All Heart

An unexpected and sudden biopsy took me off my bike for a whole five days (too much "upper body," the doctor explained), so I thought perhaps I could make best use of what should have been cycling training time with a little free-motion quilting practice.

Because of the biopsy, I wanted to work on something pink. This project fit the bill perfectly.

All three fabrics, the front, the back and the binding, were part of a stash I bought when my adopted daughter was still pretty young. I was making a lot of her clothes, and she loved cheetahs. She loved all wildlife, and all animals, come to think of it...

She and my adopted son both took unauthorized field trips in 2002. (They ran away). All the kid fabric in my stash went into storage to minimize the Hole in my Heart and to prepare my townhome for sale. It was time to downsize.

I unpacked and used most of that kid stash years later after a fire ripped through a community on the other side of the country, leaving many families homeless. Project Linus needed quilts, especially children's quilts. It was a great way to spring clean, and it was a great use of fabric that had once brought me pain but now could bring comfort to families in need.


Last year, while searching for fabric for the back of Turtle Sherbet, I found the remainder of the kid stash, which included all the cheetah and zebra fabrics I'd bought for my daughter. I found the pink piece with the heart cut from the middle; my daughter must have been 12 or 13 when she cut hearts from many of the fabrics to make a quilted cover for her three-ring binder. Gosh, how the years roll by! She will be 27 this year!

The fabric no longer caused me pain, instead inflicting me with a good dose of laughter as I discovered all the Heart Holes she'd left behind so long ago. Right then, I knew I would use the pink fabric as a quilt top and whatever would fit on the bottom as a quilt back. I knew from that moment I would practice my free-motion quilting to do a heart spiral throughout the length of the quilt. I made the quilt sandwich but did not baste it last June. I set it aside because it was cycling season. I'd come back to it when I got time.

The biopsy provided the necessary time and motivation. My husband helped me baste the layers, and I went to work on the quilt while he tuned his road bike, opting to stay home with me instead of ride without me during my recovery.


I used pink thread that matched the quilt front for the back, and I used purple thread that matched the quilt back for the front. While quilting, I thought of another heart quilting idea I threw in for variety and for additional free-motion practice. I had to rip out a couple of the early hearts because they didn't turn out as well as I thought they should, but I think they got better as I went. The later ones turned out really nice, I think!

I fully intended to use the purple heart cheetah fabric I used for the quilt back for the binding, too, but I'd forgotten I'd since let the pre-teen girls I volunteer with on Tuesday nights use the cheetah fabrics to make clothing for softies I helped them design and sew. Not enough of the purple heart cheetah fabric remained. So I used the leftover purple cheetah jelly roll strips from Skinned. When I proudly displayed the finished quilt to my bike mechanic husband, he loved the binding! Even without the back story!

Best of all, he said I made the whole project look easy. Fat chance! But what an awesome thing to say!














The Obligatory Cactus Quilt Rack Shot
(because people actually search for that!)
Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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False Alarm

As we drove down the highway for my third and fourth mammograms in ten days, I wished I could be home taking pictures of the gorgeous, fluffy snowflakes instead of heading toward Invision Sally Jobe yet again.

Two hours later, I wished I could be talking snowflakes with my sonographer instead of gritting my teeth, holding back tears and trying to keep the fear from shivering me timbers. The woman performing my first and second ultrasound of the week was decked in snowflake jewelry, and her coffee cup was decorated with snowflakes. But she had a job to do, and I didn't want to distract her.

Two hours later, my husband and I were scheduling a next-day biopsy for me. I was tasked with tracking down previous mammograms done aboard mobile units; my family physician had recently retired, I wasn't notified, and I had no idea where any of my medical records were hiding.

Yet I continued telling myself, "I will be strong. I will be brave. I will be a good example." An occasional tear would escape, but my determination and stubbornness were pulling their weight. No matter how many times I must repeat this process, it never is less scary than the previous instance.


Smile and Wave, Boys, Smile and Wave


Strong and Brave, Girls, Strong and Brave
I spent the next hour trying to make sure my desk at work would be covered during my unexpected absence. Wondering how I would pay for Ride the Rockies now, yet taking courage because my deductible would be paid just three weeks into the new year. Wondering if things didn't go the way I hoped, would I still be able to do Ride the Rockies if we were drawn? If surgery and chemo were required, would recovery prevent me from doing what I've been planning since last summer? Do I even want chemo or radiation?!? I've always thought I'd say no...

I decided the only thing I need to worry about for the moment would be getting up Pikes Peak in September. Whatever happens, I would do whatever it takes to be ready to scale that peak in a little more than eight months. I would have plenty of time to keep that goal. No matter what.

I looked at the pink snowflakes on the door to my office at work. I'd gone on a pink snowflake-crocheting spree a year ago when I ran out because I always send pink snowflakes to my friends and loved ones who have been diagnosed with breast cancer or who are caring for someone diagnosed with breast cancer. I had filled my door. Now, there are several holes again. Because I have to keep sending away more pink snowflakes.

The girls I work with and I decided the goal should be no more holes in my pink door. We don't want anyone else to be diagnosed with breast cancer.

I wondered if I might have to fill it one more time. For me.


I didn't sleep at all that night. I couldn't.

We had to be at the surgical center for a total of nearly three hours the next day, but the actual procedure was over in about 15 minutes. I slept for six hours straight once we got back home.

The next day was the longest day. It always is after an experience like this. Every time I left my desk, I returned to find a red light on my phone (which means a message left), and I'd grit my teeth. Each time, it was work-related.

I thought perhaps I'd have to wait until Monday, which sometimes happens when a biopsy is performed at the end of a week. I had been instructed not to ride ("too much upper body"). So I decided I'd quilt instead.

At the last viable moment of the work week, the phone finally rang, and it was THE call. THE.CALL.

All clear, once again. Just cystic fiber. Again. Everything would be all right for another six months, or perhaps a year. One more time.

Relief caused me to melt into my chair. Sleepiness caught up with me. Stress took wing. I noticed the glittery pink heart on my computer sparkle for the first time all week, and I whispered a prayer of gratitude.

Snowflake on, Snowcatcher. Snowflake on.

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Wordless Wednesday

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In a Pickle

Last June, I discovered the magic of pickle juice during the annual MS-150 charity bike ride. I loved my mom's homemade pickles (from cucumbers she grew in our New Mexico garden!!!) as a child, and as an adult, I've tried (without much success) growing my own cucumbers everywhere I've lived (except 7,500 foot Estes Park) so I could try making my own pickles.

I was successful in growing cucumbers and cantaloup in New Mexico before I moved to Colorado, but I didn't get to try canning for the first time because I didn't know until it was too late you shouldn't plant cantaloup and cucumbers too close together. They cross-pollinated, and they were pretty darned nasty!

Here in Colorado, oh, the heartbreak! I attempted squash and cucumbers (as well as tomatoes) in the tiny backyard of my townhome while my kids were still living at home, but there apparently wasn't enough sunlight. I got no blooms.

I tried again for several years on the tiny south-facing porch of my apartment after my kids left home, and I got flowers, but no pollination. I learned to assist mother nature with Q-tips. But still, I got no cucumbers or squash.


I've tried cucumbers, squash and tomatoes every year since The Lizard and I bought our home, going on six years now, and the best I've been able to do have been the glorious overflow of my neighbors. Sometimes I get flowers on my plants; most of the time I don't. Sometimes I get very tiny, grape-sized beefsteak tomatoes that rarely grow or turn red. Sometimes I get a single crookneck squash that grows to about two or three inches, perfectly formed, before squash bugs plunder my bounty. Not a single cucumber or squash of my own in all these years.






I'm nervous about real canning because I've never done it. I'm pretty chicken and convinced I will ruin my first batch of whatever I can. So imagine my thrill when I first learned about refrigerator pickles!


My first batch was with the neighbor's cucumbers, and the neighbors were so excited about my pickles, they asked me to teach them how to make their own pickles! I probably won't get any cucumber overflow from them next year! They'll be too busy eating all their own pickles!


I don't have much faith yet in growing my own cucumbers, but I've found some tasty ones at the farmers market and even at the local grocery store! Nothing is quite as good as home-grown, but even grocery store-bought cucumbers make better pickles than what I can buy in a jar!


I altered the Smitten Kitchen recipe just a bit (I use a tad less salt, I usually throw in just a touch of garlic, and sometimes I add my own home-grown chives or onions, too), and I've been making my own pickles ever since. Sometimes I even take a few slices with me on rides to eat along the way. This is one of my new favorite ride treats!


I haven't had much success in growing my own cucumbers, but my dill is coming on strong, and I even have enough to share with my neighbors! I also have had wonderful luck growing my own Thai, Serrano and habanero peppers both indoors and out, ALL. YEAR. LONG. !!! I may be adding a touch of hot stuff to my next batch, just to see how it will taste.






I was thrilled earlier this month to find a heart in my dill, just in time for Valentine's Day!

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Snowflake Monday

While making an estimated 200 white snowflakes from my existing patterns for my special project, I tweaked so many of them, I'm almost ashamed of the ones that desperately needed tweaking.


Be Still My Heart was not one of my flakes in need of tweaking, but following a tragic first crack and many attempts to rescue that poor little snowflake, I couldn't help but play with the pattern. I had, after all, already made at least 10 of these snowflakes, all identical, except for color. No two alike... I had to change it up!

Inspiration for this snowflake also was provided by a flurry of popcorn stitch-center snowflake patterns and yet another Disney flick, this one, "Mulan", and Stevie Wonder’s version of "True To Your Heart."

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!


Finished Size: 4.5 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 8 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

True 2 Your Heart Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 4 dc in ring, pull hook out of loop (dropped loop) and insert in 2nd ch of starting ch 2, insert in dropped loop, pull dropped loop through 2nd ch of starting ch 2 (starting popcorn stitch made), * ch 5, 5 dc in ring, pull hook out of loop (dropped loop) and insert in top loop of 1st dc of this 5/dc group, insert in dropped loop, pull dropped loop through top loop of 1st dc (popcorn stitch made); repeat from * around 4 times; ch 2, 1 tr in starting popcorn to form 6th ch 5 sp of Round. Pull magic circle tight enough to make popcorn stitches poufy.

Round 2: 1 sc over post of tr just made, * ch 5, 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook (picot made), ch 3, 1 sc in next ch 5 sp; repeat from * around 5 times, omitting last sc of final repeat; sl st in starting sc.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 3: Ch 14 (counts as 1 dc and ch 12), * sk over next picot, 1 dc over next sc, ch 12; repeat from * around 3 times; sk over next picot, 1 dc over next sc, ch 5, 1 qtr (that means yo 5 times) in 2nd ch of starting ch 14 to form 6th ch 12 sp of Round.

Round 4: Ch 16 (counts as 1 dc and ch 14), * 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook, 1 hdc in next ch, 1 dc in next ch, ch 10, 1 dc in next ch 12 loop, ch 3, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook, 1 dc in same ch 12 sp, ch 14; repeat from * around 5 times, omitting last dc and ch 14 of Round; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 16; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch the snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I try to help crocheters having difficulty with my patterns when possible, but I do not have (and do not want) 24-hour internet access.

If you need immediate assistance, please consider asking for assistance on Ravelry (either the Snowflake group or the Techniques group), Crochetville or Sisters of the Snowflake. All three are totally free and wonderful resources loaded with friendly, experienced and helpful crafters. Thank you for being patient and considerate.

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