Happy Father's Day

It's that time of year again; it is Father's Day.

Every year, I think to myself that I don't appreciate my father nearly enough for all that he has done for me and for all that he continues to do. I let the little moments slip by without telling him how much I love him and how much he means to me. I don't get up to visit him often enough, I don't call enough and I surely don't show my appreciation enough.

Today, I want to tell my father that he is my world. My father, and my mother, raised me to be a good person. To help out where help is needed. To be kind and giving. They taught me to be strong and self-sufficient. To look after myself and my family. To be there for my friends. Dad taught me that actions have consequences and that I have to suck it up when i make a mistake and be accountable for all that I do; good and bad.

He taught me cooking, hunting, fishing, jewellery making, camping, and sports (admittedly I fell short on this one!) He gave me his twisted sense of humor and taught me how to cuss. He was there for me when I did well, but more importantly he encouraged me when I failed. He stood behind me against the bullies and mean girls. He taught me to believe in myself even when no one else did.

But above all else, he taught me that love is a circle and that the more love you give to others, the more you get in return. The more love you get, the more there is to give. Love is unending and you can love countless people and never run out.

So I say it now, thank you Dad. I love you. I appreciate you and all you have done for me. I don't say it often enough, but you are the reason I am who I am today.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Dad, I wish I could shout out to the whole world and tell them how wonderful you are.

Hugs
Cathy

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Normally, I write about my own crafting successes and failures. But, today while surfing the net, I stumbled on this picture. While this is lovely to behold, the idea is pure insanity. Small beads and a baby? Imagine picking those out of her nose. And a string to wrap around her neck?

I ask you ... what could possibly go wrong?

Epic Fail!

 

With my apologies to the creator of this.

 

Hugs

Cath

Adding Borders to Your Quilt

(This is a repost, as I had to delete the original due to thousands of comments by spam-bots.)

As a long arm quilter, I have a few pet peeves when dealing with customer quilts. Bad pressing is one. But what bugs me the most is bad borders. Borders that are too short on one side and too long on the other. Borders that are rippled and wavy. Borders with too much fullness. They all add up to one insane quilter.
To a certain extent, they can be "quilted out." But it takes a lot of fidgeting, time, steaming and irritation on the part of the quilter.

My posting for today is simply my own instructions for adding borders. I’ve gathered bits and pieces of information and techniques from a variety of sources, blended them together until I found what works best for me. Many of my students have told me that it works well for them. Try it for your self.

How to Add Straight Borders to your QuiltEnsuring that the quilt is square and the borders lie or hang flat without ripples is as simple as following the steps listed below.

1. Measure the quilt to calculate a "base" measurement for each border.
2. Do not take the measurements on the edge of the quilt as the seams may have opened a little and will give a false result. Instead position the tape measure approximately 20 -30 cm in from the edge at both ends. Take a third measurement through the center of the quilt.
3. Now average the three measurements to find the "base measurement". However, If there is more than a 1.5 cm variation in the measurements it means that the pieced seams are not even so go back to the quilt and adjust seams before adding border. This will make you quilt lay and hang flat. In the end you will be glad you took the time to correct your seaming.
4. Cut your side borders to base measurement for the length of your quilt.
5. Mark the quilt and the border at the ½ and ¼ points with pins. Match these points and pin the entire length together of your border and center unit together. Sew with a ¼ inch seam.
6. Repeat for the other side. Press these seams. Generally press to the darker fabric. You may press to the light or open as needed.
7. Measure the width of the quilt (including the added borders) in three places as instructed in step two.
8. Add these borders as above.

Note: if your fabrics strips are not as long as the required borders I recommend that you piece them together using a 45-degree seam. This lies flatter than a straight cross-seam and is less visible.
Lay two border strips right sides together at with their ends at a 90-degree angle. Sew a seam from point to point. While stitching from point to point, think of the capital letter A. Your strips are the legs of the A and your stitching the cross bar. Open to ensure the strips will lay straight. If so, trim seam to 1/4inch and press open. Repeat with another strip if more length is needed. Cut desired strip length from this piece. Piecing all your strips together and then cutting your borders gives all one large piece for your scrap bin rather than many small ones.
It doesn’t take long to make your borders perfect. Try it and see what you think.

Please, if you share these directions, let people know where you found them. Thanks.

Cath

Indulge Your Inner Goonie and Find Time For Your Passions

Have you ever noticed that life has a way of throwing curve balls at you? Just about the time you think you have everything under control, shit hits the fan. You know what I mean. You finally get the credit cards paid off and the car goes KLUNK and dies on the freeway. The Christmas bills are paid and the furnace blows up. You finally free up a four day weekend for relaxing and doing nothing when Great Aunt Bethany calls to say she’s coming to town for a few days. It is easy to get caught up in the little things and lose sight of your passions. A few extra hours at work; a couple dinner invitations; people making demands on your time and asking you to do things for them; it all adds up and eats into your time.

How do you find time for those passions? When do you say no? When do you start to let things slide? When do you shout at the world, “Enough is enough?”  But most importantly, how do you decide which things occupy your time?

Personally I am selfish. I try my best to put myself and my needs first. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean I refuse all requests or tell people to take a flying leap when they ask for a favour or for some help. I just do my very best to make time for the things that I love to do, for the things that nurture my soul. I try to hear what my mind and my soul are telling me.

I am a creative person and I try to be aware when my creative side screams for an outlet. I NEED to do crafty things. I need to write stories. Some are good, some are awful, but they need released from the crowded confines of my mind or my head will explode. My house is littered with the detritus of my creative side. There are piles of partial manuscripts, writing materials and reference manuals. There are balls of yarn, knitting projects, needlepoint canvases and half-finished baby afghans. My studio looks like a fabric truck exploded inside of it. Fabric is stacked and draped on every surface, pattern books stick out of weird places, all higgety piggety.  Generally, I have so many projects on the go that I can’t decide what to work on. My husband says that I have Magpie Syndrome; I get distracted by bright shiny or colorful objects. He may be right. Personally I think it is just my creative side trying to escape and express itself to save my sanity.

The trouble is that sometimes it is hard to fit that creativity, that passion, into my life. But somehow I manage it. It is a very rare day that goes by when I don’t indulge myself. Sometimes it is with quilting or writing (most days); sometimes it is a couple rows of crochet or a bit of applique or needlework. To find the time, I have turned down invitations to coffee, to home clothing parties, dinners, and on occasion, I tell my man that I cannot go with him to Home Depot, or that he has to wait an hour while I stitch this. Recently, I have told my kids I don’t have time to visit. That isn’t as cruel and heartless as it sounds. I see one daughter and her family at least five days a week, so a missed visit isn’t a big thing for any of us. My other daughter is as busy as I am, so I rarely turn down the chance to see her.

For years and years, I cleaned my house from stem-to-stern at least once a week, sometimes more often. Now, I’m doing good to get it done once a month. We don’t live in squalor. I’ve just changed my priorities. Things are clean enough. Nobody who comes over complains, in fact one fellow says, “I like coming here, I feel comfortable, like I was at home. I’m not worried about destroying a show-home.” The first thing he does when he shows up is take his socks off … so the floors can’t be that dirty.

The joke around here is that if I have cleaned up, someone must be coming over. (And usually that is true!) And hubby has taken over the dishes and the laundry. This leaves me more time to play with the things that nurture me and keep me sane and happy. Because we all know that if Cathy isn’t happy, no one is happy!

It’s about balance. It’s about not neglecting your needs to meet the needs of others. It’s about being who you need to be and not feeling guilty when you say no or when the toilet doesn’t get scrubbed exactly on schedule.

Remember the movie Goonies? They were under the wishing well and had to choose between following a dream and searching for One Eyes Willie’s treasure and returning to the world of their parents. Remember Mikey’s passion speech about time and staying a Goonie? “Our parents, they want the bestest stuff for us. But right now they gotta do what's right for them, 'cause it's their time. Their time, up there. Down here it's our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's bucket.” Mikey had it right! Stand up for your time, not what is right for the people in your life. Be strong, be a Goonie and make time for your passion. Make time for you! Stay out of Troy’s bucket!

What is your passion and how are you going to find time to fit it into your schedule?

Hugs
Cath

Seizing the Opportunity to Tangle with the Karma Bus

Wow! Holy applesauce, Batman! Crap just hit the fan. Shit just got real.

Last November, when I turned 50, I made a promise to myself. I was going to become fit, fine and fifty. This would be the year I started taking care of myself. I've been slowly puttering towards that goal. I've been modifying my eating and getting back to working out. Nothing radical, nothing too fast or hard and definitely no deprivation. I've just been taking small steps towards becoming healthier. I've decided that I am worth it!

I was beginning to think that I was making some progress. My jeans were getting looser, my arms firming up a bit, my knee sausages were shrinking and my breathing was getting easier. The numbers on the scale were even starting to creep lower.

Like I said, things were improving slowly. Baby steps! Things were looking good.

Enter . . . . . the Karma Bus!

Clearly I've been very, very naughty.

It began like any other day. I got up had two cups of coffee. Just two, limiting caffeine as part of the health kick. Did a little sewing on the current block of the month applique. Piled into the car and went and got my monthly blood work taken. (Part of the whole rheumatoid arthritis gig is regular blood work.) After that, I drove to Along Came Quilting to meet a friend for a bit of fabric shopping and after that some lunch. So far, so good.

Into the store we go, stirring up trouble and kibitzing with the staff. Lots of fun and laughter along with some fabric stroking. All of a sudden, out of no where, I started feeling weird. Not bad, just a bit off. Then things started to go dark, like when the electricity dips and the lights go brown.

Crap! I realize that I might pass out for the first time in my life. The next thing I know, I'm fighting off hunky ambulance attendants in the parking lot.

What the heck?

Through the crowd of attendants my friend (a nurse) starts trying to reassure me that it is okay. I've just had a seizure and that they were taking care of me. Her words fell of deaf ears because, needless to say, I was just a little freaked out and totally disoriented. I panicked a bit and they had to drug me to get me into the ambulance. It seems that up to that point, I had been following instructions fairly well. Shoot!

So, they drag me off to the hospital, my friend in hot pursuit. Run some tests. CT scan was clean. Heart test okay. It seems that I had a grand mal seizure for no immediately apparent reason. Holy crap-a-doodle-doo! I've got a boat load of bruises, I tore a big chunk of skin from behind my ear when I hit a hook and I've got aches and pains galore, but it could have been a lot worse.

Over the next two weeks the real fun begins. MRI, chest x-rays, EKG and EEG all coming up in rapid succession. I've seen a plethora of doctors this week and they are all fairly confident that this is likely a one time thing.

The trouble is, I can't drive until I have been three months without a seizure. It has only been a week and I am already chaffing at the bit. I find that I am not liking being tied down and needing a driver. Sigh. Oh well, better safe than sorry. I shall survive this debacle. I'm just glad I live in Alberta. In the rest of the country, they take your license for a full year. :(    

 

What strikes me the most about this whole unfortunate event, is the quick response from the fire fighters, then the ambulance attendants. They gave me great care, even when I resisted it (in my state of panic.) The staff at the hospital was patient and helpful. But most wonderful of all was the attention from the staff at Along Came Quilting. They were quick to react and help out. They remembered my usual cohort's name and called her for my emergency contact information. She didn't have my husband's number, so she told them where I worked. They called work, work called my daughter, and she called my man, who raced to the hospital. Quite a chain of caring.

A couple days later, Linda, the owner of ACQ called me to check up on me and to express her staff's concern for my well-being. While we were chatting, she told me that someone on her staff said it was a good thing I didn't put the hook through my neck. Linda said it was a good thing I didn't take my eye out with it. YIKES! I hadn't even thought of that. Thank heaven for small reprieves!

While I am, understandably, nervous about the upcoming tests, I can't help but be grateful that they are all happening within two weeks. I guess when your brain is screwy you get good service! I am thankful for the excellent care I received at the hospital and en-route. I am also thrilled that the ACQ staff reacted quickly and efficiently. I'm glad my friends, family and boss were all there to help out. I'm not sure if it is good or bad that I'm at the quilt store often enough that they remember me and know who my usual cohorts are.

This strengthens my vow to get fit and take better care of myself. As soon as I get the all-clear, I'll be hitting the treadmill again.

Now, if only they would give me back my car keys.

Hugs
Cath