Woodland Animals ABC Finish & My Animals

 Yay a finish before July is over! This is my Woodland Animals ABC quilt. I bought a pattern from Bustle & Sew on Craftsy and used the appliqué designs, but it did not include a design of a deer. My friend was specifically using deer in her nursery, so I used a deer appliqué pattern that was a freebie over on Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

 I embroidered the facial features on each animal and pieced it using my scrap bins and 2.5 inch wide pieces in pink, brown, yellow, and green.

 I quilted it on my Pfaff using the wavy quilting stitch which has been my favorite this summer.

 I love the eye lashes on the owl.

 Here is my label. The backing is a pink with bright green trees all over it.  It finished after washing at 36 x 45 inches.

 I usually take my outdoor pictures on my pasture fence and get some funny looks from my neighbors, but my dogs seem to be the most confused by my photo session antics. I always admire other bloggers and their pictures of their dogs modeling on quilts, my dogs are not models and I can barely get pictures of them as they will try to lick my iPad or demand my attention.

 This is our matriarch, Dora. She is the last dog we got in California and she is a chocolate lab and boxer mix. She will be 12 years old in January. She is the most vocal, but mellowest of my dogs. She is agoraphobic and has no desire to leave our house and property.

 This is the baby, Bella. She is a Vizsla (a Hungarian pointer/hunting dog, her mom was a purebred Vizsla who was kicked out of hunting school and could not be bred because of it) and an Australian shepherd mix (her dad was neighboring farm's herder). She will be 4 years old in September and is probably the most destructive dog we have ever had. The wicker love seat she is standing on she has nearly destroyed and the two matching chairs were demolished by her years ago! It is a good thing she is so affectionate and cute... Her coloring is so unique and when it is not green outside she blends in with the browns and tans, she is completely desert camouflage like.

This is Dora and Lola together, but they would not pose for me. We have a heated sunroom that is the dog's room. Their beds are out there and they have access to a 1/2 acre fenced dog yard. The fencing is chain link, so they can see everything around--deer, rabbits, our neighbors dogs and chickens, loose pigs, etc. Our pasture is fenced and is about 1.5 acres and we let them out there to explore. It is better than any dog park.

Lola is our border collie and black lab mix. She just turned 9 years old in June and blew out her ankle (ruptured ligament and arthritis). We got her at the local rodeo and fair our first summer in Colorado. She is extremely intelligent and is still functioning pretty well with her bad ankle.

My daughter is going to Lake Powell with a friend and her family and my hubby leaves tomorrow for a guys camping trip, so I will have three days to myself. You can bet I will be quilting a ton and not cooking, but subsisting on everything bagels and Diet Coke! I hope to get lots done...

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I always look forward to Slow Sunday Stitching. I have been making good progress on my "Quilty Stitches" project. I just love sitting and stitching while I watch TV especially all the Sunday morning news shows. 

 I used some leftover quilted fabric from my thread catcher to make a small eyeglass case for one of my pairs of readers. I bought a 3 pack of readers mid-June and will probably need another one because I want to leave a pair in each of my handwork baskets, in my purse, and in my work bag. I already wear contacts and now to need an additional pair of glasses really sucks...The joys of getting old!

It was delightfully cool here today because of clouds and thunder showers, but we did not get much rain. I spent some time outside reading this book it is the new Target Book Club pick and it is pretty good so far! I did pin my Woodland ABC quilt, but did not start quilting it yet since I read instead...How was your Slow Sunday Stitching?

Late Friday Finish

 I have not felt very productive lately, but I certainly got in the groove today. I think it is so much easier to get into the sewing zone when you sew with friends! My AWESOME (we both use the word awesome a bunch!) friend, Lindsey, and I got together this afternoon and worked on the same project together. We made these thread catchers.

 I actually used some of my precious Bonnie and Camille fabric for mine. We added a little scissors holder at Lindsey's suggestion, so they are always at your fingertips.

Here is Lindsey's.  Although, my pictures make it look red, the main fabric is a really pretty coral.

 Here is the pin cushion with the bird showing nicely!

Before I went over to Lindsey's at noon, I finished appliquéing my orange peels. Now, I will just need to play with my rainbow layout for the baby quilt.

 Since I have been cross stitching Little Miss Shabby's "Quilty Stitches," it made me go dig through what was left of my cross stitching supplies from 20 years ago. Look what I found!  This is from Better Homes and Gardens Cross Stitch & Country Crafts 1992 magazine and I made the Country Champion Cow right around when I got married.

Same with the Champion Pig...I was making them in preparation for our moving to Colorado back in 1994-1995. We did not move here then, but we did in 2005. 

I already have the aida cloth to make the Champion Sheep and most of the floss, so I will work on this when my "Quilty Stitches" project is done. I think the three framed and displayed together will be  fun in my country home. These animals will not escape and run through my neighborhood! (We have loose livestock every now and then and recently had a funny encounter with some pigs!)

Look what arrived in today's mail! This is the market bag from American Made Brand, the cotton solids from Clothworks where the cotton is grown and manufactured into quilting cotton here in the U.S.A. I won it from Patty at http://ncweekendquilter.blogspot.com, she designed the North Carolina license plate. I had won a bundle of fat quarters from the American Made Brand blog hop earlier this summer. Lucky me! 

I usually read a lot more than I have this summer, but I have not read or finished nearly as many books. I have been kind of disappointed with some of my selections this summer. They are either not that interesting or just light like candy where I can neglect them. I finally read this one yesterday. Heather Gudenkauf is one of my favorite authors, so I had requested to borrow it from the library electronically on my iPad. I got the email at noon that it was available and I was done with by 11:30pm. It was very timely dealing with a baby that is left in a hot car and the consequences that arise. I don't want to give away too much, but I finished it in less than half a day and am dying to talk about it. I hope my book club wants to read it next month! 

This weekend I need to quilt my Woodland ABC quilt, make an eyeglass case (I need readers for cross stitching), figure out the layout of my orange peels, keep working on my "Quilty Stitches" project, and find a new book to read! What do you have on your agenda?

Major Mess Up!

So I thought I was totally rocking my orange peels yesterday. I had sewed 100 of them of the 120 I was making when I discovered, I sewed them wrong!!! I was really tempted to just throw the whole mess away, but I have spent all day today ripping out the seams that I incorrectly sewed the light weight interfacing on with. I have 20 more to go...What a pain!

 After all the ripping, there was no way to salvage the light weight interfacing. I decided to just trace and attach Wonder Under and fuse the orange peels on and attach by machine with a buttonhole stitch. I intend to make my orange peels into a baby quilt, so this will be more washable too.

I am continuing to work on my Quilty Stitches from Little Miss Shabby. I am in love with how it is looking. It has been really hot and messing up my sewing mojo lately. I do have a deadline for my Woodland ABC quilt, so I must get it quilted and bound ASAP. Hopefully, I can get my sewing mojo back before I have to get back to work!

Sunday Sewing

 These are the last two houses for the Country Homecoming Quilt Along over at http://kimsbigquiltingadventure.blogspot.com  Go check out what everyone else's houses look like!

Now, I need to order a sashing and border fabric in black brushed cotton, so I can start on the border appliqué.

This one is from Paulette over at http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com  Isn't hers fantastic? I am trying to decide if I will use wool felt or brushed cottons for the border.

I decided to join the fad and make an orange peel quilt. I am thinking a baby quilt... Here are my colors: yellow, pink, green, red, blue, orange, and purple.

 I am using the method from the tutorial over on http://crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com/2014/02/orange-you-glad-tutorial.html 

I am thinking 10 x 12 on my layout and very similar to this quilt they showed except for a one color background.

Gathering fabrics for these orange peels was really easy because of my scrap bins. They are located below my cutting table in rolling plastic carts.

 Each drawer contains a different color and most of them are over flowing!

 I can actually remove the drawers and dig through them over at my ironing board.

 My daughter made me cute labels for each drawer.

I need to decide whether I am going to use a white background or a gray background for my orange peels. Which color do you think?

July FNSI

 I gave up counted cross stitching nearly 20 years ago when I started quilting. I have been looking at all the inspiration from Little Miss Shabby's Quilty Stitches http://www.littlemissshabby.com/quilty-stitches/ and I finally caved and bought all the supplies and started. I began on Wednesday after I finished moving my classroom at one of the schools I work at (imagine moving a small house in a day and trying to unpack everything too--stressful and totally annoying), hence my need for the therapy of handwork...

 Since my cross stitching experience is from so many years ago, I am sticking to the suggested colors. The patterns are free and I have busted out my colored pencils to mark my patterns.

My eyes are not the same as when I cross stitched last, so I have busted out my readers to help. I spent July's Friday Night Sew In (FNSI)  finishing block two and working on block three. I also broke down and started on making orange peel blocks, but I plan on them being all machine done.  Be sure to check out what people around the world worked on for FNSI here http://sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com/2014/07/signups-for-fnsi.html also I will work on this project for Slow Sunday Stitching tomorrow. What are you up to?

World Cup Sunday!

 I started the weekend off with going to our local quilt show. I picked up Lindsey and we headed straight for the vendor booths. We bought some wool and then checked out the quilts. There were not as many quilts as in past years. Lindsey loves primitive quilts and I am starting to really like modern, but this quilt show featured a lot of traditional quilts as that is what most people make around here. This first row quilt was made by my friend, Barbara, and I was pleased she won a ribbon.

 Barbara also made this row quilt. Our little sewing group made these quilts last summer from Lori Holt's row along. She made two of them. Mine is still sitting in a basket not completed because I have been indecisive regarding the borders...Part of the problem is I don't know where I can display it because it is quite large.

Lindsey made me this sweet pin cushion. It is so cute and will now reside next to my spot on the couch where I hand sew while watching television. Lindsey recently started a crafting blog that you can check out here http://areaderscraftylife.blogspot.com I am so excited that we met and can now get together and encourage and inspire one another with our quilting!

I have my Woodland Alphabet quilt top completed. Yesterday, during the third place World Cup game, I embroidered the details on all the animals.

Aren't the eyelashes on the owl precious?

 The mouse is tiny and cute, too!

 I am not sure why the design had a bird on top of the "A," but I like how sweet it is.

After our visit to the quilt show, we had lunch and then went to the local quilt shop because they had the entire store 20% off. Lindsey spotted this pink background with trees fabric for me. It will be the perfect backing for this Woodland ABC quilt. I am going to make a quilt label and get this all pin basted and ready for quilting today.

 I am nearly done with Block 3 of my Journey of a Quilter BOM.

 I am trying to take my time and keep my embroidery stitches neat and tiny.

 The colors are so happy and I know this quilt will brighten up my sewing room when it is done and hanging in there.

 During the World Cup final today, I hope to get these flowers embroidered. After all, I have to get in some Slow Sunday Stitching in. Be sure to visit Kathy's link up to get inspired by other handwork http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

I thought I was done with all my blocks for the Love Blooms Here BOM I have been working on, but I forgot to add these flowers to the yellow churn dash blocks. I got those all done yesterday and now I am just waiting for the new issue of Quiltmaker for the next block instructions. It has been such a pleasure to work with wool felt again. I am tempted to start on another wool felt project, but I better look through my UFOs first and see if I have any to finish up first. What are you up to?