It's a dog's life.

 

It's September 18th and the start of the 'It's a dog's life' blog hop. Thank you Carol for organising the hop and I love the badge for this event. 

We have a dog who keeps us all amused and happy. Missy is a cockerpoo who came to join the family in April 2022 as a nine week old puppy.

She replaced Scamp who had shared our home for 15 years and still has a special place in our hearts. She is a very loving dog and likes everyone to be together. She loves long walks and lying in muddy puddles!

I set out to make 3 projects for Missy. The first one was a simple draw string bag. I needed a bag to keep her harness and leads together. This was simple  to make. I used animal paw print fabric for one side and in the absence of dog fabric chose a bright giraffe print.

Everyone now knows exactly where to find Missy's lead and harness and it saves time when taking her out.

My next make was a new mat to sit under her water and food bowls. Missy decided it was comfortable enough to lie on

I used dog fabric for the one side and animal paw prints on the reverse. I tried machine stitching the binding but it wasn't very neat. Missy doesn't mind. We use a mat under her bowls because Missy loves to get her paws in the water bowl and splash it around. A mat helps to soak up any spilt water. I had fun playing with the quilting making some of it geometric shapes and also quilting a rose.

Finally I started Missy's quilt. When I tidied my sewing cupboard I found 4 star blocks that I made some time ago. I added some nine square blocks to make a square quilt top.

This is a lovely bright quilt top. I'm not going to add a border as it covers Missy's sleeping mat very well. I already had the backing fabric - the paw prints but needed the batting. I visited my favourite quilt shop this weekend and stocked up on batting so I will be able to finish this quilt quickly.

My son is looking forward to this quilt being finished. Missy has taken to pulling his quilt off his bed so she can lie on it . She has fully grasped just how comfortable and cosy a quilt can be. Scamp always like to be tucked up in his basket with his quilt. Meanwhile she has decided to make use of the quilt on the settee. she often goes to sleep with something in her mouth, usually a sock! The fur on her back is black but the sun is catching it in patches and making it look white.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and will come and visit again soon. Now you need to go and visit the other blogs taking part in this hop, there is sure to be a lot fun things to see, Here is the schedule.

SEPTEMBER 18

 

Just Let Me Quilt

Inflorescence

Quilting Gail

Quilt Schmilt

Sew Many Yarns

 

SEPTEMBER 19

 

Ms P Designs USA

Karrin’s Crazy World

Just Because Quilts

Crazy'boutquilts

Days Filled With Joy

 

SEPTEMBER 20

 

Quilt Doodle Designs

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Quilted Snail

Domestic Felicity

 

SEPTEMBER 21

 

Moosestash Quilting

Selina Quilts

Words & Stitches

Vroomans Quilts

Scrapdash

Take care

Lyndsey

A weekend away and slow stitching.

This weekend John and I had booked a weekend away. We had planned a visit to Basildon Park on the way to our hotel and the day was perfect for a walk in the grounds. We arrived at lunch time and decided to eat first. The Cornish pasties were delicious. After that we headed into the house.

Basildon Park estate was bought by Francis Sykes in 1771. He demolished the old house and employed John Carr, an architect to build the house as it is now. The house is made of Bath stone which looked beautiful in the summer sun. The Sykes family owned the house until 1838. From 1838 to 1928 the house was owned by the Morrison family. During the war the house was used by the military and it fell into disrepair having been badly damaged during the war.

In 1952 Lord and Lady Iliffe bought Basildon Park and they set about restoring the house but also adding modern updates such as central heating. They bought antiques they had found at auctions. In 1978 they gifted the property to the National Trust.

One of the rooms, known as the shell room was full of shells and also extensive decorated with them.

I have no idea who had the patience to stick all the shells into the intricate patterns.  The Portuguese hand made carpet in one of the room was beautiful.

After the tour of the house we took a walk through the park and visited the shop and garden centre.  We enjoyed our visit and then continued our journey to Somerset.

I always take some sewing with me when we go away. I took my little carpet I'm stitching for the dolls house. The holes in the canvas are very small and this has slowed down the speed of completion. By evening, when I have free time, my eyes are very tired. I have nearly finished it and then I can complete the edging. This is what I'm working on today.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching.  I'll stitch for a little longer then I need to head to bed as I have work in the morning.

Take Care.

Lyndsey

Feeling happy

Life has been busy recently but also I just haven't felt like doing much. The heat doesn't help but mostly it was because I needed to make a decision about my Guide groups. I have been running them since 1995 and I'm not getting any younger. I realised I had stopped enjoying the meetings and couldn't wait for the evenings to be over. That was not good for me or the girls. Lucy has been my assistant leader for some years and she was also feeling it was time to move on so we have resigned and we are both loving our decision. I need to close the bank accounts and clear our cupboard at the church where we meet, which I will do in the next couple of weeks. Having set everything in motion I feel much happier and yesterday I cleaned and sorted my sewing storage and made plans for my projects. I have so many half finished projects and loads of new ones I want to start. Life seems much calmer and happier so let the sewing commence.

I have finished two small projects started for the blog hop starting on the 18th September. I still have one item to finish. Friday, as my none working day was meant to be an all day sewing day.  Having visited the Festival of Quilts and seen a version of the Red House I decided I wanted to work on the next round of this quilt.

The next round involves the paper pieced arrows, and the appliqued sheep, birds and flowers. I started by cutting the background squares and then pulled out the fabrics I wanted to use for the other items. I photocopied the sheets I needed for the paper piecing and the templates for the applique pieces. I already had some fusible bonding web so I used this to cut out the shapes and then ironed them onto the back of my chosen fabrics, ready to be cut out and attached to the backing fabrics. The pattern uses needle turn appliques and raw edge applique. I prefer doing raw edge applique but I will give needle turn a go. You always need to move forward and learn and perfect new skills.

Yesterday, having cleaned and tidied my sewing storage I had planned to do some quilting on the bag ladies quilt but the heat was intense so I did some fabric cutting instead for the dinosaur quilt. I also pulled out my embroidery projects and I found a little kit to make rugs for the dolls house that I had been given. I didn't particularly want to make two rugs or use the pattern but I am using the canvas and the thread. I made a start on this yesterday evening and will be working on it today. This is my slow Sunday stitching work. It is nice and simple to do.

Although I haven't been doing much sewing I have worked on the dolls house and have added the dormer windows to the roof.  The attic is now fully decorated and has flooring but I need to varnish it. I need to order the tiles for the roof but that involves working out how many packs I need. I need to work out how many square inches of roof there is! It shouldn't take long to do but I will get John to check my calculations.

I bought a couple of bits for the house and one of them was a female mannequin for the sewing room. The stand need to be sanded and varnished but I thinks it's rather cute.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching party. For now I need to change the water in my flower vase as the heat has made it cloudy. The flowers are managing well in the heat and giving off a beautiful perfume.

Take Care

Lyndsey