Allergic to Fabric - Oh No

Continuing the photo theme of cats with fabric, here's Habibi. For whatever reason he never sleeps on fabric, which is just as well cuz the little ones do and they shed plenty. No, I didn't just go to the fabric store, this was a previous spree. Why are true and royal blue, aqua and turquoise so hard to find this season? Lots of orange and lime green and pink.

I have nasty allergies. Every year I have to change my antihistimine medication because it stops working for me. Well, I obviously didn't get it taken care of early enough and my allergies attacked me yesterday. I was minding my own business rotary cutting away, and I realized that I was feeling worse and worse and worse. I worried enough about it that I went over to the UrgentCare at 6:00pm on a Sunday. I got a doc who loves meds: now I'm on not just two for my allergies, but three (four if I can actually find Nasalcrom anywhere). Better living through chemistry. Hmmm, we'll see how this goes - gonna take awhile to know for sure. I have to be able to play with fabric, I just haveta, but I'm going to hold off for several days.

At least I can still quilt on Hot Crazy Love (I'm halfway up the left border). Maybe it's just cutting it that makes the fabric spores go up my nose, or maybe it's that I used cold water to wash the last couple batches of fabric instead of warm. I won't make that mistake again.

My sweetie is good (tho far away), my cats are good (little Pokey is still coming in to sleep with me and Lily at night) and I'm doing better.

Liberated Quiltmaking

Woohoo, great news. Looks like a paperback edition of Gwen Marston's classic Liberated Quiltmaking is once again available. American Amazon is carrying it, says it will ship 4-6 weeks after it's been ordered.

I highly recommend this book, as anyone who's been reading my blog for long knows. Here are a bunch of posts that refer to it. Hopefully I haven't praised it so highly that when you finally get it you go, this is all there is? (There have been a few movies that I've seen after reading glowing reviews and they just can't live up to the hype.) Check it out at the library first (Interlibrary Loan works wonders) if you don't want to splurge, but do check it out.

Triple Arcs

I took a road trip yesterday - my first highway drive in over a month. (Ah, it feels good to have energy and reflexes again.) I can highly recommend The JaM Patch quilt shop in Stuart, Florida to fellow lovers of brights. That was all I had eyes for, tho I know they did have other fabric in there too. Anyway, very fun, happening shop. I went a little wild - no surprise. Lily approves.

I spent hours today washing it all and ironing. Horrible job. I listened to French lessons while doing it and that just stresses me out. I'll never be able to learn that language.

Work is going well on Hot Crazy Love. All the middle bits are done and I'm on the border now. I love how the triple fans look. This was my first time doing this variant of fans and it turns out all the extra work is worth it.

I obviously did my usual stellar job of basting - I've been hitting all sorts of creases and folds in the backing down here in this area. I just keep quilting along - it all works out.

Anyone else watching "Top Design" on Bravo? I loved the first challenge (design a room for an unmet client, based on five of that person's wild, funky possessions) but the last two were rather dull. I don't care about kids' rooms or cabanas. I wish they'd focus more on the design process and less on the bitchiness of the contestants.

Book recommendation: Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. It's not my usual cup of tea, but it was sweet and entertaining. Shows how pathetic I am tho since I've never read a Jane Austen book, just watched the movies.

Hot Crazy Love Quilting

Blogger just forced me to change to the new (no longer Beta) format, so hopefully this will all go smoothly. Let me know if something is wrong. Guess I have to remember to go and check my gmail account now?

I'm doing much better these days. Have more energy and I think I've gotten past my bout with the blues. Several people have asked when I'm getting to Paris. Don't know. I still have to be approved by a medical board(s) and get a new Visa and a few other hurdles. It's going to be awhile. I'm thinking April, that way I'm not stressed. Cats and I are enjoying the sunshine and it gives my sweetie a chance to dig into work at a new office without any distractions.

I've been doing loads of quilting on Hot Crazy Love. I'm trying the Request version of Quilters Dream 100% cotton batting for the first time and enjoying it. Don't know if it was just this quilt or the batting, but the more I worked on these blocks the more I felt compelled to quilt them heavier. It just plain looks better.


I have almost all of the blocks done as well as the sashing and corner posts. I'm worried I won't have enough quilting in the borders, but I expect I could do double or triple fans (meaning I'd have either two or three fans about a quarter inch apart, and then a gap of about an inch and then another grouping of the quarter inchies - if that makes no sense check out Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham's Quilting With Style).

The adorable baby Pokey:

I've been doing very little computering, but loads of book reading. I love having a good library nearby. It has DVDs too, so I was able to check out Elizabeth I with Helen Mirren and the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (Larry David is a train wreck - hope it's exaggerated for the show).

Gotta run - ya'll take care.

Feeling Sleepy

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but I've really been dragging the last while. It's been easier to sit in the recliner and do Sudoku with a cat or two or three curled up on my lap rather than get up and do anything. Baby Pokey in particular has been needy and wanting to sleep on me.

To catch you up quickly: my endocrinologist says I'm doing well and he sees no need for the radioactive iodine treatment; my Dad started wheezing and sneezing and really reacting badly to the cats so he and my Mom have returned to winterly climes; Mom's eye problem turned out not to be a detached retina (which is good) just a problem with "floaters" - little bits of her eye that float around obscuring her vision and which nothing can be done about (not good) but will hopefully go away on their own; my husband has thrown himself into work and is doing well.

I know I'm regaining energy etc, but it's not a continual improvement -more of a roller coaster. Gonna take another few weeks to really be back to normal. Had some gorgeous sunshine and I was getting lots of hand quilting in, but the last few days have been overcast and rainy, which just depresses me.

Movie recommendation: "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" - a fun take on film noir. It plays with the detective genre (think Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe), but sticks to the genre "rules."

TV recommendation: TNT ran a "The Closer" marathon last night and I got way sucked in. It's a police drama set in fantasy CSI-land where the cops have infinite manpower and financial resources and solve every crime really quickly. Very enjoyable. Tried "Psyche" and totally hated it - very geared for young men, it seems to me.

So to wrap it up, I'm doing well though I'm a bit cranky. Don't worry if I'm out of touch, I've been taking multi-day breaks from the computer (horror of horrors, I know). See ya.