Quilt of Valor Finished

Here's a quilt I recently finished that will go to the Quilts of Valor program that sends quilts to military service persons. It's 63" by 79", designed, made & quilted by me. I hope whoever gets it, enjoys it.

Oranges for Dogs & Cats

I just learned that you can get rid of fleas on your pets by using oranges, actually orange oil, on them, I saw this commercial for a book on natural remedies for pests, this guy rubbed an orange on his dog. Strange I thought, but I had oranges & dogs, so I tried it. It worked!! The previously itchy dog stopped scratching & slept peacefully for a couple hours. I looked it up on line to see what it was about the orange that killed fleas. It was the orange oil, the limoniene in the orange oil is the culprit. I'm not complaining, oranges are a lot cheaper than flea pills that only work 24 hours. Live & learn, now, where do I get that book from that commercial?? :)

I know this is off the normal posts topics but I thought it was worth mentioning,

Thoughts on Sandy Hook, CT

Something tragic always seems to happen around Christmas, whether its on a national, local or personal scale. Last year we had the big fire across the street where 3 families lost their homes, this year is was Sandy Hook Elementary, in past years it's been fatal wrecks, house fires, and such, whatever the event, it puts a damper on the holidays for me. I guess when tragedies happen during the holidays it makes it seem more prominent. Losing someone during the holidays is doubly hard, I know that from experience.
The politicians are talking gun control, mental health, school safety and such. But will anything actually be done about it, I doubt it. And people are putting malicious posts online about autism who probably have no clue what autism is or how it affects people with it & the families of those persons who have it. I can say, from experience, people with autism are not violent towards others as a rule. I do think that the shooter, in the Sandy Hook School case, had something else other than autism going on. Believe me, it's very hard to live with someone who has mental or neurological health problems. It limits your. Life in ways you wouldn't think, going out in public with them is hard, dealing with changes or upsets, anything out of the routine,in the home is hard, even with help available, it's tough. So shame on those who bash it without knowing anything about it in the first place.
To sum up, I doubt that this will be the last massacre that will take place & each wills be horrific in itself. The best we can do is pay attention to those around you, to your surroundings and protect your own anyway y can if it doesn't hurt anyone else. Just pay attention to your world & what's going on in it & you will always know what to do when something happens .

Hot off the sewing machine- a new quilt top

Heres a brand new quilt top, just finished today. This is the second one of this pattern, or a similar pattern, that originated in a McCalls quilting magazine. The first one went to a neighbor across the street who was in the big fire last Christmas- don't want repeat of that. Tis Christmas shall be a No trauma, No drama holiday. This quilt top was made entirely from scraps on hand & is about a twin size.

Latest Adventures, haunted house

I've beed researching the history of my unused, basically because it's haunted & I want to know who's haunting it. I traced the property back as far as 1826 to learn that it was part of a plantation belonging to the Evans family. As far as the haunting part, we've seen apparitions both full & partial, have had things fly off tables & refrigerator clips onto the floor, have been touched & spoken to, so we know for a fact this place is haunted. Since it was part of a plantation, it could be slaves or anyone haunting it, who knows? I use an IPad app called Ghost Radar that's supposed to be genuine to pick up ghostly energies & EVPs, in which the ghost speak through the device. Now I need to determine if this app is the real deal or if it's just generating random words & signals. It thought is was very interesting to learn that I now live on an old southern plantation, or part of it at least. Don't know if I'll continue searching the history of the place, the courthouse records stopped at the 1826 entry I found & nothing else was listed for it. As for the ghosts, I'd like to send them on their way, to the spirit world for good.

New Christmas Quilt

Just finished this quit top today. Been working on it for about 3 weeks, used the accuquilter die cut machine. It makes it so much easier to cut multiple pieces accurately the quilt is about 70 inches square.. This particular quilt, once it's finished is a Christmas gift for my granddaughters therapist who's been so helpful. I have a second quilt but not even begun sewing on it yet.yet. Photos of that one when I get it done.

The Stress Quilt

This is my stress quilt. It's about 60 inches square and depicts the stressful events I've been going through in the past few years. It contains, appliqué, hand painting & air brushing. The bottom right block sows a dead person, me, stating " dead finally found peace." this is completely original design. This quilt helped me work put some of my feelings