sewing for puppy: a doggy bone quilt

Fleury has been loving his new dog bed. I'm surprised by how well it's held up these past couple months, despite being used daily by a now 8 month old puppy. If you all remember, I had originally made a different top for his bed, but after piecing the "back," I decided to use that as the front, leaving me with this patchwork dog bone applique top.

I held onto it for a while, debating what to make it into and also making the time to do it.



Now that it's finished, I am really starting to like it more and more. I'm using it currently as a mat for under his water bowl since he's a very messy drinker. But I can also see us using it as his travel "place" as well. I love the two coordinating pieces together and really like how they nod toward each other but are still different.

It was my first time machine binding, and although I loved how fast the technique was, I wasn't thrilled with the end result. I'm sure with practice I would get better, but I think for now I'll keep hand sewing those on.

BONUS: The only materials I had to buy for both these projects was the binding fabric for the quilt and the zipper and cording for the bed. The Madrona Road collection fabrics were received from my quilt guild for the challenge. The rest of the fabrics were from my stash and even the batting was scrap from other projects. Score!



And here's a shot of the monster enjoying his bed and his quilt!

newbee blocks - april

It's May already. Geez, the time does fly. I finished up these two blocks for April's queen of the Newbee Block Swap. It was quite honestly just as easy to make two and I scorched just a wee bit the edge of the first block with the iron on the last press (ain't it how it always goes?!) so this month I made two blocks instead of one. I have to finish up a very patriotic block for May and then it's MY month to be queen. And I still have no idea what I'm going to do! Ideas? Anybody?


And in case you missed the first few months, here are the blocks we've made so far!

homemade dog treats: puppy pancakes

Anyone who has been reading this blog knows that Fleury is beyond spoiled. He goes to school. He gets handmade furniture. He has his own pool (which is more than I can say for his humans). He saw a beach earlier in his life than I. And last but not least, he gets his own homemade treats.

I love breakfast. We usually make something fun, especially on the weekends - like pancakes, french toast, breakfast burritos, eggs in a frame, etc. One of Fleury's favorite breakfasts is a puppy pancake. It's really leftover french toast batter - cream and eggs, really - fried in a pan. It firms up to form this pancake like object that he happily licks up and will eagerly "down" for (which is his pretty please, in dog).

**Before someone tells me all about how you shouldn't feed table scraps to dogs, please let me tell you that this dog is very healthy and fit and these are most definitely "treats" in the true sense of the word - as in, not a common everyday occurrence.**

love, fleury

Hi there, humans.

Mom brought me into her sewing room the other day so I could hang with her while she sewed. I'm usually not allowed in her room because she says that I would misbehave.

Between me and you, I really think that she doesn't want me in there because that's where she hides the really good balls and she's not good at sharing.

Love,
Fleury

string fever QAYG

I've been working on my QAYG project for a month or so now. I am a total convert. I realize that not all quilts will be able to be quilted this way, but for the ones that can, it's awesome. It's super easy to do on a little home machine and I don't feel like I've pulled a muscle doing it. I can baste easily, add more quilting than usual and see it come together that much faster.

I had thought that I was going to make the 49 blocks into a 7 x 7 block quilt and then add a border around that to bring up the size to 60" square. I hated it. It looked boring to me but I did need to add something so that it was a reasonable size. I had these two pink strips leftover from making the backing for my very first quilt and they went so nicely. A little color and pattern without being too overwhelming and detracting from the rest of the pattern.

So, now I have 14 more QAYG blocks to cut and quilt, but they should go rather quickly. Hopefully by this weekend I can get this guy assembled and be well on my way to a finish!

in progress

I have an overwhelming number of works in progress at the moment. I really do want to have some finishes here in the near future because I have quite a few works not started too...

ticker tape placemats, retro flowers quilt, dog bone quilt,  modern medallion quilt, embroidery, scrappy strings quilt blocks

In my works in progress list, I have my ticker tape placemats, my Retro Flowers quilt (in Chicopee), my Dog Bone quilt, my Modern Medallion quilt, a surprise embroidery, my scrappy strings QAYG quilt and the coordinating sewing kit made from the scraps and yikes...a super surprise quilt that I can't show pictures of yet and last but probably not least (as I have a bad memory and there's probably something else somewhere) a shirt for my husband.

They are all in various stages of finish (links are to the latest project blog post):

• Ticker Tape Placemats - I have all the ticker tape placed onto the mats, but have yet to quilt them.
• Retro Flowers Quilt - I have all the pieces ready to cut (there's a lot of folding and pressing in this pattern) but I still have a bit of cutting to do before I can start piecing.
• Dog Bone Quilt - This oops project just needs a bit of quilting and bound, making it a quick finish when I get back to it!
• Modern Medallion - Stalled. I have spent so much time on this one already that I really want to like it, but am having some issues on what to do for the next rounds of this quilt.
• Surprise Embroidery - I would have knocked this out so fast, but I decided to use the shimmery, glitter embroidery thread for the effect, but I didn't realize what a pain it was to work with. Hopefully soon I'll finish it up. I'm hoping it will be a pillow soon! Ready to ship to it's surprise recipient.
• Scrappy Strings Quilt - As part of Rachel's scrappy stitch along, I'm hoping to get this finished by the end of May....right...
• Scrappy String Scrap Sewing Kit - Just needs bound! Almost! Almost!
• Super Surprise Quilt - Just needs a bit more quilting and then bound! Hoping that I can get this one wrapped up and sent off to it's new owner by the end of May!
• Shirt for Husband - Still working on the muslin version. Did I mention making clothing is NOTHING like making quilts...

And, because my brain creates faster than my hands do, I have fabric piles waiting their turn to become quilts. I just love Sarah Jane's collections. After buying these two mermaid prints, I bought some other coordinates from the Out to Sea collection to make a quilt for myself. I was gifted the Cherry Christmas collection from my mom for Christmas and am hoping to make a holiday quilt before it becomes holiday season.

I also bought a few pieces from Anna Maria's Field Study collection, Tsuru by Cloud 9, and Pat Bravo's Indie. I think between the three, I have some awesome quilts in the making.

And last, but certainly not least, I have a baby boy quilt and a Houndstooth quilt, both commissions.

I also have a *thing* for scrappy quilts, and just can't stop making stuff with scraps. Almost more than with pretty stacks of fabric. So there's that. Hopefully I will have made a bit of progress on some of these by the end of the month and have cleared some space on my work table for some of these other beauties.

How many WIPs do you have? Do you suffer from shiny new project syndrome? Any tips on finishing up WIPs and keeping them under control?

a dog's life

The pup and I have been enjoying some nice outdoor time lately, which hasn't left much time for sewing, but which has required ample nap time. We'll get back to the sewing bit once the weather becomes unbearable, but for now, to the outdoors! (or the couch, tough decisions...)

Also, if you haven't noticed, Fleury's got his own button now there on the sidebar. So if you could care less about all that sewing business and just want to scroll through pages of cute puppy pictures, that's for you, right there.