blues, neutrals plus a few brights.  I have 20 new finished hexies with another dozen ready for batting and backing.

I also have another 50 or so 1½ inch HTS.  Turns out, these were great to work on alongside the crumb quilting.  Squaring the crumb fabric resulted in little pieces that were hard to add back in, but were perfect to stitch to the off-white triangles.  I look forward to working on both of these the next time my crumb bag is full - I have plenty more little triangles!

My crumb bag may be empty, but my bags of strings, selvedges and 2-inch squares are filling up.  Googled some ideas - there will be some side projects in the works soon.

I Like Thursday: Marriage, Colors, Chocolate

Another cousin married this weekend.  It poured and blustered before and after the ceremony, but I love that the sun streamed through the stained glass windows of the church for their vows.

I like the table centerpiece I brought home.  It was so pretty and has added some color in the house.

And the fabric all around it?  Colors for their wedding quilt.  I like that they match the flowers and foliage so well!  I need some more greens, maybe a bit more red.  I think I want green borders.  Now I have a better feel for the last bits of color for the quilt.  Off to the shop for borders and backing!  Then I can start piecing.  Goal is to have this done right after Thanksgiving.  We'll see....

Too Small Cozy and Wedgwood and Mabel

Have you seen Maru and his love of boxes?  (If not, check out the videos.)  He stuffs himself into all sizes of boxes. 


I made this cozy several years ago from scraps of fabric that weren't quite big enough.  Boadicea never had any problem getting into it.  Maybe it has shrunk over the years from use and washing?  No one could quite fit into it this week.






Wedgwood attempted it first.  She managed to get her nose well into it, but that rear end is certainly hanging out. 

I'm Nuts

When I made my pair of Homebase quilts, I cut off a lot of corners.  Those corners were just big enough that I couldn't throw them out.  So when I pulled out my scrap bag to work on crumb hexies, I started adding color to these little pieces.  The result so far:  over one hundred 1½ inch half triangle squares.  I'm only about halfway through the bag of off-white corners.

Eek!  Why did I save them??

I chucked any rejects (those that couldn't be squared to 1½ inches) into the crumb fabric I'm making, so no waste there.  Now that I have a pile of these little squares, I certainly can't throw them out.  It will become some future project.  What am I going to do with all those little squares?

I Like Thursday: Lots of Gold

I like the loot I got from the quilt show I went to last weekend.  I enjoyed the quilts and brought home nearly nine yards of fabric for forty bucks.  Some is earmarked for my latest quilt, some is just for stash.  It was an afternoon well spent!

I like that I got my voting out of the way on Saturday.  Huzzah for early voting!