Life is tough!

Yep...it's hard being Dog Whisperer, Minute Maid, Betty Crocker and fiber lady all in one!  Especially this week with being Dog Whisperer!  Gigi's toe took a bad turn on Monday with bleeding again...so we were back to E Collar and a baby sock.

We're now back to just a baby sock when we walk (and when she sleeps!) or the collar if I'm playing Minute Main and Betty!  I can't watch her all the time and we don't want her licking or chewing her foot.  The 'quick' looks great again so keeping our fingers crossed it's on its way of healing!  WHEW!

 This is Gigi with her 'sock' on while she and Kalee were walking this a.m.  I let them 'sniff' for about 5-10 min. then they have to walk beside me.  I've actually made about 8 socks....just putting ties on baby socks so they hold up on her leg!

I did get BD fiber cards made but pics are on my camera so I'll post those later!  And I've starting working on our 'texture' challenge for the online group, Art Quilters Around the World'!  It's due November 31st so I need to get it finished...upcoming holidays and entertaining will keep me busy let alone having a project to do.  I also did some painting on the canvas roll I have to get started on my fiber Valentines.  Otherwise, I'm not doing anything!  HA

Patchwork #2 Finished

Finished!  Now on to Patchwork #3??!!  This piece measures 16" x 20" and will be part of the the Inspired By the Masters exhibit and my interpretation of Mary Ann Beckwith's work.  I just pinned this to foam board.  I still have to add a sleeve and label to this piece and a few others that are finished for the exhibit.

Patchwork #2

I love hand work so these 'patchwork' pieces are wonderful to work on.  I love to  machine quilt but also enjoy the slow, methodical process for hand stitching.

So perhaps it's time to think about Patchwork #3 or Hex Horse #3!!  After all I have lots of hexes left from multi projects!

Just like children

Yep, our dogs are just like kids...hate when they get sick or hurt...so last night little Gigi was coming back into the house from going potty and let out a yelp!  When I sat down I reached over to pick her up and saw blood all over!  WHAT!  This is what we found!

This isn't a tooth!  It was Gigi's back toenail!  Appears it got caught when she jumped to come into the house.  Poor baby!  The house on the other hand...carpet to be exact looked like a scene from CSI!  Blood everywhere!  And I mean everywhere!!!  What a mess...but, first things first...I rinsed off both Gigi's back feet, as I didn't know which foot was 'hurt'..since there was blood on both back feet!
 I had Bob hold her while I got the flashlight to see what happened.  That's when I saw she had lost the entire toenail and her quick was bleeding.  So, Nancy Nurse got her bandaged up and then it was time to start cleaning the carpet!
First, I sprayed with cold water and blotted up as much as I could then use Resolve carpet cleaner.  Worked like a charm!  You can't even tell where the body was...I mean where Gigi had walked!
Next up was taking her to the vets today making sure there wasn't any other damage.  They cleaned it up quite well and reapplied a new bandage, which she has to keep on for two more days.

She looks very sad her but actually she isn't.  You wouldn't know something was wrong with her...eating, wanting to play, jumping on furniture!  I do have her pain meds, just in case!   Poor little Gigi...she's had a rough life and this is just another something for her to put in her 'journal'!  I would prefer to write about happy events for now on!  Just sayin!

Being busy.....

In between dog walks, playing Suzie Homemaker, yada, yada I am keeping busy.  I made another 3D snowflake (I keep calling these stars!  Duh!).   My friend's mom will be undergoing some medical treatment over the next few months so I thought I'd make her a star since, at 90, I think, as does her kids, that she is a super star!  She did receive it on Friday and my friend was going to help her hang on her door.  Hope she enjoys it!

I also finished ALL the hand stitching on my Patchwork #2 piece!  Woohoo!  Now to square it up...well, it's not really going to be a square...it needs to be 16" x 20" for our Masters exhibit.  I'm not putting a binding on it.  Instead, I'll just face it and make the label and sleeve.   Or I might just put on black binding.  No sure yet...but one more almost down!

I'm also making a few more BD cards for my Florida friends for October and November BD's.  I'll be showing those next month but they are almost finished as well.  And I've started on our next online challenge, Texture, for the Art Quilters Around the World blog.  It's not due until the end of November but I have so much to do that I need to get a head start.   This is a sneak peak!

 I'm also starting to think about my Fiber Valentines for this next year.  I know...bad enough stores are showing Christmas decorations and here I am talking about Valentine's Day!  I have to make at least 30 fiber cards this year!!!!  SO, I need a huge head start!!!

A week gone by??

I usually try to have a few posts scheduled so I don't have to create a post every day of my life...besides, I'm so busy sometimes I forget what I've done!  Hence, I have to post it immediately or I forget.  What can I say...the mind goes first!
Anyway, it's been busy around here...in addition to dogs, grandson's football, hubby!,  I was able to attend Kathleen Andrew's lecture at our guild meeting on Friday!

 I met Kathleen many years ago at Davison Fabrics and both my daughter and I made one of her patterns at that time.  In fact, Dawn had the quilt hung above her fireplace for years!   This is the quilt!  I gave my away!

Kathleen's patterns are SO interesting and I was very impressed with her lecture!  She shared so many of her tips and tricks to creating her work.    I wasn't able to take her workshop on Saturday because it was Nick's last regular football game and Parent's Day (actually they won so now they are in the playoff's!).

I don't want to copy pics from Kathleen's web site so you have to check out her patterns and see her work on the home page as it scrolls through her quilts!  And she has free shipping!  That's an incentive right there!!!   I may have to indulge!  I haven't bought a pattern in so many years but I was certainly intrigued with what I saw on Friday.
Also, check out her lecture/workshop page...she just might be in your area for my friends/followers who live in Michigan.   And for those of you attending IQA Festival in Houston this month, Kathleen will have a booth there (both for market and the festival)!  Her 'shop' name is KwiltArt!  And tell her I sent you!

3 D Star

I know...I know...I'm getting kinda crafty in my old age aren't I!!  I am so impressed with some of the projects by Jennifer Bosworth and her Shabby Fabrics tutorials I just keep making 'things'!  After I made seven zippered box pouches, I wanted to do something else...and I happened upon her 3D Star project!

So I gathered some fabric  and made a 3D star for us!  Jennifer's tutorials on YouTube are so clear and easily to follow.  Bob thinks this star is fantastic.  He wants to keep it up all year long but I don't think that will happen.

Anyway, this is the star in progress.

My neighbor came over yesterday and noticed the star (I have it hung on the glass front door) and she commented on how much she liked it!  Well, it's her BD tomorrow so last night I made one for her!

It's probably a good thing I ran out of Wonder Under or else I'd be making more stars!!!

The Key Word being BUBBLES!

Guess it pays to read what we buy, right!

 We have a whirlpool tub in our master bath, which we use every night...just for baths...not for the whirlpool.   Every few months,  I like to use some bleach and cleaner with the 'jets' running to keep it clean.  SOOOOOOOO

This a.m. I sprayed and scrubbed each little jet then filled the tub with water.  When the water level was over the jets I started the whirlpool.  And then I started to clean the shower and rest of the bath......








AND LOOK AT WHAT I SAW WHEN I TURNED AROUND!!!!!  I know it's a little hard to see but the bubbles  almost made it to the top of the tub!!!  Talk about freak out time....for those of you who know my husband you can understand why I freaked...in between laughing!  OMG!  Fortunately, Bob was busy working on his golf stats in the computer room.  Can you imagine the look on his face if he would have walked in!  The world would have been overrun with bubbles...that would have been his first thought!  He does get freaked easily!

 I knew water was just going to make it worse and not allow the bubbles to go down the drain...So, what to do....GOOGLE of course!!!  "How to get rid of bubbles in a tub!"  Actually, the answer came from a 'hot tub' question of similar circumstances....they couldn't get rid of the bubbles either..although I'd tend to think they were using something other than 'Scrubbing Bubbles'.   Just sayin!

The answer was towels...and lots of them!  Just scoop the bubbles on a towel and squish the towel!

Actually, I ended up only using four bath towels...the bubbles would squish easily.  Although, I can't wait to see what happens when I wash the towels!

 WHEW!  I have to admit I kept laughing and wanted so bad to tell Bob...which I will.  I'll have him read this at some point in time...but until then...make sure you read the label before you start playing Minute Maid!

Honest...no more pouches!

Before I post about the pouches....yes, I did remove the 'old' binding from my Hex Horse#2 and replaced it!  NOW I'm happy with my hex horse!  Just a lesson to myself that I can't rush my work!  I dont' have a sleeve on yet so I just laid the quilt on top of a piece of foam.  It measures 16" x 20".

Well, maybe no more pouches!  I've had so much fun making these buggers.  This past weekend I stamped some fabric to make two more pouches to take to my fiber art meeting next week.  My hand made stamp is getting ready to be thrown out and replaced.  Now I need to think back on how I made it!  HA

This was a batik fabric that I stamped.

Another commercial piece of fabric that I stamped with white paint.  There are small circles in the black fabric that do show up.

I did some hand stitching on these bags and a bead or two!  Go figure!











And this next one was from two pieces of compliment fabrics I had.  I did some hand stitching along with some french knots.  Just fun to make!

So I think I'm now done with pouches for awhile!  I have another little fun project to attempt!  Let's hope it takes my mind off pouches!

ATC Exchange

Lynn Krawczk from Smudged Design Studio is at it again...enticing us with participating in another creative adventure!  This time it was an ATC exchange!  Only criteria you needed to do some type of screen printing on your card.

Last summer I had Lynn make me two thermofax screens using some blueprint designs created by my friends father.  You can see those on my post here.

I had some  Dura Textile canvas that I painted with acrylic paints.  Once dry, I screen printed using this  thermofax screen on top of the painted canvas.

I sandwiched batting and a playing card for the back, then machine stitched the edges.  I punched holes at the top so I could add a charm on each ATC and here they are!  I made 12 of them, which was the limit in the exchange.  I'm really looking forward to getting the exchange cards!

We should be getting our ATC's after Oct. 4th...I'm posting this before I receive mine but will post pics as soon as I get mine in return!


 What fun is this!  If you haven't done any ATC's in quite sometime, why not start an exchange with a few friends!  Always a good way to use up those scrap quilt pieces or to play with a new technique in a small way!

Bad Grandma!!

Geezzz  I forgot to post about our grandson's BD party a week ago!  How could I!   Nick turned 12 on Sept. 26th and for once he didn't have a football game on his birthday (he did have a game the next day!).  

 So, the family all got together for a BBQ rib dinner on Saturday, compliments of Darrin cooking the ribs and Kris cooking most of the other dishes.

Kris' mom always makes the cake and she outdid herself again!  She made an Oreo cake, as it's Nick's favorite!  And a banana split layered dessert along with a large chocolate chip cookie!  YUM!!

And of course there are the presents. Nick is a big Xbox fanatic and wanted the new Forza6 game.  Well, there are so many different editions I just got a gift card for Xbox from us so he can get the set he wants.  He is good at racing the cars and certainly knows his cars!   He's a good student and football player so guess he doesn't spend all his time on the Xbox...just most of his free time!  HA

 Auntie Dawn and uncle Jeff got him an actual steering wheel that connects to the x-box setup.  Guess the good thing about that is he'll learn to drive!!  We hope!

This was the main meal.  In addition to the ribs, Darrin also made port tenderloins...all were delicious.  Kris is such a great cook and made lots of dishes for us to fill up on!!  I made Oriental Salad and brought a cheese tray.

Kris made a new corn dip she found on Pinterest that was really good with the chips!!  I'm taking the recipe with me to Florida for a dish to pass at one of our get-together dinners.

.All in all it was a great day...weather wise and just being around family!  And my apologies to Nick for the late post!!  Grandma will have to do something to make it up to him!!

Gift Making

In between current projects I got the bug to make some gifts!  I can't remember on which blog I saw this Zippered Box Pouch but once I made my first one I was hooked!  Thank you whoever showed this!!!!
The zippered pouch is such an easy and quick project and so far I've made four!   If you're interested, you can watch Jennifer Bosworth's YouTube here.  She is great!  I'm going to check out some of her other tutorials on YouTube.

This was my first pouch!  They measure 6.5-7" x 3" x 4"...or around that!









I pried this one open so you can see the lining inside.  I think it will make a nice cosmetic bag, sewing bag or whatever.  Don't we always need another bag to stash things in!

This one is a gift for my Q bud in Florida!  It's her BD this week.   She should have received it by the time this is posted!

And you'll see the other little gift I made her at the end of this post.

This one is for my friend, Mary.  The fabric is leftover from my hex horse and I added some hand stitching and some beads.  Mary is quite artsy so I had to jazz it up.  The lining is the same as the black/white tab.

This one is for my other friend, Carol.  She only wears blues/reds/black...so I had to make her a blue box!  Actually the fabric is more turquoise than blue and the lining, again, is the same as the black/white tab.

I have two more of these to make as Mary and Carol are both in our fiber group and I want to give each of the ladies one.  I picked up some more zippers today so hopefully I'll get the other two made this weekend as our meeting is the 2nd Monday in October.


And this little trinket is a collapsible thread catcher!    I do remember seeing this on Beth's blog!  So the mind hasn't totally gone a muck!   I made two, one for a gift (my Q bud)  and one to keep.  They're both made from my mono printed fabric.  You can see better pictures on Beth's blog.

This little bugger is so nifty!!  I always have threads all over the LR while sewing at night, but  now they are stashed in this little cup until I empty it!  Then the cup collapses and fits in my sewing bin.  They are pretty easy to make but actually more complicated than the zippered pouch!  Go figure!!






And I made BD fiber cards.  A few years ago I took an lino cut online class from Dijanne Cevaal.  I was looking for some fabric to make the cards from and decided to use the stamped pieces from that class.  I think they turned out pretty good with just free motion stitching around the design.  Hope the recipients will like them!!

So that's what I've been working on....just keeping busy..

Hex Horse #2 Finished!

WooHoo!!!  My hex horse #2 is finished.  I'm quite happy with how it turned out!   Almost...read further!

I did add some circle stitching...I think there are about seven circles on the piece.

But...there is always a BUT with our work, right!  I am happy with my horse and workmanship but I am not happy with my binding job so I'll be ripping it out and redoing.  Long story but I was sewing it on with two dogs on the side and behind my machine last night!!!  And I usually sew a scant 1/4" but for some reason I didn't and in between struggling with the dogs and stitching in a hurry!! I was  trying to get the binding ready so I could sew it on while watching the Pittsburgh Steelers play football....UGH! Anyway, no big deal...I'll just rip out and resew!  I'm good at that 'resewing' bit!

Anyway, now my Hex Horse #1 has a bud!   The Inspired by the Masters exhibit won't be opening until February 2016....so I have time to finish my other projects!!  I hope!