Max with his new coat!

On Monday, I was checking my favorite blogs and stumbled upon 'Sew Can She' which is a blog by Caroline Critchfield.  While I was looking at her cute sewing projects, I saw a little video window on the right of her blog showing how she makes a pattern for her dog's coat.  I watched it and set out to make one for Max, our rescue dog.  It's been very cold here in Southern California, so of course he needs one.  Here is the link to Caroline's fur baby coat pattern.  I used fleece fabric scraps that I have, and I think he really likes it.




We got Max 5 years ago after we lost our beloved black lab mix Shadow.  We never thought we could love another dog after losing Shadow.  He really spoiled our family because he was so smart, gentle, and a great running companion for my husband.  Two years later we drove pass by an animal shelter and decided to go in.  It was 15 minutes before closing, we didn't plan to adopt that day, I just wanted to look around.  A shelter volunteer introduced us to Sparky, a Boxer/Boston Terrier mix dog.  He was a very mild and timid dog who had been there for over six months.  We were surprised because we didn't see him when we walked around.  She told us that no one saw him because he hid in the darkest corner of his stall.  She also said that he was abused by the previous owners and was left in the backyard all the time.  Needless to say, we adopted him that evening.  Everyone at the shelter was so happy and shouted in joy that Sparky finally got a home.

We renamed him Max a few days later.  This is him first night at our house in his makeshift bed.  Sorry the picture is a little bit blurry. 

 
The next day, he felt right at home.  Isn't he a handsome boy?

Max has many challenges and he has over come them really well.  Sadly, he doesn't know how to play with toys, people, or with other dogs.  He loves going on walks and kicking dirt more than anything in the world, even more than eating.  Sometimes he even went without us and we had to chase him back.  He has some health problems from years of abuse and neglect and we are dealing with them one by one.  He's such a joy to have around.  We are happy that he decided to stay with us.  We are his pack now!!

* Happy Holidays Everyone *

Link up to From Bolt to Beauty, Can I get a Whoop Whoop,

To pin or not to pin

Hello everyone,

I was recently facing with an issue of preparing my quilt top for quilting.  For years, I have been using pins to baste my quilts and recently have been hearing about spray basting.  With my newest quilt, I was tempted to spray baste my quilt but I, once again, I went back to my old way of pin basting.  Fear of getting into new things is getting to me.

I do not have a room exclusively assigned for sewing/crafting yet.  The room is still in a renovating stage.  Right now I'm sewing in my dining room.  For spray baste, I would need to have a very large area with good air ventilation to work which I don't have.  I saw on Pinterest that some quilters use their big design wall to spray baste their quilt.  I only have 47" x 74" movable design wall that leans against one of my walls and I would move it out of the way when not in use.   I also saw some quilters spray baste their quilts on a small table using the rolling method.  I've never tried that, but then again the ventilation problem. And I was worrying about all layers not tightly basted together.  Again, Fear!!

  
So I pin basted this quilt, as you can see in the first picture, and set out to do the quilting.  I started in the middle of the quilt, the pressure foot pushed the fabric outward as in the second picture.  Even though I paid extra attention to basting and put pins closer together.  I had to move pins and re-smooth the fabric as I moved to the next area.  That caused me anxiety, so much that I couldn't continue for sometime.  

I was quite upset at myself for being like this.  Later I realized that fear stops me from working on my projects.  This is a present for my dear friend and the fear of messing it up and ruining the beautiful top gets to me.  I know my quilting is still lacking and I need to practice more.  I need to do more of it to be better at it.  My husband said, 'So what?  Make a new top if you mess this one up.  Do you know how many paintings Michael Angelo painted white over them and re-did them?'  Once again he's right and he's trying to cheer me on.  

So back to work and try to get rid of this fear.  This is the most beautiful time of the year.  I should be light hearted and enjoying myself with lights and music.  I will not let fear get in the way......

Here is the picture of my Christmas tree.   The family portrait on the mantel was done by my artist daughter in fourth grade.  I found it amid her papers.  It needs to be framed.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

May God bless you and keep you safe!

Link up to Alycia Quilts, Can I get a Whoop Whoop, 

Updates

This week I got to test a pattern for Darcy Stewart Hunter from Darcydoodlequilts in Canada.  We belong to the same FB group called Quilt Pattern Designers.  She asked for some volunteers so I raised my hands.  :-)  

It's a small wall hanging art quilt and here is the picture of the finished piece.

"Autumn at the Lake". 

It's a really fun quilt to make and I had a great time.  Darcy has an etsy shop at : www.darcydoodlequilts.etsy.com.  She has quite a collection of her wonderful one-of-a-kind works.

Remember the Valley MQG's charity quilt that's hung at QuiltCon?  We donated it to the Special Olympics, through our local quilt shop.  The owner of the shop posted this on FB. 

I'm so glad that the quilt is being used for a very good cause.  We are getting ready for our trip at the end of the month.  I probably will not post anything here because I will not be sewing, therefore I won't have any new project to show.  I'm sure I'll post pictures of our trip on Instagram.


Have a wonderful sewing time!!!!




Link to:
Midweek Makers@QuiltFabrication