Quilt Tops Galore!

Miss Kitty's Quilter's top is finished and on its way to Shelley Carmicheal for her to add a little magic with long-arm machine quilting. This quilt is going to be the basis for a new block-of-the-month freebie pattern that will be available for download from my website beginning January 15, 2010. See my blog before this last one for a Smile box of all the blocks, if you're interested, or haven't viewed it before. I'm so pleased with the finished quilt top, and can't wait to see what Shelley has in mind to add for quilting.


Next are the Big Sister/ Little Sister quilt tops. One is a postage stamp quilt I feature in an earlier blog, with blocks made up of 1" squares. The entire block is only 7" square. The other is her 'Big Sister' with blocks made up of 2" squares, and 14" square blocks. It is amazing how different they look, but each quilt top measures exactly the same: 76" x 87" or queen-size.


Here are two more: A no-name-at-this-time quilt top that I'm really anxious to get around to quilting because the solid color fabrics, and the large white borders would allow me to feature lots of fancy quilting patterns, like feathers or flowers. I just haven't had time to figure it all out yet. What do you think?

The last one is a quilt top I'd made several years ago using a Jinny Beyer stripe. It is a simple strippy style quilt, but I really like the clean and pastel colors I used for the 9-patch blocks.

These latter 4 quilt tops are intended for a new book about scrap quilts made from entirely from squares and triangles. I just haven't gotten around to the triangles, yet!

On another note, I'm happy to report that little Gianni is home and doing well. He and Sally are at the 'truce' stage of their relationship. They tolerate each other in the same room in close proximity (2 or 3 feet) but Sally is not happy when he hogs breakfast, and is especially unhappy when she has to wait in line for the potty pan. I have given them their own personal privies so as to eliminate as much conflict as possible. Gianni is clean and pretty much odor free, but he was a mature tom cat. The vet says the tom cat smell will fade as his hormones dissipate following neutering, but in the meantime, we're sleeping with windows open, and airing out the house after cleaning his litter pan each morning. It's been 25 years or more since I had a tom, and then they were mostly outdoor cats, so I'd completely forgotten about this aspect of owning a male cat. I know quilters tend to be Cat People, so any suggestions you have for this aspect of cat ownership would be appreciated.

Sally has a sibling!

Saturday afternoon, and I was headed out to get groceries, and try out my legs after several weeks of Physical Therapy for my back, and there he was.....just sitting on my fence looking at me. I stared in disbelief. I thought I was looking at Sally the Cat, only in a different colorway. (Describing him this way for my fabric fans.) This cat was a softer shade of gray, with the same familiar beautiful face, and markings, only he has a white underside while Sally's is red, like the color of a squirrel.

Sally the Cat and Gianni S. Kitty

He came when called, allowed me to pick him up, and was he ever hungry! I took some food out to him, and hollered at Ken to come and see what I'd found! He couldn't believe what he was seeing, too. This cat was way too similar in appearance, size, demeanor, not to be very closely related to our Sally. (Sally showed up in our back yard just about a year ago.) We've decided that this cat was probably her brother, most likely a litter mate. Ken immediately dubbed him "Gianni Schichi" after the main character in the opera he was listening to at the time. I've since changed it a bit to Gianni S. Kitty.

We brought him in, and he played for awhile. He especially liked Sally's catnip sock that I'd made her. I went on to the store. While I was gone, I guess Gianni got a little too rambunctious and decided he wanted back outdoors, so Ken let him out. I was a bit disappointed when I got home, but like Sally, I figured if he was there the next day it was meant to be. He showed up at our door about 8 pm yesterday evening, so that was it. We have a second kitty, same as the first. Do you remember the Smothers brothers? "Second verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and a little bit worse?" Apparently, that's about what we have here with the second kitty.

Gianni spent the night in a kennel. I just couldn't trust him to have the run of the house yet, especially since he has nasty claws, and knows how to use them. He still wanted out this morning, but I had other plans for him. He went to the veterinarian this morning, where he will spend tonight. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. I consider neutering an essential part of responsible pet ownership, and this little kitty would be a prime candidate for being ripped apart next month at the beginning of the mating season for cats without it. My vet also reminded me that before we do anything else, he should be tested for feline leukemia and FIV. There is no cure for either disease, and if he tests positive, there is will be no reason to go ahead with anything further. I really hate the thought of that possibility, but I know my veterinarian is right.

Sally was very interested in him last night, approaching Gianni cautiously. She followed him as he moved about the house, but wasn't sure she wanted to get too close. Integrating another full-grown cat, especially a full-grown tom cat, one that has been living as a ferrel cat in our alley for probably a year or more, may prove to be challenging. I think they will get along well, once we know he will be here to stay. Have any of you ever taken in a fully mature cat? Any suggestions for us? I think Miss Sally would love to have someone to play with, and I would enjoy a break from having to keep wiggling things for her entertainment. Wish us luck in welcoming Gianni into our household.

Miss Kitty's Quilters new quilt

I belong to a quilt group called 'Miss Kitty's Quilters. Any of you who grew up in the late '50's early '60's will recognize the name of Amanda Blake's character from the television show Gunsmoke. Yes, the character Miss Kitty is still alive and well and the Long Branch is still open on Boot Hill in Dodge City, Kansas.

Back to quilting...... we make a quilt every couple of years or so for our 'opportunity' quilt. (Raffles are illegal in Kansas.) This year, I was part of the opportunity quilt committee. We've made 12 blocks of the month featuring hearts and flowers or things that depict each month of the year. Several years ago, I designed 3 or 4 blocks to teach needle-turned applique, and was just looking for the time and energy to draw more. I was so excited by each new design. It was such a privilege to share it with our little club, and better yet, I had lots and lots of help bringing each new design to life.

About a month ago, I got the final block back from Carol Harder, who hand embroidered the details on the block. Now I am in process of assembling the blocks with sashing and borders before sending it to our former member Shelley Carmichael who is a expert long-arm quilter. (In addition to Carol, others who added the embroidery details to these blocks include Joan Becker, Barbara Halbgewachs, Nancy Sherer, Jan Overbeck and Me. Thanks to each of you, and other who contributed. If I forgot anyone, I apologize. Let me know and I will add you to this list of talented people.)

I plan to feature these blocks one at a time beginning mid-January on my website. You'll be able to download the pattern and instructions for you to print out and make your own version. At the end of the year, the instructions for assembling the full quilt, and several smaller projects will be ready for you to finish your version of these blocks.

We still need a name for this quilt, and I need a name for the block-of-the-month series. Any suggestions will be welcomed.

Every time I got another block back from one of the members who had volunteered to finish it, I decided I liked it even better than the one before. I've had a hard time deciding which one I like best, and I'm so thrilled with how pretty they all are. Let me know what you think of the designs. See what you think:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Mystery of the TIA solved

Note to followers: I went in to have my 2nd cataract surgery last Wednesday and I had a 40 point rise in blood pressure within 10 minutes after instillation of meds to dilate my eye, very similar to the rise in BP that precipitated the Transient Ischemic Attack during the previous attempt at cataract surgery on September 30. However, this time because my BP was only 113/67 when I arrived, this rise did not cause any adverse events, like last time. My nurse and I began suspecting that something in the meds was causing this to happen to me.

As she read me off the list of drops she had put in my eye, I recognized one: NeoSynephrine!
Who'd have thought they used NeoSynephrine to dilate eyes for surgery? I surely didn't! I discovered that this medication is routinely used to dilate eyes for examinations, but the one used for surgery is 4 times more concentrated. It has been used to dilate my eyes before, but not in this highly concentrated state. Believe me, no one will EVER use it on my eyes again, EVER!

I once used OTC NeoSynephrine nasal spray probably 30 years ago when I had a head cold and allergies. After a few days of useage, I realized that it was causing my heart beat to increase drastically and made me feel sick, so I decided never to purchase that product again, and I haven't. I never added it to my long list of drug allergies, because it was OTC, considered safe, and I never even mentioned it to my family doctor. After all, my face didn't swell up, and I didn't have hives, like I did when I ingested sulfa drugs or penicillin.

After I got back home, I got online and researched Phenylephrine Hydochloride, the active ingredient in NeoSynephrine. The very first paragraph under side effects reads like this:

A significant elevation in blood pressure is rare but has been reported following conjunctival instillation of recommended doses of NEO-SYNEPHRINE 10 percent ophthalmic solutions.

Beware! This ingredient is also found in all Sudafed products, and is used extensively in surgeries where it is important to shrink blood vessels to prevent blood loss. It is a very common medicinal chemical.

Moral of this story: Know what is in every OTC product you use, note ANY and ALL adverse reactions, not just anaphylactic symptoms, and make sure all medical facilities and persons are aware of them. It doesn't matter how small or insignificant you think it is. It doesn't matter how long ago it was. It doesn't matter whether you think they are likely to use it for your procedure.

And ask lots of questions. Don't be embarrassed, and be persistent, even if the medical professional looks at you like you are crazy for not simply trusting them, or tells you no one has ever asked that before. Know exactly what anyone puts in your body, BEFORE it is put there.

LESSON LEARNED!

East Coast Quilter's Gathering Nashua, NH 2009

Home at last! Airlines were running on time, even early in most cases, and weather was great! Classes were even better than that. I loved this venue and hope to go back some day to the Quilter's Gathering.

Most of the days I taught there, I forgot my little digital camera when I was teaching my workshops. Just too busy thinking about other things. But for the Internet class, I went back over my lunch hour and got it from my hotel room. This was the first time I actually taught the Internet pattern as a formal class, and I think that I was the one who learned the most from this experience.

I learned that photos of workshop projects should be easier to find on my website and include a clickable link to view a larger photo of the project. Secondly, all workshop descriptions on my website should include a link to a pdf of the supply list. This particular project has an extensive fabric list that included 72 different hand-dyed fabrics. Any of you who work with hand-dyes know this represents a sizable investment in fabric. One group of sisters who took this class even hand-dyed their own fabrics for this project. Their results were beautiful! (But I bet they didn't spend much less money on dyeing supplies than buying hand-dyes outright!) What an experience, though. I really admired their adventuresome spirit for taking this on.



Another challenge for this workshop group was tackling curved piecing by machine. I learned about a gadget called "The CurveMaster" by Martelli. Several of the participants owned this item, two confessed to preferring it to my way of stitching the curves outright without using it, and one of them demonstrated it for the class. I tried it, too, and was impressed. I will have to experiment further with it after mine arrives in the mail.


Quilters always seem to be smiling!


Color abounded at every workstation.


Cutting strips and more strips....


The fruits of our labor....

The afternoon session was spent stitching strips together and getting all the part organized to create the 3-D effect that makes this quilt so interesting. Because there isn't enough time in a workshop to make all the blocks for the entire quilt, we combined the class's efforts on the design wall, and look at the result! I think scattering the colors across the quilt rather than placing them into color groupings imparts even more visual impact to the quilt's design than my original way of putting them together. After I saw what was happening on the design wall, I've decided I must make one of these quilts using commercial prints, paying special attention to value rather than color, just to see what will come of it. We were all intrigued by how nicely everybody's fabrics and colors played together with each other on the design wall! There were no bad choices or ugly fabrics in the lot of them.

To Philadelphia and Beyond

View from Kel's kitchen window
The Philadelphia Art Museum is in the background.

I'm in Philadelphia this morning, being tempted by leftover Halloween candy, and trying to figure out Kel's television remote. There's something happening over at the Art Museum steps this morning. The very loud music and other noise started promptly at 7 am EST, and even though I sat up until 12:30 am watching the Phillies and NY Yankies on TV playing in the rain last night, there is no sleeping through the busy city Sunday morning sounds. I'm looking out the window at row houses, Gothic style cathedral spires and lots of rain. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.


Another view from Kel's windows




Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Flights were uneventful and I even arrived a half an hour early on Friday. Yesterday was spent picking up my Internet quilt from the People's Place Museum in Lancaster County, PA and doing a little shopping in the 'burbs. My quilt was on exhibit at the Museum until December, but I need it for a class I'll be teaching at the East Coast Quilter's Alliance's A Quilter's Gathering in Nashua, NH next week. It will be shipped back to take it's proper place in the exhibit on November 9.



We got a little damp sitting on the front stoop passing out candy to little Philadelphians out Trick or Treating. My favorite little costumed character was the really creative foamcore board Fried Egg. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of that one. This little girl had used paper mache on the foamcore board egg white shape to create the yellow yoke, and sported a chef's hat to top it all off. And then there was a memorable cardboard Peanut, and a Brick wall with a white faced Humpty Dumpty. Lots of fun except for the huge slugs that had found good eating inside the carved jack-o-lantern. They provided a bit of entertainment when they all crawled out after Kelly lit the pumpkin. They joined us sitting on the steps, but needless to say, I didn't particularly enjoy their company. Here's Kelly enjoying the excess candy while watching the goblins and ghouls:


Liz, one of Kel's condo friends, helped with the candy give-away, and her cat Pete, added to the spooky atmosphere.

Pete is the quitessential Halloween black cat, and enjoyed the comings and goings from his vantage point in the front window.

One of my big purchases yesterday was a big Philadelphia Phillies RED sweatshirt:


Everyone in this vacinity was dressed in red yesterday, most with big P's on their chests. This city is really excited about their home team playing in the World Series for the second year in a row. And it is even more thrilling that they are playing the Yankies from just a few miles up the road. Of course, we'll be watching on the Big Screen TV here at Kelly's. It was really good to be sitting high and dry last night. The fans got very wet last night waiting in the rain while the game was delayed nearly an hour and a half.

On today's agenda: A gentle walk around the Art Museum and past Boat House Row and maybe brunch with Kel's friends.

Upward and Onward....

It's about time! Finally, I'm getting around to another post. Last week was spent traveling and teaching in Keller, Texas. I managed the drive in good shape, but it rained and rained and rained on me in Texas. It soon became evident that there was a leak around my new windshield when I began to smell something really funky in my car. And then I noticed that the floor on the driver's side was quite wet. After sopping up what moisture I could, I took the floor mat into my hotel room and hung it out to dry over the room heater, and bought some carpet deoderizer for the car's floor. Believe me, the glass installer got the car back as soon as I could get it there when I arrived home. The leak was found, and I'm hoping it is actually fixed. In the meantime, do you have any suggestions for permanently removing the odor from my car?



Before I left on this most recent trip, I finished 3 quilt tops in one week! I think that has to be some kind of record for me, but of course, they were all in process before I added the borders, etc. The first one was the postage stamp quilt top I'd blogged about earlier. It is really, really cheery, and I loved it when I laid it out on my bed to admire it, and the sunshine coming in the window made it seem to glow. (The photo here doesn't do it justice.) I know you're going to ask so here it is: There are a total of 5,880 individual 1" squares in this quilt top. It is designed to fit a queen-sized bed exactly with the black borders just hanging over the edge of the bed. I already have plans to make coordinating pillow shams for the quilt.

There will be a second postage stamp quilt soon. Remember this design? It will be the first quilt top's sister:



The second quilt is the Star and Leaf quilt (AKA Star Crystal), that I also blogged about earlier this year. Setting this one together proved to be a huge challenge. Lots and lots of Y seams, and places where 10 or more seams met gave me hours and hours of thinking through the process, and experimenting until I found a way to put it together in a satisfactory manner. This photo doesn't show the narrow inner border and wider white outer borders, but you can get the idea. Now, I'm struggling with quilting ideas. This one deserves trapunto, and lots and lots of nice quilting, don't you think?



The third one was a brand new quilt top. Made from two different sizes of squares, stitching it together was really simple. The thing I most like about this one is the really bright, solid colors. This photo was taken during the design process, and was taken before the top was even sewn together. It does not show the all-white borders. Once again, with all the solid colors, and the large outer border, this one will also need elaborate quilting to make it really special. Can you tell how much fun I'm having with solids in really brilliant colors?




The rest of this week, I've got to finish getting teaching samples and quilts plus my wardrobe ready for the East Coast Quilter's Alliance's A Quilter's Gathering. First, I'll fly to Philadelphia for a few days with my son Kelly. We'll be going to Lancaster County to the People's Place Quilt Museum on Saturday, passing out candy Saturday evening, the Art Museum on Sunday, and a bit of relaxing on Monday and Tuesday before flying to New Hampshire. This is my last teaching trip for the year, and I'm so looking forward to relaxing at home for the holidays and for the next couple of months.