Lookie what I found!

Hi momma... let's go for a walk!

 If Cole was a little boy, he'd come home with his pockets full every time!
On this day, he spied a tennis ball and grabbed it.
I mean, with gusto!


He is so quiet and calm these days, it does my heart good to see him excited about anything. I half-heartedly tried to make him drop it.
 He would have none of that.
I tried pulling it out of his mouth, again, not too hard. Nope. Turned his head to keep it from me.

I'll let His Poodleness tell you the rest of the story...

Cole here... you know how you leave the house thinking another boring walk around the neighborhood? Then a miracle happens and you see treasure in the form of a yellow ball. Well no amount of begging by mom could entice me to let go of my treasure. It's mine! It's the rule. Finders Keepers.
Usually I find great sticks, either to carry, relocate or  chew up on the spot, and omg you should hear the complaints from the parental units... Cole come on, drop the stupid stick or bring it with us.
Some sticks need chewing up on the spot, and I know the dogs out there know which ones they are.

Today, I found the ball.

I said, COME! Mommy Come on! I walked with that ball the entire time, and let me tell y'all, one can pee while holding a tennis ball in their mouth. I didn't drop it once because I knew mommy wanted it for some reason. At the end of the walk I asked to get off leash, and felt safe doing it because Mommy only had to walk up the path to the door, she couldn't get lost in that short distance. Or, could she...

She kept walking, ignoring my pleas to play fetch or keep away. She is overly concerned with my shoulder. I mean if I don't mind why should she??
Well she not only found her way to the house, calling me the whole time,( how embarrassing)  but. went. IN.
Closed the door loudly so I could hear it.

 Probably thought I'd come running like a puppy. I'm 12 for Pete's sake!

She waited about a second, and I knew she was watching me,  then came back.
Now this is fun!! I'm in control! As it should be!
Notice I am still playing statues and holding the magic ball.
Then she came out again, down the path, to me, saying the words I hate to hear..." Uh, Oh"... in that tone of voice. I had to give it to her then. She can get so upset, and all doggies know when to give in. You don't want to upset the  beast  Mommy.

LeeAnna here again... well I put the ball down on the bench by the door. Cole walked slowly past staring at it the whole time. Reluctant to leave it. The next time we went out for our evening walk, he grabbed it and walked the whole way with it in his mouth AGAIN! Wowie, this ball must be beef flavored. He didn't even drop it when he petted Miss Maria, Piglet's mom. He just showed it to her.

He keeps it on the bench with his fave sticks for play time with Daddy. Does your dog pick up treasures along the way and become attached?

Time for some Spring Stuff! Aqua anyone??

 I wanted to show you some pics I took at Cracker Barrel in Lancaster.
AQUA! I love Aqua!
So many Spring like items, so artfully displayed to make me want to take them home to my messy house!

I used to collect salt and pepper shakers because there are so many whimsical ones but don't have the space to show them off. Maybe in the new house!
That's forward thinking my friends!

Green glass bunny casserole dishes, Chicks mugs, eggs, and... hey wait!! Someone get that stupid snowman out of the picture!! We're done with it right?
Stupid weatherman says it will snow here today. AGAIN. It's end of March in the mid-Atlantic for Pete's sake! We don't do snow now, we do rain and lots of it.

Couldn't resist dog stuff... Love the color mix of Aqua blue and lime green cups. We have a layer of dog nose art on our sliding glass door.

I don't know what's going on here... but it made me stop and take notice. It's a water fountain for
"just that special place" in your home.

Imagine choosing your dishes on a whim, changing them out with the seasons!

Whale sign would be for the home on the water... Sonja in Hawaii?? sonjahagemanndesigns
 For my international friends, Cracker Barrel has Southern food like I grew up with, and tons of fun stuff to buy as well.

This vase looks like something from the 50's

Maybe if we East Coasters pull out the bunnies, and tulips and egg items, the snowman will get the picture, that it's time to move on for this year.
linking to shabbynest.     and I should be mopping the floor 

Yellow Teapot, cup and set of dishes

A scrappy little teapot if ever there was one! That little chicken!     Cooking!    A baking hen!

It seemed to call for a set of dessert dishes as well.

What's a pot of tea without a few cookies or scones?


I especially like the fabrics on the dishes

two little teacups...

This is the hexie project from last week... finished!

I did an envelop turn then wondered how to quilt it.
I tried hand quilting but I hadn't taken all the seams from the crumb piecing into consideration. Hard to quilt through.

The stitching looked uneven and too large so I pulled it all out. So...

Went to the machine.

And sewing from the front with bright yellow isocord in the top and lime green in the bobbin, sewed in the ditch of all hexies.
 I tried sewing an accent along the outer edge and it looked Becky Home-Ecky. Pulled that out.


Then I added one more row of stitching inside each hex and it looks good from both sides

Kind of modern to my eyes. It's not overly quilted, as I didn't want that look nor to spend more time on this. I could change my mind...
Check out more Yellow scrappy goodness on this Saturday link party superscrappy 

A thank you gift, an experiment and a funny sign

I've been experimenting again. This time with ink pads. And it's not good.
First of all, I turned the failed experiment into a pouch that has a really nice shape. I like it.

What I learned: The ink pad I've been using on fabric for years, that leaves a strong black line, isn't waterproof. Even after ironing.

Why is that important if you aren't washing something you ask??


Sit this little pouch down on a damp counter and the ink runs.
If you don't mind adhesives, which I have a problem with, you could coat it in gel medium to set it.
 Well I'm not throwing it away, I'll use it somehow! I don't mind a little blurring.

It started a hunt for permanent ink. I discovered two, VersaCraft and Scribbles. I haven't tried them yet as I just ordered them from Amazon.
I also discovered another ink and way to make your own pads but need to keep that info for an article and classes.

Remember this dog fabric?
I made a quick thank you gift for Miss Tammy who watches Cole when we're gone for the day

She has a cute little beagle named Chloe.
She likes French Country colors so I used the gold with red hearts for a border. The beagle print had a weird box under it's paw, so I appliqued a coffee cup for fun, since it's a coaster.

When I gave it to her she said Chloe LOVES coffee and licks their face after they drink a cup!

A sign at the restaurant Cracker Barrel. And another one...

Don't you love the little teapot guy? With loafers on! I wish I'd gotten him but didn't notice him til I looked at the pictures!
That's it for today. I'm sick with my third cold of the winter.

Cole loves a stogie!

I don't think you can see it in this light, but Cole has a scar on his nose just above his left nostril.
It's perfectly circular.
It's an old cigar injury.
Here's the story...

Cole grew up in this 'hood. One of his girlfriends is Haley, a year or so younger than him and cute as a button.

She and Cole have been running mates for 11 plus years. He kind of covets her life. She gets to live with the "Critter whisperer" Mike. All creatures love Mike. Mike loves being outside working in his enormous garden, or on his boat, or flying his corporate planes. Haley is his companion.
Cole LOVES Mike.

Mike smokes cigars.
Cole wants to smoke cigars because Mr. Mike does.
 Mike always teased him with the cigar because Cole would run up and sniff it. One time too closely and he got burnt.

 It didn't even phase him, or stop his love of Mike.
In fact, he would eat one if given the opportunity.

Apparently Cole has no sense when it comes to tobacco. We, his two parents, do NOT smoke.Yet...
We must be constantly vigilant to keep him from cigars and cigarette bits left on the sidewalk.

Yep, we learned of this monkey on his back when he urped up about 6 cigarette butts on the living room carpet as a youngster. We have had to break the addiction three times of his life as he's fallen off the wagon more than once. This involves constantly watching everything he sniffs on a two mile walk.

It's disgusting.

Makes his penchant for stick eating look downright wholesome...

How shall I quilt this??

 This is the yellow scrap project from last week. The hexies were scrap pieced, then cut out.
I sewed them together by machine this time and it worked a charm. Refer back to last week's post for the tute link.

 To finish the edges quickly and cleanly, I layered the backing, and hexies RST, with batting on top and sewed nearly all the way around. Trim the batting, trim corners, turn inside out and press with an iron. Close up the turning area and done.
Now the quilting.
I used this pretty fabric my friend Mary gave me thinking I could flip the table topper and get a really different look.

I CAN, but it complicates the quilting.
If I machine quilt it from this side and accent the flowers, it won't define the hexies on top. I think it will look odd on the flower side to accent the hexie shape on top.
Complicating the whole thing is I kind of want to hand quilt it since I haven't done that in a long time.

Opinions??

What color thread will work on both sides, maybe lime green.
Yep, something neutral like lime.
This is where the runner will live, replacing the winter one... until I get the dining room table cleared off.

Bwaaaahahahaha. Like that will happen!
Until then I thought you might like to see some gratuitous yellow studio shots. I love yellow and it brightens up a space.

check out the party at RSC 2015 as others are using yellow too  superscrappy

My Seurat...Sunday in the Park with Cole

Sunday in the Park with Cole  12" X 12"

Our focus with STAT this month was the artist Seurat. He was very interesting to me because he looked at color in a new way. He was scientific, and studied the way colors relate to each other, mixing in our minds. Look at any of his work really close up and you'll see dabs of different colors, but when you back up it might read as "blue" or "green"

A quote "Let's go and get drunk on light again – it has the power to console" (Georges Seurat)

I used the fabrics purchased in Lancaster recently, and some Ginny Beyer fabric to interpret his work. The female figure was in my blue scrap bin on some really vintage fabric.
This is how I started...

laying out yardage on my stabilizer. I free hand cut out trunks in 4 fabrics. I don't like fusible so it was kept to a minimum.
I scissor cut angles as I went along, no pattern, no worries. If something was too small I cut another piece and layered it on. I built the whole background this way.
When it made me happy, I dabbed a bit of glue stick on the larger pieces, pressed it just to meld the cotton and carefully took the sandwich to the sewing machine for quilting.

This time I wanted variegated cotton threads, and I really like Oliver Twist hand dyes. I lay unspooled thread over the piece to test, then put all spools for that project on a little holder

Here is a more close up view of the quilting.

Originally I planned to quilt only little circles but changed my mind. As I worked I added little shards of tree fabrics to each one to add shading and dimension. Each shard is loose, so it frays a bit which I love. I catch it up in free motion stitching as I go. Adding on little pieces is like dabbing on paint.
I think Seurat would have enjoyed watching me work in my medium.
I adore how the dots on Ginny's fabric blends like paint when you stand back.

After the quilting was finished I really liked the piece without binding but needed an edge treatment.

 This is on peltex so facings aren't going to work. First I tried a lame in gold but it was too shiny. Then I settled on another Ginny fabric with many colored dots, in brown to remind me of a frame. I did my quick binding (see tutorials page) securing it to the front with an ocher colored rayon thread and button hole stitch. Then I couched down a very thick gold cording and it's just the right touch of sparkle this time.



 Note I did not use the pink poodle shown in the second pic. I just cut a free form poodle out of my recent pacman black fabric. In person it works great! Circles and squares of gray on black.

He must be a miniature poodle, as his legs and neck are shorter than Cole's ever were! The last thing to do was take some bronze metallic knitting thread, twist it boucle fashion to make a leash and attach it to the gold collar.
Done!
related posts lancaster-loot
                    exploring-seurat.
                    Other STAT quilt posts
STAT is a group studying master artists and interpreting their paintings in fiber, with an emphasis on texture
                   

Pictures from Lancaster Quilt Show

We had a fun time at the AQS show in Lancaster.
The above sign is over one of the many quilt shops with sales going on that weekend.
To the left, yours truly next to an ice sculpture of the word quilt, a spool of thread and some scissors near two of the shops.
See the post of Lancaster Loot from earlier

I have to show you the stuffed quilted deer head at the vendor from quiltblock in Exton PA
They have some totally unusual patterns.

On to the show floor in downtown Lancaster.
This is a pic of the book sale, hundreds of books on sale for $5 each.

I spent a moment digging thru the stacks

And now for a few pics of quilts... remember you can click on any to see details.

Let's start with Good Dogs by Sew Whatevers. There are 12 dogs on this quilt but once you see the purple poodle why go on???

I am showing mostly detail shots as I don't want to overwhelm your viewing pleasure, but had to take a pic of this hexie quilt, Roo Garden by Vicki Bonnhoff in Arizona. AWESOME.

I wasn't as struck by the horses on this quilt but the quilting.

The subtle color changes are due to thread color alone. Dense interesting quilting on a very large quilt.
I suspect a long-arm job. I wonder how a person like me quilting on my domestic machine can ever really compete with large quilts these days. Am I a dinosaur?

This is a detail of Vivaldi by Moonlight by Sandra Leichner. The quilting is awesome. Look at the dragonfly! They are the only color relief from an all white work quilt. It was show stopping for me.

These two photos are close ups of Hope Springs by Jan Martin

I show you details because the quilting was so outstanding. Again, suspect it's done on a long arm as it's a large quilt. The quilting is varied and tells a story again of dragonflies.
Seeing a lot of those at the moment.


I like the scene's quilted into the background. It makes an abstract design more approachable to me.

I leave you with this quilt Byrne's Spiral by
Beth Nufer and Clem Buzick.

Yep those spirals are pieced. The quilt is enormous. The quilting outstanding.

My husband attends local shows with me and seldom really likes a design. This one he liked enough to search out the ballot for viewer's choice and he voted for it!
He wants one like it....

Well I'm off to wash my new fabric!