Full of Mercy

At least that's how the house seems these days.

Meet Mercedes!

She's half Great Pyrenees, half something else and just plain big. Happily her heart and sweetness are bigger than she is physically and she's a gentle giant. Oh and her ears do stay like that. ;-)

She's making herself right at home. The cats aren't pleased, but are slowly getting used to her. Victor is in no danger from her, except perhaps being stepped on. She's extremely gentle with him.

Her size is taking some time to get used to. She's taller and longer than Gus was, but slightly underweight at the moment. She came form our local no-kill shelter and when they first got her, she was nursing five puppies. I didn't see her the first time I went there because she was in a foster home and still nursing the pups. Since she's barely two years old, this was a case of a baby having babies.

But that's all over with now. She's been spayed and three of her five puppies have already been adopted too. Now she can actually have a bit of puppy-hood and enjoy life. The vet says she'll fill out to her proper weight now that she's not nursing. However she also told us that Mercedes might actually get taller too. Only time will tell!

I've gotten some more work done for the center panel.

The second plant's leaves are glue-basted in place and ready to stitch. The two snails and the beta fish are assembled and ready to stitch down. Once the leaves are stitched down, I can make the rock formation/castle thing and then get the snails in place. The pieces for the two clown loaches are ready to cut out and turn as well.

That's all for now. See you next Sunday!

Apologies

I was distracted by a couple of different social things this weekend and just realized I'd forgotten to blog on Sunday. Whoops! However FH and I had a lovely weekend with friends, so there's that.

If things go well, we will have our new dog this Thursday. She's being treated for some inflammation that occurred after her spay surgery. Fingers are crossed that she can come home this week.

I've been busy on the Aquarium Quilt. Lots of time divided between hand sewing and machine details.

This is the layout for the center of the quilt. 

This is what it looks like currently.

The sucker fish and the plant stems are stitched in place. Everything else is glue-basted. Although I have started stitching the sign down. Once the leaves are stitched in place, I'll go ahead and start the other plant and the rock formation/hide-y hole going.

The Woodbridge, VA row is finished.

As is Pantego, TX.

Also Joplin, MO.

This row from Granbury, TX is glue-basted and waiting on me to stitch the appliques in place.

The Lawrence, KS row is fused down and waiting on stitching around the applique edges.

As is the Amarillo, TX row. I may have had a bit of whimsical fun wither their mermaid design...

Here's a close-up of my mermaid. Look familiar? ;-)

I started stitching the edges on all of the recent fused-applique rows last night. I'm grouping them by thread color. So any rows that need red thread get that stitched all at once, then I change to brown, yellow, etc. It's giving me a break from hand stitching the needle-turned appliques plus it needs doing.

There are three more rows that need piecing. One I just haven't wanted to deal with. It's paper-pieced but that's not the issue. I bought it as a kit and now am regretting it because I prefer to pre-wash my fabrics... and this kits has lots of small fabric pieces.

Another one I just got in the mail yesterday and I need to choose fabrics for it. It's fused applique, so I want to get it figured out fast. Once I'm done with all the edge stitching, I'm setting the machine up to start quilting rows again.

The last row is still in my aunt's possession. She's waiting on a back-ordered license plate to get to her before she mails the row.

But I have plenty of work to do here right now. And I should get back to it. See you on Sunday!

A Few More Rows

Nothing to report on the search for a new dog. We thought we'd found one, but she decided Victor was a plaything and not part of the pack. Happily he only got covered in spit... I don't think he even knew he was in danger.

As far as the quilt goes, I have some progress there.

Quilts from the Heart in Albuquerque, NM just needs stitched around the applique edges.

 As does this row from The Quilter's Dream in Colleyville, TX,

The row from Pantego, TX almost has all its appliques in place. Just need to get the rest of the way around the whale.

The decision on the Jefferson City row was figured out.

I've started piecing the row from Woodbridge, VA. I'll add the setting triangles when I'm more awake. Then there will be seaweed appliqued in between the fish blocks.

I'm also working on making the appliques for a needle-turned row and have traced out the appliques for two more fused rows. Then there's a paper-pieced row and the center panel. I'm still waiting on four more rows to come in the mail. They were last minute pick-ups by friends and family. But until those patterns arrive, I've got plenty to work on.

Time to find some tea and get back to work. See you next week!

Fishies Everywhere!

So far no other disasters have befallen our household this past week. FH and I are going to visit with another perspective dog to become my new ESA. We've interviewed three so far and none of them have been a good fit. 

Victor is healing nicely from his enucleation surgery. His litter box habits have become non-existent though and he's not wanting to eat much. I've begun syringe feeding to keep his guts moving. Silly bunny.

But now for the fun part! Here are the completely finished rows:

Mt. Sterling, Kentucky (Sterling Thimble). My neighbor picked up this one for me on her way home from a long road trip. I needed it to be a square, so I had to fiddle with the background sections a bit.

Des Moines, Iowa (Woodside Quilting). A friend picked this one up for me while she was in Iowa on business. The design of this row lent itself nicely to becoming one of my square sections. The designer had a vision of minnows hiding amongst rocks in mind when she designed this one.

St. Louis, Missouri (Jackman's). My favorite fabric shop when I was learning how to sew all those years ago. Again I needed a square, but this time I only had to add a second flower applique to balance out the features a bit.

Lucas, Iowa  (Quilt with Us). That was a fun little road trip. I caught rain coming down in sheets and had to pull off he highway twice. I ran late enough that I missed a couple of shops, but all in all it was fun.

Now for a mostly finished row: Jefferson City, MO (Specialty Quilts). A friend from college works in Jeff City and helps get this row to me. I don't know if this row will be vertical or a square. It will depend on what rows arrive in the mail from friends and family over the next few days. But the blocks are pieced and ready to go!

And finally, these are the rows that need me to either hand sew appliques or machine-stitch around the edges of fused applique:

Crofton, Maryland (Tomorrow's Treasures). Another picked up by my neighbor.

And three of the rows my cousin in Texas picked up for me. Apparently she and her kids had quite the fun adventure visiting several quilt shops. I wish I'd been there with them.

Joshua, Texas (Sandy's Quilt Shop)

Lewisville, Texas (Quilt Country)

Pantego, Texas (Peggy's Quilt Studio)

I still have eight rows here that are waiting to be pieced and several more on the way. And I need to start putting the center block of the quilt together at some point. So much to do!

See you next weekend!