Fabric Postcard

Here is a fabric postcard (my first, can you believe it?) I made to trade with Susan Lenz of Cyber Fyber. I still have to finish it around the edges. I layered thread snippets under tulle, then added small stitches across each color area with several colors and textures of thread. The flowers are made of rice paper. I colored the rice paper with Sharpie markers, ironed it, and cut it into small circles. The circles were about the size you would get with a hole punch, but I didn't want such regular shapes. I poked a hole in each circle and folded/scrunched it around the needle, then stitched it down with one stitch.


This is Susan's postcard, which I have received in the mail. Isn't it wonderful? I think there are a few ATCs left to trade on the Cyber Fyber site, if you'd like to have one of her ATCs and get yours exhibited.








What's this? When I had finished all the embroidery on my postcard except for the paper flowers, I wanted to make sure I would like the way the flowers were distributed along the greenery. I scanned a copy of my embroidery and stuck it inside a ziplock bag, then drew the flowers with the magenta Sharpie onto the plastic bag to see where I wanted them to go. When I was happy with the arrangement, I outlined the postcard edges onto the plastic, cut it away from the bag and placed it over my embroidery to guide me on my flower placement. I really like this method.

More Fabric Jewelry

This is one of my pins - I think the bird is a Susan Clarke button that I glued onto a pearl button. I really like how it came out, with the twisted beads at the base.












The flower pin was inspired by the trim around the face - it is made of space-dyed strips of netting. The petals were made with snippets of threads over Angelina. Then I added some eyelash-type red yarn. It was fun!

Fabric Jewelry

Well, the answer came back and none of my jewelry ideas were accepted for the Lark book. Oh, well, I really had fun with this and it has sparked more ideas, so we'll see how that goes. Pictured is an earring made from Angelina fibers. It needs a little more finessing to improve its finished look, I think. It's folded and I wanted to do some free style stitching on it, but ran out of time, so just embellished it with a ribbon flower. The shape is sort of like a lantern.

Here is a gathered ribbon bracelet I made. I used some great ceramic cherub buttons and did a little SRE on the gathers. I really like how it came out.

Since I work at Borders, I am constantly looking at new books in the craft area. So many books are now talking about heating, distorting, burning and melting, of various man-made materials, like lutrador, or polyester interfacing.... I've looked at these books, but often the pictures of the finished product is just ....interesting.... not arresting, not gorgeous. Am I strange in wanting something that's beautiful when I'm done with it? Obviously, CQ is quite beautiful when done and we spend countless hours on the creative stitch treatments. Also, how does this type of art express something in the artist when it's so unpredictable? I know this is the way of the future and I am a dissenting voice, but these are some of my thoughts....

~Lin Moon

February Busyness

The saucer magnolia is a-blooming! All of a sudden it's covered with flowers. I guess it's time to trade the needle for the trowel, at least temporarily. I'm way behind on my weeding/gardening. Lately I've been busily working on fabric jewelry for a new Lark book that's coming out. I mean, I've sent in proposals for the book - don't know if any of my proposals will make it into the book, but....

It's funny how if there's a competition or call for entries, sometimes the premise or idea just leaves you cold and other times it just sparks a waterfall of ideas. Well, I love fabric and I love jewelry, so this idea just sparked a million more! Even if none of my ideas makes it into the book, I have had so much fun! And it's great to use that special fabric of which you only have the smallest scrap left. The deadline is past, so now I just wait to hear....

Sometimes when I look around my sewing room, it seems like such excess for me to have so much stuff! But wouldn't you know it, when I was working on fabric jewelry ideas, I didn't have exactly the right size of ribbon, or the right color of rat-tail, etc. So off I went to JoAnn's to buy more stuff. We used to have so many more places to buy fabric around here - there was a huge two-story fabric store that went out of business after there weren't enough people left in the family to run it - I used to teach ribbon embroidery there. Then there was TreadleArt, which had all kinds of quilting fabric, buttons, etc. that was so much fun to peruse. Fabric is probably the one thing I have too much off, but fabric stores sell so much more than just fabric. When I was a teenager and lived in Ohio, you could go to the big department stores in downtown Columbus and they had a notions department and fabric departments. Of course, my total favorite was a store called Lazarus, which had a cafe. Their specialty was hot apple pie with cinnamon ice cream - it was so delicious!
Well on that note, I will close. Will post pix when I can...

Happy Stitching,
Lin Moon

Books Books Books

There are lots of new and upcoming books to look forward to! Did you know some books are already planned to be released in 2011? We're talking 3 years away! I was Googling about and came up with these:

(But of course, don't forget to check out Pat Winter's new CQ book on her blog.)

Crazy Quilts: History - Techniques - Embroidery Motifs by Cindy Brick & Nancy Kirk, Feb 2008

Floral Interpretations for Silk Ribbon by Helen Dafter, March 2008

Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Woolly Embroidery: Crewelwork, Stumpwork, Canvas work and More, April 2008

Stumpwork Seasons by Kay & Michael Dennis, April 2008

M. Joan Lintault: Connecting Quilt, Arts & Textiles, April 2008

Crazy Quilting - The Complete Guide by J Marsha Michler, April 2008

Textiles of South-east Asia by Angela Thompson, April 2008

Masters:Art Quilts: Major Works by Leading Artists, May 2008

Felted Bags, Boots & Other Things by Cendrine Armani, May 2008

Contemporary Quilt Art: An Introduction & Guide by Kathleen Lenkowsky, May 2008

Helen M. Steven's Embroidered Gardens, June 2008

Wild Women: Stitched Art Brooches by Sarah Lawrence, August 2008

Felt, Fabric & Fiber Jewelry by Sherri Haab, August 2008

Happy Booking,
Lin Moon

Organization

Another button to share....
I was over at a friend's house and her husband has his own business. It's a T-shirt business with lots of different orders for colors, sizes, embroidery and different team names, etc. He has what I think is a great way to organize his orders. One wall is mirrored doors. He put up suction cups, with a clip on each one. Each clip holds a large plastic bag, big enough to hold regular 8 1/2 by 11 papers. The papers for each order hang in one of these bags.

My "sewing room" is a bedroom, and it's not very big. But it DOES have mirrored closet doors. I like to enter contests and competitions - it seems the deadlines and the ideas really motivate me to do some of my best work. I don't always have lots of time, so the deadlines are really important to have posted somewhere. Well, I borrowed his idea - I print the guidelines for whatever it is I'm entering, put them in a bag, write the deadline date in big red letters and tape it to the glass door. With just a glance I can see when something's due and if I need to include the thread or beads I used (for future reference), I can just toss those in the bag too. For some reason, if it's laying flat somewhere in that room, it just gets covered up with fabric, threads, beads or drawings - imagine that! Just thought I'd pass this along...

I'm currently working on some proposals to submit to a book and also want to do something for the pincushion competition, so there's not a lot to show so far....
Happy stitching,
Lin Moon

Books!

As some of you know, I work part-time at Borders Books. It gives me a great chance to check out all the new books that come in, especially in the stitchery/jewelry section. I got a couple of new books, one for Christmas and one for my birthday(today! yay!). The first one is a book full of fabulous pictures, that I like to peruse when I need inspiration. It can spark ideas for beading, floral, nature, design, you name it! It is just full of large, gorgeous, detailed pictures of incredible jewelry. The second photo is of the back cover.


Then there's the doll book! I didn't even realize this book existed, except that I saw someone's blog mention it. It is full of dolls of all kinds! (duh) The thing I really like about it is that some pages have a detail shot of the doll along with the whole picture. Also, it's not just avant garde dolls, but also traditional and cloth dolls. Very inspiring!
Happy reading,
Lin Moon

Musings

Just thought I'd share a pic of one of the Asian buttons I have...
I was at work the other night (Borders) and looked at a Canadian magazine: Needle Pulling Thread. I had never seen it before. There was an article about creativity - the author surmising that you recharge your creativity when you're not doing anything purposely creative, but just daydreaming. I thought this was an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it's true. When I go looking around on the net at the various pix of the things people have created, I become very inspired. But then I suppose you could say the same thing about laying under a tree looking up at the clouds, I don't know...

I've been giving SharonB's TIF challenge some thought, also. When thinking about a person I admire, my first thought was my mother. Although she's been gone for about 15 years, I still remember so many things about her that I admired. She had what I always called "moxy". When she was a teenager, if she had a giant pimple on the end of her nose, she didn't care - she just wanted to go out and have fun. (I tended to want to go hide in a closet until it disappeared. If it took a month, well, ok...) But it's one of the things I really liked about her. Every time she visited, she would always try to tell me what to do, like how to drive, how I should wait on my husband (shudder), etc. I could just say, "Mom, I've been driving for 10 years now, I think I know how to do it by now." and she would just say OK, without any underlying guilt-making attitude, without getting her feelings hurt, etc. She always said what she thought, so that communication really went on, not just everyone hiding their feelings. That's one thing my friends say they like about me - that I am open and honest. The only thing is, that I feel I'm definitely lacking in diplomacy - it's hard to balance both.
Anyway, I've started stitching something for TIF, but it's just too small and is driving me crazy, so I'm going to restart on a larger scale so I can actually have some fun with it. Pix next time.
Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon

Quilting Arts Door Challenge

Before Christmas, I got back my piece I entered in Quilting Arts "Doorway to Imagination" challenge. With the busy holidays, I had forgotten all about it. I thought I'd share some pics now. I tried to think of how I would represent the doorway to my room where I do all my creating. I really enjoyed doing the beaded window, thinking of all the sparkle and glimmer that I like to put into my creations. There were certain rules - the door I chose to represent had a window and lines down the front of it. I wasn't crazy about those lines, wanting the door to have more of a crazy quilt effect, so I did the lines in clear beads and sequins. I loved the idea of the stars coming out of the doorway and really liked putting those in on either side. Sort of like the ideas flowing out of there, when they're flowing that is, and not being stubborn! The whole piece has sort of a pink tinge, since I dyed some cheesecloth and put it under the satin for a little texture and color. The picture seems extra pink, though. Is anyone else out there doing a challenge? I'm interested in the Pincushion Challenge by Piecework magazine...

Happy Stitching,
Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (twelve)

This elf was my girlfriend's design and is very cute. The body and legs are candy-cane pipe cleaners; he has a felt hat and some ribbon suspenders. The pants are cotton fabric - she just cut each one to fit and they are glued in the back. A little dot of white fabric paint at the base of the suspenders looks like buttons. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas everyone!

~Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (eleven)

Here's a Christmas gingerbread man. Some puffy fabric paint for frosting, buttons, a red felt backing and a bow does it! Enjoy!
~Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (ten)

I think these were made right before our church boutique, since there's no sewing on them at all; I think I was running out of time. The three different colors/sizes of scottie dogs were glued together, with the ribbon hanger sandwiched between layers. A dot of fabric paint makes the eye and some cute ribbon for the bow.
I've been following the conversation about slow cloth on SharonB's inaminuteago. These would definitely not fall into the slow cloth category. But that's what happens when you have to make 100 ornaments that are simple enough that non-stitchers can help make...
Happy Ornamenting,
~Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (nine)

This is another relatively easy one. Each piece of wire begins at the endpoint of one of the six sections, goes down toward the center to form the left side of that section, goes thru the clear bead in the center, then goes back out to form the right side of the next section. The wire loops around the clear bead at the end of each section and then is wrapped around a knitting needle to make it curly. This one was made a few years ago, so I hope I got the directions generally correct.

Happy Ornamenting,
Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (eight)

This mitten is cute and easy. The stem is stitched using floss and silk ribbon embroidery makes up the leaves and berries. I sewed the cuff on by machine, then buttonhole-stitched the whole thing together, and added a ribbon hanger. Viola! Another cute ornament.

Happy Ornamenting,
~Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (seven)

This one is super-easy. I put a loop in one end of the wire, wrapped it around a cone shape and then added beads and a star for the top. The colors really make it. I did this as a kid's craft at church and some of the kids made red, white and blue trees, some made all red and white striped, etc. I really liked the gold and white.
Happy Ornamenting,
Lin Moon

Christmas Goodies

I've mentioned before that I always have a Christmas party for my women friends every year. I like to give out my version of a "goody bag", which is something I have made for everyone. This year it is doll head ornaments, with hats! The hats were really fun to make, mixing the trims, buttons and feathers.
I started out thinking I'd embroider the faces, but then ended up using stretch cotton for the faces, so that didn't end up happening.... It's funny how your original idea for something morphs and changes into something totally different!

~Lin Moon

New Challenge from SharonB!

There's a new challenge to look forward to! SharonB, of "Take A Stitch Tuesday" fame, has a new one for us for 2008. It's open-ended with just the right amount of structure and sounds fun! Check out her blog, inaminuteago.

Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (six)

It's ornament number six - Santa's Coat! This is made from sparkly(sp?) red felt. I sewed the side seams on the machine and finished off the sleeves with buttonhole stitch. Black felt was used for the belt and some shiny gold fabric was interfaced to make it stiffer, then cut out for the belt buckle. I sewed the back sequin on at the top and basted the fur trim on at the bottom of the coat. (You have to be careful when cutting the trim that you just cut the backing, not the fur.) I bent some red wire into a hanger shape and hot glued the coat front to the back at the bottom of the ornament. Viola! A cute ornament! I wished I had put some sort of bead on the hanger, to decorate it at the top.
Happy Ornamenting...
~Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (five)

I like this angel because it's a great showcase for gorgeous lace. Her body is just a tag, painted gold and then covered with lace. Her head is a wooden disk, painted with acrylics. (I probably have made her face a little more creative if I'd only been making one for myself or a friend, instead of 12 for a boutique) The wings are cardboard, painted gold. Pearly beads were strung on gold wire and then wrapped randomly around her wings. A small charm was glued under her chin. I once saw an angel in a magazine whose wings were made of strong wire. Beads on thin wire were then wrapped around the wings similar to these. But because the wings were empty inside, they came out looking very airy and ephemeral.

Happy Ornamenting,
Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (four)

Here is another ornament that I made for our Boutique. It started with a piece of cardboard, covered with Christmas fabric. A felt door, window and chimney were added, along with rick rack and other trim (all glued). The back was covered with felt for a clean finish. The fun thing about the house ornaments we made is that we put a sticker on the back of each one that said things like, "2 bedroom, 2 bath. Remodeled kitchen." or "3 bedroom, 2 bath. All new copper pipes." For some reason, this really cracked me up.

12 Days of Ornaments(three)

Here are a couple of heart ornaments. They are made from felt, and I think the red felt is the stiffened kind. I really like the candy cane striped curly-queues(sp?). I had lots of those ceramic buttons (Mill Hill, I think) and wanted to use them in some way. There's no sewing on this one. I had to come up with some ornaments others could help make, and most of those "others" don't sew. The white dots are fabric paint - very easy!

Happy Ornamenting,
Lin Moon

12 days of ornaments (two)

Another ornament(#2):
This is a simple wreath made from a cardboard base. I glued a donut shaped piece of white felt to the front, in case it showed through the fiber. The fiber is called "no wire chenille" and is from the Craft section of Michael's. Once the chenille fiber is wrapped around and a hanging loop is added, it's time to add the beads. I used white bead thread, so the thread would sink into the chenille and not show too much. In this case, I really liked the reversible ribbon I had for the bow, so I used bead colors that would coordinate with the ribbon. The beads are strung on the thread and the thread is wrapped around the wreath. The beads are "floater"; they can slide on the thread. Then the bow is added.

The chenille fiber comes in all sorts of colors, so you can do more traditional Christmas colors. You can get some really pretty effects using all gold and white, or all blue and silver. Hope you enoy it....

Happy Ornamenting...

~Lin Moon

12 Days of Ornaments

Well, it's been a long time since I have blogged. Every year, once November hits, I am busy with our Church Boutique and also November is the month for college apps! My daughter has been writing admissions essays and pretty much monopolizing the computer all this month.

I thought for the next couple of weeks I would show some ornaments I have made for our Boutique. Most of them are quick and easy and would make cute gifts. So here's the first one - a cat for all you cat lovers out there. I wanted a black cat, but knew it wouldn't show up very well on the tree, so added the red and white background. I embroidered the cat features on the black felt first, then stitched the three layers together with black floss. The bow is one of those "bobbin ribbons" from Michael's.

I'd love to see anyone else's ornaments they've made...

Happy ornamenting!
~Lin Moon

Goodies from Pomona Show

Last weekend I drove up to Pomona, to attend the Quilting, Sewing, Craft & Needlework show. Last year when I went, it was just a Quilting/Sewing show and was a little disappointing. But I'm so glad I went again to this show. I hit upon a doll-makers booth and lots of interesting trims - velvet ribbon, velour flowers, embroidered rick-rack, space-dyed organdy ribbon, buttons, and on and on.... The display at this woman's booth was fascinating. She had boxes of different items and at the back of each box was a tall arched board, completely decorated with different ribbon flowers, buttons, beads, lace, etc. There must have been about 10 of these boards, all different. There were lots of handmade pins too. She said a lady she knew made the pins and traded them to her for merchandise. It was so gorgeous and inspiring! Enjoy - sometimes all it takes to inspire is some eye candy trims!
~Lin Moon

Intriguing Book!

I've been looking at the book: "Bags with Paper & Stitch" by Isobel Hall. She talks about using all different kinds of paper with fiber and making purses/bags. Some of the interesting techniques that are described include:

-Making "paper" from translucent polymer clay, coloring it with inks and then stitching through it onto the bag

-Making your own stamp by combining Style Stones, then stamping on ExtravOrganza

-Layering fabric, merino top paper and sheers, then doing random FME over it

-Painting brown paper with a mixture of acrylic wax & bronzing powder

-Using metallic heat-resistant thread to FME over sheer and then burning away parts of the sheer ( I didn't even know there was such a thing as heat-resistant thread!)

-Using things I have never heard of: Glitterati fusible film
Mylar Shimmer Sheetz, computer linen paper, Tangle Tuff, webbing spray, etc.

-Using everyday items like brown paper bags, acrylic wax and newspaper to make bags

The bags in this book have a wide variety of intriguing and creative textures - with beading and embroidery added to some. She describes how to make tags for the bags, so you can try some of the techniques on a small project. You could probably spend a year trying out all the techniques in here!

Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon

Single Sheet of Paper

If you'd like to see some amazing creativity at work, see artist Peter Callesen's works of art here. He does amazing things with just a single sheet of paper - cutting and folding. Don't miss this fabulous art!

Enjoy,
LinMoon

Makine a purse

I've been working on making a purse. It's mostly sewn on the sewing machine, but I decided it needed something special, so I made a "button". I put some leaves on green velvet, added some gold embroidery and gathered it over a plain button with a shank, so I can easily sew it on to the bag. It was really fun working on a small project like a button, since you get to see results pretty quickly. Lately I just don't have the time I used to.... my daughter is in the marching band, so lots of time is spent at football games and band competitions.

Boutique Busyness

Well, although I am behind on my Bead Journal Project, I haven't been idle. Except for the food poisoning and flu, that is. Here are some pix of some items I have made for our November Church Boutique. A friend and I made the ball wreath - that is a raffle/opportunity prize. I put together several bracelets and had loads of fun mixing and matching beads.

August BJP Finished

Here's a picture of my Art Nouveau-inspired August Bead Journal page. I had planned to do more around the circle, but after auditioning many ideas in my head/on paper and rejecting them all, I decided maybe that's a sign it's already done. I'd like to use this in a crazy quilt in the future...

Although I haven't done a fully beaded page yet (and may not), it surprised me to read that Robin Atkins begins her Bead Journal Page with a fabric she loves. Then she covers the entire thing. It never occurred to me that the fabric would inspire you along the way, even though it may be completely covered in the end. The fabric I used is a very soft silk blouse I used to wear when I was a "professional woman" (so, now am I just an amateur woman?)
Happy Stitching,
Lin Moon

Twisted Bead Rope

I've been working more on my August Bead Journal page. I've been adding a twisted rope around the center motif. I knew how to do this around a cabochon, but not on fabric. It's the same idea, though. I wanted to have the twisted rope in a circle, so first I basted the outline of the circle with small stitches. My twisted rope is lavender and blue. First I marked the circle about every 3/8 inch. I started with lavender beads. It took about 4 lavender beads to lie flat on the 3/8 inch, so I added two beads, so that each "stitch" of lavender beads would curve or bow up a little and not lie flat.












After going around the circle with the lavender "stitches", I went back to begin the blue beads. My blue beads were smaller than the lavender ones, so each stitch of blue beads had a few more than the lavender beads. I brought my thread up in the middle of a lavender stitch, BELOW the lavender bow (and not thru any beads). After stringing 8 blue beads, I then inserted my needle in the center of the next lavender "stitch", ABOVE the lavender bow. Viola! It looks like a twisted rope!














On another note, I was given a big box of beads (Lucky me!) Some of the beads were these small hole-less beads with a dark mark that makes them look like a cat eye. These are not the micro-mini beads. What would you use them for? Anyone have any ideas?

Making Molds for Aug BJP

Well I decided I didn't like my thick cabochon maiden's head, so I made a new one. The new one may not look that different to you, but it is about 1/3 of the thickness of the old one and is just the head outline; I didn't like the random shape around the face before. This took a little practice. For one thing, I made a new mold out of polymer clay. Then I used some very soft clay (it came with a cranium game) to practice getting just the head, without any outer part. I must have tried about 10 times to get it right. Then when I switched to the real deal(sculpey), I forgot to dust the mold with a release agent, so that took a few tries. A friend of mine with mold-making experience told me that you first make a rigid mold out of a plaster-like substance, because this substance won't go behind raised portions of the item you are making a mold of and get "locked in" back there. Then you use a rubbery compound and pour that in your rigid mold to get a flexible mold. I was so glad she counseled me, as I was going to pour rubbery stuff around my carved head and might have ruined it.

However, I did buy something called Sculpey Moldmaker(Super Elasticlay). I think you add it to polymer clay to make a more flexible mold. Haven't tried that yet.

Did a little more work on the August BJP embroidery - can you tell it is Art Nouveau inspired?

Happy Beading,
Lin Moon

Aug BJP beginnings

I'm just getting started on my Bead Journal Project for August (hey, at least it's still August for a few more days!)

The "cabochon" I made from polymer clay. I have a carved box from Russia that I used to make a mold. I used some kind of plastery type mold-making material that I wouldn't really recommend. The local stores didn't have any of the rubbery kind, which I really would have preferred and wanted to try. I wish I could have gotten more detail. Anyway, I think she came out OK, just a little too thick. I sewed flower sequins and beads to super-narrow ribbon and glued that down, so she could have a flower garland in her hair. I know it's just a beginning, but this time, the bead embroidery really feels like ME. That happy feeling is what makes it fun and usually makes the final product come out better. We'll see.....
Happy Stitching and beading,
~Lin Moon

July BJP

I know, I know, it's August, but I have finally finished my July Bead Journal Project. In June, I felt pressure to make something fabulous, even though I hadn't done any bead embroidery for years. I put too much pressure on myself and wondered if what I was doing "measured up". That type of thinking doesn't make anything fun and can suck out the inspiration for any project. So this time, I decided to just play - try different effects, do a little texturing, some flowers, some netting. So here's my playing...

I don't know that improvisational beading is my thing; nor do I want to draw a picture and then bead it. I'm somewhere in between, wanting to design an area with flowers or bead a great curve. So I'm still trying to find out what it is that I want to do with bead embroidery...

Things are looking up

I am very happy to report that Frisky is nearly back to normal! Even the vet was surprised that she recovered from partial paralysis to near normalcy. I think part of it is that she is a very active cat, tearing across the yard and up a tree in no time flat.

This summer has been a very bad one for me - my girls have been so busy that for the first 6 weeks of summer I was never home during the day for more than about 30 minutes at a time between driving one to and from summer school and her job and driving both to music lessons, etc. I was never available to go to the beach or have lunch with a friend.... Lots of frustration, tears, hot flashes, and very little time to blog or create. I need that creating time in order to be happy. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! School starts in 2-3 weeks, so I will have more time and my girls are going to various camps soon so I may actually create something (or just play)! Yay!

Thanks so much for all your support and emails with respect to Frisky - they are so appreciated. Warm fuzzies from blogland are so nice...

A bad bad day

It's only Tuesday and already it's been a horrible week. Yesterday was the first day of Vacation Bible School and my daughters and I are helping out all this week. I went outside to get the paper in the morning, came in and closed the garage. I read the paper and ate breakfast. Then I heard my daughter open the front door. Our neighbor was walking her dog and noticed that our cat Frisky's head was caught under the garage door! She had tried to get into the garage when the door was only 4-5" inches off the ground and it had closed on her neck. My daughter started screaming and was freaking out. We called the vet and they said we could bring her right in. (Of course this was just when we were supposed to be at the church) Frisky was just laying on her side. We slide a cardboard box lid under her, trying not to move her much and took her to the vet. The whole way there, she purred - it was very strange.

The doctor took an x-ray and her neck was not broken. But she can't walk and has no reponse in her front legs. I went to VBS, but didn't go into any of the classrooms; I was just too sad.

Frisky frequently interrupts the garage door opening or closing, so we always have to wait to see if the door will actually finish its journey. When I got the paper I had seen her sitting outside the door and waited to see if she was going to dart in. But my car was there, so I couldn't see everything. I heard the door complete its journey and went inside. She layed there for about 30 minutes, struggling to get free. I guess she thought it would always stop for her. I feel so bad. The vet had told us if her neck was broken it was "Goodbye". If we have to put her to sleep, this will tear up my daughter so badly - it is essentially her cat. I'm sorry to share such a bad story, but I am just so distressed....