the flip side

These are the fabrics Katie chose for the back of her quilt.  I wanted to go with just one but there were no if's and's or but's about it for Miss Katie.  I think her quilt has a split personality.  The back is nothing like the front.  In colors or pattern or...anything.

What's amazing is she picked the fabrics because she loves pink and she thought the flowers, hearts, kitty cats, and ladybugs are pretty.  For me most of  those fabrics say something about my Katie girl.  Cats have always been special to her.  In fact, her very first word was "meow" and "kitty" was a close second.  So the kitty cat print was very fitting.  Bug has been one of her many nicknames and so the ladybug print too was a serendipitous choice.  The hearts, well, duh, that one was a given, what with my love of anything heart related and she is one of the loves of my life.  The floral one is the wild card.  There isn't any underlying meaning behind that one. 

I ended up adding a pink gingham border to the back because I needed another couple inches around in order of it to be the same size as the front.  That's just the way I do things, especially quilting.  I kind of guess and then when things don't quite match up, figure out a way to make it work.  One hundred years from now, someone will be looking at my quilts and think a seven year old put them together.  For most quilters, precision and aesthetics are paramount.  I just want to create some warm and snuggly. 

quilting with heart

I must be the slowest quilter in the history of the world.  But to be quite honest, I don't mind being slow.  I savor each and every minuscule stop along the way.  I finally got to the fabric store this spring and Katie and I picked out the border fabrics for the top and the flannel for the back.

   Wait until you see the fabrics Kate chose for the back.  I haven't uploaded a picture of them yet but hooooo boy! This is going to be one interesting quilt.  I wanted to just slap one HUGE piece of flannel on the back and call it a day.  Not my girlie though.  She fell in love with not two fabrics, not three fabrics, but four sweet flannels.  She assured me, using a cajoling tone and a little smile, I could piece them together to make the back and it would be more than perfect.   How could I say no?  And it is her quilt when all is said and done.

 

   Anywho! I got lost on a tangent there.  We've had a spell of dreary rainy weather.  Perfect weather to get some sewing done.  I spent one afternoon and evening cutting and sewing and the top is officially FINISHED!!! I really love how it turned out. Miss Charlotte approves too. 

On a side note...look at this most adorable pin cushion my sister made me for my birthday! She could have stopped right there but she didn't. She added some pins...pins with hearts adorning them...that make me want to squeal, they are just that cute.

   I am hoping once we are done with the craziness that is the dance recital, I will get to work on piecing the back together.  That's another step that should be relatively quick.  My speed quick, not actually quick kind of quick. 

a dog with a lot of heart

i ♥ that little heart shaped patch on our Daisy girl

Daisy epitomizes the word "sweetheart." There is nothing her little doggy self loves more than to love on her humans, her Mudgie, and even Miss Feistiness herself-Princess Charlotte. She is not a perfect pup. Quite the contrary, her list of "ways to improve" is indeed long. But I can forgive her eating Teresa's medications that were on the kitchen counter (again!) and her sneaking down to the basement to eat the kitty litter (again!), and her annoying habit of jumping up to say hello. Because anytime I'm blue, Daisy seems to know, and she wiggles herself in next to my leg and looks up into my eyes and wags with her whole body to let me know I'm loved.

cat vs dog

My animals have it all backwards. I'm refering to the canine and feline animals in the household here. They do not behave the way typical cats and dogs do. I lay the blame mostly at the feet of Charlotte. She just does not understand that she weighs a mere fourish pounds as compared to the 100ish pounds of the dogs. She truly believes she can get her way, steal their food, and nudge them out of a prime sleeping spot in the sun whenever she wants. But the reason she believes all this to be true...is that it is! The stupid dogs always acquiese to her wishes.

There may be some resistance, but it is token resistance, and the confrontations end with the dogs walking away in shame. I do not get it.

Sometimes she throws her weight around just for the hell of it. Just because they look a mite too comfortable and she needs to remind them to jump when she says jump. Here she is making sure Daisy understands exactly who calls the shots.

Daisy was relaxing on the kitchen floor and Charlotte sauntered on over and sat right smack dab in front of her. That wasn't in your face enough though, so Charlotte gave a little swipe across Daisy's cheek.


When that didn't elicit the reaction Charlotte expected, she got up on two feet and gave Daisy the old one-two. Daisy did try and block the blows which only angered the little monarch.


So she jumped in and bit that insolent little canine.


When Daisy attempted a bite back, Charlotte completely lost control and leapt onto the hapless pooch's back biting and scratching until Daisy admitted defeat and slunk off to hide in the crate. (No photographic evidence of that last bit because I was laughing too hard. I keep trying to get some of this on video but I think Charlotte is on to me.)


She's had them cowed since day one and there is no turning back now. These poor pups will forever be ruled by this volatile little dictator. But most of the time, they don't seem to mind at all.

some things never change

one year

three years

six years

Oh, the bedhead...it just won't quit. Katie's hair has always had that certain something something. Poor thing was born bald and as soon as hair started to sprout it had a mind of it's own. Cowlicks don't even begin to describe this. Her hair just...floats? knots? matts?...around her head and will only be tamed with hair product. Despite the headache it is to comb out her hair each morning, I adore when she stumbles down the stairs in her little bare feet and pj's with her cloud of hair going every which way possible. Makes me smile.

date night

got myself a date tonight...with Mount Laundry.

reason #67 shopping is walmart is a pain in the ass

I was in Walmart hoping to get everything I needed in one stop because I have this weird aversion to making mulitiple stops when doing errands. It just bugs me. Allergy med, check. Bananas, check. Photos for Sam's science project, check. Tortillas, check. Plastic Easter eggs, check. Fun foam, check. But I just couldn't find one item. A large roll of drawing paper. I looked in kids crafts. I looked in stationary. I looked in office supplies. I then looked again in all those places. Finally I asked the employee I had passed a couple times in the arts and crafts aisle if they sold large rolls of drawing paper. She quickly and firmly answered no. Imagine my surprise when less than two feet from where she was stocking shelves I found the very item I was looking for. I held it up remarking "Here it is!" She looked at me and said, " I didn't know that was what you meant." Yeah, because "large rolls of drawing paper" is kind of vague, don't you think?