Long time no posting! Pain and fatigue from Fibro, bulging discs and compressed spinal cord pretty much halted all my sewing and quilting, and pretty much anything that can't be done while sitting up in bed. Things have improved dramatically for me over the past 18 months now that we're back in Portland. I've got better medical care than I've ever had before and it makes a difference. This weather has been horrific on my Ichthyosis though, but that's ok, it's warming up.

No crafting eye candy, but a photo of me. Hi, folks!

I have a back yard that should be great for painting fabric once it warms up a bit.

A Beast Update

A Beast update. I'm a far better artist with color than I am with fabric. After having (I thought) finished the top of Beast, I started quilting it. And I wasn't happy with it. Not happy at all. After all, as many of you know, when it comes to other people's work, there is very little critic in me but when it comes to my work, I'm a perfectionist.

After quilting a great deal of the main house block, the one that had been giving me fits, I decided I needed to take the quilting out. Then I committed what most quilters have nightmares about. I ended up making holes in the top. I ruined it. I was so angry and upset, I couldn't even look at the work anymore. Then I had a revelation. I'd painted the lake and the sky of the quilt and it'd been a very enjoyable experience for me. I'd paint the entire piece that contained the house, lake, scenery and sky. I already have all the materials and I'm really proud I made that decision.

I've been drawing and painting since I was a small child. I even got my first commission when I was in my teens. I had been asked to come work in a store in downtown Portland that sold leather jackets as an artist in residence to paint on the leather whatever customers wanted. That phone call was completely out of the blue as I believe it was the person who'd commissioned me to paint a jacket for him that gave them my number.

Anyway, I learned a long time ago that perfection with paints and drawings is not possible. Stuff happens, and you incorporate it in to the work. So now I'm painting Beast and I hope to finally finish it and send it off to Mike. His attitude has always been "Make it the way you want to, I just want the fish and the house in it. I leave the rest to you, you're the artist." He's the best type of person to have a commission from.

I did some practice painting first. I realized I'll need to use the paint undiluted and probably without wetting the fabric first, like I did for the sky and lake as those both had, pardon the pun, a watercolor look to them. They still will, as will the trees. But not the house. The house is going to have a very controlled flow of color so I can capture the shadows across the roof, the upstairs and downstairs decks, the dock, and the outdoor fireplace. Most artists, when painting something specific, often draw a rough draft that's then painted over. I can't quite do exactly that given my medium, but I can paint a fat quarter's worth of wood planks, of stone to determine how to make the stone foundation I want, etc. It's a good thing I have a lot of fabric that's already prepared for dyeing. For you quilters/painters out there, I got a bolt of Kona's PFD (prepared for dyeing) from Fabric Depot. If they don't show it on their website, call the store and they will either tell you how much they have in stock since it's not all listed on their site and then go ahead and set up the order and payment for you. You can treat many fabrics for dyeing, but I'm very much in to saving my energy for doing what I want and a lot of prep work for a bolt of fabric is a bit more than I wanted to mess with.

No pictures as I really don't like the two fat quarters I painted thus far using up some oooold Jacquard in some squeeze bottles I'd originally used for paint the sky and water, Hence the discovery that the house wouldn't look the way I wanted if I used the watercolor method of painting.

As to getting it done, I've been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and early stages of Rheumatoid Arthritis. That makes it a lot more understandable as to why I've been trying to get this thing done since 2006. I and some family members are strongly speculating I have Ankylosing Spondylitis, and like them, are in the 5% category of people who have it whose bloodwork shows no evidence, as they all fit in that category. Thus, the remaining way to diagnose it is to either watch my symptomology over time, or to do an MRI. I pushed for the MRI 'cause I want to know. That means that we can get more aggressive arthritis treatment going that has the possibility of even with Fibromyalgia, maybe I can get some of my life back and have more energy again. And I can get back to quilting, after I finish painting :D

Commission Quilt September Update

This shows the unattached borders on one side. These are Borders version 2.0 as I didn't like the first round I put on. It made me cringe every time I looked at it so I finally ripped it out while I still could before I'd machine quilted over it.

Much thanks to my quilt guildies, The Rogue River Quilt Guild (also known as the Rowdy River Girls) for helping me find a better border style, and all the encouragement and support they've given me.

City Girl In A Small Town

Hubster got a teaching job in Merlin, OR, which is just outside of Grants Pass. The decade long trek to getting him through school and into teaching is done and now we are reaping the rewards.

Grants Pass has tourism and timber as its two main employment industries. Tourism has taken a big hit in the past two years. Real estate values are down by 50% and unemployment has always been high here even in good economic times. Right now it's in the double digits. I have to confess I was really hesitant about how I'd feel living here. While on one hand I didn't want to move, I knew that coming here where he had a job was the best thing for us to do.

To give you a frame of reference on the general size of the town, I think this is what brings it home the most. When he was student teaching for Beaverton, the school district served over 30k students. That was for kids in Beaverton alone, none of the other suburbs. The population in Grants Pass is roughly 30k. I knew I was in for a big change going from a large urban area to a small town.


The closest yarn shop is over 30 miles away in Medford, which is a 40+ minute drive depending on traffic conditions and of course that's where the closest quilting shops are as well. In Beaverton, there was a local quilt shop literally a few blocks away and the nearest yarn shop was about 15 minutes away along with a JoAnn's store in between the two.

I was a bit unhappy wondering what I would do to meet people because I figured the easiest way for me to meet people and make new friends was to join the local knitting group, quite often referred to as a, "Stitch n' bitch." I figured there were enough knitters in the area that there had to be at least one. Nope, not in Grants Pass. Apparently there are knitters here, but they've not found a good location to have a regular Stitch n' Bitch.

Ok, well I'd just have to find some people through quilting groups. I found three shops that carry fabric, one of which is a dedicated quilt shop and the others are also vac n' sew sales. Upon arrival I found quilt shop has gone out of business. I haven't yet been able to determine if the third one is open or not. Oh dear.

So then I thought about the library! The public library is open five hours a day Tuesday through Saturday for a total of 25 hours a week. Gee, that's not much. Nor does it bode well for the size of their book collection. I knew I was spoiled in Beaverton as the libraries there are very large and they are open 64 hours a week.

Right now I think once we've completely unpacked at least the living room and kitchen, I might start offering knitting lessons with an ulterior motive. If I teach enough people to knit, I may be able to start my own Stitch n' Bitch! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Then there's the other factor of moving someplace new. Acclimatizing the population to me, or vice versa. As in being seen often and long enough that people eventually stop staring and asking questions about my skin when I go out.

Whenever I move, it takes several months, as in 6 to 9 before I stop being stared at everywhere I go and before the questions about my skin stop being a regular occurrence. In fact, to prepare for the stares, I designed a tshirt, "Keep staring. Maybe I'll do a trick." It's a copy of a tee that Hunter Steinitz wore to an Ichthyosis convention many years ago. I wear it whenever I have to go anywhere other than the mailbox in our development.


Now here's the unexpected part. People here are friendly. They are FRIENDLY. And polite. The day before yesterday, I went to the auto parts shop to get a battery for a car remote. The customer in front of me tripped on the edge of the display basket sticking out from the counter at the bottom. I asked, "Are you alright?" He kept going so I assumed he was fine and didn't hear me. I paid for my purchase and went to my car.

I was surprised when he walked up to my car and tapped on the window. "Why was he doing this?" I wondered.

He said, "I'm sorry. I was rude to you."
"Excuse me?"
"I was rude to you in the store and I owe you an apology?"
My jaw moved up and down as I was replaying everything in my head. "I didn't think you were rude."
"Well, I was and I wanted to apologize."
Then he waved around his eyes and asked "Doesn't that hurt?" referring to my ectropian. Oh boy, here it comes, first person asking about my skin.
"It can, but it's just an effect of a larger issue."
"That's probably a long story, isn't it?"
"Yes, a very long detailed one."
"That's ok, I don't need to hear it, I know what it's like to have to explain it all the time 'cause I have a back injury." and after that we made small talk for a minute or two about how it was a beautiful day and he wished me a good day and we parted ways.

Never in all my almost 40 years of life has anyone, anyone ever asked politely about my skin and then reacted the way he did. He mostly wanted to apologize and make sure I didn't need help. He didn't ask any personal questions beyond what I just recounted. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

I have never ever lived in an area where so many people are so friendly! Yes, I get stares though people seem to catch themselves fairly quickly if I'm wearing my shirt, and after being here for 17 days, no one asked me about my skin! One guy made a passing comment, "You look like you stayed out too long before you came in." as he was pushing a grocery cart past me in the meat department at Safeway but still, that's pretty mild for what I usually get when I'm in a new area. If I'm just passing through an area, I usually just wear sunglasses the whole time because most people don't notice my ichthyosis unless they can see my eyelids, or my skin is painfully dry and I can avoid the questions and get very few stares other than perhaps people wondering why that lady is wearing sunglasses while she's grocery shopping?

So I haven't made any friends face-to-face yet, and I am very lonely missing all my friends up north, but I think it's going to be ok here. These are good people and of all the places my husband could have ended up with his first teaching job, this is pretty nice.

Pictures will be posted once the pile of moving boxes has disappeared from the house.

Almost There And On To Somewhere Else

I'm finally quilting Beast. It's been a long haul but in retrospect, very worthwhile. I have gained so much skill with my quilting by challenging myself to create what I envisioned for this quilt. For a while I thought I'd have a really hard time letting it go to the person that commissioned it but I no longer feel that way. I know I can make others in this style if I so choose and they too could push my boundaries in a positive way.

I'm really pleased to be able to share this photo of it in the process of being quilted.


My dear friend Grace of Grace's Cases helped me baste the quilt. Her assistance allowed me to get the basting done in a few hours in one day. I would have taken me days to do so by myself. Take a look at some of her work, she makes and sells some really fantastic knitting and crochet needle cases as well as project bags. The color scheme on this case really appeals to me

And in other big news, my husband got a job as a teacher in Jackson County in southern Oregon. We will be moving to either Grants Pass or Medford at the end of September. He starts work this Friday, 8/26/2011 but I'll be in Beaverton packing up our home. I'm going to miss my local friends terribly but right now the plan is for me to come visit quarterly for a few days so that I can continue to see some of the same doctors so I can very slowly transition to doctors down there if need be. I certainly have enough friends and family members I can stay with! We're hoping to find a three bedroom place so that we have a dedicated guest room.

I Can Taste It

This quilt is so close to being done I can taste it. See this photo? That's the border blocks waiting to be sewn!

I haven't shown you the side blocks yet, have I? Well, here's one set.

 And just for giggles, a shawl I finished. It's made of one skein of acrylic. Yes, I know the yarn snobs reading this are now horrified, but there's something to be said for machine wash and dry when your dogs like to snuggle in your lap and burrow under your shawls.

My Quilting Mojo Is Back

Check out the foliage spilling over the burgundy sashing.

This quilt was started in 2007. I started designing it in January and production began in in May. While my arthritis issues had started appearing, they didn't fully manifest until about 2008. My ability to be physically active tanked in 2008 and until very recently had been extremely poor. Ankylosing Spondylitis also causes exhaustion and I've dealt with that in spades.



In the summer of 2009 I started wondering if I would ever be able to finish Beast, which became its sometimes affectionate and sometimes not at all affectionate moniker. I have a stubborn streak a mile wide and decided I was going to ignore that thought and work on the quilt as I was able.

About a month ago, I changed my diet drastically. I don't know if that's what's given me  more energy or if I'm out of an arthritis flare but I'm not looking at this gift too closely right now for fear of driving it away.

I've been able to work on Beast for 45 minutes to two hours six days a week for the past three weeks. This is after only being able to manage 15-20 minute stints a few times a month with some several month breaks. It took a year each on the foliage around the house and then for the detail on the house itself. There are so many very small pieces that are incredibly intricate throughout the blocks shown. Thankfully all the border blocks will be much less difficult as they'll be what I now consider easy peasy patchwork. There was a time when I hated patchwork but now it's practically cake to me after making this.

Other quilters that make and sell quilts have seen the quilt in even earlier stages that the photos in this post show and have said this a $5,000 quilt. That's far less than what I'm charging the person that commissioned it.

Mike's a good, kind and generous man and he and his family have done something wonderful for the ichthyosis community that is worth celebrating. In my own way is to express my appreciation because I long ago stopped accepting quilt commissions even when I was still healthy enough to work full time. I prefer having the freedom to make what I want in whatever style I want without having to please anyone but myself.

There have been times that I have truly hated this quilt because I thought it beyond my physical ability to complete. It has been a constant reminder of the physical losses I have had to deal with. I am in love with it again and I am really excited at the thought of sending it to Mike.

It's still not done, but it is so much closer to being done that I am confident again that I can finish it and barring injury or another major flair, finishing it is so close it's practically tangible. That confidence has fed back into my interest in sewing as I realize that even though my arthritis can be extremely painful at times to the point that I can hardly move, when I do have good days, and I will continue to have them throughout my life, I can still quilt and sew.

I think if I hadn't had this commission quilt to work on, I never would have figured that out. I would have made a normal quilt, or at least one that was normal for me, and the pain would have made me finish it and then give up the entire hobby. It's a hobby that I love and having to push myself to make this quilt has given me a gift of realizing that I haven't lost the physical ability to do it. I won't consistently be able to make quilts, but I am not forever barred from making them.

I'm not sure that Mike knows that he's given something hugely important back to me but I will be sure to tell him.

The fish blocks will be placed so there's a fish above and below the house block.






The gray looking geometric shapes in the picture to the right is a template for what the border blocks on each side of the fish will look like

Yarn and Underwear

It's been an adventuresome day for me. I found that when I need to, I can still monkey around getting into places when faced with no other options.

Happy Knits, one of my favorite yarn shops, is having an anniversary sale this weekend. Valerie and I made plans yesterday for her to pick me up and we'd go together. I'd even set aside cash so that I'd stay within budget for my expenditures.

Like many knitters, I usually knit when I'm a passenger. Today was no exception. I hadn't quite been ready when Valerie arrived and was scrambling to find one of my many project that's portable enough to take with me. I finally found it and dashed out the door as she was waiting for me in her minivan in the parking lot. I paused at my car first to get my gimp pass (handicapped parking pass) in case we needed it.

We tootled off to have a cheap lunch at a fast food place. I was even fairly good and ordered a salad even though I really wanted a burger. Then we hopped back in the van and off we went to Happy Knits.

All the yarn in the shop was on sale for 15% off. Yarn shops don't tend to have many sales until spring and summer because frankly, business booms during the fall and winter. People come in to buy to make holiday presents and to make things to warm up themselves and their loved ones. So often there might be a sale yarn, and quite often stores pick the spendier yarns that you don't normally buy a lot of simply because of price. For example, Cascade 220 Yarn  is considered a workhorse yarn. People use it to make everything. Hats, gloves, sweaters, slippers, blankets, bags, toys, you name it, that's what Cascade 220 is used for. It is one of the top selling yarns among thousands. Thus, the chance to get my mitts on something like that for 15% off is definitely worth the 40 minute drive. Especially if someone else is driving!

We were in the store for an hour and a half before I decided on two skeins of yarn to use for Christmas gifts. Yes, I know, two skeins of yarn is showing admirable restraint on my part. But, I'm trying to limit how much I spend on stuff that I am not using for a project that's currently on the needles. After all, I currently have seven projects going right now. I digress.

We paid for our purchases, wound the yarn from hank form to ball form, hopped in the van and headed for home. We arrived, I asked Valerie if she wanted to come in and visit. I am so very glad I did. Without her there, I would have fallen on my ass. Or my head. Or both.

You see, I got out of the van, and started digging in my purse for my keys. Horror dawned on me as I realized in my scramble for a project to work on in the car, I'd forgotten to make sure I had my keys!

Thus, I started knocking on the door and leaning on the doorbell in the hopes of waking JR. Seeing as how it's Saturday afternoon, he's asleep as he worked a 12 hour shift last night for the security company and he'll work another 12 tonight. I knew he had earplugs in and had taken some a generic version of Tylenol PM. For the record, that is some powerful stuff because after 5 minutes of some serious noisemaking, he still wasn't answering the door.

Then it occurred to me that I perhaps could get inside if the back gate was unlocked and if the back door was unlocked. It was unlikely the gate was unlocked and I knew I had a 50/50 chance of the back door being unlocked. No such luck, 6' high fence gate was padlocked closed. Grrr. Wait! Our yard and the neighbor's yard have a shared gate on the side! Maybe I could go through their yard to get into mine! Whoopee!

So I trekked back around the complex to the front. At this point, my asthma and my hips were telling me they really weren't happy with me. I hadn't taken my cane with me when I walked around the back of the complex because canes do not mix well with blackberry runners and mud.

I knock on the neighbor's door. Thankfully they're home and are happy to let me cut through. Oh. Wait. The side gate is padlocked, too. I suspect we padlocked it and not them for fear of their little one coming through and getting bit by Diego. He's not child friendly. Ugh.

At this point I'm wondering if I'm going to head home with Valerie and try to catch JR by phone when he wakes up. Then I realize that the front window shouldn't be latched. We very rarely lock it. I run the idea by Valerie and she asks if I think I could get through the window. I think I can.

Getting the screen off the window wasn't happening easily until I decided to try with a credit card. Actually, I used a store rewards card, but you get the idea. I managed to pop the screen off without damaging it. Hooray! The window didn't want to move with having pressure put on it as I tried to slide it due to the way the frame is set up. Hey, this store card might work for getting it started and presto! Window is now open!

Now how in the hell am I going to get up there?  I'm only 5'2" and a quarter on a good day when I can stand straight up. I'm racking my brains wondering if I have something in the car I can stand on when Valerie suggests asking the neighbors. She knows they have kids therefore she figures they must have something for them to stand on to reach the sink. She's so smart! It's one of the things I love about her. I trot on over and ask, but no, they don't have anything like that. What about a chair? Success!

I get the chair under the window test it for stability. It's good. I get up on the chair and get the blinds above my head after a bit of struggle. I kept having visions of getting my head between the blinds, slipping, pulling the blinds off the window and then falling on my head, but I didn't.

The next step is to move as much stuff off the end table as I can because I don't think JR will want me standing on his schoolwork and I suspect if I do, I'll fall and break my head.

Now for the hard part, to actually get in through the window. I start heaving myself up and then am stuck with the dilemma. Do I get a leg through first or my torso through first? I decide to get a leg through first. Wait, I'm no longer limber enough for that. Damn! Thus I have to heave my torso in. I am so thankful Valerie was there.

You see, to get myself through the window under my own steam, I was going to have to really heave forward, running the risk of instead of climbing through the window, I could fall through and down. On to me head. Oh crap. Then all of a sudden I felt a supporting hand on me. With Valerie's support I was able to climb through and not have to heave myself. That to me is a minor miracle.

The next minor miracle was that I managed to get onto the side table and it didn't break, and then get off the side table and not fall ass over ankles. Wooooo! Success! I am inside and I didn't break anything! Woot! If I weren't so damned exhausted, I'd do the happy dance!

I unlock the door while Valerie takes the chair back and I start setting purses and such inside the door. Valerie comes in, looks at me and tells me "take pain meds now because if you aren't hurting because of all the walking at Happy Knits, you will be from climbing through the window. Again, she's illustrating that she has brains and she uses them. What a good friend to have!

She lets the dogs out and back in for me, closes the window, and tells me to get some rest. After I'd been laying on the couch for a few minutes, I realized that while there was no way anyone could have not seen my rather wide ass up in the air during my monkeyshines, thankfully, nobody saw my bare ass. You see, I don't normally wear much in the way of undergarments. The seams hurt my skin. For some reason though, I wore some today.

Thus, today I am grateful for yarn shops that have sales, and that for some odd reason the universe told me to wear underwear today and I listened!

Oh, and for the record, Tylenol PM and a set of earplugs will probably allow JR to sleep through anything. Then again, he did sleep through the Hillsboro Air Show this year that had the US Patriots Jet Team perform. I do not know why I was shocked he slept through several minutes of me knocking on the bedroom window, the front door, and leaning on the doorbell as well as encouraging the dogs to bark.

I've got my pain meds in me and I'm very glad I do as having to crank my neck so that I could get the blinds behind me didn't do my spine any favors. The way it feels right now tells me it'd be excruciating if I hadn't downed something as soon as I was able. The bad thing? I'm so tired I can't seem to fall asleep. Thus, I wrote this up to share with you so you can laugh about it. I know I am! It's nice when fiascos end with the mission accomplished with no one injured and nothing broken. Though I am leaving the screen for JR to put back in. I figure I'd best not tempt fate.

Pain management and Life after disabiilty

First off, I have a bit of info to share on pain management. For years I thought pain meds didn't work well for me because I'd take them, but not experience any pain relief. The drugs would make it so that I was just able to handle it a little bit better.

Several months ago, I started hurting. JR an I had plans to do something later that evening so I went ahead and took some pain meds. I felt bad that I was doing so, because the pain really wasn't bad enough in my mind to warrant the "heavy guns," which is how I refer to anything that's not OTC. That's Over the Counter, by the way.

Imagine my surprise when about 30 minutes later, the pain went away. I'd never had that happen before! So I talked with JR and my doctor about it and got the, "That's what it's supposed to do!" accompanied by the lecture that, really, I was prescribed those meds for a reason, and waiting until I was really hurting to take them was not smart. If I took them when things first start off, instead of waiting in the hopes that it'll go away on its own, which it never does, the pain meds can work like they are supposed to  and make the pain go away. So now I'm taking my pain meds a lot more often. But I'm a lot less grumpy. Thus, if you too are feeling pain, do something immediately. Do not ignore it. Pain doesn't tend to go away with some recovery assistance, whether it's cold medicine, pain meds, or a nap.

Next off, a book called  Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties by Laurie Edwards. The title is a bit of a misnomer, it's a fantastic book for anyone who's disabled, and also for their loved ones. I strongly recommend it to parents that have disabled children entering their early teens.

While the book talks about some things I've tried to share with other people that have ichthyosis for years such as your skin (or other disability) is not a barrier to your romantic life, it's how you view yourself and your skin that's a barrier. However the book also brought up loads of points that I've never considered.

The most significant topic for me was about learning how to pace oneself. The author said she'd always operated on two speeds. One is "must get everything done and be an overacheiver," and the other is "my body isn't letting me do what I want therefore I must prepare so that when I can move around again, I can catch up." There was no pacing whatsoever. She hadn't figured out how to try and live life without always being in a frenzy of getting things done. She had to learn how to pace herself instead of trying to be superwoman whenever she was able.

Now, I don't think I try to be superwoman anymore. My husband disagrees. He says I still expect myself to do everything and while I recognize I'm not able, I still get pissed at myself that I can't. Hm. Score one to the husband, as he's right. I too, need to learn to pace myself so that when I do have energy, I don't drive myself 'til I drop. If I wasn't pushing so hard, then I might not be as exhausted all the time. It's ok to take things slowly.

I think I'm going to have to work on that for a long time, but that's ok. There are many other excellent things in the book and I can't recommend it strongly enough.

A Loose Screw

Today's post is a short one. A loose screw on a sewing machine is a bad thing. Especially if it's the screw holding the presser foot is in place because when you're using a free-motion foot. If it slides, your needle may snap due to making contact with machine parts it shouldn't make contact with. If your needle snaps, fragments can fly and hit you right where you broke your nose 33 years ago by tripping on a garden hose and slamming your face onto the edge of the concrete patio step. The moral of the story? Check that the presser foot screw is tight, and don't leave the garden hose out.

Must. Resist. Urge. To. Set. Fire. To. Quilt.

After weeks of no quilt progress, I worked on Beast today. I then of course had to rip out all but maybe 5" of embroidery. F^%ker.

I had to go on a wild goose chase 'cause this doohickey called a Sew Slip that I use that helps slide the fabric around while I do free motion embroidery had gone missing. I'd been searching for it for ages and finally decided it was a lost cause therefore I must replace. Free motion embroidery is quite laborious for me, even more so with my arthritis and that sheet makes the fabric much easier to move.

I had forgotten I bought it originally at a place diagonally across town from me so I went to three other locations before giving up and acting like an intelligent person to call around and see who had it. Beth was kind enough to drive me out to the diagonally opposite end of the Portland metro area to get a replacement. She figured if she drove me, I might not be too wiped out by the energy expenditure to work on it. She would have been right if the next morning I hadn't woken up with cracks on the bottom of my feet. Ahh, I just love my body with all its little joys. Whenever it looks like things are moving along and I get to be at least 50% as active as I would like to be, something acts up, whether it's ichthyosis, arthritis, depression, whatever. Thus I've been sitting on my butt all week long soaking my foot and putting goo on it every few hours in the hopes I could use my toes again soon. Thankfully, it healed quickly mostly 'cause I was good and did what it takes to make it heal, and you all know how much I love sitting on my butt.

It wasn't until today that I had enough spoons to work on Beast again. Of course, after all this buildup, something had to go wrong, right?

Somehow I managed to catch the edge of the slider doohickey with the bottom of the fabric I'm embroidering and this is the result. I drew a red box around it so you can find it more easily.

I had to pick that, along with several more inches out, with my trusty seam ripper. Once again, F^%ker. I ended up with a tension headache that promised to be a whopper so I took some Vicodin and went for a walk to let the temptation of setting fire to Beast pass. I figured my feet would re-open but I guess Fate decided I needed some sort of break today.

I normally have a potty mouth, but I swear, this quilt brings out the worst of it in me. It's draped across the sewing table and I'm trying not to glare daggers at it, not that it would care. My head still hurts but not as bad. My dogs are being adorable, so I think I'll throw in the towel for now and sit and read with doggies in my lap. For all my bitching, life isn't so bad.

Finally! I picked a border design

A few nights ago I woke up after sleeping for two or three hours. As usual, my thoughts turned to the projects I'm working on. That's usually what I think about when I can't sleep though it's not commonly a restful train of thought. I suddenly thought of acute angled triangles for the borders of Beast. I am so thrilled. I have been racking my brains for months to figure out what the borders should be like.

Lynn would like the quilt to have some burgundy in it so I'd gotten some wide burgundy fabric by Moda. I have plenty for the back, for binding, and a 36" x 60" piece to use to make the borders.

This is a sample block made with EQ6. The burgundy fabric is the same but the blue I put in isn't the blue I'm using. The color for the center triangle are going to be alternated with the fabrics I used to make the fish and house blocks to pull them all together.

I know the block isn't that impressive as it is simple, but honestly, I have been wrestling for months, years really, of whether or not I should put in Mariner's Compass blocks or New York Beauty blocks. I realized that those would be to busy and would compete with the rest of the quilt, so I didn't use them.

I am also working on a purse and a shawl for myself. I have about given up on finding the perfect purse. I've yet to find a purse I really like, or at least one that I like at a price I'm willing to pay. The pieces are mostly cut out and the lining and pockets have been sewn together. As usual, I am modifying the pattern. I'm starting to think it's impossible for me to follow patterns, as the only patterns I ever have followed exactly were from the classes I took to sew a blouse and pajama pants. Since then, nope, don't do it.

Miss Lola

Lola joined us at the end of December. She's an absolute doll and has quite the personality. This picture was taken shortly after she and Diego went to the groomer's for the first time.

Taking care of her fur is a lot of work but that's almost entirely due to my ointment getting on her fur. She has to be brushed out a lot and bathed weekly. If it weren't for my ointment I suspect she'd only need a bath once a month and being brushed twice a week would be fine.

She did NOT like being brushed at first but I stuff her with treats and now she seems to enjoy it. I think it's because it's one on one attention for her and she doesn't have to share with Diego. She and Diego play together and sometimes sleep snuggled up with one another but there is a lot of rivalry between them. Every once in a while they bicker but it's just that, bickering and that's really not too uncommon in households with more than one dog.

This is a common pose in our household. They frequently nap in the recliner together regardless of whether or not there's a lap to be had there. Life is good.

Stichin' Not Fishin'

One might think the thread embroidery on the house must be done since you're now seeing a picture of the thread embroidery having been started on the fish. Not so! I'm at the point wuth the house block where I'm using colors that are going to be on the fish. Thus, rather than switch thread colors a zillion times back and forth, I'm switching blocks back and forth as I switch colors. I'm a happy camper, though .The end really is in sight. I've been threatening to have it finished by Christmas even if staples and a hot glue gun are required. I don't think it's going to come to that though. Then again, I believe I've said. "by Christmas," before. We shall see.

A smaller household



Napoleon was my constant companion for almost 14 years. I'd brought him home when he was six weeks old.

Dogs, like humans, can get senile. Because his vision was pretty bad and his hearing was going, he had started to bite. He didn't mean to hurt anyone and he was mortified after the fact once he'd realized he'd bitten someONE and not someTHING. Regardless of intent, it meant he was no longer safe to have around just in case he got outside and around the neighbor's children.

This was the first time I'd had to put one of my pets down when it felt like it wasn't time yet for the animal. His quality of life was quite good as most days he was very happy. I've been involved with putting down dogs in rescue that weren't safe, but never a pet. Ending a partnership is such a horrible thing but it is the duty of a responsible pet owner.

Thus, "Obi-Wan" is gone and Diego has been promoted from "paduwan" to a "Jedi." I bet you'd never guess how he got the nickname Obi-Wan when you look at the above picture. I wish however, like Obi-Wan in the books and films, Napoleon could still visit with me. He will be missed.

We don't know if we're going to get a second dog. At times we think Diego would enjoy having a playmate, but at other times he seems so happy to be the only dog. I vacillate back and forth constantly but have decided that I am not going to make a decision until after Beast is done and delivered. I've been very grateful for this quilt as it's been something for me to throw myself into as I deal with my grief.

When I wrote my last post, I knew I would be putting Napoleon down soon but I couldn't write about it yet. I think I was still hoping that by some miracle, things would be ok and I wouldn't have to go through and do the deed. I'd always told him he'd have to make it to 20 years of age. I guess I should have been more specific and said, "Twenty years with no health issues, buddy! I mean it!" This is what Diego is now hearing.

Knitting


I finished a moebius for my little sister and like a dork, I didn't take a picture of it before giving it to her for her birthday. I've finished another moebius and have yet a third on the needles as we speak. Can you tell I like knitting them? The one that I am currently working on is for me, unlike the previous two.

If you like the looks of my moebius or you're interested in learning more about what the heck they are, go see Cat Bordhi's site. She's the author of many knitting books and two of them are all about the fun things you can make using a moebius, which is a loop that has only one side.



I also am working on my third pair of socks. The pattern is no different than the others I've made however the technique is different. I started these from the toe going up and I am also knitting two at a time. I also tried using the "magic loop" method but found I was constantly fiddling with the needle cable placement so I brought in a second circular needle and have enjoyed the process.

'Til we meet (or rather I write) again!

I Do Windows

The greenery has been done for a while and now it's been house beams and today it was windows! Yes, I do windows. Fabric ones, that is. My windows in my home sadly, have not been done. The patio door is covered in doggie noseprint. I figure it the noseprints add character to my home and let people know that cuddles, play and love with the dogs is more important than housecleaning. Well, that and I don't like bending down that far. I digress.

Here are the windows. I have yet to trim the stray threads from moving from pane to pane. And of course, I ran out of bobbin thread when there was less than 3" remaining to be stitched. Murphy and his laws are not welcome but apparently they're not polite and come around anyway.










In other news, JR has been at NELA (his assigned location through AmeriCorps) since early September and he is kicking ass and taking names. NELA is Northwest Education Loan Association and they help anyone of any age and any educational or financial status find money for college. He is specifically involved in finding students that could use their services, finding volunteers to work with the students, though he does a lot of other things. It's the first paying job he's had where he gets an extreme sense of satisfaction. I am so thrilled with it. He also enjoys the company of his coworkers a lot.

What I personally have found interesting is that it's families with middle and lower level incomes that are least likely to apply for financial aid whereas the higher income families almost always do. He runs into a lot of people whose incomes would probably fall in what's considered middle class and they think they won't get any scholarships or financial aid when that is not the case. The families with even less financial resources often aren't aware of financial aid for school. He does just as much education as he does recruiting.

Changing thread color. Hah!

Hahahahahaha! I have gone over all the greenery now. At least I think I have. Let's just say I've thread painted the greenery as much as I'm going to. There. That should be an accurate statement.

Now I'm going over the house - the wooden parts. Then the windows and beams. I'm so happy I could dance!

Fall is on its way

Fall is almost here. Most of the kids are back in school tomorrow morning so I expect it'll be more quiet around the apartment complex.

JR started his AmeriCorps job last week. He works for NELA coordinating volunteer efforts and recruiting students as well as a host of other things. NELA helps students of all ages and their familes find money for college, whether it's a vocational program, four year school or even graduate school.

The quilting bug was on hiatus and it has bitten again, thank goodness. I was struggling with some thread painting and when I took the top out from under the machine I realized there was no interfacing under the section I was working on. D'oh! Interfacing helps keep the fabric from being pulled down into the throat plate of the machine when you are doing a lot of stitching. It's very useful when using a satin/buttonhole stitch or any type of embroidery.

I've been sick for over a week now with an awful cold. It started as the Cold from Hell, then downgraded to Cold from Purgatory and now it's Merely Annoying.

Two of my friends are pregnant. Methinks baby season is arriving again. It feels especially good to me as there have been two deaths in my family in less than a year. New lives starting always helps folks move past grief and I am no exception to that.

I hope all is well with you and yours.

Sock Summit Was a Blast or Knitters Are Wonderful People

I managed to drag my fatigued carcass to the Sock Summit last weekend at the Portland Convention Center. I actually didn't start knitting 'til after class registration for the Summit was closed but I finagled my way in by volunteering.

I had mentioned on Ravelry that I was going to go, and asked if anyone wanted to meet for lunch since I'm a local yokel to Portland. After all, people from all over the world showed at the Summit. None of my friends were able to make it but an online buddy, Joanna, asked me if I'd take pictures and write something up for her to be posted at www.nerdabout.com. So I did. What I didn't expect was a link from the article to MY blog. Wow. Maybe I should update this thing more often!

Here's me with team Ravelry at the Summit. Note the finger puppet representation of Bob, Ravelry's boston terrier mascot. I saw them walking down the hallway of the Convention Center and dashed out from behind the desk to snag them so all of us volunteers could take pictures with them. They were very gracious about it.

As a general update, yes, The Beast, otherwise known as the Bass Quilt and/or commission quilt is still in progress. I'm taking a break from thread painting and am feeling like starting the Mariner's Compass sashing blocks this weekend is a good plan.

On the needles right now is my fourth sock, giving me a whopping two pair of handknit. I lucked out and spotted a copy of Knitting circles around socks knit two at a time on circular needles by Antje Gillingham at the library so I snatched it and ran to the self checkout machines. It seems rather elementary since I already use two circs to knit socks. Now I know a way to avoid having to seam or graft anything on a sock. Yay!

My plans have changed slightly for next year's ichthyosis conference. Quilts are lovely and people appreciate them but I think hand knit socks will be very treasured by folks with ichthyosis. Any of us who have it on the bottoms of our feet tend to have the skin crack and get raw during temperature extremes, though children have an especially rough time as often their skin cannot accomdate growth as quickly as it should so the feet and palms crack. My feet didn't stop cracking regularly 'til I reached my whopping final height of 5'1" around age 15. So, hand knit socks it is for the fundraiser raffle. I expect I'll be making strictly tube socks in generic man/woman/child sizes so they can fit anyone. But they'll still be more comfortable than store bought. Who knows, maybe I'll start a sock knitting revolution among the ichthyosis community.

Now this next tidbit is extremely important to me. Only once in my 37 years have I been somewhere amongst a large crowd of people for a significant amount of time and not had anyone stare at me or ask my about my skin. The first time was at the ichthyosis convention in Atlanta, GA in 2006. The second time was at the Sock Summit. I cannot express how marvelous it is to be able to walk through a crowd and have no one give me a second glance. I understand that for most people, seeing someone affected all over with ichthyosis is a rare occurence and it's natural to be curious. I however, am quite used to what ichthyosis looks and feels like but I'm not sure that I'll ever completley adjust to having people stare at me or unintentionally make me uncomfortable by asking personal questions about my medical issues. So. There it is. Knitters rock. Well, knitters, spinners, dyers, crocheters, designers, instructors, and all those other lovely folks that were at the Summit. Thank you so very much, you gave me a wonderful gift.

Now back to the Summit dishing.

I met some fantastic people, one of whom immediately comes to mind and that's Rita from Yarn Hollow. She noticed me drooling over one of the drop spindles and put some roving in my hands and that was it. I was a goner. I now have what I need to learn to spin yarn using a drop spindle. Wheee! By the way, the lusciously colored stuff you see in the photo to the far left is roving. It becomes yarn by using a spindle to rotate the fiber as you squeeze it down to the thickness you want. While it takes a bit of practice, it's not too difficult and yes, it is another lovely thing that one can do while sitting down. I really do need to stop acquiring more hobbies. Really! I can sort of blame this on Rita though, which I will happily do. I don't think she minds, though.

I did even get to meet Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot who is a knitter, author and all around nifty person. She probably thinks I'm a crazy stalker lady as I handed her a thank you card as I never would have discovered hand knit socks without reading her works. I also met Tina Newton, founder of Blue Moon Fiber arts and apparently Stephanie's partner in crime. Fun! On a side note, I seem to be magnetically drawn to Tina's yarn as when looking through my stash, it seems like a quarter of it is hers. Mine. Mine now at least but created by her and her marvelous assistants but now in my posession as I have purchased more in the past few months than I can really justify when going over the finances. It's worth it.

I got to meet some of the other wonderful folks at Blue Moon such as Debra and JoAnn. I met oodles and oodles of fantastic knitters and I was so pleased to meet a great number of male fiber artists. You know you're out there, we know you're out there but sometimes it's hard to find you because there are so many women crowded around. There's always more room for fiber fans. Really! Whether it's knitting or quilting or crochet or cross stitch, the more, the merrier is always true. Especially if you let me raid your stash.

Life returns to normal, whatever that is

Commencement is done and the in-laws have returned to their respective homes. I did a bump on a log imitation for a week before I finally had enough energy to get up and move. It's really embarrassing to have 70 year old relatives exhaust you from running around. That's ok though, it was even more embarrassing in May when my 82 year old grandmother was leaving me in the dust.

One of the first things I did after the family left was to set my sewing machine up to continue with the thread embroidery. I had put it away and JR moved my sewing table out into the shed for the duration of the visit so that we'd have enough room in the living room for everyone to sit down. It was an odd experience to not have my machine right there. In fact, within 24 hours of it being put up, I felt like I was missing something very important.

Mind you, I don't even sew every day. I plain and simply can't do it. But there's a big difference between, "Maybe I'll feel up to it this afternoon." and "OMG! IT'S NOT THERE! AUUUUGH!" Yes indeedy, I was having my own personal version of the Charlie Brown scream.

The machine got put back in the little shrine of a sewing area I have in the living room. I threaded it and set it up to start back on the thread embroidery. Then I got out the house block and started looking for spots that I needed to touch up. At first I was torn, how was I going to visibly but non-permanently mark the spots I needed to work on? Then I had an epiphany.

Painter's tape

I love painter's tape for a variety of reasons and very few of them have to do with painting. I put it on the wall before I put up double stick tape to mount a bulletin board or coat hook so that if some day I wish to move things around, I can take off the adhesive without removing a chunk of wall with it. I wish I could claim I thought of this handy trick but the truth is I saw it on some home dec show years ago.

The cool thing about painter's tape is that the adhesive is very lightweight so that it doesn't leave a residue when you peel it off. That's why painters use it. It allows them to paint something and when they have to paint in another color up to the edge of the first color, they can protect the work they've already done.

The house block ended up with a bajillion little pieces of painter's tape all over the foliage section.
I had already gotten a bunch of areas fixed by the time I took this picture, but I thought folks would get a kick out of seeing it anyway. Here's a closeup:
Yes, that is a pin you see securing the tape. The tape wasn't going to stick for more than an hour or two without help. I'm sure you're now wondering "why not just use the pin to mark the spot?" I'll tell you why, dear readers. Because I stabbed myself waaaay too many times 'cause I couldn't see the stinking pins! Thus, the big blob of tape was my way to tell myself "Watch hands! Sharp pointy things are right here!" I still stab myself, but not as frequently.

After I finished touching up the foliage above the house, I started working on painting the foliage at the base of the house. Once that's done, then I'll work on the foliage framing the whole block, then paint the house itself. Then I have fish to paint and then! excitement! excitement! I get to start drafting the Mariner's Compass blocks that will fill the corners of the quilt. Once the Mariner's Compass blocks are done, I'll be putting all the blocks together with some borders and then finally! quilting the whole thing. I have no idea how long it'll take me, but I'm still learning and having fun with it. This will though, be my very last comission. Ever. If I agree to take a commission ever again, please have me hauled away to the funny farm. I believe my father's words when I told him I'd accepted the commission was, "God, you're nuts!" My husband's reaction was somewhat similar though less politely phrased. Ahem.

Idle hands are well, boring

As you might have guessed, I don't do well without having something to do with my hands at almost all times. I've found I tend to scratch a lot more, which is bad for anyone but especially bad if you have ichthyosis. Also I tend to get real twitchy. Thus, while the in-laws were here I did some more knitting and a little bit of tatting.

I didn't finish anything but I had fun playing with yarn. In fact, I was having so much fun that I recently volunteered to test a pattern for someone on Ravelry.
Sheila asked for volunteers on the Ravelry site so I sent her a message saying something along the lines of, "I could be a tester for newb factor. If I can follow it, anyone can since I'm very new to knitting. I've made a scarf, hat, and dishcloth." So she took me up on it. I'm excited 'cause I'll get a nifty pair of socks out of it.

The tatting is hanging out in its bag in the bedroom where the hubby is sleeping before his graveyard shift tonight, so pics of that today. Sandy, a buddy of mine from my online quilting group, sent me a bunch of old Workbasket magazines. Those things are great because they have tatting, crochet and knitting patterns in them. Sadly, Workbasket stopped being published in the very early 1990's. Fortunately, many people kept their copies. One of those people was Sandy's mom. Thank you, Sandy's mom! In return I am sending Sandy some tatted motifs for her efforts of digging around 'til she found the stuff and then shipping it off to me. Hopefully I will have pictures soon.

Until then, be safe and do stuff that makes you happy. Hopefully the two aren't mutually exclusive!

He did it!

My husband holding his diploma for a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. Need I say more? We are so happy!

Pictures!

We never did find the digital camera so last week we broke down and bought a new one. I figure that means any day now I'll stumble across the other one.

Here I am holding the house section. Supposedly taking a picture of the quilt being held by the maker is good for documentation purposes. Quilting + documention = good thing.



I took a few more photos closer up so you can see what I'm doing with it.
The upper right corner

Here is the lower right corner.


I was pretty unsure about whether or not the green all around each part of the trees looked ok so I took it with me to a counseling session. Considering I pay my counselor to be honest with me and I trust her sense of color I figured she'd be honest with me. She liked it. A lot. At least, I think so as her jaw dropped and she said nothing for a few seconds. She said the thread work gave it a bit of a stained glass appearance.

As long as the person receiving the quilt likes it, I'm happy. Plus I want them to be able to toss this sucker in the washing machine if they want to, though Linda said if it were hers, she's hang it on the wall in her living room. I think she was dropping hints, don't you? If I have any remaining sanity by the time I'm done I might make her a very small wall hanging. Emphasis should be on the words "small" and "very."

My additional latest insanity is knitting. As previously mentioned, I joined www.ravelry.com. That site is very addictive! After I had finished my afghan and the wrap that there is a picture of in a previous post, I kept on going with more projects.

I made a dog toy. Nope, no pictures of that 'cause it already has holes in it. That's ok, it's for the dogs so holes are perfectly acceptable.

Then I decided I wanted to make myself a sweater. It takes so much freakin' yarn to crochet a sweater and it takes 1/3 less yarn to knit one of the same dimensions, thus I thought learning to knit might be a good thing, So I'm teaching myself. I knit a scarf many years ago but I've pretty much had to relearn what little I'd known.

I made this hat first. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is fairly well known in the knitting world. Her books are a hilarious read for anyone who likes to make things. She's also a prolific blogger. She suggests that many people get sick of working on a scarf long before it's done and a hat is a good first project. It's not that big but big enough that by the time you've made on of proper dimensions for yourself, you have the hang of the knit and purl stitch and you're not yet sick unto death of the thing.

This hat was made with a knit 2 purl 2 stitch. I think it needs a flower added.

This is a washcloth/dishrag/whatever you want to call it. You can find the pattern here for free.
http://knitalittlemore.blogspot.com/2008/03/introducing-bubbles_11.html

I have noticed that knitters tend to be very generous about sharing their patterns. I admire this, I really do. I'm one of those people that has a horrible time trying to follow a pattern so once I'm confident about how to make something, I tend to just wing it and do my own thing. That means that if someone likes something I've done, they're welcome to copy it to make one for themselves but I really can't help them if they want a pattern from me. My cooking is a lot like that too, which might explain why my meatloaf is always a tad different.

I've been trying to add to my repertoire of things I can do when I'm hurting so I don't feel like I'm a useless lump. Between the tatting, crocheting, and knitting, I think I'm pretty well covered now. Today I will most likely be playing with yarn while waiting at the airport for my in-laws to arrive. JR is going through commencement this coming Saturday so we have relatives coming from Florida and Ohio. I'm thrilled, one that he's done with his bachelor's and two, 'cause I love my in-laws and don't get to see them often.

Enjoy your day and WEAR SUNBLOCK!