Crafts, Cavies and Cooking

An Active Autumn

2026-10-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

The last of August and September have blown by. Right now it seems I'm doing nothing but trying to catch up!

The wildlife stopped eating my black-eyed susans long enough for them to bloom. I love the variety of colors from yellow to deep orange. My volunteer sunflowers had some nifty shading, too.

I spent a chunk of time working on our out-of-control yard. We had someone come in and whack back all the brush around the edges of the yard. I had no idea how much it had encroached - the yard looks so much bigger. I also pulled out several bushes, roots and all. I then tackled the side garden which was neglected since we moved in: I removed copious weeds, ferns and lily of the valley that had started to choke the ornamental grass planted there.

Fall Foliage and Fuzzy Piggies

2026-09-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

Moses and Brownie visited last spring for a very brief stay. Less than a week! Just long enough for me to pull out the props and snap a few photos.

They were so adorable I just had to do Christmas photos for them (you'll have to wait for those photos). Then I came across my fall foliage props and shot a few photos of that, too.Read more »

Swirling Spheres Revisited

2026-09-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

In the last several months I picked up a bunch of buttons between a Freecycle post and my mother's donation to Swanson's Fabrics. I sorted through them and kept a bunch of ones I liked. Some I have plans for. Others I just like. Then there's the handful I set aside to add to a quilt.

Swirling Spheres was a Project Quilting submission back in 2025 that featured buttons. I had envisioned more buttons on it, but had neither the time nor the buttons to do that.

I fixed that.

Shift in Direction

2026-09-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

My inkblot layout has been on the wall for months (see photo below). I bought green fabric for the background over a month ago. Next step was to start cutting and sewing. So imagine my surprise after cutting a few pieces I stopped.

Nope. This wasn't working.

String Backpack

2026-09-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

As I was making my new dance bag, I realized how shabby my little string backpack was. It was some freebee from Rob's work years ago that happened to be a really useful size. I've used it a lot over the years. It's faded, dirty and is starting to develop a few holes. Time to replace it!

I dug through my orphaned blocks for inspiration and discovered a handful of blue and green four-patches that I don't even remember putting together. Must have been some experiment that failed to launch. There were enough pieces to make the bag with two four-patches left over. Perfect.

The pieced sides by themselves could easily pull apart so I backed them with some fabric and ran some wavy lines of stitching over them to hold them all together. Then I stitched the sides and the bottom and rolled over a sleeve on top for the string. I bound the inside seams so there were no raw edges.

Read more »

Dance Bag

2026-09-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

The tote bag that holds my dancing stuff was starting to fray. I could have repaired it, but bag was both too big (for regular dances) and too small (for dance festivals) and didn't have enough pockets. This was my chance to design a new one: a single bag that would work for both situations so I wouldn't need to move the odds and ends from one bag to another.

Poof!

2026-08-23T12:00:00.000-04:00

I blinked and suddenly it's the last week of August. I suspect September will pass by even more quickly!

Dave, our foster guinea pig from Dakin Humane, stayed with us for barely three days. I was so disappointed to see him go. He had just started to settle in on Thursday night. I discovered he loved to be scritched (and he had lovely, touchable soft fur). He actually came up the the side of the cage simply for love and affection.

Piggy Swap

2026-08-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

When I gave Dakin Humane an update on Jitterbug's eating habits (not eating hay nor drinking water), they suggested trying Timothy hay and a bowl of water instead of a water bottle. The water bowl didn't seem to make any difference, but he did seem to like Timothy hay. Unfortunately I am allergic to Timothy hay... so I needed to return Jitterbug. I felt bad I couldn't do more for him; it was a bit of a relief to see him go. I can't win them all.

As it happens, Dakin Humane had other available guinea pigs - out with one and in with another. Say hello to Dave.

Dave may have similar coloring and bed-head like Jitterbug, but he is clearly a different pig. Dave is loaf. I just want to squeeze him! He's a laid back mature dude, with fat mutton chop cheeks and lovely soft fur.

Goings On

2026-08-09T12:00:00.000-04:00

A trip to the Cape for Family Weekend had me return with a trunk full of fabric. Literally - the whole trunk stuffed. Unfortunately it smelled of moth balls and smoke. Ugh. It took days to get the smell out of the car. I brought the majority of it to Swanson's fabric (they couldn't sell it because of the scent, but they could give it away). I kept a tiny bag of it - maybe a 10th of the overall haul. It took me a whole evening to iron the stash. I will likely keep 13 yards of it, the other eight I may not keep - which will go to Swanson's, of course!Read more »

Jitterbug

2026-08-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

We picked up a solo guinea pig from Dakin Humane to foster last week. Say hello to Jitterbug. He's a beautiful Abyssinian with serious bed-head and dark ruby eyes. He came in with a bunch of piggies from another shelter, and then got beat up by his cage mate (and got his butt shaved to check for wounds - he looks a little lopsided). They were separated. I wanted both of them - but did not have the bandwidth to try introductions and tackling two cages if they couldn't get along.

Green and Black

2026-08-03T12:00:00.000-04:00

I'm working my way through the last bit of black and grey scraps as well as some clean-up projects as I figure out what the next project is. Picking a background color for the inkblots was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I didn't want a bold background color, because I wanted the focus on the black blocks. I browsed through so many bolts of fabrics of blue and purple and pink and cream. I don't know if it was because of the colors in Hundred Acre Wood, but I kept coming back to a set of three greens. I liked the medium green the best, but I also liked the idea of an ombre effect - so I bought a bit of all three. I wasn't trying to add to my stash, honest!Read more »

Hundred Acre Wood

2026-07-22T12:00:00.000-04:00

Another finished baby quilt. Added bonus - I had a calm, sunny day to photograph it without having to watch the forecast for a week hoping for a break in the weather.

When I showed the finished quilt to my sister she thought maybe I should name it Beanstalk. I liked it - and it got me thinking about fairy tales and children stories. One of the fabrics has bears and rabbits on it - which made me think of Winnie the Pooh. So I named it Hundred Acre Wood. It has kind of a forest-y feel. It fits.

Flora and Fauna

2026-07-16T12:00:00.000-04:00

Rob was in the kitchen the other day and he said "bear!" I ran out to see this gal right outside the house. I've been told the blue tags and collar indicate a female. She'd already knocked down and smashed the hummingbird feeder - I guess that's the end of that for the season.

When I banged on the window the bear seemed only vaguely concerned and moved off a several feet, still very curious about something she smelled (probably the sugar water). I had been out in the yard not long before and had left only the screen door shut on the sunroom. Eek! Once she moved off I ran out and closed the door. Need to remember to keep that closed, too!

Walk This Way

2026-07-05T12:00:00.000-04:00

Where did June go?

Well, it wasn't spent quilting. This quilt hated the ideas I came up with it. I actually started stitching two different free-motion designs and ripped them out. I didn't make any progress until I switched to my walking foot. Now I remember why I hate stitching in the ditch (loved the walking foot, though). But it was progress! It was enough to get the ball rolling.

Bye Bye Spice Girls

2026-05-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

Dangnabbit. The problem with fostering really cute young guinea pigs is that they get adopted fast. Alas, these gals were returned to Dakin Humane on Wednesday before I had a chance to do any fun photo shoots.

<sigh>

At least they lasted a whole week longer than the last pair we hosted.

Celery Salt and Peppercorn were really starting to settle in. Peppercorn would popcorn in the morning when swept out the cage. She'd do zoomies in the evening when we covered the cage. She'd wheek like crazy when I pulled out the hay box. I've never seen a piggy who liked hay more than veggies. Peppercorn would nibble on the lettuce, carrots and cucumber but her true love was hay.

Green Sandwich and Inkblots

2026-05-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

I finished the top of the sage quilt. I love the little dark green squares.

I had picked a taupe color for the backing that I thought would work. Once I put it near the front of the quilt I hated it. I found a few more fabrics in my stash that I liked better but none had enough yardage. Okay - new plan.

May Adventures

2026-05-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

Am I a bad daughter? I had my mother come to me on Mother's Day. But it gave us the opportunity to walk the loop around my neighborhood. When we got near Duck World we had the flock of chickens, ducks and geese flock to us like we were handing out treats. There were several goslings and ducklings that came to check us out. The two chickens with the crazy hairdos greeted us as well. They are a goofy bunch!

I did fix her sewing machine while she was here... so I can't be all that bad.

Celery Salt and Peppercorn

2026-05-17T12:00:00.000-04:00

Oh boy! Or I should say oh girls! Say hello to our new Dakin fosters Peppercorn and Celery Salt. They are adorable and so young. Celery Salt (the one with the black patch) looks a little like Moses with a wisp of long curls behind her ears and a bit of a tail (you can see it on the bottom photo). Other than that. Peppercorn is a short hair through and through.

Both are amazing soft. I just want to squeeze them! But there's not enough to squeeze. Neither one has any heft an adult guinea pig would have. They weigh in at just over a pound each. I'm sure they'll double that weight by the time they're full grown based on the way they look, the size of their paws and the flyweight feel the have when I pick them up.

They were extremely shy and hid for most of their first day here. What curiosity they had was overwhelmed by the uncertainty of a new place. Regardless, there was mad popcorning last night when I covered the cage. I figure by the end of today they will start inquiring for food - which will graduate to full out demands by the end of the week.

Celery Salt and Peppercorn burble like crazy when held. I'll have to try to catch it on video. I hope these two will stay with us for more than the last pair! We'll see...

Sage Spots

2026-05-14T12:00:00.000-04:00

I love watching the transformation of a quilt. Once I made all the strips for this quilt (and swapped out the really light green for something a little darker) I played around with the layout. I tried to spread out the darkest strips across the quilt and make sure I didn't clump specific fabrics next to each other. I had a few fabrics that were nearly identical in shade and color. I was amused that I ended up with one diamond with the bird fabric on nearly every corner. Oh, well.

So that looked cool. Then I stitched the blocks together and it looks even better. Nice clean squares. I can see a little better how it will really look in the end.

Supernova

2026-05-12T12:00:00.213-04:00

Supernova is finished and photographed! I am thrilled with result.

Supernova started from a ton of extra grey and black triangles I had cut but didn't use in a king-sized quilt's background. That quilt also produced a bunch of black and white crumbs. Scrap Stars barely put a dent in the pile of triangles and crumbs. Therefore, this quilt had two parameters: use up the remaining triangles and create as few (or none!) black and grey pieces as possible. While researching quilt designs I came across several lone star patterns. I made the triangles into diamonds and started playing with various layouts.

Surrounded by Green

2026-05-09T12:00:00.010-04:00

We're finally moving out of the muddy grey spring season and into many shades of green. Ahhh.... Spring arrives a week or two later up here on the hill than it does in the center of town. Our trees are seriously thinking about leafing out in the near future while a mile or two away trees have real leaves. Alas, the weeds are growing as fast as the grass and my perennials. I still love the lushness of it all.Read more »

Local Happenings

2026-05-06T12:00:00.049-04:00

I never have enough time to do all the things. So I currently have a handful of photos I wanted to share but never got around to posting. I'll try to squeeze them in now!

Our local porcupine greeted us on our walk a few weeks ago. He was a little camera shy - when I approached to get a better photo he ducked for cover.

Scrap Stars

2026-04-30T12:00:00.067-04:00

This is the first finish of three scrap quilts I'm working on. Not one of my favorite pieces but it uses up a series of diamond rejects (too small or badly pieced) as well as a bunch of grey triangles and some crumbs. Good practice for free motion quilting as well.

It's a small piece - a little over two feet wide. I thought I'd give it away but it ended up in our master bathroom. It turns out that replacing the shower curtain with a glass door makes for a very echoey room. Normally I would not hang a quilt in the bathroom. In this case I have a home for the quilt and it makes the room seem less cavernous. Win-win.

Sharing with:
Quilt Schmilt - To Do Tuesday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday

In the Blink of an Eye

2026-04-23T12:00:00.029-04:00

Brownie and Moses, our foster guinea pigs from Dakin, were gone before we knew it.

We had been requested to foster them because they started fighting due to the stress of being in the shelter. When we brought them home they continued to spat. However, every single day they calmed down a bit more and they'd curl up next to each other to nap. Clearly they liked each other. Within a few days Moses stopped ninja-jumping. Brownie stopped chattering his teeth so loudly and even let himself be picked up.

Progress!

By Request

2026-04-12T12:00:00.133-04:00

I had not intended to look for foster guinea pigs until after NEFFA weekend, but when Dakin Humane called and asked if I could foster a pair of young boars, how could I say no?

Meet Moses and Brownie.

They're certainly cute. However... the reason I was asked to take them was that shelter life was stressing them out. Moses and Brownie were chasing and spatting. We had a calm ride home and the two boys settled right in, explored the cage, then took a nap.

That was the quiet before the storm.

The in-your-face chattering and ninja leap attacks started after dinner. My first impression is that Moses is getting a little too full of himself. He was right in Brownie's face. Brownie doesn't look eager to engage, but is not backing down to this pipsqueak punk.

The shelter may have triggered the stress fighting, but these two are acting like teenagers. Ugh. Teenage boys - I think that's worse.