Sunday, January 22, 2017

Samples

I was asked if I would share some Thread Play again this year. A few years ago I threw this Hibiscus Flower together for a class I would be taking, "The Open Threadbar" with Cindy Needham. In the class we were going to have the opportunity to play with all the Superior threads that were available at the time. I had not had my 
Janome 6600 for long and there was lots of talk about many of the newer machines did not like many of the new threads. I thought it was a great way to try all the Superior threads without having to purchase any. As it turns out the Janome.... liked them all! Most of the class played on a white/muslin sandwich... and did the stitch outs using the fancy stitches on their machines. I wanted to see how the thread would behave on an actual project.
The fabrics are batiks and backed with fusible, so there were some rather thick areas where the fabric stacked up. But I didn't have time to cut away fusible as I really did throw this together in the last hour....

I had to create a patter for the hibiscus since the original was
supposed to be a one off. I spent December working on that and then thought that after painting a hibiscus last year at the guild, we might want a different flower, and created the Echinacea. This yellow one is a test... for the pattern and is small. I will leave it unfinished for now. Although it just needs a little more quilting and the binding. I did add some beads tho. If you click on the photo you should be able to see the details.


Once I had the test all worked out, I made one that is full size, too.  The first picture is the detail, I added a few beads to give it some sparkle and dimension. The yellow and the orange are the same pattern just oriented differently on the background.











The instructions for both of them are the same, so the fabric choices and the number of pieces are different, I will let participants choose the one they want to do.

Monday, January 9, 2017

Wishes and PUP date #1

Happy New Year!!! I'm just a little late ..... with this... but I'm sure you'll understand.

My hope is that 2017 brings you creativity and time to pursue it, and that it brings you both joy and happiness!

We have our own little ball of joy and happiness to take us into 2017. Sure hope I am saying this as we go through the equivalence of the terrible 2's of Puppyhood!!!

Meet Bandit. 
 

The breeder named him.... and it was what was put on his registration.... so we kept it. 










This is his sire             and      this is his dam
                







This him at 7 weeks, when we brought him home. Both of his ears were erect, but the stress of rehoming... caused one to flop. It only took 3 days for both to be back up. He probably weighed 12 pounds when we brought him home and yesterday at the vet (first picture) he weighed in about 20 pounds.




At 10 weeks he is nearly house broken....  He asks to go out.... but we don't trust him yet of course. 

We both were missing our big 'bigger than life' dog, Axel since July and the hole in our daily lives just didn't want to close. So in November I said I thought I was ready for a new dog. The DH started looking for a breeder that bred dogs like Axel. I considered a white rescue shepherd that I helped rescue, but he was just to laid back. DH asked if I wouldn't consider an all Black Shepherd, but no I really wanted another flat coated dog. DH made some inquires... and showed me a page with a beautiful dog, we Googled it and, and, and, they had a litter of puppies. 2 females and 2 males. One of the girls was spoken for, but neither of the males were. So we made an appointment to see them. This is a picture of the males at 4 weeks. Bandit is the pup on the right.


He has been with us for a full 3 weeks now and he has matured and grown tremendously. Its been fun watching him learn to leap, jump and manage his body this week. He is practicing his bark too. He doesn't manage the whole night yet and the frigid weather of the last few days has us questioning our sanity!



and Bandit at 8 weeks.

Linzi is not happy about this at all! He is too small yet to allow them together... and it is evident that he will be the dominate dog. Hopefully they will eventually find a balance and we can all be together in the same room.

If this post is a disjointed... sorry. My attention span has been shorted dramatically over the last few weeks. Wonder Why?

More later... about me, quilting and Bandit!
Beth