Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
One Thing Leads to Another
So it's like this. I moved into my condo August 1st and started a new job August 5th. There was not a lot of time to commune with the new place and get a feel for it before deciding what would go where. My brain was filled first with tests, and later with learning the job itself. And yet I became increasingly aware that a couple of rooms just weren't working for me.
The first issue was the room I was using for the office. It would technically be the master bedroom I suppose as it has a door directly into the bathroom and sports a balcony overlooking the golf course. But the room is smaller than the secondary bedroom, so I used it for my office. Beautiful view! Problem was I have an L shaped desk. I usually put in a corner. Oddly this room has no corners with enough wall space to accommodate the desk. Two corners handle part of the slider leading to the balcony, one is shortened by the presence of the bathroom door, and the other corner leads to the bedroom door. I boldly put my desk so the neither side sat against any wall. I had perfect view out of the slider window.
Over time, despite the great view, I became disenchanted with this arrangement. Having my computer cords exposed seemed messy, and it didn't help that the cats found it fun to dive among them. I was certain that one day I would come home to find my monitor in pieces on the floor.
The condo came with a quirky indoor balcony. A space less than 5 feet wide that overlooks the living room and has a direct line of sight to a second story picture window. I have been fascinated with this interesting architectural anomaly, despite having no clue to its purpose - other than the aforementioned quirkiness. One of my neighbors told me that her condo had no indoor balcony as the previous owner had closed it off, made a bedroom bigger, and added another bathroom.
I began to wonder if my L-shaped desk might fit on the balcony. The more I pondered it, the more I knew I would have to try it. I have been thrilled with the results:
The only problem now is that the cats like to walk across the balcony railing between the desk and the filing cabinet, like some high wire act. I try not to watch.
So what am I going to do with that room now? Fix another problem area - move my quilting room from the basement. I need light! Natural light!
First, I will paint though.
The first issue was the room I was using for the office. It would technically be the master bedroom I suppose as it has a door directly into the bathroom and sports a balcony overlooking the golf course. But the room is smaller than the secondary bedroom, so I used it for my office. Beautiful view! Problem was I have an L shaped desk. I usually put in a corner. Oddly this room has no corners with enough wall space to accommodate the desk. Two corners handle part of the slider leading to the balcony, one is shortened by the presence of the bathroom door, and the other corner leads to the bedroom door. I boldly put my desk so the neither side sat against any wall. I had perfect view out of the slider window.
(Please forgive the crappy photo. It's the only one I have of the office before I moved it.)
Over time, despite the great view, I became disenchanted with this arrangement. Having my computer cords exposed seemed messy, and it didn't help that the cats found it fun to dive among them. I was certain that one day I would come home to find my monitor in pieces on the floor.
The condo came with a quirky indoor balcony. A space less than 5 feet wide that overlooks the living room and has a direct line of sight to a second story picture window. I have been fascinated with this interesting architectural anomaly, despite having no clue to its purpose - other than the aforementioned quirkiness. One of my neighbors told me that her condo had no indoor balcony as the previous owner had closed it off, made a bedroom bigger, and added another bathroom.
I began to wonder if my L-shaped desk might fit on the balcony. The more I pondered it, the more I knew I would have to try it. I have been thrilled with the results:
The only problem now is that the cats like to walk across the balcony railing between the desk and the filing cabinet, like some high wire act. I try not to watch.
So what am I going to do with that room now? Fix another problem area - move my quilting room from the basement. I need light! Natural light!
First, I will paint though.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Monday Miscellaneous
Gainfully Employed:
I've fallen behind on my quilting and quilt blogging ~ again. But I have a good excuse. Really. I've been job hunting, and it finally paid off. I am now a medical instructor at Wright Career College. I begin teaching on Tuesday.
Wright Career College is not your traditional college. It's geared to accommodate working people. As such there is no summer break, which enables people to get their education in the shortest time possible. And classes are scheduled just three days per week ~ Tues, Wed, Thurs with both morning and evening sessions available for students. For instructors, they are long days. I will teach from 9:30AM-2:30PM and from 5:30PM-10:30PM. In the 3 hour break between 2:30PM and 5:30PM, I'll get an hour break for lunch and then have time to do grading and class preparation. Those three days will net me 36 hours, and is all I am required to do. If I want a full 40, I have the option of coming in on Mondays and / or Fridays to do class preparation, staff meetings, tutoring, etc. This will work out great because it ought to allow me at least a three day weekend if I manage my time right. I'm glad to have one day off during the week to be able to deal with whatever business tasks come along.
The employment was especially good news having come on the heels of being rear-ended in the snow on Monday and my mom having her purse snatched on Tuesday.
Re-purposing:
I'm always a bit regretful about throwing away the nifty sized, plastic Folgers containers. But I had an inspiration recently. This one now serves as a desktop trashcan for all of the miscellaneous bits of thread and fabric that seem to quickly multiply during the quilting process.
I used to keep a trash can on the floor next to my sewing chair, but there were two problems with it. The first was that if it was close enough to be useful, it was in my way. So I'd move it. Then it was never where I needed it to be. Secondly, even if the trashcan is close by, a puff of air sends threads everywhere but in the can. (Nothing like a trashcan surrounded by bits of thread.) With this little can right next to my machine, there are no misses.
Lovebug ~ Just Because I Can:
I've fallen behind on my quilting and quilt blogging ~ again. But I have a good excuse. Really. I've been job hunting, and it finally paid off. I am now a medical instructor at Wright Career College. I begin teaching on Tuesday.
Wright Career College is not your traditional college. It's geared to accommodate working people. As such there is no summer break, which enables people to get their education in the shortest time possible. And classes are scheduled just three days per week ~ Tues, Wed, Thurs with both morning and evening sessions available for students. For instructors, they are long days. I will teach from 9:30AM-2:30PM and from 5:30PM-10:30PM. In the 3 hour break between 2:30PM and 5:30PM, I'll get an hour break for lunch and then have time to do grading and class preparation. Those three days will net me 36 hours, and is all I am required to do. If I want a full 40, I have the option of coming in on Mondays and / or Fridays to do class preparation, staff meetings, tutoring, etc. This will work out great because it ought to allow me at least a three day weekend if I manage my time right. I'm glad to have one day off during the week to be able to deal with whatever business tasks come along.
The employment was especially good news having come on the heels of being rear-ended in the snow on Monday and my mom having her purse snatched on Tuesday.
Re-purposing:
I'm always a bit regretful about throwing away the nifty sized, plastic Folgers containers. But I had an inspiration recently. This one now serves as a desktop trashcan for all of the miscellaneous bits of thread and fabric that seem to quickly multiply during the quilting process.
Lovebug ~ Just Because I Can:
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Monday Miscellaneous
I used the tutorial at Film in the Fridge to make the two sets of pillowcases featured below.
The zebra striped cases are a Christmas gift for my nine year old cousin. After relocating to Kansas she asked her mother to paint her new room purple with zebra stripes. So three walls are purple and one wall is indeed zebra striped. It's quite striking.
My mother has made a zebra striped fleece throw for her as well.
Her brother, my young 11 year old old cousin, is into skulls. I made these last winter for his birthday. He very politely thanked me for them. I noticed them on his bed quite a few times. However, I had no idea what a hit I'd made with them until his mother told me that when she takes them off to wash them and replaces them with others, he immediately puts the skulls back on when they come out of the laundry. That's the kind of news that makes this quilter smile!
So new skull pillowcases for Christmas. I hope he likes them as well as the others.
What do the following two items have in common?
Laptop and lapcat:
(You can see a slice of the cheerful quilted table-topper / wall-hanging that P from The Way I Sew It made for me. Thanks P.! But that's another blog topic for another day.)
Monday, November 14, 2011
Monday Miscellaneous
Apologies:
I have been so erratic about reading your blogs. I apologize. Despite my regret and hopes of doing better, life just keeps happening.
QI's
Meet the new, up and coming quilt inspector, Chuzzlewit:
It looks like she was a little confused, having to inspect the stack of napkins in the bowl atop the table-topper. Oh well, she was trying.
Quilt Shop
Saturday, my mom and I checked out the quilting shop, Material Girls, in downtown Wichita. While we are always on the look out for a new place spenda little a lot of money on fabric, it was the clever name that caught our attention. We were not disappointed. I have never seen a larger selection of batiks, amongst the many other fabrics. The staff was very friendly. Quite a happy place. The picture below does not do the shop justice.
Quilting:
I have been doing a little quilting, but all of it is for Christmas so no pictures. I don't want to give anything away to the recipients.
I have been so erratic about reading your blogs. I apologize. Despite my regret and hopes of doing better, life just keeps happening.
QI's
Meet the new, up and coming quilt inspector, Chuzzlewit:
It looks like she was a little confused, having to inspect the stack of napkins in the bowl atop the table-topper. Oh well, she was trying.
Quilt Shop
Saturday, my mom and I checked out the quilting shop, Material Girls, in downtown Wichita. While we are always on the look out for a new place spend
Quilting:
I have been doing a little quilting, but all of it is for Christmas so no pictures. I don't want to give anything away to the recipients.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Adventures in Free Motion Quilting
Although the Pansy Sampler, is not the first quilt in which I've done free motion quilting, it is the first in which I decided to be brave enough to experiment, test my limits, try new patterns. A sampler quilt is a good vehicle in which to do this, because the variety of blocks offers different challenges.
As of the taking of this photograph, all but two blocks are complete. Still have a number of purple frames to quilt, about half the sashing, and all of the external borders.
(Click on any photograph to see more detail. The blogger resizing has taken out much of the texture.)
I had one picture block in the quilt ~ this Sunbonnet Sue. I cannot take credit for the block itself; many of the blocks came in a block exchange, and Sunbonnet Sue was one of them. I saved quilting this block for near the last, in order to improve my accuracy enough to do the block justice. I quilted around each of the stones in the wall, each of the squares in the trellis, and all of the pansies.
Quilting on the pansy fabric itself has proven to be a challenge. The largish print tricks my eye and prevents me from making accurate arcs, etc. This block shows my attempts at making a quilted "flower" on the largest section of pansy fabric. It is less than stellar. Although I've tried a variety of things, quilting around the individual pansies has looked the best. It's not difficult to do.
I've done free motion leaves in all of the purple frames. It's a good FMQ design to use, as it's quite forgiving. However, practice really does make perfect. Despite being a forgiving design, over the course of the quilt, my skill with this pattern has increased markedly.
It is in this block that I tried pebbling for the first time. I often study Wendy's work for inspiration. Much of what she does is too far beyond my capability, but pebbling was not. I was very pleased with the result.
My favorite quilting motifs are the symmetrical designs as shown in the purple sections below. They are also the most difficult to do. The interesting thing is that I've noticed when I merely glance at this block, I think the quilting looks pretty nice. However, if I stop to study it, then I see all of its flaws ~ and there are many.
The morning that Eric took all of these pictures for me, Molly Baggins could not help but walk across the quilt ~ usually on the very block he was trying to photograph. Finally, she chose a spot and made herself comfortable.
As of the taking of this photograph, all but two blocks are complete. Still have a number of purple frames to quilt, about half the sashing, and all of the external borders.
(Click on any photograph to see more detail. The blogger resizing has taken out much of the texture.)
I had one picture block in the quilt ~ this Sunbonnet Sue. I cannot take credit for the block itself; many of the blocks came in a block exchange, and Sunbonnet Sue was one of them. I saved quilting this block for near the last, in order to improve my accuracy enough to do the block justice. I quilted around each of the stones in the wall, each of the squares in the trellis, and all of the pansies.
Quilting on the pansy fabric itself has proven to be a challenge. The largish print tricks my eye and prevents me from making accurate arcs, etc. This block shows my attempts at making a quilted "flower" on the largest section of pansy fabric. It is less than stellar. Although I've tried a variety of things, quilting around the individual pansies has looked the best. It's not difficult to do.
I've done free motion leaves in all of the purple frames. It's a good FMQ design to use, as it's quite forgiving. However, practice really does make perfect. Despite being a forgiving design, over the course of the quilt, my skill with this pattern has increased markedly.
It is in this block that I tried pebbling for the first time. I often study Wendy's work for inspiration. Much of what she does is too far beyond my capability, but pebbling was not. I was very pleased with the result.
My favorite quilting motifs are the symmetrical designs as shown in the purple sections below. They are also the most difficult to do. The interesting thing is that I've noticed when I merely glance at this block, I think the quilting looks pretty nice. However, if I stop to study it, then I see all of its flaws ~ and there are many.
The morning that Eric took all of these pictures for me, Molly Baggins could not help but walk across the quilt ~ usually on the very block he was trying to photograph. Finally, she chose a spot and made herself comfortable.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Other QI
Many months ago, I introduced you to Marko, my cousins' Maine Coon. He proved his quilt inspection abilities early on.
There is another cat in the household though. She goes by the name of Molly Baggins. My cousins rescued her. They were told that she is only three years old, but she acts like an old lady. She's overweight, and behaves like she is in pain when we pick her up. The vet gave her a clean bill of health, but we're considering getting another opinion.
With her rather sloth-like demeanor, Molly Baggins has always excelled at laying on anything soft. I was not convinced that proved her ability as a Quilt Inspector. However, yesterday with a considerable effort to haul her not insignificant mass up onto the sewing table, she has now clearly earned the title.
Doesn't she look like she's smiling?
I removed her from the quilt with much protest on her part, so I could continue my free motion quilting. When a couple of phone calls took me away from the quilt, I returned to find her planted on it yet again. I took that as a sign to call it a day and permitted her to fulfill her quilt inspection duties uninterrupted.
There is another cat in the household though. She goes by the name of Molly Baggins. My cousins rescued her. They were told that she is only three years old, but she acts like an old lady. She's overweight, and behaves like she is in pain when we pick her up. The vet gave her a clean bill of health, but we're considering getting another opinion.
With her rather sloth-like demeanor, Molly Baggins has always excelled at laying on anything soft. I was not convinced that proved her ability as a Quilt Inspector. However, yesterday with a considerable effort to haul her not insignificant mass up onto the sewing table, she has now clearly earned the title.
Doesn't she look like she's smiling?
I removed her from the quilt with much protest on her part, so I could continue my free motion quilting. When a couple of phone calls took me away from the quilt, I returned to find her planted on it yet again. I took that as a sign to call it a day and permitted her to fulfill her quilt inspection duties uninterrupted.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Monday Miscellaneous
Moving Disarray:
The picture pretty much speaks for itself.
We spend a lot of time asking each one another where various items are located and whether or not said item has already been packed. We're at ten days and counting.
You can see more packed boxes behind Marko. Unlike the rest of us, he's totally unconcerned. That's what our critters are for though, right? To remind us that life isn't so tough. (I love this picture.)
Hands No Longer Idle:
Progress. I chose this yarn because the majority of my wardrobe is blue, purple, and green. I think I've covered all my bases.
The picture pretty much speaks for itself.
We spend a lot of time asking each one another where various items are located and whether or not said item has already been packed. We're at ten days and counting.
You can see more packed boxes behind Marko. Unlike the rest of us, he's totally unconcerned. That's what our critters are for though, right? To remind us that life isn't so tough. (I love this picture.)
 |
| Marko |
Progress. I chose this yarn because the majority of my wardrobe is blue, purple, and green. I think I've covered all my bases.
 |
| And no, Eric didn't take this picture either |
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Meet My Newest Quilt Inspector
When I moved in with my cousin and her family, I gained another Quilt Inspector. (A quilter can never have too many, right?) Meet Marko. He is a Maine Coon with an adorable personality. Very laid back, very affectionate.
At the age of three, and never having spent much time around quilts, I didn't know if Marko was up to the QI job. However, apparently Quilt Inspectors are born; not made. He was just waiting for an opportunity to show me he had the right stuff. The quilt upon which he is lying had not been there long before he discovered it. No hesitance at all on his part. Up he went and into the long sprawl shown in the photo.
I guess he wanted to make a good impression, because he inspected that quilt for at least six hours. What a thorough job.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Move is Complete--Mostly
(Newton, Kansas)
We're here. Those two words are among the finest I've ever spoken. Seriously.
The Road Trip:
In my humble opinion, road trips are vastly over-rated. I enjoyed them when I was a kid, but in recent years, not so much. It proved to be even more exhausting when I was doing all the driving. I've vowed that in the future, if I'm going anywhere further than a day's a drive, I'm flying or taking the train.
To make the road trip even more exciting, we had car trouble. Our Dodge--the car with less than 13,000 miles on it--decided to act up the first day out. We'd just pulled up in front of the hotel in Flagstaff, when I noticed steam coming from underneath the hood. I got out and pink fluid was spewing from below. Ack! Being pink, I was sure it was transmission fluid. Opened the hood to see it coming from the coolant tank--which was puzzling. The hotel manager was really nice and said we could leave the car there until we could get service for it the next day. Called my male relatives to pick their brains, but they were at a loss about how transmission fluid could get into the coolant tank.
In the meantime, I was so tired I could have taken my brain out and played it with it. Then had the added fun of having a full-blown anxiety attack about how long we'd be stuck in Flagstaff, and whether I could trust whatever mechanic I might choose.
Fast forward to the next day, and the hotel maintenance man had the front desk call me to tell me he didn't think it was transmission fluid and he'd look at the problem with me. Before I could get out to the car, my uncle called and told me his mechanic said that some coolant is pink now. (Pink! They had to make it the same freakin' color as transmission fluid? What's up with that?) So I met with the maintenance guy and he tells me it absolutely is not transmission fluid. He checked out all the fluid lines and determined there was no leak except out of the coolant tank. (The car never registered as being hot either.) Anyway, he looked at the radiator cap and found some grit under it. He said that could cause a pressure build-up. So he put water in the tank, cleaned the cap, and then waited while the car got up to temperature to verify that we wouldn't have a repeat performance. It's been fine ever since. What a lifesaver. Bless you Ryan!
The Cat:
Charley pretty much hated riding in the car. He yowled from Pahrump, clear to the other side of Vegas, then it became more intermittent. The intermittent protest was pretty much the norm the entire trip. (How can a cat cause such guilt?) The first night in the hotel he hid under the bed for 4 hours. At the next hotel stop he wasn't nearly so timid. By the time we arrived at the house, he was ready to explore. This house has stairs, and the first night, he really enjoyed running up and down.
At This Moment in Time:
The furniture has arrived with like a bajillion boxes. With the boxes stacked around, it looks like a bunch of hoarders live here. We're unpacking, but it hasn't made too much of a dent yet.
I need to make changes to my blog. Obviously, I'm no longer the "desert" quilter, and my weather app needs to be adjusted to our new location.
I hope to get back to blog reading soon. I've really been missing you all.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Monday Miscellaneous, and a Question
The Garage Sale:
The garage sale was more successful than I'd imagined. I had visions of sitting bored out of my mind, and ending up with darn near as much stuff as we started with. Boy was I surprised! On Friday morning, people started arriving before our advertised start time. That was okay because we had done most of the organizing beforehand. We had customers all day long. By the end of the day, we'd sold the majority of what we'd had. Ironically, on Saturday we had a only a handful of people by noon, and had done less that fifteen dollars worth of business. So, we picked up our signs and closed up shop. We'll donate the remainder of the items to a local church that does a lot of good work in the community.
We met some interesting characters during the sale. Pahrump, Nevada is probably about as close to the wild west as you can get and still live within 75 miles of civilization. Case in point, Pahrump is home to Ray the Flagman. Ray is a 2nd Amendment activist. Many days you can see him standing on Pahrump's main street, wearing his 6 shooter on his hip, holding the American flag, and handing out copies of the 2nd Amendment to anyone who passes his way. I kid you not. No, Ray didn't come to the garage sale, but that's okay because we've talked to Ray a few times since we've lived here--but not about the 2nd Amendment. Ray will talk about the weather too. One of the last times we saw him was standing at the pharmacy counter at Wal-mart. And yes, he had his gun on his hip. You see, there's no law against it here, although you cannot bring your gun into the casinos. (Casinos hold the real power here in Nevada.)
(Since I know some of you will think I'm exaggerating, check out this blog. Yep, Ray the Flagman is mentioned in it along with some of Pahrump's other characters.)
But I digress. I used Ray just so you could get the "flavor" of Pahrump. We met some chatty people just about as unique as Ray, however they were not quite as focused on a cause as he is. Interestingly enough, the chattiest people proved to be men. I got the whole behind the scenes good ol' boy political history from one guy. It was so detailed with so many factions of whom I wasn't aware, after the first 10 minutes I was lost. That was okay, because he found a customer who was more well-informed than me, and the two of them talked for another twenty minutes. I did get the picture that these good ol' boy politics in Pahrump are pretty darn ruthless though.
Charley:
Given all the strange people in the garage, Charley felt the vulture perch was the best place to be during the garage sale hullabaloo.
The Question:
Seems odd that when I started this blog, I couldn't conceive a situation in which I might no longer be quilting in the desert. What's that old John Lennon quote? "Life's what's happening when you're making plans." There's another quote that the internet source attributed to Jewish wisdom that goes something like this: "We make plans and God laughs." No matter. The point is I named my blog The Desert Quilter back in February and less than a year later, I'm moving. Need to change the blog name to something like The Prairie Quilter or The Midwest Quilter. Anyway, herein lies the problem. What is the best way to do that?
Here are the options that I've come up with:
1. Leave the URL the same, and just change the header. I think that might be a bit confusing though. The upside is that I wouldn't lose any parts of my blog, or my followers.
2. Supposedly blogger allows an option to set up a new blog and import an old blog. This sounds like it has possibilities, but how does it work? How well does it work? And I think there's a good chance it won't import my followers.
3. I don't really have a number three, but I hope maybe some of you will. I'm open to all manner of knowledge, suggestions, and opinions. In short: HELP!
A Beg and a Giveaway:
Suzanne, the Colorado Lady, is needing small pieces of scraps for a quilt she is making. She is using 2" squares to make a quilt, and if I understand correctly, it's necessary for each square to be from different fabric. (Not sure if that's 2" finished or unfinished.) Hence the small scraps. Let me be clear, she's asking for scraps and will cut the squares herself. Oh, and the quilt is going to be king-sized.
Anyone who sends some scraps is entered in the giveaway. I've got 60 in an envelope that will go out in today's mail. While the giveaway is generous, I must admit, I'm really just curious to see this quilt completed.
The garage sale was more successful than I'd imagined. I had visions of sitting bored out of my mind, and ending up with darn near as much stuff as we started with. Boy was I surprised! On Friday morning, people started arriving before our advertised start time. That was okay because we had done most of the organizing beforehand. We had customers all day long. By the end of the day, we'd sold the majority of what we'd had. Ironically, on Saturday we had a only a handful of people by noon, and had done less that fifteen dollars worth of business. So, we picked up our signs and closed up shop. We'll donate the remainder of the items to a local church that does a lot of good work in the community.
We met some interesting characters during the sale. Pahrump, Nevada is probably about as close to the wild west as you can get and still live within 75 miles of civilization. Case in point, Pahrump is home to Ray the Flagman. Ray is a 2nd Amendment activist. Many days you can see him standing on Pahrump's main street, wearing his 6 shooter on his hip, holding the American flag, and handing out copies of the 2nd Amendment to anyone who passes his way. I kid you not. No, Ray didn't come to the garage sale, but that's okay because we've talked to Ray a few times since we've lived here--but not about the 2nd Amendment. Ray will talk about the weather too. One of the last times we saw him was standing at the pharmacy counter at Wal-mart. And yes, he had his gun on his hip. You see, there's no law against it here, although you cannot bring your gun into the casinos. (Casinos hold the real power here in Nevada.)
(Since I know some of you will think I'm exaggerating, check out this blog. Yep, Ray the Flagman is mentioned in it along with some of Pahrump's other characters.)
But I digress. I used Ray just so you could get the "flavor" of Pahrump. We met some chatty people just about as unique as Ray, however they were not quite as focused on a cause as he is. Interestingly enough, the chattiest people proved to be men. I got the whole behind the scenes good ol' boy political history from one guy. It was so detailed with so many factions of whom I wasn't aware, after the first 10 minutes I was lost. That was okay, because he found a customer who was more well-informed than me, and the two of them talked for another twenty minutes. I did get the picture that these good ol' boy politics in Pahrump are pretty darn ruthless though.
Charley:
Given all the strange people in the garage, Charley felt the vulture perch was the best place to be during the garage sale hullabaloo.
The Question:
Seems odd that when I started this blog, I couldn't conceive a situation in which I might no longer be quilting in the desert. What's that old John Lennon quote? "Life's what's happening when you're making plans." There's another quote that the internet source attributed to Jewish wisdom that goes something like this: "We make plans and God laughs." No matter. The point is I named my blog The Desert Quilter back in February and less than a year later, I'm moving. Need to change the blog name to something like The Prairie Quilter or The Midwest Quilter. Anyway, herein lies the problem. What is the best way to do that?
Here are the options that I've come up with:
1. Leave the URL the same, and just change the header. I think that might be a bit confusing though. The upside is that I wouldn't lose any parts of my blog, or my followers.
2. Supposedly blogger allows an option to set up a new blog and import an old blog. This sounds like it has possibilities, but how does it work? How well does it work? And I think there's a good chance it won't import my followers.
3. I don't really have a number three, but I hope maybe some of you will. I'm open to all manner of knowledge, suggestions, and opinions. In short: HELP!
A Beg and a Giveaway:
Suzanne, the Colorado Lady, is needing small pieces of scraps for a quilt she is making. She is using 2" squares to make a quilt, and if I understand correctly, it's necessary for each square to be from different fabric. (Not sure if that's 2" finished or unfinished.) Hence the small scraps. Let me be clear, she's asking for scraps and will cut the squares herself. Oh, and the quilt is going to be king-sized.
Anyone who sends some scraps is entered in the giveaway. I've got 60 in an envelope that will go out in today's mail. While the giveaway is generous, I must admit, I'm really just curious to see this quilt completed.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
For Anyone Who Has Ever Traveled with a Cat
First I laughed. Now, I may cry.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Quilt Inspectors, You Gotta Love 'Em
There is no quilt police, but there are quilt inspectors. Mine happens is black, furry, and of the feline variety. His name is Charley. He takes his work very seriously, inspecting partially completed tops, work laid aside for the moment like the quilt being hand-quilted below, individual blocks, pieces of fabric, and of course completed quilts.
His favorite technique is laying on the item in question, even if I'm in the middle of trying to work on it. Kind of like the little prince and the pea. Or perhaps seeing if he looks good on it. (He does look rather good on that purple backing, doesn't he?)Then there's the ever-popular diving under the quilt top or even a mere block. Charley's inspections always take precedence over my appraisal of the work. Just ask him.
He inspects guitar cases too.
Since Charley was 4 months old, he's worn soft paws over his claws to protect our household items from his natural tendency to scratch. It's worked fairly well until recently. He was always a bit fidgety about the process of putting on the soft paws, but tolerated them well. Now, at the age of 5 1/2 years, he's suddenly developed a full aversion to having the soft paws put on, although he still tolerates them well once the process is done. I don't know why, but the simple answer is that he IS a cat.
Not wanting to fight with Charley every few days over soft paw application (with 10 claws to keep covered, it seems we've got to re-do one or two every week), it was time to look into other alternatives. I've got to give a big thanks to the quilters on the rec.crafts.textiles.quilting newsgroup. The majority of them have a quilt inspector of one pursuasion or another, so I knew I'd get lots of good help when I posted my questions. I was not disappointed. I now have a plan.
First of all, it seems the number one, all around, terrific cat scratcher is the cardboard cat scratcher. Tried to buy one locally, but had no luck, so I co-opted my dad into helping make one. He's been cutting the strips and I'm rolling them into a circle. It's not much to look at, but it ought to be effective. At approximately 9 inches in diameter, we're probably about half done at this point. Since this homemade variety needs to be able to stand on its own (no external container to hold it), it needs to be large enough to give it some weight.
Next, we'll work on other cat scratching venues--perhaps more cardboard scratchers, and some kind of posts. I'd like to have several cat scratchers around so Charley has no excuse to use the furniture.
The third part of the plan is the double-sided sticky tape. I'll apply it to any place on the furniture Charley can't resist. Here's where I've got to give a special thanks to Sherry in Oklahoma for sending me a sample to try. Thanks Sherry!
Hopefully, when this transition is complete, Charley will be happier and so will I. After all, it's important to keep our quilt inspectors in top form.
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