Go Ahead and Quilt!

Go ahead and quilt, mama. We don't mind.

Argyle in Tan and Grey

Right off the bat, let me say I have two really excellent helpers.  Each of them is willing to step on, chew, nap or shed on any quilt I make.  Any time, any where.  First up, Fiona Ferocious FooDog Faust.  She's an eight month old golden retriever and is never ever an instigator.  No sirreebob.  (Toilet paper roll destruction is her specialty)

Of course, I've already introduced our anatolian shepherd, Chrysler the Decaffeinated Sweet Beast Phillips.  We call him decaf for short.  This guy can shed an entire toy poodle in under five minutes.  It's amazing.

Oh right.  The quilt.  This quilt didn't turn out like I'd planned.  I wanted a fairly subtle argyle pattern in tan and grey and ended up with a high contrast very bold look.  It's still a useable quilt, but for next time maybe I'll audition the fabrics a bit more carefully.  This quilt was made from a combination of fabrics from Connecting Threads' Neutral Love line and my own stash.

I used two shades of gold thread and one metallic gold for the quilting.  If I'd had unlimited time for this one I might have couched a heavy thread or even maybe a yarn for the main diagonals.

The metallic really gives the quilt a little sparkle in person, but my photography doesn't do it justice.

The setting triangles and binding both made me happy, giving just the subtle blend I'd been looking for in the entire quilt.

I went to the trouble of buying a piece of wide quilt backing for this quilt and when it came time to make the magic happen it turned out I'd purchased about four inches too little.  Words were spoken.  I did have a couple of left over blocks though, so I threw together all the scraps and made a stripe in the back which is a fair addition to the quilt.  Serendipity.

 

This one is a BIG queen.  Plenty of overhang, plenty of pillow tuck.  I find that making a quilt for the next size up bed makes the night time tug of war a little easier.

'Twas the Week Before Christmas

...when all through the house

not a grandma was resting, not even (something that rhymes with house).

That's the mudroom.  I'd thrown the single cheapest piece of hardware store carpet on the roll I could purchase over this icky cracked concrete floor a few years ago when we re-did the kitchen roof.  Now, SUDDENLY, two weeks before christmas I just HAD to get the carpet up and put down the tile that matches the rest of the kitchen and laundry room.

Here's Decaf lining up with all the boxes of books that had to be taken off the shelves so the shelves could be taken down so the carpet could be pulled up (starting to sound like a children's book where the punchline is about a broken balloon, isn't it.).  He's a really funny dog.  He lined up there and just wagged at me for a while until I got the joke.

Here's the tile down!  Yay!  Oh my aching back!  This morning I cut all the fussy bits around the edges and mortared them in.  Tomorrow morning I'll grout it all.

While I took little breaks during the day I made the rest of the cookies I'll be sending out for christmas.  Below is the VERY EASY Eyeore's House cookie recipe I learned from a dear friend in 1992.

Melt 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and a package of butterscotch morsels in the microwave.

Throw in a short can of potato sticks.  (No, I'm not kidding)

Drop by spoonful onto waxed paper.  Let sit until set!  I also made peanut butter buttons.  The hardest part of these cookies is waiting until they cool to eat them!

Decaf really likes peanut butter.  He can smell it as soon as I open the jar, so of course, he helped me keep track of the cookies.  Especially checking to see if they were cool enough to eat!

Are they ready yet?? [wag wag]

I haven't done any sewing in several days, but that'll change as soon as the floor is finished tomorrow.

Looks Great on a Lawyer*

Some time ago I showed off a quilt made from the leftovers of another quilt.  The first quilt wasn't finished yet, so it didn't get shown.  It's done now!

Since it's primarily black and tan and because it is also large and unweildy, I've decided to name it DOBERMAN.*

Squares on one side, circles on the other.  I enjoyed appliqueing the circles down by hand, but 49 is rather alot, so it took me a very long time to finish.

And that's MISTER Photobomb Doggy to you!  (Decaf is not a doberman, he's part golden retriever and part german shepherd.)

*The title of this post is an old lawyer joke of course.  What's black and tan and looks great on a lawyer?  A doberman!

Hehehe Colorful PUPPIES!

It all started with some black and white swap blocks that had been sitting around since, let me think, maybe 2004. I make lots of black and white quilts, and of late have been trying to work a little color into my stuff. I had this interesting border print, mostly yellow, of dogs, cats, and flowers. Chop, chop, chop! It became the sashing and border for the b/w swap blocks.

The top sat around for a while. When I was at some show - maybe it was the Arlington Guild show a few years back, I picked up a half-yard panel of a Loralie Designs print with lots of dogs on it. Didn't know what to use it for, so it sat around.

It clicked one day a few months back that the panel would sure work with the b/w top. The panel was way too small of course. Just fifteen dog portraits and a little piece of border stripe along the edge with cameos of the dogs.

I collected brights from my stash that matched the border print on the top and sashed each puppy with it. Then I picked a bunch of geometrics from my b/w stash and sashed again. Nearly there. Finally I took the wee stripe of cameos and sashed the living daylights out of it to turn it into a pillow panel on the top of the quilt back.

After adding some barks and woofs and yips in a variety of colors,

and quilting one VERY large dog nose in the big black space, I decided the back was the front after all.

Quilt Dog's End

Oreo Puppy Faust, the world's best quilt dog and my best friend for 14 years died a few weeks ago.  It has been devastatingly hard for me to do anything since.  Quilts aren't interesting, the backyard isn't pretty, I don't want to garden or work with wood.  I don't want another dog.  I don't want a cat, antelope, snake or bunny instead.  He was a happy dog all his life (right up until the very end when he became very sick) and I know I honor his memory best by trying to be happy as well, but I'm just not very good at it without him.

It took me this long just to be able to write this post.  Keep being patient with me.  I'll get my act together.  Now that I'm upstairs, maybe I'll try to piece something.