Flora's Bee Crazy Quilter 
Kitchen katastrophy a saga in several parts
So around july 1st-ish My 30 year old gas stove top decided it was time to unalive itself. After a couple months lighting it with matches, because it's first symptom, was the automatic spark stopped working. Needless to say, we needed a new one for a while. We were just avoiding the inevitable.Yes, it had symptoms, multiple. Over several months.We thought, as you do, If this is the worst that happens we can live with it....It wasn't Every once in a while you would get a whiff of gas and go make sure all the burners were off and the furnace and water heater were ok, 'cause they're gas too. It would go away and everything would be fine for a while.Until it wasn't We were smelling more gas, more often and then the gas bill came. It was twice as high as it usually was. sooooo, this needed better investigating shoes. So I did what you do, I took everything apart washed it all good, because it may be last time I did this, I didn't connect something right, put it back together again, making sure everything was connected right, turned it on and it worked just fine, for a few days, starter and all........OK, then....A few days later, the starters stopped and a few days after that, we smelled the wafting, again. *sigh*So that wasn't it.We took it apart more, switching the burners around and, again a few days of works just fine, followed by the same deterioration. Ungh!FINE! During this time I had not been idyll, I had been researching new stoves , wow are they expensive! And on what planet, do they need to be connected to the internet?One more attempt to take it apart fiddle with the electrical connectors. This is in the DDH's wheelhouse, My electrical expertise is limited to rewiring lamps and dusting the insides of the sewing machines, so I sat and watched. This where we discovered there was a limit to the amount of apart we could take the stove. the top and bottom are riveted closed, how annoying!Anyhow, we put it all back together again, AGAIN, aaaannd you guessed it, same glide path of worksjustfine followed by badness. Well Poo! With one BIG exception, One fine morning, I went to boil water for coffee and flames started shooting out of, not just the burner, but the knobs too. EEP! O.O!!Quick as a bunny, I turned the gas off at the main connector under the stove........... HONEY!!!!After testing this experience for himself, we finally decided it was dead. I had decided this at chapter FINE! but, well, you know. Anyway, a complete disconnecting and dismantle later we discovered the body of the stove, you know that riveted closed part we couldn't get to?, was full of water !!!!! (insert Flora looses her shit here) WTAF!. Which then proceeded to bleed all over the kitchen floor, Lovely. -.-*Grumble Grumble* One has now to assume the trouble with the stove started here, with the rusted out bits in the part of the stove that was inaccessible, and nOt where we were trying to fix it. *Fuss fuss fuss*So we have this hole in the counter,where the stove is, now, not. and are waiting for it's replacement. With baited breath.August 15th. This was the soonest we could get ANYTHING close to what we wanted,as everything else was October.....November..... when hell freezes over..... this all happened around july 1st, so -.-14 more days. I bought an electric kettle to boil water for coffee......
2 " HstI make my baby HST's with the left over corners of the larger HST's from the Birds as you can see there are a lot of themI have found the easiest way to get them is after you sew the seam for the birds down the center of your square is to take another seam 1/4" toward one corner to get the smaller HSTAll the bird hst squares end up being 2" from an original square of 2 1/2"and the leftover hst's are 1 1/2" or sosizes will vary depending on your level of OCD ;)And here are some gees to round off what I have so far in the purples spools are to come later today maybe, I was busy the first half of this month with some friends in town visiting, doing the tourist guide thing and so forthI will get back to stitching again eventually
A sad day in Woodinville. Our best Quilt store is closing.She managed to stay open in the middle of Woodenville Wine country when all around her were being pushed away in favor of more tasting rooms. She survived and thrived moving to a smaller store. Her heroic efforts to stay open and useful in the community, during covid, should have gotten her a medal for community service! She organized a fearful bunch of nattering sewers, to make hundreds of thousands of masks. When no one could find them for love or money, She coordinated us and made sure we knew how to make them so they were sturdy and filtered, then donated them all to local elderly shelters, hospitals and first responders, so no one would go "Naked" in the crisis. This is how you "grass roots" the heck out of a horrible situation!Here is where I found my tribe in Washington and spent may hours learning creating, teaching and laughing with friends. When I absolutely could not "people" She understood. I could go there and still feel wanted and needed for my skills. She encouraged me to teach when I didn't think I could and encouraged me to join the local guild, where I could be useful to that community also. If it weren't for her delicate size 8's in my posterior, I would not have published 3 magazine articles or stood up before the entire guild to share my passion for Crazy Quilting or give a speech. Susan has been a cornerstone of our quilting community, a bulwark in tough times and a encouraging person who is generous to a fault. Her store was our beacon, a haven of pretty fabric, new ideas and cheerful discourse. She had the best taste in color and fabric and her hand on the pulse of our community, where we were all welcome and inspired to bigger better things.She brought us all together, when times were bleak and the rest of us didn't know what to do, but she did.She will be missed by all of us.
RSC Bird beaks
So anyone making these birds who wants to put beaks on I suggest you do it as you go because Hand embroidering Beaks and eyes on 5 to 10 of them at a time is much easier than letting them pile up for half a year And having to do all 60 at once.Beaks are buttonhole stitch, eyes are cast on in variegated vidani thread so there is a bit of variation to them
RSC Light and dark Blues
So the new batch of Spools and birds are in bluesConfused GeeseMany spools2 birdiesAnyone know what a ganglian cyst is and why it attacks? I had one, which I don't recommend, took 2 weeks to calm down!More BirdiesI dislike when my body decides to misbehave on a whim......It's all better now but damn that was inconvenient. I am starting to embroider beaks on my birds with a blanket stitch as there are about 50 of them at this point it's going to take a while.Irises are happythough if it keeps raining It may take shorter than I think!There are BeezzzzzThis one is so dark!
Paris bead tutorial CQ Block
So you all may remember, or not, way back at the end of the first millennium of plague, in february of 2021 I was asked to do a tutorial, (to review go here) for Lisa Plooster Bonie's Crazy quilt magazine I know that's a lot of links. But I like to attribute things where I can.Any way here's what I finally did with it.I found the perfect silk ribbon for those confetti colored flowers, from Mary Jo Hiney's "Flower Therapy" just to give you one more link, which were so much fun to make, I put them everywhere.But it was mostly to cover up that yellow swoosh, which looked so off I put the block aside.For a year. or more?Ever done that before? Made a design choice, stuck with it, because it wasn't bad......just off.Then revised it, then did it again but got so discouraged with all the holes you were putting in your fabric, it you stopped loving on a project?Here's one of mine. (yes, there are more!)I started this as part of my 2017 crazy quilt journal project and totally lost steam after six blocksAll that said, I encourage you to take one of those out of your stash and look at it again.Stare at it for a few days, let it stare back.It is probably not as bad as you thought it was, and actually, you cAn do something with it.It may just take a while, a few stops and starts. What I am trying to say is, don't be afraid to take those old languishing blocks out of the closet/drawer/blackholeyou banished them to for "not rightness" go look at them again. you might be pleasantly surprised But eventually some designer bug wakes up at the back of your brain and woosh! It's done! And it's prettySpeaking of bugs, maybe it needs a dragonfly or two, and a few more bugs..........hmmm
RSC Sage and Forest Green part #2
Just a few left over birdsI had lots of scraps for these fellowsFunny how the more you use the more you have.The bins are never empty, just more organizedHow does that happen?I need another Scrap catcher.
RSC Sage and Forest green
Making geese, just a few, 2 different sizes and spools, which are quick and easy when your'e busy
Stays!
I made a pair of staysIt's about 1/2 and 1/2, machine sewed and hand sewedso impressive but not crazy makingThere is enough out there to make me crazy I don't need helpso far they fit well though now that I have been wearing them for a few house the are a bit short wasted but I need to loose a few pounds which seems to even it out.WhatevsThey are not symmetrical because I am not symmetrical.I'm ok with this. Cool thing is they are reversible!Wish I had more of the William Morris prints though!I ended up combining two different prints cause I only had 1/4 yard of each so there are 4 panels of on print and 4 panels of the otherI made it work and it looks good to me!
If other's don't suffer.
We have the best medical care in the world, IF YOU CAN PAY FOR ITBut that is the point for these people isn't it.I can't be seen to be winning, if you don't loose.I can't have the best, if you can have it too.My wealth and privilege, isn't as satisfying if other's don't suffer.My piety, isn't as heavenly, if other's don't suffer.My control, over those beneath my contempt isn't as pleasurable, if other's don't suffer. If other's don't suffer. If other's don't suffer.If other's don't suffer.If other's don't suffer.If other's don't suffer.If other's don't suffer.If other's don't suffer.
Cathy's Block is now a box!
I finished this block and mounted it quite a while ago but then it sat on my table with nothing to do but look pretty fabulous for a long time until I got my excrement together to finish what I intended to do with itEven the inside of the box was readyI just hadn't yet decided on the fabric for the outside of the boxSo needing to get SOMETHING doneI finally shifted myself and went through my fabric stashAnd there you goEasy peasyBob's your uncle
I finally did it
The culprit Don't get all excited, it's nothing good, although it had a good outcome.So at 55 I have finally sewed myself to my work with the machineUnghI have always been cautious about this eventuality as most of the women in my family sew in some capacity and they all have "War" stories about putting the needle through a finger.And I distinctly remember having to help my Mother, pull the needle out of her thumb with a pair of pliers, when she did hersSo I knew this was a possibilityIt is quite a shock when it happens you thoughAt first I couldn't understand, why had the machine stopped?What could it have possibly hit?There was no pin to hit therePro-tip: don't try to yank your hand away, it's attached.As I realized what had happened, at first I was astonished, It hadn't yet begun to hurt.Then worried about the piece I was sewing, no blood YAY!, Yet.Unscrew the needle from the machine, look to see the damage, Wow! good machine it went clear through the finger, thread and all!poke it, ow, OK don't poke itGrab a pair of pliers on the way to the bathroom, find the bandaids and the gauze, now where did I put the damned things?Try to pull it out myself........................Herngh!.........................nope it's stuck*Sigh*Go look up the nearest urgent care facilitycall doctors office and see what they can do, go tell DDHwho react's like It's baby time, It's just a needle honey, Icandrivemyselfdon'tbesilly. Needless to say I did not drive myselfBy the time we got the "so sorry we're booked you need to go to the urgent care facility"20 minutes had come and gone, we were already on our way down the hill, and the finger started to hurtI'm adding the gory details for those who are interested but if you are at all squeamish, don't look.you have been warnedYep that's the tread I was usingOOOwuie!The two dots down by the knuckle are from the lidocaine shot, much better.Good thing I'd taken off my Wedding ring the day before to clean it and hadn't gotten around to putting it back on yet! Otherwise it too would be stuck and I was informed they might have had to cut it off!The nice doctor and nurses fussed over me for about an hour and a half giving me a lidocaine shot.AAHHHHH! Much better! It ended up taking two of them to pull the needle out, with hemostats (Not the tool for the job) turns out my pliers would have been better! Then got my hand x-rayed 4 different ways to make sure It wasn't through the bone, it wasn't.Bones are surprisingly sturdy things, I love my skeleton!Anyway, back home again, with a bottle of hydrocodone which now that the initial trauma and swelling are gone I don't really need. This morning you can barely see where it happened and it doesn't hurt unless you poke it hard, so don't do that!Just a little bruised, poor thingIt's that dot on the 4th finger
Happy Eoster
The sun is shinning and the bunnies are bouncing, the earth is awakening to the spring, blessed be!
RSC Pink
Geese don't migrate in April, do they?All I know is I'm going to have a ton of them by the time this year is overI all sorts of glorious colors! Woo-hoo!and enough birds to make 2 quilts, maybe more.One never knowsI have no real plan other than I like the patternAnd there you have The impetus behind most of my projectsI want to! Says the inner brat-child, and so it is done.Then there are the end pieces that are to small to do much with so I sew them together those upper left blocks are now 2" square and big enough to actually do something withI make them from the smaller part of all the HST I get off the birds,since they are made from 2" squares by sewing down the middle of a color and a background it's much "easier" to sew the smaller HST before you cut off the end. other wise your WASTING FABRICOMG!Can't have that now can we?And since the ends are only a bout an inch or so they aren't useful for anything else all by themselvesAm I being silly? Quite probablyThey are for me in that grey area of, to small to use and too big to throw awaySo I appease my inner OCD "waste-not" hoarding freak, by doing this.Don't judge! It's not nice to make fun of the mentally challenged!And last but not least the spoolsFor a wonder I actually have a plan for theseIt involves some applique and fiddling though.I'm still thinking on it
Why am I so exhausted?
I was thinking about this all last night. I am Fatigued. Not in a First world sort of "Oh me oh my" sort of way, but in more of a trying to sort it all out, sort of way. I realize, I am a white woman of privilege and I am not obligated to fix any of what is broken, but I can't help but feel I should at least know what the hell is going on.There is so much going on in the world and trying to keep track of it or even keep it in some sort of order is crazy making. I want to be informed but the more I try the more knackered I get. Then I don't pay attention and I feel horribly uninformed. Trying to keep a balance between my peace of mind and staying abreast of what is going on is getting harder and harder. It was bad enough before Putin invaded Ukraine and started killing everyone. The news is heartbreaking and there is so much suffering we can't do anything about, it puts more pressure on the pile of things, I can't do anything about. "Just throw money at it" seems inadequate but what else to do? I can't just disengage myself, turn off the news, be less informed and still look myself in the mirror and like what I see. Am I doing this to myself? Yes, probably. It doesn't help that the news is a fire-hose of badness. So how to overcome the feeling of helplessness? The feeling that I don't do enough but what can I do? If I ever find out I'll let you all know. For now it's time to play in the dirt. Dirt don't care, neither do worms.I can take my frustrations out on the weeds, so there is that.