Something's In the Air

Not sure what it is, but it made last week weird.

 Pixel and Artie were helping me with costume things, which is totally in character.

There was a pattern sale at Joann's so I got to stock up on patterns for burlesque clothes.

And then all the weirdness hit for Valentine's Day.

On our way to dinner we witnessed a hit and run, so we got to deal with police. Thankfully no one in the car that was hit was injured. No clue about the other driver who sped off.

After dinner we got home to a very weepy-eyed kitty. One trip to the emergency vet later and we find there's a shallow, wide injury to Pixel's left eye. No clue how it got there are she was perfectly fine when we left the house that morning.

She's not a fan of the eye drops, but she tolerates them better that the pain relief ointment.... which we stopped using because all it seemed to be doing was making her foam at the mouth from the foul taste getting there via tear ducts.

Continued weirdness is her left pupil remains dilated even though it's been a few days since we last gave her the pain ointment. She's got a follow up with our regular vet on Thursday, but I'm going to call and ask them about the pupil tomorrow.

I need to get back to work. I've got lots of sewing and laundry to catch up on. See you next weekend!

We Survived!

The polar vortex has come and gone. FuzzyHusband, myself, and the critters hunkered down under bunches of blankets and didn't emerge from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning.

We probably should have informed Artan that pattern pieces are not blankies, but it's doubtful he'd have listened anyway. We also learned how many layers of garment leather my sewing machine will go through.

Thursday night I ended up with a fantastic chance to see a rescheduled concert featuring one of my favorite bands ever! I loved how the colored lights matched the colors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's colors. Disturbed is very vocal in their support of people with both addiction problems and mental illnesses. It was gratifying to have a bunch of rock stars validating so many people who struggle every day.

Last night Whiskey City Burlesque hosted a fundraiser in the form of a Cards Against Humanity tournament. This quarter we chose our local crisis nursery as the beneficiary for our charity. We raised a lot of money and had a packed house. Many people brought physical donations as well. This was the most successful fundraiser yet! 

There were short performances in between rounds of the game. I managed to get a few pictures, but I was running around helping wherever I was needed.

I need to get back to sewing and trying to get some cleaning done before rehearsal tonight. We're gearing up for our next actual performance in April. See you next weekend!

All Kinds of News

First: it's NOT a hernia! I just have to keep taking it easy for a couple more weeks and the pain should fade. Pixel was so excited she had to pop out of the dehydrator's box.

Second: FuzzyHusband successfully made it to the originally planned snowshoe hiking/camping area with his friends and they're off the grid. You couldn't pay me enough to be on the shore of Lake Superior right now. No sir and/or ma'am! I hope they're having fun though. Two critters in particular are missing him though.

Third: We got a wee bit more snow here, but mostly had crazy winds. Thankfully I don't even need to brush snow off the driveway to get out. Most of it ended up in the back yard.

Fourth: I'm about to start in on this lovely little number for one of the burlesque dancers. If possible I want to take a muslin of the jacket to rehearsal tonight. But we all know how good intentions go.

Fifth: I'm now officially part of the burlesque troupe as a production member. This means I'll be able to actually say I'm part of the group and not just their occasional seamstress. One of the things I'll be doing for them is orchestrating their social media presence and helping the other production member with the website when he's unavailable. Once the website is done and live, I'll be linking to it on the sidebar.

That's all the crazy news here. How are things in your parts of the world? See you next weekend and stay warm!

Busy, But Not Boring

We've been busy this week. There was a fundraising event for The Center For Prevention of Abuse at one of our favorite local bookstores that FuzzyHusband and I attended.There was an open mic where survivors were invited to share anything, so I read a couple of my poems. We won some lovely items from the silent auction and a doorprize as well.

I wish the needle artist would've signed this piece.

Stupid camera didn't rotate.

Lovely doorprize won by FuzzyHusband who gave it to me... after determining that the chain was too small for him. ;-)

Otherwise we've been cleaning, doing chores, and other boring things for most of the rest of the time. Also we're getting down to the wire for Festival of Trees this year. Only 2 more large trees to decorate, possibly 3 if another one gets sponsored. 

I did get to take Mercedes on a long walk and play some Pokemon Go though. She enjoyed herself.

And got some cuddles in with Pixel Pea.

I've got a bunch of laundry that needs doing, so I've got to get off here. 

Happy 6th Birthday to Pixel Pea!

Teaser Revealed and Cuteness

Remember this teaser from last weekend?

Well here's what I've done so far with it.

Originally this was supposed to be a single Dresden plate on a wall hanging, but the teacher in our class gave us the bright idea to turn it into a more utilitarian quilt with four Dresdens. Whoops.

My difficulty was the fabric I'd picked for the sunburst rays for the original singleton. It's an older fabric and I snagged the last fat quarter in the shop when I kitted things up for the class. So I improvised and made each sunburst different. Two have blue backgrounds and the other two have green backgrounds.

As of this extremely lazy moment, all four are appliqued onto their background squares and I've cleaned up all the threads. However I don't have a picture because they're downstairs and it's actually after 1:00 in the morning here. I figured I'd type up the blog now so I can get right to sewing in the morning.

I'm trying to get several smaller projects finished to the point of hand binding, slip stitching, etc before Tuesday afternoon. I'm sending my sewing machine off for cleaning and the pickup is first thing Wednesday morning. I'm hoping I'll have plenty of hand finishing to keep me busy, but if I get desperate I can always piece something on my old machine. It still works just fine, it just lacks all the bells and whistles the new one has. And the rule of thumb with piecing is to start and finish a project on the same machine because they're all a bit different.

I'm actually finished with my friend's quilt, but want to wait until I've delivered it before I post pictures anywhere. So I'll be sharing that next weekend. Until then, have some cuteness to tide you over.

See you next weekend!

Busy Week

The past week was really busy with appointments, phone calls, and errands. Lots of hurrying up and waiting. And then there was a high school graduation and celebration out of town on Friday.

FuzzyHusband has been encouraging me to get out more and meet new friends in the area. With that in mind, I let myself get talked into a quilting class yesterday. I'd been meaning to try paper piecing for the longest time anyway and the concept was interesting.

Getting some practice with my new machine's free motion foot was nice too. It's not the best quilting job, but I can't get better without practice. I haven't bound it because I didn't figure out until I was already home (and the shop was closed) that the fabrics for the dark border and binding were mislabeled in the kit. So I need a new strip of fabric for my binding. Whoops. That's what I get for being excited to play and not checking the widths against the directions.

After assembling and quilting comes embellishing. I just tossed the flowers, leaves, and bag of beads on the quilt for this photo. It was late and I wanted to get some sleep. I'll be arranging and attaching the pretty bits later today.

All in all it was a fun little class and a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday. I'll likely be doing more of these. Every month there's a different mini quilt pattern and they all feature different piecing and embellishment technique, so each one is a skill builder. Plus the other ladies were lots of fun.

And if I'm being totally honest, I needed a mental and emotional break from my friend's quilt. It's been harder to do for me than I realized and I was really fighting with the quilting last weekend. So I promised myself that I'd only work on fun little things for this holiday weekend to give myself a break. Plus I could totally have seen my friend taking this class too. Like me, her favorite color was purple and she loved flowers. And I could hear her in my head telling me to have a bit of a rest. So I listened.

Speaking of resting, two of my ladies were competing for table space and attention the other day. I couldn't resist getting some photos. This one is my favorite.

Stay safe over the holiday and I'll see you next weekend!

Cleaning, Baking, Decking, Etc...

Been a busy week here. My adopted nephew wanted to surprise his mm by showing up while he was on leave from the military... along with his new fiance... and they enlisted my help in the surprise.

So FuzzyHusband and I cleaned, baked, and waited. Of course FH didn't know who was coming to visit... he just knew we had to clean everything. Nephew asked that I keep it a surprise for all.

I baked some cookies fr us to snack on once they arrived. These in the picture are all that's left! Or at least were left when I took the photo. ;-)

The surprise went well and many happy tears were shed. My "sister from another mister" is very excited to be welcoming a new daughter into her life and said young lady fits right into the family as if she was made for us.

Onto the hall decking... There's been a severe run of drought for the last several years, so the availability of real trees for the holiday were slim to none. I managed to find this slim profile artificial tree on sale and picked it up. It will be a nice back up until we can have real trees again. Plus the little tree I put together will sit quite nicely next to it, making a tiny festive grove.

And Pixel really likes the box it came in!

Ellie also has a fondness for boxes and claimed this one that the new light sets arrived in.

That's all for this week. I've got a sewing commission that needs finished before Friday, so I'll be making up for time spent with family this weekend. See you later!

Happy Birthday, Pixel!

Eratta

As far as my writing goes, I'm being encouraged on multiple fronts to consider publishing a book of my poetry. So I'm slowly figuring out what pieces would be good enough, which need polishing, what are "good examples of practice" (aka rubbish), and pondering thoughts for new poems.

I did make a lovely salted caramel sauce last Sunday. It was perfect on top of the chocolate cheesecake... and on fresh fruit, potato chips, pretzels... ;-)

Pixel found Artie's hiding spot and claimed it for her own.

I've finally started in on a little pillow my sister asked me to make for her impending grandson. It's 5" x 6", sized for a wee rocking chair she's refinished for the nursery. I found the font I chose somewhere online.

Now I need to make piping, cut out the letter appliques, and put it all together.

See you next weekend!

Pixel says...

Mama let another D.O.G. into MY house! It was only for one sleep, but come on! Bad Mama! I had to hide the whole time!

And all the toys were everywhere! Nothing was where it was supposed to be. Maybe I should have stayed and snoopervised.

My dog apparently had fun, for whatever that's worth.

And Mama made muffins things that she wouldn't share.

Horrible days!