Haunting WOYWW

This wednesday I have been working on and finishing up some bottle caps for the Haunted charm swap. Click and view ad on my sidebar and join in if you would like! I am using creepy haunted faces. I must admit I have never done the bottle caps before, so it has been a learning experience. Also blister city with crimping and hammering the bottle caps! I even found some pieces that sort of reminded me of a vampier's tooth!

I used glossy accents on the inside and they look more vivid!

As for the kids, Honey was chilling out enjoying his new basket I made up for him.

The rest patiently awaited breakfast. Well, that is all except for ONE........

He couldn't wait and had to have it MEOW!!!! It's a wonder I get anything done around here when I have to pick up after the kids!

Mischief and Mayhem

It's alive, it's alive!!!

I just finished up my trade from my fiber art trader's group. The theme was monsters, Dr. Frankenstein style. We could use body parts and come up with our own creatures. Wohahahahhaha!!!

I love a challenge! I decided to do my take on Macbeth's poem with some boil and bubble and got into trouble. lol Of course I used a recipe! I used:

eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, adder's fork and blind worm's sting, lizard's leg and howlet's wing. Macbeth(IV, i, 14-15)

I have yet to name this creature of the night! Any ideas? I don't think "Fluffy" cuts it. LOL

Speaking of trouble. There was yet more Mischief and Mayhem on the loose! I went into the bathroom to discover a hole in the shower curtain. Ahemmm..... which one of you did this! Was it Mischief or Mayhem? Oh, Oh.....

I didn't do it. It was Shredder (Cheddar)!

(Cheddar escapes) Busted!

and what about Bob? I have yet to post a photo of our latest cat. (the cream colored one, probably Honey's daddy) He is feral, so to get a photo has been a bit in the making. He is missing his tail, so hence the name Bob. He usually hangs outside with Tang. I am hoping to catch him one day so that we can have the rest of his tail bobbed and get him neutered.

Well, today's list, I shall have to go shopping for a water proof chainmail shower curtain. I just wonder what other shenanigans will go on while I am gone.

Scarf it up! WOYWW

Well, it is WOYWW again! One thing that this has done is to force me to post something every week even at times when something that perhaps I wouldn't really think to blog about. I have been dealing with insurance claims so a bit slower start to the week. I am working on scarves for Wendy who needs them for a worth while cause. It is for a show to aid in the NatureConservancy-www.nature.org to help oil affected animals Deadline is Oct. 1st and she would really appreciate if anyone could donate one. SO if you have the time, it would be much appreciated. She is undergoing some chemo with breast cancer, so if you don't hear from her for awhile, be patient as I guess that these can really throw you for a loop. Perhaps even some words of encouragement would be good or a card even if you can't do a scarf. After all, I know you all do cards. LOL . Here is the address that you can send them to:

Wendy Ferguson-Whitehead

1901 Canal Dr.

Wilson, NC 27896

I started working on the scarves last night. The quick drawing of the cats was done this morning. It will be my first attempt as doing a silk dye one. I had won the dye and the silk in an earlier post that I blogged about. I have also had the gutta for awhile, so can hardly wait to use it.

I also decided to try my hand at putting some organza strips in a fabric for a scarf. I have had this fabric for a few years. It was suppose to be lining in a jacket or something, but decided on something else instead, so it was available and might as well play with it. Well, it is not an easy task with slippery fabric, so I put it on the long arm machine. sewed one long strip of organza on it with a stablizer on then took it off of the machine and satin stitched the edges on my regular sewing machine and then finally cut away opposite fabrics for the stripe effect. Still have the other side to do and then sew up the edges.

My sister has knitted a couple of scarves, so she will donate them too, so I guess they can be made from what ever materials you would like. I think the only requirement is that it has to be at least 24" on one side and wearable. Hope you can scarf up this oppertunity to help those in need!

Dealing With Disasters

I love September when the sky turns a crisp clear blue, the air turns cooler and getting ready for the turning of the leaves of fall. However this September was anything but ordinary with high temperatures and instead of turning of the leaves, we have had turning of the trees and houses too!

The warning sirens went off, as we watched the fast moving clouds and wondered where we would go for shelter. The school is suppose to be the meeting point, but the last time we had the sirens go off, no one was there to let anyone in , so we sat in our car taking on some heavy rain and winds. So much for a plan of an emergency! We were also told that it was highly unlikely that we would ever be hit by a tornado since we are in a valley and it would break up before then. We listened to the emergency broadcast tornadoes in Hocking County in SE Ohio. The wind came, the rain came, the power went out briefly, but luckily no damage to us. A few miles south in Athens county, the damages were soon unveiled as well as the wild stories that went with it. Our Internet was out since service came from Nelsonville 10 miles away. Another 10 miles and you would be in The Plains that suffered a bulk of the damages.

We saw the devastation on the local channels with head on views. You can see the devistation on the ground in this video. And then To see it with a birds eye view, really puts things in perspective. The lens of my camera got to do just that! A special thanks to our friend Fred Hawk who made the flight so these pictures would be possible. These were taken on Saturday. I had to edit some of the over exposed photos and do some cropping, but I think I have some pretty good ones that will show up well on the blog.

Some homes were picked up and tossed around like toys.

Others had damages to roof tops.

The blue seen are not actually swimming pools as it may seem, but tops of roofs without their shingles.

The school field sustained 3 million dollars in damages. It buckled and twisted the bleachers as if it were straw.

Luckily the high school (you can see on the hill) was spared any damages.

The Athens Messenger News had roof damage too.

The one that amazed me was the damage that it had done to a tire company in Athens. It was as if it were picking out the center randomly and leaving the ends in tact!

Next door is the Super 8 Hotel which has some shingles missing.

We heard that one guy was trying to drive to his home with his 12 year old. His wife and 6 year old were at home. He saw it coming and said he knew he couldn't make it to the house and drove as fast as he could away from the house. It wasn't until about 20 min. later he was able to make it back only to find that the roof was gone, but his wife and other child were fine.

Another interview with a woman was that when it hit, she was hanging on to the door handle of her mobile home and it tore part of her roof off. She was still shaking at the thought of nearly loosing her life.

Further SE. a guy was missing 60 head of cattle. They finally found all but 6. A mother of a friend of mine, had a cow that something had hit it and it left a huge gash in it's hip so they had to kill it. She also had a horse that had suffered damages with cut tendons and it was going to take months and months of healing and would have to be immobilized during that time. Given the age of the animal, they decided that they had to put it down. Another guy lost his life in his home. Another home was destroyed and they found a woman that had to be hospitalized. I believe they said there were 4 separate tornados that hit SE Ohio. It's so out of character for this time of year as well as area.

Along with natural disasters, we have been dealing with some on the home front. Our plumbing has been springing up leaks everywhere in a domino fashion. It seems our home has been over pressured. Still not sure if it has been the regulator's fault or the water company. We still show 155 lbs. of pressure when it is suppose to be 75! Our adjuster and the plumber meet tomorrow with me. We shall see what we need to do and what this will cost all of us since we have a high deductible. Here is our mini devastation.

I shall certainly be glad when all of these disasters are behind us and the clean up on it's way to rebuild our house and the community.

Marathons WOYWW

Gosh it's Wednesday already? Where did a week go? As you can see, I am as paniced as this little guy! I did a quick little drawing over one of my paint blobs from last week to show you that I at least did something at my desk! He's kind of cute at that. For not planning anything in particular, it's kind of fun to see where it leads you.

This week I spent it pretty much chained to my quilting machine. I had a request to show the whole quilt that I finished up that was on my machine last post. Boy, it was sure a lot of quilt!

Even Miss Fritzie, the quilt inspector is checking it out.

It looks as good from the front as it does from the ...... ah... Miss Fritzie.... I wasn't talking about checking out your behind!

O.K. so I need another opinion. What do you think Bisky?

You are such a bad critic! I just found someone who appreciates my work so much that they even copied it!

Thanks spidy! You do wonderful circles too!

I kept pretty busy this week though. Would you believe a quilt a day? Here is what I have gotten done since last Wed. Spidy and I each did a bullseye in a day. lol

Then it went on to squares with some roses quilted on them.

Then this cute cowboy boot quilt.

Then some squares on point.

I used a popcorn pattern.

More popcorn only on a red, black and white quilt.

and then a lovely rose pattern with ground cover quilted all over it.

While I had been kept pretty busy since last Wednesday, I can't take the credit for pieceing these beauties. All of these lovely quilts are Janet's. Whew! I am exhausted now. I think I need a breather and a cup of coffee before I do another marathon. My next marathon will be checking out all of the desks to see what everyone else is up to. May you all be happily busy!

Going In Circles

I had every intention on getting my workdesk photo up for WOYWW, but things just sort of got away from me! Have been dealing with plumbers and deadlines lately. I feel like I have been chasing my tail. So, I am late, but better late than never? Anyway, here's what my work area looked like in the past. Lets see if you can spot the change.

BEFORE

AFTER

If you are guessing that the cat is in a different spot, you are right. If you guessed that the cabinet color has changed, you are right again! I figured you were all pretty smart at guessing. LOL I took advantage of the nice weather getting the cabinet spray painted outside. My yard sale find looks pretty spiffy now!

The only other thing I have on my desk at the moment, is that I have been playing with paint sort of ink blot style. I am hoping to create a few creatures and such to see what they will become.

In the mean time I am back to my machine quilting. I figured I had better work on paying the plumber!

I am working on an oriental quilt for Ruth. I have it about half done and going around in circles! I hope to have it finished by tomorrow. It's always exciting to see the full view when it gets off of the machine. Well back to work! See Ya a"round"!