Wednesday, March 18, 2009

More Pokey, More Names

My cats Pokey and Lily often wait for me to sit in the recliner and lean backwards - that way they have a launchpad to the upper shelves of the bookcase.  [On a complete sidenote, Blogger is irritating the heck out of me - I want this underlining to go away!!!]

I wouldn't have thought Pokey would have enough room there to sit on the stack of fabric, but apparently she does. As you can see, my organizational skills are lacking. However, I have got a set of drawers that I'm very carefully putting donated blocks into so that I can keep them straight.

Speaking of which, Brenda sent me a few more orphan blocks. Look at those itty bitty letters; I'm going to have to be careful not to lose those. By the way, Brenda is having solo show of her wordy quilts (woohoo!!!!) and will be holding an open house on 28 March. I just wished I lived a lot closer to Winnipeg so that I could go. If you're able, please go and say hi for me.

Chris B in North Carolina made this wonderful name block for me - feels very beachy. I know Chris is working on a great family quilt using the free-pieced letters. Woohoo.

Nancy made her name for me and she put a lot of thought into the fabrics she chose. It's marvelous. And wheee, some more orphan words. Nancy came up with her own way of making M's - can you see the seam down through the middle?

Sharon found her own way to make an S and an a. I love seeing how ya'all come up with your own fonts. I love the fabrics she chose - very fitting for someone whose blog is titled Indigo Threads. I think most of these letters and definitely the jars are from Sharon's really fun ongoing Witch's Pantry quilt. 

Let's see, how about some other places to go visit. 

Have you seen Lynda's incredibly fun free-pieced dogs

How about Bebe's wonderful name/word quilt for her daughter? I'm loving that - check out the March 16th post.

Susan used Guatemalan fabric  in her free-pieced lettered Ohio banner, made for an NQA challenge. Check out her blog MY2K for more Guatemalan fabric and Mayan history. I'd love to see her free-piece some of those Mayan heiroglyphs - that could be a hoot.

I thought I'd provided a link to show you new blogger Quilt Messing Around Valerie's really fun alphabet sampler that she's working on, but couldn't find it in my blog. So better late than never, check out this fun free-pieced sampler in progress.

I have to undergo more testing on my thyroid. Or lack thereof. For those who are newer to my blog, I had my thyroid removed a bit over two years ago and there was a bit of cancer in there. So now the doc has to check and make sure that the thyroid hasn't grown back and that nothing spread way back when. I'm on a low iodine diet and it sucks. I have a list of things I can't eat or drink and that includes dairy. So no milk for tea or cream for coffee. I've been cranky and finally bought loads of Diet Doctor Pepper. I'm trying to limit the amount of artificial sweetener I eat, but forget it - I can't handle all this dietary restriction stuff all at once. 

Okay the rest of the post will be about tv. 

Wow, Dollhouse has really improved. That's the show where "dolls" have their memories blanked out so that they can be overwritten with different, skilled personalities and are then rented out to rich people. Or in the most recent episode, the government. My favorite parts of the episode were the Topher "man reaction" bits. I know lots of people hate that character, but I really enjoy him. Sure he's amoral and kind of a creep, but still entertaining.

Dollhouse took a while to find its rhythm, but now I'm really enjoying it. I wonder how much of that has to do with the network meddling with Joss' show and reworking and rearranging the episodes. I'll blame them. Anyway, I've read rumors that the 6th episode is where it all comes together, that's this friday. So if you haven't already, give the show a try. Catch up on a couple (or all) of the older ones and have fun.

I'm looking forward to Better Off Ted which premiers tonight. To quote ABC, the show is a "satirical office comedy featuring a morally conscious man, Ted, who runs an R&D department at a morally questionable corporation." The executive producer created Andy Richter Controls the Universe - one of my favorite "brilliant but cancelled" shows, thankfully coming out on DVD soon. Anyway, one of my favorite actors from ARCU is in this new one too. And Portia de Rossi (fabulous in Arrested Development)... Just the bits I've seen look fun, so my fingers are crossed for this one.

The second episode of Castle was better than the first. There were  few moments when it really came together (Castle talking about the creepy guy in 8B and interacting with his family), just wish they'd lose the cop he's supposed to be interested in. That's not even remotely working for me.

Meanwhile I'm taking another look at Lost. I'd quit after the first few episodes of season two, but I'm hearing good things about the current season, so decided to jump back in. Just finished season two and while some things do bug me, I'm eager to start the next season. I'm going to be highly irate though if all of this is never explained. And c'mon, what about that huge monster that was out there in the jungle in the first season. What the heck has happened to that? If you know, don't tell me - I'm trying to catch up.

Man, blogger hates me today - why are my letters all grey? It's a mystery....

21 comments:

Brenda said...

well, those little bits from me are parts of letters from my strip-piecing technique, but since they are also a "U" and an "L" I thought I'd throw them in with the rest. I've been making wonky letters from those fun scrap strips you sent me. I'll post them soon -- you can see a bit of them in the picture on my blog today.

Beth said...

Sorry about the dairy restrictions, I was without dairy for awhile and I know it isn't fun. I was allowed to eat yogurt and yogurt-based products because they have different cultures. Any chance?

I think Dollhouse has turned a corner for me. This was the first episode that I really liked Topher, and I like Boyd more and more every episode. I have the Tivo all ready for Ted...so excited (Andy was one of my favorites as well, stupid Fox Network!!). I haven't watched this week's Castle yet. I was hoping they would improve on the possible romance. Doesn't sound like it.

Lost is really starting to pay off. Loving every episode!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Tonya. I've been reading your blog for a while now and really enjoy it. It's too bad about your thyroid, and I wish you luck. I am allergic to dairy, and so I understand your frustration with a dairy-free diet.

Beena said...

Blogger doesn't hate you today, sweetie! Everybody has some lame cyber related problems at one time or another. Besides, I think it just gives a post even more character!

I wish I was Pokey, and could just curl up on a stack of fabric in a cubby hole like that. Pokey looks quite content!

Sorry about your dietary restrictions. If you can't use cream in your coffee, can you still use any of the non-dairy creamers?. Some of them are pretty good. Just don't get too hooked on any one flavor, because that's when they usually discontinue it. I was in love with Nestle's Coconut Creme non dairy creamer. Next thing I knew, it was gone. I did find a white chocolate coconut creamer recently. It's okay.

I feel the same way about ABC tv shows as I do non dairy creamer flavors.That if I get hooked, they'll discontinue it. I love LOST, Gray's Anantomy. But the newer shows always seem to get the boot. I did watch Castle, though. Agree with your comments.But I'm afraid this show will suffer the fate of October Road, and others that were on ABC.

Keep sewing, keep blogging...and don't give up on LOST!

Fiber Babble said...

I've still got one of your old posts "saved" to remind me to send you some letters and maybe a name - I'm really surprised how long it takes me to do each letter and I think that's why I only do them in spurts. I guess I should have found that out before deciding to do such a word-heavy project for my House, Home, Pantry quilt!

As for blogger, your first paragraph actually does have underlining (and a different sized font) in the html coding. You might looking at it in the "edit html" tab instead of "compose" tab in blogger and taking out the span gobbledy-gook surrounding that paragraph.

Thanks for flinging the wet noodle at me about Dollhouse - I completely spaced last week's episode, so your comment about #6 coming this week had me scrambling over to hulu! Since I don't get ABC, I'm counting on you :-D to let me know if I should be looking at any new shows over at hulu or abc.com!

khhast said...

Hi Tonya, just wanted to pop over and say how fabulously inspired I was by your alphabet piecing. I've recently started doing some myself, getting started early on some possible Christmas presents, and have been having loads of fun. I've posted a couple of pics on my blog if you're interested.

Good luck with the diet restrictions. I'm dairy-free atm too cos it gives my breastfed baby reflux. Are you allowed lactose-free milk? I drink that quite a bit (it's just the lactose I'm avoiding rather than anything dairy-related) and it's quite good, not sure if it's available anywhere, the stuff I get is made in Australia (the lactose is replaced) and I'm in New Zealand.

I do enjoy seeing all the different styles of letters people have been sending you.

antique quilter said...

Its been fun seeing all the new names , letters, blocks people have been sending you.
Hope this diet thing is over soon for you..
good luck with the tests...
kathie

Twisted Quilts said...

Making the letters is a lot of fun and you can do so much with them. I didn't realize I was doing the M different!

Susan said...

When I was blogless and read about nasty Blogger problems, I just couldn't imagine. Now I do! Errrr! What causes that mysterious underlining anyway?
Think of it this way: by leaving it in today you have created a "wonky" post. Wonky posting for wonky lettering. Wonky posting for wonky houses. It works.

Browndirtcottage said...

OOOUUUU...NOT FAIR!! All these lovely letters makes me want to stop working on my current project and make some!!!

jacquie said...

so many talented people! i so appreciate you sharing all these links to check out! take care of you!!

Anonymous said...

Try to hang in there with the diet stuff. When I had thyroid cancer 26 years ago they didn't have this test and you had to stop all synthyroid for 6 weeks- even when you didn't have a thyroid left . You basically ran down like a top and then had a scan 6 weeks later. I will certainly keep you in my thoughts and prayers and I know what this time is like. ;-)

MelissaS said...

I'm with you on DollHouse, but I'm waiting to see tonight's ep.

And in regards to Lost, I didn't watch season 2 at all. I stopped after ep 2. But I've been back obsessed since season 3. It's been rocking since then. So do watch!

And take a look at www.thelostdiary.com it's a fun read every week.

Mary said...

Pokey looks like she was MEANT to sit atop stacks of beautiful fabrics! LOL

Anonymous said...

I love your blog and I also love Dollhouse too!

Darlene

www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Sherry said...

Hi Just surfing the webs and found your GREAT work I have to go to work now but I hope I will be bale to read more when I get home.

Journeying said...

The cats are fabulous!
And all the letters and words are becoming quite inspiring and are pushing me to try them. I love words so and this is a way to incoporate them into quilts.

Lynn said...

Every week I sit and stitch bindings while I watch lost and the only thing that's happened (other than finishing 2 projects - yeah) is I get more confused. So the next day I have to go on the internet and read about what I just watched. So beware - it's addictive.

Carissa Holly said...

Hello fellow Floridian,
I have been viewing your blog for some time and I am now writing a thesis on quilting. I was wondering if I could interview you about quilting? If you are interested you could email me at carissa_holly@yahoo.com

Thank you!!
-Carissa Holly

Unknown said...

Hoping your medical testing goes OK and the news is all good.

Kristin Shields said...

Hope all goes well with your test Ton. I have had several of the thyrogen scans which don't require the altered diet. The worst thing for me with the scans was the claustrophobia of having the scan plate just inches from my face. Once I made sure to get a valium beforehand I was fine. 18 years on now I just get blood tests to be sure all is well.