Changes

Well, things have certainly changed in our world recently.  DD is now with us full time while finishing up her final semester online.  Which means her cat Dory is with us as well.  Fortunately Dory and Cici get along well and even have some romping through the house play time.  Here they are sharing the window seat.  

Dory's favorite activity is unrolling a ball of yarn and her favorite place to do that is on the stairs!

See her peaking over the top step surveying her work!  It's very distracting when she starts doing this while I'm giving piano lessons since the piano is right by the stairs.  

Piano lessons are now being done over Zoom...........internet piano!  It's not easy, but we're making it work.  I just had to be careful scheduling so that I wasn't scheduled during one of dd's class or meeting times.  Don't want to overtax the internet connection!  Here's what it looks like for piano.  I sit at the bench and have my laptop on the stool stacked chair.

It's definitely an interesting way to do piano.  

We also celebrated the hubs St. Pat's birthday very quietly a few days late when dd got home.

And I had ordered a new board game called Splendor that the hubs and I played a few times prior to dd arriving home.  I managed to win once.  As soon as we taught dd, she has won almost every game.  

I finally made them play deluxe clue with me after losing so many games one evening.  I guess we all have our games.............I managed to guess the right clues on my third turn.  Apparently I can read people and dd and dh can read numbers!

And on the quilting front, I made a set of 6 placemats!  They were a quilt as you go pattern that used preprinted batting and a jelly roll of fabric.  This fabric was called Richmond Reds.  I think they turned out nicely.  I have another jelly roll and set of preprinted batting, so can make some more.

I also made a few masks for our local hospital.  

I decided that this was the time to be using up some of the stash.  So, I took the shoe box full of 2.5" squares and started sewing them into 4-patches.  I've been working on this project in the basement, sewing on Lizzie, my 201.  I'm hoping to make these into a nice charity quilt.

I picked up a quilt of my mom's that Pam had quilted for her.  It's a maple leaf pattern.

Cici is trying to teach Dory that it's purrfectly alright to sit on any quilt and test it out.  Dory wasn't so sure.  Here's a close up of the quilting.

And the quilting on the back side.

I finished this quilt top.  It was all fabrics I had found at D&T before it closed.  There were several pieced that seemed to go together, but the cuts were odd sizes.  I only added the black and white fabrics.  I hadn't planned on a second black border, but dd looked at it with the outside border right next to the sawtooth border and said.........."It really hurts my eyes!"  I think the narrow black border made it bearable for her.  I'll bind it in black as well.

I wanted to use up as much of those fabrics as possible, so I pieced, and pieced, and pieced to get this for the backing.

Now only this small handful of fabric is left for the scrap bins!

I have started 2 mystery quilts during the Stay-at-Home time.  I am still working 3 mornings a week, and doing some online piano lessons as well as playing with Izzy, so am not sewing ALL THE TIME!

Speaking of Izzy, she was waiting for me to get home from work one day.........watching from the window seat!

More on Izzy in the next post, but it's perfectly ok to hug your puppy!  She's getting lots of squeezes!

Christi

Puppy Tales

Meet Izzy!  These photos are from her first night with us.  We got her about 10 days ago in a horrible rainstorm.  She was 8 weeks old and adorable.   

Izzy is short for Isadora, which comes from an old movie, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days!"  Andi was given the Isadora diamond to wear to the party.  We think Izzy is a real gem.

It has been an adventure.  We really weren't prepared to become puppy parents, so she spent the first night inside, but now has a (very muddy) pen outside and still spends a lot of time inside when we are here (which is turning out to be much more than we expected).

The Hubs concocted this pen around the cat shed to keep her in.  No, the cats are not very appreciative, but he did put a ladder up on the outside of the fence and stacked the live traps on the inside of the fence so that they can go up and over and avoid puppy contact to get to the food dishes.

There was ONE reasonably nice day to play outside with her.  She watched Kenzie chase the ball and we started working with Izzy to do the same.  She does it pretty well.  This photo was right after we got her and I can't believe how much bigger she already seems.  I still pick her up and carry her around, but it's getting to be a workout.

We have had to do lots of inside play because of all the rain.  Sarah and her cat were home for 3 days last weekend, and Dory was not at all impressed with Izzy.  She managed to stay in Sarah's room as much as possible and spent time watching on the steps for the coast to be clear of the puppy.

Izzy has never met a basket she didn't think she could fit herself into.............

We are working on house training.  We had a trip to the vet on Saturday for first shots (weighed in at 22lbs., gonna be a big dog).  The vet gave us literature about potty training.  We are supposed to take her outside periodically and really praise her when she goes.  It's kinda working.  I took her out one day and she pooped in the yard and as I was exuberantly praising her, she ran a short distance away to stick her nose in some leaves and eat something............it was cat poop!  Not sure my praise was having the desired effect.  She will stay in the crate some inside and doesn't get too upset.

And yes, she has her own teddy bear.......actually 2, one for inside and one for outside.  She does love to carry them around.  They were supposed to be for Cici, but she never really cared for them.  She also inherited some other cat toys that Cici wasn't interested in.

And Cici is adjusting.  She has learned to inspect a room for a puppy before entering, and to seek high places.  She really likes to sit on the table and watch Izzy run around it in circles trying to figure out how to get up there with her.

Izzy has finally learned how to take a nap inside...........it can happen anywhere, even the kitchen floor!

DD is currently back in Rolla, she has only online classes now, but can work at her on campus job and work in the lab for her senior design class.  When she was home last weekend, we made a trip to Columbia for a little shopping.  We were parked opposite this when we left the mall.

It gave us a chuckle and made me anxious to get home to Izzy.

Not a whole lot of sewing has been done with a puppy to play with.  That is going to change as we spend more time at home.  So the next post will probably have some show and tell in it.

Christi

What a Week!

So, let's just start with the bad part of the week.............on Tuesday last week, I had some oral surgery done.......tooth extraction, bone graft, and it was a long week of not eating very much, mostly soft foods.  So, when I had to make pies for the church ham and bean supper on Saturday night, I made a chocolate meringue pie...........it's a soft food, right?!

I have to say that it was a pretty pie, as were the blackberry, pecan, and pumpkin pies I made.

Good things............

On Saturday, I finally got my car back!  It had been over a month since my accident.  Apparently I was wanting a vehicle so badly, that I decided to sew one.........

I still have to embroider the face, and there are blocks coming for the bottom part, but it was so fun to do!
And Cici supurrvised!

Of course, the best part of getting my car back was that Kenzie got to have her seat back in DH's truck!

Here she is cowering, afraid we are going to make her get out!

Still not too sure she actually gets to ride again...........

So, with the surgery, not too much sewing happened other than the cute truck.  Maybe more will happen this week.  Although with the time change, full moon, and Friday the 13th, DD coming home for a 4-day weekend, my parents visiting, I'm not sure just how much sewing will happen.

There's so much going on that Cici was exhausted.  We hardly ever catch her totally passed out like this.

That about catches up the week!  There is a quilt guild meeting tomorrow evening, so stay tuned for pictures!
Christi

Happy March!

As the calendar turned to March, the mail brought these announcements.  In 2 1/2 months, we'll have a college graduate!  Of course, then she called saying, "I'm out of checks.  Can you send me a couple so I can pay my rent and utilities?"  So, Mom and Dad are still needed from time to time.

Cici received a bath last Friday.  I honestly think she enjoys an occasional bath.  Once I had her in the water, she just sank down in the water (I was still holding on to her), held on to the edge of the sink with her paws and enjoyed the washing.  And then there is the rinsing, followed by her favorite part, the 2 towel rub down.  I can't take photos of the bath since it really takes both of my hands, and I'd like to keep my phone dry....... but here is her porcupine photo after her bath.

Trying to find a sunny spot to dry out.........

I can't decide if she's saying a prayer of thanks for her wonderful bath, or salivating over a bird in the flower bed below the window.

Somehow, I think it's the later.

I spent Saturday at Sew Sweet in Brunswick for Scrap Attack.  I had planned to take lots of photos of new things in the store and things everyone was working on, but I got so involved in sewing that I forgot.  I did get one photo of this cute rabbit that was part of one of their displays.

As for the sewing, I finished piecing this wall hanging from scraps from my Summertime Sampler quilt.

I also finished the borders on my Farm Girl Vintage quilt.  I think the borders really pull this one together.

And here is the photo of the Blue Batik quilt, now named Blue Radiance.  

And Bjorn Bear is now totally finished as well.  Mary quilted it for me and I finished the binding over the weekend.

I don't have any plans for this quilt yet, so will just put it away and save it for that special occasion or person.

Christi