So Happy With This

Knitting and Sewing

I finished my little hat. I'm not as happy with it as I was with the first hat I knit from this pattern. I think my choice of yarn was at fault. The Risata yarn is too stretchy for this pattern, thus the lace layer does not fit as well over the stockinette layer as it should. Still, I'll wear it. It is warm and the colors match my down jacket - a neccesity in Minnesota (the down jacket that is, not the matching hat). Still, I'm  disappointed in the results.

Finally had time to get back to quilting today. I have been waiting on batting ordered online to finish the green and pink quilt. The batting arrived a few weeks ago but between agility seminars and trials, finally had a free Saturday today.

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm quilting this in sections. After completing one section today, I'm so psyched about this method. It was much easier to quilt a small piece compared to trying to quilt an entire twin sized quilt on my little machine. Quilting one third of it at a time was not difficult at all and was actually fun! Above is the first completed section. I still have two more sections to go. I'll join them all together once they are all quilted. It will create a bit more bulk but these are not show quilts, they are just my playing around with my hobbies.

Here is the back of the quilt. I think it shows the quilting a bit more. Nothing fancy, I'm still a beginner, but so happy I found this method of quilting in sections. Someday, when I piece together an intricate, beautiful quilt top, I'll send it out to be professionally quilted. Meanwhile, I am very happy with pieceing together my simple quilts.

I have two more sections to sandwich, pin and quilt. I'd like to think I'll get them done tomorrow but tomorrow I need to accomplish so much of my spring work, washing windows, putting on window screens, moving all the agility equipment outside, putting up the bird houses, feeders and fountains, I'll be very lucky to get even an hour for sewing or knitting.

Dogs

I've ignored the dogs in my  last few posts.

We've been doing many agility trials and even an agility seminar or two. It's been fun and a great way to ignore the long, snowy winter. The two pictures below are not the greatest quality but are of my little girl Tinkerbelle. Perhaps you remember her from my last litter? Tinkerbelle is 16 pounds of hard driving, "I can't go fast enough" agility dog . She is the love of my life - please don't tell the other dogs - and very much in love with life herself!

Above she is slamming through the weaves.

And here she is about to slam the teeter. Belle is so much fun. Tinkerbelle seems to understand she's not just running for herself but also for her old friend Fame, another "I just can't run fast enough" agility dog. It's a lot of weight for sixteen pound Belle to carry yet she does it so well.  For you Minnesotans, yep, that's the big Gopher "M" in the background. These classes were held at the livestock arena on the St. Paul campus of the U of MN. The classes are over for the season now. We look forward to next fall when they start up again.

I have devoted much time to agility in the past two years yet do not want to give up on obedience training. I read an article recently in Front And Finish about training a dog for 5 minutes a day for a year and being able to get a Utility Dog title. Hum...I don't know, that is a big goal if you ask me. Still, a very intriguing goal. So I'm going to try it. No, not necessarily getting a Utility Dog title, but I'm going to try training Dusty for 5 minutes a day for a year and see where we end up. So far, I've stuck to my goal for a whopping 3 days! I'll try to keep my blog updated on my progress.

It was way past time to get rid of the flannel Christmas themed dog throws I had over the dogs' beds. Today I splurged at Wally World and bought new dog throws to put over their raised bed. Doesn't Dusty look regal on his new royal blue blanket? He is the the king!

And please excuse the X-rated picture of Shamrock. She not only knows how to relax, she deserves it!

March Already

It's March already. I set a goal to blog at least twice a month and I failed as early as February. I also set a goal to obedience train certain of my dogs for 5 minutes a day and I haven't come close to reaching that goal either.

My work life's been a bit of a hassle lately. The company I worked for was acquired by another company and I suddenly find myself a day one employee with no vacation working for a company I can't imagine I would have ever wanted to work for. Oh well, in this economy and at my age, a job is a job.

Knitting and Sewing

I finished my first quilt. It's not just my first quilt, I also taught myself to sew by doing this quilt. Despite all the mistakes, I'm very happy with it. The pattern is from Easy Quilts, Fall 2009.

Next I tackled another basic project, a "Peppers" table runner to match the new rugs in my kitchen. This was really fun and came together quickly. My flying geese are not very "pointy" but I'm cutting myself some slack. I'm still learning. Here the material is from my local Wal-Mart.

I started yet another basic quilt in pink and green, one of my favorite color combinations. Here it is laid out on the floor. A simple pattern of squares to see if I can make the seams match. The fabric is Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey. I have it partially pieced together now while I wait for more batting to arrive. I am going to try quilting this in pieces using directions from Marti Michell's Machine Quilting In Sections.

I'm knitting this hat from Lace Style. It's the second time I've made this hat, this time out of Risata from Knit Picks. I'm a bit further along than the picture shows. I had high hopes of finishing it this afternoon until my day was rudely interrupted by a stray, somewhat vicious dog who refused to leave...a long story.

Dogs

Shame on me! I have no recent pictures of the dogs to share. My training time today was taken up dealing with the stray dog who managed to get his foot caught in my fence. In the end, the sheriff had to be called. The dog will be at the humane society tomorrow. I wonder if his owners are looking for him? Or even know he is gone?

So I'll leave you today with a picture of the grapefruit sandwich cookies I made from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I love making sandwich cookies and I'm a big Martha fan. These are very good.