Greenhouse Frog

I don't know how well you can see the little frog in the jar, but that is what hopped into our house. We captured it last night. It is a greenhouse frog. I called the Department of Agriculture's Pest Hotline and that is what they told me it was. It is not poisonous, but it is an alien species and a pest. It makes a chirpping noise like a bird. Our neighbors have birds who make lots of noise, so I was unaware that we had these in our neighborhood. The man who took my call told me not to be nice because it looks so cute. He said I would regret it later when it multiplied and kept me up at night.

I spoke to some people I work with to find out who to call and some of them told me that they have lots of these around their neighborhood.

Oh, the man who took my call told me to kill it. He said to put the jar in the freezer, then throw the jar away.

One hopped into the house about five days ago, but I chased it out by spraying a vinegar and water solution at it. It left the way it came in, I think. I didn't actually see it come in, but it squeezed out through a space under our screen door. I told my neighbor about it and he told me that I would have to catch it. Well, we caught this one...I wonder how many more we have around our house. I hope not too many and I hope they don't venture in any more. If they do, at least I know what to do with them.

Japanese Buzzsaw Quilt

During the summer, I took a class at Bernina to learn how to make a Buzzsaw Quilt. Since it is made with oriental or asian print fabrics it is called a Japanese Buzzsaw Quilt. This is a photo of my instructors finished quilt.

I chose a green background fabric and use light colored printed fabrics. My instructions were to cut 9 inch squares and 2 x 8 inch strips.

We were to sew a printed square and a background square, then cut them in half to make two new squares which were half print and half background fabric.
Next, we cut the new squares into 2 inch strips, we laid them out so that we could see the print. This enabled us to mix the prints or if we wanted to leave them the same.

We assembled our strips to create a new square. We then used four of the squares to make a block.









This is a picture of a finished Buzzsaw quilt I saw at a quilt show. I didn't finish my quilt yet. I will post pictures of it in progress.

A Graduation Gift

My daughter made this pillowcase as a graduation gift for a friend. This was the first time she sewed a pillowcase. She did a really good job.Of course, I guided her by washing the fabric, showing her how to zigzag the edges before washing so that it wouldn't fray too much, I also cut the fabric and taught her how to finish the seams. I don't know if her friend liked it, but it came out really nice.