I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of things here, with very little success. Ever since I got off the plane on Tuesday morning, I’ve been trying to “get it together” and “get back to normal” and I can’t figure out why I’m not getting there. I just don’t feel like doing anything. Except reading. That’s about it, truly; I just feel like reading books. Which makes me feel like a total slacker…
Perhaps it’s because I’ve spent the last year and a half or two years being horribly busy all.the.time., with never enough time to do all the stuff that had to be done, much less all the stuff I wanted to do. So even though I now have some breathing room, I can’t for the life of me figure out what to do with it.
Maybe it’s because I know that there are still so many things I need to be doing right now that I just can’t even figure out which one I should start on. And that’s not taking Christmas or the impending house move into account either. Continue reading →
Wow—what a bad blogger I have been! Time has gotten away from me, and ten whole days have gone by without a blog post, though I won’t admit to being a complete lazy slacker since there were extenuating (and exhausting) circumstances to contend with. And now that I’m home there’s so much to tell, I’m left wondering exactly where to start!
I headed toward Des Moines, Iowa for the AQS Quilt Expo on Monday, 26 October after visiting with family in Nevada and Utah since leaving Quilt Festival in Houston. I say “headed toward” since of course, American Airlines couldn’t quite get it together and get me where I needed to go on time and with luggage in hand (for the second time in 10 days, no less)! Those turkeys stranded me in Dallas overnight after flight delays caused me to miss my connecting flight by 10 minutes, and then they wouldn’t give me my stinkin’ luggage! Perhaps they didn’t understand that I’m not the wash’n’wear girl, and never have been. So off I went to some not-so-great hotel near the DFW airport without anything to wear and not even a toothbrush. Yeah, I used to carry all that “what if I get stranded” stuff when I flew, but after 9-11 it all got too painful and I never needed it anyway, so now I don’t. Lesson learned. 🙁
I did finally make it to Des Moines a day late, but still in plenty of time for the show. I met so many interesting and FUN people at the show, students, vendors and other quilting professionals alike, that it would be hard to share it all without spending days at it! There were happy students in my classes and they left good evaluations of the classes with AQS, so I think the workshops were pretty successful. Shame on me though: I had my camera with me, but never had time to take any pictures during my classes! Too busy teaching, I guess! Continue reading →
Time for another show and tell! I’ve actually had this finished for a while now, I just didn’t get the pictures taken right away. I made this quilt as an example of what can be done with the postcard size accessory appliqué patterns for the Silken Stitches workshop. I love the way the quilt turned out, which is probably not surprising since I’m a little addicted to the shoe, bag and hat accessory motifs, and I suppose the same could be said for the fun Michael Miller prints that I used in the quilt.
I’m not sure that I’ve had my fill yet either, and I still have some yardage left, so at some point there may be another coordinating project coming. A lap quilt or pillows perhaps? Of course, none of this really fits into my house with it’s current decor, so any more quilts in this style or colorway might require some major redecorating…and shaking of the head and rolling of the eyes on ITMan’s part… 🙂
Here’s the crisp, colorful, summery-looking goodness (just in time for fall?): Continue reading →
Woohoo! A finish for me! I’ve finished this project with the linen border that I’ve shown peeks of here and here. I’m really, really pleased with the end result! I’ll mostly let the pictures tell the story, otherwise I’ll be here all day writing enthusiastic commentary and I have some other stuff I need to work on. So without too many more words, here is Zen Dimension: Continue reading →
On a day to day basis, what I do here at DreamWeaver’s Quilts is not going to save anyone’s life directly, I know that. But today, I want to share a story with you about how I saved a life through this blog. In March, 2008, I took Shadow and Patches (for new readers: these are the family cats) to have their vaccinations. When I got them home, Shadow was presenting odd symptoms that eventually led me to believe he was having a severe reaction to the vaccinations. I rushed him to the vet, and she confirmed that yes, he was going into anaphylactic shock because of the vaccinations, and if I had not taken him back for emergency treatment, he would have died.
Bear with me, I know you’re wondering where I’m going with this. After Shadow recovered, I wrote about this on my blog, as I often do when it’s something like this that I think people should know about. Over the next few months, I noticed that that blog post was receiving many hits from search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. People were searching for “cat reactions to vaccinations”, “severe cat reaction shots” and other similar phrases. I edited the post, and added the following in bold lettering at the top:
NOTE: If you have found this post through a search for “cat reactions to vaccinations” or something similar, STOP!
If your cat (or dog) is experiencing any of the following symptoms after a vaccination, take your pet back to the vet IMMEDIATELY:
* vomiting
* diarrhea
* whitish or pale gums in the mouth
* facial swelling or hives
* rapid or difficult breathing
* restlessness or difficulty settling down
The above symptoms may mean that your pet is going in to anaphylactic shock and needs IMMEDIATE medical attention to survive!
Severe reactions to vaccinations can be life threatening and are a medical emergency! Don’t wait and wonder, have your pet checked by a veterinarian ASAP!
I wanted people to have the most important information that they needed to save their pet’s life if necessary without having to read through my entire story of Shadow’s reaction. Even the few minutes it could take to read the whole post could make a difference to their pet. This morning, I received a comment on that blog post from Ann: Continue reading →
Thasa lotta Inchies waiting to be embellished! 120, to be exact, of the 240 that will be on the quilt when finished. And time is very short to get them done. Way shorter than I’d like. I hate it when I do this kind of thing to myself, but life gets in the way sometimes, and it happens whether I like it or not. So you see, I should not be sitting here typing, I should be in the other room embellishing!
Over the weekend, I embellished 45 Inchies, and they were all very green. Very green: Continue reading →
