"The puppy is here....the puppy is here!"

My name is Belle

helping mom sort scraps

With one word...YES...my whole world seems to have changed. Last weekend we were shown a picture of a puppy and we fell in love! The next day she arrived at our door and we were hooked. With no preparation we quickly scrambled to find a cage for her to sleep in and a quick trip to the grocery store for some food. So this week has been getting use to a puppy in the house. It is like have a new born after not having kids for awhile...you forget things. Our old girl Zoe, is really not sure about what we have done either! We also were made a little poorer by a trip to the vet. At least we know she is healthy and on the way with her shots. It took a couple of days but I have worked out a schedule by which she is entertained and while she is sleeping....I am sewing!

My big sister, can you tell she isn't impressed

Belle's quilt

So...new puppy means of course she needs a quilt. While doing my cleaning and purging I found a cute puppy fabric, so it was the start of her quilt. The top was completed this morning and I will work on sandwiching it later today.

my plaid blocks

I have also finished the next two block in the marcus sew along. This is a pic of all five blocks completed so far. They are 8 1/2" unfinished and I am liking them very much! While the puppy is playing this afternoon I will be slow stitching (hand quilting) and trying to finish this quilt (only two more borders to go).Bounce(been watching the puppy for too long) over to Kathy's blogKathy's blog and see what other slow stitchers are up to today and send a hug to my friend Kathy too!

Busy week

It has indeed been a busy one! Between doctor appointments with my mom, town fair and still cleaning up after the small flood in my sewing room, I am in need of a day of sewing. But that will have to wait and I will be back in my sewing room cleaning and purging. I have decided that I don't want to "store" stuff anymore. So the really ugly or not good fabric(poly blends) are becoming rags for DH's garage. I am donating some stuff I don't want to a local business for resale and keeping the good stuff. If it doesn't fall into any of these categories...it is in a green garbage bag headed for the curb(side of the road, I live in the country)!
It amazes me what I have moved once never mind the stuff that has moved two and three times. It is time to lighten the load. I figure if I haven't used it by now I am not likely too and someone else might love to get it!!
Now the only problem I am finding is while looking and touching all this fabric...ideas are flooding my brain and all I want to do is sew. So I am thinking this fall and winter is going to be very productive seasons for me.
Today is catch up day...laundry and other house chores. So the slow stitching with Kathy will have to wait till later. I will need some sit down time I am sure this evening. But I saw this pic this week and Kathy made mention of Downton Abbey. I love this old gal from the show, she is quite funny sometimes.

 I hope this doesn't offend anyone.
On another note I did very well at the fair with my entries. Twelve items...all first places except two and they got second. That was in the needlework now in the pickling I wasn't as lucky unfortunately. Oh well more pickles for us to eat...my family loves them even if the judge doesn't!!!I will show pics tomorrow. It has finally stopped raining here so the lawn got mowed yesterday and today the windows are opened letting in the fresh air! Have a great day with whatever you are doing!

It's raining it's pouring...there's water in my sewing room!!!

Not a messy sewing room...

.....just a wee bit wet

Not a great way to start the morning of a day that was suppose to be my getaway day! I was doing some last minute cleaning of the family room which meant a trip to the basement with an armful and I discovered that over the last three days of rain something had gone terribly wrong and I had water in the basement...more importantly in my sewing room. Now before you all start to cry for me...nothing was harmed...well no fabric! The carpet and laminate flooring is gone now and I just have to wait for it all to dry to figure out what to do with the cement floor. I think it will get a new paint job and maybe some scatter rugs but that will be it. Then I will work to rearrange furniture so anything on the lower level is water proof if this ever happens again. I will post new pics of my rearranged sewing room. We are aware of the issue...a drainage pipe that roots grow into. We just have to remember to keep it cleaned out and we will be okay!
My day was not a total write off. My shopping trip was put off but my weekend at my friend's house went on. I wasn't going to sit here and watch the floor dry!! haha

panel before

all sewn together

I had definite projects I had to get done this weekend so I would have them ready for the fair next weekend. So I took apart a panel I had put together. I needed to cut the plaid border off the panel and add a larger one then put the outside blocks and borders onto it. Much nicer looking. I made 6 placemats and a table runner from some quilted fabric and started on a knitted hat for a baby. I just need to work on the hat this week. While at my friend Susan's house another friend of hers joined us for the day. She is just a beginner quilter and she was working on two baby quilts for her kids. The center of the quilts are from her late husband's shirts. What a great keepsake for the kids and grandkids!

There was no slow stitching for me on Sunday with Kathy although I was thinking about it ...does that count!! The garden is starting to show signs of fall so some pickling is going to have to be done and there is no time like the present. So Sunday evening after supper I picked what green beans I could and made dill green beans, we love them almost as much as dill cucumbers!! And while wandering around outside I noticed that my lilies are starting to bloom. I just love these ones and the fragrance was almost overpowering. Hoping for some warm sunny weather so things dry up a bit and we get a little more summer before September arrives!

four blooming and two to go

So Lucky!!

My going away lunch almost 7 years ago. Susan and I

Yes I am feeling very special this weekend.  I was lucky to have a friend come and visit for the weekend. We have been getting together every month or so as time allows since I moved 7 years ago. So this weekend was all about de-stressing for both of us. Petting fabric, ohhing and ahhing over fabric and projects, a little sewing and a glass of wine or three!!!

Ruth and her new quilt

So it has been a busy week for me before Friday. Last Monday I got an idea to make a quilt for my niece, but the catch was she was leaving on Thursday.YIKES!! Tuesday morning picked out fabrics and cut, Wednesday sewed all the squares together and than cut them apart and resewed.(we are a crazy bunch us quilters). Added borders and pieced the backing. Thursday morning sandwiched and pin basted it and quilted it through the lunch hour. Early afternoon put on the binding and was halfway done the binding when my niece came to collect it. We had a great visit while I finished the quilt and she was happy as anything and thought she had the craziest aunt!!!

So as always when I finish a quilt there is a bit of a letdown. So what better way to get over that than to start a new project. First I completed the first two of ten blocks from the Marcus Designer Sew Along . I am going to use some of my scrap plaids. Then I pulled out some fabric and a pattern that I picked up a couple of years ago. I will cut it up and get it ready for my retreat in October.  Now I just want to sew it....but "SQUIRREL" look I have another project I can work on. Christmas comes way to soon so why not be ready! I will play with this today and later on I will do some more hand quilting on my other quilt. As Kathy says, slow down and relax today on slow stitching Sunday, 

I think these are going to look good done in plaids

Hmm what to do with this panel?

More on this one in the fall!!

Enjoy your day and I will too as I know this week is going to be a hectic one!!! Happy stitching!!

Slow stitching Sunday

Good thing Kathy is there to remind us to slow down. It has been a bit of a stressful week so stitching quietly will be relaxing. Today I will be slow stitching and doing some hand quilting. I have machine quilted most of the quilt but want to do some hand quilting in the set in triangles and the last border. It has been sitting on my lazy boy for a couple of days but I have been working on my hexies.

my layout idea

 These hexies are very addictive for me right now. So I sew while I am loving it because the day is going to come when I will set it aside to age for awhile! I have decided what to do with them so now it is a matter of starting to sew them all together. I am going to surround them with white and a path of green. I think I will be cutting more paper for the backing. I am just not sure what I am going to do with all those hexie papers when I am done!?!

my corner of the couch, scissors, needles pins..
........better than a do not sit sign

I think I deserve a slow day too because yesterday I spent the day outside weeding. The garden and flowerbeds were all well overdue for some TLC! So this morning I finished the one flowerbed up with some wood chips. While I was working and even taking this pic, this furry little guy was coming and going from a hole in the lawn! You had to be quick to catch him too!!

there are flowers in there once the weeds are gone

he stopped and posed but only for a second