Random Superheroes

We've all known superheroes. In my youth it was Mighty Mouse.

 When I was heading off to college it was The Six Million Dollar Man. Who was the superhero you loved from your childhood?

Of all the superheroes I've known, my favorite is Superhero Curly!

Each year I go East to visit my kids. When I get to Nancy Drew's house I have the most wonderful two days. Sweetie gets to stay home from daycare and I get her all to myself. This year when I arrived, Sweetie said, "On our day, can we make a cape for Curly? She loves being a superhero." This
 is one reason I call her Sweetie. Later that day while we were looking at cool stuff in her room she said with wonderful intensity: "I love Curly. I would step in front of a car to protect her." Excuse me while I wipe my eyes.


On our second day, off we trotted to Joann's to find the perfect material. Sweetie wasn't feeling well, but she was determined. Of course all the fabric was overwhelming and we went through the aisles twice. Sweetie was looking for something bright and cheery. I pulled out some fabrics here and there but they weren't "it." Finally Sweetie sat down on the floor, feeling worse. I started scanning the fabrics right in front of us. Suddenly I saw this fantastic fabric in front of me and drug it out and showed her. She looked at it and said, "I like it." Pause. "I really like it." We had found it! The cape was to be reversible, one down, one to go. Sweetie remembered that I had shown her dotted fabric that had glitter on it. Perfect!

Back at home, we laid out a "pattern" I had gotten from Craft Buds, a blog I found through Google. Instead of goofing around trying to devise my own cape and get the right design, I used her pattern. Sweetie and I laid it out, she cut it out and we pinned it.

I had given Nancy Drew a 1960's Pfaff that my Aunt Marie had. I do not have good mojo with that sewing machine. Yes it was a wonder to see. I had learned to sew on my mother's same machine. With it I had started my quilting journey. Nancy Drew does not sew, but she had this cheap (in both senses of the word) to do basic mending. Hence, the Pfaff found its new home with my second daughter. It was fun taking that 50 pound machine as carry-on luggage, but that's another story!

Four years ago, Sweetie and I made her first quilt. We used the Pfaff. Nancy Drew had inserted the bobbin case incorrectly. When we made the first stitch, the needle got stuck in the down position and wouldn't budge. Exasperation. Tugging. Bother. Tugging. Vexation. Calling hubby. Botheration. Breaking of bobbin case. My "swear" word: Snergen. I finally conceded victory to the pesky machine. Eventually we borrowed a machine from a friend of my daughters.

Hold on to your seats...fast forward. Pfaff all fixed and read to go. I couldn't find where the pedal plugged into the machine. Brilliant idea.  In retrospect, idiotic move. I plugged the pedal into the wall outlet. Press pedal. Pop! Smell of electricity dying. Machine gives a sigh and dies.

However, the machine did work. If you turned the wheel by hand. Which is what we did. Sweetie did the turning of the wheel and got remarkably fast with it. Not before I gave it a try. My wedding ring was hitting the metal wheel. I decided to take off my ring. Snug, no budge. Soap to the rescue! Two weeks later I still can't get the ring back on. Aggravating.

It turned out fantastico!

 Since Curly wasn't there, the only models we had were ourselves!

Up, Up and Away!

I Will Save You!

This is definitely saving the best for last: Superhero Curly!

  Off to save the day!

I don't know for sure, but I think Curly's smile was enough for Sweetie!

Hooking up with Really Random Thursday. Grab badge at right and see how random other people can be.

Spring Quilts & Spoons

I am re-posting this blog entry from almost a year ago. I have just finished the flimsy that I am going to give to Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo. You can see my post about it here. I thought that for today's Let Be Social I would share this with you. It's mostly about people who have chronic illnesses and an amazing piece, The Spoon Theory, written about how you explain that to others.

In the Spring this year, Quilting Gallery had its weekly "contest" with the theme of Spring Quilts. It's a fun thing to do every week. There is a theme each week and you can post a quilt you've made that meets the theme. During the week, anyone can vote for their top three favorites. At the end of the week, a winner is announced and a nice prize is given.

With the Spring Theme, I looked through my quilts. I don't have many quilts in my "body of quilts," so it was easy to look through all of them. I found the quilt below that is called Purple Hugs.

 With all the lovely flower prints, I think it definitely welcomes in Spring.

I made this quilt in Spring of 2012. We moved to our house eight years ago. The neighbors across the street became good friends. There was the Mom & Dad & P their adult daughter. P lives with them because they need her help in keeping their lives in order.

Close Up of Purple Hugs

Three years ago, P was diagnosed with MS. She was 30 years old. She has a great sense of humor and, more often than not, when she comes over to visit it is to laugh. She makes fun of herself and her decreasing abilities. She would hate me for saying this, but she is a model of grace.

When she got her diagnosis, I wanted to make her a quilt. Her favorite color is purple, could you tell? I started looking at patterns with an eye for ones that would be simple and quick to put together. I wanted her to have it soonest.

I went through my stash and started pulling out purples, greens, and pinks. I love purple and green together! I'm not a purple person, but I was grateful I had enough for the quilt. Some of the fabric dated back to my Aunt Marie's stash.

Since I didn't have the money to send it to a LAQ, I decided to tie it. I am always worried that someone will like a quilt less because it is tied. Silly me. It turned out beautifully.

P loves her quilt and mentions it now and again. I'm glad she does. She's a wonderful person.

Many of you, like me, have known or had friends who have chronic illnesses. There are those of you who live "up close and personal" with someone living with this. The two people I have been close to are my neighbor, P, and my mom.

I've written about my mom before (link above). She got breast cancer when she was 42 and I was just graduating from high school. She never fully recovered. The cancer just kept attacking different parts of her body. Twelve years later she died. P reminds me of my mom. Mom always lived on the sunny side of the street, even when it stormed. Her cancer robbed her of her immune system. It robbed her of her energy and ability to have a vibrant life. Hers is not an unusual story in cancer-dom or in chronic diseases.

Mom had to choose her activities carefully. If she decided to go shopping, or over to friends for dinner, take in a movie, she would be down in bed for at least two days.

A few years back I came across a touching piece written by a woman, Christine, who has Lupus. One day while having lunch with a very dear, long-time friend who asked her what it was like to have Lupus. After the years they had known each other, Christine was amazed that her friend had no idea what her life was like. She cast about for some way to explain what it was like to live with Lupus, then she had a brilliant inspiration. She picked up spoons from the table and used them to teach her friend. From that instance, she had found a way to describe living with a chronic illness.

The Spoon Theory stuck a chord with me because it described my mom. I have passed it on to many people in my life who could use it. Whether it be because they need to understand they're not alone or because people say "you don't look sick," I want them to read it.

I cannot download it, or print it, but I can give you the link where to find it. I hope you will read it. Maybe you:

• know someone who has a chronic illness
• had or have a relative who is dealing with chronic illness
• you've had someone tell you or someone you know that they "don't look sick."
• you get judged when you get out of your car after you parked in the handicapped zone
• have friends who are unsupportive because you can't come to the party, or go shopping, etc
• have a chronic disease

Pass the link on to someone. Read it for comfort. Read it for understanding of someone you know.

But, please, read it.

The Spoon Theory



Photo credit: Silver Spoon, by Believe Creations, taken April 6, 2008. CCC license

The Itsy Bitsy Spider(web) Border Dilemma

It's early morning here--good morning to all! I've been trying to write this blog for about 45 minutes. It's hard to type when something is crawling up your leg with sharp claws. And I have pajamas on that are thin cotton and only come to below the knees!

My little charmer has fallen asleep on my lap and now I can type with both hands!

The Little Charmer

Who can resist this little girl? Her name is Squirt and she is a bundle of love and no bigger than a minute. You may remember that I lost my cat last Spring. Within a few weeks, I was pining away for a kitty. I decided to wait until summer when I'm home and could devote time to her. Once I got home from vacation, I was able to wait 4 whole days before hubby and I were off to the animal shelter.

Squirt stole my heart the minute I picked her up and she snuggled under my chin! She's settled into the house very well. My dog and hubby's cat aren't not so sure about the little interloper...both of them are afraid of her! Bunch of wusses!

Squirt in my inbox

Looks like our house is going to be turned upside down. She's been chewing on paper in my inbox, swatting my houseplants (they make great toys), and generally having all those great kitty adventures.

Squirt perfecting innocent look after playing
with the houseplant.

Squirt's first night home

A couple of months back I was trying to figure out a border for my Spiderweb Quilt. I came up with what I thought of as a winning plan...only to sew it on and see it was definitely Not Working. That's when I turned to my lovely friends that read my blog and got ideas of how to improve my borders, which involved removing the borders I had put on!

Here is my latest version of a border. I chose a chocolate brown with colorful flowers or another with colorful sprinkles. I'm thinking of leaving on the yellow border. What should I do with an outer border. I'm adding wider borders because I need to make the quilt big enough for a queen size bed. The brown would be five inches wide. The next border would be about three inches.

And now, my friends, help me with these questions:

• Which border do you like? or do you think both of them stink? Personally I like the border with the flowers.
• Should I leave the yellow, swap places with the brown or use another color than yellow?
• What color should the third border be? Busy? Tone on tone?

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. You were so helpful last time and I'm relying on you to guide me on my way to finish this quilt. (Hoping the flattery and whining will help you to comment!)

Happy Monday To All!

Check out other great design walls (links on left border) at:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times
Show and Tell Tuesday
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
We Did It Wednesday
WIP Wednesday
It's A Party Wednesday
My Quilt Infatuation

I'm Home! Whoo-Hoo!

It's crazy what people will look like when they celebrate!

I'm back from a two-week vacation to the East Coast to see my dear son and dear daughter and their families. It's an annual pilgrimage after school lets out. I get to see Curly and Sweetie and how much they've grown and changed in one year. I get to see Nancy Drew and TGS and enjoy being in their homes.

Okay, okay...some explanation for the picture above. Nancy Drew and SWH participated in the wildly popular Warrior's Challenge. It's an obstacle race that has fun stuff like jumping over fire, cargo climb, storming Normandy and lots and lots of MUD! Brave contestants work through Army-like obstacles through the mud, "run" between obstacles in mud that is sometimes knee deep and at the end wade through a ... hmm...how can I describe it...ahh...mud puddle that is around 5+ feet deep. Did I mention there was mud? And more mud?

The pic above is my daughter (on the left), in the mud and yellow shirt, with two friends at the "finish line".

What a crazy way to spend a Saturday morning! I chose the better part. I stayed with darling Curly and tried to stay cool in the 90' weather with 90% humidity. I definitely knew I was the smarter one in the family when Nancy Drew said the mud smelled like cow poo. Yummy!

Sorry about the photo overflowing into the right column. The stupid thing just wanted to take up the biggest space it could...it's irritating when the pictures take control!

Above: right to left
Top Row: Before Picture--Nancy Drew in yellow, SWH far right, After Picture
Middle Row: Beginning of race after first mud "puddle." Notice the mud is above the knee!, Curly hangs out in the shade with me, SWH jumping over the fire
Bottom row:  Nancy Drew & SWH displaying medals, which were bottle openers, sporting their hats. Somehow Curly managed to sneak in the photo. Curly and Nancy Drew in hats.

It was a fantastic day.

If I was waiting for my family to finish the "Dash", and I didn't have Curly, here's how I would have spent the waiting time:

Linking up with:

Whoop! Whoop! Fridays

Random Thoughts on Yesteryear

I've been keeping a note going in my iPhone. I want to write a little book for my grandkids on things that were around when I was a kid. Things that they will never know.

AND--it was broadcast on a radio!

Heck, I still remember Fibber McGee's closet. I never actually heard it, but my Mom had and she told me about it. (You're going to have to look that one up!) Speaking of which, you don't have to go down to the library to find some sort of book about Fibber McGee. It probably wouldn't even exist. Just as an experiment I timed myself looking up Fibber McGee. From Google page to a Wikipedia article: 18.2 seconds!

More than that, I didn't have to wait for the dial-up modem to connect. Nor did I have to return the carriage on the typewriter to write this.

Apple IIc

Consider this, I was able to keep this blog post open while I went to Google and then onto Wikipedia. In 1990, I was still teaching students how to open a program on a computer. And that was the only program you could use.

Okay, technology is an easy one to find a hundred things that our grandkids won't know. Remember when the only thing teens could say about adults being "antiquated," basically was old ideas. It's amazing all the things I keep remembering for that list on my iPhone.

What's amazing is that I have a 13-year-old grandson and a 3-year-old granddaughter. It's hard to believe what the difference between what the older one knows that my younger one will never have experienced!

Maybe my grandkids will not even know about "snail mail" and only UPS and FedEx. They certainly won't remember Air Mail and onion skin paper! When I was near 5-years-old, the postage stamp went up to 5 cents! Even further, they won't know about dittos and carbon copies. When I was 10, I made a book of stories I had written as a Christmas gift for relatives. I used two sheets of carbon paper to make three copies at a time. I typed that book over four times!

Image: http://www.hpmuseum.org/34.jpg copyrighted

When I was in college in 1975, senior year, I bought my first calculator. It had the basic four functions. Period. It cost me 25 dollars. And I felt guilty buying it because I should be doing it by hand. In 1979, my first husband who was an engineering major, needed a programmable graphing/scientific calculator. (see picture at right) Prior to that he used a slide ruler! It cost near $300.

Oops! That was technology. Sorry, won't happen again.

This is a slide ruler, if you've never seen one!

Image: http://www.hpmuseum.org/powerlog.jpg copyrighted

I was explaining this to a 19-year-old a couple of days ago: Party Lines. When I lived in a rural area we had a party-line. Look this one up too, it'll only take eight seconds!

What about movies? When "The Other Side of the Mountain" came out, it stayed in the cinema for near six months. And that was normal.

When I was 8, 1963, oops! Now I've done it! You know how old I am... And if you don't have a two buck calculator around, that means I'm 58. So, 1963. I wanted a "graham cracker doll" from the Sears and Roebuck catalog. It wasn't a graham cracker, which I was crazy about, the doll was a nurse and the square thing with little holes was a bandage. That's not the emphasis here, however. That same doll was in the catalog for quite a few years! And it wasn't a TV or movie related doll.

Now that brings back memories! When 101 Dalmations (the original) came out, I fell utterly, head over heels in love with it. My mom bought me every commercialized object from the film. A Pongo stuffed dog. A LP (record) with the story. A lunchbox. Maybe there were a few more things, like a storybook. Put basically 4-5 things. That's it. That's all. Truly flabbergasting, isn't it? Go here to hear the twilight bark!

As far as movies go: I saw the first run of Mary Poppins, To Kill A Mockingbird (scared the pajabers out of me since I only remembered the "pumpkin scene"), Bambi, The Haunting of Hill House, plus more.

Do your remember these?

Left to right, top to bottom:
1.  Reel to Reel Tape player             2.  Blue Chip Savings Stamps     
3.  Pee Chee folders, which are coming back!

4.  45 record with adapter         
 5.  Tulip Lawn Chairs                     6.  Cloth towel dispenser
7.  Free glasses in detergent             8.  Sardines that opened w/ key 
9.   Wall heater control

Tell me, what "vintage" things do you remember?

Hooking up with Totally Random Thursday & Let's Bee Social, badge on right.

And now, it's time to say good-night!

Design Wall Monday: The Wall of Many Projects

I have a plethora of projects on my design wall today. Don't you just love the word plethora? It's got to be one of my top favorite words. I love how it feels as you pronounce it and I love it's definition. Who could ask for anything more? Who could ask for anything more! (I'm singing those last two lines). And why not? It's the first "official" day of summer vacation. I hope that's not groaning I'm hearing...I have been talking about it ad infintium  a lot.

And what greets me on my pre-first day of summer? Oh, hello, Mr. Virus! Oh, you've decided to come for a visit? I haven't seen you in a while. Yes, old "friends" shouldn't let so much time pass between visits. Come in? No, I think not; I'm very busy. Well! Aren't you rude just barging in like that!

First up on the design wall: I've added the second dark on the Log Cabin for the newlyweds. I haven't gotten it trimmed yet, but I have a great quilt afternoon with my friend, JP, today. Fun for days!

I've thought of a name for my Spiderweb quilt: Web of Friends. Most of the scraps in this quilt came from my own stash and from JP's, plus a few other friends. I look at the fabrics and say, "Oh that one was JP's or MF's. Pretty cool in my book.

Now I need help. On the quilt. I'd like to ask you to quilt it, but no... I'm not sure about the second border, the light blue one. When my husband and I were auditioning fabrics, it looked pretty darn cool with the quilt. It's all sew in, but now I'm just not sure. Is it too light? What do you think? Please leave me a comment with your opinion.

Sorry, picture got deleted by someone trying to clean up a file...

Here's a close up of the corner. The third border is midnight blue: dark, dark blue and purple. Lovely fabric. The corner is light blue polka dot. Ideas anyone? Remember, if you think I should replace the middle border, I'm sending to you to rip out the seams! I'm kidding. Maybe. Maybe not.

Sorry, picture got deleted by someone trying to clean up a file...

And here's a cutie. My little spool blocks are coming along swimmingly. I've finished the strippy part. Yesterday I tried out colors for the spool. Hit it in one! I have a very warm brown fabric and I think it's perfect! What say you?

And now, just because I'm crazy enough to try it, this is the fabric I chose for a twirly skirt I want to make for Curly. I found this adorable pattern on Craftsy. Nancy Drew loved twirly skirts when she was young, so I wanted to make this one for Curly. In time to give to  her when I go out there. In one week. Does the word crazy jump in your mind?

You must go to the website to see the cute dresses Mommies have made and shown in the comments.

Here's my fabric found in my stash. Thank goodness for "inheriting" my Sisty Ugler's and BFF MF's stash. They had lots of good bright colors.

If you've ever wondered why I call my granddaughter "Curly" in the blog, here's why....

I'm sharing this with: (the badges are on the right)
Patchwork Times
Show and Tell Tuesday
Fabric Tuesday

Don't Try This At Home

There I was, a Saturday afternoon, John Denver singing on the stereo, looking out the window to see our front yard, the room comfortably warm. I was squaring up scraps from the Log Cabin. I was using my 2.5 inch square ruler. It kept sticking to the fabric. When I checked the opposite side I quickly saw what the problem was. More accurately I felt what the problem was. The sandpaper dots I had put on the back to keep it from slipping were no longer sandpaper. They were sticky dots that had lost their sandpaper.

Well, I thought, I'll just use some nail polish remover and take the sticky off. Having had years of experience in getting tape off my dorm mirror, I knew this was the trick to getting sticky stuff off.

Thumbs up if you think this worked like a charm.

(You don't actually think I'd blog about my ruler doing what it was supposed to do, do you?)

Don't answer that question!

Behold and see my ruler!

Everything's gone. Except for the darned sticky dot!

Let this be a warning to you.

Quilts from My Sewing Machine #3: Mouse

This is me teaching! Like the lipstick?

Ah summer!!!! 'Nuf said!

You are the very lucky reader who gets to join in this momentous event! You might want to mark it down on the calendar of the most important days in your life! Oh all right, I'm exaggerating a little bit. But just a little.

Forget your calendar, it's not even on mine. I'm now dragging a box over and am going to stand on it. It's not a box of soap however, but sturdy enough. I feel very strongly about keeping a file, notebook, computer document, or ... containing your quilt provenances. I came upon this staunch belief from inheriting my Aunt Marie's quilts. I have lovely quilts that she made by hand, but I have no idea when she made them. I don't know the story behind making the quilt. And I really, really wish I did. One of my regrets. I don't want this to happen to my kids, grandkids or anyone wondering about the story behind the quilt. Hence, I keep a computer document with a provenance on each quilt.

I started this very randomly spaced Quilts from My Sewing Machine in April. Knowing myself well, at least in this one thing, I declared I wouldn't tie myself down to a schedule for this recurring feature. Good thing, too. Here's entry #2 from Quilts from My Sewing Machine.

Not only am I going to tell you about a quilt I named "Mouse," it's going to be from the entry in my Quilt Provenances. I number the quilts in my provenance by when they were finished, so Mouse was my 17th quilt. Some of my provenances are long and some are barely there. I make sure I put in the "details": Name of quilt, start and finish date, size of the quilt, pieced by (because I sometimes quilt a flimsy of my Aunt's) and who quilted it. Recently I've started including the price it cost to get it quilted.

And now, without a fuss or muss, or more rambling or soap-boxing, let me introduce you to mouse!

17. Mouse     July 2008-July 2010         91.5 x 61.5 super twin
Pieced and machine-quilted by myself

The summer of 2008 was a very productive one for me. It was the summer of Quilt Café; AH, MBD, MF and S got together every Monday. We were friends from the Guild but also MBD, MF, AH and I were already good friends. We'd gather, usually at MBD's house, bring potluck lunch and quilt. MBD's husband, WD, made us a wooden plaque than said "Quilt Café." MBD hung it in her big quilting room, really a family room, and our name was born. Sometimes it was hard to say whether we ate more or quilted more!

During that summer I made My Other Daughter, The Yellow Failure, Hubby's Log Cabin, TGS Plays the Blues and started the Blue and Green Christmas. Everyone was getting quilts for presents that year!

This is a picture of my Hubby and
his favorite color: black.

Hubby's favorite color is black. I had been searching for a couple of years for a good pattern to make him a lap quilt. I decided on a Log Cabin with shades of black on one half, and shades of gray on the other. I found some sumptuous Japanese black cotton that cost $15 a yard; at the time good quilt fabric was going for $9 a yard. The Japanese black became the darkest black. I had found some grey on sale at an internet website and the rest came from a local quilt store.

I used Eleanor Burns Log Cabin in a Day to construct the quilt and it went together very quickly. I decided to quilt it myself on the machine using Aunt Marie's Log Cabin quilt as a pattern for the quilting. As I was ironing the top, getting ready to sandwich it, I discovered that the gray I had purchased on sale was of questionable quality. It had already begun to fray along the seams and in a few places had frayed almost to the seam line. What a nightmare!

NO, not that Bond!

YES, that 007!

While at PIQF in October, I discovered 007 Bonding Crystals and found the solution to the fraying seams. I cut strips of good white cotton and, using the 007, I bonded the cotton to the gray. It was a bit of a project, but worth it. I wanted that quilt to be really nice for Hubby.







Referring to one of my Aunt's LC, I looked at how she had quilted it. I used my walking foot to quilt down the middle of the logs. I had it about half quilted when Christmas rolled around. I presented it to my hubby with great anticipation at giving him his first quilt made by me!

I named it Mouse because it black with a blue center square. Interpretation: In old detective movies, a mouse was a black eye. Example: "Where'd ya get the mouse, Freddy Light-Fingers?"

Cat Inspecting Mouse

Mouse Statistics
Started: July 2008
Finished: July 2010
Size: 91.5" x 61.5" (Super Twin)
Pieced and Machine Quilted by myself

Design Wall and Summer Vacation

Happiest of all Mondays! Three days of school left for me! (Wild cheering and clapping in the background).

Here is an preview of my plans for the summer.

Actual Picture of My Favorite Rose Bush

Work in my Vegetable Garden

Visit My Grandkids

Quilt, Quilt, Quilt!

And now to the Design Wall! "We're walking, we're walking and stop. This is the picture of the lovely quilt on Terri's Design Wall. It was taken on 6/3/13 and is an excellent example of her hand-quilting in the Middle Era of Her Quilting Period."

Fine Example of her hand-quilting in the Middle Era of Her Quilting Period

I'm one step away from a finished quilt! Hurrah! Of course it is a king-sized quilt, so it probably won't be on my design wall all finished next week!

Summer and finishing a quilt! The stuff dreams are made of!

Trot on over to these blogs and see what other quilters are making! Find their buttons at end of blog.

Patchwork Times
WIP We Did It Wednesday
Work In Progress Wednesday
It's A Party