36 Quilts in 12 Months

Saturday...

I've got a busy day ahead of me. My goals are to get most of my house clean as we are moving out of my studio tomorrow and into the house. Finish the bindings on Pink Tulip and Oceans 22. Take Lilli Girl to the park, go grocery shopping and work on some freelance projects. Happy Saturday!

Oh boy...

We've decided to let go and let nature do it's course with what is to become of Anaheim. No more pill, no more vets, just benadryl until he's ready to go.

I've taken the day off to be with him and my family. I feel as if I've neglected my other babies in this whole craziness, so when Ryan is working in the backyard with Anaheim, I'm going to take Lilli girl to the dog park. Spend some Momma, Lilli time together.

Looks like Ryan started a trend.

Too funny!

To life, the good times and the bad, they are what define us. Happy Friday!

Why I quilt...

I dont' know where my love for dogs came from. I think back to my childhood and I remember begging my parents for a dog. I got birds. Parakeet's - all named Chico; didn't matter what their sex was. It was my oldest brother that liked my birds the best - I found it sad to catch up and clip a wings bird for companionship, but I took what I could get. Couple of stories I remember vividly about my birds. The summer my brothers thought digging was fun and they dug up a Chico and showed it to me. I was mortified. The blizzard we had one winter and we all had paper routes, someone left the door open and Chico number who know what flew away. We never did find him, poor thing, probably froze to death. I think after that I let my desire for a companion go. In the summers when we'd all go down to the farm, I'd play with my Grandpa's farm dogs more than my siblings or cousins. We walk in the woods, talk to each other and then I ended up in the bathtub getting searched for ticks. Grandma O only had a well at this time and whelp... since I was the youngest, I got to bathe in left over water. If my Grandma found a tick, she'd cover it with clear nail polish and yank it out the next day. My Grandma also had three of her children on the homestead and was out working the next day. Fierce one she is.

But quilts. I've always had a desire to create. Am I good at it? Not so sure... but that doesn't matter, I LOVE it. Everynight of my life, with the exception of when I travel, I've slept under a quilt. Truth is, I don't sleep well at hotels. Ryan now takes quilts with us every where we go. I grew up with "everyday" quilts and quilts that were for show. Most of the quilts I grew up with were hand stitched, from beginning to end. As I was sitting outside tonight I was thinking about a flannel quilt my Grandma made me. It's tattered and torn. It once was a brand new quilt given to me to use while I was in college. It's become like an old pair of jeans or an old sweatshirt. When I have days where I just want to shower it all off, I generally put on an old sweatshirt a pair of Ryan's boxer shorts and curl up underneath my tattered quilt. People say, if walls could talk... I wonder what that quilt would say if it could talk. The most amazing quilts I own are used daily, my "everyday" quilts. The other ones are hanging on a quilt rack and the most precious ones are in pillow cases safely stored in my bedroom. Each time I would go visit my Grandma, she'd pull out all of her quilts and show them to me one by one. She stored them in a Cedar chest in her farm house. Piles of them. She rarely kept any and sold hardly none. I quilt because I love her to pieces. As crazy as she is or can be, I've always thought I was the luckiest girl ever to have a Grandma like her. I want people to feel and know the power of a quilt. The personality an "object" can have. The conversation that can be started around a "blanket" and the comfort the used ones give. I'll never mend certain aspects of my old quilts, just like I'll never cover that cigarette burn in my old sweatshirt, or try and cover the bleach stain or paint splatter. There's something comforting in knowing nothing is perfect and we're all cover in scars. As Jason Mraz once sang about, "We're all in this together." 

Cheers!

Look Alikes?

Has anyone ever stopped you in your tracks to tell you you look EXACTLY like someone? It happens to me once or twice a month. I think it's kind of hysterical - these are the women they accuse me of looking like. 

Karen Allen, Feist and I can't remember the name of the other one. 

I don't really much see it... I think I look like Tracee. Just sayin'

 

No Poop + The Beast Has Been Contained...

Let's start with a little light hearted humor. Last night when I got home from work I noticed a new sign in the grass. 

RyGuy has ZERO tolerance for people not picking up after their pets. In this case, he has ZERO tolerance for people picking up their dog's poop and putting it in the area where trash gets picked up every Tuesday. 

So he made a sign and threw the dogs poop bags in the street. He was VERY upset. The funniest part of this story is when I got inside I noticed there were more signs, he said, "I made a few rough drafts before I made the final one. After I hammered it into the ground I noticed I forgot the word poop... I stood back and read it - Your Dog Doesn't Belong Here. So I had to squeeze the word poop in."

In return I posted a sign on my toliet that read, "Your poop doesn't belong here, this is MY bathroom." 

The Beast has been contained!!! Bound up.

decisions...

Ryan is optimistic about Anaheim. I can't imagine taking him for a car ride with his tail wagging and his head out the window to plop him on his death bed. We've found a new vet and we're going to take him in to see what is going on. Our vet is a moron. He had cancer in Feb., I KNEW there was something wrong. "Fit as a fiddle... now pay me $300." Sorry, but I'm to the point where I'm saying, "Piss OFF!" This is MY boy! This may sound disgusting but I happen to watch the ever loving crap out of my dogs. I know what they eat, what color their poop is, how they sleep, if they are in pain, if they are happy... We are a pack - doesn't much matter if someone gets it or not... my dogs are my babies. They have favorite blankets, Anaheim LOVES chicken nuggets, Louis - cheese, cheese and more cheese... princess snosno's favorite treat is poop. Gross right? Trust me, after I catch her she's in the kitchen sink with a toothbrush in her mouth. Lilli girl - will eat ANYTHING. She got out of her crate one evening and had my Grandpa's fish lure in her lip. Holy cow, that was A SITUATION... 2 of the lures with clear through. Ryan and I eventually got them out, but how it happened is a whole other Ophra. That is a story I will eventually blog about. 

Ryan, Anaheim and I agreed on our next dog, the next breed of dog anyway. I will be contacting the breeder in the next couple of months about a 2014 liter. 

Here's my boy when he was younger... I've already posted this picture - but check it...

I know I can't replace him, but I spent hours researching dogs trying to figure out what the heck kind of breed he was. Doberman, German Shepard - but I when I came across Saluki's I saw my boy in them. 

These are not my pictures, I came across them on the internet and have no idea who they belong to - 

No matter what - every Christmas from this Christmas on till the day I die - Anaheim's stocking will always be after mine. 

To loving dogs!

Night!

doodles on pink tulip

I'm having some fun with this quilt - I'm just doodling on it trying new kinds of quilting.

Photo credits go to Brian - our funny Video guy! Thanks Brian!

The Refrigerator

A few years back, my parents were out here visiting. My parents are NOT dog people, so I can only imagine how much they LOVE to stay at the dog house. Not to mention my dad has a hard time grasping the concept of closing the door behind him. Once everyone gets settled it's always such a blessing to have parents that come and see me. 

I was at work and my dad calls, "Tracee, um, I have some, um bad news."

"WHAT DAD?!"

"Well, um..."

"Spill it, what is going on?!"

I started to panic - they only bad news I can think of at that particular moment was, my dogs!!!

"It appears that your refrigerator has stopped working."

"That's IT?!"

I get home that evening and my mom has filled all my neighbor's refrigerators with the content of mine. My parents were VERY worried about us not having a refrigerator. I got online and ordered one, that was to be delivered in 7-10 days.

My mom, "How are you going to live without a refrigerator for that long?"

"Mom, we can move our small outside fridge inside, it's not that big of a deal... plus, I'm pretty sure people 100 years ago lived without refrigerators, I'm more worried about all the contents of my fridge ALL over the neighborhood."

I used to get SO worked up over things breaking, I mean melodramatic! I have called my dad in panic mode over computers, cars... All these things seem so trivial to me these days. Other than the financial part of things breaking, it really is small potatoes... There are so many other greater loses than "stuff" - I think my favorite bumper sticker of all times is this, "I've never seen a hurst with a luggage rack."

Love you Mom and Dad. ;)

To hump day!

 

J4 said:

Did you mean "hearse?" HARD word to spell, I had to look up and still can't believe the spelling.

That's what I meant - what the what - hearse??? Learn something everyday. 

 

 

 

 

gut wrenching...

I think Anaheim's time is almost up. Ryan's going to assess the situation when he gets home. This is gut wrenching! 

The truth about the long arm...

Some of you guys have been asking about using the long arm. I LOVE it! But no matter how many times I use it - I can't seem to remember everything. Sherri is going to market so I'll be on my own this week. Yikes! There has to be a time I ween off my crutch. 

I've started piecing number 11, got all of number 10 cut out. My goal is to have 10, 11 and 12 tops done by early next week. The long arm is in our video studio so I don't have access to it all the time, just on days no one is shooting. I've got him loaded up with pink tulip and will quilt her this afternoon. 

Last night we hung out on the dog bed while hand binding Beauty and the Beast. The L&L (Lilli and Louis) Gang LOVE it!

I say, brown eye girls need to stick together...

And so it's Tuesday - Target day. There better be pink lady apples or I'm gonna...

Cheers!

Monday...

Happy Monday all! We'll start with this... On Friday night my girl Stephanie (quilt receiver #12) talked my into going over and hanging out with her and her girls... meet Teagan.

Such a sweetie this one is. 

I figured since we were just going to hang out, I'd take Beauty and the Beast over and do some hand stitching...

dang cat!!! 

Meet little lady Lilah...

She helped me do the dishes... Another dang cutie.

My boy and his boy...

My boy and my boy...

The glory days...

I got to catch up with my Dad's sister, Aunt Jenn...

Look at these two cuties!!! My dad and Jenn.

My favorite dad in the whole wide world!!!

My favorite mom in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!

My boy and my girl...

My babies...

Not too much to fill you in on the quilting. I have a studio downtown that I haven't used since I found out Anaheim was sick. So we're moving out and moving it back to the house. It was a busy weekend of moving and cleaning. My studio is now going to be in the basement. We moved the dog bed, aka the couch, to the upstairs. I'm kind of sad about letting my studio go, but I need to spend as much time as I can with my puppies. I'll post pictures once we get it all set up.

Here's to Monday!