A Rose By Any Other Name . . .

Sometimes I wonder whether I even LIKE my name. What name would I have picked for myself if I had the choice? It's hard to say, but I DO know that I'm severely name-tag resistant. Why? Maybe I just don't like wearing my name pinned to me like a five year old.

Doesn't it seem like quilters are always being forced into making name tags for themselves? The quilt guild I used to belong to required us to make and wear name tags to our monthly meetings, but I never did. For the first couple years, I would sneak in the door without my name tag and I never got caught--I'm not sure anyone even checked back then. The last year of my membership, though, wasn't so easy. They had someone checking everyone at the door, and if we weren't wearing one, we were fined 25 cents. I guess I probably spent so much on name tag fines, I couldn't afford the membership fee the following year.

Even my sewing machine has a name tag on it from quilt camp one year. The "camp organizer" made us either wear the name tags or put them on our machines. Obviously, putting it on my machine was the clear choice. (I really don't like it on my machine either but it wouldn't come off easily. Since it's on the back of the machine where I can't see it, though, I don't think about it much.)

In Thimbleberries Club earlier this year, one month's project was to make a name tag. I didn't.

My most recent brush with name tag making came in connection with an upcoming "blog party"--the organizers wanted each of us to wear a name tag. I was a little anxious about making mine, so it was almost a relief--or at least a reprieve--to learn tonight that the "party" was being postponed until spring.

I think I might have a solution though. I've decided to change my name to:

Yeah, I know. Since it's a symbol, it can't really be pronounced, but you can call me the "Quilt Artist Formerly Known As Kim." Or "QAF-KAK" for short. Catchy, eh?!

Twitterpated

Okay, kids, the word of the day is "twitterpated." Any idea what it means?

According to the online Urban Dictionary, "twitterpated" is defined as:

(1) to be completely enamored with someone/something;

(2) the flighty exciting feeling you get when you think about/see the object of your affection;

(3) romantically excited (i.e., aroused);

(4) the ever increasing acceleration of heartbeat and body temperature as a result of being engulfed amidst the exhilaration and joy of being/having a romantic entity in someone's life.

Have you found yourself twitterpated lately? And why the heck did I even bring it up?!

Well, it's a funny thing. I was sitting in the living room after work today, chatting with the Wild Child about a guy she's been seeing off and on, and she used the word--correctly.

You see, the Wild Child wants to be an editor when she grows up. She moved back home to go back to college at the age of 26, and she's enrolled in two English classes this semester--which is a pretty heavy load of reading and writing. But what I find so interesting about the whole thing is that her love of the English language must be a DNA thing that she inherited from me.

If you're thinking it might be "nurture" rather than "nature," consider this: When my kids were little, I was working full time. I'd pick them up after work and come home and cook dinner. We'd eat and then I'd clean up. After that, it was time to get them bathed and ready for bed. Then get their things ready for the next day. By the time book-reading time came along, I was done. More than done. Comatose. Very rarely did we spend quality time together with books. So I just don't see "nurture" as the explanation. It's gotta be in the DNA.

All I can say is that it's a really sad thing that both my kids inherited their awful, horrible speller DNA from their dad. I guess I was just too twitterpated back then to realize the man couldn't spell.

What a Lot of Stuff!

I mentioned awhile back that I thought I had too much going on in my life to wing it any longer without keeping track on a calendar. Well, I KNEW I had a calendar around here somewhere, and I stumbled across it a couple weeks ago. The only problem is that I actually need to WRITE STUFF IN IT for it to be effective. Funny how that works. Especially when I'm too busy doing the stuff that should be in the calendar.

Tonight I had an email from the lady who keeps all of us book club members on track, reminding us that our next meeting is this Friday night and that I'd signed up to bring treats. I remember signing up back in the spring, thinking that bringing treats in October for Halloween would be fun, but now that it's here, the dessert-thinking part of my brain is a blank.

I remember that this Saturday is a get together with my quilting/stitching group. I'm really looking forward to it, and that's probably why I remember when it is. There are a couple things I want to do to get ready for it this week--including preparing some wool projects to work on. After Saturday, though, I'm not sure what else is coming up. I wish it was written in my calendar.

I know that we--Gran and I--have a blogger party to attend this month, and I think it's the weekend after this one. And we're supposed to make name tags--gotta find time to do that. Unfortunately, the name tag thinking part of my brain is blank too. And just generally speaking of tags reminds me that I have a semi-private luggage tag making class coming up that I'm taking--I think it's next week or the week after. And I'm teaching a class in October about wool called Baa Baa Black Sheep--it's a repeat of the one I taught in the spring where we dyed wool in class. I need to design some new projects for that class. The only problem is that I designed one and a half of the projects today during my lunch hour--or at least I got some rough drafts started--and I remember having them when I was gathering up my stuff to leave work and that's the last I saw of them. I guess I put them down somewhere because when I got home they weren't in the car with me.

Maybe I need more than a calendar. Maybe I need a minder. And/or a clone. ARGH!

A Little Bit Crazy About Chickens

I don't know what it is, but in the fall, my mind seems to turn to chickens--more than at other time of the year, it seems. Today I finished the Schnibbles quilt top, Paganini. It has a chicken border. Of course, I'll show you:

One of the very interesting things about this pattern is that Carrie Nelson has given us four different versions of the quilt, all in the one Schnibbles pattern. I was a little confused when I first saw photos of the Paganini quilts that Sinta and Sherri had made, because they didn't look like the picture on the pattern cover, but now I know why--since I made the same one they did, which is version 4.

The other three versions orient the seam in the initial half square triangles in the opposite direction. As someone mentioned in my Schnibbles class yesterday, one of the versions, done in the right colors, would look like a series of Christmas wreaths and would make a nice holiday quilt--I think I'd add some red "berry" buttons, a couple appliqued bows, and a little rick rack too! Take a look at version 3, and you'll see what I mean:

Anyway, something for another day, when my mind has turned from chickens to Christmas (which is just before it turns to mush).

But back to chickens. I was thinking, as I made the Schnibbles quilt, that it would nicely compliment another chicken quilt I'd made from a Buggy Barn pattern, using much the same colors. When I went to hunt down a photo on my blog (which is much easier to search than my photo albums), I found I'd done the chicken pattern two years ago in October. See? Chickens in fall.

Someday I really need to get these chickens quilted. Maybe next fall.

Excuse Me, But I Gotta Sew

Ah! I taught the Schnibbles class today at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks. It's been awhile!

I was trying to think of the last time I taught a class, and it might just have been the previous Schnibbles class in the Spring. Surgery and other matters have interfered, I guess. But now I'll be teaching regularly again, and I enjoy it.

I didn't take many photos in class today--just one of the food spread--because you know I like to feed my students in both body and mind. That sounds deceptively noble, because of course, my real reason is just that I like a good sewing party.

We were a somewhat small group today with just seven of us, so we could spread out with plenty of room to cut and sew. And because I didn't have quite as many students as I do for some classes, I actually had a little time to do some sewing too. You know what? I realized it had been awhile since I had done any sewing for myself--where I was just working on something fun that wasn't for a class or just finishing something up to get it done and out of the way.

When I got home and put my sewing things back in the Sweat Shop, I looked at my design wall, and this is what I saw:

YIKES! When did THAT happen? How can there be nothing on it?

So tonight I finished piecing the first four of sixteen blocks for the Paganini Schnibbles. The design wall isn't quite as empty now. And tomorrow? I gotta sew.

If You Build A Better Mouse Trap . . .

Hubby's really gotten involved in the rat hunt these days. Every few days, he repositions the various spring and sticky traps. He found the rat had been living behind our microwave, and after cleaning the area, he placed a new trap back there. He also decided to build a better mouse trap.

Can I just mention that Hubby's not an engineer? When he worked, he answered a telephone for an auto parts retailer and assisted auto mechanics with ordering parts. Okay, so maybe he has a little bit of mechanical know-how. Kind of like a contact high. He probably picked up something.

Here's Hubby's better mouse trap:

Yeah, I'm talking about the box. See that teeny, tiny little door there on the bottom left? Inside the box, he's built a teeny, tiny little bed, and a teeny, tiny little recliner, and a teeny, tiny little TV. Okay, no he hasn't but the idea amused me more than the spring trap that's really inside. On the up side, if the rat ever decides to venture inside to commit suicide, it will be a reasonably clean end.

One draw back, though. Did you happen to notice that Hubby positioned the box next to the cats' scratching post? Do you think any sane rat wants to hang around a place that attracts cats? Yeah you're probably right--with OUR cats, it probably makes no difference. Here's another draw back.

I don't think the box really fits the Halloween theme. Seriously, you're an inventive bunch--what can I do to the box to make it look more Halloween-ish? 'Cause it's really bugging me. Not that my decorations are picture perfect--you wouldn't see that messy bookshelf in a magazine layout. But the box? Geez.

I suspect Hubby finally started thinking about the whole cat scratching post proximity thing. Or maybe it was something else. In any event, when I got home from work a day or two ago, I found he'd repositioned the box mouse trap to a different part of the house. No, it doesn't blend into the Halloween decorations any better than where it WAS. Also? We've noticed one other problem.

Remember the old cartoons where a cat would lay down on the floor REALLY still with its mouth wide open and wait for the mouse to run in?

I think Spike's been watching too many of those cartoons.

Copy Cat!

Remember all those pumpkins I brought home yesterday?

Canned pumpkin! Hubby tried to convince me he'd used one of my "real" pumpkins, but I didn't believe him. First pumpkin pie of the season--yum!

I've been so busy getting ready for Halloween, getting ready for Saturday's Schnibbles class, and working darn hard at work that I've neglected blog hopping visits to my Blogland neighbors, but this morning, I stopped by to visit Brandie at her blog and I found she'd been doing the CUTEST Halloween things! I "borrowed" one of Brandie's ideas and made a few of her pumpkin coasters tonight--

(If you notice any blood on them, it's just a bit a Halloween effect that I decided to add when Stitch tried to claw my hand; I jerked my hand away and sewed my finger instead, which aptly illustrates the meaning of "between a rock and a hard place.")

You can click over to Brandie's blog using the link above so you can see how to make the coasters, and while you're there, scroll down a little and check out her "Tom, Dick, and Harry" idea too--something that's definitely on my list for an upcoming project.

And speaking of upcoming projects--yes, I still have to paint the papier mache head in the first photo and add papier mache to the plastic pumpkin and ghost containers. Maybe this weekend--after the Schnibbles class.

The weekend is almost here--I hope you have something fun planned!

Nearly Wordless Thursday

I was planning a "wordless Wednesday" post until I remembered it would actually show up as my Thursday post. Drat! Well, you know . . . I'm doing it anyway, sort of, because I'm a rebel. Gran and I had a wonderful lunch hour (and a half) at the farm market. On Wednesday!

But it took me nearly until Thursday to unload the pumpkins from my trunk!

What a Difference Two Years Makes!

Two years ago, for Halloween, I decorated with these Martha Stewart cut outs--

Now, of course, I don't need Martha--thanks to Stitch, we have the real thing.

Yes, one or two of you may have been wondering about our little mouse big rat, so I thought I'd let you know it's alive and well. These days, we seem to have close encounters of the rodent kind just about every couple of days.

The other day, I went to get something out of our hall pantry and saw movement; when I moved a box full of candles, it was heavier than it should have been, and . . . you guessed it! A rat jumped out and fled down the hall, with our older cat Spike in hot pursuit! Spike chased it into the bathroom, and when I caught up, Spike was peering behind the toilet, so of course I closed the door and stuffed things along the crack so no one and nothing could get out. I figured they could both stay locked in the bathroom until one was dead--after all, we DO have two bathrooms, so the standoff could go on indefinitely. In the meantime, I tracked Stitch down--he was catting around outside--and carried him in the house. Cracking open the bathroom door, I shoved him in too--now the odds were in our favor, right?

Silence reigned in the house for the next half hour or so, until I couldn't resist any longer--I cracked open the bathroom door and looked in. Both cats were bored to death and wanted out. No sign of the rat. No rat carnage. No blood, no rat hair. Darn!

When I got out my Halloween/fall candles a day or two later, I realized why the rat had been in the box--it had EATEN MY CANDLES! Out of a box of about 10 to 15 candles of every variety, I don't think any escaped having a rat tooth mark or two, and most were so completely consumed they had to be thrown out. Thinking I was being clever, though, I "baited" the box with a couple gnawed candles and a spring trap and put it back on the shelf. Several days later--and nothing still.

Hubby saw the rat the other day. First he heard it and then he saw it scurry under the drawers in the kitchen. When he was sitting in his recliner a little while later with Spike in his lap, the rat ran into the living room, paused, and sat up to look at Hubby, taunting him and the cat. Of course, Hubby's not fast enough and the cat didn't really care, so the rat turned around and high tailed it back to the kitchen, daring anyone to follow.

More recently, when I was feeding the cats the other morning, I again saw movement in the hall pantry. Movement with a long, thin tail. Spike and Stitch came wandering up to see why I was taking so long getting their food, so I shoved them both into the closet and shut the door. Let them get their own food! Surely two cats shut into a closet with a rat would do SOMETHING! Nope. When I checked on them a little while later, the cats were waiting to be let out of the closet to eat and the rat was nowhere to be seen. I grabbed my Swiffer duster, extended it as far as it would go, and poked around a bit, while the cats stood by their food bowl in the kitchen and watched. Suddenly, movement! The rat jumped down from the shelf and ran past me down the hall. I turned to the cats and demanded they give pursuit, but again, they were uninterested in anything but me filling their food bowls. Sheesh!

Yes, we have traps. Sticky traps by the thousands and spring traps by the hundreds. In all sizes. As the rat grew, we bought new and larger traps. We've tried all types of bait. We have two completely useless cats. I'm not sure what's next, but I'm kind of resigned to considering the rat a Halloween decoration for now. And if those darn cats didn't make for good Halloween decorations too, they'd be out on the street by now, holding signs proclaiming their homelessness and begging for change.

Well Heck! I Don't Know!

Have you seen this yet?

Yes, I know it's still three months until Christmas, but I saw the magazine when I was in the quilt shop tonight. Since I like to see what the holiday decorating trends are each year, I bought it, brought it home, and browsed though it.

I don't know. I'm not sure whether I like what I see. Of course, there are a few ideas that appeal to me, but the overall LOOK of Christmas this year--at least as this particular publisher sees it--seems to be kind of retro 60's Scandinavian. What do I mean by that? It strikes me as clean lines and bright, clear colors. 1960s lime greens and blues. Some red and white, and that combination appeals to me, but there's a LOT more blue.

I could also tell you my impression is of simple shapes, a lot of glitter, and everything offset by white. Generally speaking, not warm and cozy. But I can do light and bright--I've been doing it in the kitchen for the past couple of years because I get tired of the "gloom" of the winter season. And the "light and bright" color scheme in the kitchen has been spreading into other rooms too, so I think I've been moving in the same general direction, but slower, I guess. I just feel like I'm not quite there yet.

I suspect after I look through the magazine a few more times and examine some of the photos and text a little closer, it may well grow on me. And if not? There's still the red and white I love.

If you've had a chance to look at this magazine, what did you think? And if you haven't yet, but do in the next couple of weeks, I'd like to hear your thoughts too.