Throwback Thursday

It is the first Thursday in April so I thought I'd look back and see what I was doing in April...

say...2013 I was trying to organize my sewing room...

(took me two years to realize I needed more space!)

in 2012 I started working on my Charleston Basket Quilt (I am hand-quilting it right now!)

also was working on my Pensieve Quilt...

humm...do wish I knew where this top in the photo above is hiding?!

2011...

McBeth on an arrow quilt...

A young Dobby on a vintage Ocean Waves

In 2010 I helped document this gorgeous Indigo and muslin Orange Peel Quilt...

In 2009 I participated in a n early Victoria Findley challenge! (another top I need to find!)

And in 2008 an amazing trip to Poland and to Prague...beautiful city!

In 2007 that is me hiking in the U.K.!

and a set of blocks I made for the Quilts for Leukemia group...

view of our Village from Oxton Hill

Enough of a trip down memory lane!  April does seem to be a good month though!!!

RIP MacBeth

Some sad news.  MacBeth crossed the rainbow bridge this morning.  He had liver cancer and it had spread too far.  Thanks for all the encouraging comments the past few days.








Mac has been a great dog.  He loved people and other animals (yes, even cats!)  He was my companion as I navigated my way through living with MS.  I'm sure I wouldn't have regained so much mobility if it hadn't been for him encouraging (throwing his body against the bed!) me to walk him twice day...every day...at almost the exact same time.  That is a Scottie!

 Mac the quilt inspector

 The quilt tester...

 Covered in Spring pollen...

 The "sure it will only be another minute until we walk" look....

 The arm of the sofa gave him a great view out the front window...

Mac with Dobby...the inspector in training...

Mac off for a walk in Prestbury...

He loved to travel and meet new folks.  Nothing was better in his book than a walk across the fields to the pub for a visit with everyone in the village.  He loved living in England!

Macbeth update...

Looks like Macbeth will have to have surgery on Friday.  Which means a few more days of my being a wreck!

It is so hard to see him get so weak.  I had friend over to day to stitch and Mac just sort of wobbled in to great them then sacked out in his corner under the coffee table.

Not sure if I posted this pillow I got from Edinburgh a couple of months ago (made by Crafty Thinks in Scotland)...when you have a Scottie you find there are lots of Scottie "things" that you start collecting.  I have a small bathroom with all the Scottie stuff...my Dh refers to it as the dog shrine....TMI?  sorry...

I have gotten a bit of stitching done...nothing complicated.  I put a little wool chicken on some dotted linen...at first I planned to make a pillow

but now I think I'll make another chicken on the other end and make a table runner...I'll use the wool circles for some tongues on the ends.

stress stitching (or not)

If you've read my blog for any amount of time you know my Scottie dog, Macbeth.  Well, he hasn't been feeling well lately and today is at the vet's for an entire day of tests.

So of course I am stressed and having problems focusing.  I have several appraisals to do final edits on...not a good day for that.  I have a stack of applique blocks to work on...not a good day for that.  I have fabric piled on my table to cut for a new quilt...not a good day for that.  The list goes on.

I've gone out and taken photos of the garden...this is the first year my Hydrangea has bloomed.

And it looks like a bird thought about using my birdhouse but found it too small...

And I played with layouts for a Quilt of Valor using blocks donated by members of my quilt guild.

Until the doctor calls with news on Mac I guess I'll just continue to "putter..."

Tumblers...

Today I brought both Brownie and Macbeth to the Vet.  Surprisingly they are more comfortable when the other is with them (otherwise Macbeth has to borrow one of the office cats to keep him company...)  The bad news it isn't like I planned it this way.

We are waiting on test results to come back on Brownie but though she hasn't been eating she has only lost a couple ounces.  She is back on picky cat food...(for that read expensive....)  She is so tiny even a few ounces makes a difference (6 pounds 2 ounces...)

Mac was put on antibiotics for a bladder infection.  We are also waiting on some more test results as he seems to be in a lot of pain and is really lethargic.

So I'm letting them both in the sewing room today.  Brownie has new basket near the window and Mac is sleeping on a quilt under the desk...that trip the vet has worn us all out.  (Except Dobby who just brought me a big live cricket...just what I needed!)

Feeling a bit too worn out to sew so instead I'm mindlessly cutting some Halloween fabric into tumblers.  I just got this tumbler template and the Halloween bin wouldn't close so....think if I take a row off of each fabric then they should fit.  Of course that means I'll have a shoe box full of Halloween tumblers to use as leaders and enders...bonus!!  Also I've made quite a little pile of 1-inch strips/strings to send Tonya for her stalled project...added bonus!

I sort of like how is coming along.  Think I need to add some more brights...as I looked at this I wonder - how did I end up with so many spider fabrics?

Southern food wonderings

One of the things I love about springtime in the south are the roadside farm stands!

We have had local strawberries for almost a month but the ones out now are really sweet...ate a dozen on the ride home yesterday!  The asparagus is also local and as close to the 'gras I had from the village farm in the Cotswolds as I've found here in the U.S.

Also out now is rhubarb.  I tried grilled rhubarb last night for the first time.  Sounds crazy but it was wonderful! (I heard about it on NPR as I was driving into the farm-stand ..kismet!)  I just wiped the rhubarb with a bit of olive oil, sprinkled with a bit of sugar and put it on the grill with the  plank salmon.   Served it with a spinach salad with strawberries, spiced pecans and feta.

But this blog is supposed to be about quilts not food!  Last night I sewed the binding on my front side of my Material Obsessions quilt.  Today I have already hand sewn one side down to the back.  Only three more sides to go!

Question...when you make a quilt from a book or a pattern do you use the name of the quilt from the book or pattern or do you give it its own name?  Not sure which I will do with the quilt.  It isn't as if a name jumped out at me while I was making it....have to figure it out before I can make a label!

And here is a photo of a new addition to the livingroom couch...a min-Macbeth!  This pillow is made in Edinburgh by Crafty Things using Harris wool.  So far the cats have left it alone (though I did catch Dobby eyeing it suspiciously yesterday!)

Pillowcases and poor Mac

Had a bit of a scare this morning.  Macbeth is having problems with his back legs and couldn't get up.  We have a really great vet and he told me to come in right away...the office is only about a mile from the house.  Of course when we got there Macbeth insisted on walking (all be it with a limp and a wimper.)  Dr. G thinks it isn't too serious (old dog syndrome) and has given Mac some anti-inflammatory pills.  Maybe Mac is too old to be tunneling under the fence after all....

Yesterday I did a bit more baking...

And between batches made a couple of pillowcases for the children in Connecticut impacted by the school shooting.

You may have seen the request for pillowcases on some of the blogs.  They are being collected by Quilter's Corner in New Milford, CT.  There is a U-tube video on how to make a pillowcase using the "tube" method.  I had to watch it twice...first I thought, "no problem."

Then I cut out the fabrics and went to sew...had to watch it a second time.  Once you do it once though it really is "no problem!"  It takes longer to pick out the fabrics than it does to actually cut and sew the pillowcase together...

I have four to put in the mail today...a seaside, a dog-show, dolphins, and space travel....I hope the kids enjoy them.  Sewing helps me feel as if I'm doing something to help.  Also helps me stay away from the new (yes, as a former journalist I am a news junkie!)