Dogs In Sweaters

I finally got the quilting done on that retreat project that consumed me last month; Elizabeth Hartman's Dogs In Sweaters quilt will soon be hanging in my studio in all its canine glory! I am truly in love with this little quilt. I chose to quilt it with a pantograph called Bauhaus by Patricia Ritter for Urban Elementz, it had just the right feel. I didn't want to quilt it too densely because I had a time with the fabrics laying flat. This is constructed entirely (except for the back and binding) from Essex Linen and cotton flannel. For some reason the flannels "grew" a little and required some steam and coaxing to behave in a straight and square manner before this one was quilted. It all worked out extremely well.

Is this not the cutest thing? This quilt measures 45" X 60"

Here's a detail shot with the back folded up so that you can read the most perfect backing fabric.

The binding got an extra shot of color with some red and black print piping, added before stitching the binding on but after the quilted portion was squared and trimmed. I originally bought enough materials to do the entire full sized quilt and then realized that it was too big to hang in its designated spot, over the loveseat. I will use those leftovers to make a sofa cushion with from a single block (16" X 26") and add the eyeglasses to that one as it will be a pillow to sit and read with. 

Picture from pattern envelope

I loved using this pattern, the cutting directions are not for wimps, but once that's accomplished you're good to go! I have two more of hers to tackle this summer: "Penguin Party" and "Cuckoo", they're on my to do list! 

Have you done any of these patterns? 

Which ones?

Life is Good!

 

Throwing In The Towel

I don't give up, or 'throw in the towel', without a fight... literally. My husband and I have plush, thick, absorbent towels in our bathrooms for guests to use. Our bathroom, though, was a different story. It's not that we don't have nice, new towels. We do; stacks of them. I just don't put them out for us to use on a daily basis, as a result our towels became very thin, threadbare and string-y. My husband finally declared that enough was enough, and began using the "nice" towels himself. I was still determined to keep on with the old, worn-out ones however. I kept thinking "one more time"... as I yanked off yet one more straggly edge and tossed it in the trash. In all acuality, the towels that my husband uses to dry off the car were in much better shape than MY bath towels were. Yes, past tense... I finally gave in and literally 'threw in the towels', all of the old see-thru ones... into the rag bag! I carried, ceremoniously, a stack of lovely NEW towels into our bathroom on Monday. These towels are so nice, in fact, that I decided they needed monograms. I worked in my software program for most of that day creating monograms in different sizes and fonts for my husband to approve. I printed them out on pages the actual size for viewing and carried them back to the bedroom/bathroom to "try them on" and attempt to get an idea of how they would look on the nice, new towels. My husband passed on a few and ultimately selected one, we discussed thread color for the monograms and I then folded that towel up, with the pages, and laid it on the loveseat in our bedroom. This morning, when I stepped out of the shower, I saw those monogram pages scattered all over the bedroom floor. It took me a moment to register what, exactly, had happened. Hannes was sound asleep on the afore-mentioned towel, he'd made a nice little nest out of it. A soft, cozy nest from this luxurious, new towel! He had to dig with his front paws, furiously, to get his little towel-nest 'just right', too! Have you ever seen a dachshund dig? Let's just say that it's what God created them to do... and when they dig, for all their worth , in a brand-new towel... it loosens more than a few surface threads: I can trim off the pile of loose threads... (I'm used to threadbare towels, anyway!) I'm not sure this one is still deserving of a monogram however! I can't be mad, for long, at this dog... could you?

I ask you...is this the face of remorse?
Life is Good!

Hannes knows that, and it will be good for him again too...
whenever he gets out of the proverbial dog house! ;)