Not More Fabric

Over the last month since my knees surgery (knee surgeries?) I've been sitting a lot in the recliner icing. It's too awkward to do handwork.  Instead of doing something relatively productive like watch tv or read books, I've been searching out cool fabric on the internet. danger danger danger. Didn't I say something about how I wasn't going to buy any fabric this year? ha hahahahahahahha. Yeah well, that didn't go so well. At all.

Now, I did give myself some outs. I did say I could buy Letters, Aliens, Robots, and Rollercoasters. And while you're putting the order in, you might as well get other fabric too... Rather than post all my acquisitions at once, I'm going to parcel them out in an attempt to not look like I've gone as crazy as I actually have.

I bought two colorways of the fabric that says Hello in multiple languages - I just wish they hadn't transliterated everything into our alphabet. Still cool though. and I love the reddish fabric in the middle that has passport stamps and place names: London, Egypt, Paris etc. couldn't resist that, now could I.

 Some fun brights

Fun stuff. The third fabric over says Blast Off in big letters and then has a rocket with the countdown.

I have bugs on the brain (I blame the humbugs) and when I discovered that the completely awesome black and white diagonal bug marching fabric had other colors I got sucked in. Especially since the Fat Quarter Shop had the line at half price (emphasis on HAD). Can't expect me to resist that! I finally managed to get some help with the photo sessions, although Pokey was more interested in the lens cap than modeling:

okay okay 

I love my camera, I really do. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. I did a lot of research before I bought it and it had the best low-light capabilities for my purposes. I want to be able to take lots of photos of quilts in natural light AND the kitty cats and it's fabulous for both. The only drawback is the stinking lens cap. It stays on a string so that you don't lose it when you take it off, which is good, but itcan definitely get in the way. Sometimes I do use it to get Pokey's attention.

I take a lot of photos of the cats just to get a few to turn out. For this particular session I must have taken 50 photos with only 5 turning out. (yes, there are only four photos here, I saved one for another day.) I have a particular way of inhaling my breath that I use to signal kitty treat time. I can do that to to get Pokey to look at me, but it only works 2 or 3 times a session.

I got down on the floor with Pokey to take these, but luckily the staircase was nearby so I was able to scooch over and put my legs several steps down in order to get up.

I whine, but the knee is doing better. I'm such an idiot. I've been saying at physical therapy that my left knee is hurting worse than it was a couple of weeks ago. Never did it cross my mind that I was taking a lot of pain meds then which for the most part I'm not doing anymore. Well, no wonder.

I've been having problems with insomnia, so of course I took a nap this afternoon and now don't feel sleepy at 11pm. sigh.

I love the new show on NBC called America's Next Great Restaurant. It really should be on Bravo or the Food Channel but I'm not going to complain. Although yes, I do still hate the major broadcast networks showing reality rather than scripted tv. Anyway, they've got hopeful restaurateurs hoping to convince folks to invest in their particular idea for fast casual dining.  So it's Top Chef combined with Shark Tank (US version)/Dragon's Den (UK version) all of which I love.

Only one episode has aired, but right now I'm rooting for the healthy Indian food option. Don't even have an unhealthy Indian food place to eat here - just a really bad one.

The guy who started the Chipotle chain is one of the judges/investors. I LOVE Chipotle. When I lived in MD for a couple of months there was one a block away from my apartment and I used to go all the time. really good fast Mexican food and I love their whole ethos. So much better than the mexican food I can get at restaurants here. Just discovered recently that we had one open near us here - woohoo!

Later, alligators.

twelve by twelve

I have a beautiful book to share with you. Twelve By Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge.

The book is about the 12 x 12 group and their challenges to make 12" square quilts. Rather than go into the details, I'll just send you to their blog to read more. As far as the book goes, it's published by Lark and they always do such a gorgeous job with their books. It's my favorite kind of quilt book = wordy. That is, there are stories to about how the challenge topics were chosen, how the quilters picked what to work on, their techniques for putting the quilts together. Plus, I LOVE pictures of quilters' studios and collections and the book even includes that, as well as biographical details. So much information packed in here.

Holy Cow, the Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge is actually 50% off at Amazon right now. I highly recommend the book anyway, but at this price? Go, go, go. 

My longtime blogging friend Kristin LaFlamme is a member of the 12 x 12 group. Kristin and I actually got to meet in Houston - woohoo! I was also lucky enough to meet her darling (but tired after the long flight from Hawaii and now we're at a quilt show) kids and her generous husband, who is known in Internetlandia as IBOL guy. IBOL = Iraqi Bundles of Love, in which quilters (knitters and anyone else who wants to help) send sewing products and fabric to share with Iraqis, to try and show some love and generosity. Read the IBOL blog to find out more.

So, this is me (on the left in my new Just Bobbin Along necklace that I bought at the show but you can buy here) and Kristin:

I have been working my way through the 12 x 12 book, savoring it slowly, but not doing much fiction reading. I go through booms and busts. Partly because once I get really hooked into a novel I can't put it down and I stay up until 3am reading it (just like I did all throughout my school years - not very bright).

TV has been really pathetic lately. When my sweetie was home we finally got to watch the rest of Burn Notice season 4. I hope he's not reading this, but I thought it was really disappointing. The whole Jesse thing just took too much time away from the main characters whom I all love. Not to mention that I am so tired of the whole Burn Notice thing. Let it go already.

Also finished The Closer's most recent season. (Can I just say how annoying it is for some of these summer programs to take a break in the middle of their already short season? gah). That show just doesn't intrigue me or make me laugh the way it used to. Always have too many kinda preachy episodes. But it did have one of my favorite episodes ever, The Layover, with Flynn and Provenza. I love those guys.

Hee hee hee. I was looking for a Closer clip to show you and came across this Sesame Street takeoff. It's short and a hoot:



Have ya'all seen Downton Abbey? Fantastic show. I had to order the dvd before the show even finished airing on Masterpiece Theater. Here is a quote from Jace Lacob's Daily Beast article on the show

Downton Abbey offers a lavish take on the period drama, depicting the lives of the wealthy Crawley family and their servants at an English stately home just prior to World War I. When the sinking of the Titanic takes the lives of the next two heirs to a vast estate, the Crawley family is left with a dilemma as the next in line to inherit is a distant cousin, a middle-class solicitor whom none of them know.

Whee, so looking forward to the sequel, filming soon in the U.K.  Man, it's gonna take forever to get here!

Okay, so not only do I have a thing for shows made from Jane Austen's books, but also for shows set in this later time. The writer of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellows, also did Gosford Park which I love and is set in the same time period. Edwardian, right? Speaking of which...

Has anyone else ever seen the U.K. series Flambards? It's about a teenage girl Christina who's been orphaned and sent off to live with her mean uncle and his two sons. The elder is very virile and horsey and the younger, William, is crippled and extremely intelligent (and of course despised by his father and brother). Oh, and the good looking stable boy. So there are horses, early motor cars and aeroplanes and it's just fabulous. And uh oh, World War I is looming...

The show aired on PBS when I was about 16 - the perfect age for the show. I sooo loved it. Taped it on the VCR and watched it over and over and over again. When it played ten years later, I watched it all over again, sucking a roommate right into it too. Just writing this makes me realize how much I loved this show and the books (starting with Flambards) it was based on. I had to go see if it was on DVD and it looks like there is an old crummy transfer available and a new dvd set is coming out next month. But has it been remastered?

So funny thinking about this show as an adult because there is all this romantic tension between Christina and her cousins. Kinda icky. Hmmm, maybe it was a step-uncle or something. It appears I don't remember the ENTIRE thing as well as I thought. I could certainly tell you all the plot points though and about the adventurous Dorothy in her motor car....

Okay, that's enough of a novel to write for today. Oh wait. If I forget to put kitty pics in a blog post (again) my husband will kill me (with his sadness). While he was home, he managed to get some rare shots of all four kitties in the same place. Of course there was sunshine:

ah sunshine

Can It Be Even More Bahful?

Yes, I am still alive, just a terrible blogger. The next time I am due for surgery (and boy does there always seem to be a next time) I need to schedule a block thingie so that all you wonderful people send me "presents". I can't even begin to tell you how fabulous it is to open envelopes and packages from all over the world and get these marvelous blocks. This is what Bah Humbug looked like as of February 27th:

There are a couple of items on the left hand side that aren't part of the future quilt, including the sweet postcard that Joe Tulips sent me. [By the way, J is currently working on a lettery geocaching quilt, it's wonderful and Holly G. in particular, you'd love it!]

My husband had a hard time believing it had actually come through the U.S. mail, despite seeing postage and a cancellation stamp on it.

I finally got so many blocks that they just won't fit on the design wall anymore. So this photo shows you a couple of the blocks that are in the previous photo (but didn't get nearly enough attention) plus the latest ones which arrived yesterday:

You can find out more about the blocks and their makers over at the UnRuly Quilting blog. Plus you can check out these two really fun UnRuly Letter quilts that Diane is working on here and here. Diane also sent me an extra block for me to use however I like in an UnRuly project:

I love the subway fabric. Diane works at City Quilter and this fabric is specially made for their store. Wheee, I've actually been on some of those routes. 

Along with the outrageous toothy Bah, the always joyful and fun Em sent me a great buggy glass dish. I love it, thank you!

Um, for those of you planning to do a Bah Humbug block, might I suggest that if you haven't already started it, that unless you are really excited about it, maybe you could um, not do one and wait instead for the next exciting project that we do. cuz holy cow, this quilt is going to be huge. I wish I had the skills of Victoria to make king-sized quilts with ease.

This blog post doesn't have the smoothest transitions, sorry. To refer back to the UnRuly Quilting blog, hey you can post any UnRuly project you're working on there. it doesn't just have to be the Bah Humbugs. I keep hoping Hedgehog will come and share some of her fabulous placenames at the UnRQ blog but meanwhile you can visit this wondeful project at this post.

Speaking of places you can show off UnRuly Letter projects: send an email with a photo of your project to Karen at kburns@martingale-pub.com to go into the Martingale photostream AND into the Word Play Quilts set. on Flickr.

I admit I haven't been commenting on blogs as much as I used to, for all sorts of reasons. But I managed to delete my entire blog subscription list (argh) and it's taken awhile to rebuild. There are some blogs which I would have sworn I'd resub'ed to that nope, still weren't turning up. Soo eek, if you haven't heard from me in awhile, feel free to poke me with a stick.  

I've gotten more fun prezzies in the mail, but I can't fit everything into this blog post, which is already rather unwieldy. But I definitely have to mention this. Wooohooo, Bonnie Hunter's new book Scraps and Shirttails II:

Wheee! I think my favorite quilt is Fair and Square:

I am so drawn to the strings and tiny squares. Lovely. If I were smart I'd cut out a bunch of those little squares so I'd finally have a leader ender project going.

I'm slowly getting better after the knees surgery. The second week after the surgery I was doing great and thought recovery would be such a breeze. Of course now I realize that had something to do with my husband waiting on me hand and foot and the lovely pain meds. Sigh. Now he's back to work (not to be seen in these parts for quite some time) and I'm having to take care of myself, the cats AND go to physical therapy. ow. It will someday be nice to walk without limping, which I realize I've been doing for years, compensating for the stupid evil tumor in my knee.

I've managed to do some sewing at last - woohoo! my husband got me a rolly chair, I put a mini rotary cutting mat on my table and set up on ironing station (tv tray covered with a towel and my beloved Rowenta Compact Iron.)

So I haven't gotten a LOT sewn, but at least some. I much prefer to stand while cutting, but you gotta do what you gotta do. But that's all secret...

I'm ever so grateful to have a laptop to work on while I recline with ice on my knees. I've been doing lots of sudoku as well, especially my newfound love Sum Sudoku aka Killer Sudoku. It involves math, which is hardly my strong point, but I've printed out cheat sheets to help. yes, pathetic as it is, I need to look up what combinations add up to 13 etc. I can do the easy puzzles and some of the moderate ones, but after that, whew, out of my depth.

So thanks again to everyone who has sent a block, card, present etc to me. It means a lot, even though I'm completely terrible about sending out thank you notes!!! I think this is enough of a novel, so signing off now. Later, gators.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you know how I feel about you all:

I had to show this quilt specifically for Kim, who sent me some cute red and white cupid fabric and seemed to think I'd never done a more traditional kind of love quilt. That one above is about as traditional as I get. (And if I were doing it now, boy, would there be more contrast - good to know I've learned a few things along the way).  Have to admit though, this is more my style than the monochrome:

It's awfully good to have my sweetie home for Valentine's. Not that we celebrate or do anything in particular. I don't even have these quilts up on the wall - I haven't gotten Christmas put away yet.

Meanwhile this is what is on my design wall:

Hee hee hee. Love it. The most recent batch of blocks added some more color to the mix, including  yellow and a whee hint of purple. Looking amazing, isn't it?

Bah to Surgery!

I present Bah Humbug! so far:

I know I said I wasn't going to show the blocks for the Bah Humbug! group quilt here in this blog, but realized I'd better so that anyone who still has blocks to do can get a feel for the colors and sizes. For instance, some red background would be awesome. And I just have to beg for some smaller blocks - that will help, guys! I know I've got more coming in the mail! wheeee! Thanks, everyone!

Carol E included an UnRuly letter for a future student letter quilt (yay, now I have three) and a couple of fun crumb blocks. And wheee, she finished a wonderful free-pieced name quilt she started many years ago.

Clare sent me a block too, but I forgot to take a photo, so I'll send you over for a visit.

So my husband arrived safely home last week and managed to have one good night of sleep before my surgery the next afternoon. The surgeon vacuumed out the evil in my left knee and took care of arthritis stuff in both of them. Turns out I don't have PVNS in my right knee too. woohoo for that.

If you ever decide to have surgery on BOTH knees at once, even if it's arthroscopic, make sure you have a big strong guy to help out at home or demand a hospital stay that first night. aiyee, there is a reason you're not supposed to do them both at once. Husband has been marvelous and taken great care of me.

I've been using this Game Ready system the doctor recommended. It does ice and compression for 30 mins at a time and is great. I was tethered to it constantly for the first three days (ugh, hated that) even at night but now I'm down to a minimum of 5 times a day. I do it a bit more cuz I don't want to waste all that ice and it feels pretty good. Anyway, this is what it looks like from my point of view:

Thank goodness for laptop. Ya'all take care.