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Welcome to my blog. Keep looking on this page for updates on projects I am creating and for knowledge that I would like to share with you. Please leave comments at anji@purrmeowdesigns.com April 9, 2008 Sorry I have not updated this blog. Shortly after we moved to Oregon my husband got a job in California. The last nine weeks have been a learning experience that has made me stronger. I had to learn the area around our apartment, a new state, new school for the kids, how to manage money and to see if something (God forbid) happened to my husband, I feel confident that I couod take care of my family. My husband comes home tomorrow. Yeah! Someone to walk the dogs and cuddle with. I realized through this time how much I love him. I have not been able to quilt but I have some great sketches wanting to be quilts. being a single mom is time consuming. Now that hubby is back I can quilt again. I had no time for quilting and missed many contests I wanted to enter but there will be more this year and next. But the time with my kids was worth it. We have old growth forests 15 minutes from our apartment. WOW! Now I can share it with hubby. Our pets have increase. We nowhave 3 ferrets, a cat, a mouse and 2 dogs. I used to say i was a cat person, now I am a cat and ferret person. The ferrets are so much fun. Their names are Houdini, Crystal and Magic, wo sleeps on me. He shares with my cat Stimpy. If you want to laugh get a ferret. I have been decorating the apartment and it finall y feels like home. Routines are established and fun is what we try to achieve. Ferret behavior rubs off on all. The ferret in all the picture was the first one we adoption. I plan to update this blog every week. With new pictures. January 30, 2008 I'm Back! Better than ever (kind of) and in a new shiny apartment in a state I have never lived in, Oregon. It snowed the first day here, major cool. I was bummed by the apartment at first because the Master Bath was supposed to have a tub and it has a wheelchair shower. But then after unpacking everyone's stuff by myself, I can't walk and need a wheelchair. SO a blessing in disguise. The apartment is handicapped equipped with large doorways. I am renting a walker here because mine got lost in the move. Once I heal though the size of the home is small enough for me to take care of and only one story. We are letting the house go back to the bank which will screw my credit but not that person I call a husband. I was the only one on the deed. We have 4 animals now. The two dogs, Pongo and Google, my cat Stimpy who I have had longer than my kids, our mouse and tomorrow a ferret. Ferrets are illegal in Ca. and when we went to get the kids dream pets, small animals, a chinchila, turtle and bearded dragon, we found ferrets. Legal in Oregon. We all decided to get 1 ferret. I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED ONE. This one ferret kept following us, he knew how to weasel into my heart. Pun intended. I do like being away from the bad things that happened in the Ca.and everyone told us this would be our "New Beginning" and I believe that too. But then there is my husband who could not be happy in the Garden of Eden before the snake, of course. Even though he already got a part time job teaching storyboard animation. I really wished he would try to help himself. Enough about him. I am doing things to be positive. Like suing the bqnk that gave us the loan we could not afford. There were many mistakes and predatory lending practices. They appraised the house more than it was worth. I am restarting to quilt and sketch every night. I have been sketching nudes which had ben hard for me until now.I want to create some nude needlepoint kits. Any takers? I am going to work on small stuff, quilts, embroidery, needlepoint and the like. Easier on my body and lets me practice new techniques. November 23, 2007 I am getting better. I want to thank all the people who emailed me with support. It helped immensly. I have had my up and down days. I woke up yesterday missing my cats so much. I hugged a teddy bear that I made when I was 16. Her aarms came off in the wash so to feel better I fixed her and she is recovering hanksgiving. It was great! I told myself that I am taking the weekend off! So after the big dinner I watched a movie and knitted a fuzzy afghan all night! What fun! I usually lock myself up in my studio but laying on the couch relaxing was heaven. I knitted so much I have a knot below my elbow that hurts. Then I read my magazines, haven't done Today my girls and I played a video game. After this I plan to go knit and when everyone goes to bed, I'm going to read again. Get the police here, isn't taking a day off illegal in California? I still did my Amazon book orders but that was nothing. I have made $1600.00 so far, selling the books we won't be taking with us. What good fortune. Here is a weird thing, I got these CD's in the mail called "The Secret". I don't remember ordering them but here they were. It is all about positive thinking. Talk about timing. So now I have this image in my head "Our current house selling fast, driving to our new, cute rental home in Oregon, setting up my studio and supporting the family on my art. Then finding a cabin type house in the woods of Oregon to buy and furnish it the way I want and lastly I want to take the family all over the world and have money left over for other things like charity and spoiling my famiy." I have always said I WILL make it as an art quilter and it will be enough to support my family. But tonight is mine and Saturday and Sunday too! Monday I am quilting again. I will be ready. This whole moving thing has thrown me off kilter, but I am getting back into the groove again. Here is good news too. My quilt got accepted into Road to California! Too bad it is the one I sold. Maybe its new owner will let me borrow it back. November 13, 2007 The worst thing in my life happened last night. I had pulled up a chair to sit on and when I went to sit on it, it slipped backwards and I fell on my 18 year old foster cat. He walked away and I checked him. He jumped down and ran away, I thought he was fine. Then 30 minutes later when we went to feed the cats he did not show up, very unlike him. We looked .around the house as I made the joke that "oh great I sat on my cat and killed him" that is when I looked around the corner under a table and he was dead. Some joke. He had internal injuries and bled to death. Pretty sucky thing. I keep asking God "why?" Why do we have to move so fast, why will we make nothing off the sale of the house, why did I have to give up 11 cats, why do I have to pack the house and do all the work while my husband watches TV and if I ask him to help he gets angry, why do I have to give up the only two cats I got to keep while the house is for sale, while the dogs get to stay (I am wholeheartedly a cat person, I love the dogs BUT), why does our realtor keep bugging me to do more than I can, why do I have to be the happy one, why did this have to happen,why? In Rememberance of Felix November 9, 2007 How do you keep going when you have lost part of your heart? Sketch, create, quilt, paint, get your hands dirty. I thought that because I lost so many cats that I would be afraid to draw cats anymore. Not true, by drawing and creating art with their likenesses I am keeping their spirit alive. Thay are not dead, but even my dead ones I have used their pictures and the aart I create from them to keep their spirit alive in my heart. i was getting very cranky until tonight. After falling down the stairs I told my husband that I can't do anything physical like move my studio upstairs by myself. I told him that I need to quilt and sketch new work. So I went in to my newly moved studio and worked on the Hawaiin shirt quilt. Then I sketched a new fabric postcard. I am happy again. I need to create or I get mean. Tonight was good. Art is great and soon I will post new pictures. As far as the cats I have left. I still have 5 cats but 3 are over 18, one has aggressive cancer in her nose that is inoperable and one I had for 12 years, he is the only one that will be my lap cat. The others just sleep. Would you believe no other volunteers would take care of on of the old guys? That makes me mad. Why is it I will only take in the elderly and sick? We wanted only to move with 2 cats because we have to rent a place but hopefully I will be able to sneak these guys in. It also seems like the other volunteers and a friend are treating me like I am a bad person because I had to surrender my animals. Believe me if I had another way I would have kept all 13. They are my fur children. 4 have already been adopted. I pamper the 5 remaining. And a positive note, there is less poop to scoop, a lot less. Always a bright side. I am gong to draw more because tomorrow I have to get ready for the big garage sale this weekend. I have to declutter the house, so why not make money on it, right? Novem ber 5, 2007 Today we must surrender another cat. He is old but adoptable. I find myself going through good and bad spells. Last night I was very positive. Thinking that this is what I want and it is. I have been wanting to move out of California for a long time. I just did not want to do it in this way. But maybe I needed this way to get me off my butt and do it. I should have pushed my husband sooner. I am the one in the family who makes decisions. By letting us just creep along the way we were never would get us closer to moving. We would still be talking about it. I just wiehed we had more money. This is where you come in (WARNING:shameless self promotion here!) I sell notecards of my artwork on www.anjivisser.etsy.com. For $10.00 you get a set of 4 beautifully printed cards. I have made cards from all my artwork. And I am adding more plus christmas and fabric greeting cards and postcards. Please if you are looking for a gift for Christmas or cards to send for the holidays consider buying some cards from me. $10.00 can mean a lot to me and my kids. It will make our move easier. People on Quiltart have been talking about blogs and their benefits. Well,without mine I might not be so positive. I can pour out my feelings and feel better. 20 minutes ago I was trying to find a way out of my wallowing. After writing the above I feel much better. I am still sad but sad in a more positive way. I know we must surrender all but 2 of the 13 cats to make this move but once we make it, we are going to find the closest shelter and start fostering again. I know none of our cats will be euthanized. Heck one has already been adopted. Maybe had we not waited we could have moved with more than 2. These are all what ifs. I hope no one thinks badly of me. I should have pushed my husband sooner but I did not know that the housing market in this neighborhood was as bad as it was. We thought we would be able to sell the house and walk away with enough money to buy another house free and clear. But it was worse than we thought. We may end up spending money to sell it. We will be lucky to have enough to move on. Plus my husband was not honest about our finances and I did not know how bad we were. Here is what I am learning. Never rely on someone else to make a dream happen, moving to another state. Always know what your finances are and credit report, even if your spouse has your best interests in mind. Make sure you can support yourself and children, if spouse loses their job. The biggest here is, YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN MAKE YOU DREAMS HAPPEN. So what am I doing now? Making sure the house sells fast. Finding a new home in an area I want to live in in Portland, Oregon. Keeping my kids positive, this is an adventure. Trying to bring in funds to be able to have a good move and Christmas cash. Never letting this happen again. Keeping myself healthy. I am no good to anyone sick. Which means keeping myself positive and very little wallowing. Love to you all. November 3, 2007 Yesterday was the worst day of my life. I had to surrender 7 cats to the shelter. It was awful, I couldn't see the papers I had to fil out. Tears were dropping onto the paper, smearing the ink. The girls were brave, they filled out the papers too. Then the 4 of us,my kids and I took each beloved cat and kissed and hugged it as we put it into the cage. Tears were flowing, cats were scared. We surrendered OUR cats meaning these were not the elderly, sick cats they were the ones we had had before we were a foster family for the shelter. We did this because they were the most adoptable. They are young, not sick and beautiful. We kissed and hugged each one before thay were carried away. I decided to keep my 12 year old Stimpy who I have had for 12 years and not adoptable and our senior blind foster Marmalade, because she is 18 and blind which has taken her 3 months to trust me. Currently we also have 3 senior fosters that have cancer and a senior foster that we will surrender Monday that is beautiful and adoptable. We have to find places for the cancer cats, but no one but us wiil take them. It is better now because we found out that they are in a big room called the Habicat where all they adoptable cats hang out. The room has all sorts of cat furniture and the cats have freedom to move about. No cages. That eased the pain a little. It also eases the pain because I get updates. Today our persian, Baby got adopted. The volunteers at the shelters are real strict about who adopts so I know it is a good place with goo adoptions. I hope to find a place like this in Oregon. I keep holding the few cats I have left. The children are sad but resillient. I am no wallowing in pain. I am keeping myself up I have to. What would the kids do if I was not positive. I told them once we move they can have the pet of their dream, HArrison wants a Bearded Dragon, Mia wants a a tortoise and Mira a chinchilla. We have a wonderful real estate agent who is working so hard to help us. Ann we love you. I also love all of you that have visited my site and take the time to write me such nice emails. It amazes that people come to my site and buy my art. Confidence is still a new thing to me but it is growing on me. During all this I am still creating. The move won't change this. I can create in California or Oregon or Timbuktu. I am going to make it no matter where. I am reading a book that is keeping me positive. As long as my family is together, I will survive. Although I feel as if it isn't all together, the cats are my fur children. I never thought I would have to make a choice like this. November 1, 2007 Okay I am officially a basket case. The house has to sell and fast so we don't have it foreclosed on. We have to adopt out all but 2 of our 13 cats. How can I do this? HOW? Banks suck.Tomorrow we are taking 8 cats to the shelter that I work at. I love these cats so much. They are my muse. Who am I going to draw and quilt? Speaking of that how am I going to restart my business in a new town? It looks like the Portland, Oregon area is it. Our house is part of a really bad market because of lay offs in the major businesses here. We will probably are not even going to walk away with any money from the sale of the house. A break even. We only have $6000. in the bank and if the house does not sell fast there won't be any money for the move. AND there is nothing around here for rent that we can afford. We have to have a garage sale Saturday to declutter the house. Where will I get the energy. I already feel like a zombie. I know I am complaining but it weighs heavy on my heart. Tonight my heart has broken. This is my Journal Quilt 2007.  Halloween! We had the 3rd annual Visser Halloween Party for the kids tonight. Even though only three kids showed up plus my three, we had a blast. we did games, had a scavenger hunt and went to houses to trick or treat. I barely had time to get it together because we are in the middle of trying to sell this house before it gets foreclosed on, I am sewing and drawing my little fingers off, hosting the fire challenge, doing two hours of homework and selling stuff online to support the family. I pulled the party off though. I love my kids after the party they just snuggled in to me and watched TV. How did I get so lucky to have such wonderful children? Blessed, blessed, blessed. I am sad over trying to sell the house. we have to sell a lot of our stuff, that is okay. it is just stuff and I love to declutter. It makes like simpler, plus it is less to deal with. I do want to move to another state and I believe Oregon is it. If you know any places around and outside of Portland.In a more rural neighborhood let me know. The cost of living in California is too high. Colorado is another possibility, We have so much work to make this house sellable and even then we will just break even. We will get no money from the sale. Back to renting it is. Here is the saddest part. We have to give up the cat hospice and adopt out most of our cats. There is no way to sell the house and make this move with this many cats. How can I choose which to keep? I haven't told the kids yet. they are just getting used to the idea that we have to move and then tell them we can't keep our furry family members. I can't get used to it. There is so much to do to make the house sellable. Where am I going to find the time? And where do we find the money to make the changes? Our realtor is a God send from our church and is already working hard for us. I hope we can do this, I know I can but can the rest of the family members? My goal is to keep them positive and make it fun so they dont worry so much. I am going to be strong to keep this family together. I have to! How am I going to find time to quilt so we can afford this? I already have to put toothpicks in my eyelids to keep them open:) Here are some fun pictures from Halloween. And check back soon. I will have my fire challenge sketch, my new fabric postcards (why do I put so much detail, simolify Anji, simplify), fabric Christmas cards (good for stocking stuffers (shameless self promotion) and more stuff to be thankful for. today I am thankful for our realtor, Ann, my children, their health, the fun we had. Halloween and blueberry yogurt. Mia is the vorpal bunny from "Monty Pyton and the Holy Grail". Mira is Dorthy from "Wizard of Oz" and Harrison is and evil biker (his mask was off).   October 28, 2007 Here is what I have been working on. A friend of mine who's young husband passed away wanted me to make a quilt out of her husband's hawaiian shirts. I am not a traditional quilter so this is a challenge for me. What do you think? This is just the quilt top without the black border. The shirts in the middle will have colors and buttons. She wanted to keep them somewhat like shirts.  Halloween is coming up and we always throw a party so this week will be busy. I just trust my body will hold out. I have been sad lately. Not as positive as normal. Maybe it is the lack of money, having to move, even though I want to and have wanted to for a long time. But if we have to rent we won't be able to keep all the cats. How do I choose who to keep? If you know a house to rent that accepts pets in a nice rural area, tell me please. Has to be a smaller 3 bedroom one story home. Our house here is 2 stories too big. What really is making me sad is my sister-in-law called and ignored me on the speaker phone. It made me feel like I have NO extended family. None. And my husband ignores me all the time. When I am sick or hurt he curses at me and the kids. Why can't he just say "I am sorry you don't feel well, can I do something for you?" Thank God for my kids. Usually I don't let this bother me but I am human. I am sure it is a build up of emotions from the past week letting loose. A good cry should cure this. October 23, 2007 This has been a very busy week. I am staying up later than normal everynight to get things done. First, was the malibu fire and all the other fires. As some of you know it got a little worrisome around here. This is the letter I sent to all my friends on the Quiltart forum. It describes best what it was like here. "Anyone else out here in the middle of some of the worst fires I have been in. I'm scared but can't show it to my kids. Husband woke me this morning to tell me the Malibu fire burned down our vet hospital. Worry, worry, worry. But luckily my contact at the shelter I volunteer at called and said they need help with the lost animals and the animals from the vet hospital that are coming in. I grabbed my cages and off to the shelter. That kept me from worrying working there. When I came home though the closer I got to my house the more smoke there was. It was literally a reddish nighttime during the day. We had to turn lights on. Blood red sun at 2:30pm. We found out there were closer fires and we are surrounded. Ashes falling everywhere, fences blown down, trees knocked over, your eyes burn and your throat burns. Even though we are in a tract home we are surrounded by wild land and embers could possibly bring these fires home. None are contained, all out of control and tomorrow we are expecting 80-90mph winds, 9% humidity and 90 degree weather worse than today. I can hear the wind and smell the smoke even in a closed up house. I believe we are okay but it always panics me because growing up I spent many days fighting fires off our house. When I went to Exotic Animal Training and Management school another fire in this area required evacuation. We had to evacuate wild animals, an elephant, lions, tiger, exotic birds, you name it all while trying to keep our home safe. the sad part was one lion had to be shot because we could not get him in a crate and the owner had to shoot him or let him die by fire. It was awful. All these things run through my head tonight." As you could see I was scared. These are the pictures.  These were taken at 2:30pm Sunday afternoon when I got back from the shelter. It llooks bad and was bad but as of today we are fine. The shelter did not get overloaded with animals and the vet hospital was only damaged. They moved the animals back today. I can't say it is good everywhere though. Some areas are still very bad. Pray for them. The Quiltart forum is the best people in the world We have networked and helped each other during times of crisis. We still are. If the rest of the world worked like this it would be a peaceful world. QUILTERS ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To keep myself busy the kids and I decided to dress up the cats in their princess costume and here are the results.   The first is Ginger, then Layla, and Binky, who is a very pudgy boy. Who should win? If you look at Layla's nose, she has a very aggresive skin cancer. She already had it taken off twice but they won't again. Poor girl, What do you think of our Amityville Horror garage door windows. I took it from inside when the smoke was outside. Spooky. The other things going on are I have a store!!! It is at www.etsy.anjivisser.com. I have original works of art, art quilts and note cards of my work. If you can't afford an original, you can get 4 note cards with a giclee print of the art on it. Ju st in time for Christmas. I will have Christmas and other original fabric postcard for sale later next week and some smaller works of art. All with the cat as the theme. I just love them and I like where I am going with my art as I focus on the feline form and expression. So keep checking the sstore and this website for more. I am also starting a fire challenge. Make a 12"x12" block, we can sew them together and auction the quilt off wih the proceeds going to a charity like the Red Cross or some other. I will have more details in the next couple of days. If interested email me at anji@purrmeowdesigns.com and I will sign you up for the challenge. There will be a page on this website with pictures of the blocks and information on the challenge. One last bit of bad news. We have to sell our house. My husband lost his job in August and there is no jobs for him in sight. Last year when this happened we took out a home equity loan touero survive until he got a job, but that increased our mortgage from $1400 to $3200. Now we can't afford it. I am trying to do my part by creating art as fast as I can without losing quality but it is hard to take care of the kids and their 3 hours of homework, keep the animals and house clean, cook dinner, run my business and create art. It is a bit much but so far, so good. I still have a positive outlook. My husband does not. I told him though as long as we are a family we are fine. The unfortunate part is we won't be buying another home, we will have to rent. That means, what do we ad this uppdo with our furred family? This will break my heart. We had this one snooty, snotty realtor come in and said point blank " you have to get rid of ALL your animals or we can;t sell your home" we got rid of her, but she made me cry." We found another wonderful realtor through our church that is now working with us. HEr pleaa to help people sell homes in our area was a God send. We live in a city thet has a huge pharmacutical company and they just layed off a bunch of people. So houses are going up for sale but no buyers. Or the buyers don't pay much. So we are in a bad spot. BUT...I have been wanting to relocate to a small tourist town with a much smaller one-story house. This house is two storie, too big for my lupus. So God works in mysterious ways. Here is how we feel today. My twin daughters and their friend. October 12, 2007 We just found out we have a water cat. Our persian loves to play in water. She is one of the oddest cats we have ever owned.Maybe that is why she ended up at the shelter but it seems all the persians that owners surrender to the shelter are odd. She is very aloof but now that I turn the water on for her she is coming out of her shell. We love her no matter what. The picture below is the girls and I making homemade playdough for school. I like taking pictures of everyday stuff we do. Vacation pictures are nice but everyday stuff is wonderfu to remember too. Mia looks like she was eating this but no, this stuff is too salty. Notice the floor in the picture, that is what I am roud of. I never thought I could do a home improvement like this but I did! And so far the lupus has not rebelled on me.I believe the Lyrica medicine may be helping me. Doctor raised the medicine today. I am feeling good mostly. I have been getting great ideas from reading Kaffe Fassett books. What inspiration. He is a cutey too. I know an older man...hey I am married not dead. Anyway once I get some cleaned up sketches I will post them. Copying others ideas was brought up on the Quiltart forum. I am getting concerned about copyright. I freely share my ideas, pictures, quilts and sketches. I trust that others will not take my ideas. I could copyright everything but that gets pricey. I believe people are basically good and there is a reason a person may feel the need to copy.They like the art or they don't know copying is illegal. So I have said my piece about it. Now my Happy Dance!!! I sold my quilt "What's Up?" for the asking price. A very nice woman from Quiltart bought it. She also owns my SAQA block. I have a collector of my art! I also sold 2 sketches. I finally feel like I am becoming successful. I have been working my butt off everyday and I would be surprised if I don't become successful. I will be successful! Now I have said it and it will become reality. Dream big! October 8, 2007 I have been reading a book called "The Mystery of Making It" by JAck White. It is about how to make millions with your art as he and his wife have done. He has some great ideas but then some not so great. What I have learned is produce and produce a lot even if it isn't perfect. After reading this I tried to see how fast I could create a small wall hanging. It is 17"x22". 16 hours and this is what I created.  I took one of my kitten sketches and made this. While the work is good the subject too cute. I have chosen to focus on cats and it is a challenge to keep my work from being sickening sweet. I am going to sell this on Ebay before the sweetness gives me more diabetic problems. Where is my insulin? I was amazed that I could do this this fast. So today I sketched a close up of a cats face and I am doing it in bold Kaffe Fassett fabrics. This is fun. It is weird, when I do a full body I can't break myself of using almost the right cat colors but on close ups I am able to go more bold and colorful. I need to find more ways to make my work more edgy. There are plenty of people who do great realistic animal quilts. I don't want to be them I want to be me. The other thing I am working on is tiling our kitchen floor. I did not think husband and I could do it but we did. I was so proud of myself. I learned how to use a wet table saw. I used to be so afraid of electric saws and never thought I would use one. Once I did give it a try, IT WAS FUN. Give me the circle cuts and the difficult cuts. I think it is just like using a sewing machine. My husband was amazed at me. Quilting also came in handy during this project. To do the difficult cuts, I made paper templates to mark the tiles. When he saw how well it worked he made me show him how. My husband is never amazed at anything I do so this made me feel good. The other thing I liked doing was putting in the grout. All of these projects can be artistic if you let them. October 4, 2007 I have added a new blog on this website. It is for all the people that have lupus, fibromyalgia or any other illness and how I use my creativity as a form of healing. Even though I occasionally mention it in this blog, I really want to keep that part of my life in the other blog "Lupus Healing through Creativty." where I will go into depth of how I have dealt with the lupus. I am also starting a new venture. I am starting a non-profit organization to match elderly cats with elderly people and nursing homes. We will be doing pet therapy and have volunteers to help the elderly with their pets, scooping boxes, bringing food, taking their cat to the vet and everyday care. I know a lot of seniors that would love to have a cat but are hesitant about the care and we have an over abundance of elderly cats that could spend the rest of their lives in cages or worse yet, euthanasia. So many cats are brought into the shelter to be euthanized because the cat is old or mildly sick. When I first started taking in these cats I did not have a lot of cats but as these older cats kept coming in to our home and forgetting to die. I don't mean this in a bad way, I am very grateful I get to share my life with these cats but they were not supposed to be "long-term". I was to hospice them until they passed on so they could live the last few months in a loving home. BUT...now my house is full of wonderful elderly cats and I love them all. We now need a way to get more elderly cats adopted. People just will not adopt an animal over 9 years-old. These cats are just as loving as under 9 years-old. Elderly cats make for better pets than the young cats here is why; they sleep a lot which makes them great lap cat, they are less likely to scratch your couch (None of our older cats scratch), they are already spayed or neutered, some are declawed, they don't run around crazed and destroy furniture and the most important thing is they are more loving and grateful than younger cats. GO ADOPT AN OLDER CAT TODAY!!!!! There artistic too!  September 28. 2007 I think most people know I belong to a group on the internet called Quiltart. It is a wonderful, supportive and inspirational group. They have helped my career and got me through rough times. I really love these people. I have gotten to know some of these people well. So it is my pleasure to show some work from Jill Smith. She lives in the UK and would love to know if you know of shows in the UK. If you do I can forward information to her. Jill does lovely contemporary work and you will love it. So here it is. Check back for the next update I will have another of her wonderful work. My son loves this next one and wants it in his room. I got my entries for Road to California out yesterday. I also got juried into the Artist as Quiltmaker which is a double juried exhibit. You send in photos first and then the quilt I am very happy to make it this far. I have to send the quilt in next. I really hope to make round two. I am very happy also that I sold a sketch of mine on Ebay for the price it really would have taken me to create it. In the past I did not have the confidence and probably would have charged much less than the time to make it. I would just be happy someone would want it. Now I can somewhat say people really do like my work but I want to still be humble. It is an honor when others like my art. Every little step forward is building confidence. I think I could actually approach a gallery to ask for representation as soon as I get a solid body of work and put together a good pportfolio. I am also writing a resume which looks good because I was juried into 8 shows this year. I have some great ideas and I need to get them done. I am going to try fusing again to speed up the process. I can't take to much time because I really want to be a support for the family. I want to travel with them and fix up the house. I love traveling and I want to show my kids the world. I also want to get another horse. Just an old grey mare to do dressage on. This is the sketch of a momma and kittens that I sold. I created it 12 years ago, I am creating greeting card of my work to put for sale so others can have my work. I also want to make some more sketches.  September 25, 2007 I HAVE BEEN WORING MY FINGERS TO THE BONE! on my journal quilt. I wish I could share it with you but journal quilt project says no until the are revealed in the IQA show in Houston. After that I will post pictures. I really love this piece. Plus I am trying to come up with a piece for Raod to California and SAQA'a Transformations. Sunday was my son Harrison's birthday. He turned 11. They gro WAY to fast. I cherish evryday with my kids and enjoy every stage they are at. We had a wonderful japanese dinner and he got to bring a good friend of his. This is weird though. This friend used to bully my son in kindergarten but kids can let things blow over and now they are friends. We can learn great things from our kids if we just take the time to listen. They are teachers and sometimes gurus. I had a strange thing happen. In my 20's I dated my boss. He was a wealthy encyclpopedia salesman. He had a Delorean car and a Beverly Hills address. Well I recieved a brochure in the mail from his company. It was a random mailing. So I googled his name and found out he has a multi-million dollar company, but there is a lot of negative press from forbes and all. I also found out he lives in Hidden Valley an area of multi-million dollar ranches 5 minutes from my home. There was a picture of him. He still looks sexy standing next to his horse. Then while cleaning the cat boxes, vacuuming the house and cleaning up after the kids I thought he doesn't have to do this. He doesn't have to ignore the clutter so I can quilt and work. What a life. Then reality set in. He is not married and has no kids. So while he doesn't have to do the drt work but he doesn't get three beautiful children to hug and kiss him when they come home from school. He may have a horse but I am sure he has someone take care of them. When I had horses I love brushing them and even mucking stalls.There is satisfaction in keeping things clean. He also does not get the satisfaction of taking in elderly cats that were supposed to die and watch them blossom or give them peace in death. Would I change lives with him? Not a chance. Besides here is the clencher, he gave money to the Bush campaign! September 19, 2007 I decided to photograph the sketches that I am woring o I love sketching. I love coming up with new ideas. Now I have to find a way to be able to make them into quilts faster. I am still learning quilting techniques so there is a bottleneck going in to the sewing stage. I finally figured out the applique technique I like best and it is the invisible blind hem stitch. So my goal is to master it until I need to learn a different technique. The satin stitch is too heavy for me and I alwayd worry about the raw edges if I fuse. Even using a small zigzag. I am getting juried in too shows but I think once the quilt gets there my workmanship still needs work. I will get there.So here are the new rough sketches. They are in various stages of sketching. If you have the time tell me which you like. Also I am putting some of my artwork on Ebay, check it out.Also check out the entry for September 18 elow the sketches.  September 18, 2007 I am a little down today. The deaths of Joan Colvin and Laurel Burch is quite upseting. The great quilters. It makes me re-examine my life and my fight with Lupus, fibromyalgia and diabetes. My doctor is a little stumped as to what to do. I take 23 pills a day and I still feel like I have the flu, my joints feel like they will crack off and there is a pain behind my left knee that causes my foot to be numb. Then today after dumping a plastic bag that I did not know had cat pee on it on myself,I opened a letter from Art=quilts=art. They declined "What's Up?" and "Far Out". I really though "What's Up?" would get in. I try to keep positive. I am having a bad day. But my husband was sweet. He gave me a back rub but even the lightest touch causes pain. Now I have to pick myself up and go on. Do I continue in the way I am going or change my style to see if it is better accepted? Do I want to keep quilting? There is no better thing than quilting that I want to do. I will continue. I will do my style. I will keep putting work out there.I will continue to show and I am going to put everything up for sale. This won't stop me. Now I have to go finish my Journal Quilt. Which I thinkis fabulous. I wish I could show you but I can't. Journal quilt rules, you will just have to wait until Houston when all the Journal Quilts will be revealed to the world. September 9, 200 I got juried in to the Northwest Quilt Expo and Art Quilts XII:Currents. This makes me very happy. I would love to get a ribbon. I wished my husband would be happy for me but he could care less. I am also happy because I just completed a rough piecing of "Ginger Wants To Quilt II" the pattern. I re-did this quilt so I can sell it as a pattern. I am exhausted though. The lupus is kicking my butt. I can't eat and just ironing a few pieces on my design wall causes me to have to sit for 30 minutes. I try to have some cutting or sketching to do. I try to plan out my work for my energy level. Anyway here is a sneak peak. Remember it needs lots of changes. The problem. The top one is the new one and the bottom photo is the old Ginger Wants To Quilt".   September 3, 2007 Boo-hoo.back from a relaxing vacation in the San Francisco area. I am totally exhausted. I can barely walk. But it was worth it. We walked in Muir woods, saw Pier 39 and more Sea Lions than ever, saw the Jelly Belly factory, became a beermaster at the Budweiser factory, which my kids think is funny because I don't drink, and finally spent the day at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. My kids rode their first looping roller-coaster called Kong and a scary wooden rollercoaster. We got to ride an elephant and played with penguins. The best part of the vacation was staying in the hotel relaxing. I read books and sketched new ideas while the kids swam. Plus in the morning our room was a mess and when we came back it was clean. It was so relaxing. The problem now is I am having the hardest time getting back into the swing of things. My body is trashed from all the walking and I am having a hard time clearing my head from this overwhelming house. With Husband at home it is like having a fourth kid. His messes are all around and you can't threaten to take away his TV prvilages if he is bad. Today it seems as my head is a little better. I just have to get back into a routine again. The kids are back at school and I am sure we will get back in to a routine. I'm pissed at the school though because they put my son in a teacher's class that ruined him in 1st grade. I have already talked to the principal and told her if I see any sign he is in trouble I will yank him out. I have not been happy with this school. Luckily they only have two more years at this school. Scroll down to see more pictures of our vacation. August 21, 2007 Ahh....finally on vacation. We are up near San Francisco in an area called Vallejo. We came up to see Marineworld/africa USA or also known as Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. But we also have stopped in Monterey and downtown San Francisco. I am going to let the pictures tell all.  Kids at Montery Fisherman's Wharf. We had yummy clam chowder amd crab. Harbor Seal Sea Otter and California Sea Lion August 14, 2007 I am not going to be able to update this list for couple weeks. I'm going on vacation! Yeah! We are going up to the San Francisco area for 8 days. I need this badly. Since I still have no car and my husband won't even let me go to the grocery store, I am getting cabin fever. 2 days this week I have snapped at the kids and yelled at them. 5 minutes later we were all hugging again because I explained why I did it. I never yell at them. They are my life. So this vacation is needed. I want to spend time just by the pool of the hotel. I am going to bring some quilting and beading because my "work" is something I love. I do think I may be pushing my self though. I feel I need to enter every show I can to get my name out there. Maybe I need to relax. I feel though that since my true career did not start until January 2006 I have a lot of catching up to do. I just decided to rip apart my first quilt "Elemental Horses" and redo the design. I love the design but my workmanship was poor. I feel now I have the skills to so the design justice. I was going to fix it but there ended up being too much wrong. I still have the pattern so it is not a big deal.I am also going to make this into a pattern for sale. I am also making another "Ginger wants to quilt" in purple floral fabric. This is the sample for my classes and my new pattern line. I will post pictures soon. August 8, 2007 Sad dance. I sent "Ginger Wants To Quilt" and "Elemental Horses"' (Both are in my gallery) to the International Quilt Association in Houston Show. Neither got in. I really have nio rig ht to be sad because the last three juried Mancuso shows, I got in. Still I cried. It won't stop me. I will enter next year and I am entering 2 shows this month. Years ago this may have stopped me but I have so much suport for my work. I missed getting my Robert Kaufman Challenge quilt in. Ran out of time. Even though it is made of his chalenge fabrics it is a great quilt I added beads and gold threads, embroidery and free motion quilting. I am still trying to make perfect free-motion stitches. I practice an hour before I do it on the quilt. I have ripped more stitching out than I put in. Do threads reproduce and create more threads? I think so. I want to enter it in PIQF. This is the work in progress It is further along. I reverse appliqued the cats stripes. And I am adding fur lines with beads. I use new techniques on each quilt to see which I like and don't like. I KNOW I hate satin stitch. I like the quickness of fusing but the raw edges bother me. I LOVE the way needleturn applique looks but I have so many ideas and this takes too long. Blind hem stitch could be a solution. I used it to sew the circles on this quilt. It is called "Windows. There will be 3-d faced butterflies and flowers comig out of the windows.  I learn so much from each quilt I make. This poses a problem because then I want to go back to earlier quilts and redo them. When I finished a painting it was done. I can't get that same fealing with quilting. I could rip out and make better. Maybe because I am so new to this. Maybe I am not done. What have others done? Today I made something cool. A keychain portfolio. I made wallet sized photos of my work. Cut them out. Cut plastic posterboard (wipe off) 2.75"x9". Punched holes along one side. Glued photos to the other. Back and front. Created labels with size, type, price of art and artist statement on each piece of art. Printed it on sticky paper. Cut them out. Placed them under art piece. Put a chain through it. I also put a photo of me along with my info. I made a plastic sleeve to slip it in. Sewed plastic together. You could make a quilted sleeve. I got this idea from a magazine. A guy was charging $30 to do it for you. Which is reasonable but I knew I could make it for free with materials I had on hand. So here is a picure of it without the labels. Still printing. Now. I can show anyone my work Lots of time people ask to see it. This fits in my purse and you can add new works when they are made. Godnight. August 2, 2007 Happy Dance again. My quilt "What's Up?" (see picture) got juried in to the Pennsylvannia National Quilt Extravaganza. I can't believe it. People like my work. But I always want to remain humble. I am very happy. I have wonderful kids, I have the confidence to show my work, I have started the art career I dreamed about, a roof over our head, good food, love and God in our hearts. Thenk you to all the people who have visited this site and sent encouraging letters. When I am feeing down. I go back and read them. This summer has been a blast. Every week the kids and I visit a new place. We went to Hollywood and saw "Harry Potter" at Grauman's Chinese and "Ripley's Believe It or Not. See the Kids put their hands in the characters of Harry Potter. Monday we wnt to the LA Zoo. Even though I am somewhat disabled, we hiked the whole zoo. I knew shortcuts because I worked there 12 years ago. The cute animals are called Gerenuks and they are my favorites. July 28, 2007 Has it really been 12 days since I updated my blog?!? Where have I been? I had a deadline to send in my quilt to the World Quilt and Textile Show. I needed to make some last minute fixes. Fix stitches that pulled out. Make sure everything looks perfect and all. WELL....my machine decided to make the most uneven stitches imaginable. What the hell was going on? Why can't they be even? Why did they not form right? Am I being too perfectionistic? Why can't people leave me alone, can't they see I am working? Why is it I work 16 hours a day, play and school the kids and then hubby expects dinner and a clean house. So after ripping out stitches a million times and redoing them then ripping them out again. I did this for ten days before finally understanding what went wrong. My waking foot had frozen up and the fabric was not feeding correctly and the pressure on the presser foot was not high enough for the fabric I was using. So I have been working from 12pm to 4 am the last 3 days fixing things. The quilt shipped this morning. Yeah! If you go to the World Quilt and Textile Show in New Hampshire, look for "Far-out" and the pain it caused. I will post pictures when I am more awake. The other thing I did this week was teach my Beginning Drawing Class for Quilters. I have revamped the course to include design principles, values, color, and the various types of drawing. My students came up with GREAT designs. I really enjoyed teaching them. I also feel honored that some of the students found me from the Quiltart forum. I am glad to have the opportunity to teach. My class notes are now posted on this site for my students to access and others can see them too. If they help you please email me at anji@purrmeowdesigns.com. July 16, 2007 First, I am proud to say "I'm no longer afraid of free-motion quilting and making mistakes." I was scared to run my machine fast enough to do it right. I did a thread painting to be able to practice the control and getting the stitches even. I am still scared of stippling and not very good at it so practice, practice. I spent 3 days practicing free-motion. I schedule my time so that I practice on technique, work on new designs, patterns, new, in progress, and old quilts each day. This has taken awhile to learn to schedule time. I use outlook to remind me what I am to work on next. Each night after work I re-program Outlook for the next day. I also make sure there is time to play with my kids, nursing the hospice cats and household chores. Not everything gets done each day but if 70% does it is a good day. Sometimes it is great and say "What the heck and forget the schedule" too. I said above that I am no longer afraid of making mistakes. I used to draw and if I got it sketch somewhat right I would say "I better not fix that slight mistake because I might screw up the good part or I may not be able to fix it." I then would just not show people. NOT ANYMORE! have the freedom of knowing how to fix my mistakes. I might start over, knowing I can recreate the good parts. I can rip it out, I have become real fast at this and I actually like it. I can cover it over. Anything, this comes from reading evry quilting book I get into my hands and learning new techniques. If I do not know how to fix it, I put it on the design wall. I stare at it, sleep on it and in the bath the next morning a solution usually comes. If not, I let it be longer until it does. I know for sure it will. The other thing I would like to share is, we shaved our Persian cat today. We wanted her to be cool for the summer. One bite and 5 scratches later these picture say it all "DEMON CAT!" She is fine and a lot cooler. she is not going to talk to me for awile. Can you believe all this hair came off 1 cat. Poor dear.    July 14, 2007Thank you everyone who took the time to view my site. I am very proud of this site and my work. I owe a lot of credit to God. He gave me the talent to draw and the love of animals. I have been able to draw from a young age and knew that my life would include both. He was probably mad at me for not getting it until I was 40. I created art before 40 but was too afraid to show people. But my success as a mom and the support of lovely people on quilt art and friends I finally got "IT". The it" being confidence. I don't want to seem like I am bragging but I am still amazed that I can create things others like. Someone was even inspired by my work, that made my week! It feels great to share my art. If anybody likes the quilt below I am going to put some small thread paintings of the "What's Up?" quilt I did to find color schemes on this site and ebay. I want my art to be affordable. I still have the goal of supporting my family if it is needed. You never know when life goes upside down. So keep an eye on this site. I will post them soon. I am also going to post the latest sketches. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! July 11, 2007 I have almost finished my latest quilt "What's Up?". based on the sketch below. It is my favorite quilt so far and I am looking forward to doing the series. Tel me what you think. I still have to do the quilting but I am looking forward to it. JULY 8,2007 HAPPY DANCE AGAIN! My quilt "Far-out" was juried into World Quilt and Textile-New England. I feel very privilaged to get in. "Far-out" is the quilt below that has peace symbols. It is the first abstract type quilt I have done. My husband and I disagreed on whether or not to add the cat. So I entered this Quilt show without the cat and when it is over, I am going to enter it into another show with the cat to see how it goes. This picture is without the quilt and below is with the quilt. Email me and tell me which way you like it. I spent a lot of time doing some fancy quilting . I think I have finally mastered  satin satin stitching. Not easy. This was the quilt that I made after reading Robbie Joy Ecklow's book. I fused the shapes and then finished the raw edges with a satin or decorative stitch I am not free enough yet to risk leaving those raw edges, raw. I loved how fast the quilt came together which is why I was able to do fancy quilting. I was not worn out by the piecing. I believe it shows how much fun I had making this quilt. BUT...now I have to make another quilt for a show on July 12. So below is the newest quilt. This is one of my color studies. I make color studies after I get a completed line drawing and then a value, greyscale, study. For the value study I copy my line drawing several times and then color it in with shades of grey. See the 2 sleeping kittens below. For the color, again I copy the line drawing several times and using the value study for darks and lights, then I color them with markers. I use opaque paints if I need to cover over a strong color.  July 6, 2007 I am designing a new body of work and so I have been sketching cats like crazy. These quilts will feature cat expressions in simple line and color. I am very excited about this new idea as I feel it is what my art needed to take it from "cute" to "impressive". Here are some of my new sketches. Tell me what you think. Iam going to try to upload pictures of my work as I progress. I am developing my style and I am confident with where I am going.    July 2, 2007 I if have been working so hard lately on the quilts that you see below. If I am also trying to get rid of some of my UFOs (unfinished objects) that needed to get done. I made quilts for family members at Christmas and six months later they are stil only half finished. I find that I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with the for quilts that I'm doing plus the quilts for family members. I've been a bit bummed out this week too. I found out that I have a bad disease and it's called diabetes, so I have to have to watch my diet better. The worst part is this medicine doc put me on. It has made me so tired and so yucky that I haven't been able to work that much. I am feeling better today so that's good I can work a little bit today and simplify my studio so that I don't feel so overwhelmed. I find that when I'm feeling overwhelmed by the the duties of the household, the duties of being a mom and the duties of my job, uncluttering and simplifying really helps. Instead of reading 5 books at once, I should read one. Or only work on 2 quilts instead of 4. I get rid of anything that I haven't used in a year and put it in the garage and in six months if I still don't need it then we donate it. So when I am done I am going swimming. This is the good news. The good news is we have our pool up. We have this soft sided pool that's 4 feet deep and 15 feet across. It is the perfect size for our family since we can't afford a regular pool. So here's the first picture of the summer of the kids in the pool. There is about a inch of an inch of water in bottom yet they still find a way as swim in it. Do you remember when you were a kid and you could go in water that was like 60°and not feel it. You just wanted to swim. If I go in 60° water my joints would freeze up. But by this afternoon the sun will have warmed the water to about 80. And for now that is it, I will post new pictures as my quilts and progress.  June 13, 2007 Here is a progress picture of "What do old cats dream?" It is labor of love being it is hand appliqued with tons of beading. This is my "masterpiece" quilt. I am currently working on flowers and leaves that go on this section and working on the birds felix, my cat, is watching. We have new pets! Mice, Sugar, Pup and Babe. They are great and the kids giggle so much when playing with them. What great animals. Or oldest most arthritic cat actually played today. He liked to move the ball that you put the mouse in. We protected the mouse of course but it was great to see a cat that was nearly dead two weeks ago play. Such little pets give great joy. Even our young cat Binky likes the mice. We are very careful when the mice and cats are near. each other. June 6, 2007 I have been working extremely hard on four quilts. Here are pictures of works in progress. This is the quilt that I made using fusing techniques I described below. It still has to have a border put on and the cat needs to be sewed on. This has been a fun piece to do. This is called "Catnip Trip"  This is the beginning of my entry for the Robert Kaufman Challenge. When it is finished it will have the cat looking at 100 3-D butterflies and flowers, fussy cut from the fabric, coming out the kaliedoscope "windows".
Tuesday May 22, 2007 I constructed the cat today. Those damn spots took alday to fuse in the right place. But I did it. I put everything on the design wall. I love it but I am not sure of the family liking it. I feel that I am on the right track in creating my body of work. This quilt and some other quilts I have done show a consistent style. I am focusing on cats in my quilts to keep it that way. I study cats, we have 12, sketch them and interpret them in my quilts. Can do other animals and humans but I am focusing, keeping it simple. As I am more confident in my style and techniques I will broaden my subject matter.
I used to think I wanted to ride horses professionally, be a zoo keeper and veterinarian technician, even a vet and I have done the first three but did not make me happy. Great jobs all but not me. What I really wanted was to be around these animals and create art with these creatures as the subject. When I went to zoo school, I cried the first time I touched and hand fed a tiger. It was spiritually moving. This is what I want to put into my work for others to feel a little of what I have.
So after some fixes, tomarrow I will quilt this quilt.I need to think about the border. This quilt has gone fast but fun. I want to do some more fused alongside my hand pieced work.
Thursday May 17- I drew a cute cat quilt inspired by a quilt I am doing and a quilt I saw in a book. Just a thumbnail I thought it would be an addition to the Gamelan quilt I am doing, but it would have been too busy. A problem of mine is doing too much. I need to keep it simple.
Friday -We went to Hurricane Harbor, a water park. Would you believe I did the second hardest slide first. I was elated but shaking so hard I could not stand. While the shakes calmed I read Robbi eklow's book. Her discussion about fusing and getting ideas to finish faster convinced me to try a fully fused quilt. So I decided to do my new sketch.
That night sunburned and bruised but very happy. We had a blast as a family. The park was open only to homeschool families so no one was there. I got the sketch, made a half size line drawing on tracing paper.
Saturday May 19- My birthday. I did a full color drawing. This quilt is made to look like pop art of the 60's. There are 12 block each with a circle and quilted peace symbols and flowers in the circles. There are checkered rectangles going across in perspective. A polka dotted cat sits on the rectangles. The colors are bright redblues, orange yellow, deep purple blue and greens and variegates to yellow. Picked out the fabrics and made grey and color value studies by copying both my color sketch in black and white and color and the fabrics in black and white and color.
On Sunday I went to buy my birthday gifts, yep, the fabrics I needed for this quilt. Some other wonderful quilt stuff too. Does anyone know what the best felt tip brush markers are the best? I like doing color studies in marker because it is faster and more intense. Anyway when I came home I enlarged the tracing paper line drawing wrong side down, to get a mirror image. I enlarged using the poster feature on the printer 2x2. I copied each 8 1/2"x11" section. I folded the tracing paper into the sections. I always try to make sure my sketches and line drawings can be divided into letter sized sections to fit on my printers flatbed. I taped the printouts to make the full size line drawing.
I cut out the background blocks. The dark colors. I was going to use batik prints for the circles but got too busy. I used batik solids and will quilt motifs, more subtle, the peace symbols and flowers. I do quilt as you go because my arthritic hands can't move a full quilt around. Works for me.I developed a great way that looks good on both sides.
The rest of the night I worked on my Kaufman challenge quilt. I work on four quilts at the same time so I do not get bored. I will post pictures when I take them.
THE NEXT DAY I Started work by tracing the enlarged drawing, mirrored, on the back side of the fusible web. Then ironing the web on the fabric. I put my cut out blocks on my design wall. Moved around to the way I liked them. Then as I cut circles I placed them up to. The fusible web is a nice temporary bond. I cut out the first two checked steps, WOW. This quilt vibrates. Now do I let it? Do I create an eye resting place? Or just be bold?
My reason for writing this is to update people on my blog and website and because in four days I am over half way done with a quilt I love. Seems too easy. My Japanese Felix quilt, I have worked on for a month, carefully turning under edges, hand applique and making sure everything matches, ol. I love how it is coming out but if I did every quilt this way I could never make money at this. What my conclusion is, and chime in if you have one too is to continue the slow way on special quilts, the ones in shows, and then sell the faster ones at prices more people could afford and who knows maybe I might try a fused quilt in a show. I don't believe fusing is inferior to other ways just another way of creating. I am trying to create a body of work for my portfolio and I can do it quicker now. THANK YOU ROBBI FOR YOUR BOOK AND IDEAS! I also think I can use all techniques in one quilt.
I will keep more up to date and keep new work coming up. Check back soon as I will also put up work in progress.
Fuzzy Hugs, and Sandpaper kisses,
Anji April 26 I have been so busy creating. I rarely have time to update eople. I do believe once I am finished it will be worth the wait. I am trying to figure out how to put my original blocks I designed on this site for people to use. The good news is I had to redo my studio in the family room because we got a new couch. I have no idea how we got the old couch in because we could not find a doorway wide enough. But then as we were trying to shove a couch through a hole too small for it to fit the recliner fell out, We looked at it and said "can we get the other recliner out? So we got the tools and unscrewed the two recliner parts. Then I looked at it and said, "you know all that is left is wood and cloth, LET"S GET THE SAW!!!" Which was my original idea, to hack it in to pieces. We sawed it into three pieces and the kids hauled it outside. Want to hear the sucky part? We get one large item pickup a year. This would be the couch but noooooo.... now it is a 5 item pick up. Anyone want to come over and reassemble it? By the way, my son did not use the electric saw it was unplugged and off for the picture. What made this hard job wonderful? We laughed, had fun, everyone helped and we did it with family patience. |
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