ThunderSnow!

Patty:  First there was sleet and now ThunderSnow!  These are golf-ball sized, snow-covered rain balloons!  As I looked out the window I discovered, to my horror, that all the bird feeders are empty and the suet is gone!  The birds are hovering under the eaves, so when I went out to take this photo there was a flurry of feathering everywhere.  After just a few seconds out there, my hair was completely drenched.  I'm staying put!  I think I'll make chicken soup.

Bhu:  I'm staying put, too.  zzzzzzzzzzzzsnerkszzzzzz

Be safe effuryone!  xxoo

New Morning!

Patty:  Good morning effurryone!  As you can see, Bhu is quite contented in his sunpuddle this morning.   Sabryin wants to say "thanks so much to . . . all those who made such wonderful and heartwarming comments on . . ." the previous post about his mom.  It's been difficult this week and your words have been very comforting to us both.  Many, many thanks!

I made this  carrying case for Sabryin's African chess set.  I used a vintage, authentic batik for the case and a modern  batik for the lining.  I didn't want to detract from the beauty of the batik design, so the quilting is very simple, mirror image wavy lines using variegated threads.

Bhu:   This looks like something I could use to exercise my claws!  I will try that later.  Right now I want to say thanks to all my furrends for being so nice to mai mom and pop!  You're the greatest!  xxoo

Patty:  You got that right, Bhu!  And for those of you who worried about Ava, she is being well cared for by Sabryin's dad.  xxoo

Summerland

Sabryin's mom passed away last night after a long, fulfilling life.  This is a photo of her in 1966, in the Yucatan, doing laundry by hand.  She grew up on a farm in the midwest with four sisters and three brothers and she couldn't wait to get outta there!  She wanted adventure, and she got it.  She married a wildman author, had a baby in the late '50s and immediately headed out in every direction of the globe not as a tourist but as an observer.  She lived in those places; she was her own Peace Corps, raising a little boy and traveling and making do and creating a home wherever they went.  They lived in Mexico, West Indies, Ireland, Spain, Morocco, Hawaii, Arizona, Missouri, and finally in Texas.  She was Sabryin's best friend.  Sometime in the mid-70s she decided to go back to school and get a nursing degree.  She chose psychiatric nursing and worked in VA hospitals until she retired.  She was a lifelong smoker; she didn't quit until they put her in the hospital four weeks ago.  She just wanted to sleep; she wanted to go home and sleep.  She leaves behind her husband of over 50 years, two sons, a grandson and Ava, the kitteh.  Adieu, loved one!

New Banner!

Bhu:  Hey mom, how you like the new banner?

Patty:  Well, it's fantastic, of course!  You are so handsome!  Many thanks to Ann of Zoolatry!  xxoo

Rejekshun

Patty:  Well, Bhu, don't you look glorious on that quilt! 
Bhu:  Okay, thanx.  Now go away.
Patty:  That's just perfect!  Even my own Bhu is rejecting me.  I seem to be in a pattern here of being rejected.  At risk of sounding whiney, I won't go into details.  Even in the etsy store, people are "favoriting" items, but not buying them.  But I put up a few handmade treasures today and keeping my fingers crosssed that the rejekshun spell gets broken soon.  Good thing I am having a very productive week, otherwise I would have time to think about it. 
Bhu:  Well, you will receive no encouragement from me.  Please be quiet.
Patty:  Did you ever have one of those days/weeks/months/years when everybody just looks right through you?  Hope not, but if so here's a hug for you!  xxoo

A little late for the Year 5 Blogaversary

Bhu:  I'm not very good with the calendar but what do you expect:  I am a kitteh!  HowEFURR, mai mom totally forgot her responsibilities, once again.  Not only did she not blog but she forgot that it was our FIVE YEARS BLOGAVERSARY on January 5th!  There really is no excuse for this at all. 

Patty:  I sincerely apologize, Bhu, but you are right!  We started this blog on January 5, 2008 and that would be five years.  The name of the blog was "PattySkypants" and it wasn't meant to be a documentary of your every activity.  You didn't actually appear until post #4 and that was only because you came in and sat down on the apron I'd just made for Megan Kelley.  And now look at you:  Vice Purresident for Opurrations of the Pattyskypants Sew Thrifty etsy empire!!  (cough, cough, ahem)

Bhu:  Yeah, well nobody cared what you had to say or what you thought or paid attention to any of your silly human nonsense, so that's why I came to sit on the apron and get in that photo!  To spare you the humiliation of having a blog that nobody visited! 

Patty:  I realize that now, Bhu, and I truly appurreciate it!  If it wasn't for you, nobody would ever visit here!  Rarely do any of my far-away friends or family stop by and never do they leave comments. 

Bhu:  Well, maybe if you were more interesting.

Patty:  Et tu, Bhu!
xxoo 

Something New

Bhu:  Mai mom has been sewing since she was . . . well, let's just say a LONG TIME . . . and she has collected a lot of wonderful sewing-related things over the years and all of them are, at this point, "Vintage."  So she decided to open a shop on etsy.com (http://www.etsy.com/shop/pattyskypants).  This was precipitated by finding three boxes of vintage patterns, some of which you can see in the photo collage above.  She also has probably a TON of vintage fabrics, notions and books, so it's all goin' into the store.

Patty:  This is a slow process, as you can imagine, but I also want to start listing dolls, doll quilts, and other quilts in the coming months.  I have already sold some items and now that everybody is in a post-kissmess consumer daze, it's slowing down a bit so I can get more things photographed and listed.

I know that some of Bhu's furrends moms are quilters and sewists.  I do have a large collection of vintage and modern prints, so if you are looking for something specific for finishing or repairing a project, let me know.  Send me a photo of the fabric needed and I'll browse through my collection, which is primarily filed by color. 

The shop is called Pattyskypants Sew Thrifty with a beautiful masthead created by Ann of Zoolatry.  I'll be listing vintage clothing, books, magazines, and other odds-n-ends as well as many one-of-a-kind handmade items.  I hope you'll stop by!  xxoo

Bhu:  Hey, mom, can I be Vice Purresident for Opurrations?

So long, 2012!

Bhu:  Mai mom sez to tell you all that we did not have telephone or internet service for the past two days and she is P-I-*-*-E-D!  She loves to rant and rave about how CenturyLink does not deliver what it promises but still goes ahead and takes all her green papers.  She sez if we didn't have cell phones, we'd be up a creek.  I say if she was more kitteh-like, she wouldn't have these purroblems!  She don't lissen to me, though.

Patty:    Au contraire, mon cher!  I "lissen" to you all the time.  Next year will be even better.  Next year (which is tomorrow, btw), I am going to try to solve the mystery of why you go into the bathroom, sit in the corner facing the wall, and yowl incessantly!  At the top of your lungs like you were a wolf howling at the moon!  What's in there?  Sabryin is convinced there is a kitteh ghost in there, or something of that nature (or UN-nature, as it was). 

Bhu:  It's mai sekret and I'm not gonna tell.

Patty:  Yeah, well I figured.  I'll find out, nevertheless.  Aside from that I want to tell everyone who visits us and whom we visit that we hope their Noo Yeer is great, even though Sabryin and I are way too sick with horrible colds to breathe much less party!  So we will be staying home tonight, feasting on left-overs in the fridge and sloshing down a big bottle of bubbly (sparkling cider, of course)! 

So long, 2012!  Hello, 2013 (and you better be good to us)!  xxoo Patty

Kissmess Greetings

This has been a wonderful weekend!  I am a person who has never stopped to relax during the holidays, but this year I decided to not focus on the work for pay and concentrate more on play!  Rather than going in to the office, I'm taking care of things via e-mail and the internet.  So, here's what I've been working on.  This is one of the blocks I found the other day . . .  made by

 Ann Ross, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, July 1990.  I'm proud of myself for writing the names, locations, and dates on these blocks.  Most of the blocks were made very well, but some had to be taken apart and sewed back together so they would be 12-1/2".  Some were so far off, I had to add strips of fabric around the edges.  I don't feel this ruins it; I rather like it.

This fabric is a Peter Pan print circa 1990.  I'm not certain of the exact date, but it has been in my stash for a long time.  There were four yards, just enough to back each block and cut 1-1/2" width strips for the sides and long rows.  These projects are also great for using up bobbins and spools that have just a little bit of those odd color threads left from completed projects.

 This is just one tiny corner of my sewing room.  I'm embarrassed that it is so messy, but it is what it is.  See that little quilt on the chair?  I completed that last night.  It's 19-1/2" square and I'll be putting it my etsy shop as soon as I can photograph it.  Also on the chair you can see some of the remaining 70 blocks that will be made into more QAYG quilts.

Bhu don't care.  He just wants to catch some rays and snooze.  You can see his furs are growing; the number of horking-up incidents is also growing.  Time for a visit to the groomer, I should say.

Bhu, Sabryin and I hope that you have the day off tomorrow and that you are able to play!  xxoo Patty


Pee Ess:  Here are the names on some of the other blocks in this quilt. 
Sharon Kendall, Lincoln Park, MI 1/90
Susan Wilson, Surrey, England 11/89
Valerie Malcolm, Australia, 3/90
Myra Alder, Eastwood, New South Wales, Australia
Debbie Bloxom, Wales, 2/89
Bernice Wacholz, Greenfield, WI  3/89

Day One Without the Mayan Calendar

Bhu:  Hey mom, we're still here! 
Patty:  Or so it seems, Bhu.  There's all sortsa stuff out there that we don't know about so keep your eyes and ears open and take cover if you hear a loud bang.  In the meantime, we will have to take things one day at a time. 

I'm going to try to write a couple of letters this week to old friends who sent holiday cards!  I stopped sending cards several years ago because I was convinced that it was another one of those holiday traditions that is so ecologically unwise.  But it is such a treat to hear from people who are so far away, even if it is only once a year . . . whatever it takes to get them to say Hi -- I'm cool with that.   So in order to comfort my qualms about the ecological ramifications, I am going to make my own cards from stuff I already have.  One of my fondest memories is of sitting at the kitchen table in my little two-bedroom apartment in Astoria, Queens (I had just turned 20) with my box of watercolors and Prismacolor pencils painting angels, christmas trees, holly and cardinals on paper I'd cut to greeting card size (this was, of course, pre-Hobby Lobby).  I had to put the cards on the radiator to dry; I always mixed my paints too wet! 

Bhu, Sabryin and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  We'll be back on Chrismas Day!  xxoo

12:12:12 on 12/12/12

Born This Way

Sabryin:  How come you are so beautiful, Bhu?

Bhu:  I was born this way.

Patty:  Bhu was enjoying a sun puddle on the day after thanksgiving.  His luxurious muff fur billows about his little doll face.  As you can see, his body furs are growing back and now we face the difficult choice of either having them shorn or listening to him horking up every fifteen minutes!  Seriously, the fur he ingests is what causes most of his digestive problems!  Gluttony causes the rest.  Sometimes when I am gone all day and forget to prep his food dish for the eventuality of a late return,  he is waiting at the door to let me know immediately that he is out of food!!  Once I start feeding him, it seems he does not want me to stop!  He gobbles it up, asks for more, gobbles, more, gobble, more . . .  until there just isn't any more room in his belly and he waddles off to a corner somewhere to purge.  Yes, he has an eating disorder.  Shame!

Anyhoo, I am not a big fan of Kissmess.  I don't DECORATE, although I like a humble little tree with fabric bows and a kitty star at the top.  Also, last year we put the tree lights up around the living room and keep them there all year, so in case either one of us is in a grey mood we plug them in and they cheer us up right away!  I HATE shopping and I always think I have waaaay more time than I actually have to handmake things (anyone else suffer from this affliction?).  In trying to develop a ritual-free lifestyle, I gave up sending cards about five years ago.  Some of my friends and family are insulted by this; some understand completely and are, in fact, making a similar attempt! 

Bhu:  I love getting cards, by the way.  Bring on the ritualistic gift-giving, too!

Patty:  You're really going for purrrfection with that gluttony thing, aren't you, Bhu?  Hmmm.  In any case, we hope you are surviving the season, not too stressed out, and enjoying every minute.  Is anyone having an End-Of-The-World party on the 21st?? 

xxoo

Holiday Weekend Progress

Patty:  This is my pecan pie that I made from scratch using real pecans.  It tastes magical!  You can see all my mismatched bowls and tableware, but the food was really top notch.  Now, I personally do not like pecan pie, but it is Sabryin's favorite and this year I forced him to tell me what he wanted for Thanksgiving dinner because otherwise I was going to make cod.  Sorry, but I like cod (fish of any kind, really).  He's a steak and potatoes kinda guy and I'm a salmon and salad lady.  But I can compromise, you know?

Well, it all started Monday when I was reading this particular biography of Steve Jobs.  I wouldn't normally be interested in a bio about a tycoon, except he's wearing the glasses I want and his eyebrows grow upwards, just like mine.  I thought, hmmm, maybe we have something in common and it turns out we do (but I won't tell you what).  For some reason (hmmm, I wonder what), I decided I would make an APPLE pie.  Now, I have not made a pie in a very, very long time, but I had the apples and I needed to use them or compost them, so . . .  This was incredibly easy and, according to Sabryin and Ernie, tasted really good.  So, faced with this success and the request for a pecan pie for the holiday meal, I determined to make it myself rather than buy one premade. 

The 9 patch quilt top I'd been making was finished and I miraculously had enough of the background and border fabrics to create a backing for the quilt!  Usually I wind up going out and buying six more yards, which is pure folly.  It's not as if I didn't have millions of yards of fabric already!  My problem was space.  I didn't have anywhere to pin it up.  In the past I always took the quilt, batting and backing to the office conference room and pinned it up on the table there.  But this summer they had the table refinished, so I didn't think it would be appropriate to dig little pin holes in it again!   So, I went to the public library and reserved a room!  Can I say I love, love, love our public library?  It's so fantastic for so many reasons.  Anyway, the room was perfect, the table was great and I got the top pinned up!  I did run short of pins.  That has never happened before.  This is a BIG top!

Bhu:  Now you gotta quilt it, mom! 

Patty:  So I do, sweet Bhu!  Hope efurrybody had a great weekend!  xxoo

Efurry day thanking

Patty here!  Bhu is sleeping.  He has had a hard day so far.  He horked up on his favorite napping spot, so he has been wandering around from sunny spot to sunny spot.  I just gave him some Appetizer; sometimes it settles his tummy.

In a minute I am going to attempt to make a pecan pie from scratch.  I've got collard greens soaking in the sink and the ham hocks in the fridge.  All the parts for tomorrow's feast are assembled and I have a pot of decaf coffee ready to keep me hydrated during the rigorous preparations!  The photo, by the way, is of our lovely KnockOut roses blooming like crazy!  You know, even though we had a devastating drought this year, all my roses did spectacularly well (I think it was the leaf mulch and I did water them every day).  They all have very long stems, too.  The real reason for posting today is that I wanted to "file" a recipe for homemade spray starch that I do not want to lose.  This is from "Sunday Morning Quilts" by Amanda Jean Nyberg & Cheryl Arkison, a lovely book I got at the library.

HOMEMADE SPRAY STARCH

12 to 16 ozs water
1-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

Mix the water and cornstarch until no lumps remain and pour into a spray bottle.  You can add 2 to 3 drops of lavender essential oil, if you like.  The starch will separate between uses, so you will need to shake well before each use.  If you're not going to use it regularly, keep it in the fridge.

P.S.  Bhu, Sabryin and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!!  xxoo

Flypaper and other special thoughts

We're sorry for being so absent lately.  Mai mom's excuse is there has been a lot to do at work, she is trying to fit everything around Poppy's new work schedule (which means everything gets done later but not at any specific time).  Mostly she's been quilting and fiddling around with the sewing machine and trying to get an etsy shop going.  I am doing just fine so far this Fall and I'm glad mai mom is helping me go around and visit effurrybody to say hi! 

Patty:  Who can believe it is November already?!  When did THAT happen?  Anyway, we finally plugged in our land-line telelphone yesterday now that Mitt Romney doesn't want to talk to us anymore.  His loss, right Bhu?  Maybe he's afraid we'll ask him for some money.  Plus, my family and friends on the Jersey Shore and in New York are suffering through some nasty stuff perpetrated by Mutha Naycha!  We are hoping for the best ('cause the worst has already occurred). 

As for the etsy store, I am so happy to have a banner designed by Ann of Zoolatry!  It's bright and happy and I love it and I can't wait to get the store stocked with items!   I plan to sell vintage and repurposed sewing items including tools, patterns, fabrics and even some handmade items like quilts, totes, and the occasional magic doll. 

Veteran's Day is Monday and I know I am a bit early, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to say thanks to the people who have chosen to do this job (and especially to those who did not choose it, but did it anyway and served  bravely and honorably).  xxoo Patty