A million little postage stamps

I love Fig Tree fabrics and chose Breakfast at Tiffany's for my postage stamp quilt. I used Moda Bella Solids Snow for my solid fabric choice. I'm amazed at how well it matches the BAT fabric. Now that the choice is made the cutting begins.

Strips upon strips upon strips upon strips. 3 yards of fabric cut up into 2 1/2 inch strips. That's a grand total of 46 strips or so (maybe a little more, I lost count). I sorted my strips into strip sets and sewed until the cows came home.



After all my strip sets were sewn and pressed I was ready to cut them into 2 1/2 inch strips. And so I cut until the cows came home. And here I am...I lost steam, I admit it. It's a lot of sewing and cutting to get to this point. Can you imagine sewing a million 2 1/2 inch squares together NOT doing the strip sewing method? That's what they used to do, really it is.


I've put my pile of sewn strips aside in blocks and I will get to them when I get to them. I actually need to buy some more Bella Solid Snow so my quilt will be big enough for my queen sized bed. Until I get that, the strips sets will sit. Right now I have to start something new (insert evil laugh).


Baby quilt, here I come....

Rise of the dead blog....

It's my hope, we'll see if it works.

So much has happened in our lives since I last posted to the blog. Lots that has been rather traumatic, some that has been rather happy, some that leaves us trembling in anticipatory fear.

So let's start with me.

Last year in February I got a new job. I was no longer working in the most wonderful place on the face of the earth (the fire hall). I applied for and got, a job at the Aquatic Center. I have been there now for almost 17 months and it has come to be my new home. It took time, and I had huge growing pains, but I'm in for the long haul now, and it's not a bad thing.


Hunter entered grade 5 and it all seemed to start swimmingly. Although at the very start of the year, before class assignments were finalized, I had asked for him to be moved to a different class room. The principal refused, saying give it a go, if it doesn't work we can make a change. It did not work, it didn't work in so big a way that I had a 10 year old child on my hands who was threatening suicide. Despite that, the principal still refused to move. She brought in all kinds of people to make Hunter go back to the class room he was clearly suffering in. 3 months later, in late November, we finally had some support in the school counselor and he was removed from the class and placed in another. Hunter had some growing pains due to the negligence of administration, but he excelled and was once again on the honor roll consistently through to the end of the year. He is doing very well, happy and well adjusted once again. It was a long 5 months.


Ryder was diagnosed with strep throat in November, then again in December, and again in January, yet again in February, then March, and April, and May, and June, and July and I can almost guarantee August and September will be added. We are on the list for a tonsillectomy. We will have to travel to Quesnel for that, but at this point, whatever it takes to get him well. The poor kid is so tired of being sick, he just cries now when he knows he's coming down with another bout. It is so classic we always 'just know' when it is happening. Hopefully sometime in September/October we will see the end of it all.


We got another dog. He's an Australian shepherd who we called Archibald Schmeag (Archie). He is a great addition to the family, although his herding bark just about sends us to the moon some days. He's pretty and he's a great companion for Mike when he goes skiing and biking. Archie got the pleasure of accompanying Mike to the Avalanche chute this year, his first trip skiing. He bikes with him 3-4x/week. So we are a 2 dog family again.


So that's it in a nutshell. Pretty much. I am an avid quilter now, having dived back in headfirst. I bought a new sewing machine, my very first Bernina. It is a complete joy to use, although a bit of a learning curve. I had it for a month and already used it so much that I had to take it in to see how it is cleaned and oiled. Now I can take care of Bea all by myself.

I'm re-starting my blog and it will soon be all about my quilting projects, my favorite new fabrics and my finishes. Hold onto your hats, it might be a bumpy ride.

The latest and greatest from my sewing machine

I have always enjoyed quilting. It's something I got into when my first son was about 3 months old. I wanted to make a quilt for his crib. So began my sojourn. I began a happy stash habit that included quilt books, quilt fabric and wishes for more time.

I had always wanted to make a fat quarter quilt. It's a quilt that is made solely out of fat quarters of fabric (18" x 22" or so) rather than fabric purchased by the metre. When my local craft store was going out of business I bought up enough of them to make one for my youngest son who is now 6.

He loves his quilt...well the top of it at least. I have yet to put it together and quilt it, but hopefully that will be soon.

There's no sickness like old sickness

and trust me, sickness in our house is getting old, really, really, really fast.

So far in the last 2 weeks we have endured 105 degree temperatures in one child, puking, diarrhea, a visit to the after hours clinic and a diagnosis of tonsilitis, then 7 days of antibiotics. At the same time we put up with a barking, seal like cough, slight fever, stuffiness, and constant whining. Now THAT has worked into 104 degree temperatures in the barking child, 2 bottles of the dreaded Tylenol, a 90 minute visit to the after hours clinic stacked with a million sick germs (gack) to only be told, heck, it's just a virus, it will run it's course.

Today, after 2 1/2 weeks of insanity and many many days of missed work, we are heading to the doctor in the hopes of getting a diagnosis of SOMETHING and some medicine to make it all go away.

In all of this, thankfully, I have been the only one to remain healthy. Pardon me while I go find some wood to knock on. I can say now, without a doubt, that grown men are far worse when sick than 5 year old children. It truly is one of those bizarre phenomena that you hear about and manage to forget about until you are stuck right in the middle of it.

This is the first year I have actually let the thought of a flu shot linger in my brain for any length of time before being discarded. I'm still not convinced it's the right thing to do, but it lingers there now from time to time.

I cannot say enough how thankful I am for a flexible workplace and understanding bosses!

Random thoughts.....on marriage

The other day I was showing my 'other half' my new blog. He though it was fabulous. His only comments was "what about me?"

It seems I didn't mention enough about him in my ABOUT ME section. And besides me telling him it's not about you, it's supposed to be about me, it got me thinking. Am I really so independent in our marriage that he more or less falls somewhere behind me, the boys, my work, my schooling, my job, my hobbies? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that, yes, he bobs around way in the background, hardly noticed, except when he pipes up and says "what about me?"

I don't know why this is. Maybe years of being single, I didn't get married until I was 33. Maybe from being raised in a single parent family, where there was only one adult/parent, all the time, it was normal. It strikes me that we are both single parents living in the same home. Is that weird? It seems to work for us.

I remember telling my mother once that I thought the perfect marriage arrangement would be where a couple owned a duplex, she lived in one side, he lived in the other and they co-habited for carnal pleasures when the mood struck, the kids lived wherever. I feel like I am living a self fulfilling prophecy and I'm not sure it's a good thing. Of course, I'm not entirely sure it's a bad thing either.

I'm a very non dependent type. I like being alone, I don't need a lot of nurturing and companionship, at least I don't think I do. In fact, the only time this type of stuff pushes itself to the front of my thought process is when someone else asks "what about me?"

This brings up another dependent marital relationship type thing. The whole "I not allowed to do that.", or "I'll have to ask if I can first." We are all adults, we are all in charge of our destinies. Why as an adult do I have to ask if I can do something. In turn, why would I expect another adult to ask me if they could do something. It's bad enough that 2 children must ask me repeatedly to do anything, including going pee. Don't get me wrong, once a decision is made, it shows consideration if you tell me about it, but don't ask me and I won't ask you. I shake my head at my husband's friends who say things like "J**** won't let me do that." Won't LET you? No, I don't understand it and will never let that permeate my marriage.

Oh and just so we all know, and so some insecurities are squelched...I am married to Mike, the father of my 2 boys. We have been together for almost 15 years, married for almost 8. We are happily sorta married. Two independent souls raising 2 independent souls all living in the same house. We love each other even though neither of us says it all the time. We make sure we say it to our children all the time though, we don't really want them to wind up like we are, or more to the point, I don't want them winding up the way I did. Mike's okay, but I think I'm wearing him down.

Stacey...friend, sister, daughter, but most of all MOTHER

Gone, but never forgotten. Her strength of character was a humbling thing to witness as she battled the cancer that would finally take her life. Stacey's children were the light of her life and she wanted nothing more than to live for them, and so she fought, so courageously, for them to know her, be part of her, to ensure that she was and always will be a very large part of them. To Kelsey, Logan, Bailey, Avery and Saylor. Your mom was someone we should all strive to emulate. She will never ever be forgotten.

One dog at a time....

We have traditionally been a two dog family. We accomplish this by being suckers for a cute face. However, the faces never seem to be cute enough to keep up with the required exercise and attention required by dogs...unless they are low maintenance bulldog types. Consequently, on the weekend, after much thought, we re-homed our Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix called Fergus.

Fergus was the cutest puppy of all time. He was even quite calm and mellow...and then he grew. He grew and he grew into this monstrously huge beast that sucked the life out of all of us. Which is great if the one that committed to take him for runs 3 days a week was still committed to doing that. With a continued flagging commitment in evidence, I issued a warning "Train the dog to be polite and well behaved (i.e. not knock people who visit over with his joyfulness) or he will have to live elsewhere!" Training was not initiated so I decided it was time to find Fergus a home that would spend the necessary amount of time running and playing with him. He now lives on 5 acres out in the country with a family of 8. Lucky dog.

And so, we are committed to one dog at a time. With the love of MY life, Olive Oyle. She's an American Bulldog who loves ME and only ME. Don't get me wrong, she is a family dog and loves the boys and the man of the house, but in her heart of hearts, she loves me the best. And I am happy with that. Can't say my husband is as content with that as I am, but we are taking it one dog at a time.