Oh, what to do???

Last year, when hubby and I brought Toby home, we fully intended to "someday" get him a playmate.  We used to have multiple dogs in our household until our last Bichon Frise, Emmy, who hated other dogs and would attempt to climb on our heads when any got close.  Now, with the nice weather coming and Toby being completely housebroken and close to a year old, we decided to start our quest for another Havanese.  I got on the web, and began with the National Havanese Club and our local kennel clubs looking for breeders in our area.  I know better than to use "nextdaypets" and "petfinder".  Often, those can be outlets for puppymills and we all have heard those horror stories!!!!

Surprisingly enough, I found a breeder only 20 minutes away with a litter of 5 that were 6 weeks old.  One boy and possibly one girl were still available, so hubby and I jumped in the car and took a look.

Here is the boy, so tiny at......1# 12oz at 6 weeks old: 

And, here is the adorable girl.....approx 2# 8oz:

Everytime I picked up the boy, he would tremble like crazy.  (Problem is that we really want another boy.)  Then too, I wasn't crazy about his all black face.  (Probably because I've had white dogs all my life.)  Too bad!

Then, upon further searching, I found a darling puppy about 2 hours away and he is the only boy out of a litter of 4.  Here he is at 3 weeks old:

Doesn't he just melt your heart?  I have yet to see him.  I can't blame the breeder by waiting until the puppies have their first shot at 6 weeks before accepting strangers in their home to see the litter in person.

BUT, now with the return of our cold, windy, winter weather, we are wondering if we are crazy?  Do we really want to do this?  I mean, we're over the dreaded puppy stage, Toby is all housebroken and has gotten used to our schedule and lifestyle, so should we "rock the boat"?  We're not spring chickens, and these dogs could outlive us.  AND, if one of us goes, it sure would be easier to find an apartment or somewhere to live with only one dog rather than 2.  Oh my, what to do?

Until we decide, Toby will continue to spend his days doing his favorite things.......looking outside:

and relaxing, awaiting his favorite treat....................C H E E S E!!!

Back to normal.....

Well, I knew it couldn't last!  (Although I was wishing!)  Temps this morning are 37 degrees.  Yes, that is after our string of high 70s and 80s for the last two weeks.  In actuality though, it's probably a good thing because yesterday I got out the sewing machine again after a 6 day break.  Hey......I was almost ready to take a holiday and pack away the fabric forever! I had some ideas of things to make, but NO (like ZERO) ambition!!  All I was doing was playing and reading blogs on the computer. (And looking for puppies!!!  lol)  BUT.............I am back in business!!  We'll see for how long!

I MUST show you something wonderful.  Do you remember the FLiQ swap and when I made this for my partner:



Well, I received the one from my partner and it was the BEST quilt in the whole swap!!  I adored it from the first picture of it and watched it progress in the beauty it became........in fact, I think the whole group wanted this one:



The design and quilting are amazing!  The colors are so vivid and bright and I just adore this beauty!!  What a talented artist Tami (lemontreetales) is!  I loved her quilts from DQS in the past and hoped that some day I would be lucky enough to get her as a partner.  Just look at this gorgeous label too:



I'd be embarrassed to show her the goofy writing I do with one of those Micron pens as a label on the back of the stuff I do.  Eikes!  Good thing I didn't have to send to her, huh?

Thank you so much, Tami!!  I am delighted and jumping for joy with your creation!!  I will always cherish it and soon it will be on my wall along with my other favorites!

So...........that's it for today, my friends!  I am working, but slowly.  Just as soon as groups are established for the Bitty Block Committees April swap, I can show you mine.  Until then, I will continue since I signed up for another 12 of those cute 3.5 inch blocks yesterday.  Call me crazy!  BUT, maybe that's what it took to get the machine out again, who knows???

Boring, boring, boring.....

Remember last week when I met my friend for lunch?  The one who is having the baby in May?  Here I thought I'd surprise her with that baby outfit, but it was me who was surprised when she handed me a bag with a belated birthday gift and inside I found this darling clutch that she made for me!  (And in some of my very favorite fabrics too, I might add).  Sooo cute!  Thank you Elaine, I love it!

You probably are wondering why I titled this post, "Boring, boring, boring".  Well, with our really unusual weather here in Wisconsin, I can't stop my brain from thinking that it's spring and I should be planting instead of sewing which normally I do in May.  This whole week we've been having high 70's and 80 weather and just two days ago, I even caught my boys taking an afternoon nap outside.  Normally, on March 12th, we'd be shoveling 12 inches of snow!  I just stare out the window all day it seems and watch the grass grow and my lilac bush sprout her leaves.  I can't help but wonder what will happen if we suddenly go back to our normal March temps!

I did manage to do my bitty blocks for the "Alice in Wonderland" theme (not due until the end of May) though:





Let me tell you, those teeny tiny 3.5 inch blocks are no easy task!  I think I spent all of 3 days on that first one doing all 12.  I was told that sewing the little pieces was easier with a newsprint stabilizer, but little did I know what a pain it would be to take it off:



This pile was from just 8 blocks:



AND......I did make another mug rug just for fun:



So, that's it!  The only other thing I have been doing is searching the web to find another Havanese puppy to buy.  Think I'm crazy?  Who knows?  We really think Toby needs a playmate!

Quite Disturbing...........

I am not a Pinterest user.  I just seemed never to have the time to gather up all those cute pictures and now I'm glad I didn't.  If you do nothing else today and have a Pinterest account.........you must read this blog.  It is in your best interest and might just save you from a lawsuit:

http://rettspace.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-im-currently-not-using-pinterest.html

The past returns

Today I am meeting a Flickr friend for lunch.  She is young enough to almost be my granddaughter ('course I would have had to be a teenage bride, I suppose.)  Anyway, my friend is going to have a baby in May (I think, it's May??)  Now, how could I possibly go to lunch knowing that without a gift?  Luckily, I have a closet upstairs that is filled to the brim with girls clothes that I made for years.....but not since August 2008 when I started quilting.  And, luckily, she is having a girl.  Awwww.......how convenient, huh?  I hope she'll like it:



It amazes me that I used to do such teeny tiny hand embroidery:



In today's world, this mug rug is more my style:

 

Have a happy day, friends!  And a happy weekend too.................

Hurray.......

There is something that I forgot to show you........so I thought while I was at it, I'd sorta fill in the blanks on how to make it.  I did post the directions for something similar a year or two ago, but everyone needs a re-fresher every once and awhile.  Do you remember my crayon quilts?  YOU will love this!!!  Soooooo fun and easy and they turn out almost like a watercolor picture.  This one I did as a mug rug.  I think it was about 8 inches square.  (I'd measure it, but I already gave it to a friend to hang in her house as a spring decor.)

First of all, I want you to get a solid piece of paper and draw a flower.  Try to make the petals go off the outside of your square.  (Or you could make the square bigger to start and trim it later, it really doesn't matter.)  Now, cut yourself a hunk of solid white fabric a bit bigger than the drawn flower and with a pencil, lightly trace the drawn flower onto your white fabric.  (Hint:  If you cannot see the image, darken your drawn flower with a sharpie marker, but wait until it's dry before tracing.)  After that is done, iron a piece of freezer paper (shiny side down) to the back of your white fabric.  This stiffens it enough so that you can color it without the fabric shifting.)  Get out your Crayola crayons and color to your hearts content!!  Note that I had plenty of white fabric on the side of the image to test colors, so you might want to consider cutting a bigger white piece of fabric than you would need.

When it is done to your liking, remove the freezer paper from the back, lay a piece of cheap muslin on the top of your flower and iron it until you smell the wax.  DO NOT BURN!!!  This seals the colors and protects your iron at the same time!!

Next, fuse the back of the flower with a piece of fusible fleece, or thin batting and pin to temporarily adhere.  Stitch around the flowers with white thread and remove pins.  Do any fancy stitching now like the french knots in the middle for effect.

Now for the tricky part.  Use a kids scissors with blunt ends and cut as close to the batting as possible.  Discard your cut pieces.  This procedure will make your flowers POP as they will now have two layers of batting.  Now, sandwich as you would for any other quilt.

Use a size 16 needle and #12 black thread and free motion quilt around each flower, burying the threads as necessary and quilt as desired for the remainder with desired thread.  Trim and bind as normal and do any additonal french knots at this time and wa-la!  You should have a darling flower mug rug!

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Elaine!!  She's the winner of the re-gifted Kaufman Kona Pastel Jelly Roll!  I've already contacted her so I imagine I will be visiting the post office soon.  Thanks to all of you for your comments and suggestions of what you would do.  I have some very generous readers, I've discovered!  I was touched with how many of you sew for others in need.  Wow!  Pat yourself on the back!  I wish I had a jelly roll for each one of you!!!

As far as me?  I haven't had the machine out all week.  Can you believe it?  I'm apparently in a FUNK!  Not good, people!  All I've been doing is grocery shopping.  Like everyday!  Hello?  What is wrong with me?  And now, I'm running out of freezer space!  E-gads!  I am thinking about something though, so hopefully, my MOJO will return soon and I'll have something to show you.  Until then.....................

Here's the scoop..........

I'm not sure exactly how to put this, or really how to say it, but I'm having a give-away!  Now....not so that you should get so excited, let me explain that this is not a NEW give-away, but a re-gifted one.  YES, you read that right!!  A re-gifted give away!!  (I bet that's a new one, huh???  Leave it to me!!  lol) This is what happened.  A month or so ago, I was reading my normal blog list of favorites, and left a message for one of my favorite bloggers/artists, Jacquie.  Little did I know it, but it was her intent to gift some commenter that day with a Kaufman Jellyroll and I was the winner.  Now, IF I had known what the give-away was to be, I would never have left a comment because I NEVER sign up for something I probably won't use.  NEVER!!!  Not that jellyrolls are bad!  Far from it!!!  Let me show you the jellyroll:

Do you see?  It's pastel!  Pastel?  ME?????  I don't think so!  I contemplated on what to do.  Should I refuse it and appear ungrateful?  Should I maybe make something and probably hate it because I'm really not a pastel girl?  Oh what to do?  So.....after a few weeks of thinking, I decided since it was just my birthday last Sunday, and since I really have not been sewing because I have been "down for the count" with this sickness crud again, I would have a re-gifting day!  AND......I sure hope you don't comment and ask for it just because it's free!  Please plan on using it, if you really want it!  Unless, of course, you plan on having a re-re-gifting day.  lol  That would be okay too, I suppose!!!  Who knows, this poor Kona Jellyroll could make the whole blog circuit if we planned it right.  lol  Anyway, that's the scoop!

You also must see the cute Birthday postcard my awesome friend, Annie made me:



She's the BEST!!  Thank you, Annie!  I love it!  So, go comment now and tell me why you think you need a Kaurfman Pastel Jellyroll.  I'll be interested in hearing............(and make sure you leave an e-mail address so if you win, I can contact you.)  I'm thinking of Friday......or maybe Saturday morning.  Hopefully, by then I will have sewn something to show you.  

I hate being sick!

Here I thought it was just a cold and I'd be over it in no time flat!  Duh.......NOT!  I mean, it had only lasted about 3 weeks!  So, by last Friday, I knew something was up, but did I go to the doctor right away?  Hello??  By this past Wednesday, when I could hardly take a breath, I knew things were serious!  I have lung problems to start with and you'd think I'd be smarter!  But my friends and I were getting together Monday and I had a haircut appointment on Tuesday........well, you know how it is!!  In any event, I am now on massive doses of steriods and antibiotic and should recover in no time......hopefully!   Good thing I had projects so I didn't have to move much.  First of all, I must show you what my very talented friend, Shirley made just for fun:

Can you tell that she's a paper piecer?  I am so envious!  Maybe someday, I will take a class, or get some professional help in that direction.  I probably could do it too!  That sun was amazing!  My eyes just popped out of my head when she took it out of her "show and tell" packet.  Wow!  And look at those cute little flying geese....e-gads!

At least I haven't been sitting around idle.  A week or so ago, I again joined the Bitty Block swap where you make twelve 3.5 inch blocks of the themed month and send them on to 11 participants.  The last one is mine to keep.  So, I said I'd make 24 blocks.......which was two sets of 12 in a landscape theme for March.  The other choice was pirates and I knew I wouldn't be so good at those.  lol  Some time ago, I came across a stitcher who blew me away and I knew I wanted to do something similar, but easier, so I got out my fabric and floss and went to town:



Please click on that picture and read the bottom of the photo to link to her flickr site.  She is amazing and literally pays her mortgage with her stitched pictures!  (Or so she told me!  lol)  I had a ball with that first one, but the thought of 11 more almost drove me to drink and when you are on prescription medication, that is not such a wise thing!  (As we all know!!!)  I decided to count the knots on one block and I got 104....times 12 makes............1248 colonial knots, folks!  Yes, you read that right!  1248 knots!  Eikes!



I was a happy camper when those were done, but now I had to come up with another set of 12.  Duh!  Good thing I am sick and up and down all night because I started drawing in the middle of the night and came up with another one that I liked!



I thought it kind of fit in my "theme" of summer and nice days, so I got to work and made another 11:



Those, I think, really look like something I'd make.  If you are interested, go to the flickr group to see some amazing others.  Sometimes, they really are something!  It's crazy how many teeny tiny pieces some of those players get in one 3.5 inch square.

Besides, those, I made one more mug rug.  I decided to brake out my NEW hand dyed fabrics and do something fun!  It did get a bit wonky, but I like it anyway:



So, that's the news for today!  We're expecting 6-8 inches of snow today, so I think I am going to get out of this house and get to the grocery store soon before there are too many people there to catch my "crud".  You have a nice weekend and I'll be back soon.........I hope!