Goma's 1st Birthday!

Bhu might be jealous, but I'm in love with Goma and it's his first birthday. The person who runs his website has GOT to be a tenured professor of CUTEOLOGY!

http://www.mycatgoma.com

prrrrrrrrr, prrrrrrrrrr, prrrrrrrrrr xxxoo

The Sun! The Sun!

On the final working day of Spring Break, there are approximately 32,144 available parking spaces on campus. So, C'MON DOWN!

Amy Butler Midwest Modern news: I visited just about every site I could find, bargain hunting fat quarter bundles and found that www.homesteadhearth.com has the most economical offer (38 fqs for $85.50 plus $7 shipping est).

Ready for the weekend? ME TOO! xxoo p

Open that Bud for me, baby!

This is the part I love! Yard is FILLED with these . . . just about to pop open. Of course, there's a chance of snow tomorrow -- typical! Can someone tell me how the Madonna lilies migrate? They're never in the same place year to year. It's those nasty squirrels, isn't it! Delight, delight! xxoo P

PS. Special treat in my e-mail box this morning: 15% off temptation from Fat Quarter Shoppe. Posh, here I come!

Nirvana, so to speak

This is spring break on campus. Normally, this area is swarming with size 2s, ponytails and late-bloomer acne. Wanna park right next to the entrance in the garage? NO PROBLEM! Don't havta worry about the head five bodies in front of you ordering the last slice of pepperoni at Shakespeare's! No bicycles to dodge, no chattery, inane cellphone conversations right outside my window and GLORIOUSLY NO SMOKERS!!!
Unfortunately, a new Amy Butler collection has been unveiled and Igottahavit! Payday's next Wednesday. But Igottachoose! Not my forte. http://www.Quilthome.com has this collection as well as a lot of Amy's former collections and they are offering a 10% discount right now. The problem is I've got an $800 car insurance bill headed for my mailbox. Fabric or Car Insurance? Hmmmmmm. I'm also such a Posh by Chez Moi freak. My next purchase from the Fat Quarter Shoppe:
http://www.fatquartershoppe.com

Hoppy E-Oster, Frosty!

Phase III done. It now measures 72 x 72. Now, I can add 12" to the "length" by (a) adding another row of blocks, or (b) adding a 6" border on "top" and "bottom" with a narrower border on the "sides." Whaddya think? If I add another row of blocks, I won't add a border. Now, if I had EQ, this would have been all figured out before I made a stitch. I think of EQ as "creationism"; my kinda quiltmaking is more evolutionary.

It's been snowing all day, but it's not sticking. My evil twin (Pitty) thinks it would be fun to make a snowman (Frosty) on Easter. My goofy neighbor is fiddling once again with one of his numerous antique BMWs. Or is that my goofy twin and evil neighbor? Uh, dunno.

Easter dinner today was a BK Whopper, Mark's treat. I would have liked to have Shakespeare's pizza, but it's closed (SLACKERS!).

Bad memory confession: When I was a kid I LOVED peeps. I used to pop 'em whole right into my little gluttonous mouth. Later, I would have a violent peep puke, and that is what I remember most about Easter. Toodles, Turtles! xxoo psp

Nightmare Job

Last night's dream: completing fill & print forms! YIKES! I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that I involuntarily visited grants.gov yesterday.

MC&C "Tutorial"

Kyle needs a large bed quilt, so the block is designed to be 12-1/2" square unfinished, so I am using a 4-1/2" unit. For each block you need one dark square, one light square, three 4-1/2" half-square triangles and four 4-1/2 double half-square triangles.
To make the half-square triangles, cut a 5" square from both dark and light fabrics. Draw a line from corner to corner down the middle and sew 1/4" on each side of the line. Rotary cut along the line after sewing on both sides. To make the double half-square triangles, cut a 5-1/2' square from both dark and light fabrics and draw a line from corner to corner down the middle, sewing on both sides of the line. Rotary cut along the line after sewing on both sides and then again, corner to corner.
Press them as shown. Sew the double-half square triangles as shown.
I always square up. It's a "fussy" habit, but even Eleanor does it!
I always arrange the pieces before sewing them together with 1/4" seams. That's it!

Hang in there, Dude!

Patty's Parade (don't rain on it)!

Always loved this parade! I'm not at all Irish, except back in the 19th Century one of my ancestors married Annabelle O'Leary in New York City. Should you be wearin' the Green, a Happy Day to Ye!

Bhu's got a new spot for napping: next to Winston (the Rescue Teddy Bear). We have a number of Rescue Teddys, but Winston is the only grey bear. He came with the bowtie. One thing about Patty: she can anthropomorphize just about anything. For a number of years every time I went to a yard sale and saw an orphaned Teddy, I felt I had to rescue it, bring it home, launder it and give it a nice spot as a home. However, this only seems to work with the vintage Teddys as I do not have similar feelings for the 21st century variety. (Bhu warns, "Look, I'm not Irish, I'm HIMALAYAN! Don't come near me with that green bandana or I'll use these teeth!)

I have created a Massachusetts Cross & Crown tutorial and will be adding it soon. Today it rains and rains and rains and we even had about five sustained minutes of pea-sized hail (I'm CWAZY for hail!). Ducky weather, babycakes! XXOP

Kyle's Quilt Phase II

Do I need to explain? NAH! I'm working on Phase III today and I will try to have enough of it done to have a photo tomorrow. I think this is looking good and welcome comments and suggestions.
Mark has always wanted to have pancakes for breakfast and I could never seem to make them properly so he has been forced to go to IHop to get his pancake fixes. The other day he decided to fulfill HIS lifelong dream of having a pancake griddle and today he made four beautiful, perfect pancakes (and a couple of eggs for me)! This thing cost $20 (which is about the price of three IHop breakfasts), works great, cleans up fast --not a bad thing!

Jenna commented that she'd like the instructions for making MC&C and I would be happy to share with her personally (just send me your e-mail address) or for everyone via a tutorial. Leave a comment, let me know. In the meantime, syruppy kissses & sticky hugs to you! xxoo P

Skypants Delivers!

I am pleased to announce the timely delivery of Josie's quilt. I LOVE this little one -- everything about it from the fabrics to the quilting. I hope you can see that I used a curved line to quilt through the squares. Other quilters might have been doing this for years/centuries/millenia but it's the first time I've done it and I LOVE the look, so it won't be the last. I wrapped the box in lavender paper with a fuschia bow and used a vintage rose card to express Bhu's, Mark's and my best wishes.

Then, here's a peek into my life: I call it GEEK ROMANCE! Mark bought this bouquet for me because he interrupted my Foxfire download Sunday. The vase is heavy duty, custom-made by Jane Moore (see link below) and includes Bhu's picture. Fresh flowers are a magnet for the Bhu-meister and he loves to nibble on roses, daisies and mums. This bouquet is chock-full-o-mums. He also likes to topple vases, so we asked Jane to make this one, which is so heavy he can't push it over. But look, when was the last time your husband bought you flowers because he interrupted your Foxfire download? Something tells me I'm the ONLY ONE.

After delivering the package to Josie, I stopped off at the local mall and went browsing for new shoes at Dillard's. I found these Born sandals: I LOVE THEM!!!! I'm not quite sure how they will look with purple toe-nail polish, but WHO CARES! I LOVE THEM! Anyway, I tried to take a photo of them to include here and the salesman went apopletic, screaming "I'm sorry ma'am [okay, I automatically HATE anyone who calls me ma'am], you can't take a picture in here!" WHATEVER, DUDE! Frankly, I can't even imagine what he thought I was going to do with the photo. So, I told him, "No problem, I'll just go online and get it." Now I am so totally curious to know if Dillard's actually has a policy against taking photos in the store. Wouldn't that be BIZARRE if it was true???

Today I love EVERYONE (even the nervous salesman) because I have the DAY OFF!!! C'mere and let me give you a BIG HUG!!!!

http://www.madeinjerome.com

Will Work for Diet Dr. Pepper

TA DA!!! Here is the Hero Husband (Lazy Husband took the day off) next to the compost tumbler that he and I just assembled (he doing the hard work, me reading the instructions). Let me say, having a compost tumbler is a life-long dream and I am BEYOND THRILLED! If you are thinking about getting one of these, let me caution you: the company's interpretation of "some assembly required" is quite lax. I interpret SAR to mean that most of the bigger things are already together and, at best, you'll need a screwdriver and after fifteen minutes it's done. WRONG!!! VERY, VERY, VERY WRONG! This was completely unassembled: every screw, nut, bolt, rod . . . all undone. If I'd known how MUCH assembly was required, I doubt I would have ordered this, nor would I have been willing to pay $231 for it. Okay, so these are the exact words I'm using when I write to the company. But, it's here, we are already using it and you can stay tuned for a report on the compost and compost tea it produces!

Okay, I'm TOO PICKY!!

There is no hope for me and so I have been kicked out of the Quilt in a Day Club (if one actually exists). Personally, I define a "Day" as a 24-hour period, not necessarily sequential. At this point I have worked 3 hours on Sunday, 2 hours on Monday, 2 hours on Tuesday and then quilted the whole dang thing last night in about 1-1/2 hours (I had to pull out a few errant stitches here and there). I just did not have the physical wherewithal to sew on the binding, though, which will be my chore for this evening and which I expect will take another 1-1/2 hours. Therefore, hours spent working on this quilt are well below the "Day," as it has been defined by Moi. If any of you out there are interested in joining my NEW club (Lazy Ass Kwilters' Society -- LAKS for short), let me know.

With time to spare, I have a question. Q: If all the beautiful Bengal and Siberian Tigers lived in the U.S., how many of them do you think would still be alive? A: They would have been extinct a hundred and fifty years ago.

And a little criticism. The University prints and distributes a gorgeous calendar every year, but for the past four years there has always been something wrong with it, e.g., typos or duplicate dates or missing dates. This year it looked pretty good except for a typo on the second page, but when I turned the page from Feb to March, I learned that the first day of spring is now referred to as "Vernal Solstice!" Oh, and we now have an "Autumnal Solstice" too! I guess they decided it was too much trouble to try to remember which is an equinox, which is a solstice. You see, we are an institution of higher learning and we train people to be leaders and scholars but apparently we have no proofreaders. Maybe I'm too picky.

Toodles Tootsies! xxoo P

Patty Failurepants

This is as far as I got yesterday: just a top, no quilt. I blame this on the fact that I had to go to the grocery store, cook dinner and other stuff. I think Eleanor must have a maid and a cook. So, Josie did not get her quilt this morning. You can't see much of her face in this photo, but here she is giving Bhu the treatment. She's the greatest groomer EVER!
Tonight I will make the sandwich and quilt it, sew on the binding and then box it up and take it to her tomorrow or Friday. BTW, I used a lot of Seaside Rose fabrics in this one and, as you can see, mine has fewer "posies" than the original design. It's really quite adorable!

Eleanor 911!

This is what greeted me when I got home from work yesterday! Daffodils trying to peep out of the leaf mulch. Mark and I were supposed to sit down and plan the garden last night, but instead I hauled my lazy ass down to the sewing lair and cut squares for Josie's quilt. YES, I KNOW Bhu's appointment is less than 24 hours away and this is the sum total effort so far! YIKES! Since I'm
maxed out on vacation, I'm going to take off this afternoon and try to finish it. May I also pause to give thanks for no snow, no ice, no wind yesterday and for the abundant sunshine today!
This is my windowbox at work. Some time in April, I'll take them home where they will enjoy spring, summer and fall until the first frost and then they come back here. Note my goofy planter "cozy." Toodles 'til later! xxoo psp

I Keep Telling You: I'm NOT ELEANOR BURNS!

Well, I have putzed around all weekend doing chores and sewing, but not on the baby quilt for Josie! I found this quilt by Bunny Hill Designs on the Fat Quarter Shoppe website and this is what I am going to make, but for some reason I haven't been able to switch projects. My sewing table is filled with fabric and pieces for Kyle's quilt. This is usually not a problem for me, but I am so curious about how Kyle's quilt is going to turn out. Bhu's appointment with Josie is Wednesday morning. Honest, Eleanor, I know I CAN make a quilt in a day, but I don't wanna.

Oh, yeah, did I say yesterday it was 75 but then we had big winds and t-storms around 1 a.m. this morning, so now it's 40 degrees cooler. Scarey! Bhu kept climbing around on me looking for reassurance and comfort, but I just wanted to cover my ears and make the wind go away! It worked! I think it's headed your way, Yankees!

http://www.bunnyhilldesigns.com/