Leaving on a Jet Plane..

I'm packing and planning and getting ready for my trip to Oregon! I leave Friday!

SO if you don't hear from me for a while, never fear....I'm getting the rest and relaxation I need :c)

Simple Solution CAT

Per special request, this is what I'm using. It comes in a gallon for about $17.00 and it also came with a full spray bottle attached to it as a bonus at Petsmart!

Its a beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

She survived! And she just MIGHT thrive!

I saw no hair nor sound of her after putting her out yesterday. My poor mother's heart was in a panic. What if I didn't do the right thing? What if she just runs off for good? Would she survive the night?

The other voice in my head said "SO BE IT!!"

So this morning, when I let the other cats out...and saw Chloe meowering on the back deck to be LET IN...I knew she survived the night, and all would be well. She even let me PET HER??! Maybe this is tough love for kitties!

We have a 2 tiered deck..the upper level goes across the main floor of the house, one story above the daylight walk out basement. It's shady and tree covered. There are two stairways going down...one to the basement level, and the other steps 1/2 a level lower down to the hottub gazeobo, where the stairs take a turn and continue to go all the way down to the ground level.

She so far has found one stair tread between the two levels that she likes. I tucked a serving of kitty krunchies under the tread with her and she ate. My only worry is that Sadie eats EVERYTHING, and she would eat Chloe's food too, so I have to feed her when the dogs are IN.

I put water out there....

I've watched her exploring, and sniffing, and rubbing her face against everything. So...so far she hasn't decided to run away permanently ;c) At one point I looked out the kitchen window and she was laying on her side sunning herself...and it hit me. What if this is the first time ever that she has experienced the joy of sun on her coat? the first time seeing birds in flight, watching squirrels go from limb to limb? It's a whole new world out there for her and she just really MIGHT prefer it.

At any case..this is the way it will be. I'll have to brush her LOTS MORE (if she will let me close enough) Because that long fur is going to attract every weed and burr out there, but it's a small price to pay.

The other two kitties are in/out kitties and they are happy with the arrangement too. No racoons or coyotes or anything find their way onto our upper deck, so if she decides to make THAT her safety zone, she will be well and good. I'll just need to come up with some sort of sleeping quarters for her, and HOPE that she will adopt herself into it. The gazebo should keep her safe from rain...

Today I bought some of that "enzyme" activated kitty pee cleaner from Petsmart. I am AMAZED at how quickly it took care of the ammonia smell that was left after I repeatedly cleaned that area of the carpet yesterday. I'm sold on this stuff. I even washed down the brick hearth with it, incase the bricks had soaked up any nastiness.


On the other side of my day yesterday...I finished the binding on the Fungly Fifties "Hands All Around" quilt!

I've got it here on my guestroom bed..and I LOVE this quilt. It was definitely a scrap bag project...fabrics are WEIRD. Look at this one with the stripes and SPRINGS?Low contrast between some of the fabrics she used in the blocks. Her colors were limited to clothing scraps, and she used what she had. Good mix of "His" and "Hers" fabrics, which I love to see in true scrap quilts.

Though the fabrics might have been the bare bottom of the scrap bag, the workmanship in piecing them is NOT. This is a difficult pattern to piece with curved seams and inset y seams amongst the star points. The blocks were hand pieced, and then they were set together by machine.

The solid red used here and there REALLY pop to me...and I'm glad I added the inner red and outer turquoise/black check border to frame it all. It made the quilt JUST THE RIGHT SIZE! I'm still pinching myself that I found this top for something like $28.00!

I'm half done with my antibiotics now, and every day is better and better...I'm really glad, I've got just a few days to get everything together before I head to Oregon on FRIDAY!! YAY!

Chloe Moved OUT!!

Chloe is NOW an outdoor cat!!!! I kept smelling something down here in my studio...she's been peeing on the carpet in front of the fireplace..NO MORE!!!!!

She poops on my chairs...I have taken care of her for about a year now, and no amount of incentive or cat training (HA!!! That is a contrast in terms if ever there was one!) will work.

She is NOT a lovey cat. You can't pick her up, you can't pet her. It's no wonder she was a rescue, I am such a sucker!

I am cleaning carpet ;c(

I don't want to take her to the pound...WHO is going to want a cat that can't be potty trained? I feel like she has a better shot at life this way..being my porch kitty. I'll feed her in the mornings. I'll try to pet her and love her out there. Lots of people have outdoor kitties. Come winter...maybe she can sleep in the garage, but I am SO done.

It's one thing to have a son you can't train, but a cat is a cat is a cat!

Please. No one comment about how cruel this is to a cat. I've been through the wringer. No animal rights activists.....if you comment, I just might send her to you to poop on YOUR chairs!!

PS...don't try to look for a graphic under "BAD KITTY" *LOL* You will be surprised what kind of adult sites pop up!!!

Bonnie

Meet My Mom...

My mom had an article printed about her in her local Idaho paper! I thought it was such a cute article and I am so proud of her, I wanted to share it with you ;c)

She is a master gardener and has a yearly plant and starter sale at her home in Garden Valley, ID. She is known all over, and it tickles me.

Way to go mom!!

Feedjit Update...

When in the midst of crappy tech support, there comes along some outstanding, helpful, amazing, go the extra mile, beyond the call of duty people.

Remember my post about Feedjit? And removing it? Turns out that Mark, Feedjit Founder & CEO SAW my post and emailed me about it. Not only that, he upgraded me to the pro version for free...so I reinstalled it.

I awoke this morning to an email that said he had been trying to isolate the problem on my blog (mind you this email came in at 1am my time!)and it is the "friends" widgit...which makes it conflict between blogger and IE8. IE7 users don't have the problem. (And you've heard me before...FIREFOX users NEVER have a problem!)

He says:

Sami Shalabi, one of the friendconnect team members confirms that they did do something that caused an operation aborted error.

My suggestion is that you take a methodical developer approach to fixing this:

1. First try loading your website in IE8 to verify that you can see the error.
2. Then Remove Google FriendConnect.
3. Then clear your IE8 cache (Go to Tools > Internet Options > Delete) while you're on a different website.
4. Then Hit your site again and verify that removing FriendConnect fixed the error.

At this point hopefully you've verified that it's FriendConnect. If not you may want to try removing any other widgets on your blog. Remove Feedjit last because I'm pretty darn sure it's not us.

5. Now if you'd like to keep Friendconnect I'd recommend trying to reinstall it.
6. Then clear your IE8 cache again and try visiting your site. Hopefully that fixes it.
7. If it doesn't then the only thing left is to remove Friendconnect and leave if off. :(

To find out more about this error, go to this page on Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927917

So at this point, I feel it is up to Blogger to fix the conflict, or deal with IE or whatever. I don't want to remove the friend connect. I may move it farther down my page. And as I said....no error with Fire Fox!!

I don't HAVE IE8...so I don't get the problem. I don't use IE..so there is no IE cache to clean. But if this info helps anyone..thank you Mark!!

urgh

I'm having some website issues again. I signed up for a secure certificate, but it is messing up EVERYTHING....some are able to get to the website if they type https://quiltville.com instead of http://quiltville.com I want to get it OFF the front page so it doesn't mess with anyone's book marks, but bear with me. I'm wishing I never signed up for this at ALL!

PS..you will also notice along with this problem that my backgrounds, any icons, the banner from my header, the pictures at the bottom in the sidebar of family and friends are ALL missing because of the SSL..it gave everything a new address. I've been on the phone to CANCEL IT and get everything back the way it used to be.

As they say, if it ain't broken don't fix it.. Ggggggggrrrrrr

PSS it seems to be fixed as of 7pm. I've been napping since my last posting.....I hope the gremlins got RID of their (*&#$(*& ssl. Stupid thing.

Words to Live By.....

Good For What Ails Me...

I was at the doc for nearly 2 hours. Good thing I had a quilt with me, I finished the binding while sitting there, and nearly finished sewing down the hanging sleeve! Never leave home without a project to keep hands busy.

Always have mp3 or iphone in your purse. This way you can drown out the sounds of the screaming baby in the next room when they put you in solitary confinement in the exam room for 45 minutes. Me and John Mayer. It's a good combination ;c)

The official diagonosis is....:::::::drumroll:::::::::: BRONCHITIS

Which doesn't say much. As a massage therapist and class valedictorian at my graduation, I learned early on that anything with 'itis' at the end just means what ever it is is INFLAMED. No kidding. I could have told them that? I have inflamed bronchial passages and tissue. What caused it, who knows? (My guess is airplanes with canned air, airports, and hotels) but coughing aggravates it and the condition worsens, and now it's an infection which requires antibiotics.

I got to Sam's Club to go to the pharmacy there. As I am walking across the huge warehouse, the lights in the pharmacy go OUT and I see on the sign they are closed for lunch at 1:30. Pffffft.

I'm not waiting for them to have lunch, and then wait longer to get this prescript filled, so I went to Target. And while it was at Target being filled, I went to the Chinese buffet in the same plaza because believe it or not, a bowl of hot n sour soup sounded good for what ails me. (it was!)

Back to Target where I am informed that I didn't fill out all the info on the paperwork, I gave them the wrong insurance card, blah blah blah. The clerk was pretty rude. I said.."I'm sorry. I'll try to do better. If I weren't feeling so deathly ill :::coughing productively in her direction::::: I wouldn't have missed those spaces."

Turns out..the insurance card was NOT wrong..the pharmacy info is on the BACK of the card. Pfffft.

Another gentleman stepped in to help me. (I did not cough on him. :c) ) and I am now back home..one bottle of cough syrup + phlegm fighter, and 10 days worth of antibiotics.

I think I feel a nap coming on. (but I feel pretty good about finishing that binding!!)

Thank You....

Thanks for all the posts. I have many to reply to. I'm sure many of us have this "When did I sign up for THIS??" moment during our child rearing. I don't think anything can take you down and make you more humble than watching your child make all those wrong choices.

It's just consumed me to the point where I can't quilt....I know I SHOULD be piecing because that is when my mind is free to work out life's little problems....I have until July 2nd to get a lot of stuff done. I need to kit up a couple of tops and take them to Oregon with me so I can turn them out while sewing with friends the week of the Sister's Show.

I am so excited....4 friends from Wisconsin are joining us. They've never been to Sisters...

We all met at a retreat I taught at in Madison last November, and we had SUCH a great time, my friend Randy invited them all to come sew with us! and YAY they are ALL coming. It's going to be a fun reunion.

So I am setting my sights on that. As for the kid....I'll be here when he has questions. But I refuse to take any verbal abuse or disrespect. I'm done tiptoing and pussy-footing around in an effort not to do anything that will tick him off...This second half of my life is supposed to be the BEST half. I wouldn't let a stranger on the street talk to me the way he has.

I know I can not change his behavior. But I don't have to allow him to dish it out to me either. No more excuses.

I love funny cat pics....they make me smile! This one did this morning because it reminded me of where I wanted to put my head yesterday. But today is a new day!!!


So..here is what I've been working on during my flights and layovers :c)I honestly thought I'd get farther on it this last trip than I did....but I just didn't. It was so nice outside that I spent my time walking the Des Plaines River Trails and getting eaten alive by gigantic mosquitoes! But it really was nice to enjoy the greenbelt area. It was fabulous! If you ever get to Libertyville, IL, check it out!

I marked the angles on the border with a hera marker, starting in the center of each border, and used an equilateral triangle as my guide. Then I am quilting on that crease, and echoing on the inside of each triangle.

I know this is one of those borders where a judge would say "the border is quilted much more than the center" and knock me down for it. I don't care. I love the texture this echo quilting is giving it. Besides. It's MY quilt, right? I just know I'm loving the texture more and more with every stitch I take into it.

Again, thanks to ALL for listening and commiserating with me. I've been told I was brave for posting about my troubles. I guess it is like showing your imperfections to the world, but you know what? When no one else was here to listen to me in person, YOU did. And I know I'm not alone. That is an amazing feeling. When I feel like I can't go on with just my own strength alone, you lifted me with your stories, your words, your encouragement and it means A LOT to me.

Today IS a new day, I better get on with it!

Pulling hair out...

Hi Ladies! I'm back from my visit to the Chicago area, but have not had a moment to post.

In fact....I'm dealing with some pretty crappy stuff emotionally over youngest son and his decision yet again...to quit school.

I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm at my wits end. I'm all cried out. I'm not motivated to post anything right now....

I'll be okay, but I'm going to take a couple more days off until I feel more like myself. Thanks for worrying. It's nice to know you are there. :c)

Website Disappearance??

Hello from Chicagoland!

I have arrived safely and have been whisked off to lunch, quilt shop hopping, antique mall browsing, and Culvers Custard tasting!

While at the quilt shop I was informed that my website is coming up as a blank page. There have also been emails saying the same!

Just checked with my webhost and here is the reason:

UPDATE: All Services Are Being Restored

6:00pm EDT: The vast majority of customer sites are currently viewable, and all customers sites should be viewable shortly. In an effort to ensure that no data is lost, you and your visitors will not be able to edit your site (including dynamic content) for an additional 8-12 hours. We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause you.

-----------------
Update: We're still in the process of bringing up servers. No data has been lost; if a file appears to be missing, it is only a temporary issue. Again, we are truly sorry for any inconvenience this power supply issue may have caused you.

-----------------
We experienced a power supply issue at one of our data centers, which caused the startlogic.com site, as well as some of our customer sites, to be offline for a brief period of time. We are currently in the process of bringing the servers back up, and all services should be restored momentarily.

We apologize for any inconvenience that may have caused you. We realize that you depend on us to provide you with a reliable hosting solution, and we take that responsibility very seriously.
- 06/15/09 at 18:06 ET

My site is one of those affected, and it sounds like everything will be under control, at least I have my fingers crossed as much as the rest of you.

I am probably the MOST impatient of all!!

So in the mean time..I'm thinking Sushi Thai for dinner...maybe a swim in the pool....but then collapsing into a comfy bed with my own remote control sounds fairly enticing as well!

Toodles for now!

Binding Bliss...

Sometimes the planets must be aligned just right, my star is shining, my guardian quilter is helping...whatever the case might be... (even tho the ipod is still missing..can they please help me with THIS detail NEXT TIME?!?)

I can't believe I went all the way around this quilt, sewing on the binding....and NOT ONCE....NOT ONCE I tell you....did a seam fall anywhere near a corner!

I think this is a kin to a golfer's HOLE IN ONE, don't you?

I mean, it never fails..I usually have to un-stitch a bit, re-piece a seam further up the side, to avoid having that seam fall in the corner miter. Sometimes I end up doing it TWICE in one quilt. (Which is more than anyone's fair share if you ask me.)

But something serendipitous happened this time...My muse was with me....no seams near ANY corner.

No hand stitching got done...I ended up doing more packing, and then started watching the "First Wives Club", a chick flick with Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler...too hilarious.

Last night I also quickly machine basted this little leader/ender framed 9 patch thingy for hand quilting. It's just the right size to take along with me. This one I pieced several months ago while having a sew day at Mary's house.

The border is in the process of being quilted on the "Love in the Barn Door" quilt, and I wanted to be sure I didn't run out of things to quilt on during the next week!


This morning, look who I found napping in the basket on the dining room table!

Well, he WAS napping, but now it looks like he is just GLARING..due to the fact that the little beep the camera makes when you turn it on woke him up. Sorry Oscar!

Time Out!!

Just enough time out for a pedicure, that is! With DH gone to WV motorcycle riding in Hatfield & McCoy country (and having a grand time of it so I've heard!) and son off with a friend....I've really enjoyed puttering around my house and doing a bit of this a bit of that.

You know, it's amazing how much time it takes to go through all the email. To keep the website updated, to add things to the calendar, plan this trip, that one, contracts back and forth....sometimes it seems to eat up half the day when I thought I could fit so much more into it.

That...and the fact that I find myself drawn back to the computer time and time throughout the day to check for mails, end up reading my friend's blogs...and their friend's blogs....more hours gone. I don't think of them as wasted hours, I just need more of them in the day!

I have spent HOURS re-synching my iphone to my computer....because it was synched to the old one, not this one, and when I went and plugged it in here to add more songs to it....it completely deleted EVERYTHING in the synch. Pffft. I had them all on the computer..I just had to RE-ADD what I wanted and that meant going through everything. And then...heaven forbid you end up with duplicates, so that ate more time getting THOSE off there. Sheesh.

I finished the quilting on the Fungly Fifties. LOVE it. Binding to come...and then pics to follow. I can't wait to wash it. I need to get the funky smells out from whatever trunk it's been stored in all these years. At the same time, I'm hoping nothing disintegrates in the process! I'm thinking laundromat...big machine..need more water than what my front loader does..need to be sure all soap and whatever is fully rinsed out. In my mind...I see it coming fluffy out of the dryer...the quilting stitches sinking into that batting and looking cozy and soft. It's going to be great on the guestroom bed!

Pati sent the nicest comment about my mention in Quilter's Home magazine. She wrote:

I haven't seen you mention it here, but I am reading the June/July issue of Quilter's Home and you are the #1 Designer Website that Mark's Posse reads and the #4 website overall. (pgs 16-20). Congrats!!!

Thanks Pati! I haven't picked up a copy of the magazine yet, but I did thank Mark for the mention when I saw him last weekend! (I'm still laughing when I think of how fun his lecture was..what a hoot!)

It has been the most amazing year, it really has. I also didn't tell you, but I was one of the nominees for the 2009 Teacher of the Year Award from The Professional Quilter. I'm still stunned. I still can't believe it. It was amazing to find my name listed amongst the other nominees:

Linda Ballard, Sue Benner, Laura Cater-Woods, Cindy Erickson, Liz Faminoff, Diane Gaudynski, Peggy Gelbrich, Harriet Hargrave, Dea Heller, Margaret Herndon, Marlene Horning, Rose Hughes, Bonnie Hunter, Ruth McDowell, Cindy Needham, Liuxin Newman, Judy Niemeyer, Cindy Roth, Bev Sievers, Gabrielle Swain, Linda Thielfoldt, Cathy Van Bruggen

Margie Engel was chosen as the teacher of the year and I am SO excited for her! Her applique is fabulous and I love her work. Way to go Margie!

I'm spending the rest of the weekend just enjoying my time....working on bindings...packing the trunk show to fly to Chicago on Monday, cleaning house, loving on my doggies and kitties and dreaming up quilts in my head...

Wishing you a quilty weekend as well!

Ohio Treadlers?

Katie contacted me about a treadle machine she has listed on Craiglist for the Beverly/Parkersville Ohio area. Though I am not needing another treadle machine myself, I thought I'd help her out by expanding her posting capability :c)

I know NOTHING about this machine, just that she needs to sell it. If it seems of interest to you and you want to know more, please contact KATIE

No affiliation, yada yada yada!

DH has left for a weekend of motorcycling in the backwoods of West Virginia with a buddy from work. That means....YES! I am home ALONE...chick flick city and binding binding binding going on here for the next 2 nights!

I think I also see some take out Kung Pao Chicken in my near future!

I have been experimenting with making protein smoothies for after the gym.

For successful smoothy making..I've learned the following:

milk and yogurt and protein powder need to be blended together first so you get no clumps.

Then add the fruit....preferably NOT frozen...so the blender doesn't stall on the chunks! (defrost frozen berries in the microwave but don't COOK them either!)

Add crushed ice LAST for the same reason.

And then...when you pour it into your super insulated mug...don't lose the spoon inside it because the cup is taller than the spoon. :c| Ask me how I know!

Quiltmaker & Christmas Lights!

I got a great email from June, the editor at Quiltmaker!

She writes:

I wanted to let you know I’ve got a posting live now about Christmas Lights, a Bonnie Hunter special offer, and a giveaway of your books.

I hope you have a chance to LINK back to us ;-)

*note* The special offer is linked to the right in my side bar :c)

The link will take you to Quiltmaker's Blog page....with a wonderful name of QUILTY PLEASURES! Leave a comment mentioning your favorite quilt-related blog by 12 noon Mountain time on Friday, June 19 and they will select 5 different people to win a copy of Scraps & Shirttails!

I have to thank June for writing such nice things about the visit I had with them last July. It really was a blast and I hope to see them again if I ever get back to Golden.

Thanks to the responses on yesterday's post....it confirms what I thought, that the problem lies with IE, specifically IE 8. There was only ONE person standing up for IE...but the fact remains that the other browsers don't have a problem with blogger's interface, just IE. I'm not picking on IE...just have experienced many weird issues with them that I haven't with the other software. For instance, when I upload anything, change a format, add anything to my side bar...I have to check all the browsers to see that it works in all. If there *IS* ever a problem...it's with IE. So I don't think I'm "picking on" IE in any unwarranted fashion, the facts have proven time and time again that they have problems where the other browsers don't.

If you ARE experiencing problems with IE 8...maybe if you switched back to IE 7 those problems would go away. Or just wait it out. Or get Firefox :c)

No quilting commenced yesterday. Though the elephant had moved, that meant that I had other things to do around the house that took up my time instead. In other words, if you feel better, don't you think you need to be doing laundry and dishes and mopping the floor and cleaning bathrooms instead of just playing with quilts? Yeah yeah yeah...the guilt got to me since I had been gone since Friday....and nothing had been done since then because I came home with the crud!

So today..I have high hopes. We'll see where they lead me!