Quilting in the Desert

I attended 2 classes at QID in the last week. It is held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and the classes are at Ottawa University, very handy to I-17 for commuters. Thursday I sewed at Sue Nickels class, Stitched Raw Edge Applique, and practiced her machine applique method. I think I will be using this method most of the time from now on, and Sue is a great teacher and a very nice person too. My block is less than 1/4 stitched, but I did finish the fusing on Friday and will stitch it as soon as I finish the hearts I have at the machine now.
Then on Saturday I attended Cristy Finchers class Suzie-Q, which is a large black-eyed susan using Sharon Schamber's(Cristy's mother)Piece-lique method. It is fiddly, for sure, but worth it if you are making something one-of-a-kind. I sure wouldn't want to do it if I was making 100 blocks! But look at what I made! DH asked what I am going to do with it, but I have no idea. Its enough right now to hang it up until I am ready to stitch it. It is just all glued together right now, as I somehow managed to lose my sewing machine power cord between Thursday and Saturday.
When I unpacked on Saturday, I just figured I had left it at home since I had to unpack and repack before the Sat class, but looked when I got home last night and its not here either. I must have left it Thursday at the first class. I will email Audrey to see if anybody turned it it, but I don't have much hope of getting it back. It shouldn't be too hard to find another (famous last words), but darn I hate losing stuff that way.

No surprise here. Try it yourself at home.

You are a Hippie

You are a total hippie. While you may not wear birks or smell of incense, you have the soul of a hippie. You don't trust authority, and you do as you please. You're willing to take a stand, even when what you believe isn't popular. You like to experiment with ideas, lifestyles, and different subcultures. You always gravitate toward what's radical and subversive. Normal, mainstream culture doesn't really resonate with you.

Are You a Hippie?

January socks


I really need to get a pair of sock blockers. These look very different on. I started with a published free pattern, then switched to a ribbing pattern because I wanted to work on these socks at work and can't be looking at a pattern all the time. The yarn is Tofutsies, from a Sock Club offering several months back, and I used HiyaHiya sx00 circs, 2 socks on 2 circs. I love the Tofutsies yarn and the yardage is incredible. I probably have enough left for 2/3 of another pair.


http://luvkuku.blogspot.com/
http://luvkukukitty.etsy.com/

Take this quiz

You Are 80% Creative

You are beyond creative. You are a true artist - even if it's not in the conventional sense of the word. You love creating for its own sake, and you find yourself quite inspired at times.

How Creative Are You?

>

Nasty cold

I am off from work today for my first ever sick day.  I could probably have gone, but just don't think I should be riding around in the bus coughing and sneezing to make everyone else sick.  After all, that is the way I got it and it pisses me off.  I haven't had a real bad cold for several years, and it has surely been because I have stayed out of crowds in cold season, actually pretty much anytime.  But those days are gone, as I have to earn money and good part-time jobs are hard to find.

Its raining off and on all day today also, and I can just imagine what the freeways are like, so I'm glad to be home. 

 

/

Thank you!

Why have people stopped saying "Thank you" to each other?  I'm not just talking about people who don't know any better.  I'm talking about people who WERE brought up to write thank you notes or at least make a phone call when they receive a gift.  Its gotten to where we are even grateful for the occasional email that casually refers to the gift, as that is the best we will ever get.

I rant about this periodically as I have found it to be the case even in my own family.  I can't pretend that it is only  strangers that completely ignore what we oldsters regard as the common courtesies.

Why do I bring this up now?  My MIL and I were talking just before Christmas, and she asked me what she could do about not receiving any thank yous or even acknowledgements of some very "nice" birthday checks she had sent to one of her grandchildren and his wife.  I (not flippantly at all, but wearily) said that she would probably just have to get used to it.  My solution has been to stop sending gifts rather than fret over whether the giftee even received the item.  If I have to know, I send a stamped self-addressed postcard in the package saying that it arrived safely.  Actually, that has gotten me some thank you emails for later gifts.  DH was horrified when I told him I had done that, but then he wasn't the one getting gut-aches from fretting about it.  My own niece has never even acknowledged her wedding gift, a quilt I designed and made myself in her wedding colors, although her mother said she liked it.

Excuse, everybody's busy.  Sure they are, but so is everybody else, and so has everybody always been busy.  People choose not to observe the courtesies or they choose to, no excuses.

I jumped all over one of my SILs because her kids graduated from high school before I even saw an example of their handwriting (as in a thank you note), but she was unapologetic.  She says she just does it for them, and that they will send a note if they REALLY like the gift.  And its true, they both did send notes for their graduation quilts.  But she doesn't seem to care that they have not developed any foundation for thanking.  Perhaps these values are obsolete; my DH says they are.

I don't even give handmade gifts to most people anymore, as they are not valued.  If they were valued, surely they would thank the maker.  I would love to knit socks for my grandchildren, but I have never ever heard from anyone that such gifts are wanted or appreciated.  I doubt if they even know such a thing as writing a thank you note exists.

I'd better quit.  Just getting myself all depressed.  I'll pet the dogs.  THEY are lovingly grateful for even a pat on the head, and feeding them calls for paroxysms of joy.  That'll do.

Desert Dog

Imagine if you will, my 13 pound Robin trying to keep all her feet off the wet ground and still go pee. DH came indoors laughing hysterically after taking her out. The only reason she consented to go out at ALL is that it was raining last night, so she hadn't gone since yesterday afternoon. When you make her go out when its wet, she stands on the stoop rug and waits and waits, picking up each foot in turn to try and keep it dry, until you and Sam come back and you can all go inside.

---

Lazy day, NOT

I seem to end up working at something nonstop whenever I am home alone now, instead of being able to take some time to just laze around and enjoy being alone. I know why; its because I get so far behind with Bill home so much. I don't know why he can't schedule his days to visit his girlfriend on days I am home instead of going there on the same days I work at the auction. It is irritating, although I suppose I should be touched that he wants to spend the time with me. The problem is that he feels my time is his to dispose of but his time is also his. So I never get to do anything I want to do, and especially on the computer or sewing machine. He thinks it is his duty to keep me from spending too much time in the studio, and he thinks more than an hour per day is too much time. So, I have many other things to do today and I'd better go do them.
Robin is doing pretty well. THe vet says she does have a nice deep groove on her patella, so the trick is to put it back whenever it does out, and give her RImadyl to control inflammation. It does seem to work, and hopefully she will outgrow the slipping patella. Anyway, its not near bad enough to require surgery, yet.

CIC Christmas vests

And here are the 3 vests. SO, correction, total is 17 pairs of socks and 3 vests instead of 18 socks and 2 vests. Pretty good, huh?

more Christmas CIC socks

Here are another 8 pairs.

Christmas CIC socks

I didn't knit all 11 pair of these in December, but I did most of them. I also knitted 9 other pair and 2 vests and sent the whole she-bang to Children in Common in the names of my loved ones. Some, like my MIL, do no charity work at all, and others, like my DM, do other charity things but cannot knit, and others like my sis and nieces are just so busy that they end up giving money instead of time. THat's what I used to do, but my circumstances have changed, and now I have more time than money. And I really love knitting socks for kids that really need them.

AJ in AZ
http://luvkuku.blogspot.com/
http://luvkukukitty.etsy.com/

Etsy sales

Today I sold 3 bags to the same person from my Etsy store, so I am mailing them Priority in the morning.  That really helps me; the deposit will help me pay my credit card payments. I was worried, as my work has begun to figure the way they pay for auction day differently, and I am making about $100 less per week than I was making before.  I may have to add another day to my workweek unless I get an end of year substantial raise.

 

We went to the Lakeside Farmers Market at Estrella Mountain Ranch yesterday, but there was really only a couple of farmers selling produce there.  Most of the booths were crafters and artisans.  DH and I actually discussed selling my quilts and felted bags there, but once I started talking to the people who run the place, pretty much decided it would be too much trouble.  You have to have an Az state tax license and a million-dollar liability insurance policy in place before they will even discuss letting you rent a space.

It would begin to be too much like a real business then, as I would have to sell  a lot, and spend most of my time making more salable stuff to justify the expense, never mind how cheap the actual booth rent is.  For now I will just stick with Etsy.  Its not steady at all, but should build as more and more people get disgusted with ebay's expense and plethora of sub-standard goods.  Etsy only lets you sell handmade stuff and has a reporting function if you think someone is trying to turn it into a little ebay and resell cheap goods from elsewhere.

http://luvkuku.blogspot.com/
http://luvkukukitty.etsy.com/

Ranting, again

I have thought of a long blog entry every day this week, but unfortunately they always turn into rants about DH, no matter what subject I started with. There are a lot of things I need to get off my chest, though, so I will have to just start writing. I can't really call up somebody and tell them all these things; who would be interested anyway? And I can't afford marriage counselling, and he refuses to go there with me anyway. He won't even agree to go visit a friend who is a psychologist because he doesn't want to hear that anything he chooses to do might be wrong. Like having his girlfriend (who he doesn't even have the sensitivity to keep a secret, but instead goes with openly and TELLS me where they go and what they do(no sex, thank goodness)), and like complaining that I don't talk to him anymore, but jumps all over me for absolutely any comment I make, or like telling me I can't give HIS dog any training because he doesn't want me ruining him, then deciding that I need to put MY dog to sleep because of her health issues. See, it all gets out of hand very quickly.
Don't forget, I am only allowed to use the computer when he isn't here, and actually I can't spend more than a half hour in my studio sewing either, when he's here, and I have to give him more than half of my paycheck to run this place, but somehow I have to come up with the money for extra groceries, and vet bills, and etc, etc, but heaven forbid I should work on anything that can make me some money when he's here. He went ballistic last week because I drove down to the mailbox to mail out a package containing a felted bag that I sold on Etsy. I drive too much according to him, while he drives to North Phoenix to visit his girlfriend 3 or 4 days a week.
I have to take RObin to the vet to have her hips x-rayed now, and I'll have to pay with my secret credit card, because I am forbidden to use his cards, and I have to give him the money from my paycheck that I could pay it with, and I have orders from him to take her to be x-rayed NOW. I doubt that he cares if she is in pain; he just wants a vet quote to surgery on her to use for ammunition when he rants about putting her down. There I go bawling again; I'd better close. I will write how the vet visit goes.

Dogs and exercise

I was thinking this morning while taking the 1st of the daily several long walks with Robin and Sammy that its no wonder so many Aussies end up in shelters and pounds.  Novices may THINK they know what it means to have a high-energy herding breed, but reality is always a surprise.  We knew what we were getting into with these 2, as we had regular Aussies back in the 1980's, before the show breeders made them so huge.  THe miniatures now are just a little smaller than the original Australian Shepherds I remember from the early 1960's in eastern Colorado.  THe toys are sheer indulgence.  THeoretically a toy should require less exercise, so a city dweller could manage one successfully.  I think that anybody contemplating getting ANY Aussie should realize though that they will NEVER get too much exercise, no matter the size, and will rarely think they have enough.  ANd that will only last a few hours.
We have 20 acres that is all up and down, so can just go for walks several times a day.  ANd it is still a pain sometimes, but worth it.  THey are still wonderful dogs and add so much to my/our quality of life.

ATVs in the desert

With the wonderful damp ground out there from Fridays all day rain, the ATVers were out in force yesterday, and they are again today.  I guess the opportunity to tear up the desert oven worse than usual has them all excited.  THey can make new marks everywhere they go, and then SEE where they have been.
I hate them.  There are marks on our land that look as if made yesterday that I know for a fact are at least 100 years old, since we are only the third owner since the original homesteader.  They didn't know any better then, but any fool ought to be able to understand that there won't be any NEW ground once all the old ground has its original covering destroyed.  Here in the desert, things never grow back; not in human lifetimes anyway.

Rain, finally

It rained nearly all day yesterday and late into the night.  We lost our power from around 4-6 and then again from 7-9, so lit the oil lamps and candles while we listened to it rain.  I love rain.
Miss RObin the Princess is nearly a year old, and has never really been rained on before, so she was determined not to go out until it stopped.  Even when I carried her out and halfway up the hill, she just hunched up and held up a paw and refused to move.  It got fairly irritating after a while, and she did finally pee, but managed to keep from number 2 until this morning after the rain stopped.  Sam has never been rained on before either, but like everything else, he took it as an opportunity for enjoyment and had a great time splashing around.  They are SO different.

More about Mystery Quilt

I believe that I will applique little chicken shapes on the light-colored center of the quilt top, just as soon as I find the book with chicken appliques in it. Then I will save the whole thing until I find the right person for it. It barely made a dent on my chicken fabrics, so there are plenty more where that came from.

One day Mystery QUilt

I made this quilt top last Sunday as a one day mystery with Planet Patchwork and about 3000 other quilters around the world. It was meant to be 5-fabric quilt but I only had enough of one fabric, the lime print, so just scrapped the others, using a fabric until it ran out and then adding another of a similar value. It was great fun, but I was unable to use the chat at the same time as the directions on my dial-up.

I set up my Qwest Broadband this morning and already am totally in love with it. Imagine not having to sit forever, over and over, waiting for pages to load. And now I can even download .pdf files instantly. THere were lots of web pages I couldn't get to load at all with dial-up, so I am drunk with surfing the internet. ANd the phone rang and I answered it while I am online. I love it.

Valley Fever

It was officially confirmed on October 26 that Sammy has Valley Fever.  Its a relief in some ways, as he was getting sicker on the antibiotics that the vet started him on, thinking he had a bad bacterial pneumonia.  FIrst he kept vomitting teribly with the generic Keflex, and then he just got worse with the Baytril and Centrine.  Bill drove to Youngtown to get the itraconazole last Saturday rather than wait for it to be sent out, and I have been giving it twice a day since.  He doesn't have much appetite, but is always happy to accept a treat from your hand, and that makes it soooo much easier.  Robin, on the other hand, has to have an antihistamine pill every day, and you just cannot fool her into taking it in a treat.  She spits everything out and thoroughly inspects it before eating it tiny piece by tiny piece, so I just have to put them down her throat and then follow with a treat for allowing me to do it without struggling.  Sammy struggles at anything of the sort , so we are doubly glad he takes the pills.

The disease seems to go something like tuberculosis, or lots of other chronic diseases, as he feels better and worse depending on many things.  Sometimes he acts almost normal, and other times the coughing just tears your heart out.  At least he isn't vomiting anymore.

The poor dog is only 7 months old, and before he got sick, was just a bundle of lovable joy with tons of energy.  He used to run Robin ragged, to where she would start trying to discipline him for real, to make him leave her alone.  Now she is just bouncing off the walls and wants him to play with HER so bad.  I end up taking many extra trips up the hill and around the property with her to burn off energy, and leave him in the house.  He does want to walk with us morning and night, but doesn't range very far out.

The vet and the websites say 6-9-12 months of meds to be cured, if that can be done.  Sometimes it can't be done, but we have high hopes for him, since we caught it so quickly.  THe medicine isn't near as expensive as I was led to think by other people who had dogs with Valley Fever, only $28.80 for a month's supply at this dosage.  We'll have to see if it is helping at his next appointment for blood work in a month.

 

 

AJ

Nobody can see me.

You have been sent 2 pictures.PB010001.JPGPB040009.JPGThese pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

 

 

AJ Wischmeyer, Quiltmaker

ajwisch@joimail.com

http://luvkuku.blogspot.com/

http://luvkukukitty.etsy.com