Creative Cue: Cookie

This week's Creative Cue was "cookie". Here at this house, we did far too much research on the subject. As a result, the jeans are a little more snug, but I did get a nice sketch out of it.

While I like how this turned out, I do hope that next week's word has nothing to do with food!

A Little Embroidery

Ginny is still under the weather, but slowly improving. Weasley isn't real happy. He doesn't like to be separated from her. He spent most of today here:

Picture this old guy, who sometimes has trouble jumping the 4 inches into his litter box, sproinging straight up, over the trombone, over the backpack, bouncing off the laptop, and landing on that deep cushion! He did that 4 times, and finally I just left him there.

What with the craziness this week, not much sewing has been done. But in the evenings, I calmed myself down with some embroidery. I haven't done much of this type of work at all.  In fact, in the last few years, any emboidery that I did was just some x's, or some running stitches as marks on mixed-media works.

Then, I started looking at all the beautiful work that Shell, of the Raspberry Rabbits   shows on her website and blog. I couldn't help myself. After I finished admiring her rabbits, Razzy and Sugie,  I had to try one of her free patterns. This is my version.

Of course, Shell's is mostly white, and her stitches are much neater, but I'm pretty pleased with this as a first try. The colors in the photo, especially of the lace, are paler than in real life. I used all materials that I had around the house. The lace is a hand-dyed piece that I made last summer. This is a monthly pattern offer, that is supposed to result in a quilt by the end of the year. It will be interesting to see the final result.

And finally,  Second Daughter passed her driving test. Now I really start worrying....

Quick Update

Ginny is home from the vet, slowly improving. We are having to keep our kitchen at 80 degrees for her, so Weasley has his frozen waterbottle, like in the summer. The vet assistant said she could tell Ginny was really bad, 'cause she didn't bite her. Ginny says if she were there today, she would bite her, hard.

We are having a snow day here today, so there is lots of shoveling in my future. Looks like 8-10 inches already, and coming down fast.
Stay warm!

A Worried House

Ginny is at the vet today. She seemed to be getting better yesterday (producing well, if you know what I mean), and then took a hard turn for the worse overnight. She is spending the day with the nice folks at the vets office, getting fluids and medicines. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

If I can get my head together, I am going to work on finishing up a project that I started with my friends yesterday. You can get a glimpse in this picture.

No, I don't mean finish the quiche. That is long gone. My friend M. (forgot to ask if I could use her name) is a great cook, and generously supplied us with food, and a beautiful place to work. It is always energizing to spend time working with friends.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early, to go feed Ginny.  I'm going to go sew, and maybe I'll have another picture, and better news, later. 

Sometimes You Need More Than Coffee

Last week's Creative Cue was "morning". I had already done a sunrise picture for "East", so I decided to go in a different direction for this week.

After all, it's not morning without the coffee! The next word is "cookie". Guess I'll have to make some, so that I can draw them more accurately. 

We need more than coffee around here today, though. Second daughter came down with a stomache bug in the middle of the night. Luckily, she is old enough to clean up after herself, but it doen't bode well for the jazz band kids that she spent yesterday evening hanging out with. 

And on a more serious note, Ginny refused to eat this morning. It seems to be a case of wool block, which can be deadly for rabbits. Angora's can be prone to this, what with all the hair, so when they are near full coat, I try to watch them very closely. It can be hard to know exactly what is going on, as they share food dishes and litterboxes. It doesn't help that Ginny does all the grooming for both of them. Weasley rarely grooms himself. And he is very unhappy today because I have separated them. As of last night, Ginny was eating heartily, and behaving normally, so hopefully we have caught it early enough that we can work through this without too much trouble. I will keep you posted.

Tomorrow I am hoping to be able to get together with friends, to make something from this fabric.

Aren't they pretty? With any luck, I'll have good news, and a finished product to show tomorrow evening.

Another Birthday

Miss Ginny turns 6 years old today. What better way to celebrate than with broccoli "cake" and carrot "candle"?

First remove cake from pan.

Next, pull out the candle.

Eat candle.

Yum!

Not much sewing going on here this week. It is school vacation week, and we are getting distracted. Today we practiced parrallel parking for next week's driving test. This is hard to do when the snow is covering the curbs. And makes me very thankful for parking lots!

Had to come back and add this. I meant to give you a link to Kristin's blog which is always beautiful, and fun to read. But today she has outdone herself by posting pictures of some of her lambs wearing her hand knit sweaters. Enjoy!

Gotta Have Heart

The bunnies wouldn't cooperate, so I had to use an old picture, from three years ago. The sentiment is the same.

Happy Valentines Day, Everyone!

She's So Excited!

The Creative Cue for this week is "Tie". My drawing is of Second Daughter in her newly purchased prom dress, for her Junior Prom. It is a deep, almost navy blue, that matches her beautiful eyes. It was the first, and only, dress that she tried on. Now she just keeps saying, "I'm so excited!".

Like the other drawings, this is done in free-motion on my sewing machine.

Check Out These Buns

Weasley's just a little grumpy. Instead of rubbing his oh-so-shiny Satin nose, his Mom is ogling the bunnies over at Wool On The Brain. You should check them out, too.

Now, off to slice and dice some fabric. After giving that grumpy nose a rub, of course!

Twenty Two Years Ago Today

On another Monday morning, twenty two years ago, I was getting a ride to the hospital. In an ambulance. Across upstate New York to Burlington, Vermont. They held the ferry boat across Lake Champlain for us.

Sometime around mid-morning, it was decided that my baby had to be born, despite the best efforts of the doctors and nurses to prevent it from happening. One C-Section later, First Daughter came into the world. She was born at 25 weeks gestation, weighing about one and a half pounds, and would spend the next 100 days in the hospital. She was beautiful (still is).

She had her ups and downs, like all preemies, but she did amazingly well. There are lingering effects, mainly vision problems, but she is a smart, loving, wonderful human-being, and I am proud to be her mother.   

While she was in the hospital, I needed something to do to pass the time in waiting rooms, and in the comforting rooms of the local Ronald McDonald House. That was when I started quilting. I made her a baby quilt, from a panel I bought at a local fabric store. I had no idea what I was doing, but eventually it was done, she slept under it, and the rest is history.

When she was a little older, I made her a rail fence quilt for her big girl bed. These two quilts are now stored away for her in the attic. Then, for many years, all I made her was saddle pads! 

Starting at the bottom, a pad for Tanks-a-lot (formerly known as Fox in Socks), Ringo, Patriot, and a pad in Volo Farm colors. 

For several years, First Daughter rode a horse named Patriot, a black and white paint, with blue eyes. When my guild had a black and white plus one other color challenge, I made this for her.

For last year's birthday, the big 21, I made her this quilt which hangs in her dorm room.

No quilt this year, she just wanted a pie plate!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! Here's to many more (Birthdays, and Quilts)! Thanks for getting me started down this path. 

(If you are wondering about the candle on the cake, I forgot to check the birthday candle supply, and I wasn't going to the store at 10:00 PM. Bad Mom!)

Who Says They Have To Match?

Here is my drawing for this week's  Creative Cue. The word this week was "odd".

These would be the feet of my Second Daughter. She prefers to wear her socks mismatched. She says her day is usually better if her socks don't match.

Like my previous drawings for Creative Cue, this was free-motion stitched on my sewing machine.

There should be a new word out tomorrow. If you haven't yet, think about joining in. Its really interesting to see what other people associate with the given word, and how they go about making their drawing. Or, I guess I should say artwork, because so far the posted results have ranged from simple sketches, to photographs, collages, and even small quilted/beaded works. Jump on over to Three Creative Studios, and check it out.

Electric Buns

If you have house rabbits, then you know that they are attracted to live electrical cords like lemmings to cliffs. Electric cords aren't the prettiest home decorating object, and if you have bunnies, they are likely to look like this:

Elegant, right? Anyway, recently my sewing machine was in for servicing. To pack it up, I had to remove the cord cover. When it came home, I forgot to replace the cover. While I was sewing yesterday, I looked down and saw this!

They were quickly removed.

And what was the project? Another quilt from the scrap drawer that would no longer close.

Don't laugh at the fabrics, please. Some of these are more than 20 years old, and not much was available then. When these get to a certain size, they will be squared off, cut up, and rearranged with other fabrics. Its interesting to see what I can get out of neglected leftovers, but not very cost effective in terms of time.  Still, the challenge is a good learning exercise.

Ginny just jumped up to say "Hello", and tell you that she wasn't going to eat the electric cord, she was just admiring it.

Today--Unsewing

Lots of it. 'Nuf said.

Road Trip Result, and What Are These Robins Thinking?

I couldn't help it. They looked lonely, so I brought them home from this morning's road trip. Aren't they lovely?

And when I got home, there was a huge flock of robins in my yard, maybe a hundred birds, or so. My camera is not great, so I don't know if you can see some of them in these pictures.

They were cycling in and out of these viburnums, a dozen birds at a time. They would fly from here, across the yard to the apple tree, then to the back of the yard to the birch, and then across to the woods, and around again to the berries.  Within 15 minutes, half the berries were gone, and so were the robins.

Last year it took a smaller flock of cedar waxwings 3 days to pick the bushes clean in late February. If the robins come back, the waxwings are going to be out of luck. What are they doing in Massachusetts on the first of February? It sure isn't Spring!

Road Trip

This morning I am off with a friend to visit Charlton Sewing Center, in Charlton Ma., and Appletree Fabrics in Auburn, Ma. Certainly don't need  anything, but we'll see what happens.

Second daughter is using my machine to make hats to donate to a local hospital for cancer patients. She did this last year, and enjoyed it. It took on new meaning for her when a neighbor was diagnosed, and was offered one of her hats by the hospital. She decided to make some more. Isn't this a colorful sight?