Purrfectly Imperfect

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote on my blog. Life has a way of throwing you curve balls. The loss of our cat, Pearl, proved very difficult for us all. As you know, she was the last pet that knew our daughter, Brianna. Even one of our other cats, Maggie, took it hard. Over the last month, she is finally starting to act like herself again. Maggie has grown to love her new cat brother, Oscar, and they will soon have a new sissy, Gertrude. She will be joining us at the end of May. Don’t fret, you know well, and sure I will be sharing about her when she arrives!

I have kept myself busy during my “hiatus.” I’ve been busy sewing items to launch my Etsy page, also known as my side hustle. I officially opened today. Most of my items are baby-related, but there are a few things that aren’t. My goal is to fill it with more quilts for sale, hopefully.

I have been sewing and trying new projects. I’ve made key fobs, cloth baby books, burp cloths, baby blankets (double flannel), zipper pouches, pocket tissue holders, tortilla warmers, and baked potato bags. I had never heard of the baked potato bag before, but boy, is it a life changer!

Baked potato in 6-8 minutes, purrfectly cooked. I even created a special request for my BFF, my sister by choice. She asked for a mixer cover. I found a pattern and, low and behold, made her a fantastic way to camouflage her mixer in her kitchen. Her husband says it blends so well that he may not be able to find it now! Of course, now I need to find the time to sew one for myself. And maybe, I will make an extra to sell in my Etsy shop, which leads to the main reason for the blog, sharing my Etsy shop information! 

PurrfectlyEmi | Etsy

Feel free to check it out and share it with anyone you think would be interested. I appreciate your patience and support in following my blog even when I take a much-needed break.

I am not sure why life can be so hard. I genuinely need a break from it all. It has been a rough couple of weeks at our house. Pearl took a turn for the worse, and we had to let her go on Saturday, July 17th. I knew it would happen fast when it was time. As much as we tried to prepare ourselves, we still were not quite ready. I do not think anyone is. We do find some peace in knowing that she is with Brianna and that they will be keeping each other company until we all meet again. I am still looking for the “purrfect” urn for her ashes.

Indeed, people out there do not understand the connection you can have with a four-legged baby; I honestly feel sorry for people like this. Our furry family members do not judge us, they listen to our every word with intent, and, whether in a good mood or bad, love us whole-heartedly anyway. I would not wish the loss of a child on my worst enemy. Pearl made us smile and laugh at a time when we just wanted to hide in a cave. For this, we will always be grateful.

Everyone who has ever met Pearl will tell you what a great cat she was. There was something quite magical about her. She could swoon even the worst “cat hater” into a cat lover, at the very least a Pearl lover.
Even though we managed to find a kitten, Oscar, to keep Maggie company, she is very depressed. Yes, animals grieve. I do not understand how some humans think that they do not have feelings. She sleeps in Pearls’ spot on the bed, under Pearl’s blanket, and not playing as much. I took her to the vet last weekend to be sure she was alright. Her voice was very hoarse. We were worried she might have eaten or swallowed part of a cat toy. They found nothing wrong, and we concluded that she must be meowing when we are gone during the day, looking and crying for Pearl.

I will be honest; losing Pearl has been a huge trigger. The pain does not go away; we have learned to cope over the last seven years. It is hard to believe it has been that long. Learning to live your life differently is not an easy task. I do not typically stay in a rut too long and have learned to hide how I feel very well. If it were up to me, I would not even leave my house. I have people tell me I am a strong woman all the time. I agree to disagree. I know I have functioning depression. I always do the right thing, regardless of how I feel. So, I go to work, pay my bills, and take care of myself and my family the best I can. However, I no longer allow people in my life who are not there for the right reasons or who make me feel worse than I already do. Trust me. I feel bad enough.

Somewhere in the midst of this chaos, I did gift the baby blankets and the baby quilt to the recipients. I also finished my first commissioned embroidery piece and have given it to the purchaser. The intended recipient will not receive it until August, so photos of this project will come soon.

No blog this week. I was busy this morning, but manged to get a little bit of sewing done before my husband woke up. With a little help from my supervisor, Pearl.

I gifted the two quilts I was working on the past few weeks. One is a wall hanging for a birthday present, and the other is a small quilt. There was no real reason. I thought it would be useful for my friend that is an occupational therapist. Both recipients loved them and I know they will enjoy them for a long time!

The wall hanging is called “Stained Glass Frame,” and although it looks complicated, I found it straightforward. It took me longer to quilt the Corinthians panel. I decided to put a cross in the center and lines of rays coming away from it. You can see the pattern more easily on the back view.

The small quilt is my version of an “I Spy” quilt. I made from 100% scrap fabric, leftover fabric from previous projects that I already had at home. Talk about a great scrap buster! I am pleased with the outcome. I quilted this one with “X’s” through each square. Quick and simple!

An update on our cat, Pearl she will not be getting chemotherapy. The oncologist repeated her ultrasound (she just had one a few weeks ago). It showed that the lymphoma is in several lymph nodes in multiple body cavities and affecting her liver. She told us we had less than a 50% chance she would live another six to nine months even with chemotherapy. Since Pearl is acting purrfectly normal (for the moment), we have decided to bring her home and enjoy the time we have left with her. We are hoping she will defeat the odds and be with us for a while longer.

I know I missed my blog the past two weeks. I have had a lot on my plate. One of our beloved cats, Pearl, was just diagnosed with lymphoma, a rare form T cell-rich, B cell lymphoma. She had a tumor on her neck that we had removed and biopsied at our regular veterinarian. I had to take her over an hour away to see an oncologist that offers radiation therapy twice. Once for the consultation, another for her CT. The CT was necessary to figure out how deep to do the radiation therapy. Too much radiation can generate scar tissue in her esophagus and trachea, which could cause issues with her breathing and eating in the future. Due to this, we decided to go ahead and do the CT. Unfortunately, the scan showed that several enlarged lymph nodes. With my permission, they took an aspirate and submitted that to the pathologist. Those results have shown that the lymphoma has spread, and her best option for treatment is now chemotherapy.

So, my blogging may be off from time to time while we take care of Pearly Pie’s treatments. (FYI – she is the one pictured on my blog.) All of our pets are part of our family. Pearl is the last pet we have that knew Brianna. We lost our dog at the beginning of the year to kidney failure. We aren’t ready to lose another one so soon. We originally got Pearly Pie to help with my grief of my sister, Jennifer’s passing. A year later, we lost Brianna. Pearl has been a great comfort to all of us with our losses. She is an in-your-face, serious cuddler and full of hilarious antics. She makes us laugh all the time, even we are feeling down. Everyone who meets her falls in love with her. She knows how to work her kitty charm! We are optimistic that the chemotherapy will put her in remission and be with us a while longer.

Even though I have been side-tracked, I have still been busy sewing. I finished two small projects but can not share pictures because they are gifts. Once I give them to the recipients, I will share photos. One is a wall hanging, and the other is a small quilt. Today, I finished another gift, an embroidery project, and I started to work on a baby quilt for a friend’s daughter due in September. While I cannot share the embroidery project, I can share some of the pictures of the baby quilt progress.

This baby quilt should be quick and easy to piece. I am starting with two charm packs; these are packs of 42, 5-inch pre-cut squares. For me, the hard part is always figuring out which fabric I like the best. Fabric shopping can take up a lot of time! I was able to chain stitch the main fabric with the background fabric and cut them in half to make two 4 1/2 inch triangles. Then I ironed them open and now have 80 squares. I started to trim them and managed to get a quarter of the way through the stack before deciding to be done for the day. I hope to get the rest of them trimmed to the correct size and arrange the layout on my quilt wall. Speaking of which, it looks bare since I finished the “Quilt Bee” quilt top. At least it won’t be for long!

I wanted to share my gifts that my husband and son gave me for Mother’s Day. As you know, on the eve of “my” holiday, Chris took me to Intercourse, Pennsylvania. I love going here because I rarely get to go fabric shopping at several stores in one location. It is like a quilters heaven! Fabrics, patterns, and quilts, oh my! On Mother’s Day, they took me to the Ladew Topiary Gardens; this was our first time there, and it was a lovely afternoon. We intend on going back this again this year when the butterfly house is open. Afterward, we went for sushi, yum!

I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to make myself a tote with the cat fabric I purchased while on our outing. I managed to get the outside of the tote completed on Mother’s Day. And believe it or not, I managed to finish and attach the interior pocket and lining one morning before I went to work. It was a pretty easy pattern to follow. Once I had all the pieces cut, it was a breeze to assemble. I decided to omit one of the interior pockets and the zipper. I did not feel I needed either since the primary purpose of this tote is to transport my notebook and supplies to a different desk each week. Hopefully, we will go back to our regular desks and resume some form of normalcy at some point. COVID has put a damper on so many things. And when we do get back to normal, I am sure I will find a new use for my cute cat tote.

My husband surprised me with a personalized piece of fabric. I intend on making a pillow with it as the centerpiece. It is one of the last pictures of my son, Logan, and my daughter, Brianna, together. He added a butterfly in the photo as well. I have to admit, when I opened my gift, I cried. It is an incredibly thoughtful idea that he came up with this year. He did an incredible job with this one!

Logan gave me some sewing notions that I wanted. He bought me the Martelli Universal Rack for my Martelli templates. Now they will all be in one location and organized. And if you know me, I like to have my things organized. I’m not too fond of a mess. He also got me the Get-A-Grip foot pedal pad. Having this will save me some frustration for sure. I won’t have to reach down and find my pedal while I’m sewing anymore. With this pad, it keeps it in one place. Hallelujah!

I will share a photo of the pillow I create when I get it done. I need to look at pillow forms to decide how big I want to make it. I do know that it will more than likely end up being displayed on Brianna’s bench (you know, the one Chris made out of her bed.) in her room, aka my sewing/quilting room. I hope all the moms out there had a good day. I managed to make it through with the love of my husband and son.

I managed to get the “Quilt Bee” quilt top all sewn together on a side note. I intend to use this quilt for a charity raffle soon. I better order the backing fabric so I can drop it off to be longarm quilted, pronto!

Mother’s Day is a difficult holiday, as most are, but I find this one particularly hard to celebrate after losing Brianna. I find myself questioning my role as a mother and if my family should celebrate me at all. My husband and son assure me that I am a good mom, but I can’t help but feel the doubt since her passing. I do my best as the day grows nearer to focus on the beautiful memories of when my family was intact. I find that keeping myself busy is the best way to make it through the days, so I don’t dwell on the negative.

Since Logan, my son is out of town today (he will be back tomorrow), my husband decided to treat me to a fabric shopping day to build up my stash! As if I don’t have enough fabric, he always knows how to cheer me up. He took me to Intercourse, a small town in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Yes, I know the jokes can go on and on with the name of the location. We certainly have had quite a few laughs. There are several quilt and fabric shops in this quaint little town—the purrfect way to spend Mother’s Day Eve.

I did not have any specific projects in mind for new fabric, nor did I need any material. I just looked for things that caught my eye that I would like to use in the future. Leave it to me to find several ultra-cute cat fabrics. I found a cool tote pattern to use with one of the cat fabrics. I decided that a tote would be helpful at the office, especially since every week I move from one desk to another. It will undoubtedly make moving my notebook and other supplies much more manageable. And who wouldn’t want to sport an awesome cat tote? I know I want to!

I came across several panels of fabric for future projects. All three are baby-related. One will be for a baby girl quilt top, and the other two are “watch me grow or “milestone mats” for both a baby boy or girl. Not sure what those are? ” They are small fabric mats to lay your baby on, and you place a marker to show the age by days, weeks, or months. They are super adorable and will be very easy to piece with a backing. All I will have to do is quilt, bind, and attach a label to them. Then voila, a quick, easy gift in an instant!

I also picked up pig fabric. My husband loves bacon, hence the pig fabric. He wants me to create a quilt to cover his lazy boy recliner. He would like it to be a hodge-podge of fabrics, consisting of things he loves. I am sure I will be adding bacon, guns, steampunk and an assortment of other fabrics. It will be incredibly eclectic and look like patchwork, a look we both love.

As we were walking around the main strip, my husband saw a butterfly stake for the garden. I know this isn’t quilt or fabric related, but meaningful nonetheless. There was only one blue one left. Of course, we bought it and put it in our front flower bed. An ode for Brianna. Her favorite color was blue, and she loved butterflies. It makes a lovely addition and visual element to the front of our house.

All in all, I have to say, my husband, Chris, is the best. He always knows how to make me laugh, smile, and make me feel better. He never minds going to any fabric or quilt shops and puts genuine effort into helping me find fabrics he thinks I would like or that will work well for whatever project I am doing. He never minds how much time or money I spend when building my stash. He knows not much makes either of us happy anymore and tells me all the time that if sewing and quilting bring me comfort, he is all for whatever I need or want. Lucky for him, I do not take advantage of that! Otherwise, I would have a longarm sewing machine lickety-split! I am thankful for him every day; he truly is the best and undoubtedly made my day better.

I am sure that you have come to realize, I tend to do several charity quilts every year. Sometimes the fundraising for these is quite successful. Why do charity quilts? Honestly, it just makes me feel good. Plus, some of the patterns I find fit the bill purrfectly; thus, I decide to use them as fundraising, whether for fundraisers or just for raising awareness about something that means a lot to our family.

I started working on a new quilt called “The Quilt Bee” when the pandemic started. It was a year-long block of the month kit that I found on Keepsake Quilting. Initially, I chose this block of the month simply because I loved the cool, fall colors for this quilt top. This BOM (block of the month) consists of Marcus Fabric-New Aged Muslins. An assortment of yellow, orange, white/cream, red, green, etc. A kind of muted colors of the rainbow. All lovely!

Each month I received a bag with the fabric that I then cut and pieced according to the directions for each block. I relish the final product of each month’s blocks. The first was a star, and the next few months were a little more abstract. Some are more realistic, like the apple, forest, and barn blocks. So far, I think that the block called “Pink Sky” is my favorite. This quilt top is the first time I have used the paper piecing technique. This technique is different than the English paper piecing I learned on the “Dear Daughter” quilt. After watching a few online tutorials, I felt more confident to give it a try. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. It was relatively easy.

I only have a few blocks left to cut and piece together; the braid border, bees, and sashing units are all that are left. Once I have those finished, the top should go together at lightning speed! This quilt top has a country vibe going on. I will more than likely do a raffle for a rescue that we hold near and dear to our hearts, Little Longears Miniature Donkey Rescue. Our kids volunteered here to earn service hours, and it was the last place Brianna volunteered before she passed. They are in the process of relocating to a much larger home, and I’m sure a quilt raffle will help raise some money for their new home!

I have shared pictures of some of the blocks thus far. As soon as I get the last few pieced and the quilt top completed, I will share the finished quilt. Guess I better get on the ball, find and order the backing fabric, so when the top is complete, I can drop it off with the longarm quilter!