Category: Dogs

Stupid is as stupid does…..(me)

Please laugh along with me.

So, I have never done anything on point.

I chose this pattern and used a charm pack that I had.

I dont know where I got this charm pack, but there were many of the same within. So, I thought to myself, I will just make sure that I don’t put them right next to each other.

I carefully assembled the rows. Never once did I think about looking at it as it would lay on the table. NOOOO, I looked at it on point.

Needless to say, you get this dumb looking table runner with lots of the same next to each other. OMG, Duh. Seriously, look at it on the diagonal. Perfect. Bahahahahaha.

Live and learn as the saying goes.

I did not mind doing something on point. just was in the wrong frame of mind when I did it.

I got it now.

And for your viewing pleasure. Our 8.9lb. security guard. Well, actually my daughter’s security guard, Ruger. He truly is larger than life.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Well, How about that….

So, I finished something else. Can’t remember the name of this table runner. I swear it is something with the word “Windows”. As you can see, I am still sticking with small things. So far so good. I am practicing some different quilting techniques.

Interestingly, I have several Bernina sewing machines. I have many attachments that were purchased for me that I have never used. Well, I learned to use two more things. Hurray for me. Only had them about 20 years… I had all kind of ruler attachments for my walking foot. They were very helpful in sewing even lines. I thought the quilting came out very well in this one. Then, I found a box of magnifying glasses that just hook on to the front of my machine. Holy cow. I wonder why I had not investigated this before. It let me see things sooo much better, I kind of feel stupid for not investigating these toys til about 20 years after I got them. Pretty sure my 1st late husband had bought them and he has been gone for 13 years and I know I had all these things before my daughter was born and she is 17. Funny but not funny,

What else have I done?

Shockingly, a project that was many years in the making. Well, not in the making, just thinking about it. My dining room table and chairs is well over 20 years old. The upholstered bottoms have seen better days and have needed to be recovered for years. They truly look like someone has peed on every chair. Well, I have been recovering the seats. I have completed 5 of 6 and my hands are killing me, so the sixth one is going to have to wait a bit. Maybe sometime next week. The hardest part is that each chair had at least 100 staples that has to be removed. My fabric choice is a bit wild, but they look much better, so that will do for now. Ruger is my little photo bomber.

and then there is my situation…

Not much change there. I am still only at 6 mailboxes and have been unable to go on my walks most of the week. I just seem to have an over whelming sense of weakness. Hoping it will get better. Trying to take the long way on anything that I do though. Fingers crossed.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Some Progress

One of the local quilt shops I frequent, sells scrap bags. I bought one of these $12.00 scrap bags. I like to try and see what I can make out of the bag, by maybe only adding a background fabric. I do like a challenge. For this I added the Royal blue from my stash. I am the crazy dog lady, so I hung this up in my hallway (there was an empty spot).

This has been my helper lately. One of the things that is wearing me out, is getting up to iron. I have had this tool for years and it was still in the package when I recently got it out. It has been helpful in flattening seams so I don’t have to constantly get up to item. I have really only been using it on small seams, but it does a pretty good job. It extends my sewing time a bit and at this point, I will take anything.

What Else?

I save all my scraps that are not big enough to do anything with. Then I make dog beds for Shelters and organizations that help pets. There is no point in putting them in the trash when they can be upcycled to something useful. I use a heavyweight cotton and put a zipper in each one. I put my scraps inside a trash bag, so they are easily removed and the cover can be washed. I have a couple laying around my house for our dogs and I donated these five to “Barely Used Pets”. Interestingly, I also receive monthly medication that needs refrigerated. It comes with ice packs and recycled cotton as an insulator. Of course I save all this cotton, tear it up and use it in the dog beds.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Progress, I’ll take it

I am actually doing things, just not that much. Have not been feeling myself lately, but who has.

These are gifts. I figured that I needed to get them done. I have a Thanksgiving piece I am working on. Who knows if that will happen. It is just for me, so no big deal if it does not get finished.

I liked the dog and cat prints with Holiday hats. I rarely pass up dog prints. Cats are OK and I did one for my cat loving sister, but I am truly a dog person. Well, actually I am an animal person. I love them all. I am just partial to dogs. Funny, I used to be scared of them. Now I can’t imagine life without them. They are truly my fur babies

I did get the next clue for the mystery quilt, but there will be no more clues until January, so I don’t need to be in a hurry for that one. Phew.

Thanksgiving is next week. I know there is much to be thankful for, but I am just so over things. Here in the great state oh Ohio, we are being told that holiday gatherings are not allowed.

Is covid really spiking? I think we are just testing more so it looks like it is so much worse. Please don’t think that I don’t take it seriously. I just want the actual truth. The media truth which is clearly jaded. What and how thy report seems to depend on what else is going on. Do we need distracted from Politics? Yes, then you are going to die from covid. Is there nothing to report in the world of politics or nothing you want mainstream population to hear, then you will die from Covid.

  • Ruger, AKA Shrek Jr was not happy about his costume
  • Snibble was perfectly fine being a taco since she is Mexican
  • Moka refused to be a Hershey Kiss

This is not a political post. I want news that is actually factual news without political bias. Rant over.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Mystery Quilt #3 – Getting Better

Well, after Clue #3, I like it better. I m still calling it my Orange Nightmare, but I do see that there may be hope. I m not a fan of these 6.5 inch blocks though.

Cornona virus is killing me. I have little or no motivation to do anything. My daughter started her junior year in High School and came home crying because nothing is the same, you can’t do anything. there are no groups at lunch. I felt bad for her. I didn’t even think how awful it would be for her and her best pal is going to the vocational school, so she does not see her.

A couple of weeks ago, my quilting pal Lynn and I went to Amish country to go fabric shopping. Not that we needed anything, but we both wanted to feel sort of normal. Interestingly in Amish country, they do not wear masks. They believe if god wants them, then they are ready to go. We went on a Friday, so there were not big crowds. It was hot as heck though.

Zinck’s in Berlin (Ohio) was our favorite. Of ll the times I have been to Amish country I had never been to this store. Ft quarter packs (20 FQ’s) were $26.99.

  • My Haul
  • Zinck’s, Berlin, Ohio

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Wow, That is orange – Mystery Quilt Clue #2

After the first clue, I liked this quilt.  However, it is looking way too orange.  From this view, you can hardly tell that the other blocks are stars.  Poor choices on my part.  I was trying not to buy more fabric.

So, these are 6.5-inch star blocks.  I do not like working with these small pieces.  I am starting20200719_134637 to wonder why I decided to do something with such small pieces.  First I can’t cut them correctly and if you sew anything wrong (which I did), ripping stitches from small pieces is a pain in the butt.

Up close it doesn’t look that bad, but it is a lot of orange.  I think my choice of the dark orange print was wrong.

It’s just going to stay that way, I can’t stand small pieces.  It will be interesting to see what the next clue is.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

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Some Important Lessons learned

Hello Fellow Quilters!

Lesson #1 – I hated these fabrics when thy were given to me to make a donation quilt.  I hate them a little lesson now that it is together.  It looked better on the design wall than it did in the picture.  I think this would look better with some different fabric.  I may try it with some of my own at some point. Lesson is,don’t always judge fabrics so harshly, sometimes they will surprise you.

Lesson #2 – If you don’t have a carbon monoxide detector, get one.  We all could have lost 20200531_200223our lives.  Our ancient (20+ years) carbon monoxide detector, went off and would not stop.  Initilly we thought it was nothing, but something said call the fire department and have it checked.  It goes off when the kids unplug it or bump it and it beeps to let you know that it is on battery power.   Well, when the firre department came, they opened the door and shut it immediatly.  They said that they could not go in without oxygen.  They suited up and returned to tell us that they had never seen carbon monoxide this high in any house.  They set up some fans and got us some things we needed out of the houser and we were off to spend the night at the neighbors.  The next day it turned out that the exhaust pipe from our water heater became disconnected and all the Carbon monoxide was going directly into the house.  We had it repaired and the fire department came back did a recheck and we could return home.  Please, if you have propane or natural gas anywhere in yur home, pleaase get one.  If yours is old, please replace it.  It saved us.  We would have all been dead in less than 30 minutes.  Lucky for us it was a nice day and we had been outside, so we had only been in the house for about 10 minutes.  Phew.  I was bit freaked out about the whole thing.  Yikes.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

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Insanity has set in.

I can’t even begin to count the swear words on this one.  It looks simple enough and honestly I think it is.  The problem is me.  So, let me explain how this went, after the top was finished.  “Hey Mom, shouldn’t the dog part on the top have a leg also?”  Son of a nutcracker.  Ugh.  “Oh, and doesn’t the dog need a tail?”  You have got to be kidding me.  Yep, no top legs and no tail.  What is going on? I have totally lost my mind. Even better after I made the leg section and finished the top, post mistakes, I found a leg section that I had made.  It was not like I made it a long time ago and forgot, we are talking one day to the next.  I think that quarantine is eating away my brain.  This project is  My One Monthly Goal.  My intent is to finish it.  We will see.  I am supposedly heading back to work next week, so I am not sure it can happen.

So, when/while I got frustrated with this quilt top, I made some pillowcases.  For me, it is 20200504_195345something I can see being completed.  This stack has 22 pillowcases.  This brings my total pillowcases for charity to 44.

It also means that my stash has lost 44 yards of fabric.  Trust me there is more where that came from.

So, I had the chance to look at my next charity quilt kit.  Good God.  It is equally as ugly (maybe more) than the last one.

Could the fabrics be any uglier?  Yes, they can.  See my last charity quilt.  The picture on the right is the pattern I am supposed to use.  On the plus side, all the 2.5-inch strips are cut. and it should be quick to put together.  But, I do not like working on quilts that are not something I would ever put together.  I know, charity, someone will love it.

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Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Stay Safe

It’s Done…..ugh…

Done, quilted and bound.  Just did a simple meander.  The thing that bothers me about the quilt is the dark brown.  It just looks wrong to me.  I have another quilt top I made and I have a similar project with it.  There is a color that looks all wrong in it.  I can’t be to blame for this one, I did not choose the fabrics.  I am sure someone will like it.   I have not even opened the other charity quilt.  I will get to that later.  I am trying to work on the Weiner dog quilt top.

The problem I am having is that I started it a while ago.  I wanted it to be big enough to 20200421_140325put on a twin big, so I started making it bigger, but I did not write down my notes or can not found where I wrote my notes.  So, I am spending a bit of time figuring out what I did, which is annoying.

I think it is a great way to use up scraps though.  It is cute and I am the crazy dog lady.

So, I am on a two-week furlough from work.  Hoping it is only 2 weeks.  Hard to tell right now.  I hope you are staying safe is this crazy world.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

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Borders did not help.

Still Ugly.

This was to be my One Monthly Goal, but since I have no idea what day it is, I will have to monitor my own goal.  Haha.  This should be quite a challenge for me.

My goal is to completely finish this quilt.  Quilt and bind.  Mostly, I want it finished so I don’t have to look at it anymore.  I feel like I need to apologize in advance to whoever is gifted this quilt.

I have one other charity kit that I have not even opened.  I am a little scared.  Could it be any worse?  I bet it could but hope it will not be.

Waiting to see what goes on in the world.  I am still employed!  Yeah!

Happy Sewing, Happy Quilting, please stay safe.

My dogs are not capable of social distancing in any form.

Moka once again, not social distancing
Snibble not social distancing either.