Tag: Dogs

Started this one at least 20 years ago

And just like that another quilt top is completed.

I am trying to complete some of those half-finished projects. Pretty sure this one was started 20+ years ago.

While I remember that it was BOM, I have no memory of hand-sewing these blocks together. None whatsoever. It was during a rather dark time in my life, when I have fairly large missing time blocks for various reasons.

Pretty sure this BOM was from Jo Ann fabrics. I believe dead husband #1 bought me them as gifts (Don’t be shocked, I deal with my “situation” with humor). I didn’t have them all and remember buying the rest of them on clearance, including the setting kit. Odd that I can remember all those details, but not hand sewing them.

While it does not look bad, I would say that it is not really my style. It is very traditional, which is not my usual path. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, I just can’t imagine wanting to make that quilt now. I tend to be unable to follow directions, and always veer off the intended path in some way.

I am preparing for a retreat later in March and starting to look for projects to take along and this was starting at me, begging to be completed.

Every box I opened revealed some other “Chinese Spy Balloon”, oh wait I mean UFO.

At this point, I would imagine 20+ half-done projects. One of them I will take to the retreat with me. It was one of those “Cake Mix” patterns by Moda. It is scrappy so we will see how it turns out. I do not have the original photo of what it is supposed to look like, so I will be winging that.

Yep, I have a dog batting box, just for them. Ruger seems to enjoy spending quality time with Mom.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Experimentation…sort of

So, I bought this QCR Mini curve ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful” a long time ago. They, of course, had a really cute dog pattern that I liked. That is how you get Lori to buy an expensive ruler. Put it with a dog pattern. Works every time.

So, this was my experimental piece to determine how crappy I could sew curves. I’m gonna go with medium crappiness.

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First, cutting. I hate cutting. You cut out your squares and then use the ruler to line them up and cut the curves. It said to use a 45mm rotary cutter. I found this very difficult. I was actually cutting the template and shaving pieces of plastic off. So I sat for a while with a nail file filing off where I “nicked” the template. Mostly because then it would hang up in the same place. Once my friend Lynn told me to slow down when I cut them things went a little better. Did I tell you I hate cutting?

So, once I had them all cut I began sewing. You leave ears and then square them up. So overall once they were squared up and trimmed they did not look bad. But, I need to try something else before I decide if this ruler is a success. I used some valentines fabric so I could give this to my next-door neighbor. She needed something Valentines for her table. It’s not the worst thing I have ever made, but certainly far from my favorite.

Yep. this is how my dog sleeps. Crazy girl. Right in the middle, paws in the air. Loudly snoring.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

a 3D Quilt? No Way…

How cute is that? Nanette sent me this pattern a while ago to hopefully get me inspired to get quilting. I think it may have worked! If you aren’t familiar with Nanette’s blog, please take a look. I can only aspire/dream to do things as beautiful as she does. She is truly an amazing quilter.

I love this quilt, but I am a crazy dog lady. I had cut it out quite a while ago, so it was just a matter of sewing it together and getting it quilted. I think I may need to do another one in more girly colors. You never know when you might need one for a gift!.

This quilt was so easy to make. The hardest part was making sure that I did not quilt over the ears!

I put this really cute fleece backing on the back so it is super soft. I love putting fleece on the back of baby quilts. It can also be economical because it is usually 60 inches wide.

I quilted this with a plain old meander, but it seemed to be the right thing. It does not take away from the floppy dog ears.

The Recovery – So the surgery recovery is going. There are ups and downs. It is super frustrating for me because I feel it should be over. But that is just me. Good days and bad days. Some days I feel normal other days I feel like a bowl full of jello. SUper frustrating for me. And then there are the headaches. Ugh. I will get there, eventually.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Yep, I look like Frankenstein

So, I had the chance last month to donate some dog beds to one of my favorite Dog Charities, Hospets. They make having a pet as a Senior much easier. I think I may have had 11 this time. All are totally washable and have zippered covers. I also sent some bandana collar covers. I hope they can sell them for some additional funds.

Why do I look like Frankenstein? Well, on October 10th I had to have neck (spinal) surgery again. It was sort of a sudden thing. At the end of September, I received date of late October, and then then they decided to do it sooner rather than later. I had some fairly severe spinal compression and it appeared that I may be losing spinal fluid (turns out I wasn’t, phew). Good thing I did not have much time to think about it. I might have chickened out. I spent a few days at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Good times. I am home recovering. So far so good. It seems that a few things (problems) may have been resolved. Fingers crossed. Tomorrow I go to have my staples removed. This has been the longest I have been out of work since the birth f my daughter. It feels weird. So they shaved some of my hair off and I have a line of staples down the back f my neck. Hair grows back. I am itchy now, so looking forward to the removal of those staples.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Look… I finished something

It truly is a bittersweet miracle. I started this quilt for my daughter several years ago when she was an actual bookworm. Now I think she reads a lot…on her phone.

There are so many fancy bookcase quilts. Mine is not that fancy. But, I did include the titles of many of the books that she read.

Not all the books have titles on them, but I would guess that about half of them do. Haley wanted to take this quilt to college, so I had to get it quilted. She will be leaving next week. I did not think that I would like it, but when she held it up, I did think it was sort of cute.

I chose not to put a regular label on this quilt and instead quilted messages into the quilt. She noticed a couple, but there is a ton of messages in the quilt. I can’t wait until she finds “Moka smells like chocolate”. Haley has always said “Moka smells” and my response has been “She smells like Chocolate”. She is a chocolate lab.

Haley picked out the fabric for the back of this quilt. She chose Harry Potter themed newsprint. Seemed like a good choice for the back of a library quilt.

I can’t imagine her not being here. It will be the most difficult thing for me. I won’t be there to protect her. But, I raised a strong smart young woman. I need to remember that as I wipe away my tears. My baby has grown up and I don’t like it. She has been my purpose. My reason for being here.

Moka says Hi. She has a habit of sitting on people’s heads when you lay down. Haley was not impressed.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Rescue a furry friend

A Quilting Reset

So, I had a conversation with “Special K” (significant other, life partner, manfriend, whatever you call him) about my general attitude. I just don’t feel myself. “I don’t even go in my sewing room anymore”, I said. His response, “Maybe that is the problem”. GENIUS!. Honestly have not found my balance since Kevin was in the hospital. I find myself spending more time with him, instead of going off by myself and doing my thing. Likely a mistake.

So, how does one reset? They go to a quilting retreat. Yep, our local guild is going on a retreat, organized by my partner in crime (Lynn) and I. Leaving this afternoon and coming back on Sunday. Hoping this put me back in the habit. I think it will.

So what have I done? Not much. I did make a few dog bandanas (picture). It was something quick and easy.

Snibble modeling on the left. Ruger modeling on the right. Two of my favorite Puppers!

So, we had an ice storm. The trees were beautiful. It actually stayed for a couple days. I am hoping the retreat helps me fix things. I threw a bunch of projects in a bag and off I go. Fingers crossed.

Maybe some crazy retreat photos to come!

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

And Just like that…it’s nearly Christmas

Good thing I finished those placemats.

They came out OK. It does make my dining room look festive. My Santa chair covers also help. The stuffed dogs? Well, Raising Cains chickens sells them every year. I recently got 2 new ones (Charlie Brown and Snoopy). Proceeds go to help dogs. My daughter thought they needed to be in the photo. They are always yellow labs in a costume. Super-Cute.

The placemats came out ok. After I made a couple, I was unhappy with my thread choice. It was a pretty red/green twist. It just looks dark to me. Fortunately, my lines are pretty straight so it does not look that bad. I wish I had used thread that matched the background fabric. Next time.

So, I sent my Plaid Challenge Quilt to my brother-in-law. He had a rough year, so I thought it might make him happy and he does have to live with my sister. LOL. They sent me this picture last night of it over thier love seat.

I do love it when I see one of my quilts in use or displayed.

Everyone at my house is not feeling well. Not horrible illness, just enough to annoy you. Makes it difficult to get things done for the holidays. We have been avoiding everyone because it certainly could be the “Rona”. My daughter and I lost smell and taste. I am about 10 days in so on the back side. It just felt like a crappy head cold.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Merry Christmas

Happy New Year

What the Heck am I doing?

Good question. I sometimes wonder what I am doing. I quilted, on my domestic, my scrabble dog wall hanging. I needed something to do that would take me a bit of uninterupted time. Sometimes when I have a lot on my mind (or just anxiety in general), I want to work on something that requires my undivided attention. This has been basted and staring at me for quite a few weeks. I figured it would take me 1-1.5 hours after I got set up to complete the quilting. I was not far off the mark.

I did find, that since I don’t really quilt much on my domestic machine, except straight line, that I now suck at free motion quilting on it. It is possible that it is because iut requires strenght (shoulders, I think) that I don’t have and may never have. I used my dog boine ruler. Not sure why they are called rulers, they don’t actually measure anything. I did take a photo of one of the better-looking areas (LOL).

Anxiety, who me?

Haha. Crazy anxiety. That’s me. I am a worrier by nature., I think I got that from my mother. She was a worrier. So anxiety is just an added bonus.

What causes me to be insane? Well, last week on Wednesday, I woke up unable to walk. Awesome. The absolute most severe pain I have ever felt, everytime I put my right leg down. Words can not describe this pain. Thinking my post (artificail knee) had finally come loose after 25 years, I had my daughter drive me to the ER. Nope, knee not loose. Not much we can help you with, go to your ortho. Six weeks wait. Try someone local. Eww, not what I usually want to do, living outside the city. The local doctors in the rural world have always scared me. But, they agreed to see me that day. I was pleasantly surprised. Young Doc, who told me that my pain was likely coming from my hip (even though it did not hurt). Told me the answer was to shoot up the aggravated knee with medication and then come back on Friday and have the same thing done to my hip. It worked! However, now, I can add hip arthritits and all the goodies that come with that to my crappy resume. I also now keep crutches by the door of the bedroom in case it happens again. This is one of the many reasons I am half crazy. What lovely thing will I wake up with tomorrow? If this is getting old, I have a strong understanding of why people fight it.

Fun Coming!

Fun is needed. Going on a mini-retreat in Amish country in Ohio, with my quilting partner in crime Lynn and maybe one other person (hopefully Sharon comes because she seems like she would be fun). We are staying at a historic hotel. Not only is it a retreat center, but they have ghost hunts. LOL. It is has Victorian Era Decor and past presidents have stayed there (Grover Cleveland). Hotel Millersburg is in the heart of Ohio Amish Country (AKA lots of quilt shops). Photos to come….

So, I am collecting up my projects that I will work on and looking forward to the great escape.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

and then there is more…..

This is the cutest darn thing…… but I think anything with dogs is cute. I am sure you know, I am a crazy dog lady. I love my puppies. My daughter and I were at the quilt store and I saw the “scrabble” panel. I bought it. These are all my dogs including the ones that are waiting for me over the rainbow bridge. The ones not here with me have a little gold halo over the first letter of their name. I frequently dream about my dogs not here. In my dreams we are sitting around the table talking. My Koko is apologizing to Clover for making fun of her for only having three legs. Darby is apologizing for knocking bread off the counter and eating it. They always tell me I am the best Mom.

Now I need to quilt and find a place to hang it.

I enjoyed the three day weekend. It was not long enough. I finished piecing another table runner. I made about a dozen pillow cases for the Guild’s charity.

I finally got my sourdough starter ready to make bread.

It tastes delicious. Came out as planned.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Another one on point

Now I have something else to complain about. I don’t like to bind pieces that are not square or rectangular. I just don’t know how to do it right. Yep, always something to complain about.

I think I got the on point part straight and did not put exact pieces next to each other. But, I realized that I did not really know how to bind things that were not square or rectangular. I was not sure how to deal with the angled corners. I did it, and it lays flat, but I don’t really like how they look. Always something to complain about.

I did straight line quilting. At this point I have learned that you pick an angle that does not correspond with any seams. That way if you are a little off, no one will see it.

Personal Progress

So, I am really not getting very far. I had an entire week where I felt to weak to walk. Ugh. I finally figured out that I need to walk in the morning. That is the only real shot I have at doing it. I feel like when I wake up in the morning, I have gas i n the tank, however that gas runs out quickly. When it is out I am done for the day. I have zero strength and can not walk far. I even struggle inside my own house.

I have managed to get to the 7th house though. I am not happy about it. It is oddly painful to walk. My neck, shoulders and arms hurt a lot. I have been going on my walks by myself. That way no one but me hears the lovely words that come out of my mouth as I walk. Once I get to that 8th mailbox I will then need to cross the street because the sidewalk ends.

What Else?

We have been going on college visits with my daughter. Two down and one to go. I go to the information session and then Kevin goes on the walking tour with her. Makes me sad that I can not, but glad that he does it. I have a hard time imagining her going off to school and leaving me. But as a “Smother Mother” I am sure she will be glad to get away. Well, I hope not. I have very fond memories of college, and I want that for her also.

My Moka

AKA Moka Monster

AKA Dork

AKA Dorkasaurus

AKA Mokachino

She is a very spoiled girl. She also has epilepsy. She looks forward to her medication every morning and night, since they are stuffed in treats. We refer to her as the “Master Puppy” because she sleeps with Mom and Dad in the master bedroom.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting