A New Beginning

It's been so long since I sat down to just write.  I'm finding I've really missed it.  So it's time again to reach out to the world again to see how we're doing.

First, there's the quilting.  That, of course, never stops.  Still hoping to catch up on UFO's (not the kind featuring little green men) and a few got done.  

I love this gal.  Bought the pattern several years ago at a quilt show and started it only to have the late Ella chew up the directions.  Rebought the pattern and finally finished.  Sometimes this is the perfect picture of me.  (There is a reason the children used to call me Mother on a Broomstick.)

This one is from a kit called Cozy Throw.  I love the look of it but must admit that with a couple of starts and stops, the white fabric got a bit grimy, which I just had to live with until I finished the quilting and binding. Couldn't get it into the washer fast enough. I really wanted the quilting to be one with the strips of color so the whole thing is quilted ½-inch apart.

This is the sort of decision that makes me wonder what I could have been thinking at the time.  I like the way it turned out, but it seemed to take forever.

Last winter I saw some fabric in an email from "Sew Creative" in Ashland, OR.  It's called Art Club and features forest animals doing art projects.  It reminded me of my 3-year-old granddaughter and her artistic mom, so I bought the panel and more fabric to make a little dress.

Here's a close-up of one block so you can get the idea.

And also, the dress.

And from the poodle front . . . a few things have changed.  Our chocolate poodle, Ella,

( yes the one who taught me to make a copy of all instructions and keep them on my computer) went home to join her poodle friends on the rainbow bridge two years ago.  She was only 13, but packed a lot of living into those years.

Later that summer, daughter Barb decided she needed a pup of her own and she bought puppy Dutch and I bought her sister and littermate, Dinah.

Dutch is the one who is experiencing her first snow and Dinah is the one with silver along the edges of her ears and on her muzzle.

Not content with one pup, Barb added baby brother George last winter.

Wild Bill still thinks he's king.  I can't believe he's already 5 years old.  

Here he is, looking causal and in charge. He wishes.  Dinah is pretty bossy.

And in "do not disturb" mode.

I'm about to start quilting a round robin project undertaken by my small quilt group, Quilters on the Edge.  We used a Jen Kingwell pattern called "Wanderer's Wife" and after getting our blocks back, went off in our own directions.  Here's a pic of the top hanging on my brand new design wall built by Sweet Husband. I'm trying out a new foot on my machine for the quilting which will be mostly in the ditch.  I'll let you know what the foot's called and how I like it next time. Like sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Really and truly.

And then there's the garden.  My vegetable garden has lived in the front yard for about 20 years as there's just not enough sun in the back.  This year I added some top soil and got the tomatoes and squash in last weekend.  When I went out to water on Saturday, I found that deer had eaten the new growth off the tomato plants overnight on Friday.  It probably doesn't take much imagination to picture how thrilled I was about that.  I'm assured that they'll grow back and catch up to where they should be and I'm now armed with deer and rabbit spray.  There's actually a rabbit who comes in the back yard now and then.  Mostly he just stays outside the fence or in our neighbor's yard teasing the dogs who go completely ape whenever they see him.  It's a real treat being the owners of the scourge of the neighborhood.  

So that's a quick roundup of what's new.  I find that I've missed these bits of writing and sharing.  Also, relearning how to work Blogger.  Any comments are certainly welcome.  Be kind; it's been a long winter.