Cold Tuesday

Weather-wise that is. On Sunday, this was the view outside the sewing area. 

 

Monday, the frigid temps arrived and will be here until Friday when we should get back up near 30.  In the meantime, we are staying hunkered down - hopefully.  (Oh Please, Oh Please, Oh Please). 

See, we have a bit of a situation here - sick dog.  Hobbes is under the weather and under his quilt.

And I'm hoping we don't need to make the trek up to the vet unless necessary.  Normally, Hobbes is an Artic Beagle but below zero temps and with the wind kicking up to 30 mph gusts, it is just too dang cold & hard on his old bones.  Waiting for a call back from Dr. Chris (wonderful vet!) to see how we want to handle this right now.  If we don't have to go out, we will just be focused on supportive care.

Down in the sewing area yesterday, I boxed up the Celtic Solstice chevron blocks and started cutting. Remember those narrow black strips?  They have some company on the cutting table.

Cherrywood Fabrics - Lagoon colorway

 

Which led to this

Ziggy: It's okay Mom, I'm guarding the blocks from prying eyes

 Ziggy had to be convinced that it was okay to share these blocks

 

Me: Really Ziggy, it's okay to share - these are not a secret

 So here are the first 8 blocks

and here's the color pencil sketch of the small Irish Chain quilt they will become.

You'll have to wait to see the rest until I get back downstairs. Hopefully, I'll be able to get true color on the pictures of the finished top.  Hope you all are keeping warm if it's cold where you are.

Slow Start Sunday

We've been up for almost 2 hours, not moving very fast but we're up. Well, at least some of us are still awake.

 

The French Braid top is on the wall!  It's been awhile since I last made this pattern and I forget that the braids are done until the ending triangles are on. And that they are a pain. Not a huge pain but pain.  Ending triangles are bias edges. 

 

 

So I have to go slow and minimize handling, which I can do easily enough but I was in more of a mindless chain stitching mindset so I really had to pay attention.  I worked 1 braid at a time, slicing the 2 large squares in half to make the triangles right on the mat on the machine table and didn't move them. Only when I am sitting down braid end in hand did I pick up a triangle, pin in place and stitched it immediately. Then repeat on the other end, press the first two flat, return to the machine and add the other two triangles - one on each end and one at a time. TWENY-EIGHT times!

 Slow but steady & no stretched out of shape, wavy weirdness to overcome. YAY! More bias edges come into play when you trim the braids square, or square-ish.  The whole length of the braid is made up of the nasty little buggers! ACK!  But I LOVE this pattern - all about the color play.

 

The top is currently assembled in three sections (yellow lines above show breaks) so I can finish this using a quilt as you go method.  The borders are still undetermined - that should be interesting.  A quilt this big doesn't allow me to take straight on pictures of it in my sewing area and it rained all day.

 

The search for a backing never happened.  Maybe I'll get lucky today as I gather fabric for an away from home adventure.  No, not a road trip, but you'll have to come back to see how I spend my Sunday away.

 

Beagle Time

Not everyone is enjoying the change back to standard time.

 

 

Hobbes is un-thrilled with the delay of meals this is causing, evidenced by the Beagle Alarm (single, loud howl) sounding at 6:15 a.m. yesterday, after which he spent some time pouting on the couch, not at all convinced that breakfast would eventually be served.  Hard to see but he is laying on his very own jewel tones flannel quilt - the grey back side is showing here.

 

Here's the boy after breakfast, all settled in for his morning nappy, on Mom's couch spot.  We have the living room couches all covered with matching washable grey comforters to help keep the pet hair and dirt under control. Easy enough to strip them off and chuck them into the washer one by one.

 

 

 

As I was working on the first fused piece, I realized there weren't enough deep tones to get the range I want. So it is back to the ironing board for me.

 

 

 

Beagle Drama, Baking for the Road Trip and Arcs, Arcs, & more Arcs!

Thursday, September 26, 2013 Post - late because of picture delay - GRRR!

Here is Himself - doing oh so much better than Tuesday.

This is Hobbes, our beloved 14 year old Beagle stretched out on the couch, under the influence of some feel good meds from the vet, and resting comfortably.

I have several more gray hairs and crashed at 7:30 last night after the stress of worry and the vet visit.
We are truly blessed to have an excellent vet, though his office is about an hour away, who has been taking amazing care of our senior citizen for the last 8 years. Dr. Chris is down to earth, practical and thorough.  Hobbes is in remarkable shape but has some old age issues, the primary concern is arthritis. Ninety-nine percent of the time, you wouldn't know that that is an issue and then he does something stupid like jump off the couch like a flying beagle or his brother bowls him over. And then we're off to the races - meds, supportive care, altering his exercise/movements, etc.  The first episode was a year and a half ago & that one was bad - we had to carry him up & down stairs.  This episode was concerning because he presented with different symptoms, primarily his neck & shoulders but not very severe.  Thankfully, a few days of meds and rest (and extra dog treats, of course) will make everything all better.  That and a little box of hair color for Mom ;)

This morning has been devoted to my new baking obsession - Scones! 

I made a test batch from a new recipe last week & subjected the friends to the results, with positive reviews.  Tomorrow is departure day for the latest Road Trip so I decided to make some scones - 6 batches, four flavors (Cranberry Orange, Blueberry Lemon, Apricot and Heath Bar)!  DH has tasted 3 of the flavors & has a container of them to hold him over while I'm gone. The kitchen looked like a bomb went off and there was a heavy cream disaster but counters wipe off & the store is five minutes away - all is well.

This afternoon will be all about ARCS!! The hand stitching them down to the background, that is.  I've been working on them in between things all this week but you have to wait for more progress for a picture. There are 50 separate ARCS and I'm not quite half way done with them - they go rather slowly but I didn't want them machine stitched so I'm persevering.