A new blog for a new year

I started this blog some time ago. It's focus was to be quilts with a bit about my cats. Things change, don't they? We moved, I got a new computer and a new email address. While it was possible for me to post to this blog as a guest author, I couldn't change the layout, etc. I know, some of you out there would have no problem with it, but, being truly computer challenged, I decided it was easier to just begin a new blog. You can visit it here. The new blog will be dealing with health issues, nutrition and lots of things. Hopefully, lots of quilts will pop up too.
That's it for now.
Sheila H.

2010 Jan. 3

Just a quickie for today. Still on the health thing. My husband told me he watched a show the other night and it said that they (nope, I don't know who "They" is/are) had tested the hair of people and that it was 50% corn. Yikes, how scary is that piece of info? We - my husband and I - already knew that the American food supply was full of corn, as I am probably allergic to it and we have been avoiding it like the plague for the last year and a half. Believe me, some form of corn is in all the processed foods people are eating. It could be high fructose corn syrup or cornstarch or dextrose, etc., but it is there in some form. Did you know that even common iodized table salt has cornstarch in it? It is used as an anti-caking agent. Avoiding corn makes avoiding gluten look easy. I know. I avoid them both.
More later.
Sheila H.

2010 Jan. 2

Haven't made up my mind yet about how frequently to post. But, since I started the new year off so well, decided I might as well post again today.
Health tip number 2: Stop eating all processed foods. That is a hard one. If you start reading labels, you will discover that you are not eating processed "foods," rather you are eating stuff that is manufactured and is all chemicals. Before I had all these health issues, I ate it all and didn't give it a second thought. When the drs. didn't seem able to help me, it fell to me to try and figure it all out and a very long and winding path led me to face the fact that I wasn't eating food, I was consuming chemicals. The things the FDA approves are unbelievable. We should not be eating these things and feeding them to all our children.
So what are all my heath issues? That is a lot to discuss. In April 2007, I woke in the middle of the night with a pain so severe in my left eye that my husband had to take me to the emergency room. The ER dr. put a painkiller in my eye, told me my pupil was huge, had me try to read the eye chart and discovered that I could only see the "E" and nothing else. He called the opthomologist who decided that he really didn't want to get out of bed right then and told me to come to his office the next morning. We did. To make a long story short, he told me it was a corneal erosion due to dry eyes and that the eroding happened to take place in my field of vision. He told me to put otc drops in it during the day and dry eye ointment at night. A few days later, I discovered that my left eye was protruding. Back to the eye dr. He tested me for Grave's Disease and sent me for a scan that would detect a tumor. My thyroid was "high normal" and there was no tumor. The eye dr. had no diagnosis for me. He said it was all due to "inflammation" and he could give me steroids for it, but as soon as I quit taking them the condition would return. I was told to come back if it got worse. It did. I went back and still no diagnosis or treatment. This went on for awhile. The eye dr. suggested I see my primary care physician. I didn't really have a pcp, but I got one and went to see him. In the mean time, I started doing research. Thank goodness for the Internet. Since the only sort of diagnosis coming to me was inflammation, it was a place to start. Long story short, thought maybe I had Celiac disease and the pcp tested me for it and said that it was negative - not enough antibodies showing up. I said, well why do I feel better if I don't eat gluten (that was my first eating experiment) and he said he didn't know. Plus, now in hindsight, I ask why would a person have any antibodies at all if gluten isn't a problem? I went back to eating gluten and got sicker than I already was. The eye thing was only one of lots of things that were going wrong with me health wise. I found if I told any dr. too many symptoms at once, they thought I was crazy and that seemed counter productive to me. So on any office visits I tried to stick to a couple of things and never got an answer for any of them. Sigh. Finally, the pcp sent me to an endocrinologist and he kept testing my thyroid and telling me that it was "high normal" and he couldn't treat me for a condition I didn't have. Meanwhile, I had started having anxiety attacks and that further convinced every dr. that I was crazy. Well, dear reader, I had lived through a lot of years of stress and had never had an anxiety attack before all this. The endocrinologist gave me a beta blocker to stop the heart palpitations and anxiety attacks. I am still on it and would like to get off of it because I believe that it was a lack of vitamin b12 that was causing it. That conclusion comes after a lot of research. Now, I have to go back to a new dr. and see if I can quit taking it. Well, this is just the beginning, but it is enough for now. More later.
Sheila H.

2010 Jan. 1

Wow. Can you believe 2010 is here?
I don't make any resolutions normally, but this year I have one - to start my blog again. Here it is. I am proud of myself for figuring out how to post from a new email address, which was accomplished by simply adding myself as a new author. Hope it works. No computer wizards here. Sigh.
A friend of mine has encouraged me to start it up again and to post about nutritional things I have learned and to discuss health issues. So not all the posts will be about cats or quilts. In fact quilts have taken a backseat in my life for the past year and 8 months. Cats, on the other hand, are ever present in my life. I have three of the little beasties: Twinnie, Lumpy, and Gizmo. I hope to feature them in a few posts from time to time. That should bore everyone. Hmm, which is more boring, do you suppose - my cats or my health issues? That's a tough one. Hopefully, my health insights will be of some use to a few people, but I doubt that my cat stories will be.
I leave you on this first day of the year and the first day of my return to blogging with a thing I have learned: don't eat artificial sweeteners. Period. They are unbelievably bad for you and no one should be consuming them. You can research this for yourself, as I have, and you will conclude that the very first kind thing you can do for your body and brain is to stop consuming any and all artificial sweeteners. In case you think that was an easy thing for me to give up, let me assure you that I used to drink lots of diet cokes every day and I missed them immensely at first. Also, if you are drinking them thinking that they will keep your weight down, you need to rethink that one. Some studies have shown that you will lose an average of 25 pounds in a year if you eliminate artificial sweeteners. Nope, I have lost track of where to look that up, but I am sure you can find that info if you look for it. In my case, I did lose 25 pounds in a year, but not drinking diet cokes was only one small change I made. (This blog will not be all about weight loss, by the way. It will be about eating healthy, etc.)
Happy new year to all of you.
Sheila H.

Found a new blog!

While surfing around on the computer today, I found a new blog that is written by Barbara Brackman. I am a huge fan of her scholarship in regards to fabric dating and the history of quilts. Her books have been an invaluable resource for me. When I work on my antique miniature quilt series, it is vital to date the fabrics correctly and to pair them up with a quilt pattern that was popular in the same era. Good reference books are worth their weight in gold to me! So, a big thank you to Barbara Brackman for all her good works. If I can figure out how to do it correctly, I will try to put a link to her blog up here.
Till next time, whenever that might be........
Sheila Holland

A Miniature Quilt

Remember Me

This is a miniature quilt that is 7 3/8" square. I designed it for a guild workshop. The blocks are 2" square, the sashings are 1/4" and the borders are 1/2". These are finished sizes. It is based on a mid-1800's antique signature quilt. The light center square is the signature square and people at the workshop signed the blocks for each other. Each block contains different fabrics, although all are in the blue or red family. (This was in keeping with the friendship aspect of the quilt - it was as though a different person had made each block. A green print was used for the sashing, border and binding. People at the workshop received a complete kit and only had to bring their own scissors, needle and thread and thimble. The project is completely hand pieced and all the pieces were pre-marked with not only the cutting line, but the sewing line as well. The kit also included complete instructions with card stock templates, so that the quilters could reproduce it on their own at a later date. It must have been a successful workshop, as later I saw one of the quilts displayed in a quilt show. I put mine on the back wall of a shadow box and put a reproduction of a tintype of my great-great grandmother in a frame in front of it. I will try to post a photo of that later. It is actually a double frame with the photo on one side and a sentiment that was written on the antique quilt that inspired the miniature: "This beauteous spread will say to thee, from one and all, remember me."
Till next time....

Sheila

Organizing tip for the Salinda Rupp Quilt

Above is an example of how I keep my blocks pieces organized. Here is how to do it:

cut a piece of freezer paper in a size that works well for the block size. For the 6" Salinda Rupp blocks, a piece that is 8 1/2" x 11" works well. Layout all the cut out pieces right side up on the shiny side of the freezer paper. Completely cover them with a piece of waxed paper. Iron on top of the waxed paper. This will adhere the pieces to the freezer paper and the waxed paper to the edges of the freezer paper. Will you get wax on the bottom of your iron? Yes, you will. While it is hot, I run it over a scrap fabric and then clean it with hot iron cleaner when I am done. That is why it is more efficient to do at least several blocks at a time, although it has been my experience that a quilter's iron can usually use a cleaning at any given time. The 8 1/2" x 11" size is a bonus in that you can easily fit them into clear vinyl notebook sheet holders and file them all in a standard inexpensive loose ring binder. This system works especially well for me as I am a hand piecer. To sew a block all I need is my sheet, a needle, thread and thimble. Which leads me to a word about hand piecing. Today most quilters think of hand piecing as a slow process and prefer to use a sewing machine. Do I love sewing machines? Yes, I do. We even collect antique sewing machines. Do I love to machine piece? Yes, I do - when it is the most efficient way to make a particular quilt. However, consider the following points:

• Can I take my sewing machine to the dr.'s office and sew while I am waiting for my appointment? Nope. Can I hand piece them? Yes.
• Can I sew a y-seam as easily as a straight seam when I hand piece? Yes.
• Can I hand piece while I sit on the couch with my husband/family and simultaneously watch a movie? Yes.
• Do I have to wind bobbins? Nope.

I find hand piecing to be very relaxing and fun. Should you give it a try? That is up to you.

Till next time......

Sheila

The Salinda Rupp Quilt

I am off on a new tangent - I joined the Nearly Insane Yahoo Group that is working on the Salinda Rupp Quilt. They work on a block every week. I am going to try and keep up with that, as well as do some extras along the way. They are 6 inch finished blocks and some of them have a lot of pieces. Above is block number 1. I am hand piecing them.

Till next time....

Sheila

759 pieces

Here is another quilt in my series. It is made entirely of fabrics from the last quarter of the 19th century. The hexagons are 1/2" finished across the flats, and yes, it has 759 pieces (if I didn't miscount!). This quilt was inspired by a Susan McCord quilt. (The other quilt was inspired by a photo of an antique Pennsylvania German crib quilt c. 1880.) I call this quilt Field of Diamonds. It is not in the museum. I love scrap quilts, but the ones using a limited amount of fabrics are actually more "showy," especially when the quilts are this size. The above quilt is 12" x 14". Working with hexagons is a favorite of mine. All the quilts in this series are hand pieced and hand quilted. Even the bindings (which finish at 1/8") are sewn by hand.
Thanks for the nice comments that were posted about the other quilt.
Till next time....
Sheila

It's been a long time since I blogged anything, but no one ever makes any comments, so I am supposing that no one ever reads it! Ahh, well, I wll try again.

This past spring, I started a series of miniature quilts made entirely from antique fabrics. About that same time, I started having some health issues, so it has been slow going.

The quilt above is one of two that are now in The International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is 14.25" x 14.25". I need a camera with more pixels. Hope this shows up at least moderately well. It features a Lancaster Blue fabric in the center, but it may not show up. I will put up some more pics soon.

Happy quilting to all,

Sheila

Cooking with Paula

Here we have a photo of the new Paula Deen toaster and egg cooker. My cousin Jean's husband gave her one as a Christmas gift and she likes it. As luck would have it a little post- Christmas shopping presented me with the opportunity to buy one at a reduced price. If my cousin likes it, it is good enough for me. I emailed her and told her I got one and she replied with this story:

Her granddaughter saw it sitting on the counter and asked, "Oh, did you go to a toaster signing?" (You can see the signature on it in the above pic.) Don't you just love the way kids see the world? Of course I have visions of all these people standing in a line at a bookstore, holding their toasters.

Till next time,

Sheila

Cleaning out the pantry... with some help

Here you see the Giz. Short for Gizmo. I inherited him as a kitten after my father passed away. He is a huge help. Before the holidays, I thought I should straighten out my corner cupboard that I use as a pantry. As luck would have it, a spot opened up and the Giz was there to fill it.
Hope you all had a nice holiday yesterday.
Sheila

Honey Crisp Apples

We like to try new foods. While shopping one day, my husband grabbed a bag of a new variety of apple named Honey Crisp. Turns out it has been around for awhile, but it was new to us. It was absolutely the very best apple we have ever tried. My cousin has a theory that we are all searching for the perfect whatever. You know, you want an item and you search endlessly for the perfect one of it. Well, we have arrived with the perfect apple. They are crisp, sweet - but not too sweet- and have a nice shelf life. I decided to look it up on Wikipedia and the funny thing about this apple is that they don't know the parents of the breed. The University of Minnesota that does extensive apple rearing and note taking on the subject somehow lost track of one of the parents. One is a variety called Keepsake, but the other parent is unknown. Maybe it was simply a numbered variety that the university decided to delete. Anyway, isn't it odd that the best apple in the world is a mystery? You can read more at: http://www.minnesotaharvest.net/apple_honeycrisp.htm
Try one, you will like it.
Sheila

Back to Quilty Things

I gave some thought to posting some free quilt patterns, but then I thought - hey there is already so much out there in cyber space, why not just give you a link? There is a website that I visited briefly, so I didn't research who writes it, but whoever it is does a great job. Once again that generosity thing I talked about earlier. Anyway, anything from quick little projects to Block of the Months are posted or linked. Give it a look-see at:

http://www.bomquilts.com/index.php

You are sure to find something that interests you. The best part is that it is free.

You are probably asking yourself what does the quilt pic up above have to do with the website that's linked. Nothing. It is an antique quilt top in my collection. I just put the pic there because I could.

More later.

Sheila

Cooking with the gas turned off!

That is the slogan for the Chambers kitchen stove. That 's the Ebay photo of our new/old stove. We bought it last May and spent the next 2 months restoring it. It is my favorite stove ever and I mean ever. Ours is a 1950 model. The small door on the lower right is a utility closet and not a small oven, as is sometimes advertised. The large door is the oven and above it is a griddle with a broiler underneath. There are 3 burners with a thermowell behind the front one on the right. There is a small shelf at the top with a light underneath it. This little baby weighs in at 450 pounds. Isn't it a beauty? The slogan comes from the fact that it is so well insulated that you fire up the thermowell or oven, put the food in for a certain amount of time and then shut the gas off and let everything finish cooking on retained heat.

I have to take a moment now and talk about how great the Net is. Through the efforts of lots of interesting and generous people, just about anything a person needs to know is available. There is a wonderful site that lets you download - for free -literature, advertisements, cookbooks, time charts, etc. for the Chambers stove. Also there is a wonderful forum where people will tell you not only how to restore them, but where to get parts. What a wonderful resource. It is: http://www.vintagechambers.com/

Anyway, in the photo our stove looks pretty good, but it actually needed a lot of help. For cosmetic reasons, we replaced the oven door, as it had a chip on the side and had the top and shelf re chromed. We tore it down completely and replaced the insulation in it and my husband repainted all the interior portions (they don't show when it is assembled) with heat proof paint. We replaced all the aluminum tubing with copper and on and on. Now it proudly sits in my kitchen and cooks like crazy. My husband and I both have a background in mechanical drafting and we know good engineering when we see it. Simply put, we love this stove and are so very proud of ourselves for restoring it. Here is a general observation about life: You appreciate something a lot more if you have some old fashioned elbow grease in it.

Till next time.....

Give credit where it is due

I read other people's blogs - usually ones that have something to do with quilting. Lately I am seeing a lot of problems with theft. Quilters post free patterns for people to use - with limits. People are copying them and selling them or representing them as their own work. Aside from the legal aspects, this is just so wrong. I used to belong to a couple of guilds. Now I don't. I was involved with a fund raising project for a presidential home to reproduce an antique quilt. The lady in charge of the group -and I use the term "lady" loosely here, took one of my working drawings of a quarter of a large applique block, copied it to make a whole block drawing and proceeded to put her name on it. She didn't stop there. It got much worse and no one could stop her. The guild finally had to inlist the aid of a lawyer to tell her that she couldn't copyright stuff that (a) wasn't even included in the final pattern - that would be the working drawing that she copied from me - and (b) was other people's work. My husband and I actually did all the work (text, graphics and drawings) on the final pattern that is sold in the gift shop. We have all the Auto Cad computer files to prove it. Not many quilters work in Auto Cad. (We gave the copyright on everything to the guild, by the way. ) However, this "lady" just couldn't be stopped. She has taken that quilt from one end of the country to the other and never mentioned the small group of people that actually did all the work or even the guild that funded it. What do you think of such a pathetic person?

Here is my point: If you put something on the internet and expect that no one will steal it, you are very optimistic. I can guarantee you that someone will. That is just the way it is. And to all the people who are trying to take the credit for other people's work, I have the following to say:

If you are so devoid of talent that you are stooping to theft, people who know you (or even people who meet you and talk to you for a few minutes) will realize that you are too stupid to design a quilt. Also I would like to point out that information flies through the internet any more and each day the odds get better and better that you will be found out. Then your reputation will go from a quilt expert to a liar and a thief. This recently happened to someone who is selling patterns and that info has made blog news.

People, people, people, do the right thing and give credit to the person who deserves it. People who take the time and make the effort to give you something nice for free just want you to recognize that and give them the credit for it. This is not a difficult concept.

That is the end of this rant.


Sheila

Save a cat's life - use the Heimlich Manuever!

Sandy, a friend of mine, emailed me a true story and I will post it here:

Around 1982 , the girls were 10 and 14, we owned a very lovable, furry ,
talkative, orange striped, main coon cat named Tigger. I had
determined that I would keep him healthier and live longer if he only ate hard
cat food----not many treats, or milk. Well, my girls were always wanting
to share some of their food with him, and since he was pretty much a glutton,
one day he could not turn them down when they gave him chunks of cooked
chicken. He started to eat with such gusto, he basically inhaled some of
the pieces, which had some skin on them. Apparently, some of the chicken
got lodged, and he began to heave, but nothing came out--------the girls started
yelling that something was wrong with Tigger and to come here. By the time
I came to them, he was laying on his side, eyes staring, gagging and
heaving, but could not breath. The girls were in hysterics, we thought he would
suffocate right in front of us on the kitchen floor. I do not know what
possessed me to do this , but I got on my knees on the floor,sat
backward, laid him belly up on my lap, and put my hands around his
chest , with his forearms and paws draped over my hands. I then with firmness,
gave him a quick squeeze and released, I did it again and out popped the
particles of chicken and stretchy skin. He started to breath again and
laid for a minute quietly on the floor, with the girls crying and stroking his
fur. I got him a bowl of water and he drank it. I cleaned up the mess, and after
a few minutes he was on his feet again. And you will never guess what he
did next. He started rubbing up against the girls legs again, in and out,
in and out, and meowing for more treats. We could not believe it-------he acted
like nothing had even happened to him. We got the biggest laugh
from that dumb kitty.---------that is it Sheila, --------he was a really cool
cat.

Quite a story, isn't it? Maybe this will save a cat's life. I am not sure I would have had the sense to try it before reading this, but I would now. Just an added note about Sandy - we have been friends since the 4th grade and that was a long time ago. Anyone who has a friend like her in this life can count themselves among the very luckiest. Friends like her don't come along very often.
Sheila

The Cat part

I suppose a lot of you are wondering about the cat part of the title of my blog. I meant to post some pics sooner, but didn't. That's a photo of Baby up above. I have always heard that whatever you are doing when you are 10 years old is what you are meant to do. Well, I always had kittens to play with and the rest of the time I had a needle in my hand, sewing something. Guess what? That is what I do now and I am 6 x 10.

We had to put Baby out of his misery this year. He was only about 5 years old, was a huge guy with huge paws and was sickly from day one. We first saw him when his mother brought him out of hiding at 2 weeks of age. When he was tiny, I made a flannel pouch that hung around my neck and I would put him in it so that he could sleep after he got the appropriate medicine dose and hopefully get over whatever current illness he had and I could go about my business. This summer his kidneys and liver shut down and he couldn't recover. Even though we have three of his brothers, his mom and another one that I actually inherited - a story for another day, we still miss him. You always miss the one you lost. When he was well, which was rare, he was a real goof ball and so funny. Because of all his illnesses, he was really spoiled and truly a big baby - hence his name. We still miss him.

Sheila

Oops

I am so computer challenged. Try this link to Gail Wilson, as I am sure the other one didn't work.
http://www.gailwilsondesigns.com/
She is such a talented artist and makes really comprehensive kits as well as finished items.
Sheila

A Little Bear

Hi to all.

Just trying to figure out how to post a photo. I know this blogging thing is supposed to be easy, but it is challenging for some of us. The quilt above is 7" x 9" and the bear is about 2" high when she is standing up. The cedar chest is 5" wide. The bear is made from a Gail Wilson pattern. What a talented person she is. The quilt is my own pattern and has 12 blocks that are 1 1/2" square. I used an antique Pennsylvania German color combination with yellow, green and pink. I think I may need a better camera or at the very least better camera skills. Oh well.