Caturday

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a cat.

Fuzzy Wuzzy's hair's growing back.

Putty is recovering from his shave. After getting over the initial shock of what happened to him, he liks his haircut. He has a lot more zip in his step. The only problem is that he misses the warmth from his coat. For the first time ever, he is snuggling under covers. Poor guy.

I would say he no longer looks like a squirrel with a silky body and a fluffy tail. Instead, he kind looks like a teddy bear with a scruffy, fuzzy coat. Hopefully he'll be back to his full fluffiness soon.

Notice in this picture how he's "helping" me with my cutting. He's right on top of the ruler and the fabric. Thanks a lot, cat!

Star BOM 9

I'm all caught up on Judy L.'s Star Block of the Month. She'll be giving us another block in 4 days and then we get a break until February. Then there are 3 more blocks and a series of borders. I'm on a roll and don't really want to stop, but I think it is going to be a good thing, because then I can focus on some other projects that have been falling by the wayside and maybe resume this project with gusto in the new year.

I'm having fun with it and really like this stage. I haven't been following the exact color placement for each block and have been using a somewhat scrappy look. So now it's neat to rearrange the blocks into what the final placement will be.

Here are blocks 1 through 9:

Winner!

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of the UFO Club at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee. We decided to have a potluck brunch to celebrate the season. Also special about our December meeting is that we drew a name from the completed projects jar to award a winner of a Mill House gift certificate. There was a new person attending, so we nominated her as an unbiased person to select the name. Lo and behold-- I won!! =) Hurrah! The project that I completed that won this was Emilie's baby quilt.

I brought my camera and intended to take pictures, but the morning got away from me. Instead, I will post a picture of what I brought to the potluck. Krumkake! :-P

Knitting progress

Slooooooowly I have been making progress on my knitting. The problem is that I make mistakes frequently and don't know how to solve them. Then I stop and wait until I can beg a knitter to help me. Did you know there are knitters everywhere! Amazing!

Something has clicked recently, though. I knit at least 10 rows without making a mistake! Hurrah! Here is a picture. It is the beginnings of a scarf. The yarn is Peruvian and is 60% wool, 30% alpaca, 7% acrylic, 3% viscose.

Crafty at work!

This was my weekend to work, so I didn't get anything crafty done at home. On Friday night the weather was lousy, so there weren't many patients at the clinic. After several hours of quiet, I was getting restless. The fluorescent lights were frying my brain and I needed something to do...lo and behold, there was a tiny tree in the lab (right next door to me in x-ray) that was crying out to be decorated! Somebody had started by sticking some plastic pipettes into the tree and I ran from there.



Michelle was working in lab and she was just as excited as I was to decorate. The first step was to take cotton balls and tuck them deep into the branches. They kind of look like snow. Then we both thought the blue, elastic tourniquets would make a great garland. Next I was off on a scavenger hunt around the clinic for items that would work in the tree. Everything seemed to be clear or white and the tree needed color and a topper.

I gathered a children's face mask and covered the base with it (it's got Disney characters and is colorful). The black plastic ear thingies that they stick in your ear are on a few branches. They weren't staying put very well. I found some big swabs and stuck them in near the top. Michelle decided to color them red (now they kind of look bloody!!-- gross!) I stuck some blood draw tube covers in the branches (reddish in color), made a base of bedpan basins. and put a couple of tongue depressors on top of them. At the bottom of the branches, I spelled 2008 with the stickers we used on x-ray file folders to mark the year.

The best part of it all is the topper...wait for it... a urine sample cup! =) All of the nurses have gotten a big kick out of our holiday spirit. It doesn't take much to amuse us!

Star BOM 8

I'm progressing along with the Star Blocks of the Month. I spent a lot of time deliberating about the color placement on this block and changed my mind a few times. The pattern calls for the same color that forms the ring in the center to be the inner part of the star points. After cutting the triangles, it didn't look right to me:


So, I decided to use a dark black for the inner star points. I wasn't totally sure about it, but told myself to "just sew it, it looks fine!". I've been telling myself that a lot while working on these blocks, because I can dilly-dally forever while picking colors.

Here is my second color choice for the star points:



Unfortunately after sewing 2 sets of triangles together I decided I didn't like this fabric and didn't want it to be in the final quilt. It's definitely a lesser quality of fabric than what I'm using in the rest of the blocks and I'm worried that as the quilt ages, this one will fade and break down. I bought it at Joann's and feel it was a waste of money. The weave is loose and it took several rinses to remove excess dye. I'm not even sure if I got all the dye out! Grrr. Back to the drawing board. I picked another black and am pleased with the result.

One more block and I will be caught up. Maybe tomorrow? Here are the first 8 blocks, 5 more to go!

MCQG Holiday Party

Today is a lovely winter snow day, with several inches of snow forecast and I'm so happy it's falling today and not yesterday. Because last night was the Mad City Quilt Guild Holiday Party and I was organizing the event. There were 64 people attending and if today's weather happened yesterday, we probably would have had to cancel. =\

It's a huge relief to have the party completed. Everything went well (except a small projector problem that got sorted out). The food was great (lots of compliments), the speaker was entertaining and my worst nightmare didn't come true-- I was worried that someone's reservation form would "fall through the cracks" and they would show up and I wouldn't have them on the list. But it was all good!

I brought my camera last night, but totally forgot to take pictures! Instead I'll post a picture of the door prizes (I won one!!! --big grin!--) and one of the favors.

One person per table got a poinsettia and each person got a handmade paper star ornament (made by our president).

I'm going to get crafty with my remaining snow day. Perhaps I'll post my progress later this afternoon?

Star BOM #7

I've fallen a bit behind on Judy L.'s Star Block of the Month, but will hopefully catch up soon. I have the next one cut out, but I'm questioning one color placement, so I'm taking some time to mull it over.

One good thing is that I've worked ahead and cut out the background pieces for the remaining blocks, so that should save me a bit of time with the future blocks.