Another Sister Bear

Another bear finished from my sister's clothing.  The tee shirt had three hot-fix sparkly hearts on the front but only one fit on the bear.  I think this one came out pretty cute with the eyelashes.  Four to go.

 

Saturday Morning Bark

It's been a while since I've posted, which is unlike me.  I've been busy sewing teddy bears for one thing.  With Christmas approaching, I have orders to fulfill and spending hours at the computer reading and writing blogs takes a bite out of the day.  Not that I'm ignoring my blog friends.  You are all important to me.  I visit lurk your sites daily but am not leaving comments as readily.  

These are the three bears that are heading to Omaha to their new home.  They are 15 inches tall with movable legs and head like all my bears.  I used a full-length mink coat and used it all except for the collar.

 Also, I'm keeping up with Barbara Brackman's Grandmothers Choice: Votes for Women Block of the Week.

  Most of the blocks are fairly quick to do so if I clear a couple of hours off my daily schedule, the block is done.  I see the new one is already posted so I'll print it out and tackle it come Tuesday.  Instead of the 8" blocks, I'm making mine 6" with the help of 

 

This is stand-alone software made available by The Electric Quilt Company  There are over 4,000 historic block patterns which can be resized and printed with rotary cutting instructions and/or templates.  You do not need the EQ program to make this work  that's why I like it so well.  I cannot afford  EQ at this point.  BlockBase is very affordable and I highly recommend it.  

Minnie is almost back to her feisty ways.  I wish I could say the same for my back.  Prolong sitting irritates the sciatic nerve and that's another reason for not being at the computer as much.  I guess it's too much sitting at the sewing machine..do you think?

Okay, that's what's happening here.  I have special company coming to my house on Monday, book club is meeting on Tuesday night and quilt guild meeting on Thursday night.  Good Lord, the month is half over by then.  Hope your week is as fulfilling as mine.  I'll be visiting with y'all again, maybe sooner that you think.  

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.  

Joni's Bears & Minnie

I promised some pics on those bears I'm doing from my sister's clothing.  I told her children to pick out a clothing item and I would make a teddy bear for them as a remembrance.  I was handed several bags with a clothing item and the name of the recipient.  Eighteen bears to make in all.  This was the first one I made from Joni's sparkly jacket.

I have five more done.

 My sister was a fan of red.  So, six down and 12 to go.  

I'm almost finished with the doll quilt for October.  It needs to go to Germany so I'll have to get in finished and sent off real soon.  I've been away from quilting too long because I felt a little rusty with this piece.

Minnie is spending 24/7 on her bed(s).  I have one in the living room, one in the sewing room where I quilt and one in the bear den downstairs.

The prednisone has taken hold and the pain meds keep her comfortable.  She cannot walk yet and I have to carry her  outside to potty.  Actually, she has no bladder control and doesn't know she has to go potty so,essentially, I'm dealing with doggy diapers.   The first two nights I slept on the floor beside her but last night I went to my bed and her bed was next to mine.  I've gotten advice from a few friends saying that she will eventually recover but it will take some time.  I hope they're right.  I'm afraid my back may blow out like it did in March and then what will we do?

Hope everyone has a good week.  I have no major commitments scheduled except a trip to the vet on Thursday.  But, that could change by tomorrow.

Minnie's Setback

I'm almost at my wit's end with stuff that has happened lately.  Last night Minnie got off the couch as usual to go outside and gave herself a shake and fell down.  Her back legs were nearly paralyzed.   It was my worst fear..she ruptured a disc.

We were awake all night as I was cuddling her and she was scared and in pain.  I called the vet one hour before they opened to be sure a doctor would be available and was in the door when they turned the key.  She had an xray just to be sure there are no tumors causing this.  She will be treated  first with anti-inflammatory medicine and pain killers. I was told it will be a long recovery period if she responds to the treatment.   I so hope she recovers without surgery.  I would not be able to go through another trauma and I need my Minnie.

Thursday Morning Bark

Life is good for Minnie once again.  She got through her surgery on Monday and is back to her favorite pastime, inspecting one of her best toys.

She got three stitches.

I'm surprised that she doesn't worry about it.  I thought she'd have to wear a cone but that wasn't necessary.  She also had her teeth cleaned and nails trimmed while she was down for the count.

 She actually looks rather proud of her battle scar.  It gets her lots of treats.

The fickle Minnesota weather is rapidly changing.  Temps in the high 70's and low 80's the last two days and it's snowing in northern Minnesota this morning.  That's a good thing because of wild fires in that area.  Where I live the temps will be falling throughout the day and it's very windy already.  There go our beautiful fall colors.  I did enjoy them while they lasted.  

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by.

FO for September

In spite of all the cleaning and painting I did in September, I did manage to get back in the sewing room for a few hours.  I started and finished the doll quilt for my partner, Judee, at Doll Quilter's Monthly

The leaf blocks are 1.5" with the overall size somewhere around 13 x 16.  

I also did a mini quilt for our quilt guild but I can't show that as we haven't had our big reveal yet.  I'll just tell you that my partner requested a winter theme.

I started making blocks in a new Block of the Week which started in September.  

I've made four blocks so far.  The first three went very well.  

 
I got up early this morning and did this week's block.  It's called New Jersey.

 
That one went well, too.  But, I couldn't for the life of me get last week's block together.  It's called Kansas Sunflower

 

I gave up on this and came up with my own.

 
I have to applique the stem and leaves on this.  All these blocks are 6 1/2 inch and very challenging.

Tomorrow morning I have to take Minnie to the vet for a little surgery to remove a pesky cyst.  It never heals and she keeps worrying about it.
She'll also have her teeth cleaned and any other humiliating procedures that need to be done while she sleeps.

 

Do you think she knows her food will be cut off at 6:00 tonight?

She's going to be one upset little pooch when she doesn't get her usual treats tonight.   We'll have a long talk about it later.  Minnie and I have some good conversations.  Well, I mostly do the talking and she does the listening.  

That's it for quilty projects.  I've been doing bear making and will show some of those in the days to come.  

 

 

FMQ Challenge for September

It's time to post my September FMQ results.  This month's expert is Paula Reid and she gave us her insights on free motion quilting, tips on how to get started and her fluff & stuff technique.  She gave us a design to practice and I put it on an orphan  9-patch block.

 It's actually a very nice design for a 9 patch, don't you think?  I put the design on my sample FMQ quilt next.

 It really shows up nicely on plain blocks.  I used Don Linn's method of transferring the design onto the quilt.  He was the April expert and you can check out his method here.

Hard to believe there are only three lessons left and I have to say my sample quilt is looking mah-va-lus.

Thank you Sew Cal Gal and Paula Reid for all your encouragement and expertise on free motion quilting.