what's on my bed linky party

Bonnie Hunter is having a linky party showing off bed quilts. Here's mine though I actually am not that fond of this quilt and have it turned over showing just the lovely plain backing fabric most of the time. I love Courthouse Steps patterns but apparently not when the strips are cut 2.5 inches and maybe not in such light fabrics. I was going for a blendy look but oh well....live and learn :-)

Quilt finish and some news

The dog quilt is completed. I used a design of dog bones and paw prints for the quilting. The backing fabric choice changed but the rawhide bones worked well for the border.












Being inspired by Buster from Carol's Crafty Creations I wanted to try a photo shoot with Mosley. I do not have a cooperative group!

Even with cookies in my hand, he had to be led out with a leash and would only tolerate this silliness for a brief moment.
But oh well...the quilt is done and will be given to my friend soon.

Other news is not so good. Bridget has been blind since her bout with pneumonia for some still unknown reason and though improving in strength, the blindness and weakness from the arthritis had reduced her life to mostly challenges. While sleeping Tuesday evening, she started tensing up and shivering which were signs of her fighting off a fever. Her distress increased quickly and we knew that we needed to let her go. We were able to get comfort for her quickly (thanks to a pet ER) but it was very sad to say good bye to her.
Bridget and her sister, Sandy came to us from the county animal shelter 6 years ago. We have been so blessed by these girls. Sandy has some health issues of her own now so our days with her may be short as well. We are grateful for each moment we are given of our dogs being happy and able to enjoy their life.

Back from Tucson

I enjoyed safe travel and was treated like a Princess :-) while visiting with two friends and an adorable Brittany named Lizzi. We visited a quilt shop in Green Valley..Heart and Hand...where I found some tiny scissors allowed on airplanes and also some black fabric to use in the dog quilt I making.  We also enjoyed delightful pedicures and a beautiful hike up into the Santa Rita mountains where we put those same pampered feet to good use. The weather was perfect!
Lizzi, the lizard hunter.














This view overlooks Tucson.

My Lead Hikers :-)

View of Mt Wrightson which is at a 9453 ft elevation.

We hiked from the 5500 ft level to the 7080 ft Saddle and went about 6.5 miles.
No blisters for me in my Nikes but I slipped and slid the whole way. Note: proper hiking boots are apparently a needed safety item!



















More challenges with the canines made it hard to leave home but my DH did a wonderful job helping everyone back to health and comfort. I came home to happier dogs.
While traveling, I enjoyed stitching on my Blackbird Sings embroidery. The last couple of days I finished putting the borders on the dog quilt and making the backing for it. It is loaded on the longarm where I hope to start quilting it today.
quilt pics next week :-)

Embroidery Stitches

Awhile back, I enjoyed Sunday posts from Helen at Hugs from Helen. She taught specific stitches and tips for embroidery. Today I referred back to her posts to learn how to do a couple of new stitches for me.

First is the Chevron stitch which is in my Blackbird Sings pattern. I think I got it right.

Next I learned the Feather Stitch. I like this one it goes fast :-)

Thursday, I am flying to visit some friends in Arizona. I bought a rolling tote like Bonnie Hunter posted about once in hopes of just having a carry on. I also found some little scissors that should meet TSA requirements so I can stitch while I wait and travel. I haven't flown in quite awhile so I hope all this works!
Happy Stitching all :-)

Changing it up for Leap Year

I am usually mostly a one project at a time kind of girl but apparently that has changed this year...though it probably won't last long.  This last fall, I made several quilt tops and still have two to quilt...pics of those later.  I was busy helping my mom through a stressful time and going upstairs to machine quilt was, I guess, more than I had energy for.  But spending a few minutes running pieces of fabric through my Bernina was a 'good thing'.
So one of the projects I started was using some leftovers from another quilt..actually two because I over bought from the fabric collection...is a quilt for my cousin who loves romantic florals and design. These fabrics from Robyn Pandolph will suit her well. I'm using a pattern from Carrie Nelson called Four Corners.I have all the blocks made, I think, but it was put away when I started working on quilts for wedding gifts and kind of forgotten.














Sometime in January when I had some time to plan again, I ran across the DWR and focused on getting these rings all appliqued. Then they were put aside.

I finally headed upstairs and quilted the diamond quilt that I displayed with Elinor last week. This gave me handwork to finish and led to wanting more handwork...which led to this embroidery project.

It is all wrinkly here because I don't like using a hoop and I scrunch it up when I sew.  I think I like using the Transfer Eze however I learned that I can't leave the project on the coffee table which is at dog height. Someone drooled on it and the Transfer Eze started to dissolve! Fortunately, it was a small section and I can easily figure out the pattern that used to be there. And now it is tucked away safe when I'm not working on it.

Then before finishing any of these other projects...I started planning a quilt for a nurse at work who has been diagnosed with a cancer. She will more than likely respond well to treatment but 'treatment' is often difficult to deal with and would like her to have a quilt for comfort. She is like me in that she would always benefit from having dogs with her so that is what the quilt will have....dogs on the front in blocks that are a courthouse step variation and more dogs on the back. The dog bones will be for a border.

So this is what I'm working on here.

It is kind of rainy and cold here on the central California coast today. But we are enjoying the continued health of Miss Bridget and the happiness of stitching.

For those not on Blogger, I added an email gadget in hopes that I don't lose all of Luckypup Quilter readers tomorrow with the loss of Google's Friends Connect.

Happy Leap Day! 

We have a Winner!

Thank you all for joining in on the giveaway for the new book, Sonoma Rose, by Jennifer Chiaverini. It was great to have visitors coming on over from Mary's at Quilt Hollow and from Anna's at Woolie Mammoth! Thank you both for posting on your blogs about the giveaway. Definitely gave me some needed attention :-)
The name pulled from the dog dish...in honor of sweet Bridget who continues to do very well by the way :-) ....is Margaret from PowersThatBee Quilting!
I hope to hear from her soon and will get Sonoma Rose on the way to her house.

The picture here is a bit distorted...I took it at night, sideways, trying to avoid shadows. It is longer than it is wide. I finally got brave and took the paper backing off the Transfer Eze and positioned it on the muslin. The product is not scary :-)  It repositions easily so you can get all the design lined up and right where it should be.

Stitching felt a little weird at first, partly because I was stitching through a spot where I had left two layers of the product. As I stitched along, I got used to it and enjoyed the fact that when I am done, the stitching lines/Transfer Eze will all disappear and it won't matter if my stitches cover the lines or not. I am really glad I didn't have to trace all these lines.

I have only stitched the middle long branch and a few leaves. I stopped by a little shop and picked up some embroidery floss in colors I needed. This is a good project to stitch while sitting with my dogs and listening to music or the tv. It will last me awhile as I'm not that fast!
P.S. I purchased my Transfer Eze from Bird Brain Designs. They have recently switched to a different but similar product called Sticky Fabric Solvy. I'm not sure if it was because it was at a better price or if they liked this other product better as well. Both are the same idea...helping in design transfer.

The sisters send their love :-)

Good news, a finish and some progress

More encouraging news from the pet hospital told us that Bridget had started eating and showing more interest in moving around. They thought she would benefit from coming home! So we jumped at that idea and are taking good care of her here. She is eating and drinking and moving about much easier with only a little help. She can't walk very far without getting tired but we are confident that will improve. She will be on antibiotics for a few weeks but she is also on much better pain control for the arthritis which is awesome.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and so very sweet words to me. I was surely comforted. The top picture is of the two sisters sleeping, having lost interest in the Westminster Dog Show.
Early last week I had the chance to machine quilt a Fig Tree quilt top that I made last September. It was from a kit that I purchased the year before at PIQF. Here is Elinor giving her blessing before I got the binding sewn on.

And here she is with the finish. I was blessed to have this handwork to do while waiting for visits with Bridget.














Looking for more hand work to have while I'm sitting with her at home, I was pleased to receive a pattern from Kathy Schmitz called The Blackbird Sings.

I had purchased Transfer-Eze last year but had not tried it yet. I finally opened the package, found that the product already had a freezer type paper adhered to it and all I had to do was feed it through my copier with the pattern design. That actually turned out to be easy to do even with my mind distracted state. I was pleased. I used 4 sheets to copy this complete pattern which I will hopefully be able to piece together on a fat quarter of muslin that I will tea dye. Haven't gotten that far yet but I'm hoping I can get it all lined up straight...and then I will have some soul soothing hand stitching to do.
Enjoying a much happier day here on the coast! Hope you are enjoying yours!