One Piece at a Time

Washing Rio: Before and After

My husband and I were out for our weekly helping of frozen coffee when we had this great idea. Why not wash the puppy. We’ve had Rio for three months now and he was looking a little grubby so we trucked over to Struttin Pup to use their self service dog washing station. Now Rio is part border collie and part something (we suspect terrier) and he has very odd fur. He doesn’t shed…thanks be to God…but he does have this kinda aura of frizzy fur. In the past few weeks he’s been looking less frizzy and we figured he was just growing out of it. Well let me tell you…it was the grime, my friends…the grime. After one healthy shampooing his fur puffed out BIG TIME. He looked like he put on 20 pounds after it was all said and done. Of course, he HATED it and spent the entire ride home rolling around like a rabid dog trying to get his puppy smell back. Twenty four hours later…he’s still puffy, and has apparently forgiven us. Ah…if it were only that easy to do in reverse. Maybe I should try not washing not 3 months and see if I look twenty pounds thinner? Then again that might not be such a good idea.

Flowers for Amy

These flowers go out to my friend Amy. She paid me the best compliment of my whole summer yesterday when she told me she visits this site every day.

Amy is a wonderfully talented voice teacher and you can find her here. Seriously, she could probably teach Kermit the Frog to sing opera. She keeps trying to get me to join the choir but..what can I say..I’m a chicken…and I can’t sing.  But if I ever could get over my chicken-ness I’m sure she could teach me to sing.

Shortly after meeting Amy we both got pregnant with our second children. I don’t think anything bonds two women together more than sharing pregnancy with them. I don’t think there is anything I couldn’t  tell her and I KNOW there is nothing I wouldn’t do for her if she needed me too. She’s even forgiven me for not coming to her senior recital because I was getting RIO THE WONDERDOG (sorry sorry sorry)

Hugs to you Amy (aren’t you glad I left out the bit about the mysterious toilet flushes during hormone crazed pregnancy phone calls) Oops, I guess I didn’t leave that out after all. Don’t worry you are the only one reading this blog anyway…I think.

Rio the Wonderdog

 

After our dog, Leesy, died in 2007 I told the kids that we could get another dog in “about a year” hoping that they would forget about it with all the "busy-ness" of High School. Well my daughter can be very persistent and has basically been stalking animal rescue sites for the last 10 months. To be honest I was starting to miss having a dog as well. We started investigating Wyoming Border Collie Rescue and we saw this

 

Now let me just say, I was really against getting a puppy. All that chewing and piddling on the floor. But then I saw this

and this

 

And I was in love.

On Mother’s Day weekend we drove to Southern Colorado to pick him up. I would joke that my Mother’s Day present pees and poops on the floor but actually Rio potty trained himself really quick. I have been much more active trying to keep him exercised and out of trouble and that is a good thing. Plus, now I get to see things like this.

Feathered Star Quilts

I have a confession. I LOVE Feathered Star quilts. I know some of you think I’m crazy but it’s the truth.  The Best resource for learning to make these blocks is Marsha McCloskey’s books. You can find them here.

After I finished the Sri Yantra quilt people kept asking me what I was going to make next. I always replied “Something Traditional” so I made this.

Then this

 

Then this

There is just something about the concentration it takes to make a feathered star that helps me reset. If I’m ever feeling really stressed out I know if I make a feathered star block I will feel much better.  I guess I’m an addict. I admit it.

 

ART+MATH=X

This is a link to an articale on math and art that features the Sri Yantra Quilt

ART+MATH=X Shared via AddThis

Sri Yantra Quilt

I made this quilt back in 2004-2005 and people still ask me about it. I did all the design and construction myself and Lois Hagar Knight did the very intense quilting. It was featured in a Quilt show in Boulder that featured quilts that combined Art and Math. It was also juried into the International Quilt Festival in 2005 and the American Quilter's Society Paducah Quilt show (Lucky me). Since I actually made this quilt for friends I don't currently have it but have always thought I should make my own smaller version. SO here's the deal, I'm going to make the quilt and Blog the quilt here at my new site. How's that for hi tech!

I hope I can remember how I sewed all those triangles together.

 

I'm slowly but surely figuring out how to use this blog. Today I am adding quilt pictures to my Applique Quilts Album. Now if I could just figure out how to make the album show up that would be great.

Trying a Picture

Getting Started

Welcome to my inagural blog post. Frankly, I'm a little nervous right now.

SO, why did I start a blog? Well, I enjoy reading blogs and thought it would be fun to have one for my quilts and other hobbies. I hope to include lots of pictures and techniques and maybe a video or two.

More later once I figure out how to do this