Block #14 For My Husband

This one is for the hubs. His birthday is coming up so I let him pick his colors. This one is, hands down, my favorite bird. The picture does not do it justice.

My husband and I have been married for a long time, and throughout our entire marriage he has had to put up with my time consuming and wallet emptying hobby. He has been a real trooper. He takes great pride in using terms like “fussy cut” appropriately and loves to wear his “She Quilts, I Cook” t-shirt. One year for valentines day he remembered that I said I wanted a light box so he went down to the quilt shop and the ladies helped him pick it out for me and even gave him my discount. He puts up with countless trips to quilt shops and only really complains when they don’t have a comfy chair for him to sit in.

He is as good to everyone else as he is to me. In our old neighborhood, there was not one person who didn’t now his name. He rescued dogs from storm drains, helped people with their yard work, and walked our neighbors’ dogs when she wasn’t feeling well. Everyone loves him, including me.

Date Made: January 4, 2015  **
Block #14
Days on Project: 14
Blocks Made: 20 **

** I’m coming clean about my pre-made blocks. Turns out, I can’t actually sew for an hour everyday. Most of the magic happens on the weekends.

For My Husband

Block #13 For Mickey

So… I am writing this post before the bird is even done, it is sitting here beside me in pieces. But before  I start into stories about this very special person. Let me just say… these birds are not in order of the importance of people in my life. Just be patient, you will get a bird. I promise.

Mickey is my best friend (apart from my husband who, let me point out, also doesn’t have a bird yet). I met Mickey in college when we were in a sociology class together and got sorted into the same group activity. He loves to tell the story of how I stereotyped him as a “thug” because of his long hair and baggy pants.  After hanging out with him at school, I realized he was a pretty good guy and that “thug” and I became good friends, then best friends, and now we are family. I don’t really want to say “he is the closet thing I have to a brother” because that really isn’t right. He is my brother. I love him and his family as much as I love my family and my life would be seriously boring without him. I couldn’t tell you very many stories about him without risking self incrimination. So I will just leave you with this very short sweet one:

I am not really sure how to say this in a politically correct way, but Mickey and I are two different ethnicities. As his kids are growing up, they are starting to realize that Aunt Paula and Uncle Jason don’t exactly look like the rest of the family. One day, his daughter asked his wife “Mommy, are Uncle Jason and Aunt Paula from Daddy’s side of the family”….Yup.

January 13, 2015
Block #13
Days on Project: 13
Blocks Made: 13

For Mickey

Block #12 For Celeste X.

This block is dedicated to my old neighbor Celeste. We are going to call her Celeste X. because I honestly cannot remember her last name. Celeste was one of the first neighbors we met in our neighborhood an she was by far the most colorful. Celeste had 4 dogs and 3 cats in addition to the feral cat she fed in the neighborhood. Let me tell you, the other neighbors were not 100% pleased about the feral cat feeding. But Celeste had a love for animals that was unmatched, I believe she even convinced my husband to feed that cat when she was out of town. She had a rescued Rottweiler that she routinely walked in the wee hours of the morning because she new that he would scare the neighbors because he wasn’t quite right…

Here is your story for tonight (as told by Celeste – 14 years ago so take it with a grain of salt or several):

The gentleman we bought our first house from had a cat. Several years after his wife died he met a nice neighbor lady and they fell in love and got married. This neighbor did not like cats, maybe she was allergic, I don’t know… Anywho… He moved in with her but left the cat at his house a few doors down. Celeste would take care of the cat when he was out of town, she played with it, bought it toys, loved on it. She started noticing the cat was sad and she felt this was due to a lack of interaction being all alone in that house. She said the cat lost it’s personality entirely. So one day, Celeste went over there, got the cat and all of its toys and took it home with her and left him a note that basically said it was her cat now.

Eventually he sold the house, we bought it, and more than once we had to shoo that cat out of our house. You see, Celeste’s front door was right across from ours. So during the day the cat sat on our porch and lived in our yard and at night he went home to Celeste.

She eventually bought some land and took all her animals out to the country. What about the feral cat? She trapped that sucker and took it too.

Thoughts on this block:

No more large scale directionals for the background. UHG (you will see one more ugly one like this)

January 12, 2015
Block #12
Days on Project: 12
Blocks Made: 12

For Celeste X.

Block #11 For Erik R.

This block is dedicated to my friend and former co-worker Erik R. Erik is hilarious. I have so many stories, it’s seriously hard to pick just one. But we will go with Erik’s 40th birthday because it is actually two stories in one.

You need a little bit of background here: Erik’s family is just as crazy as he is. He had a classic “over-the-hill” party complete with a coffin, graveyard cake, blacked-out windows, wheelchairs and a lot of Depends. We also had a few special guests: an Elvis impersonator (his niece), a grim reaper, and a guy dressed up in a pink bunny outfit with a shot gun – who then chased him around the house. The story goes (I hope this is the story, it’s been awhile)…

One year, Erik cooked Easter dinner for his family. He felt it only appropriate to serve rabbit. Like I said, he’s pretty funny. So the Easter Bunny there to get revenge. Bwah ha ha…

Thoughts on the blocks:

I tried to make 3 today at one time. I only saved 30 minutes. meh.

January 11, 2015
Block #11
Days on Project: 11
Blocks Made: 11

For Erik R.

Block #10 for Teresa R.

This block is dedicated to my good friend and former neighbor Teresa. We miss her and her puppies so much. We miss all of our neighbors actually. Our last neighborhood was pretty active. There was always someone out walking a dog, chatting in the cul-de-sac, gardening… This new neighborhood is extremely quiet, which for the most part is good. And we love our new house and its proximity to other close friends of ours. But, we really miss all of our neighbors and friends, Teresa especially. We don’t live that far away from each other and we still get to see each other, but life is a little less exciting without getting daily kisses from Ms. Morgan (Teresa’s “puppy”).

Thoughts on this block and the process:

Its only fitting that I do a bunny block today. Last night we captured our very first critter (that was not already ours) on our trail camera. A bunny in the flower bed!

Today was my 10th block and by far the most difficult to do. Not because it went together poorly; it took an hour just like the rest of them. But today, my motivation was at an all time low. I had already used a cheater block yesterday and it didn’t seem right to do it again. After working and cleaning all day, I had no interest in sewing whatsoever. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be out of this “funk”.

January 10, 2015
Block #10
Days on Project: 10
Blocks Made: 10

For Teresa R.

Block #9 For Tram T.

This block is dedicated to one of my life-long friends. Tram and I met in college and we have been good friends ever since. It is hard to think that we have gone from late nights in the computer lab and staying up all night cramming for exams to joining the work force and moving to the ‘burbs. We have seen each other though the happy times and the sad times over the last 16 years.

We might go for awhile without seeing or talking to each other but at the end of the day, we will always be there for each other. 30 years from now, we will still know each other and instead of griping about work we will be arguing over who’s grandkids are cuter.

That’s my prediction: Growing old together – Grandkids

January 9, 2015
Block #9
Days on Project: 9
Blocks Made: 9

For Tram T.

Block #8 For Jill R.

When I was making this block today, I thought “So who in the world should I dedicate an all purple block to?” There was really only one choice: Jill R.. Jill loves purple. She has purple purses, clothes, coats, shoes…. I think her car might be kind of purplish. That kind of dedication to a color is commendable. But I have to be honest, it is one of my favorite colors too.

So I guess this is co-worker week for hummingbirds. I love working with Jill because she always makes me feel appreciated. Although I imagine she makes everyone feel this way as she has an affinity for showing up at just the right moment with yummy cupcakes. But seriously, she is always telling everyone how awesome I am and I am starting to fear that I won’t live up to it. And yes… I do like cupcakes. I like them a lot. I like cupcakes as much as she likes purple.

Thoughts on this block:

The dark purple fabric was very “floppy”. I really should have starched it first. Does anyone want to come over to starch and press 700 different pieces of fabric for me? Yeah… I didn’t think so.

January 8, 2015
Block #8
Days on Project: 8
Blocks Made: 8

For Jill R.

Block #7 for Heather W.

Heather W. is awesome. That is all…

Ok, so that is not all… Heather is dedicated to saving and loving animals. Anytime she sees a dog that is in trouble or needs a warm place to sleep she goes out of her way to rescue them and bring them to safety.

I often hear people say “Well… you can’t pick your parents…” And neither can they. These innocent creatures are pure love and would do anything to please their parents (owners) but are often neglected or mistreated.

This block was made out of a reaction to a post she made on Facebook that brought me to tears. She told of how a dog was stuck on a busy roadway and so many people were out there trying to help it get to safety; everyone except the owners. It was scared and ran into the path of a car. All of these people were trying the help and the driver that eventually hit the dog broke down in tears. Heather stayed with the dog comforting it until it passed.

This is a sad story, I know, and up until now I have kept it light on these posts. After I got over the sadness of the post I was amazed by the incredible people that were trying to save a dog they didn’t even know. There are still good people in the world and that is encouraging.

Thoughts on this block:

This is my first cheater block. I made it a couple extra over the weekend know that I would not have the time to sew every single night. I feel like a poser…

January 7, 2015
Block #7
Days on Project: 7
Blocks Made: 7

For Heather W.

Block #6 For Veronica M.

I am dubbing this block “Conflict Bird” because it was a pain in the rear to make. At first I blamed the fabric, it’s not sticking to the foundation paper, it’s too floppy… But later I realized that the problem was  me. Let’s just say I didn’t bring my A game to this one. I have made 9 of these blocks so far and I made more mistakes on this one than I have made on all of them put together.

1. I didn’t place the fabric correctly and had no seam allowance, and this isn’t on the pieces that flip, this is the first stinkin’ piece – quilters will know what I mean
2. I sewed the pieces on in the wrong order – they are numbered for goodness sake
3. I sewed the wrong side of the fabric on – twice
4. I used the wrong seam allowance when sewing the main sections together

And with a normal block this would be annoying, but because I was foundation piecing, the stitch length was so small I nearly went blind ripping them out.

The making of this bird mirrored my day at work: full of stress and frustration. Luckily, like these birds, not every day is like that.

SO…

I dedicate this Conflict bird to Veronica because she is with me in the trenches everyday. Together we will continue to “fight the good fight”. PM’s UNITE!!

And despite my experience tonight, I will continue to make birds. (I honestly didn’t intend for that to all rhyme)

January 6, 2015
Block #6
Days on Project: 6
Blocks Made: 6
Unforced Errors When Making Block: 5

For Veronica M.

Block #5 For Kristi H

This block is dedicated to Kristi H. Kristi has somehow managed to accumulate more quilts than anyone else. She has a grand total of 3 quilts from me. Well… she WILL have 3 quilts by the end of this week as I am binding one for her now. I only have 3 of my own quilts!

For Kristi’s first child, I made a small “twister” quilt. I was pretty excited about it and it went together super quick. I didn’t tell her about it or show it to her before I finished it. I didn’t discuss fabrics, I didn’t even match up to the stuff on her baby registry. A few days before I finished it we were chatting and she was lamenting on how she hated pink. She was having a girl and the fact that everything was Pepto Bismal pink annoyed her. You should have seen the look on my face! At the time of this conversation, I was putting the binding on the pinkest quilt known to man.

Thoughts On This Project

Reality has struck. I am back to working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day and trying to make these blocks. Planning and picking out fabrics ahead of time is becoming crucial and I am not really pleased with my color choices on this block. Even though its not my favorite – with 365 to do – it still counts. And I don’t feel bad about Kristi getting stuck with a block that I’m not 100% enamored with. She already has three quilts, she knows she’s special.

January 5, 2015
Block #5
Days on Project: 5
Blocks Made: 5
Quilts Kristi Already Has: 3ish

For Kristi H.