This May Be The Silliest Post I’ve Ever Written! & The Shortest Too

Don’t you love my slippers?

Don’t judge my floors, please! But I actually know how to clean the black pitting in them! I should practice what I preach. Here’s a link to a blog post by Jillee with a tute on how to get out ground in dirt.


Linking up with Really Random Thursday, see badge on right.

Hands2Help & Flamingos

For those of you who are looking for For Pinks Sake, go to this link.

What a glorious day! It is the final day of the Hands2Help quilt drive. Each year Sarah (Confessions of a Fabric Addict) offers quilters a chance to make a quilt for 2 or 3 different charities. From March to June quilters can choose a charity, sign up and make a quilt.

I chose Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo. This organization captured my heart immediately. Emily, of Em’s Scrapbag, has an ongoing project of making quilts for Happy Quilts. “This wonderful effort provides quilts and comfort for chemo patients.” (Sarah Craig)

The number one reason I chose this was because of my Mom. 42 years ago my Mom had her first surgery for cancer. She went through chemo at one point and suffered the common lot of others who have chosen this option to try to rid themselves of cancer. I wrote a post about my courageous and beloved Mom, which you can read here.

Without any more chatter, here is my Flamingo Quilt!

The Quilt with my 1940 Elna Grasshopper

Don't look too closely at the p-i-n-s.

Kaiju, my kitty, helping with the backing

In all it's glory

What are those? Let me take a closer look? Pins???? Does she plan to have someone snuggle up with a quilt with pins?

No she doesn’t. With school and the Log Cabin (oh boy, she’s rolling out the excuses!) I knew I’d have to make the quilt the week after school let out. Errr, the last week before the H2H deadline.

Fortunately, this was a joint effort and my Sisty Ugler had made the blocks. I started in on last Saturday and was toodling along. Then an unexpected lost day showed up.

I worked my little beehind off yesterday. I thought I could make the finish line. I started quilting at 5:00. After a half hour, which meant I only covered about 24” (2 12-inch squares), I stopped to look at the back.

Eeeeeegads! The tension was all wrong! Loopy loo! And I had checked and adjusted the tension before I started. I stared at it in frustration and mounting apprehension. I would have to pull out all the stitching.

I should have thought to take a picture of my own quilt back!

Four hours later, I had finished ripping it out. It was then I realized it wouldn’t get done for today.

And (get ready for another excuse, group) today is our local guild’s Quilt Show. No quilting today.

And now you know why there are pins in it!

Look for another post next week with the unpinned and completely finished quilt!

** I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures. They are blurry and the color's faded. Darn! **

The Unveiling: For Pink’s Sake

Welcome to all who are blog hopping For Pinks Sake. Anna, who writes Life Sew Crafty, is hosting this blog hop to raise awareness of cancer, to make a quilt for Lemmon-Holton Cancer Pavillion in Grand Rapids, MI.

Anna is quite familiar with this hospital. It is where her mother-in-law, Tina, has had all of her cancer treatments.

Any of you who have had someone you love go through cancer treatments, know how the bills pile up. Anna is asking that anyone who is able to donate to help defray Tina’s medical bills.

Each of the bloggers on the hop are making a block to donate to the quilt for the hospital. You can help by donating a pink block. Instructions are here.

Those who read my blog regularly will know of my Mom who died from breast cancer in 1984. The radiation treatments had just started being refined. While my Mom had them, they learned how to pinpoint just one area to radiate instead of a buckshot approach.

The positive aspect now in 2014 is death rates from breast cancer are declining since 1990. This is because more and more women, like myself, have chosen to forego hormone replacement therapy. The breast cancer incidence rates among women aged 50 and older have seen a gradual reduction. This is due to early detection, increased awareness and continually improving treatment options. It’s a better world now and hope is growing all the time.

For my block, I wanted to make an “old-timey” block I found in my Aunt’s belongings. The publication, Grandmother’s Patchwork Quilts, was has no date. I’ve read about this small, paperback books, approximately 24 pages long, were done in the 1960s.

Young Man’s Fancy was the block I chose had 74 pieces! Yikes! Sooooo, for my block I chose the Klondike Star. It’s paper pieced and has much fewer pieces. You can find the instructions for this block at Quilters Cache, a wonderful site with 60 pages of free block patterns. The Klondike Star is found here.

The blog hop goes on through July 19th, posting every other Saturday. Here is a list of the bloggers who are helping out! Go and check out their blocks--very cool!

May 10

Anna @ Life Sew Crafty

Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Robin @ Miscellaneous Thoughts

Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures

May 24

Jess @ Quilty Habit

Melinda @ Quirky Granola Girl

Kristyn @ Melon Patch Quilts

June 7

Amy @ The Calico Cat

Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

Terrie @ Quilting Nonnie

June 21

Carla @ modern bias

Meli @ Munchkin Quilts

Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt

Julie @ The Crafty Quilter

July 5

Erin @ Sew at Home Mummy

Lyanna @ BlueStripedRoom

Heather @ Quilts in the Queue

July 19

Katie @ Swim Bike Quilt

Sarah @ {no} hats in the house

Katie @ Snuggle Up with a Dish from Karma

Chemistry Camp for the Blind

Boy howdy! are you in for a treat today!


As my regular readers know, I teach blind and visually impaired students in public school. I have taught for 26 years and cannot see myself working in any other field. The majority of my students are charming, each in their own way.

Near to us is a summer camp for the blind & visually impaired. It is Enchanted Hills. It rocks! To me, it is straight out of Parent Trap, the original. It has cabins where the upper part of the four walls is screen.

Fishing at Enchanted Hills Camp

Enchanted Hills has everything a regular summer camp has: swimming, horseback riding, boating, campfire hootenannies at night, crafts, etc.

One summer I served as a counselor assistant for one session with 5-6 year olds. It was tough! It was also an awesome experience.

I could go on for quite awhile, but for right now I want to get to the highlight of this post. During the summer, Enchanted Hills also has specialty sessions. The one I want to spotlight is Chemistry Camp. The video says it all and it’s a ultra-groovy video. And, by the way, the boy who produced, filmed, and edited the video, Jimmy Cong, was a student of mine. I worked with him from preschool until he was in fourth grade. He just graduated high school last year. He is blind with enough residual vision to pursue his dream of being a videographer.

Jimmy Cong at Chemistry Camp when he was young

Enjoy!

Hands2Help & Pinks Progress

Me, at 15, enjoying summer!

It’s the first week of “summer” for me. School is out and I’m looking forward to spending most of that summer in my quilting room!

Me, in my pj's in my favorite place: Home

I admit I’m a “homebody”, a lovely person who can't get enough of being home, someone who enjoys the warmth and simple pleasures of being home, someone who hides out in her house, quilting, as much as possible. 

This first week’s project is to finish my quilt for Hands2Help. I’m donating my quilt to Hugs for Chemo. I chose it because my Mom had chemo and I know how much a quilt would have meant to her.

My Sisty Ugler with friend in Honduras

It’s fun that this quilt is going to be a collaboration between her two daughters. When my sister, Sisty Ugler, decided to give up on quilting *gasp*, she gave me her stash! I didn’t have to wait for her to pass on to inherit it! The best of both worlds: I got her fabric and I have her!

I found this cool set of blocks for a quilt.

It is going to be such a cheery and colorful quilt. I love how funky it is—I never use these kinds of fabrics. But I love them.

What’s left to do is sash them, sew the top and quilt. In 6 days. I CAN DO IT—because I’m on VACATION!

The only other thing to accomplish this week is finish one block and make another for my blog hop post this Saturday. Look at the top of the right sidebar for the badge “For Pinks Sake”. Then look for me on Saturday!

Tally ho! I’m just can’t stop being giddy with summer-ness!

I’m hooking up with the following blogs. Hop on by to check out lots of lovely quilts! Their badges are in the right sidebar.
So Scrappy RSC Saturday
Patchwork Times
Show & Tell Tuesday
Fabric Story
Linky Tuesday
WIP Wednesday
We Did It Wednesday
I Quilt
Fabric Frenzy

It Is The 150th Day of the Year!

I love summertime more than anything else in the world. That is the only thing that gets me through the winter, knowing that summer is going to be there.  Jack McBrayer
 
It is my last day of teaching! Summer awaits! Tomorrow and the next day and the next…I will gloriously enjoy all the days ahead!




My first day of summer, Noel Heart and I are going for a massage and lunch. Ahhhhh….



My summer tradition starts with a week of sleeping in until I wake. I spend the entire week quilting and doing nothing else.



For me, summer is defined by three words: QUILT, QUILT, QUILT!















This year I’ve made a pledge to not let my mind go to the place that says, “I’ll do that in the summer.” I’ve missed the enjoyment of summer when too many of these happen.




This summer my oldest daughter, Noel Heart, have made plans. This is the beginning of a summer where she lives close by. We are going to watch Call the Midwife and So You Think You Can Dance.



I hope for another day at the beach like we did earlier this month…





Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.   John Lubbock

Ready?

Set.

Go!

 

Reading to Cats

My baby cat has grown up and has just celebrated her first birthday. It’s hard to fete a cat when she doesn’t eat anything but cat food. I’ve tried turkey meat, chicken, etc. She just sniffs and walks away. Talk about picky!

The drawer was being repaired--Kaiju thought it a perfect bed for a cat!

Kaiju loves to sit in the dishwasher

I had seen a slide show somewhere on the internet and saved it for a Really Random day. That’s today!

My dog, Bambi and I, 20 yrs ago

I love to read. I somehow managed to instill that in my children, amazingly enough! And they married readers. Cool! I try to get my students to love reading as much as I do.

I loved to read to my kids, but now they are grown and live on their own. So I love this slide show of children reading to cats in an Animal Rescue.

I decided to try and take a selfie with my cat and a book. I thought it would look good for the post. I’ve only done one selfie and it was awful. I don’t think I’ve improved!

The best picture of them all

I’m smiling, Kaiju is actually looking at the book!

Now that I’ve turned that into somewhat of a success, let’s look at Reading to a Cat!

A Big Finish & Rainbow Purple

This finish deserves a fanfare of trumpets!

The log cabin flimsy is finally done! After a year’s journey I have reached the first finish line!

My last step was to fix the fraying yellow strips so the seams wouldn’t come apart. After all this is a marriage quilt and, besides, after all this work—who wants it to fall apart?

I didn’t take a picture of the top because, well, it is just too darn big! It is a king-size. Due to the 14” blocks and no border, I was stuck with just one size choice. 112 x 112. That just about cover a king size top with some generous over-hang, doncha’ think?

For those of you who haven’t seen this quilt a gazillion times in the past year, here is the best picture taken when it practically filled up my garage wall.

Also on the “design wall” is my latest finish of blocks for the RSC 2014. I’ve been making snowball blocks in each month's colors. April’s color was purple and, true to form, I finished them this month!

I’m trying to get lots of novelty fabrics in my blocks. Didn’t have many in my purples. I did get my plaid purple in though. I’m trying to get a plaid block in each color because, well, I’m crazy, loony about plaid!!! And always one vintage, which looks like I scanned the same block twice!

The lavender in the upper right corner is one of my favorite colors. True to form it looks blue next to the purples. If I put it with blue blocks, it would look purple! And of course a gratuitous picture of my children. This was taken on our recent trip to the ocean. Noel Heart and Sweetie are running through the waves here. They were trying to the Baywatch slow-motion run!

I want to encourage everyone to go and see the website, Life Sew Crafty. She is hosting a blog hop to educate people about breast cancer. Every two weeks there are 2-3 guests and each one displays a pink block that they have made. I am going to be hosting on June 7!! I'm very excited, it's my first hosting! Fun for days! To learn more, read my previous post giving more information, plus pictures of Nancy Drew and family's recent visit. If that isn't a draw, I don't know what is!

I’m hooking up with the following blogs. Hop on by to check out lots of lovely quilts! Their badges are in the right sidebar.
So Scrappy RSC Saturday
Patchwork Times
Show & Tell Tuesday
Fabric Story
Linky Tuesday
WIP Wednesday
We Did It Wednesday
I Quilt
Fabric Frenzy

For Pink’s Sake! & Nancy Drew is here again!

This post is brought to you by the number

Yes, the brilliant number four! One, two, three, four more days until the end of school! That’s Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday!

So many good things happening! It’s Friday, and it’s a three-day weekend! Nancy Drew, SWH, Sweetie & Curly came for a week-long visit! 

More on that later…
I can’t wait to tell you about a blog hop that I’m participating in!

Anna is the lovely lady who writes the Life Sew Crafty blog. At this time in her life, her mother-in-law is fighting cancer for the second time. Anna wanted to host this blog hop honoring several women in her life who have battled cancer, the last being Tina, her mother-in-law. The medical bills are piling up and up, and Anna is asking for donations to help defray some of the cost for the family.

At the same time, she is collecting pink quilt blocks to make a quilt to donate to the Cancer Center where her DMIL has had her treatments. She has instructions on her website for making a pink block.

Also, many bloggers are participating in a blog hop and show off pink blocks of their own. Every two weeks on Saturday, there will be three-four blogs to visit. Here are the participants for tomorrow!

May 24

Jess @ Quilty Habit

Melinda @ Quirky Granola Girl

Kristyn @ Melon Patch Quilts

Visit her blog site click on the badge at the top of the right sidebar to see the full calendar of blog participants!

Exciting Thing #2

I am going to be hosting For Pink’s Sake on June 7! It’s my first time hosting. To say I’m excited is a gross understatement!

I have already picked out the pink block I’m going to make. Here are some hints: It’s from an old book, it hails back to 1923 and for those who like Bonnie Hunter quilts—it has 65 pieces!—for one block. You can be sure I won’t be making this as a 4” block! By the way, for those who want to make a whole 75” x 87” quilt, it takes 1,617 pieces or 42 blocks: 21 pieces & 21 plain.

Sharing with Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday!

And now for the promised family visit information!

L to R: Curly, SWH, Nancy Drew, Sweetie

Picnic on the Beach
Clockwise, starting from right rear:
My kid's dad, Yours Truly,  my "new" DSIL: Chief,
Sweetie, Nancy Drew & SWH

I'm burying Curly's legs in the sand