4 Months – Life with Ellen

Simply wonderful.

She is a dream. Bones and I can’t believe how lucky we are with her. We are both so in love. Some people say that having a child can drift the parents apart, for us it has brought us closer. Bones & I are quite stubborn people so working together is somewhat of a challenge, with Ellen we are on the same page even when we disagree.

Breastfeeding has just not worked out for us. When she was born my breasts were too big for her mouth, so I pumped and tried to use a shield. That worked, my milk production went up then it came crashing down. So I tried some milk producing teas, and pumped like mad, got my milk production back up, got her off the shield and felt like the natural mama I wanted to be. I had a few weeks of breastfeeding bliss when my production once again went down. On to the pills, my production came back but Ellen was frustrated with the boob by this point so I pumped, once again I dried up. At this point I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. It was rejection like I had never felt before having her scream at the boob and each time I dried up I felt it was a personal failure.

My lowest point as a mom sounded something like this, ‘ I couldn’t get pregnant on my own, then my body wasn’t a good home for her anymore so I had to be induced, now I can’t even feed her’, said with the crying of a mom who is exhausted and feeling very guilty.

Thankfully I was able to move on, she is such a terrific baby and some of that has to do with my parenting.....right?!?

This little girl hates her car seat, hates her stroller so we carry her. This has brought on a carrier obsession. I have a stretchy wrap, great for when she was a newborn as it pulled her in so close, a pouch sling for the pool, a ring sling for when I am running errands and I loved Bones’ Mei Tai carrier so much that I ordered one for myself. My shoe obsession has been successfully transferred! Ellen loves being worn around.

In 4 months she has grown 5.5 inches and gained 7lbs 4oz, 2 teeth are coming in, she has been on a plane, gone on a long road trip, been to a wine tasting, (unfortunately there was not milk tastings going on for her), and fed a giraffe. She has taken all of this in stride.

Ellen has a few nicknames, Gussy Fussbucket for those days she decides that laid back is not the way to go, the 24 inch dictator, Droolly Malone, Stinky McFartsalot, Buttercup and Sweet Pea. At this rate it will be at the kindergarten role call when she will finally figure out her real name.

She loves to give kisses, which take the form of opening her drooly, teething mouth and rubbing it on your face. They are precious and you feel so special when you get her slobbery present, but it is best if you have a face cloth on hand. I now understand the need for 50 face cloths!

Ellen plays her own version of hide and go seek, she places her head in your chest then looks out into the world and gives out a cry of joy and places her head back into your chest. I love this game.

She prefers showers over baths, loves to sleep with mommy & daddy, hates to be alone, loves her playgroup, loves to look at pictures on the computer, loves her mobile and loves the dogs. She will even give them treats if they sit for her, such a generous girl.

Ellen is a true dream, we are so lucky to have this little girl.

Darch

Nipple confusion of a different sort.

Really early this morning Ellen didn’t want to be put down in her bassinette so I brought her in bed with me. She cuddled in close, I was on my side facing her, she was on her side facing me when she latched onto my nose. Once asleep she let it go.

These moments are the best.

Darch

She’s Here – The Labour

After a week of Severe Restricted Activity where I was checked in on repeatedly by the Antenatal Community Care Program to monitor my blood pressure and being sent back and forth to the hospital the decision was made to induce. The decision was made on a Friday, Sunday July 15th the appointment was made. My mom flew out on Friday evening. It looked like everything was in place.

Sunday came and my blood pressures were high so off the hospital, before my appointment, and I received the suppository that would soften the cervix and hopefully start labour, early. Wow, I had such severe cramps that I didn’t sleep at all that night. The next morning I was checked and not dilated. So we tried again. Went home made some calls, paid some bills, the cramping got worse.

While talking to my sister-in-law I was in so much pain I had to get off the phone. Walked around a bit thinking that would ease the cramping but it didn’t, at this point I could barely take it anymore and thought I should go back to the hospital. While there it got more and more intense, I thought this was severe cramping, when I was finally checked, I was 3cm dilated. WHOA....I was in labour!?!?!?! How did that happen????

Within hours I dilated 3cm, hours later I dilated another 3, for those who are unfamiliar with induction, it is like running a marathon without the training. Pregnancy is an amazing thing, your body trains, Braxton-Hicks contractions, and will get your body prepared for labour, it may take days to weeks to dilate to 3cm, for example. Needless to say I was in so much pain I was screaming for drugs and became really disassociated with my body and even my baby.

I was stuck in Maternity Triage waiting for a labouring room so they gave me some morphine, it only took the edge off. I had little time between contractions to gain control, mostly I was out of control. Finally I got a labouring room, now the challenge would be staying still while getting the epidural. I had 4 contractions while the epidural was being administered. Thankfully the nurse was in my face like a drill sgt keeping me breathing and she had a firm grip on my arms.

The epidural was heavenly, I couldn’t feel a thing, labour was slowed down but that was a good thing, by that time I hadn’t slept for 40 hours so thought I could get some shut eye. Nope, I was too excited. By 7am Tuesday morning I was 9cm, still no sleep, 9am, fully dilated, still no sleep. Decided to wait a bit and let my contractions to push down the baby a bit. Plus I laid off the epidural, (I was in control of the drugs), so that I could feel the need to push.

At this point I was nervous, a bit dizzy and thinking, ‘holy crap I am going to have a baby?!?!?!’.

Around 10am I began to push. The first bit was great, then my left butt and lower back began to hurt. Thought I had pulled something. With each push it hurt more. Tried to readjust but nothing would ease. At this point the baby pooped and everything changed. She needed to come out now and I got a bit panicked, the discomfort turned to pain and I began to lose control.

As she was crowning there is a pain the nurse called the ring of fire, (not the ring of fire I usually associated with eating too many hot wings the night before if you get my drift), at this point I had to hold. The nurse here was amazing she was in my face helping me keep focus. This was horrendous pain, actually shouted out repeatedly that I couldn’t do this. All I could think in my head was, ‘she has to come out now’ and ‘I will never be able to have a second’. Then the pain eased, (I had torn), one final push and she was out. Feeling here come out was the most amazing thing I had ever felt. Total euphoria. She cried right away.

I can do this again.

Because she pooped she was taken to be looked at to make sure she didn’t aspirate anything. I couldn’t see her. All I could picture was her ultrasound photo where she looked like she had long legs so I asked, ‘Does she have legs?’. All the medical staff looked at me strangely, the doctor looked up from stitching me up, and laughed. At that point I realized what I had said and explained myself.

Bones was amazing throughout, there is no way I would have been able to get through it without him.

This experience taught me a lot about pain. Hopefully these lessons will remain in my memory if I ever am lucky enough to go through this again.

My daughter was born 10:57am July 17th, 6lbs 2oz, 19 inches.

She’s here, she’s beautiful, she’s perfect my little Ellen Dianne.

Darch

Here we go again!

So it would appear that when I begin to breath a little easier all of the sudden I am thrown for a loop.

I am in the hospital. Went to my 36 week prenatal appointment yesterday and my blood pressure was 132/98, I was sent straight to the hospital. Getting into the car and driving there I was a bit of a robot thinking they are just going to do some tests and I would be on my way. I mean I had a Stampede Lunch to go to, (will eventually write a post on Stampede in Calgary, it is truly an experience!). As soon as I got to the triage desk, I started crying. As much as I wanted to meet the wee one, I want her to stay in to term.

Once I got a room in triage they had me hooked up to a fetal monitor. Thankfully this little girl is so active that I haven’t been too worried about her health. I also got hooked up to a blood pressure monitor that automatically checked my bp every 15 minutes. It when down for a bit but started rising again. The doctor looking after me wanted to induce.

After consulting the senior OB/GYN the decision was to do a 24 hour urine, (to check for protein in the urine), and to monitor my bp every 4 hours. My bp is still high. Today at 4pm the 24 hour urine ends and shortly after that I will find out what will happen.

So far these are the plans:

- If the urine comes back with too much protein, induce.

- If my bp is still high but urine ok, induce on Tuesday, (I will be 37 weeks and the baby will be considered term at that point).

- If my bp stabilizes, I will be at home on modified bed rest with a nurse coming by daily to check my bp and monitor the wee one. This is most likely what will occur.

All I know for sure at this point is there is no more work for me, which is distressing in itself as there are a few loose ends I would have preferred to tie up before leaving, and I am filled with mixed emotions. As much as I don’t want to have my baby now, I am so excited to meet her. Bones and I had some giggley bonding time as we contemplated being induced. I was excited and ready to go by the time the plug was pulled on that plan.

I did manage to head out for a walk today. The hospital is along a reservoir, check out the pic, so there is a nice path and I got to pet some pooches who were out for walks. Wish I thought of having my dogs meet me out there for a visit when Bones dropped by this morning.

Update: Had to stay a 2nd night, Bones brought the dogs, (that is me doing my best Jabba the Hutt impression, look at happy Cody), for a visit. I will be heading home with a nurse coming by everyday to make sure everything is still hunky dory.

Darch

It is confirmed….Cushing’s

Well it has been confirmed, my wee poop, Cody, has Cushing’s.

The poor guy here’s a list of his symptoms:

Hair loss, mostly around his ass
Dry coat
Dry skin, (so dry that his poor nose has cracked….it looks so painful!)
Hard calloused skin, on his tail and legs
Laboured breathing, snorts a ton
Drinks a lot of water
Urinates a lot
Ravenous appetite, eats his own poop which is a new behaviour, he is so hungry
Fat redistribution, wasting on legs and big in the belly

Basically he is a mess.

Next Saturday we will be going back to the vet to find out all about monitoring and treating Cushing’s. The meds he will be taking will attack his adrenal gland, we will have to monitor him for possible toxicity issues during this phase as he will be on a high induction dose. Once his symptoms calm down and his cortisol levels are normal he will be on a maintenance dose and every 3 months we will have to take him in for testing to make sure his cortisol levels are not rising again.

The difficult part will be separating him from his bitches so we can monitor him properly during the induction phase. He has separation issues and being around the girls keeps him calm and occupied.

Oh well, you do what you gotta do. Poor little bugger.

And now he is peeing blood, worrying....

Darch

Going to Vancouver with a baby in ma belly

Friday I head off to BC to visit my sister. Together we are ‘The Wild Seesters’, (you have to say the phrase in the worst, cheesy Mexican accent possible). We made famous PukeFest ’93, if you are really lucky maybe I will tell you the story of our sisterly bonding over a bottle of rye, (yes we are classy chicks), but for now I will leave it to your imagination.

To say we have a great time together would be an understatement. We relax, laugh, giggle and try our best not to pee our pants, (which will be a trial for me this visit I am sure). Wish I had some type of cute anecdote to add in here, (that isn’t too embarrassing, I mean our parents are reading and I would hate for them to lose their Angelic impression of us). Together we just make the mundane into a fun adventure.

The quilt you see here is made from fabrics that my sister brought back for me from Central America when she went travelling there a couple of years ago, finally finished it last week. The fabrics, scrap material, leftovers from shirt makers, were so stretchy that I didn’t want to do anything too complicated with it. So I cut it up into various sized squares and put them back together in a planned type of chaos. The extra pieces were placed on the backing. I didn’t do anything too fancy with the quilting, the fabrics are so vibrant on their own that I didn’t want anything to compete with them.

Only 3 more sleeps until the Wild Seesters are together again, Vancouver will never be the same!

Darch

Quick update on Bones.....

The quilt shown here is Comfy Lap Quilt, it is the first quilt I have made Bones, finished it a few weeks ago. I guess I just think of all of the quilts as ours but apparently he did not so this one is his. I purchased the fabric squares a year ago at a quilt show, they were just small charm squares of the entire fabric line. I put them together and ordered some extra fabrics for the border and a soft brushed cotton plaid for the backing. It is quite subdued for my tastes but Bones likes it and now he has a comfy quilt to keep him warm on these cold April nights, (it is freaking winter here no word of a lie, mid-April with snowfall warnings!).

I do swear that when I set up this little blog Bones said he would post every now and again. He even sounded quite interested in doing so but alas he has remained mum and so now it is up to me to give you a low down on the life of Bones. Just remember this is through the Darch filter so there is no guarantee of accuracy…maybe if I make up outlandish lies he will at least comment?

Bones is doing great, for the most part that is. He is tired most days. Quite frankly dealing with a pregnant lady who has can’t speak properly, has forgotten how to dress, can’t find anything and late evening speaks in a nails-on-the-chalkboard type whine, hasn’t helped. To his friends and family, give him a kind word when you speak or email him next. There seems to be so much support for the pregnant one out there that the partner can sometimes be left in the wings and he is doing a ton to support me as well as keeping the household from falling apart, especially now that The Quilt Factory is in full swing.

He is running and is starting to sign-up for the runs he will participate in this race season. I will join him in a couple where there is a 5k option, my run 10 minutes, walk 1 routine will be replaced by the waddle, wheeze and sit routine. He’ll be participating in his 5th marathon this July, hopefully I can watch him finish as opposed to a friend being there to whiz him off to the hospital to join me.

He is really excited about the baby. He will be an excellent father, and I am not just saying that because I chose to breed with him or trying to score points with the in-laws. It wasn’t until after we were married that I saw him around children. He is definitely a rough and tumble playmate to the neighbour’s children. In fact the older boy, he is 5, occasionally comes over to ‘help’ Steve walk the dogs, not too sure how much help he truly is but they both enjoy it. When I go over to visit I get the ol’, “where’s Steve?”, question, way to make a girl feel welcome!

Bones doesn’t want to be known as Bones anymore on the blog. Instead something like Stan the Man. For those who don’t know him, Bones is the first 5, out of 13, characters of his last name. His first name is not Stan, but he is a man so I guess that relates to him somewhat. Personally I don’t care except that Stan the Man is so much more to type than Bones. But seeing as we don’t have cable, (limited access to sports viewing) and he lives in a quilter’s dream house, I think I should cave to this latest whim of his. What do you think?

Oh ya and he has taken up ice skating to fulfill his life-long dream of Figure Skating!

Darch

I’m an idiot & a shameless plug

This morning I wanted to get into work early to get a lot of stuff done as I will be off gallivanting around town with my mom for the next 6 days. She arrives this evening, so excited! Anyway, I successfully got up early, started a load of laundry, did some tidying up, checked my email and what do you know I am still on track to get to work early. Awesome!

That is until I go to grab my keys, not at the front door, back door, in my jacket, check the wash as my pants I wore yesterday are in there, so now I start tearing apart the house in a mad frenzy. Half an hour later, I call my neighbour to see if I left my keys at her place when I went over for tea last night. Nope, but she, Tnik, would drive me to work.

While in the car she asks, ‘did you check your door?’ ‘Crap, no I didn’t can you check when you get home for me?’, was my answer.

She calls me at work, ‘What do your keys look like?’, here I am thinking she found them at her place, ‘they are on a hook by the door on your front porch’, (my front porch is enclosed, that is it to the right). My only thought, man am I a loser. One of my co-workers, between sending me emails only containing ‘HA HA HA’ repeatedly, emailed, ‘you are a loser she found your keys without even having to go into your house.’

I am the worst when it comes to forgetting where my keys are, to be honest, not just keys, wallet, glasses, (that is always fun, a person with really bad eyesight trying to find their glasses), etc. But today was far worse than usual. It was 45 minutes of me tearing apart my house, including the front porch, but never noticed them there hanging on a hook.

I didn’t make it in early today but thanks to Tnik, I did make it in.

Now for the shameless plug. Tnik sells premium loose tea, click on Tnik, and you come to the Tnik website. The teas are amazing. My favourites are the rooiboses, they are naturally decaffeinated and you can get almost any flavour. What is amazing about these teas too is that they are great iced. So a nice organic peach rooibos iced tea while gardening just hits the spot.

Tnik also carries a wide variety of Green teas, black & white teas. Many of the teas you can get organic or not. Really I have to dedicate a whole post on how amazing these teas are, in order to do them justice. In the meantime, check out the website.

Darch

my little quilting habit

One of my little habits, is cutting up large pieces of fabric and sewing them back together. It is a fun little habit, exciting to see the different fabrics sewn together to make interesting shapes and patterns. If you ask Bones it is a nasty habit of mine, it has taken over our house – literally.

Take this photo, this Big-Ass Machine. That is what I have named her after years of not knowing what to call her. It seems appropriate. She currently resides in what should be a dining room. In fact the living room is smaller than this room so we crowd into a furniture-stuffed room so Big-Ass Machine has room to breath.

Our second bedroom in our little house was supposed to be a sewing/office/guest room. It has the guest bed, the dining room table and the computer in there but, the bed is covered in fabrics that require washing, (I am an old school girl that washes all her cottons before using them, something that isn’t quite needed anymore with the higher end fabrics, unless you are making clothes), the table is covered in piles of little bits of fabrics from various projects that have yet to be sewn together and the computer is in pieces and has yet to be put together since we moved into the house almost 2 years ago. Oh ya, and there are the bookcases that hold my fabric stash, piles of financial paperwork that should be filed and my UnFinished Objects, (projects), UFOs, over 80 of them in total. This will eventually be the babies room. I would have a snazzy photo to show you all but am a little embarrassed at the disastrous state of the room. If I had to stand there and take a photo I may wind up setting my hair on fire and running through the neighbourhood naked, no wants to see that.

But it doesn’t end there. Both of my sewing machines are in the furniture-stuffed living room, one only does straight stitch really fast, the other has the utility stitches that I use to attach labels to the backings of my projects. There is a piece of fibre board I put on the ottoman so I can cut my big pieces of fabrics into little pieces, and there is an ironing board & iron in the front hallway.

Currently there is no quilting stuff, except for the occasional bit of thread or fabric that got stuck to someone’s sock or fur, in the bedroom, the kitchen and the bathroom. Oh wait, there are my big rolls of batting in the bathroom.

Needless to say I have clean this up, and the best way I know how is to complete some UFOs. Here is a photo of one of latest finished projects, it was donated for a Breast Cancer fundraiser that one of Bones’ friends had. It is a crib quilt with Black & Whites with colourful bug fabric thrown in.

This spring we are rebuilding our garage to make a quilt studio.

Now what do I do with all of these beautiful creations? Mostly I hang them on the wall, our personal padded cell. Allows us to get as crazy as we like and saves on the heating bill too!

Darch

My furry babies

Thought it was about time to introduce everyone to my lovely poopies. That is not a typo, they are poopies, because they love to poop. I have even made up a little song about how they love to poop. One silly thing I love to do is change the lyrics to songs and sing little Odes to them. Such as Jack is Every Inch a Sailor has been changed to Jack is Every Inch a Puppy.

Jack Trouble was the first of the Darch Dogs. She is border collie/golden mix, with a heart of gold who will protect her family in a heartbeat and still be able to roll around on her back and let puppies crawl all over her. I often joke that I can only aspire to be as emotionally well-adjusted as she is. She is a therapy dog who used to visit the psychiatric and palliative care wards. Jack is the best one to get down on all fours with and wrestle. She is happiest when the pack is all together and she is cuddling up to one of her humans. Jack is the one I go to when I need comfort from a furry friend.

Samson Grunt came next and she turned my household upside down. Jack was house trained so quickly and Sam through a huge wrench into that. Sam is the runt, a 90lb runt but a runt none the less, and had many issues, one being house training. And if Sam could do it, Jack figured she might as well too. It was a tough go at the beginning but you can’t help but love Sam. She is a Dane/Chesapeake Bay Retriever mix, a true athletic retriever in the dog park and cuddly dane in the house. She is a real princess, can’t lie on the floor, must have something soft to lie on. She is the most self-centered of the Darch Dogs, she has to get the ball, must have the toy anyone else wants etc. Regardless we love her, I mean she is the best cuddler out of the bunch.

Cody was the last to arrive in our household, the only one that came after Bones and I were together. He was only to stay at our place a few months but his original owner moved, didn’t forward their phone number and never got in touch with us. He wasn’t very well trained but had such a great personality he won me over quickly, with Bones it took awhile. Cody the little Boston Terrier, (he is not a mutt, we have his papers, he is just a genetic throw-back), thought he would run the show in our house, he would hop up on our couch and try to mount the girls, (Jack & Sam), they put him in his place pretty quick. Cody is definitely Bones’ dog. I don’t exist unless Bones isn’t around. Bones adores him too. We have managed to get him trained enough to live with us, (it is hard with 3 dogs as they feed off each other, so we like them to have manners in the house and on the leash, in the dog park, they are dogs), and the girls seem to be ok with his shenanigans. Cody’s big personality has won him many nicknames, Cheech, Batboy, (his long hair from his ears makes a bit of a bat look when they are up, Cody-Sore-Ass, (one time on a camping trip he had an impacted anal gland, it looked so sore....) and Grandpa, (he snores like an old man).

The dogs all get along great. Sometimes I refer to them as Cody and his Bitches. Thankfully they are great with kids but of course aren’t allowed alone with young children. We have started reducing their access to the house and the attention they receive so they don’t associate any changes to the arrival of a child. It is hard because it is their house too but with 3 shedding dogs in dusty Calgary you have to take some measures so that you just have to worry about eating, sleeping and feeding the baby for the first few months. Or at least that is my theory.

There you go, that’s the furry portion of the Darch/Bones family.

Darch

Oh what a picture

Wow, I got my first comment, how exciting. I eagerly called up bones to read it to him. He thinks I am a dork. Thank-you Kathryn.



To the left you can see some of absolutely-could-not-resist purchases. I love sock monkeys. There is some beautiful quilting fabric with sock monkey images on them but I have resisted. A bit too subdued for my taste. Although bones has asked, ‘what if Wee Pea doesn’t like bright colours?’ ‘Tough’, was my simple response. Man this parenting thing is a blast!


Although I am sure one of my crafty friends or family members would have gladly made me a sock monkey, this one was made by a person who has a physical or psychological disability. Craftworks is the organization and let me tell you the handiwork was beautiful. I also got a bib that was a duck, the beak had a squeaky toy within it, and a burp pad with colourful bug fabric on one side and terry cloth on the other. Never too young to instill some social responsibility. I am going to be a really fun mom huh!



To the right are some more absolutely-could-not-resist purchases. Bones was concerned about the camouflage pants if we have a girl. Then our little girl will be wearing camo pants. If she is traumatized by it then haven’t we only done our duty as parents? So he has requested that I don’t get angry with him if he can’t find the baby in backyard while wearing those pants. Deal – although I have a sneaking feeling it won't be an issue.

Not sure when Bones will feel the urge to update you on his feelings......sorry I fell of my chair laughing so hard.....share his feelings......man I crack me up......not too sure when he will post anything, so I will give you a quick update. He is doing really well, has been looking after me and the dogs so well, without complaint, or at least not to my face which is greatly appreciated. I owe him big time. He is really excited about the baby. There is a reason he is known as Jungle Bones, (Jungle Bones instead of Jungle Gym), by our friends children.

Darch

The Quilt Log - To Be Completed

Friendship Quilt

A few ago the A Stitch in Time Quilt Guild had a paper bag exchange. You put a few fabrics together in a plain paper bag and bring it to a meeting. All the bags are placed in a pile and each person participating selects a bag. You then make a project of your choosing with the fabrics not knowing who it is for. It was to be completed Christmas 2004 or 2005, can’t remember off-hand. I did show her the partially finished top at that point but really it is time to get this little project completed before I test my quilting friend’s patience too much further.


Hugs ’n’ Kisses

A few years ago I participated in a block exchange with an online quilting group I am part of, Machine Quilting Professionals, we exchanged black & white 9-patches with the black creating the x within the 9-patch, (corners and center). I paired it with a snowball block, adding a splash of pure primary colours in the center of a snowball block every now and again. This type of quilt, alternating 9-patch and snowball blocks is called Xs & Os or Hugs ‘n’ Kisses. Wish I had come up with some really cool name for the quilt but finally settled on a classic.


Jewels of Bali

This quilt is a result of a 2004 Block of the Month program at Along Came Quilting. I quilted the store sample of the quilt and few other of their customers came to get theirs quilted by me as well. But alas I never finished my own. I really like this quilt. That year they also participated in their other Block of the Month, Star Light, Star Bright.


9-Patch Exchange

Another quilt that was created from a 9-Patch exchange with Machine Quilting Professionals. I put together 4 9-patches to make a block and sashed the blocks with neutrals, then added 3 borders. I got rid of a lot of fabrics that I didn’t like to complete this quilt. It is no beauty that is for sure, it will be used as a camping/picnic/in the car type quilt. One that provides a cozy cushion but really I don’t give a hoot what happens to it.



Ellen’s Baby Quilt

Before I knew the sex of the baby I decided the theme for the baby’s room would be black & white with bright bugs thrown in. I thought I would throw in a few flowers here and there for a girl. This is the quilt I came up with for a girl.


Sweet Dreams Quilt

A quilt to hang above the crib.


I Love You This Much Quilt

Another quilt to hang above the crib.


Baby in the Bathtub Quilt

A quilt to hang above the bath tub.


Old Log Cabin

My mom loves old quilts, (it is in my genes to be a true obsessed quilter), and auctions and there is nothing better than rescuing a quilt or quilt top from an auction. And that is exactly how she acquired this little gem. When I got the longarm she gave this top to me to finish. It is a log cabin pattern. The log cabin block is so versatile it is amazing. So many configurations you can do and if you change the width of the logs you can get more oval or circular designs.


Odd Log Cabin

This Odd Log Cabin quilt is an example of the wide variety of quilts you can get from the log cabin block. This was to be my entry within Innovations Fabric Challenge in 2006. I didn’t get it done. What else is new? The challenge fabrics are the pinks, normally I like pink, the bright, in your face neon or fuchsia pink but this dull pink, not for me. I added the brown to tone down the pink a bit. I really like the effect, still not really me but what a lovely quilt to hang on the wall at a rustic cabin.

This is quite a difficult setting because other than the corner triangular pieces it is all Y seams. I was up for the challenge, and this is the result.


Laura’s Tropical Breeze

I made a similar quilt to this through the 2003 Block of the Month Program with Along Came Quilting. My sister saw it and LOVED it so I have been slowly making her one for the past few years. When she comes out in September to visit with her new niece she will finally be able to take it home.


Batik 9-Patch Exchange

This is the last of the 9-patch exchanges that I participated in with Machine Quilting Professionals. We exchanged batik 9-patches and this is the setting I came up with. The sashing is a black batik and the bright gold stars really set off the blocks.


Anniversary Quilt

The first year anniversary gift is cotton. So Bones decided to get me the only logical gift of cotton you could give an obsessed quilter, cotton. Off he went to Along Came Quilting where they helped him pick out some fabrics for me. He gave me pinky, corals that were very different from any of the colours that I have in my stash. On a side-note Linda let him know that when he purchased the fabric but his response was, ‘well then she has to step out of her comfort zone’. A man after my own heart indeed *sigh*. He did force me out of my comfort zone and I came across a pattern for this quilt and I immediately thought of these fabrics! The next Valentine’s Day he got me a card that had a fabric strip on it that kept to the theme of this quilt so I ripped it off the card and it is now on the backing. Thanks babe.

This quilt was made with the Stitch and Flip method. It is a loosey goosey way to piece. Instead of having precisely cut out pieces or strips, you cut varying strip widths and piece at random. It is all stitched onto a muslin piece, the muslin piece is trimmed to the desired size and put together. Each muslin piece has a colour way to it so when you put it all together you get a picture. Anniversary Roses.

Quilt Log - Finished

Love You to Threads

A good friend of ours finally met a woman who lives up to and can live with his rather particular tendencies and they were getting married. We were thrilled so I HAD to make a quilt for them and like the good little quilter that I am, left it to the last minute. It wasn’t going to get done and I had the perfect Tie-Me-Over-Until-I-Get-The-Real-Thing gift.

We were checking out a garage sale when we say this beautiful statue. It was a 70s style statue depicting a naked man & woman in a rather intimate embrace. It was that browny, gold 70s hue beautifully shaded for drama. And it was only 5 bucks! It was a bit bulky but who wants a thing of such beauty small. I wanted to give it to them with complete sincerity, thinking they would be so polite to us after opening it, afterwards trying to figure out how to get us committed for psychotically bad taste. Two weeks later they would receive the quilt, have a good laugh and not be so embarrassed that we are friends. Bones didn’t want to do it. He didn’t want to embarrass our friend, I thought it would be funny as hell, guess he now knows who his REAL friend is! As much as I am disappointed that we didn’t play that little joke on them, it was for the best. This August they will have been married for 2 years, and the quilt will be finished by the end of April. Two weeks, two years, same diff.

There is no greater gift to me than loving a quilt that I have given to threads. The quilts I have been given have been backdrops to my life, they are reminders of the quilter, what they’ve meant to me, like the one my Grandma gave me, it is her way to still give me a hug even though she isn’t around anymore. I also think it is good to love your partner in the same way, so this quilt was named Love You to Threads.

Summertime Honey Bees

I was the activities director for Patch-Wurx Quilt Guild a few years ago and received this book about group projects. In it was a pattern for this fun quilt, well it looks fun, it was a lot of work to complete it. Those small honey bees took awhile, each one was paper pieced and the head was hand appliquéd. I do love the quilt so all the work was worth it. My great-grandfather had a honey bee farm and used to give us buckets of honey when we went to visit him. We always had honey. When I finished this quilt top I thought of him and now every time I look at it I think of him. It is my own little ode to Great-Grandpa Burton and his honey bees.

Garden Trellis

This is the quilt that Linda from Along Came Quilting saved me from a real disaster. See where the green trellis is, well I wanted that to be bright pink. Somehow she convinced me not to go in that direction but use green instead. Am I ever thankful! That would have be an awful sight, a true ode to Pepto Bismol. Still don’t really like the quilt but it is done and added to my collection.

take me down to....FUNKY TOWN

Patch-Wurx Quilt Guild had a block exchange of bright houses with a black and white background and a black border. It was a great idea but really disappointing. Some of the blocks I received were definitely NOT brights, there were holes in the seams and one block even had an area were there was a selvage edge showing. Brights can be seen differently by different people so that is excusable, the rest is completely not. I may sound like a persnickety quilter here but really there are some rules in quilting you just don’t break, using selvage edges and not completing a seam are right up there. I took apart a couple of blocks and put them back together properly. The corner and center house on this quilt are mine, the other 4 are ones I received from others. There are 4 other houses that I have stashed away, was thinking of using different fabrics for the sashing, stars and borders with it to use as a colour theory aid when I am teaching.

In the end I like the quilt, I don’t LOVE it and I should because it is right up my alley being black & whites with brights but alas that is the risk when participating in block exchanges, which I still do all the time because I have found the positive exchanges have far out weighed the odd negative experience.

This quilt will be hanging in my stairwell. Believe it or not there are few bits of wall space left!


Fuschia Daisies Baby Quilt

This quilt idea came to me, subtle fabrics for a background with wild bright, raggedy, raw edge appliqué stuffed with wool images. Of course fuchsia daisies would be my first way to go. I bought the fabrics, added some from my stash and began 2 quilt tops, got them both completed. Then I found out that Eli had a sister and so I completed the first quilt for her, thinking at the time that I would save the second for my little girl if I would ever be so lucky to have one. Fast forward a year and I have designed a completely different quilt for Ellen. Good friends of ours are having a baby girl, they are due in May so I found the top and finished it up for them.


Ellen’s Raggedy Shaggedy Quilt

This is a rag quilt, never really thought of making a rag quilt. That is until I had all these leftover flannels bought for a backing but weren’t used. And of course I had to buy some additional fabrics for the back of this Quilt! These types of quilts are so easy to put together and are a great way to get rid of scrap batting. For this quilt I cut out 5” squares, one for the top, one for the back, a 4” piece of batting that is placed between the top and back. Stitch a line diagonally from corner to corner to create an X. Make 81 of these, line them up in a 9x9 grid, sew the blocks together to make the rows, using a .5” seam allowance, back to back so the seams are on the top. Sew the rows together butting up the seams. One the top is complete take a pair of scissors and make a cut along the seams every .5” or so, make sure not to cut through the sewn line. After that, wash the quilt so that the flannel frays and creates the raggedy look. This quilt has an Around the World pattern on the front and an X on the back. I love it!

This quilt will be the one I lie on floor so Ellen can play. Thought the Raggedy edges would be some added textural interest for her.

A Sweet Hug

Along Came Quilting has a Stash-Busters program where every month they have a free pattern you can receive, then you make the quilt, it can be any size, table runner, crib straight on through to a king. You show the quilt top, doesn’t have to be quilted, to the shop by mid-September your name gets entered into a draw for a $100.00 gift certificate to the store. This was April’s stash buster pattern, at first glance I didn’t think anything of their sample they had hanging, the second time I saw it I thought of all the florals I own and immediately thought this would be a cute quilt for Ellen.

The top was made from fabrics entirely from my stash, however the shop made their money on the backing! I have a tendency to use busy flannel fabric on the backings. I had nothing in my stash for this quilt. Before the quilt was completed I bought some bright floral like flannels that I was going to piece into a backing. Once the quilt was finished, the backing fabrics bought didn’t go so well, back to the shop and bought some more flannels. That is ok though, I had a raggedy idea of what to do with the flannels that weren’t used!


Central American Travels
My Wild Seester brought back scrap fabrics used to make shirts from her travels in Central America. I loved the fabric, the vibrant colours, the graphic nature of the lines, it was so appealing! They are woven fabrics so their really stretchy and I wanted the fabrics themselves to be the show-case so I designed a simple block pattern. The leftover pieces were added to the backing. This quilt hangs in my front porch. I am so pleased with how it turned out, square and lays flat.

Eli’s Quilt

Poor Eli! This quilt was meant to be his baby quilt but now he is 2 and a half and about to receive it. Originally it was just the inside portion, I added the green and additional black border to make a toddler sized quilt.

For those of you who don’t know many obsessed quilters, there is a difficulty in getting quilts done on time for gifts. You have to have patience with us. There are some organized quilters who get their quilted gifts done on time, between you and me, those quilters are weird. We have been waiting for our wedding quilt for 6 years on September 1st. Although I like to tease my mom about it, I HAVE to give her my patience or else I can’t expect any back from ALL of the people who are awaiting wedding, baby-now-toddler or other promised quilts.

Back to Eli’s Quilt, I have always loved the pattern Bugs in Jars and it seems rather fitting for a baby boy. I have been collecting bug fabric for a long time now and used some of the brighter fabrics for this quilt. The black background is used to give an extra oomph to the brights. I chose the green fabric for the small border and the bright multicoloured quilting thread for the out black border to lighten up the quilt. Around the jars I used kept to black thread so there wouldn’t be anything competing with the jars themselves. The backing is a flannel fabric filled with zoo animals. Hope you like it Eli!

Coffee Cups

The Patch-Wurx Quilt Guild has a weekend retreat into Saskatchewan every July. At this retreat 3 years ago, the quilt fairy came along to give us a small project to do. This was the project I got, 4 coffee cups. I received the instructions and the fabrics for the 4 coffee cup blocks. The sashing and borders all came from my stash. For quilting, I used different texture techniques behind the coffee cups.


Comfy Cozy Lap Quilt

Found a package of charm squares of a whole fabric line at a quilt show in Carbon, Alberta. Not sure why they appealed to me as the colours are quite dull and I am definitely more into the brights but they did and it was a good thing too. I pieced together the squares and ordered the border fabrics online. Then I found out that my husband didn’t feel like any of the quilts were his so this was finished specifically for him and it goes so well with his chair. Originally I had a floral design for the quilting but if this was to be my husband’s quilt a more masculine design was chosen, an all-over fern pattern for the center squares, and a fern vine within the border. It sits on Bones’ chair.

Reptilian Mystery

While living in Ottawa I frequented a shop called Maple Tree Quilts, unfortunately it isn’t around anymore but it was with that shop that I attended a mystery evening where this quilt top where started. A mystery quilt is one where you don’t receive a full set of instructions, after each step of the piecing process you get the next step. Only on the final step to you get to see what the quilt will look like. Found the green fabric in the small border and binding after moving to Calgary and finally finished it last month. I am not particularly fond of this quilt but it has started to grow on me. This quilt is hanging on my quilt ladder.

Midnight Daisies

This quilt was started 4 years ago after a black & white fabric exchange with Patch-Wurx Quilt Guild. I love black & white quilts with splashes of pure colour to create some fun and drama within the quilt. The graphic nature of the squares is offset by the quilting, there are daisies in the squares and swirls in the border and offset blocks. I used leftover fabrics from the top for the backing. It is now hanging at the top of the stairs on the second floor.

Butterflies oh my

Made this quilt in a class at Along Came Quilting, (love this shop, they have always been really friendly and the owner, Linda, has my back when it comes colour, see Garden Trellis Listing for the full story), about 2 years ago, taught by Joanne. The technique is called Stack & Whack. Cut out a few butterflies from the fabric in the pinwheels and border, stuffed them with wool and appliqué them on the top. Not too sure how I feel about this quilt at this point. It is hanging in my Big-Ass Machine room at the moment.

Donation Quilt

This quilt was donated to a Breast Cancer Fundraiser. It is a small crib quilt with black & white fabrics with colourful bug fabric thrown in. It is quilted with an all-over pattern, loops and bugs. Wish I had a better photo, one without some of the border cut-off but Bones took this before he whisked it off to the silent auction, I was asleep, a needed pregnancy induced nap.