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!

No Pictures Today

There are no pictures today for a very bad reason.  Pollux had a stroke on Thursday.  He's doing fine and the vet is confident that he will recover most, if not all, of his balance once the "seasickness" feeling goes away.  We've got him on pills and are watching him carefully.  FH and I are also giving him sub-q fluids here at home.  Pollux is eating well, but his drinking is so-so... hence the fluids.  He's also getting lots of love and quiet time.  He's really enjoying the "love" bit... not so much the quiet time though.

So, no time = no pictures.

I did managed to get most of my tool bag done on Tuesday at the meeting.

* The pieces are all quilted.
* The pocket section is all sewn together and I'd basted piping around the edge.
* I added hand embroidered details to two pocket edges.

Then I realized two very important things:

1) I'd rather have button loops and buttons than velcro.  This meant I needed to go home and make button loops from matching fabric before I could sew the final seams.

and

2) Somehow I'd forgotten that I'd cut the grey outer fabric wider than the pocket sections.  I did it on purpose, to give myself wiggle room in case the applique stitching pulled the fabric too much.  The happened on the table runner center block, so I decided better safe than irritated.

This means I have to remove the basted-on piping and trim the appliqued section to fit the pocket section.  The lining too, since I'd used the grey as a guide piece. 

All that is really simple to do, but for obvious reasons, I haven't taken the time to finish the complete piece.  I was still irritated with the project (and myself) on Wednesday, so I worked on a large cross stitch instead of fixing the issues.

Between today and this coming Wednesday I'll be cleaning, decorating, and baking.  The guild's embroidery group is meeting here Wednesday morning.  I'll have pictures of three new recipes and hopefully get a chance to finish up the tool bag for next the next post.  If things go right in the world, I might even have a finished cross stitch.  It is rather difficult to stitch with an extremely loving Siamese cat pulling your hands towards his head so you can scratch him in just the right places.

Oh, and before I forget, Pollux turns 14 on the 29th of this month.  It's hard to believe how time flies.

See you all next week!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I made two different attempts at a classic party dish this week.  I'd never made deviled eggs before and saw a fun way to dress them up on a really cool food blog.  I think they're going to be a hit at the next guild meeting I host here.  They were good, but the whites tasted more like a pickle than an egg white.

 I also did some in a darker green, just because, for the second attempt.  This time the outside weren't overly vinegary.  I gave the whites a quick rinse after pulling them out of the dye.  This time they were perfect.

The appliqued violets are finished, waiting for Tuesday's guild meeting to be turned into a tool case.

That's all for this week.  I was busy running around for several days, hence the lack of projects.  Friday I visited a historic home in Bloomington, IL that would be a gorgeous dollhouse.  The David Davis Mansion is a stunning home that was constructed between 1870 and 1872.  Pictures were not allowed in order to better preserve the antiques.  I will have to go back with a sketch pad and colored pencils sometime.  The ceilings in the public rooms are all hand painted with different floral motifs.  The hall stand in the front hall can hold six gentlemen's hats and is graced with a bronze stag's head on top.  The hat hooks are all carved animal heads as well.

I know I'm going back between Mother's Day and Father's Day.  That's when the gardens are in full bloom. Happily they allow cameras in the garden.  All the plants are either original to the garden (and thus very old) or have been replaced using information from letters written by Sarah Davis and the help of other historic gardens.  Many of the replacement plants have come from Monticello, as did several of the original plants.

That's all for this week.  Happy crafting!

Homework

When I attended the PASG Quilters' group meeting last month, I was informed that we would be making a fun case to carry our various tools to quilt classes/workshops/retreats during the March meeting.  After examining the sample and the cutting list, I decided it was a little plain.  Yes, I could simply use some wild and happy fabrics for my case, but I don't have any that isn't earmarked for something else and I can't justify buying more for this.  So I came up with a plan.  A fun plan.

First I chose some fabrics that weren't set aside for anything in particular.  Neither of them is particularly stunning, but I liked them when I acquired them.  The bottom fabric will be the lining and one of the inner pockets.  Note: I simply adore violets.  Pansies and violas too, but violets are my favorite.

 I needed to go ahead and cut my fabric so I'd have a better idea of size and proportion for an applique.  I like the contrast between these fabrics, and the grey will make a nice neutral background for a violet or two to pop out from.

Then I did a little surfing and found lots of pictures of violets.  Lots of pictures.  (And a pansy too, because it was gorgeous.)  You see, appliques are really just pieces of fabric that fill in an outline.  All you need is a set of outlines to fill in.  If you're good at tracing around a picture, you can make an applique design.  This also means coloring books are an awesome source for making your own appliques. 

In the case of flowers, I like to find as many shapes as I can.  Different angles for petals and leaves are a must if you want it to look real.  Tracing onto a transparency sheet allows for flipping elements as needed.

The next step is fun, if somewhat fiddly.  I don't own a light box, so I got to trace my elements onto paper via a window.  I had a basic idea in my head for the picture, so it only took two tries to make it.  The dotted lines indicate where an object is behind another.  You do need to keep the size of your elements versus the size of where they're going in mind during this process.  I don't show it here, but there was a good deal of measuring going on.

Next, you trace the design again, this time onto another transparency sheet.  This is a tip I read in a quilting book over the summer.  You can check the placement of your pieces as you're working by laying this piece on top of the applique in progress.

Here's the fun part.  The final check to make sure your design fits where you want it.  Room to spare without affecting the seam allowances!

 

Now you're ready to make the individual pattern pieces for the design.  I'll be using a thin cardboard to make templates for tracing onto freezer paper.  That way I can reuse them down the line since two of my sisters also love violets.  Once my freezer paper shapes are ready, I can start in on the applique.  I need to have it finished before the next Quilters' meeting so I can sew along with the other ladies.

I have already found some fabric to use.  Of course I have plenty of purple scraps on hand.

Once the applique is done, it will be hard not to go ahead and finish my case.  I'll have to tough it out and work on the quilting on the table runner instead.  Or finish a cross stitch.  Or something.  Oh darn. ;-)

Slow Week

Progress on anything this week was difficult due to various appointments/meeting Monday - Wednesday and then somehow throwing my back out on Wednesday night.  I've spent the last several days migrating slowly from bed to the couch and back to bed, accompanied by a heating pad.  Not fun at all.  And stitching whilst being horizontal is not a skill I've ever perfected... Oh well.

I did manage to get the table runner sandwiched and basted.  I pin basted first, as that was the easiest way to get it done by myself.

Then I went back and thread basted it, removing the pins once I was finished.

I also completed the cross stitching on five quilt blocks from a piece I started last week.

That's all for now.  I'm going to keep resting up and hopefully be back in the game tomorrow or the next day.

Tempie's Rose Garden Runner

I finished the top of my table runner! 

The first chunk that was finished up were the bunny blocks.  I think the embroidery really gives them life.

Then I made all my sashing pieces and put together everything but the long horizontal strips.

Next I made some special corner blocks to help make the whole thing "pop" more.

The above picture really doesn't do the pinwheel block justice, but it was the better one.  The picture quality wasn't the only frustrating thing about the pinwheels.  The first set I made ended up being too small.  The center pinwheel needed to be 2 inches square to fit the white border.  So I remade the pinwheels and they fit.

But then my long sashing pieces were too long.... which I didn't discover until after I'd attached the pinwheels.  My fault for being excited and not checking before I got carried away.  Easily fixed though.

Also the bow tie and broken dish block sections were shorter than the rest of the runner.  Apparently the cutting instructions I used failed to include seam allowances in the finished block size.  So I shortened the other sections to fit.  It's not like this is going on a bed, where size would be an issue.

The batting is already cut to size.  I don't have a picture, but I'm using white flannel.  It won't be too bulky to set things on this way.  Now I just need to decide on the backing fabric and get it pieced.  I have some fabric in my stash that I've been planning to use for this, but the manager of the quilt shop showed me some adorable fabric that has white bunnies and purple flowers on it.  I might have to change gears and use my other fabric for the binding only.

So this coming week I'll be getting that figured out and figuring out how I'm going to quilt the applique blocks.  I do know that quilting each section will be it's own project.  I'm doing this by hand and it might take a while.

I also (in theory) have to start stitching on some fine linen this week.  It's (hopefully) going in the Judged Show in May.

I'm a little disappointed with the linen itself already.  Most of the over-dye effect that I loved it for washed out.  Normally I don't launder stitching fabrics before I stitch, but something in my gut told me too this time.  I'm glad I did or else the threads could've been stained.  Whatever they used for mordant on the over-dye didn't do well on the linen.  I may have to call in help from a friend who dyes and see about re-dying the piece.

That's it for this week.  Catch everyone next time!

Table Runner Progress

I've been working on the table runner pieces all week long.  In fact, I'm cautiously optimistic about getting the quilting started sometime this coming week.

First of is the biggest challenge I had to getting any work done this week.  This is her preferred spot to sleep.

 Now for the revised runner design.  I finally figured out how I wanted the sashing to look.

 

 

And of course Artie got disgusted with me whilst I was working on the  revisions, so he pulled my coat off the chair and made a nest.

Then I made the bow tie and broken dishes blocks.  I cut more pieces than I need for the runner, but that's a different project done the line. 

 

When I started working on the bunny blocks, Pollux decided they needed to be snooper-vised.

 

 

He approves of the progress.

 

 He has been demanding more attention of late, which means I'm not surprised that I forgot to get pictures of the blocks when I finished the applique.

Next I fixed the center on the large rose.  If you recall, it was off center when I posted it's picture before.  Now it's fixed.

And the block has been embellished.

I started working the embroidered bits on the bunny blocks next, not realizing how late it was... almost midnight!  I was tired, so I parked the needle for the night.  I still need to finish the eyes, work the rest of the face, and add some fur details.  Long-time blog friends can probably guess who is sitting under the flowers.

 I'll be finishing the embroidery later today (I hope) and moving on to putting the whole top together later this week.  See you next time!

Several Sucesses

This past week has been quite successful in terms of projects.  I'm very pleased thus far.

First up is finishing the stitching on what will be a Christmas gift for our pet sitter next Christmas.  It was supposed to be done for last Christmas, but a nasty cold/weak flu got in my way.  As long as I don't loose track of it between now and October/November, I'm already ahead of the game.

Then I worked up a design for a quilted table runner that features an applique block that I worked on this summer (before I got sick) in a fun class.  The instructor is a local quilt designer and she taught us how to turn the applique pieces using a new product called "Templar."  It works like a charm and everyone in the class has a wonderful time.

Her block design is the floral one in the center of the runner.  She had designed the block to go on a throw pillow, but my throw pillows tend to get tossed in closets and forgotten.  I wanted something I would be sure to enjoy.

I also worked up the blocks featuring the rabbits on either side of the runner.  I'll talk more about them and the designer of the rabbit applique sometime in the next couple weeks.

I also (briefly) considered making a wall quilt instead of a runner.  Here's the design I was contemplating.  I'll probably use the layout later on for a different project.

Then I worked on a bit of a short story I've been working on.  I'm not going to share it as, well, I'm just not going to.  Just like I won't be sharing my poetry, unless it gets used in a piece of stitching.  Speaking of, I also charted out the entirety of a poem I wrote to become a stitched sampler that I'll be starting in the next week or two. 

Finally I finished the applique block for the center of the runner.  I'm giving serious thought to removing the center of the flower, re-centering it on the petals, and sewing it in place again.  I didn't notice how far off center it was until I saw the picture.

 Whilst I was sewing on Friday, we heard an odd noise coming from the laundry room.  Turns out Pixel had gotten herself stuck in the laundry sorter.  She did manage to get out though, after a few false starts.

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