A Sampler for Sunday and update on Big Boy

Well this weekend certainly has flown by. First, I want to thank all of you for your sweet comments about my new Big Boy. He is settling in nicely and has freshened up too. The shelter smell seems to have dissipated.



He's spent most of the day laying in the sun in the family room and he actually broke into a trot when he heard me opening a packet of wet food. I'm pretty sure that burst is the most activity he gets in a day - LOL! He is very sweet and I think we are going to get along fine since I share his love of naps in the sun.

Here is my Sunday Sampler offering -



Now I have absolutely no idea who was the designer of this piece so there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of me figuring out what it was called. I know I selected it for the great combination of sampler and quilting motifs and the inclusion of a house. I vaguely remember that I added the house and that there was some other quilt block in its place, but I may just be imagining it. The mind isn't what it use to be!

This week is shaping up to be busy - lots of places I need to go and things I need to do. Hopefully I can squeeze in some stitching. I've gotten a decent amount done on the BBD Anniversaries of the Heat. I'll show a pic later in the week. I'm trying to get the whole graph done (without the personalization) before I show it off.

Hope your week has plenty of stitching time in it!

carol fun

The saga of Biggums aka Big Boy

This is Biggums, aka Big Boy. As his name suggests he is a VERY BIG cat, and very lucky too. About 6 weeks ago when I went out to water my garden one evening he came out from under the deck and started rubbing up against my legs. So sweet and obviously social. Then I noticed he had a quarter sized chunk missing out of his side. I think he must have gotten into a altercation with a raccoon or some other wildlife that lives in the woods behind our house. No collar, so no id.

Since it appears that he hasn't wandered too far from a food bowl in his life I assumed he belonged to someone in my neighborhood or the one that backs up to mine. My husband persuaded me to take him to our local SPCA shelter around the corner from our house so if someone went looking for him, they'd find him. So reluctantly I took him over and told them that if no one called for him, I wanted him. I put up flyers in my neighborhood and put flyers in a bunch of mailboxes in my neighborhood and the one that is behind ours. No one every called.



Well they shipped him down to the main SPCA facility about 20 miles away and sewed him up. I called several times a week for the last 6 weeks inquiring about his condition and whether anyone else had called (they hadn't) and when I could come and take him home. Every time I called I got a different story - the cat was on meds, the cathad a respiratory infection, the cat needed to be spayed, huh? I thought it was a male but I didn't know for sure.

Finally 2 days ago my son called and got them to commit to a day I could come and get the cat- Friday. On Friday, cat carrier in hand I went to the shelter near my house to claim "my cat" and they brought out a tiny tiny little cat. HUH??? this is not the cat I brought in. The cat I brought in goes 12, 15 pounds easily. Well the cat they showed me did have the same number on his collar but he was not the cat I was looking for.

They explained that sometimes the collars, which are like hospital bracelets come off and the animals get mixed up. I can see how that would happen but I don't see how you could mistake Biggums for a 5 lbs kitty. I came home on Friday heartbroken that they didn't have "my cat". The SPCA had a free cat adoption promotion a couple of weeks ago and they thought maybe he had mistakenly been adopted. While I hoped that was true and that he hadn't been euthanized, I was skeptical.

My son insisted that this morning we go down to the main SPCA shelter and see what we could find out. They were very nice and told us to go back and look at all the cats they had. We looked through 2 rooms of cats and while there were several gray and white ones they weren't the one I was looking for. Then the lady working there starts calling "Here Biggums" and from behind a big stack of crates he comes sauntering out. OMG!!! I was blown away. He had been there for the last 6 weeks! And while the cat at the shelter by my house wore the number 311 so did Biggums. Someone messed up. Luckily I had the paperwork they gave me that said I brought in a male 10 lbs (in his dreams) cat and now the computer says the cat was female and weighs 5 lbs.




The lady at the main shelter has been letting him have the run of the cat area since he's been there because she thought he was too big to stay in a cat crate. She's been calling him Biggums and I think it is very appropriate. She gave him lots of love and attention and said what a good cat he is and she seemed happy that he would go to a good home. Others at the main shelter commented that he has to have a great constitution to be able to live there for 6 weeks without getting sick and he certainly didn't drop any weight while he was there.

So he's going to live with us now and there will be a steady supply of food and kitty treats and love and attention. He's been surveying his new surrounding and checking out all the new smells. My last cat passed away over a year ago. He was also a "found" cat and like Biggums I believe I was meant to find him.

My son reminded me that persistence pays off and he is certainly right in this case. If I hadn't kept calling and if he hadn't insisted we go check out the main shelter I wouldn't have Biggums. Here is a picture of him in what I assume is his favorite habitat, next to a bowl of cat crunchies ( shhh...he doesn't know it is the weight control formula).



Is it wrong to Febreeze your pet? Biggums has the lingering aroma of animal shelter about him. I wiped his down with some damp soapy paper towels and gave him a spritz of Febreeze Pet Odor Eliminator. Hopefully that and an airing out on the screen porch will help.

A Summer Finish and Charming Chatter goals

Today the weather was lovely so I thought I'd take my Cherry Salsa quilt out and get a couple of pictures.



This baby is BIG!!! It finished almost 100 inches square. There are 121 9-patches and I used over 50 different red fabrics. I bound it with the same fabric I used in the red setting squares and the back is the same fabric as the yellow setting squares.



Here is a close up of the lovely overall cherry quilting - the perfect complement to the quilt if I say so myself - and I do!

I also took some time today to look back over my Charming Chatter goals for July and August. Looks like I finished about 5 of 10. 50% - not exactly passing. Oh well!! I think I'll scale back my goals for the next two months, particularly since I know when my younger son goes back to school things will get busier for me. And even though I didn't get everything accomplished, I'm ok with what did get done. In the last year I've dealt with many health issues in my family that have made me think about what I really want out of life. I realize that I don't want to be remembered for having a clean house but I want to be remembered for the fun times we had together as a family and I want to leave behind some tangible items that show my love for my boys -- like my quilts! Both of my sons appreciate the quilts I've made them and that makes me very happy. My sainted grandma shared this little gem with me - No one on their death bed said "I wish I'd spent more time at the office" or "I wished I'd cleaned more toilets". I'm going to focus on the stuff that makes me happy! I hope you do too!

Happy stitching -
carol fun

A lost week.......

So what happened to last week? Was I busy finding a solution to world peace? Nope. Did I come up with a new jobs program? Well, no unless you consider the never ending stream of dirty laundry at my house as a "job". Anyone want this job? I didn't think so. But I did do my part to stimulate the economy. There were these cute charm squares of two new lines of Moda - I love Moda fabric!



And this great new book, Country Inn from Blackbird Designs. I like the quilt patterns and there is an adorable cross stitch sampler called The Little Red Hen.



Other than turning dirty laundry into clean laundry so my family can return it to the dirty state, all I have to show for my week is the stitching I've done on my BBD "Home is where my Heart Blooms".



I love how this is coming together. A couple more evenings in front of the TV and it will be done. Now I was going to refrain from starting a new project but I'm weak and I caved and started on the BBD's Anniversaries of the Heart. Oh are these are so pretty! I'm stitching all of them on one piece of 28ct dove gray evenweave. I think it will complement the thread colors nicely.



You can see from the picture that this is going to be a BIG piece. I always start in the upper right hand corner since I don't use a hoop. I end up holding most of the linen in my left hand and this way I don't scrunch up my finished work too much. I'm holding off with the personalization till I see them all. I know I want to include my boys birthdays and I'd like to have my mom and grandma's birth date on this piece too.

As for a sampler offering this Sunday here is a Ewe & Eye & Friend piece.




I changed the saying in the cartouche to "Ohio the Heart of it All". This use to be a motto of the state and was on the license plates and for me Ohio is home and holds a special place in my heart. This piece included some specialty stitches that add a lot of texture.



So tomorrow starts another week which I hope will be more productive. Have a great Labor Day! I plan on doing as little labor as possible to celebrate. (NO laundry will be washed or dried tomorrow in my house!)

Happy stitching -

carol fun

Sunday stuff

I hope you had a nice relaxing weekend. I haven't been very energetic but that's okay. I'm just going with the flow and taking it easy. I spent a nice chunk of today with my butt in my chair stitching on my BBD Home is Where My Heart Blooms (oh I'm loving this sampler) and watching tv - mostly baseball. It was a good day for my Redlegs, they're now 5 games ahead of the Cardinals.

My offering this Sunday of the sampler variety is this oldie but goodie from Cross Eyed Cricket - A Walk in the Woods.




I remember working on this piece while sitting in the park watching my oldest son on the swings. Good memories. To satisfy my totally arbitrary requirement of "only samplers with houses" the snail has a house on its back and the nest is definitely a bird's home -- see I can justify anything - LOL! And I just realized that last week I said I'd never stitched a snail before - looks like I was wrong since this sampler is 20 years old. Oh well - my memory is not what it use to be!

Yesterday I did do a little shopping and came home with some cute retro looking fabrics. The selvedge says Johansen Newman for Elizabeth's Studio. What a great collection of kitschy items - my grandma had a teapot clock in her kitchen and I had some pinkish cat eye glasses in the 60's.





I love these ladies, they remind me of my mother. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but the are a nice addition to my humongous stash of novelty fabrics.

This pretty card arrived in my mailbox this week from my friend Lois in Nebraska.



I love everything about this one! That yellow embossed background the pretty braid trim and the hand made crocheted flower! I put this one on my display board so I can enjoy it every day -- thanks Lois!

Well that's all I got today. I was looking over my July/August goals for Charming Chattter and it is very evident that I didn't do a very good job of meeting them -- I'll have to give myself a bad job review - bad Carol, bad Carol -- there I feel properly chastised. Tomorrow is the last day of August and I think there is one of the unfinished goals I can achieve - No. 10 goal: start a new quilt! Now I didn't get my Crazy Mama Quilts QAL project done but starting a new quilt will take less time than finishing something else. And there is some gorgeous new Moda fabric - Wee Wonderland by Keiki- that is calling to me from the cutting table. I've already picked out the big Schnibble I want to do so I'm going to cut a little and see if I can sew up a block or two.

Happy stitching!
carol fun

this and that

Well I've seen some progress on several fronts this week. First, I got my Plan C Schnibble quilted. This is the Oz collection by Sanae.



Just the other day I discovered that Plan C is one of the selected patterns for this month in the Year of Schnibbles. I think I actually sewed this up back around the beginning of the year. This weekend I really really really wanted to start something new, there is so much fabric calling my name. But I resisted and instead I grabbed this cheerful little top, basted it and quilted it. It only took about 3 hours. Then I debated for another 3 hours about what to bind it with. I really wanted the dark olive but I didn't have enough and I was adamant I wasn't going to buy any new fabric for this. Eventually I cut the binding from the big all over print and I think I made the right choice. I like how it matches in some places and contrasts in other places. And it feels sooo good to have finished another quilt. I'm thinking this would look cute hanging in my kitchen or maybe as a topper on the table. I can't go wrong either way.

On the cross stitch front I have two pieces going. I've been switching back and forth on these. First is The Magic Garden by Shakespeare's Peddler.



Isn't the little snail cute? I know, on a cross stitch sampler he's cute in my garden not so much. I like stitching these individual motifs but since I have changed a lot of the flosses I've been spending lots of time trying out different shades. I think I need to make a trip to my LNS to peruse some new flosses.




And here is my progress on BBD Where My Heart Blooms.
I have the windows and the door "framed" so now all I have to do is "paint" the sides. Good stitching for watching tv. I really like this one --thanks again Myra!

Happy stitching!

carol fun

Trying to remember

Another Sunday, another sampler. Not too original but I'm too tired to be creative tonight. This sampler is from Brightneedle, that much I remember.




I looked online for the title but I didn't have any luck. I really should have labeled these pieces when I stitched them but some how I thought I would always remember the names. Which is a ridiculous idea, since most days I forget what I had for lunch!



This one is done in pastel shades that I don't normally use. It very soft and pretty. I loved the half-square triangle border and the block with the Sawtooth Star. A very nice combination of my love of quilts and cross stitch. I'm thinking that the current sampler I working on, Magic Garden by Shakespeare's Peddler would look nice on the same wall as this one.

About the buttons.... my friend Stephie picked these up at a flea market not long ago. The buttons themselves are pretty but not real unusual.......



but the back of the card surprised us. We've shown it to a couple of people and no one can remember ever seeing a card of buttons with this little ruler on the back.



I've been in love with buttons all my life and I have lots of happy memories from my childhood of looking at the buttons in the Fabric Dept. of JC Penneys in the Newport Shopping Center, but I guess I didn't pay much attention to the cards. I wonder what the purpose of the ruler was? Maybe to measure distance between the buttonholes? There is no copyright date on this although it does say it is copyrighted. Hmmmm.... something else I don't remember. Oh well ...

Happy stitching!
carol fun