The Perpetual Project- :)

 Long time, no blog!  Life's been a little busy around here lately, my mom is not doing very well, she's 92 and having major issues so I've been spending a lot of time over there helping out my dad, and trying to help her.  She's had appointments and exams and an MRI and a neuro-psychological exam.  Still waiting to see the neurologist, but the preliminary diagnosis is Alzheimer's, but maybe with Parkinson's thrown in.  Home Health Care is doing a great job by sending over therapists to help us learn how to deal with the physical issues and troubles with swallowing, weakness, etc.  It's very heartbreaking to see her going thru all this and it's exhausting for all of us.  Needless to say, free time has dwindled away so while it seems like there isn't too much to show off right now, I haven't blogged in so long, that there turns out to be quite a bit.  

Here's the newest big project, I started this a couple of months ago- a perpetual  calendar using some of my precious bitty blocks from the group I'm in on Flickr, The Bitty Block Committee.  I made one big background piece and then made a monthly banner for each month and an extra one for birthdays.

 This is how I'll denote special days, with a wire embellishment.  I need to add some beads to it!

 I had so much fun with 2 girlfriends when I was with them last, going thru all the bitties I have accumulated and picking out 5 for each month's banner.  We were up til about 2 AM going thru them over and over, then willowing the bunches down, it was wonderful seeing all the bitties together like that, I have hundreds and hundreds of them, and I broke up a lot of sets but it's worth it. 

I'll make a new post soon to show you what else I've been working on in my sparse free time.  I received a great package in a swap called FLiRTS- Fab Little Random Treasures Swap, where we pick a difficulty level and then choose 5 things from that level that we might like to receive, then our partner picks one thing and makes it- I SCORED big time and got a great tote bag, I'll show you soon!  Can't tell or show you what I made yet, as it's still in transit.  

Anyway, I hope you like my calendar!  I have it hanging in my office near the computer and I love looking at it.  It's an original design, I kind of made it up as I went along and built it from the inside out, to fit the banners.  Big thanks to all my fellow Bitty Blockheads, I couldn't have made this without them!

Long time, no post, lots of photos!

 We had a new round of pincushions in our FLiPS swap, this is the one I made for my partner, craktpot/Teri...

 It's a little caravan/trailer and I used a tutorial from The Quilted Fish      

to start it off and then made some changes.  I altered the shape just a little, then

 I added a rear bumper and a license plate and "tail lights" and made the door so it could open, it's now a needle holder. 

 The little hitch thing on the front is actually a small pair of scissors that slides into a 

pocket and supports the trailer.  Car not included.  LOL

 The scissors work, just slide them out of the wire wrap.

 It even has a tiny TV antenna for those lonely nights at the campground.  ;)

 I received this wonderful rainbow turkey pincushion from my partner, andrcarl!  She also included a beautiful coordinating dishtowel that she crocheted for me.  Love that, too.

 One of my pincushion bebes didn't receive the pincushion that was sent to her, so I made her this one, totally copying it from one made by Little Miss Shabby.  I changed it slightly- made it taller, added ground walnut shells, etc, but it's so not original by me, but she liked it.  :)

In the mug rug swap, I made and sent off this one, which started with a bitty block...

... and this one- my partner liked "Kitschy" things....

 And I received this one from Jan/Stampqnjlr, isn't it cute?

 The Bitty Block Bee Queen is my friend Kimmie, and she loves The Wizard of Oz. 

 I made her this Horse of a Different Color... heavily inspired from a photo of an embroidered horse.  I used embroidery floss in 8 or 10 colors for the tail and mane.

 

...and the Medal of Courage.   This little medal was a real challenge, because it's so small, about the size of a half-dollar, maybe.  It's 3D and hangs loose from the ribbon. 

 The month before, the theme was sewing so I made a large fabric button and put it on 

sewing themed print fabric, and a steam iron.

 Did some bitties for winter and some for aliens...

 And some pelicans for a bird theme....

 And Medusas for the Fantasy theme....

 And Bizbee made a full and complete recovery from his illness and is doing great, but breaking things a lot and acting like a one-man demolition derby!  We love him madly.  :)  On a sadder note, we lost Shanzie Fyne, our last remaining collie, in early November to an enlarged heart.  Poor silly thing, we miss her.  She'd had lots of physical ailments in her 8 year life span, but she was a dear dog and lots of fun.

And now I think we're all caught up!  Phew.  If you read all this and looked at all the photos, give yourself a reward, you earned it!

Bizbee- Full Recovery! And a few bitties....

 The little guy is 100% back to normal, yay!  Thanks for all the comments and concern for his (and ours!) well-being.  He has now figured out how to get to the top of the computer armoire and he spends a lot of time napping up there.  The heat from the double halogen lamp attracts him, and Nosey Parker and Gravey, thankfully not all at the same time or I worry the top could collapse.  :)  I've had to move all the baskets off the top, though, because he thinks it's fun to knock them down onto me.  Lil' Brat!

 He and Parker on the back deck- I think there was a squirrel in the walnut tree and it got his attention.

 This month's Bitty Block Bee theme was "Hey, Cowboy!"  I made a brand of the initials of our "Queen"  and a little scene of a broken wagon wheel leaning on a cactus. 

 And in the BBC, the theme is Fall/Thanksgiving.  I'm making scarecrows. 

I am still spending a fair amount of time at my parents' house and this week is the big craft festival called "War Eagle" and I'm scheduled to work 2 days downtown for my friend that has a shop.  And the man who is doing most of the work there isn't feeling 100% himself, so I may be there more than I think.  And we need to get some of the animals to the vet for shots and a little problem with one dog, so this coming week is shaping up to be nuts with little to no sewing involved.  

I hope everyone else is having a nice fall.  Our colors are starting to show up and it's getting really pretty, if a bit messy.  Our back deck is leaf-covered and they are stuck down and wet because we got over 3 glorious inches of rain, woo-hoo!

Bizbee's been sick, but we think he's going to be OK!

 Last Tuesday night we realized that the baby, Bizbee, wasn't feeling too great.  We got him into the vet's office on Wed AM and he was running a high fever of 105º and they thought he might be a victim of what is commonly called "bobcat fever", aka cytauxzonosis, a highly-fatal illness that runs rampant around here.  It's a tick-borne illness and bobcats are the carrier of the tick.  

We had to leave him there and he was put on IV fluids and antibiotics.  He was one sick little cat.  Well, not too little, he weighed 7 pounds and they were pleased that he's a big boy and up to now, very healthy.  We visited him on Thursday and got him to eat for us, which was huge, and again on Friday.  Sat AM they called and wanted us to bring him home for the weekend and see how he does.  

We're giving him his meds here, 2 different things, one is 3x a day and one is 2x a day so we had to write it all down so we don't get it screwed up.  LOL

While his blood tests are not showing the cytauxz organism, they really think he has it and is fighting it off.  They've seen a lot of these cases and says he has the look about him, especially in his eyes.  We trust our vet completely and she has the nicest staff, they all love Bizbee to bits, he came from there and they know him well.  

We were SO worried, and our house felt really empty without him.  It's wonderful to have him home, even if we have to take him back tomorrow morning for more tests and treatments.  I hope they let him come home again, but we'll have to see what they say.  

Here he is last night, resting up for bedtime.  :)  He's guarding my little pile of fabrics that are waiting to be washed.

 And this is Bizbee this morning- see how he's working on that bandage?  Lil' brat!

 I just love when cats yawn.  :)

 Yep, we're all tickled that he's home!

 It's been a very unproductive week between running back and forth to the vet's office and spending lots of time with my parents.  I have absolutely nothing to show off that I've made. 

Lots to show- received swap items, weather predictions and more!

 First, the weather prediction- we cut open some wild persimmon seeds.  See the spoon shapes?  That means we're likely to have a very snowy winter.  If they were knives, it would mean cold, sharp winds.  Pretty cool, huh?  It's usually pretty accurate, too.

 I just recently received my FLiQS quilt from my wonderful partner, Jana/megmormel.  I just love this little circle/rainbow quilt, it's darling and so well made!  She also included a mug rug and some salt water taffy, she lives on the Eastern Seaboard.  It's delish and I just loved everything, thank you so much, talented Jana!

 Lovely, isn't it?  She pegged me very well, she knew I loved rainbow/bright colors and those lovely grays in the background are the perfect foil for the brights.

 The back is darling, too.  She embroidered and pieced the label. 

 In the Bitty Block Bee, bouncypoodle/Pattiann picked sunflowers for her theme.  I made her this screen door block with a view out onto a farm scene.  The cute fabric is by Wilson & Wilson Folk Art Co, here in Eureka Springs.  It's several years old and I've been hoarding it.  :)

 The door opens....

 A few little 3D touches...

 I let the fabric do the sunflower work for me this time.

 And the other block I made for Pattiann- the center is full of seeds, all outlined by machine.

 Since the FLiQS quilt I made has been delivered, I can now show off the label.  It's a kaleidoscope quilt so I thought I should make a kaleidoscope label.  My partner was mollyjolly/maria and it turns out, she's always loved kaleidoscopes, which I didn't know.  Lucky coincidence for us, I think!

 I used a piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric, embellished it with beads and covered it with heavy vinyl.  Added a tiny binding and then stitched it on to cover the end of the hand-appliqued base.  It will swivel up so she can see the words.

 This is the front of the quilt, almost all Kaffe Fassett fabrics. 

 And this is the wonderful mug rug I received from Jodie/jm1122 in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap!  I love it, it's got 2 sea turtles on one side and a fun octopus on the other! 

 She also send me generous pieces of her background fabrics because she knew I really liked them and treats for the dogs and cats, how sweet was THAT? 

Bizbee highly approves of the treats and has taken over part of the computer armoire, 

I think he likes my mouse!

 

So it's been a busy few weeks around with great stuff arriving in the mail and ooohing and aaaahing!  I hope you've been having fun, too.  I'm trying to think of a project to get me going.  We're going thru some issues with my mom and her health right now and I could use a distraction.  I'm tossing around using some of my bitty blocks to make a perpetual calendar. If I can BEAR to use some of them, that is, and if I can make myself actually make a real decision, I'm turning into a waffler and I hate that!

Finished Doll Quilt- FLiQS and some cute Bizbee-ness!

Had to start out with a cute shot of the boy sleeping on the doll quilt before I got it quilted. 

And here it is, quilted..... I just enhanced the light circles by quilting inside them and carrying it into the border. 

Here it is all finished....

...with a hint of the back showing.  

For a change, the binding worked well with the front and the back, yay.  The backing is cool, looks great up close, click on the photo for a closer view.

I haven't made a label yet.

And here's Bizbee snoozing on the quilt in the rocking chair.  

He obviously doesn't appreciate the lamp being on and shining in his eyes.  :)

He got neutered last week and came home from the vet, same day, 

feeling fine and playful and full of beans!   We were glad to get him back, 

we missed him that day for the whole 6 hours he was gone. 

Happy Labor Day!  I hope you are all off doing something fun instead of reading this blog.  :)