A New Holiday Decoration

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. I wanted to show you a new Christmas decoration I made.

Christmas Dachshund Quilt

I started this in a class during the 2019 Genesee Valley QuiltFest. The class was taught by Cynthia England and it helps to demonstrate her “picture piecing” technique. This pattern is called “Santa Pooch” and you can buy the pattern and fabric pack from her.

Close up of Head

The finishing instructions call for you to embroider the eye on the dog and it has you outline the white parts of the Santa hat to help them stand out. Charlie and I thought the outlining fell a little flat so I purchased some fluffy fleece from JoAnn Fabrics and added it to the hat instead.

Detail of Head with Fleece

Adding the fleece was quite fiddly but I managed to get it attached and I love how it turned out. I also added the little bell to his scarf which was part of the kit. I did most of the quilting using my embroidery machine.

Close up of the quilting

I used two embroideries from Embroidery Online by OESD. The straight border is called “Snow Quilt Border” and the corner is “Snow Quilt Corner”. Since the corner embroidery was a triangle shape and I needed it to have square edges to match the straight border, I used my embroidery software to extract a bit from the straight border to square them up. I also extracted one of the snow flakes and used that randomly in the white background. You can click on the above image to see the details. I also stitched in the ditch around the dog and the gift boxes with invisible thread.

Christmas Dachshund hanging above the fireplace

The fabric pack that came with the pattern had a different border fabric that I wasn’t crazy for so I found this perfect purple fabric to use instead. I love how it turned out and it makes a lovely addition to our holiday decorations.

 

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Thankful Thursday – An Award Winning Quilt!

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. Things have been a little quiet here for the past few weeks but there is a reason for it. I’ve been working on a quilt in order to get it ready for my quilt clubs big show the Genesee Valley QuiltFest. The quilt show starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday and tonight there was a members reception where they gave out the awards.

There are two types of ribbons that are given out. One set is for professionally judged quilts and the other set is for those judged by a group of quilt club members. I only have two quilts in this show and did not submit either one for professional judging.

I arrived at the reception a little late and they had already started giving out the “club” awards. Just a few minutes after I got to the reception area I was hearing the name of my small quilt and my name read aloud for a second place ribbon!

Listening Through the Glass

This quilt is about 48 inches x 24 inches and was made to put up in our living room. There is a lot to tell about how the quilt came together but I will leave that for another day. I didn’t expect to win any awards but I’m very thankful I did.

We are joining Brian for the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!

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Snuggles on Sunday

Hi everyone! It’s Walter here. Wow our secretary (my mom) sure has been slacking the past few weeks and I apologize for that. She does have some excuses like having two big quilt club meetings just one week apart. She is the membership secretary and has a ton of work to do to get ready for the meetings. Then she took a class, and in the middle of it all she had an order from her Etsy shop for 8 custom bandanas. We will show you those on another post. We are way behind in reading all your posts and are trying hard to catch up. In order to catch up we are reading with very few comments. So we hope you haven’t forgotten about us. Just to remind you what I look like here is a picture of me snuggling with my daddy while we were watching TV last night.

It doesn’t get much better than this!

I hope you all have a warm and cozy day and get lots of snuggles too.

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Tasty Tuesday – Crochet Candy Boxes

Hi everyone it’s Cindy here. Today I want to tell you about another Christmas project I did.

Crochet Christmas Candy Boxes

I’m the membership secretary for the Genesee Valley Quilt Club and as an officer I meet once a month just after our monthly meeting with my fellow officers. During the November meeting one of the veteran members told us newbys that it was customary during our December officer meeting to exchange Christmas gifts.

Solid Red with Red/White/Green Twist

The news of this sent my head spinning. What to get or make for these four ladies? I wanted something that could be practical and fun. I thought about the small box I crocheted for myself a while back and decided that might make a nice gift.

Solid Red with Solid White

After scouring my stash of crafting supplies I decided to use up some of the Christmas colored cotton yarn I had purchased last year. I hadn’t used any of it yet so I knew I would have enough to make these small boxes. Each box is made using two strands of cotton yarn held together and is all single crochet. I used solid red, solid white, variegated red/green/white, and red/green/white twist in different combinations to achieve the effects you see.

Solid Red with Variegated Red/White/Green

There are five separate pieces that I used single crochet to sew together. I like how the single crochet seam helps to hold them up too since I didn’t want to use any stiffener on them.  I made them what I thought would be a good size to use for candy or anything you might like.

Red/White/Green Twist with Red/White/Green Variegated

As you can see I filled them with Lindt chocolates too. The ladies all seemed to like them, but I’m not sure if they thought the boxes were nice or they just liked what was inside the boxes 😉

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Wordy Wednesday

Hi everyone! Yes, we are alive and well. So sorry for the unexplained absence the past week or so, but I’m here to tell you all about it. Last week was a very busy quilty week for me. Monday and Wednesday were the first meetings for both of the quilt clubs I belong to. I’m now the membership secretary for the Genesee Valley Quilt Club so that means extra work to get ready for the meetings each month. Then on Thursday my mom and I went on a quilting retreat and didn’t get home until late Saturday. We had lots of fun and that is what I’m going to tell you about today.

Our retreat was organized by the Perinton Quilt Guild and was held at Watson Homestead. My mom picked me up Thursday morning and we made the 1 1/2 hour trip south in perfect weather.

Our workroom is under the chapel

We unpacked all our quilting stuff and then headed to our room.

Our room viewed from the work room

Our room

A nice hotel style room, but with no TV. WiFi was available in the common areas so I was able to keep up with reading blogs, but didn’t take much time to comment.

Main dining hall – dressed up for a wedding

Our workroom was large and bright. With only twelve of us there was room for each of us to have our own table as well as some common tables in the middle for us to do our cutting or lay out our projects.

View of workroom – Claire lays out her project

Right away my mom and I, who had never been on one of these retreats before, noticed an unusual picture posted at both ends of the room.

The ladies call him Lance

The ladies said that “Lance” comes with them on every retreat. I believe he is from an Abercrombie and Fitch bag. We knew right then that this weekend was going to be fun.

Most of the ladies brought more than one project. I started out by working on the quilting for the king sized quilt I had basted way too long ago.

My work space

I can’t remember when the last time was that I did some quilting on this project, but I hit a wall when I was having problems with the fabric bunching up. The first thing I had to do was pick out some of the last bit I had stitched and start over. I’m happy to say that I was able to complete quilting the parts I wanted to and now feel better about keeping it going.

A little working and a little chatting

Everyone had a great time working on their projects and getting to know each other a little better.

Mary W. worked on many different projects

One of my favorite projects was one that Patty P. worked on.

Patty P says her brothers aren’t really devils.

In addition to lots of quilting and chatting we also had some great catered meals. We were very lucky on Friday night and were treated to a delicious salmon dinner with a side of macaroni and cheese that was incredibly creamy.

Salmon, Macaroni & Cheese and Steamed Veggies

Apparently salmon is not a common meal to have, but the caterer had an earlier event where he served the salmon and there were far fewer attendees than he was told. We were the lucky recipients of this great left over meal. To top that meal off we also had a scrumptious dessert.

Chocolate Mousse

All our meals were great if not quite as special as the salmon with mousse.

On our last day there I worked on piecing the backing for the flannel quilt top I finished a while ago. In addition to our work room there was another smaller room that had large blank walls. I came prepared with the batting, quilt top, painters tape and 505 spray baste in the hopes I would have a place to baste all the parts together.

Basted Flannel Quilt

I didn’t take pictures of the process, but first I taped the backing with wrong side facing out to the wall. Then I sprayed the backing with the adhesive. The next step is to stick the batting to the backing. Of course it isn’t that simple, but for the sake of finishing this post lets just say it went on smoothly. The last step is to spray the batting and then stick the quilt top to it. I was jumping for joy to get this done. At home I don’t have a wall tall enough to do this so the only alternative is to pin the backing to the floor and do the same process on my hands and knees. This is so much easier!

As you saw above there was a wedding held at the center Saturday evening. Claire and I decided to surprise the happy couple with a little gift and made a couple of Christmas placemats for them.

Christmas Placemat for the Newlyweds

My mom did the sewing and I did the quilting. We never found the  bride or groom, but were able to give the gift to the brides father and hope the youngsters like them.

For our first ever quilt retreat we had a great time and I have plans on going next year too. I think Claire will join me if it fits her schedule too. Thanks to Sue P-T for organizing the retreat and thanks to all the other ladies for helping my mom and I to have such a fun time.

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Raffle Reminder – With an Update

Get your Blue Moon Magic Raffle tickets now!

As blog followers may recall my mom and I coordinated the making of this years Genesee Valley Quilt Club raffle quilt. I have set up a fundraising page through youCaring.org where you can purchase tickets.

Made by the Genesee Valley Quilt Club, this pieced and quilted work is 90″ x 90″ and will be raffled off to benefit the club and the Community Quilting Bee of Sojourner House at Pathstone.

Raffle tickets are $1 each. Tickets may be purchased world wide, but international winners will be required to pay shipping. Shipping is free to any winner living in the United States.

For each $1 donation a raffle ticket will be filled out with your contact information and you will receive your raffle ticket stub in the mail as confirmation. You may check the boxes to hide your donation amount or to make your donation anonymous so your information doesn’t show up on the fundraiser site. Your contact information is available to the fundraiser administrator only.

Update: I realize that not all of my followers use Paypal or like to use a credit card on the internet so if you would like to purchase tickets with a check just leave me a message in the comments section (make sure a valid email is used with your comment) and I will send you an email with information on where to mail your payment.

The drawing will take place on June 2, 2013 at 2:00 pm (Eastern time) at the RIT Gordon Field House in Rochester, NY. You do not need to be present to win.

Feel free to grab the badge above or any images of this quilt from my site to pass the word on this raffle. You can also go to the donation page and use the “Spread the Word!” section to help promote the raffle. If you have a non-wordpress blog you can create a widget like the one pictured below to put on your site as well.

Thank you very much for your support! I hope one of my readers wins this beautiful quilt (if I don’t)!

If you are in the Rochester, New York area from May 31 – June 2, 2013 please plan on visiting the GVQC quilt show “Magical Threads — Inspired Stitches” where the Blue Moon Magic quilt will be on display along with hundreds of other quilts.

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Magic Monday!

First up I would like to report that Lily Belle is home and feeling better. She is not completely out of the woods yet though.  Thanks to all my friends for your Power of the Paw to help her get better. I know Lily Belle thanks you too.

Lily Belle says, “Put the peddle to the metal daddy and let’s get home fast!”

She and her family are all getting some much needed rest and I’m sure her mom will post an update when she can. Now on to our regularly scheduled post…

Get your Blue Moon Magic Raffle tickets now!

As blog followers may recall my mom and I coordinated the making of this years Genesee Valley Quilt Club raffle quilt. I have set up a fundraising page through youCaring.org where you can purchase tickets.

Made by the Genesee Valley Quilt Club, this pieced and quilted work is 90″ x 90″ and will be raffled off to benefit the club and the Community Quilting Bee of Sojourner House at Pathstone.

Raffle tickets are $1 each. Tickets may be purchased world wide, but international winners will be required to pay shipping. Shipping is free to any winner living in the United States.

For each $1 donation a raffle ticket will be filled out with your contact information and you will receive your raffle ticket stub in the mail as confirmation. You may check the boxes to hide your donation amount or to make your donation anonymous so your information doesn’t show up on the fundraiser site. Your contact information is available to the fundraiser administrator only.

The drawing will take place on June 2, 2013 at 2:00 pm (Eastern time) at the RIT Gordon Field House in Rochester, NY. You do not need to be present to win.

Feel free to grab the badge above or any images of this quilt from my site to pass the word on this raffle. You can also go to the donation page and use the “Spread the Word!” section to help promote the raffle. If you have a non-wordpress blog you can create a widget like the one pictured below to put on your site as well.

Thank you very much for your support! I hope one of my readers wins this beautiful quilt (if I don’t)!

If you are in the Rochester, New York area from May 31 – June 2, 2013 please plan on visiting the GVQC quilt show “Magical Threads — Inspired Stitches” where the Blue Moon Magic quilt will be on display along with hundreds of other quilts.

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From Mischievous to Marvelous

First a note to Murphy & Stanley…if you don’t want a sneak peek at Millie’s ball gown then don’t read any further.

Anyone that has  a young dog knows how beneficial it is to expose them to a wide variety of experiences. Charlie and I have been working to keep Millie well socialized with people and other dogs, but there is always that worry that you will push your pup further than they can handle. So far with Millie that hasn’t been a problem and she has proven to be a fairly stable pup.

With the Valentine’s Ball coming up Millie wanted to have a special dress to wear on her double date that she and Remy are going on with Murphy & Stanley. I decided I would make the girls coordinating dresses and got right to work.

Last night was a regular meeting of the Perinton Quilt Guild that I’m a member of. Each meeting usually includes a show and tell segment where members show off their recent creations. The club president suggested that we should bring some wearable art for show and tell.

The most recent wearable creation I made was Millie’s dress so I decided to take her with me. The guild meets at a community center in a large room about the size of a school classroom. I decided to purposely arrive about 10 minutes late to avoid the chaos of the early part of the meeting when everyone is milling about and getting settled into their seats. I have to tell you that nobody has ever brought their dog to a meeting and I wasn’t exactly sure how we would be received, but I figured who wouldn’t enjoy Millie’s company.

The evenings discussion was about finding quilting resources on the internet and was well under way when we entered. The room was set up so that everyone’s back was to the door when we entered. Our president Julie was the only one facing the door and as soon as we entered she got a huge grin on her face. That of course caused most of the ladies to turn to see what she was smiling at.

Being the well-behaved pup that she is Millie and I were able to find a seat behind the rows of chairs and settle in quietly. As you can see in the first picture I brought a bed for her to settle on. I’m very lucky that Millie has, so far, proven to be a very non-vocal pup and never let out a peep all night. She spent the next hour visiting the ladies seated around us and being rewarded with lots of pets.

She in turn rewarded many of them with kisses too. The discussion continued for about an hour and Millie would settle down on her mat for short periods, explore the room to the end of her leash or visit her new friends.

After the discussion was over it was time for show and tell and Millie and I were the first to go. First I told everyone the only wearable art I had to show was for Millie and that was why I brought her. Then I explained the reason for making the dress and of course got a lot of laughs. You all know how crazy non-blogging people think we are for having all the Blogville fun that we do. I don’t let it bother me because they don’t know what they are missing! Some of the ladies sitting down front asked us to walk around since they couldn’t see Millie very well so we worked the catwalk a bit so to speak. Along the way Millie paused to greet her adoring admirers. The ladies were all surprised to find out that she was still a puppy and were remarking on how well-behaved she was. I would be lying if I didn’t confess to feeling a bit proud of my well-mannered pup.

Millie was particularly fond of another late comer that sat nearby and later on I learned that she used to work as a pet sitter and was trained in TTouch. It appears that she worked her magic on Millie because eventually this was where she ended up for a little while.

During the rest of show and tell this was where she landed. Even with the talking and applause (we always cheer each other on) she never was upset or excited. After the meeting Millie and I wandered around visiting with more of the members and she was very happy with all the attention.

Like I said I was very proud of the way Millie behaved on this new adventure. I was reasonably confident that she would do well, but you never really know what to expect with a young pup in a new situation. Remember, this is the same pup that just a week ago was showing her puppy side by eating a book and here she was acting like a very grown up dog.

Charlie and I have observed how much Millie enjoys meeting new people when we are out. She even seems to get disappointed if she is ignored as she also enjoys to give some loving back. Maybe Millie will have a career in pet therapy some day? What do you think?

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