September RR

I have my September RR block finished.  Like I have said this is the first time I have done a RR of this type and love it.  A challenge every month to work on another artist's block and someone you don't really know.  

 

For some reason I was at a loss what to do with Rengin's block.  She is from Turkey and this is traditional  hand dyed  fabric.  It is so soft and the colors are beautiful.  Then I thought ---OK Annette just create like it is your block and play. I think Rengin would want that.  She is going to put all 6 of the blocks in a wall hanging and we are to make them all coordinate them. 

 

 

The empty block I choose.  The remaining 4 all just had the same colors and just different configurations.     

 

 

 

Here is what I did with Rengin's block.   I hope she likes it. 

 



 

 

 

I actually got brave and dyed a little piece of trim that came from Ireland, thank you Ger.  It is part of a medallion I had cut in half.   Now the piece I put it on is really grey not the color shown here.  I then put a button styled after Depression glass in the middle of it.   The pretty ribbon is some my friend Denise sent me and it is so pretty.   Then I added bits of Australian lace my friend Betty sent me.  This is a friend contributed block let me tell you.  I love getting packages of pretties and I use them all.  Of course I always share back.  The pretty ribbon is some from Flights of Fancy, well worth the price and now on sale.  

 

I needed a main eye focal point so I used some of Nicki's beautiful dyed lace, sorry Nicki Lee what I did to your lace.   Nicki's shop is RavioLee Dreams.   I just embellished to my hearts content and this is the finished piece.  

 

 

I am still working on my Haven/Meals on wheels pouches.  More pics later.

 

There you go and thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.

 

 

                                                                          XOXO

 

                                                                        Annette



Crazy Quilting Fingers at Work and the death of a Pillow

Hello there, here is it the middle of September.  I guess I am your calendar today.   Now I have two things to cover today.  Well many things of two subject.  Our wonderful Crazy Quilting and the death of a pillow. 

So hang on this post goes on and on for a while.  Maybe a cup of coffee, tea or hot cocoa or a hot toddy?

We have a no kill shelter here for furbabies of all kinds.  Even a horse and a goat.  Mainly dogs and cats that people drop off as unwanted garbage.  Even some that have been so abused and shot, yes shot that limbs have had to be amputated. It is not a pretty picture but unfortunately so true.

I thought I can help, not so much as the manual work anymore,  somehow Mother Nature has a play in it-we love you Mother Nature.   BUT if there is a will there is a way right?  

I have so fallen in love with Crazy Quilting and thought why not create some Crazy Quilted cell phone/sun glass pouches/cases and sell them and allllllllllllllllll the proceeds go to Haven here in Lubbock?  So that is what I did. So far I have sold 3 and so excited.  At first I wanted to donate it all for a furbaby out at Haven that had no back legs.  Someone so injured her with a gun that her legs had to taken away.  I wanted to get her one of the little carts with wheels.  Well they have purchased her one of the little carts.  So they are always looking for "stuff' for the babies so just will donate all of the funds from me and y'all.  

Just wanted to show some of the pouches.  Here they are then the death of a pillow coming.   : )  Here are a few of them  Hope you enjoy seeing them as I have creating them. 

                                                                This beauty is sold.

 

The wings and little butterfly here are from Little snippets in Ireland.   Thank you Geraldine

 

 

 

This tree Faerie is sold also.

 

 

Fayette is sold also

 

This a few of the hand drawn by myself and then created into a silkie/ciggie to play on my work.   Now not to sound like an advertisement they are at my Etsy shop Art of Annette.

 

Now for the pillow death.  

 

As you might remember we lost our precious Jewel, sweetest full blooded dog ever.  We miss her terribly and have a giant hole in our heart.  Well our sweet Libby missed her also.  Just hung around with no life in her at all.  We thought we have to adopt another fur baby, surely that will perk that baby up and she can live the rest of her life with some playful antics. 

 

We went to Haven and found no one that we thought would be compatible with  Libby.  To the pound we went.  There were barking and lunging dogs and thought oh my goodness we can't do this.  So went home and thought about it and then went back to the pound.  In the first cage with the bigger dogs was this sweet black non barking baby.   We thought non barking while all the others are going nuts?  Oh my.  We took him out to the little area where you get to know them.  He was so happy and we took him back to his cage.   We went back and got Libby to meet him to see if they would gel together and get along.   Libby is the Queen here at our home.    They did get along  and adopted we did.  Libby has a new  boy toy named Charlie.

 

Now they said he was 2-3 years old.  Nope don't think so,  maybe 1 1/2 years.  This guy has springs in his legs and oh loves to play.  We thought he might be to rough for Libby.  She is 9 now and a rescue fur baby also.  We call them 100% dog. Libby is Brittany  Spaniel and Australian Shepard.  Now Charlie is Border Collie mix.  Only his mother knows what the other part is. We are all mixed breed. 100% human.  

 

 

Libby and Charlie the cone head here.  He has slipped thru the cracks and still had his boys. 

Playing all the time,  He loves it and Libby does not lay around all the time now. 

 

 

We have several places in our enclosed sunroom-AKA dog house they can share.  It has a heater and air conditioner so they are very comfy.  

 

 

A lot of movement in this pic but they are watching Hubby for one of the most favorite times of the day.  We feed them twice a day. 

 

He has their full attention.  Libby gets special food she has allergies, gotta spoil these babies.

 

Lots of play time.  Now when Charlie wants to play and Libby does not, she lets him know in a not shy way.  They play like this several times a day and giving Libby new life.  Her boy toy .

 

 

He loves the Frisbee,  he goes and gets it and brings it back just not where we are.  He will learn.

 

Now this treasure of a toy.  At the pound he loved it so we forced ourselves at Petsmart to get him one.  Oh he works it over let me tell you.  His prize and he hides it so Libby won't get it.

 

 

 

Here is Charlie, there was a pretty pillow on this chair but I guess it fought him on who gets on this chair.  Sadly the pillow lost and gave it's life so Charlie could rock on this chair.  The pillow did have blue stuffing but not any more.

 

 

Sharing here.  Now we did have a pretty cotton rug on the floor of the sun room.  There are parts of it now so I guess another item gave it's life to Charlie.  Libby just sat and watched and thought silly dog you are going to get into trouble.  We have a doggie door as you can see in the background, he would not go thru it.  So we tried the taping of the door open with nothing in front of it.  That worked.  Next step is to tape a towel in front of it.  That worked.  The next step is go thru without the towel and the door closed.  That does not work.  No sir eeeeee.   Nope, nada nothing.   Even with his food bowl outside.  Lots of jumping and flipping but nothing. 

 

We are going to keep trying, he is so smart so surely he can get that little simple trick.   Oh he does bark in the sunroom and when Libby goes out with him we will venture out with the bark. We have no Dragons in our yard at all.  Charlie keeps them out and we can sleep at night.  

 

There you go.  I hope you enjoyed it for a few minutes.

 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.

 

XOOXXO

Annette 

 

Beading and Sewing

Beading and sewing, well it goes together but here it is---- the small and then  the large projects.   Funny isn't it how your projects GROW into something sometimes bigger than you are . Then you dive into the project and think did I bite off more than I can chew?   I have never ever said that to a cookie or desert or even making the cookie or desert.   Somehow they just seem to go with the flow of life, the cookies or deserts that is.  The hips also but we won't say that very loud. 

 

Now Annette,what in the Sam Hill are you talking about or what  might are you thinking?   Well have a seat I am fixin to tell ya.  

 

As you might remember I am doing a Round Robin with several ladies and for the month of August I receive Nicki Lee's beautiful blocks.   I was going to choose a baby that was encased in blue fabric and so pretty.  Then I saw the yellow block.   I love yellow if you haven't noticed and a lot of people just don't like the cheerful and happy color.

 

I chose of course the yellow block.  The sweet little girl just looked like she needed a hug.  So I gave her a hug in beads.   I tried to make a garden scene that a little girl like this might love to wander around and just see the pretties and little things that goes on in a secret garden.

 

 

 

Here is the sweetie all dressed up  the little spidie and all.   It was fun making the spider aka spidie and the little bee.   I had to give her a bow in her hair and then embellish her little dress also.  I never know when the blocks or pieces are finished,  I don't know if I let the piece tell me of if it weighs 100 pounds with beads and trims.    Kind of a toss up there.   Anyway this little girl is finished and Nicki Lee loves it so we are good to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I don't consider the beading and playing with pretties sewing.  Just good therapy I guess. Watching the TUBE at night.  Anyway to me that is how it is.   I didn't know I was going to be addicted to CQ but I think I am.   I sometime rip out stitches  and replace with something else.  Here is the same block, don't compare the color computer color plays tricks on you. Compare the two the upper one is the one who got to stay like it is.  The bottom one is the before  the rip out trick. 

 

Now this next project, oh my goodness grew and grew and was not where I was going the day I was looking at fabric on line.  I found a little piece  of fabric and it was blue/turquoise and I called about it. The lady who helped me said it was outside fabric and might not hold up as well as upholstery fabric.  We talked, if you can imagine, a bit and she said let me pull up some fabric you might like.   Well I loved it, I ordered two yards of the fabric.   I thought two yards is big enough so I can see what it really really looks like. 

 

I thought I can do this make slip covers for the two big ugly chairs, yes we picked them out but I think were having a beige and blah moment when we did.   I can do this !!!!!!! I had a book I had purchased years ago and read it and thought yep I can do it.   I mean I use to make wedding dresses and everything between so a chair slip cover?   A piece of cake.  Don't laugh it could happen. 

 

So I pranced down to the fabric hangout and bought 12 yards of muslin to make a big pattern.  After making the pattern I ordered 19 yards of fabric.    Did I want  all of the fabric in one piece the online store asked.  Yes sir eeee bob I did.  I know color lots don't always match. So glad I did the two yards I ordered were a lot lighter that the 19 yards.  Whew, dodged the bullet on that one.   

 

 

 

An impressive and big and what the heck am I doing this project for arm piece.  

 

 

 

 

I was a good trouper and continued on, even marking little pleats and all.   Now I hit the jackpot I do believe because Hobby Lobby had the right color of Turquoise to match the fabric of bias tape.  I needed to cover all the million yards of cording you know.   Now remember this is suppose to be just a cover.  Remember that.  I did run out of the bias tape and Hobby Lobby had it on back order.  You know the drill.  Anyway there was a fabric store here I haven't been inside of since they moved to their new location 30 years ago. I was busy with my own business during this time. The only thing I sewed is Halloween costumes for Grandchildren and a few things for my clients to be photographed in.  That is it !!!!!  Any way I went in  the store and asked if they had bias tape.   "M'am" (gurrr) we make our own and don't buy that kind.  Ok thank you very much and thought now what?

 

Well hubby said, good ole hubby, why don't you go online and order it from H. L. ? I did and was here in my hot little hands in two weeks or two days.  It was two days. 

 



 

 

 

 

The back of the chair, just had to show you that the fabric is brightening it up already

After wrestling with the cover, I won by the way, it is a slip cover here.   I only ripped it off twice before I was happy with it and remade it totally once.  The blue fabric I think needs to have interfacing or something on it but will rest a bit.   The six inch seat cushions are high density foam and when we bought it  Hubby and I wrestled it to fold so we could get it in the zippered seat cover.   Let me tell you that was a feat in it's self.  So glad no one but us could see us and we got tickled once while the foam was winning.

Well I didn't care for the slip cover look so I got the handy dandy staple gun and that sucker isn't going anywhere.  Only 10000000000000 staples later the "cover" is taught and looks so much better.

This is one set of two that I did.  The ottomans top inside layer is always lop sided but thought it did well for a lop sided ottoman.  Staples are my best friend, well besides duck tape and safety pins and several other things we use to repair anything.  

 

The next dilemma is what to do about the side panels we have at the French doors.   They go with the carpet but not with the chairs.  I am hoping an idea will just pop in my heads

 

There you go, whew I think I am tired of zig zagging all  the bare edges.  I know they have surgers for this but my machine is new, only bought it in the late 60's or early 70's.  Still has lots of life in it.  

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.   Have a new member of the family but will share that next time. 

 

 

XOXO

Annette