The following article appeared in Sunday’s newspaper. I read it and had a chuckle–it is so close to the truth! Click on the article and it should appear large enough for you to read it. Enjoy!
"In case you missed it: Your cat is in charge"
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Banana Bread and the Wicked Easy Quilt
My sewing machine quit part way through yesterday’s workshop. There was a short in the power cord. I have ordered a replacement cord but it hasn’t arrived yet. Since piecing was out of the question today, I had to amuse myself with other activities–after the laundry and vacuuming of course.
I was chatting with Linda J. this morning and we were talking about baking. The discussion ended up with us agreeing that a recipe that included chocolate would be a great idea today. I had bananas to use and I added chocolate chips to the banana loaves I made to be sure and make this a “chocolate Sunday”! I believe Linda J. was making chocolate cake. We wanted to meet for coffee but the distance between us only allows for chats over the Internet and each of us in our own houses with our own cup of coffee. Maybe one day the virtual coffee break will become a reality!
Banana bread has been a favorite in my household for many years. My kids deliberately stop eating bananas when there gets to be only three left in the bowl. They know if they leave them so that they over ripen mom will turn them into banana bread!
I also finished the hand sewing on my Wicked Easy quilt. This project was started in February and finished in March–I don’t think it even made it to the UFO stage because I didn’t leave it to “season” on the shelf!
We Care Workshop
Today was our quilt guild’s We Care Workshop. We had 29 guild members in attendance and a total of 35 quilts were worked on. These quilts will go a long way to filling the need in our communities’ hospitals, long term care homes, and women’s shelters.
The We Care Committee did an excellent job in securing an excellent facility. We each had our own table to set up our machines. We worked in pairs to share irons and cutting boards. Everyone had plenty of room. The committee prepared kits for several different quilt patterns. All strips, backing, and batting had been pre-cut for you. Some kits even included pre-made binding! There were also samples of the quilts made up and attached to the wall so if you got stuck, you could quickly re-orient yourself by looking at one of the samples.
Almost everyone left with their quilt top basted and ready to quilt when they get got home. It will be wonderful to the see the “train” of quilts at the next guild meeting later this month!
When a large group gets together to work towards a common goal, it is amazing what can be accomplished! Many hands make light work!
Saying Goodbye
Today our family said goodbye to King, our German Shepherd, companion and protector for the last 5 years. Five years ago we adopted King at two years of age. We had recently had our house broken into and we were still recovering from feelings of violation and invasion. In particular, my daughter and I no longer felt safe in our own home. King seemed to sense how we felt and became particularly close to my daughter and I. King’s presence increased our feelings of security and helped us get over our fears. King weighed in at 113 lbs. and was considered somewhat oversize for the breed.
Although a dog can become like a member of the family, they usually attach themselves to one person in particular. King was definitely my dog.
Dana joined 4-H soon after we adopted King and the training and showing of King became Dana’s project for three summers after. Both Dana and King enjoyed the agility course the best! It was hard to hold King back when he saw the obstacle equipment.
King adopted me as much as I adopted him. Dana used to beg me to hide when it was time for her to go into the show ring. As long as King could see me, he would focus all his attention on me. Dana found it hard to keep his attention. I would sometimes try to sneak back to the show ring to watch Dana and King perform. However, as you can see in the two pictures above, my cover has been blown and King knows I am there taking those pictures! He was so clever.
Even though King came to us with very little social skills, it did not take him long to adjust to the kids and dogs in the 4-H club. He was a true gentle giant!
King demonstrated great patience and acceptance when he was “dressed up” for parades and costume classes…..
Here King as the wolf in Granny’s clothing accompanies Little Red Riding Hood. He tolerated not only the clothes but the hats that made his ears fold down against his head.
King’s disposition made him a true ambassador of the breed.
King was a true member of the family and the family album has him showing up in all sorts of pictures.
………..Christmas with Santa.
……..included in the picture with the fisherman and his catch.
We sadly said goodbye to a loyal friend and protector who succumbed to the ravages of a fast spreading cancer on Friday, March 2, 2007. We will miss you King, but we know that you are now in a place without pain and you will suffer no more.
………….raking leaves in the front yard.
We sadly said goodbye to a loyal friend and protector who succumbed to the ravages of a fast spreading cancer on Friday, March 2, 2007. We will miss you King, but we know that you are now in a place without pain and you will suffer no more.
Losing King
There’s a hole in my heart where a dog used to be.
He’s nuzzled my soul and is now part of me.
Pain was his life and I knew what to do.
But when I released him, I lost me, too.
The dog that entered my life five short years ago
Allowed me to go forward in a life free from fear.
I know he’d lick away all of my tears if he could.
It’s his sense of duty to make me feel good.
It’s my obligation to do what is best.
The love of his “master” is put to the test.
It’s a wrenching and sorrowful way that we part;
it doesn’t hurt less when the head rules the heart.
There’s a hole in my heart where King passed through.
When we said goodbye part of me went too.
Crayons and Quilting
Last Wednesday night was our monthly quilt guild meeting. We had a demonstration on colouring on fabric. I can see that this was a dangerous demonstration for me to watch, because I can feel the start of another project coming on. This is exactly how I get distracted from my focus on finishing my UFOs!
I came home and “Googled” crayons and quilting and came up with a lot of interesting information. There are many variations of colouring quilt blocks with crayons, but the link that I found that was most like the technique demonstrated to us on Wednesday night took me to the June 2003 (No. 353) issue of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine: http://qnm.com/articles/feature44/
The article in QNM was written by Cheryl Wittmayer. If you visit Cheryl’s website, you will be even further tempted by the designs that can be created using this technique: http://sew-be-it.biz/crayon_patterns.html Cheryl says that the basics to the technique are:
Trace with a .01 black pigma pen.
Color with regular Crayola crayons—not fabric crayons.
Set the colors with your iron.
Color and set as many times as you need to get the depth of color you desire.
Stitch with a backstitch by hand, or free-motion machine stitch 4 times on the drawn lines, or triple-stitch by machine on the lines.
The only differences in Cheryl’s technique and the technique that was demonstrated to us at guild night were:
– Another method to trace your design from paper to fabric is to use ordinary carbon paper – simply put a piece of carbon paper between your design and your fabric and trace on the lines of your design. The design will be transferred to your fabric
– Another method to outline your design after you have finished colouring it if you don’t want to do embroidery by hand or machine is to use needle punch to outline your design. Our instructor suggested doing needle punch on the reverse side of the fabric that you normally do your needle punch on–you want the stitch line on the top of your design and the “puff” of the needle punch on the back.
I can envision the possibilities of this technique. In fact, this is an excellent project for those who consider themselves to not be appliquers. Any applique design would translate well to using this technique.