Finally, some time in the sewing room…and some Quilting I don’t hate.

20170211_112954_resizedI actually completed something.  The English Paper Piecing Dog Bone Hexie Dresser scarf is complete.  I even went as far so to clean off my dresser and put it in its home.  Three more to go, but they are all smaller pieced.  Two for nightstands and one for the tall Dresser.  Overall, I enjoyed English paper Piecing.  I had never done it before and started it when my Daughter had her accident.  For weeks I was at the hospital and this gave me something to do in the ICU.  It was quite a while until she was able to talk, so it was mostly sitting there listening to machines.  I am really glad for that to be over.  Much easier to deal with when you have something to occupy your mind20170211_113029_resized and hands.  I just about have one of the nightstand scarves done also.  As for the quilting, I don’t hate it (like usual).  As I mentioned in a previous post, I would choose a different marking method (Not the clingy plastic wrap).  The dog bones I quilted actually resemble dog bones.  How about that.  Shocking.   It might lead me to get more adventuresome with my quilting.  Who knows.

I also completed some Uncle Donald blocks.  Since these are scrappy, there are memories that go along with each one.  For me, that makes this more enjoyable to do.  As I piece these, I take a trip down memory lane.

So for my Uncle Donald Blocks, I have “Becky’s Block”(my niece).  This was made from the scraps from her college graduation quilt.  It was a picture quilt with many photo’s of her growing up.  Addison’s Block (Addison is actually Becky’s daughter, my Great-Niece) are scraps from her baby quilt.  It was charm squares and I chose not to use any that had dark colors since I was making a baby quilt.  The Crazy Dog Lady Block is totally mine, since I am the crazy dog lady.  These are scraps from many dog fabric blocks. Then we have Derrick’s block.  Derrick is my later husband whom I miss dearly.  He always wore camo.  Sometimes I had to ask him to wear something else.  He always made me laugh.  Only the good die young.

udHappy Quilting

Happy Sewing

Treasure Your Family

 

The holidays totally got the best of me…..

20170107_184745_resizedI had some time off, but I was not off during the entire holiday season like I am used to. I user a lost (most) of my vacation time with Miranda’s Accident.

As always, I have big plans for my quilting/Sewing and it did not happen. My sewing room is a disaster, because we had company for new years. This means that everything got dumped in my room. I look at it right now and it frightens me. Trying to move stuff a bit at a time, but it seems to be daunting task.

I wanted to make a page for all the items I really need to finish this year. Did not that done either. Of Course On December 30th I was at the Immediate Care with Bronchitis. It figures. Company coming and I am sick. I made it through, and had fun. Two of my sister came for the New year, which had never happened before. We had a Chinese gift exchange which involves stealing gifts etc…. I wound up with a toilet light. It was meant to be funny (and it is) but I also find is useful. Makes me not have to turn on lights when I get up at night. Unfortunately, my nephew Alex got the gift I provided. Cottenelle wipes, Toilet Paper and PooPourri. Needless to say He won for worst gift. It was worth a laugh though.

I did manager to work on my English Paper Piecing and finished the one that will go on my dresser. Dog Bones for the crazy Dog Lady. I have now begun work on the nightstands and will eventually get to Kevin’s dresser. I like to work on my English paper piecing while I am watching TV with Kevin or my daughters. Gives me something to do besides snack.
I plan to attempt to quilt dog bones on the dog bone dresser scarf. Will see how that goes.

Happy Quilting
Happy Sewing
Happy 2017
Treasure your Family

The Christmas Village complete with Quilt Shop….of course

Ha20161213_183932ppy Holidays from my house to yours.  We begin our trip through the Christmas village with a stop at the quilt shop (what else?).  This is one of my favorite pieces.  I hunted/waited for while to find it.

So, my village has multiple places that are important in a special way.  SO, I have the log cabin and wild animals, compelte with an outhouse.  This is Derrick’s place (my late husband)/  He was totally an outdoor guy and wanted a log cabin.  In front of that we have our Ohio State House and Fan center, complete with Tailgate party.  THis is for our biggest OSU an and my manfriend, Kevin.

Over on the other side of the village we have Uncle Donald’s place  Complete with Farm House, Barn, silo and tractor. Yep, the same Uncle Donald that made quilts.  Gong to his farm and visiting him and Aunt Helen was one of my favorite thing20161213_183936s to do.

Then of course we have a few of my favorite things.  A dog rescue and a dog training academy.  We have these in honor of my late great Koko, that spurred my deep love and affection for dogs.  We now have 4 dogs and have rescued many other and a few kitties along the way.  I tried to bring home a baby fox that came to my car one day, and Kevin put his foot down..  They were so cute.  I know he was right.  I am sure Momma was not far away.

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I totally love the fountain Kevin got me this year.  It changes colors and actaully has water in it.  It is so pretty.  He knows the things I love.20161213_184012-1

Of course we have
Bethlehem.  It sets up from the village in a
desert.  The whole village is about 15 feet long.  There are so many build
ings.  I even have more that don’t make it on to the table because I am out of room.

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One of the oldest pieces I have is the ice skating ring,  where there is actual ice skating going on.  I am sure I have had this one for nearly 25 years.  And yes that is Santa flying over the ice skating ring.  Christmas Music also plays as Santa flys above the village.  I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.  My best to all of you and your families.

Happy Quilting

Happy Sewing

Happy Holidays

Treasure your family

Progress, in several areas

Well. my hospital hexies are finally looking like something.  I feel like I have made progress.  I believe my plan will be to make a scarf for my dresser.    Seems fitting since I am the crazy dog lady.  As I type this there is one at my feel and one on the chair next to 20161003_195603_resizedme and one on my lap.  This is a great travel project because everything I need fits into my little dog bag (of course).  In my photo, you can see my Ruger.  This was my late Husbands “Hunting Dog”.  He weights six pounds and is scared of ants, so I am not sure what he would hunt.  Cute as a button though.  He is the only male dog in my herd, so he thinks any female is his.  He frequently rolls all over me as if he is making me his and then gives Kevin the evil eye.  Miss Moka’s paws are on the table where they should not be.

Other progress is with my beautiful daughter Miranda.  I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It has been six weeks now since her accident and she makes progress everyday.  I update my Miranda’s Journey page often.  It has saved me many many phone calls and texts.  Friends and family know they can go to the page and get an update on how she is doing.  We still have a long road ahead, but we will get their.  Thanks to everyone for their support.

Something pretty Amidst the Darkness

This is a quilt I made my youngest daughter when she was a baby.  It has multiple fabric types for that “special feel”.  I felt I needed to post a picture of a quilt.  They are comforting.

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On August 22nd, my older daughter was in a head on collision

Resized_20160824_120642on the freeway.  Darn near everything was broken; legs, ankles, knees, feet, elbows, collarbones, ribs, punctured lungs lacerated liver, spleen and intestines.  Fortunately, there was no head injuries.  Today was Miranda’s sixth day of surgery.  She still has more ahead of her.  She is still here.  For this I am grateful.  I don’t think I could stand losing another loved one.  I must thank family ( who came immediately) and friends for their support, especially Susan from DesertSky Quilting.  She was up texting me late night so I would not lose my mind.  It will be a long road to recovery, but we will get there.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

Ahhhh….What I learned this time…

Quilting is always an adventure.

So I finished the piece that I pebbled.  While I was pretty happy with the quilting on this one (odd for me), I learned a couple of lessons, again.

20160813_210935First, I read a lot of stuff.  There were quite a few people that recommended using quilting gloves.  I could not figure out how that would help me.  So, after considerable time, I ordered a pair.  They actually sat on the kitchen counter until I was half way through this piece (I have no idea why).   I happen to pass by the kitchen counter and grabbed them and holy cow did it make a difference. It was so much easier to move the piece around.  I bought Machingers and they worked awesome.  It was a great $10 investment towards my quilting sanity (I need to stop being so cheap).

20160813_210942Second thing I learned is to pay attention to everything.  I used some scraps from a dog quilt I made some time ago.  I hung onto them because I am the crazy dog lady.  I usually use scrap pieces of batting on these small pieces.  I have a giant bag of them in my sewing room.  So, I grabbed one that was big enough without a lot of thought.  Started he quilting and noticed that it stuck to everything.  I had pieces of this batting on everything.  Looking at it after it was too late, I discovered that it was some sort of odd polyester.  Thinking about it, I found it odd that I would have ever made a quilt with it.  I think it might have been a piece of snow from my Christmas village that someone  accidentally stuck in my batting bag.  So, I don’t like how this piece feels.  It is so lightweight.  But, it has my cute dog fabric, so I will have to use it.  Lesson learned.  Pay attention to everything.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

 

A Dog Quilt for my Great Nephew

So, on Saturday my great nephew was born about 5 weeks early.  He is perfect.  However I had to hurry and finish his dog quilt.  This was fun to make.  The most time consuming part was the cutting out of all the pieces.  I don’t really see it being used as a quilt to cover up with.  More of lay the baby on the quilt kind of thing.  I made it all from flannels so it is very soft.  This was made from Simplicity 4993.  It has a dog, bear and cat patterns.  Since I am the crazy dog lady, this is quilt that would definitely come from me.

My daughter had not ever remembered me making a “rag quilt” before and insisted that the back was the front and I put the face of the dog on the wrong side.

Now to get a couple more items for Ethan and his big sister before mailing the package off.

It always feels good to complete something.

Happy Sewing.

Happy Quilting.

Uncle Donald’s Quilt – Yes, he made it.

My Great Uncle Donald and Aunt Helen lived on a farm in Ohio. My sister Karen and I loved to go there. The county pound was on their property and we would go play with the dogs and beg my Dad to take one home every time. I remember my Dad letting my sister drive. She was about 12. IT was a place you could do things that you normally didn’t get to do at home. We would spend hours walking on their white fence to see how far we could get without falling off. Some of my fondest memories as a child.

Well, Uncle Donald was one of nine children. He was the only boy. As Aunt Helen told me when she gave me this quilt. He didn’t have a choice. All the sisters were quilting, so if he wanted something to do, he had to join in. It is funny I have quilts form my grandmother and it wasn’t until I got Uncle Donald’s quilt that I realized how much they all meant. I now had visions of my grandmother, her sisters and Uncle Donald all sitting around quilting. I am not sure that is how it happened, but I like to think about it that way.

Uncle Donald made a beautiful quilt. I will always treasure it. I miss him, Aunt Helen and Monnie (my grandmother).
Happy Sewing
Happy Quilting
Treasure your family

Yes, I got my dog a Birthday Cake

So, it was my Moka’s birthday and being the crazy dog lady, I got her a cake. I also got special treats for the other dogs so everyone could share in the celebration. She is a crazy puppy that feels compelled to sit in my lap in a any chair (including lawn chairs). I think she thinks she is like our little dogs and figures if they can sit on my lap so can she.

Hug your pet.

Beware of Gorilla Glue and Super Glue…A friendly warning for Pet owners.

This past weekend, I need to use some Gorilla Glue and it reminded me… my sweet puppy Moka. So, Moka was about 6 months old and was doing her usual crazy puppy playing. She ran in to an end table. I did not realize that she knocked off the bottle of Gorilla Glue that I had used to fix my daughters glasses. I took it from her quickly, but she had punctured the bottle with her canine.

At the time I didn’t give it much thought, but the next morning, she was threw up three times. She was still her usual happy self, but throwing up. I went to the Gorilla Glue web site and read that it could be dangerous to pets even in small amounts. SO, I called them.

Oddly, they had a Vet on staff. That sends a message. She told me that the prognosis was good, but that Moka needed an X-Ray. If she ingested it (which I was pretty sure she did) it would have to be surgically removed. Crap.

So, I called my vet who told me that I had to go to the emergency Vet. Well, X-Ray showed it in her belly. My poor puppy. $2500.00 later, they removed it and spayed her since she was under anesthesia.

Make sure you keep Gorilla Glue, Super glue etc.. away from Pets. A pea size drop can swell to the size of a cantaloupe in their bellies. It was an expensive lesson to learn. My Moka is fine today, but paying $2500 when I had just gotten laid off totally sucked.