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 →
Shall We Meet in Des Moines for the AQS Quilt Expo?
Are you planning to attend the AQS Quilt Expo in Des Moines, Iowa this year in October? I am, and I’ll be teaching my newest techniques and projects there October 28-31! Check out the workshop descriptions here on the Workshops page, and then head over to the AQS site to download the Registration Guide for the show.
On the workshop menu are Inchie projects and a lecture, as well as workshops on embellishments, machine appliqué and there’s even a class for bloggers and those that would like to start blogging online. Online registration for the Des Moines Quilt Expo is coming soon I’m told, but if you want first dibs on limited class space, you can fill out the form in the Registration Guide, and fax it in to AQS! See you there!
I decided last weekend that I should put together a class on satin stitch fusible applique. I came up with this wonderfully lovely method some time back, which got slightly buried by developing material for The Book. I set out to create some sort of simple design that could work in a 3 hour class format, but ya’ know, I can’t draw. I’m just not all that good at it to be quite honest. The first design I came up with out of thin air was okay, and had potential, but was way too complicated for a 3 hour class.
Some agonizing amount of time later, I had another idea for simpler designs, and I set out to find a picture of a shoe on the Internet. Just a shoe, no foot please, on a plain background, like what you’d find on some website that sells shoes by mail order. I found the shoe, borrowed the photo, sized it and printed it out, and used it as a model for my own shoe design. The lack of drawing skills was overcome, and a little faith was restored.
I cut out some bits of fabric and fused them in place, and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the cutest little shoe design ever! Then it needed a hat and a bag. Wash, rinse, repeat, and now there’s a set of three, though without the promised satin stitching (I’m waiting for thread to arrive in my mailbox):
These designs are just perfect for a short class, and ripe for embellishment after. They can be used for fabric postcards, in quilts, pillows or other home accessories and the whole theme could be expanded upon for even more fun. I was so happy with the results of this little design project. But the irony: it seems that every single thing I do these days involves messing with fusible web.
As I’ve said before, I HATE fusible web! I hate fusible anything. I hate transferring the designs because I always forget to reverse them. I hate the mess it makes on my iron when I think “Oh, it’s just a little piece and I’ve cut it so carefully, surely I don’t need to drag out the pressing cloth.” I hate it when the paper won’t pull away from the web with some products. I hate it when I make a mistake and have to try to get it off and I know it’s impossible, but I still spend hours trying.
The whole premise of The Book is dependent on fusible products, as is much of the work that I’ve done lately that doesn’t pertain to the book, and I flat out HATE them, and I always have. When I’ve dreamed of writing a book all these years, fusible anything was just not in it.
It’s just completely mind boggling, really, that I should be gravitating toward and having such success with these methods that are so heavily dependent on products that I despise working with. I think I must be just bat crazy. It’s the only explanation. Or I’ve lost two of my remaining three brain cells thanks to living with a teenager, and consequently have no more to rub together.
I’ve been working to get my list of classes together for the AQS show director, except it’s really not work, is it? Not when I get to play with beads and baubles, fabrics and fibers all day long. Well, okay, there’s a bit of computer work in there too, but still, when the creativity is flowing, life is good.
Here’s the small class sample I finished today:
Spirit of Escher
The cool fabric in the foreground is an Alexander Henry fabric that came from Hancock’s of Paducah last year when I was at the National Quilt Museum for the Diane Gaudynski workshop. The fabric is backed with a piece of thin fusible batting and a cardstock-weight stiffener, quilted a bit on the machine to add some dimension, and then beaded and embroidered by hand. The foreground piece is attached to the quilted background with a running stitch in variegated embroidery floss and Kreinik metallic thread.
This is for a class called Embellishment Dimension, a technique class focusing on all the beading and embroidery techniques I’ve been working with lately. As it got closer to completion, the whole piece just seemed to be so M.C. Escher-like, hence the name, Spirit of Escher. And Escher is one of my favorite artists, after all.
My parents live in a rural area in Southern Utah, about 40 miles from…well…anything. It’s a lovely area, mostly nice and quiet, with the expected wildlife like coyote, snakes, rabbits, squirrels, pheasant, elk and of course, the deer that wander all over and sometimes visit the yard. When we lived in Las Vegas (and when I’ve returned to the area on vacation since then), it was always imperative to plan arrival times at their house for the daylight hours, at least for me. See, if I headed for their house in the late afternoon, I was always sorry, because I’d be driving through the countryside on these twisty, curvy, two-lane roads at twilight or after dark, sharing road space with the deer.
If I didn’t time it right, I’d arrive at their house completely stressed out with aching knuckles from gripping the steering wheel so hard, just waiting for that deer to jump out in front of the car from the side of the road. What a great start to a vacation, huh? I never hit one, but I was always just sure that at some point I would, and I’d be facing those scared, shining eyes across the hood of my car as I came around a blind turn and the headlights landed on a family of deer standing in the road. My parents’ house is great, except for the getting there part!
There have been a few times in my life where I’ve felt a strong kinship with those deer though. I remember the talent show in high school, where I stood there with my platter of cookies that I’d baked, because I didn’t sing or dance or act or twirl a baton, and baking was the only thing I could think of as a “talent.” Yep, I’m sure I looked just like those deer as I stood on that stage.
I remember standing on another stage, this time in Lyon, France at the Quilt Expo in 1996. There was a show and tell gathering, where you brought your quilts or wearables to show to the audience gathered in this giant hall. Anyone could go up on stage and share what they’d brought, all you had to do was fill out a card and stand in line until it was your turn. Judy Murrah of Jacket Jazz fame was the emcee, and would read what you wrote on the card as you walked across the stage and showed your quilt.
I’m not sure what convinced me that I wanted to go up there since I’ve always had a major case of stage fright, but somehow I found myself up on that stage showing off my own Jacket Jazz jacket for all of the thousand people in the audience to see. My best friend Dawn was in the audience way in the back in the standing room only section, and even from there she could see that “deer in the headlights” look that I was wearing along with my jacket! I think I literally shook inside my shoes for a good hour after I clambered off the stage and made my escape.
And then there was last Friday. One of the things that happens when your book is published by AQS is that you are expected to teach at one of the AQS shows around the time the book is published, and I guess if all goes well, they’ll have you back for another round (or two, or more). I’ve been talking with the AQS show director about when this might happen, and she originally said that she had me on the schedule for the Paducah show in 2010, which sounded great since I didn’t have to panic about it quite yet. It was sort of “off in the distance”; in mind, but not right up front where I might start to get worried about it.
I mean, I’ve taught classes before obviously, but I think there’s a HUGE difference between teaching at the Gussy Goose in Stuttgart, or teaching for the local quilt guild, and teaching at one of the biggest quilt shows in the U.S! 😯 So yes, I knew I was headed for this major thing, and I’ve been working on developing workshops that are related to the subject material of my book, since that’s what I thought AQS wanted for the shows.
Friday night, I got an email from the AQS show director saying that I’d be teaching at Des Moines in October, 2009, instead of Paducah in April, 2010. Not only that, but instead of 3.5 days full of classes related to my book, the show director only wants 1.5 days of classes related to the book, and will look at other classes that I teach if I submit them. Eeeek! There it is again, that deer imitation that I do so well.
I sat here, staring at the email, truly wondering what the heck I was going to do. Could any of my current workshops be reworked to fit into a national show format? Is there anything else I have waiting in the wings that would be suitable? I want to teach the full 3.5 days, since it’s such a long way to go for me from here, so I needed to fill out my class offerings with other techniques. I tend to teach long classes with multiple sessions which is not what you get to do at a national quilt show. Three hour focused sessions is the mainstay. I’d been developing book related workshops, but now they didn’t want as many as I had, and oh, by the way, they need my class descriptions NOW, since the registration guide has to be ready by April!
Since imitating a deer wasn’t going to fix it, I got to work. I spent the weekend pulling it together, and reminding myself that I really can do this! I worked on a couple of new workshops and reworked some current ones, so I’ll share some pics in the next few days. And of course, I’ll let you know how it all goes with the show director, but at the moment, I’m making plans to be in Des Moines in October! Want to join me?
I’ll be teaching Machine Quilting—Master the Basics online at Quilt Campus, November 8-29. This is the same class that I teach in person for shops and guilds, and it’s equivalent to more than 6 hours of instruction. Online workshops are great, since you can do the work at home, on your own machine, and at your convenience but still have the instructor available in an online forum setting to answer questions or provide guidance. Interested? Find out more at Quilt Campus, and register for the workshop now!
