Ella: My Little Setter

 Ella in the Snow 2014
Early Friday (03/20/20), in the early hours of the morning, I had to make the difficult decision of euthanizing my English Setter, Ella.  As a rescue, she was an 'uncertain' age.  When I adopted her in 2008, the papers said 3-4, but she looked, both in body morphology and dental, to be 18 mos to 24 mos as my vet and I agreed.  So I know for sure that she was in my possession from November 1, 2008 until March 20, 2020.

Over these 11.5 years she was a devoted companion.  Unlike most English Setters, she was content to be a biscuit hunter and a couch potato.  She was a tri color setter and diminutive, what some call a "Pocket Setter".  Seeing her walk about the property was like seeing Lucy's ghost as they were nearly identical in color, though different morphology.

My original Setters, were Lucy and Greta.  Greta was a beautiful orange and white Setter.  In July of 2007, she was diagnosed with bladder cancer after presenting signs of a urinary tract infection.  When treatment for the UTI did not relieve the symptoms, they tried to culture her urine.  That did not work.

Both Lucy and Greta died within 6 months of each other in 2007.  On my birthday in August, I got Daisey.  A year later on Halloween, I got Ella.  I made the mistake of looking at English Setters on Pet Finder and there she was, the spitting image of Lucy.  Mark and I traveled to Dillsboro TN--a beautiful 435 mile drive.  The English Setter Rescue, for whom I had volunteered for as a driver, offered to set up a relay.  But it promised to be a lovely drive, and it did not disappoint. 

Southern Living listed Lulu's as a great restaurant in Dillsboro's sister city, Sylva.  It was Halloween, and we were hungry from our trip.  In this quaint little Mayberry-like town, the Trick-or-Treaters were going from business to business.  Also, the community center nearby was hosting an event.  I managed to get to a used bookstore and left with an armful of treasures.  Sylva is at the hard of Western Carolina University, and used bookstores in a college town are a treasure trove.

The next morning, I was to meet Mary from the Jackson Humane.  In addition to taking Ella into our home, we had agreed to give Sugar, a Border Collie/Akita (yes!) mix a ride back for the Border Collie Rescue in our area.  Ella ran to me as if I were her long lost friend.  She didn't even know who I was, but she bounded toward me.  Mary told me that Ella was one of the sweetest dogs that she had ever fostered--so docile that she agree to let a litter of Chihuahuas or Dachshunds (I don't remember which) treat her as a bed.

Now fast forward 11 years.  Last June Ella presented same symptoms.  We went through the same treatment.  Having gone through this with Greta, I suggested a culture after the first treatment failed.  I was called with the results..."the good news is that we couldn't grow a culture."  I then said, "Well, the bad news is that if she is still having these issues, she has bladder cancer."  I didn't go to vet school, and that should have been the very next thing out of the vet's mouth...not mine. 

The median lifespan of diagnosed bladder cancer in dogs is 6 months.  Ella made it 9, and with the exception of frequent urination, she was happy and comfortable.  She was on Gabopectin for pain management. 

But Friday, her demeanor changed markedly.  She seemed uncomfortable. Later, in her nighttime urination, she was presented with breathing heavily without respite.   At 3 a.m. I loaded her up and we went to the emergency vet.  This would now be the 3rd euthanasia in the wee hours that they have done for me.

With the Covid-19 alerts, they were not allowing clients in.  You were to stay in your car, they would come out, get your pet, do the intake (presumably over the phone), and perform necessary procedures.  As I was euthanizing, they first asked appropriate screening questions over the phone.  They came out in protective gear with protective gear for me.  I was able to be with Ella when she transitioned.

English Setters have a very low prevalence of bladder cancer...2% or less.  That I had 50% of my Setter demised with this condition is rare.  We use no pesticides, and I'm don't put a lot of pesticides on my dogs. 

I'm now down to two dogs...one of which Daisey, is my last Setter.  She is 15, and she is not likely to see the year through, but she is pain free, and very mobile.  Dexter, our foundling pit bull boy, was very close to Ella.  He was the only dog that we have ever had that never try to make Ella be submissive.  Daisey on the other hand....constantly displaying dominance.  Dexter has been looking for Ella.  I should have let him see her body before we buried it as we typically do.  If you have multiple dogs, and you are in Stephen King Pet Sematary mode as we are here, then I suggest that you consider doing the same. 

My sweet Ella was a precious companion.  We gave her a good home, and she gave as much to us through her sweet personality.  I made a contribution to the Jackson Humane Society in honor of my beloved girl.  I will cherish her memory.

CDC Website v Johns Hopkins | Why Ask Why?



At a time where contemporary, accurate information is at a premium, I ask this:  "Why at 9:42 p.m. 03/15/2020 is there such a discrepancy between what the CDC is reporting and Johns Hopkins?"  CDC is reporting 1629 cases, Johns Hopkins reporting 3499.  Note that the CDC is last updated March 13, 2020.

I'm not a perennial government basher.  I respect our institutions.  I'd like to think that the CDC would provide more contemporaneous information than a private institution.  During a pandemic, Closing on Friday at 4 pm.  just does not stand.  You can visit the pages by clicking the names.

 CDC


Johns Hopkins



Lemoyne Flower---Lemoyne Sew and Flip Gone Awry

I went to bed still wondering why my Lemoyne Star blocks using method 1 (traditional) v. method 2 (stitch and flip) came out differently sized...by 1/2 inch.  This a.m.  I went to work sans caffeine applying the stitch and flip method for constructing a Lemoyne Star.  The picture below is NOT a Lemoyne star, but rather a happy accident.  I christen it "Lemoyne Flower".

I got confused when applying the HST to the rectangle.  I put it on the wrong side (the flipped side, not the pointy).  Well looky, looky! This is what I got...something more resembling a flower than a star.  Accordingly we have the birth of the Lemoyne flower.

More on the stitch and flip....The stitch and flip method that McCalls demonstrates wastes far too much fabric.  However, by substituting
a half square triangle for the rectangle they use (on both pieces that are to be joined) one greatly reduces the waste with no compromise in accuracy.

This block contains the following components:

(6) Rectangles measuring 5.5" x 2 3/8" rectangles (floral) in your choice of fabrics and placement.

(8) HST Triangles made from 3 3/8" squares cut on one diagonal
(6)  2 3/8" squares and putting a clipped corner (or sew and flip) by affixing a 2 3/8" x 2 3/8" square.  Sewing on the diagonal and clipping at 1/4" seam allowance.  I use my Creative Grids Corner Clipping tool which I adore.

I'll create some better instructions at another point in time.  I've spent far too much time on this already.....

Below is another variation of the block.  You can immediately see how swapping out fabric choices for various elements would provide some interesting possibilities. Further, deepening the stitch and flip on the rectangle would also provide some visual interest. 




Using rectangles, squares and HST's makes this block VERY quick to sew.  However, care must be taken as there is bias, and there are a lot of seams. Accordingly, careful cutting, stitching and pressing are important.

Now that I perfected my crafting of THIS block...I did a timed study.  From start to finish, it took me 1 hour to make an entire block.  That included my pressing and cutting the fabric.  Starching, glue basting and sewing.  Obviously, if you were making many blocks, you would have economies of scale..  Nevertheless, I was happy with this

Lemoyne @!%&%$& Star

I was crowing about my Lemoyne star block skill builder.  However, today, when I actually squared the block up, I realized I had some more learnin' and practicing to do.  Not all of the points quite made it to their final resting spot 1/4" from the outside of the squared block...or they overshot a wee bit and will be caught in seam allowance.

I spent all of today working on the alternative methods that I mentioned in my prior post.  I was trying to meld what I had computed for the regular way and adapt the measurements to create a quarter square triangle and a half square triangle to split corner squares and the center triangles in two with a seam.  That method uses no y seams, but adds quite a bit more seaming to your block. 

In adopting this method, my 9" star that I had completed using the traditional method became a 10" block.  I will futz about to figure out why.  Everything fit together fine, I just don't know how it grew by 1" particularly when the width of my starting strip for the diamond was unchanged.

I'm sure it will come to me, and my brain is chewing on the problem like a dog with a bone.  But I'm too weary to worry further today on it.  I did go through lots of learning and problem solving that was resurrecting old stuff from decades ago.

I'm stepping away and letting the brain sublimate on the problem.

Lemoyne Star--Tackled--Almost

Updated: 03/07/2020--After squaring up my blocks, I realize, that these blocks are NOT perfect, and I need to do some more work.I perfected  undertook a method of tackling and successfully completing a Lemoyne Star after several less- than-stellar attempts...Y seams and all.  Now, I'm not bragging.  Rather, I'm offering encouragement for any new quilter to engage in perfect practice and embrace failure as part of clawing one's way up the learning curve.

I will share with you the technique that I cultivated from shamelessly glommed together the best practices of others. I will warn that it's avant garde, as it goes against the admonitions of others to not iron.  

First: Marking  points and pushing seams.  I am embracing Edyta Sitar's method for marking and pushing seam allowances. To mark, I found that my Creative Grids Corner Clipper did an unparalleled job in marking the start and stop points accurately and effortlessly.  See my post on that here. No guess work.  No fumbling.  Perfect mark each and every time. And a lead pencil makes the perfect dot.

I had used Dee Christopher's method of sewing through (w/o marking)  but found that it was easier to make the marks than pick out a couple of threads.  For pressing, I used Edyta's method:  Turn right side down, points up, and push the seam allowance to the left.

Second: Cutting diamonds from strips.  I cut my diamonds straight up and down on my mat by aligning the top with my 45 degree mark on the mat.  I found that I cut more accurately that way.  I used a dry erase marker to mark my ruler. I have also found (after now scurrying to my work room) that permanent mounting tape (keep one side with the backing intact or it will stick to your mat) will attach and remove from your ruler easily and creates a ledge.  I get this cheaply at my local salvage store.

Third:  Halve  your triangles (from tip to outer base) and  fold squares (on diagonal):  One of the many challenges of this block is the flipping back and forth to sew the other side of the why seam.One way to make it easier to visualize is to fold the triangle in half and fold the corner on the diagonal. That way, (1) the crease on the triangle shows you exactly where to stop sewing on the first pass, and (2) you can see how it nestles into the other side.  So for those of you who share my spatial processing idiosyncrasies you might find that a helpful aid.

Fourth: Glue + iron.  Yes, I'm a serial glue baster.  And you cannot glue if you do not iron.  The counsel is to not iron because of all of the bias.  Well if you are glue-basting your seam, the glue will stabilize the bias.  Well, that was my hypothesis after I had engaged this method after completing yet another unsatisfactory star.  So I glued and set it with the iron--just along the glued seam.  And everything turned out beautifully.  No stretching.  Perfect points.  Perfect corners.  Crisp seams.  So I attest that if you glue baste and use your iron on the edge of your basted seam to set the glue, you will not end up with misshapen diamonds.  Rather, you will end up with a nicely stabilized seam that will not flip flop on you.

Fifth: Because you are not sewing off the seam, but stopping and back-*tacking, you end up with long tails of threads (upper/lower).  Unless you have an auto thread cutter on your sewing machine (I'm coveting such a feature), clip the threads to keep a tangle from occurring. 

And finally, I found that using a pressing cloth on top of the block allowed pressing without providing any shine to the seams and made by block flatter.

Here is my quilt block, and if you look, you can see that I have one seam pucker (lower mid)--but it ironed out as the seam was twisted in the back.  I didn't notice it until I saw the photo.  This was my first block using this method.  My second block is still on my design wall with no puckers.


I'm really happy that I have found a method that works for me. And I can approach the block with enthusiasm, not trepidation.

 As I continue my quilting journey, I realize the importance of understanding the methods (and there is more than one way to skin the cat) and integrating them into your learning.  For me, glue-basting is an essential part of how I go about the business of keeping things in place.  So bringing that method into the fold yielded a confident approach to this beautiful block.

Lemoyne Star--Redux--Marking with the Creative Grids Corner Clipper

When I floundered about in my foundation paper piecing, I totally immersed myself so that I could redirect my gray cells into working backwards.  Yes, I am spatially challenged.  I wrestled with the bias seam on the quilt binding (the final join), until I simply turned the work.  Once I put my starting tail on the right and my ending tail on the left, my brain could instantly handle all of the remaining tasks.  Yes, just a simply turn of the work.

The Lemoyne Star has its own spatial peculiarities.  I'm still working on perfecting my approach using the approaches of others that I have collected on my quilting page.  On reason I abandoned the registration marks at the diamond midpoint is none of my marking tools did that easily.  However, this a.m.  I started rummaging through my rulers, and my Creative Grids Corner clipper is the perfect marking tool for this essential registration mark.  Just line the insided 1/4" line wit the outside of your diamond block and line up the the 1/4" hash mark with where the diamond turns. YOu will see a perfect little diamond

Now how easy is that?

Lemoyne Star


I had an OCD need to understand how to build the measurements of a Lemoyne Star, or an 8 point quilt block. I was inspired by this method of drafting from HOW WE SEW.   There are two three methods of constructing an 8 point star.

 One is by simply cutting squares and using the combination of squares and HST's to formulate the block.  It is a no partial seam method--a cheater method.  And it doesn't quite look the same.

Second is a semi-cheater method.  This method is composed of the splitting the triangles and the squares to avoid Y seams. It provides some design flexibility as the corner square and the side triangles are split.   Nancy Zieman illustrates one method and McCall's quilting, another of accomplishing this traditional block.

Third, is the #$%#$^^ traditional method.  This method is composed of the following (see block above) three pieces

1.  Corner Squares (qty 4)
2.  Diamonds (qty8)
3.  Square (qty 1) cut on 2 diagonals to yield 4 QST's
 
I pulled out my Excel with the goal of creating a table that used base computations to calculate each of the 3 needed components.  I will warn you...this will make your head hurt.

I used the How We Sew tutorial for a 5.5" finished block.  The key to the block is to identify the divisions of the block.  The first division involves finding the length of the corner block.  That number involves some calculations.

1.  Corner Squares.  Find the side measurement of Square 1. Measure the diagonal from the center of the block to the corner. (If you were drawing this you could use a compass). That is 1/2 the diagonal of the block.  So let's work with numbers we know.
    • Diagonal of the block is the hypotenuse of a 5.5" square.  You can use this calculator here and multiply the result by .5 (or divide by 2).   Or you can do it the old fashion way. 
    • The formula is (a squared + b squared) = c squared.  To solve we square A and Square B get the sum of that.  Then calculate the square root.
    •   As we are working with squares for our star blocks, a and b are always equal in our star calculations and equate to the finished block size.  5.5" = a and 5.5" = b.
       If you have excel, you can use this formula:
      •   =ROUND((SQRT((+5.5*5.5)+(5.5*5.5))*0.5)*8,0)/8     N= the size of the finished block (5.5" in our example)--so you would want to put your block size in a cell and then point to it in the formula.
      •  I was rounding to get to the nearest 8th inch which is the other stuff.  The blue highlight is taking the square of each side (5.5 in this case) and adding them together and taking the square root of the answer.  5.5 x 5.5 = 30.25  30.25x2=60.5.  The square root of 60.5 is 7.778174593.  
      • 7.778174593 represents the full diagonal of your finished block.  We need 1/2 of that measurement or 3.889087297.  As our quilting rulers don't have such minutia, the formula is going to round to the nearest 1/8 of inch or 3.875.
    •  Now we can compute the length of square 1: Subtract 3.875 from the finished block size (5.5)= 1.625.  Because we need seam allowances for our square, we need to add .5" to that number.  Therefore our 4 corner squares will be cut at 2.125" (1.625 + .5).  One key block down!
2.  Quarter Square Triangles:   We have to calculate the length of our quarter square triangles so we calculate the size of the square that we will cut on the diagonal 2x to form the QST's we need.  We know that one side of each block contains 2 squares (length of 1.625 each).  The remainder is the length of the  straight of grain triangle side.

  • To calculate we will take the finished block size, subtract the two corner squares (2 x 1.625). or 5.5-3.25=2.25.  To add seam allowance, we add 1.25" to get a total square of 3.50 which we will cut into quarter square triangles. Second key block down.

3.Diamonds:  Once you calculate the width of the diamond (measurement of the parallelogram, not the points), you can cut the diamonds from strips.  The width of our 5.5" block has 2 corner triangles and 2 diamonds.  So, the width of a single diamond, is going to be 5.5-2*1.625 or 1.125.  Math check   1.625 + 1.625 + 1.125 + 1.125 = 5.5  Yeah...all of our components add up to the width of our block.  Because we need seam allowance for the diamond, we need to add .5" so that our diamond width will be 1.125+.5 or 1.625

I do not attest to the accuracy of the table below. (on 09/06/2021 I compared my table to EQ8 computations which I did not have at the time.  I have since updated the table below which you can use with confidence.  However, if you press your seams over (v. opening them), you may need a scantier 1/4" seam than you are used to using.  I had to go over one more needle click on the Bernina (2 v. 1).  Make a test block to ensure that you get a trimmed size 1/2 larger than finished).


Make a Test and use SCANTIEST 1/4"
Lemoyne Star Block Sizes:  Cut Sheet for Components
Calculated finish (math + EQ8) Corner Squares  Diamond Width  Square for QST
Seam Allow (incl)  1/2  1/2 1 1/2
Yield 4    8    4   
23 7 2/8 5 2/8 10 6/8
22.5 7 1/8 5 1/8 10 5/8
22 7    5    10 3/8
21.5 6 6/8 5    10 1/8
21 6 5/8 4 7/8 10   
20.5 6 4/8 4 6/8 9 6/8
20 6 3/8 4 5/8 9 4/8
19.5 6 2/8 4 4/8 9 3/8
19 6 1/8 4 3/8 9 1/8
18.5 5 7/8 4 3/8 8 7/8
17 5 4/8 4    8 2/8
16.5 5 3/8 3 7/8 8 1/8
16 5 1/8 3 7/8 7 7/8
15.5 5    3 6/8 7 5/8
15 4 7/8 3 5/8 7 4/8
14.5 4 6/8 3 4/8 7 2/8
14 4 5/8 3 3/8 7   
13.5 4 4/8 3 2/8 6 7/8
13 4 2/8 3 2/8 6 5/8
12.5 4 1/8 3 1/8 6 3/8
12 4    3    6 2/8
11.5 3 7/8 2 7/8 6   
11 3 6/8 2 6/8 5 6/8
10.5 3 5/8 2 5/8 5 5/8
10 3 3/8 2 5/8 5 3/8
9.5 3 2/8 2 4/8 5 1/8
9 3 1/8 2 3/8 5   
8.5 3    2 2/8 4 6/8
8 2 7/8 2 1/8 4 5/8
7.5 2 6/8 2    4 3/8
7 2 4/8 2    4 1/8
6.5 2 3/8 1 7/8 4   
6 2 2/8 1 6/8 3 6/8
5.5 2 1/8 1 5/8 3 4/8
5 2    1 4/8 3 3/8
4.5 1 7/8 1 3/8 3 1/8
4 1 5/8 1 3/8 2 7/8
3.5 1 4/8 1 2/8 2 6/8







Weekend Skill Building

Pathfinder Quilt using Windham Paper Art Safari
I found this fabric, Windham Fabric's Paper Art Safari designed by Whistler Studios, on sale at Hancock's of Paducah. I bought yardage in all of the colorways without any idea on what I would do with it.  I searched for patterns, and I found this Whistler Studios (designer for Windham) Pathfinder free quilt pattern. It is only 40 x 40"...so not really big enough to serve as a throw--but one can preserve the inner medallion and make larger.  I really love this pattern and the use of fabrics/contrasts.  I thought I would try it. It does say for advanced quilters.  I'm not advanced, but I'm a little further along than beginner.   What was I thinking?  (note that the pic is NOT my quilt production but a photo of the finished quilt in the pattern).

Well, I was thinking that I have evolved enough in my quilting that I could tackle this pattern--or fail in a way that I would advance my skills meaningfully.  I was not wrong.  I tackled curved piecing, foundation piecing but not the eight pointed star.  But I thought I would give this a whirl.  Here are a few nuances.

Directional fabrics.  Notice the the ring outside of the star.  The direction of the fabric is maintained.  That means...taking some care to rotate the template.  (Same with the outer borders--order of fabric placement.  I did not take care to notice that at first and was happy to have my seam ripper in hand.)  I'll not make those mistakes again.  It seems so obvious...in retrospect.

Eight pointed Star.  I've never made one of those, and there are two videos (Edyta Sitar and Dee Christopher) that demonstrate this technique two ways. Please see here. I liked Dee Christopher's technique.The eight pointed star in this quilt has a template to cut the diamonds.  The diamond sides are not equal--there is a longer taper at the top of the star. (A small nuance for a newbie like me.).  Nevertheless, I made it, warts and all.  I also pieced it into the ring (sewing the inner circle to the outer. I still need to make a few adjustments.  My points do not line up with the seams--but it is okay with me.

The outer ring is foundation pieced.  I did a practice run on some scrap fabric.  There were no surprises--and this is a technique that I mastered previously after dedicating myself to it. To make this quilt, though, I had to order additional  Optic White Windham Fabric.  I had a mini-bolt of 9 yards, and I used my last piece on another project (Sparkle Magic Shine).  It is a lovely, brilliant white. I ordered 15 yards to get a "buy more and save" discount bringing my cost to $4.79 per yard.  (Note, that I had recently purchased some Kona "Snow" which is a new purchase for me.  It is a softer white than the Windham Optic White.  You just cannot know the difference until you look at it.

Which brings me to looking at fabric colors.  Like paint colors, fabric colors are relative colors around them and light.  (I think that is basic color theory).  Buying fabric on line (which is 90" of my purchases), one is limited by the monitor's interpretation of color..  Being able to buy some 'snow' and compare to 'optic white' helped a great deal.  And both have a place.

This pattern, then, gave me a superb way to tackle  deeper cognitive understanding of some more advanced techniques.  There is no better learning than doing, failing, and doing some more and failing better!