When Life Falls to Pieces–PIECE!

This was my yesterday.  But it isn’t my way to just handle the events of the weekend, but any time that my thoughts seem to be running in every direction.  Sleep patterns awry (No thanks to “fall back” time on top of international travel upheaval) sometimes the best way for me to deal with things is to just get up and get going.

The body clock wins, no matter what the actual time clock says.

When there is no sleep to be had, the best thing for me to do is get a bit creative.

Before I go any further – I do want to acknowledge all of the wonderful messages and heartfelt comments in regards to Sadie’s passing.  It hit us unbelievably hard, but in the end there really is no avoiding it, is there? 

I just wish we could have done more for her to ease her suffering in her last hour.  She is at peace now.  Our hearts are raw. We weren’t ready to say goodbye, we weren’t prepared for it. But can you ever be?

The thing about fur-babies – they teach us so much about our own lives and our own mortality. None of us our guaranteed another day.  Things happen.  So this is a lesson to us to live life to the fullest.  To keep wagging our tails today no matter what happened yesterday.  To always be grateful.  

Make today count MORE than what our hopes for tomorrow are.  Life passes far too quickly. Love hard, love always. Forgive quickly, and love some more.

We love you so much Sadie!

So, we pick up the pieces, sew them together and keep going.

I played thread roulette, and I won!

Just a foot or so of thread left on the spool.  I used the rest of it to join lengths of binding together before tossing the remaining 3 inches.  Thank you for serving me so well, spool!

It was in the long arm by afternoon.

And it wasn’t until I had advanced the little quilt sufficiently to see the orientation of the mittens that I realized I mounted it with the bow to my right instead of my left – which meant – the hearts I was quilting are upside down.

Well.  Yes.  My heart IS upside down right now, so be it.

Waiting for binding – hopefully today.

This is “Warm Hands, Warm Heart" and if you look closely you will see that there are some paw print fabrics in the round of blue squares that surrounds the center embroidery.  I put those in there special.

The rest of the scraps came from my Scrap User’s System boxes of squares and strips.

I will be teaching this project to my Quiltville Goes to Bavaria travelers in just a few weeks, and when I return it will become a PDF pattern download in the Quiltville Store.

And this is also a great time to let you know that our TWIGA giraffe stitchery wall hanging quilt PDF pattern is ready for purchase!

Twiga Digital Pattern!

Phone/Tablet users - please download to a REAL COMPUTER first so you can save the file in a place you can find it. Then navigate to the file, click to open and print. At this point you can also transfer to your mobile device. Know where your files go BEFORE you download them!

Twiga is Swahili for Giraffe, and I designed this little project for my 2019 Quiltville Goes to Kenya traveler. The response has been so great that I am making it available to everyone as a digital PDF pattern download.

Instructions include the Giraffe image to trace, or print on to your fabric, or use the Stick'n Stitch overlay as I did with my students. Info included in the pattern.
Patchwork borders using a selection of aboriginal fabrics make this project sing!

Other items you might want to consider: My Essential Triangle Tool  makes cutting those half-square and quarter-square triangles so easy from strips!

This pattern uses Hemming chenille needles size 24.
Print the Twiga Image from your PDF pattern on to Sulky Stick ‘n Stitch instead of having to trace the image by hand to the fabric with a light box and a pencil. 

Stick 'n Stitch stabilizer combines the convenience of pressure-sensitive adhesive with the flexibility of a water soluble stabilizer. It is a printable temporary self-adhesive, fabric-like stabilizer that is ideal for getting your hand embroidery, punch-needle, cross stitch, quilting or other patterns onto your project fabric.

Stick 'n Stitch can also be used as a topper or backing which looks, feels and behaves like fabric during embroidery or when used as a design pattern. Perfect for any reversible project since when it's rinsed away, no stabilizer remains on either side. All Sulky stabilizers are acid and lead free. There are 12 8 1/2’’ x 11’’ printer-friendly sheets in each pack.

And because we've had so much fun with the half-price sale of the Punkin Patch Table Runner pattern sale -I've decided to run one pattern a month at half price as well! For the month of November, you can find my Garlic Knots digital pattern 50% off in the Quiltville Store!

For the month of November only -

Garlic Knots PDF Pattern $4.00!

No Coupon Needed!

And I think that brings me to now. For now. And there is something I was going to do before all of this loss of Sadie took over my life. Our Quilty Box Winners! We've got to draw them!

If you missed the original post – find it HERE!

Who is 278 out of 5078 entries?

Karen Naylor! 

The Quilty Box Classic is YOURS!

And the Quilty Box Mini is headed to:

In search of entry 4094!

Sandra Smith!

Ladies, I have sent emails to both of you – please respond with your mailing addresses so I can have the kind folks at Quilty Box send your goodies off to you ASAP!

There will be more Gift-Away fun coming up soon.

Funny Story.

Charlie Brown tree in a Lowe’s bucket!

In our area of Southwestern Virginia, the largest industry by far are Christmas tree farms.  It’s HUGE out here.  The trees grow well in the hills and mountain areas.  They are a beautiful sight to behold.  And starting the week of Halloween, tree harvesting is in full swing.  Large trucks and trailers LOADED to the brim with trees pass by Quiltville Inn and traverse the highways back and forth over winding mountain roads – you can’t escape them. 

And if you are lucky – a truck will have lost a tree on one of the tight curves.  

We were on our way back from taking Sadie’s body to the vet where they will take care of her cremation (Oh, how it still stings to say these words!) when we found this poor little tree in the middle of the highway.  We pulled over and picked it up.

The fragrance in the back of the van was so wonderfully pungent all of the rest of the way home to the cabin.  We NEVER do anything Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but I felt like this is our Sadie Tree.  So it is in a bucket of water until I can get home to Wallburg and dig up some lights and decorations.  I haven’t had a REAL tree in more than 20 years.

And it seems that we have started a new tradition.   Road Kill Tree saving for Christmas.  Why not?

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

This is so so so important. How often are our perceptions formed by what someone else has said. We never really know what anyone is going through on the inside, so it is so important not to judge anyone by what other people say.

The only opinion that really matters is your own, based on your own experience.

I believe in walking in one another’s shoes.  Do you?

Have a wonderful Monday, everyone.