Monthly Archives: February 2015

Hummingbird #59

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Block #59 For Lori P.

Block #59 For Lori P.

So… I did it again. I am using a test bird. This is the last one that I will use as the other one I have is a fabric repeat. Why am I using a testing bird? Well, I am not feeling well, but despite that, I sat down and made a bird. Then before I sewed the three sections together, I noticed that I had sewn a scrap into a seam in the very middle of the biggest section. I had already pulled the paper off. For those of you who understand paper pricing, you know this was an unrecoverable error. What is frustrating is that it was the second time I did it. I found the first one earlier and was able to fix it. So… keep your workspace clean or you will screw up and be sad. Like me.

Lori is my pet sitter. When we moved to the burbs we had no clue how we were going to manage working so far from home with our pups. Lori comes in once a day and lets them out and we are very grateful to have her. Thank you Angie’s List!!

A Funny Story

Each day Lori comes in she signs a book to let us know she was there. It is our main way of communicating with her. In the beginning her notes were fairly verbose. Now, it’s usually just the date, a check mark and her name. We indulged in some easter candy and I left 2 candies on the book for her. She didn’t take them and she didn’t comment. I came home and saw them still there and I was hungry, so I ate one. (yes just like Forest “I ate some…”). I left the last one on her book. The next night I see this:

“2/24 Are you trying to tempt me? Lori” with an arrow drawn, pointed at the last candy.

My Response

“2/24 Yes. Do It.”

The next night, the candy was gone. Her Response:

“2/25 I did. LOL”

Date Made: February 28, 2015
Block #59
Days on Project: 59
Blocks Made: 60

For Lori P.

Hummingbird #58

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Block #58 For Megan D.

Block #58 For Megan D.

It’s a late birdie tonight! If I don’t type quickly, it will be tomorrow. Tonight’s bird is dedicated to Megan D. This bird is brown, brown makes me think of the squirrels in the yard, squirrels make me think of Megan. So there you go…

Megan hates squirrels. I mean really, really hates squirrels. I’m not making fun of her; everyone has “a thing” and that is one of hers. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to fight the urge to send every cute squirrel picture her way.

A Funny Story

Many moons ago, Kristi, Megan and I worked together. Kristi and I were at work when Megan called. Apparently a squirrel had gotten into her apartment and she couldn’t get it out. So we went over there to see what we could do. Nothing worked. We mostly just tried shooing it with a broom but couldn’t get it near the door for anything. At one point, the squirrel got too close to the hot water heater (no… don’t go there… there is no baked squirrel in this story). The hot water heater had a big label sticker on it that was in the process of falling off and the squirrel got stuck to it. So it was frantically trying to get off the sticker and away from the broom. It was chaos. Kristi, who I don’t think is afraid of anything, grabs a towel, throws it over the squirrel, rips it off the sticker and throws it out the door. Seriously…

We look down at where the squirrel was and there is what looks like a tail still on the sticker! We go outside and find the small squirrel clinging to the side of the house, terrified, and bald…

Date Made: February 27, 2015
Block #58
Days on Project: 58
Blocks Made: 60

For Megan D.

Hummingbird #57

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Block #57 For Jenny K.

Block #57 For Jenny K.

We are going old-school tonight with this little guy. He is dedicated to Jenny K. There are at least 6 “Jennifer”s in my list and 2 of them are “Jennifer K”. Luckily, this one went by “Jenny”.

Jenny was one of my best friends in Jr. High and High School. Some of my fondest memories were of hanging out with her. From catching bugs at her grandma’s to walking down to the burger joint at lunch, we had a blast.

We both moved away. I moved a bit further and I had lost touch with her and most of my high school friends, until Facebook…There have been many times when I have been tempted to delete my Facebook account. Sometimes it feels wrong to watch peoples lives but not be in them. And all the time it feels like a colossal time-suck. But when I think about all the old high school buddies I have reconnected with, I have a hard time giving it up. And… where would all these birds go….

Date Made: February 26, 2015
Block #57
Days on Project: 57
Blocks Made: 59

For Jenny K.

Hummingbird #56

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Block #56 For Carmelo

Block #56 For Carmelo

This bird is dedicated to my co-worker Carmelo. We have worked on a couple things together and he is an excellent developer. Come to find out, he is also an artist. His drawings are amazing and inspiring. Mind blowing, actually. I am always amazed at the hidden talents of my IT peeps. Photographers, illustrators, painters, musicians… and quilters of course. I love when they share their art with me.

Carmelo's Tiger

Carmelo’s Tiger

Date Made: February 25, 2015
Block #56
Days on Project: 56
Blocks Made: 58

For Carmelo

Hummingbird #55

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For Karen S.

Block #55 For Karen S.

Karen S. is one of my quilting mentors. I met her at the same now defunct appliqué bee that I mentioned in a previous post. She lets me email her with questions and always gives me good advice.

She is an amazing long arm quilter and has quilted 3 of my more special quilts. You know when you make something and you stand back and look at it and think “whoa – this kinda rocks” and you are immediately afraid you are going to screw it up in the quilting? That’s when I call Karen. I trust her completely and I don’t usually even make a suggestion on the quilting. I just let her do what ever she wants. And it always turns out amazing.

Here are my quilts that she has quilted:

Riley's Quilt

Riley’s Quilt

Luc's Quilt Detail

Luc’s Quilt Detail

Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice

Date Made: February 24, 2015
Block #55
Days on Project: 55
Blocks Made: 57

For Karen S.

Hummingbird #54

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Block #54 For Rita B.

Block #54 For Rita B.

This one is dedicated to Rita B. The second Rita in the list! Today is Ms. Rita’s birthday. And this weekend was Rita’s wedding shower. So the “Ms” is about to become a “Mrs”. Rita is one of the managers on our team and one of the funnest people I know (yes, I said “funnest”, Kristen C.). At work she is serious, to the point and gets it done. But outside of work she is the life of the party.

I am so happy for you “Ms” Rita.

A Story I Am Probably Telling Wrong

When I found out Rita was engaged, I told her about another friend of mine who is dating someone. The similarities were pretty funny. They are about the same age and both of their mates were from the same county. OOO Twin Peaks Experience. I told Rita, “Well, it’s not exactly the same because they are just dating” and Rita says “For Christmas, she needs to put up a white tree. If she puts up a white Christmas Tree she will get engaged.” So here is where I think I could be making this up, because my memory is a bit fuzzy. Rita told me that she had a friend that swore by the “White Christmas Tree” theory and that everyone she had told to put up a white tree got engage or married the next year. I can’t even remember if Rita had a white tree but I remember this story. I’m not sure how we could test the validity of this theory. Maybe an online survey? I will say that I completely forgot to tell my friend to put up a white tree and she did not get engaged. So…

A Little About This Block
I am under the weather and having a very nice little pity party this evening. I have become a stereotype. I ate chocolate while sewing.

Date Made: February 23, 2015
Block #54
Days on Project: 54
Blocks Made: 56

For Rita B.

Hummingbird #53

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Block #53 for Marie G.

Block #53 for Marie G.

This one goes to my realtor, Marie G. I will admit that in the middle of buying and selling last fall I would  not have given her a bird. Or more likely, I would have given her a different type of bird. But that would have been juvenile, so no, I guess I wouldn’t. Emotions run high when you are selling the home you have lived in for 14 years. It was tough. And while it seemed that it would never end (4 different contracts), we only showed our house for 3 days and closed almost exactly 30 days from the day we listed it. So props to her… Not too shabby. We are definitely having her over for dinner.

Marie actually helped us buy that house. And thinking back to those days, it still amazes me how far technology has evolved. And I’m in IT… When we bought our house, all of the contracts were signed in person. I remember her 18 year old daughter, Dusty, meeting me at work with contracts to sign with her very little brothers in tow. Flash forward 14 years, her daughter now works as her assistant remotely from an RV. They travel the country living wherever they please, as long as the internet connection is good. All the communication with Dusty is through email and phone calls and all the documents are signed electronically. And those little brothers, one of them is working for mom as well. He did our open house. And made me feel very very old.

Other Creative Things

I am SUPPOSED to be spending my weekends making birds so I don’t get too busy with work during the week and skip one. But, I have been knitting instead. I was determined to finish my first project and I did! Started a sock today – please kill me now..

Blocking My New Scarf

Blocking My New Scarf

Credits:
My husband picked these fabrics.

Date Made: February 22, 2015
Block #53
Days on Project: 53
Blocks Made: 55
Husband’s Picks: #21

For Marie G.

Hummingbird #52

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Block #52 For Kim. E.

Block #52 For Kim E.

My bacon has been saved again. This time by Kim E. Kim is a co-worker of mine and for the second time in less than a month has dropped everything she was doing on a weekend to help me out on my project and I could not be more grateful.

The first time we had to call on her, earlier in the month, she was at the gym. She stopped her workout and ran home to fix something that me and my boss had inadvertently done. (Boss’s Boss Actually). This time she was working at a pet adoption. Yes folks, helping little puppies go to loving homes and I interrupted that. **Paula pauses for the lightning to strike her down**

I may gripe about work a lot but I work with some pretty great, dedicated people.

I Have A Secret….

Kim and my other coworker Marsha are huge J.J. Watt fans. For those of you who don’t know, which is probably most of you, J.J. Watt is an American Football player. He is one of the best we have seen in a very long time. And, he is pretty easy on the eyes. Google him, you won’t be disappointed.

Marsha and Kim sit across from one another and I have watched what was once just one picture of him hanging between their cubes grow into something akin to a shrine. And yes, I gave them plenty of crap for it. However, what they don’t know, what my little secret is… I FREAKIN’ LOVE THE J.J. WATT SHRINE. Hey, I’m female.

Credits:
My husband picked these fabrics.

Date Made: February 21, 2015
Block #52
Days on Project: 52
Blocks Made: 54
Husband’s Picks: #20

For Kim E.

Hummingbird #51

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Block #51 for Jack G.

Block #51 for Jack G.

Tonight I will dedicate this block to my first boss. Right after graduating, Mickey (my bestie) and I joined a consulting firm together. After a 10 week training course, I was staffed out at a company where I met Jack G and Mickey joined me a few months later out there. While Jack didn’t sign my pay checks, he was pretty much my boss for a year.

For a first job out of school, I could not have gotten any luckier. I got to work on a team of people who had been in the industry for more than 25 years. They took me in and treated me as if I was one of their own. I was included in the lunch bunch and learned how to work hard and have fun at the same time. Most importantly, they taught me how to be a professional and the importance of experience. For many years after, I made it my personal mission to get Jack to come work for whatever company I was at so he could be my boss again. Unfortunately, I never succeeded.

A Short Funny Story

I have so many fond memories of this time in my life, it was hard to pick just one story. But we will go with “A 2 Bowler”. The lunch bunch occasionally went to a Mongolian Bar-B-Q place. For those of you who don’t know, here is the way it worked: They gave you one bowl and you stuffed it full of vegetables, raw meat, and noodles from a weird salad bar. At this place, they cooked it in front of you on a huge round table. Jack’s goal was to pack so much in the one bowl that he could get two bowls out of it when they cooked it up; A 2 Bowler. And he did… a few times if I recall correctly. My aversion to vegetables usually lead to a quarter bowler.

Credits:
My husband picked these fabrics. I forgot to give him credit last night and he brought this to my attention.

Date Made: February 20, 2015
Block #51
Days on Project: 51
Blocks Made: 53
Husband’s Picks: #19

For Jack G.

Hummingbird #50

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Block #50 for Les S.

Block #50 for Les S.

I decided to keep going down the bosses route for this week. This bird is dedicated to my third boss at my current company. Les was my boss for less than a year right before he retired. He was a great boss. Les was the first person to convince me that I am an introvert. And, more importantly, that it was OK to be one. Les was into team building based on strengths and really understanding how we work based on our personalities. Past theories of around bettering yourself centered around  understanding your weaknesses and purposely striving to be stronger in those areas. This theory was the opposite. It focused on identifying your strengths and ensuring that the team you are working on has a good mix of different strengths. Do what you are good at, basically. I loved having these conversations with Les. I am a very task oriented person so I would rarely stop to think on these types of things. He had us go through a few different personality types of exercises and thanks to Les I now know the following about myself:

  • I am a black hat thinker
  • I am an influencer and an equalizer
  • I am a blue red
  • I am an introvert

Les is living the good life now. He retired, sold his house, car, everything and moved to the coast. I imagine he is traveling and living it up. We got him a years subscription to a beer of the month club so I would like to think we are helping out with that…

Credits
My husband picked these fabrics.

Date Made: February 19, 2015
Block #50
Days on Project: 50
Blocks Made: 52
Husband’s Picks: #18

For Les S.