I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Monday, January 5, 2015

Moving On


Twelve Days of Christmas

Hi guys!

Did you notice? "Everyone'' on line is posting lists and pictures of all they accomplished in 2014. It's inspiring! It's---intimidating. I do admire them all so much. But me? I don't think I finished a single quilt this past year and I am too lazy to go back and look.
Mo the Pug arrived on June 8 and somehow took over my world. [Not that I'd finish dozens of quilts/ samplers/ rugs/ cranes, Hunter! in year. Or in a lifetime...] Does training a puppy count on the scale of Things I Got Done?


Mo is potty trained and leash trained; he wears his coats and hats, sits nicely in his car seat. He obeys simple commands, though he does do that annoying pug thing of thinking about obeying---big lull---and then he comes or sits etc. He can sit up and ''beg'', fetch, shake hands, do high five. He is learning to dance on his hind legs. He does not Heel. Ever. It's on my to do list. Really.

 
 

 
 
 



 Here he is napping in the basket where I keep [kept] all my quilt rulers and templates.



Mo takes up a LOT of time.
So anyway, moving on with life in 2015. During the hols I copied the instructions for Temecula Quilt Company's Twelve Days of Christmas mini quilt.here I knew I wouldn't have time to keep up and make a block every other day, so I saved the project for New Years Day while my family was away skiing.
Here is Mo on NYE, looking already hungover!

 
 



For the tiny Christmas quilt I wanted to use all my favorite scraps of red and green calico [with less than stellar results, what a hodgepodge in 3" squares]. The design wasn't exactly right for scraps however, lots of ''big'' squares, rotary cut, ha ha ha, into smaller increments. I don't rotary cut. I love my scissors.
Auditioning the results so far:
I love this larger scale print and had intended it to be the slashing or ''background''. It was a remnant found at Joann's when my friend L and I made it there in early November for our annual Christmas outing.



But no. Does not work.



I love this choice but I didn't want to waste one of my favorite fabrics in a so-so mini, chopped up as sashing.



Red is---too red, though I love this red holly leaf print.



I like this tan, looks ''prim".



I ended up eking the sashing out of this tiny square of tan and green ditsy print. Red cornerstones. Nope, the directions say 17 pieces for the sashing, but that doesn't include a border.


Back to the planning board, aka kitchen counter. I used this fabric because 1- I love it, I'm a sucker for prints with ''picotage"--- tiny dot ground; and 2-the design looks like splattery snow; 3- its larger scale and busy-ness counteract, I hope, the garbled look of the tiny blocks themselves. I changed block six to the tree, which didn't help the overall appearance, but made it fun, to me. What's a Christmas quilt without a Christmas Tree?



Machine quilting. The big holly pattern on the back. Red striped binding: "candy canes".



I'm not sure when Twelve Days will get done. Story of my life these days.



BTW- The mini is called Twelve Days of Christmas because each block has one more piece, ie, Day One = one, Day two = 2 pieces, Day three = four etc etc. My tree block has six pieces as required. I wanted to do a house block for block Twelve but I just couldn't make it work.

What do you think?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach


real, BIG, daffodils at the supermarket.
 How fun.
 

Sunset is now about 14 minutes later
than in December...

"IT WASN"T MY FAULT!"

Twelve Days of Christmas  here's the link again. Their quilt is adorable! And wonderful inspiring photography. Be sure to look.

10 comments:

  1. He looks rather cheeky! and dogs do take a lot of time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL "Rather cheeky" is perfect! But I still couldn t finish a dozen or more quilts, even if I was home alone. Happy New Year!

      Delete
  2. Of course having a baby, even a furry one, is a huge accomplishment. And those daffodils (my favorite). And a quilt, too.

    I think you accomplish amazing things all year long. Perhaps you should look in your Etsy store. LOL.

    And walking every single day? That's a wonderful accomplishment. You walk in -zillion degrees. You inspire me...to admire you. Now if I could just get out and walk half the distance you do.

    Wishing you an amazing 2015.

    Hugs.
    Hunter

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your little Christmas quilt is so very pretty. And that Mo, well what can I say about him? He is just so darn cute. how in the world does he sit on his hind end like that? Precious! I imagine he does keep you extra busy. Happy New Year! Tammy

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  4. I believe taking the time to walk, train and play with Mo is a bigger responsibility than quilting.
    Your 12 days turned out really cute and I like the sashing you ended up using.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The tiny Christmas quilt is beautiful, and so TINY! Making blocks so small would drive me crazy but I like the way yours looks.

    Mo is so photogenic, I wouldn't get ANYTHING done around him but take photos. I LOVE the NYE picture! I think he started celebrating early without you!

    Never compare yourself to others. Everyone is different. Mo is worth the time you spend with him and he will keep you company for (hopefully) years to come. He won't be a playful puppy for long. You also had an injured arm to deal with and still managed to create lots of fun blog posts for us. I love sharing your 'adventures' vicariously, from walks with Mo to farmers' markets and your flea and thrift finds. *I* don't care if you don't have a list of "I did this in 2014" things! As long as you enjoyed your year that's all that really counts.

    Happy New Year, and I hope 2015 is "Mo" better than ever!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The little quilt looks so pretty!

    And, yeah, what Mel said about what you DO get done :) To those of us looking in on your little slice of the world it seems you accomplish quite a lot--and THEN you make the time to share it with us. That's no small feat. Cut yourself a break, go hug Mo.

    Gotta go, Fussy is trying to eat a pine cone, jeeze.

    Kel

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  7. And what ever would I do with all those finished quilts anyway. The ones I ve made are in the closet just gathering dust..except my Porch quilt which is so cozy I put it back on my bed for winter. I can see my next quilt should be a flannel-y wintery quilt, maybe this?

    http://janpatekquilts.goodsie.com/the-pokeberry-quilt-regularly-18.95

    Oh bad Fussy. Mo lokes pine cones too and also fake berries are quite delicious, he says. Green if possible,lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. but a lighter palette like the one below

      http://www.pinterest.com/pin/311733605429669834/

      Delete
    2. Oh, I like both of them.

      I Will NOT share with Fussy Mo's recommendation about fake berries! She's pooped out now, she got a new feather cat teaser and she played so hard she started panting...haha.

      Kel

      Delete

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