Celtic Solstice Part 2

I didn't get as much done last week as I anticipated.  As usual my energy isn't up to par yet from the anesthesia. I always have good intentions of recovering faster, but my body isn't so cooperative.  So Friday morning I got up and cut Part 2 of Celtic Solstice:

As you can see, I opted to stay with the red and not switch to black.  I'm hoping it works out.  Keep your fingers crossed for me! And as usual, I couldn't resist sewing a few to see how they turned out:

Saturday evening my husband and I slipped out to Walmart to buy a 2' Christmas Tree.  We have a very nice tree already, but our Bengal cats have reached their terrible twos! They are chewing on everything in sight including cords.  So for the safety of the kitties this year we decided to put a tree up well out of reach on top of our entertainment center:

It's kind of cute if I do say so myself!  It will do for this year.  And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the terror twins figure out how to get up to it! I'm not sure where this twinkle picture came from or how it was made.  It's not on my phone and it just showed up when I uploaded my picture to Google+ to use here in the blog.  I'm not complaining though .... I think it's pretty cool! My tree doesn't really sparkle like that ... I kind of wish it did!!

Sunday I set out to get Part One of Celtic Solstice done and I almost did minus 16 pink triangle in squares.  Apparently I miscounted when I cut the green last week.  I'll cut the other 16 sets of green sometime this week and put the last 16 together so I can move on to Part 2.

That's about it for this week. I have a feeling I may not get caught up on this mystery until I'm off at Christmas but that's OK.  You can check out everyone's progress (HERE) on Bonnie's blog.

Until next time .... Just keep sewing, just keep sewing!

Feline Friday

Dear Santa, 

Please bring me about a 1000 2000 more of these fuzzy, springy things!  These are the best toys EVER!!!!  I've been a very good kitty this year as always.

                                                                                      Love,

                                                                                          Neela

HAPPY FELINE FRIDAY, Y'ALL!!

Celtic Solstice Part 1

Apparently some people have been complaining about Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. I think that is ungrateful.  Bonnie offers us (her fans and followers) a FREE quilt pattern every year.  And some people don't want to print so many pages ... or don't want to use a specific ruler ... don't want to paper piece ... etc, etc.  I think the solution to their dilemma is simple .... just don't participate.  They should be thankful that Bonnie does this for no charge to us. One of my other favorite quilters is charging in excess of $100 to participate in her mystery.  That's a chunk of change and no that does not include fabric.  Bonnie is beyond generous!

I've always found that Bonnie recommends the tools we need to assemble the quilt in the easiest way possible. I've enjoyed the two mysteries of hers that I've done so far and expect this one to be just as fun!  I say thank you, Bonnie Hunter, for sharing this pattern so generously with us! 

Enough of that though .... let's get down to the reason we are here:  Celtic Solstice!!

Earlier I posted a picture of the fabrics I had chosen:

I had decided to substitute the Red for Blue and Pink for Orange.   Then Part One of the mystery came out and I had a dilemma.  With my substitutions, I was going to end up with Pink and Red Triangles in a Squares.  I wasn't sure I was going to like that.

So I decided to use the Green for the Blue.  I may or may not use the Red for the Green.  I'll make that decision when parts come out that call for the Green.  The Red may turn into Black.  I'll just have to see when the time gets here.  Input is welcome.  Comment below for suggestions!

So today I cut all the pieces for the small version of the quilt:

And I couldn't resist and had to sew a few "test" squares:

Only 178 more to go!!  I'm going to try to sew a few each night this week.  I'd like to have them all done before the next clue on Friday, but I'm not going to stress if it doesn't happen.  I did so good last year keeping up with each step with Easy Street.  Now if I could just sew the borders on, I could call Easy Street finished!  The easiest part is holding me up! 

Hope everyone is having fun with this!  I know I am!

Check out everyone's progress HERE!!

Feline Friday

Mom .... it's cold outside!!!  Please turn up the heat so I can move from this heat vent ....

Or .... better yet .... let's get out the electric blanket and cuddle .....

And look ... electric blankets make me tolerant of my sister!!

Happy Feline Friday, Y'all!!

Happy Thanksgiving

First, I'd like to say Happy Thanksgiving to anyone out there still following along.  We had salmon today and will have our traditional turkey meal on Saturday with our family when I'm allowed to eat solid food again.  I finally had my surgery on October 31st.  (See here for some details if you are curious)

I swore I wasn't going to do it.  I told myself I didn't need to start yet another project ... but somehow I still found myself at the quilt store yesterday buying fabric for Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice.  I just could not resist.  I've enjoyed her past mysteries that I've participated in so I just had to join in.  Here are the fabrics I chose:

This is the new Primitive Gatherings line, Floral Gatherings plus a few to supplement.  I hope my color substitutions work out for me. I can't wait to get started tomorrow!!!

Feline Friday for Roxy

Today, the Felines in our family ... Neela, Nala, Khaleesi & Keira ... as well as our Canine family members ... Lexie, Dakota, Harley, Teddy, Toby & Mercedes ... would like to dedicate our Feline Friday post to our Canine friend, Roxy. We are all asking that you say a little prayer for the Roxer.

Wednesday evening Roxy was viciously attacked by a family member's dog.  The more the vet shaved the more they found.  She ended up with 4 drains, stitches and of course a round of antibiotics and pain medication.

This image just breaks my heart!  She's a sweet little girl and certainly didn't deserve this.  I am happy to report though that today she is feeling a little better.

The owner of the dog that attacked Roxy is claiming that it was Roxy's fault because she growled.  Wow ... growled.  I wonder if she realizes how ridiculous that sounds.  I have six dogs.  They growl at each other all the time.  Not ever have we had something happen like the image above.  This is an aggressive dog that did this.  That's the bottom line. 

My point here is that dog owners MUST be responsible for their pets AND their behavior.  If one of my dogs had viciously attacked another dog I would be first to take that other dog to the vet and pay their vet bills.  Not to mention how heart broken I would be that it had happened in the first place.  

What the owner of the dog that attacked Roxy doens't understand is how lucky she is.  Yes, lucky.  Because if her dog had done that to one of my dogs and she offered no remorse like she has, she would find herself with charges filed against her for having a vicious animal.  Usually that follows with the destruction of the animal that attacked.  Even saying things like that is hard for me because obviously I'm an animal nut, but vicious, out of control animals can't be tolerated.  What if a child had growled at the dog just wanting to play and that dog attacked that child like it did Roxy?  What if indeed?

It's all about responsibility.  We have a generation of young people coming up who don't seem to  understand the meaning of that word at all.  In the case of pet ownership, your not just responsible for your actions, but also your pet's.  Taking responsibly for a wrong doing can go a long way to healing the emotional wounds.  If the other dog had received bite wounds like Roxy's then we would be calling this a dog fight not an attack and that would be a different story. A growl should not provoke the attack that caused the wounds you see above.

This has just been eating at me.  I've felt so bad and powerless to do anything since this happened and just kept thinking, "What if it happened to one of my sweet babies?"

So send some healing Corgi vibes out for Roxy and pray for her family to find forgiveness and peace in an unfortunate situation.  I know it would be the forgiveness and peace part that would be hard for me.  

And ... at least we can be thankful that this beautiful little baby will eventually physically be OK. And because of that we can still say:

Happy Feline Friday, Y'all!

Lazy Sunday

Wow ... It's been over a month since I've posted anything on my blog.  I thought I would be sewing my way through getting my surgery approved, but I've been way too distracted by it all ... bordering on depression.  We're still fighting and I really can't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet.

But the last couple of weekends I've sewed a little.  I'm trying to get back in the swing of things because it seems like my life has been on hold since May 14th when I parted ways with my band.

So for a Lazy Sunday, I thought I'd work a little on "Lazy Sunday".

I think I'm well on the way to finishing this one.  I may even have a partial flimsy to share next weekend.  I started assembling the blocks today and just have some pieced borders to tackle.

This one is really different.  I think I'm going to like it!