Sweet Grace

November 13, 2015November 4, 2015 SewtropolisLeave a comment

A few months before I left Minnesota my sweet, sweet girl, Skilos passed away. I still can’t talk about her without crying – so this post is not about her. What is worse, my Fat Cat also passed away a couple of weeks before she did. I miss him too and still can’t talk about him without talking about Skilos (I got them as babies 2 weeks apart and they passed 2 weeks apart) But this post isn’t about him either.

This post is about my new dog, Grace!

After Leo and I moved into our apartment I started to feel really bad for him! He went from a house with 2 dogs, 2 boys, 1 cat and a big yard – to just him and I. I didn’t feel so bad while I wasn’t working – but once I started working he was all by himself in our apartment.

We walk everyday and on the weekends we go to the dog parks or hiking… but I still felt pretty bad for him. So I searched Craig’s List and found this sweet girl whose family felt she deserved a better life than what they could provide.

I met her and her dad at a dog park and it was love at first sight for me! She had never been to a dog park before so there was lots of barking and clinging to her dad. But I could tell she was a sweet heart and definitely deserved to have some fun in her life. She’s part Black Lab and Part ?? – but I think I see some Boston Terrier in her. She’s not as big as Leo – coming in at 49lbs, versus his 69lbs, but she’s the same age and I think makes a great companion for him.

The night I bought Grace home Leo was not happy! The only thing he liked about her was all her toys (which he set out to destroy one by one). But, he’s slowly coming around. This morning I caught him playing with her…. and tonight on our walk he fought off a small dog when it looked like Grace would need some help fending it off. (PSA: please put your dog on a leash if you can’t control them with voice commands).

Every day Grace’s little personality comes out. She is definitely a lover – LOVES to snuggle on my lap, if she can’t have the lap, she’ll snuggle up right next to me. She loves to give kisses and even though she’s not exactly thrilled with it… She appreciates my crochet skills!

Happy Dog

Projects

Rainy Day Project: Number 1

November 6, 2015November 4, 2015 SewtropolisLeave a comment

I may have mentioned that when I left Minnesota I sold or gave away about 95% of my stuff…. including all my furniture! The only thing I decided to keep was my bed frame which is a work of art – literally. But, more on that later.

I love my apartment, the location was a huge seller for me (walkable neighborhood), next were the amenities (gym, roof top deck, lounge area both upstairs and downstairs), my balcony view of downtown is awesome and it’s a ‘green’ building which means no more $300 winter gas bills! However, the one thing I don’t really care for – is all the dark brown in my apartment! Brown bamboo floor in the kitchen, brown carpet in the living room and bedroom, dark brown cupboards – it’s too much brown.

After I moved in I searched Craig’s List and found a nice red couch – which I think adds a nice pop of color in this mist of brown. But the couch needed pillows so over this past rainy weekend I sewed up these cute pillows:

I cut up some of my blue scraps into 2.5″ squares and sewed them all together to make these 20″ pillows! I don’t have a picture of the back, but the fabric is a decor weight blue fabric that I had picked up a few years ago and never used.

Each pillow is an envelope style pillow since I didn’t have 2 zippers that were long enough…. (and I put myself on a strict “No More Stuff” diet until I use up ‘most’ of what I have). I backed the quilted size with batting and scraps from a vintage sheet (which was used in a “finish it or donate it” project)

I really like the way these pillows add more pop to my apartment. At this point I’m still trying to decide how to decorate my place, but given my love for the color aqua I know these pillows will go with whatever I decide. By the way, the photos don’t do my couch justice… it’s more orange/red – less brown/red.

Happy Sewing

Projects

Quilts Gotta Go

November 2, 2015 SewtropolisLeave a comment

It used to be that when I made a quilt I had a recipient in mind for the quilt. But after a few years most of my friends had at least one of my quilts, my kids had multiple quilts even my animals had their own quilts… and yet I just kept making quilts.

When I left Minneapolis I got rid of so much stuff, but what I couldn’t get rid of were a few of the more recent quilts that I had made with no recipient in mind. I did donate some of the smaller quilts to the children’s hospital, but some of the larger ones I just wasn’t ready to part with.

Now that I’m settled in Seattle I don’t quite have the room for all these quilts! So I decided it’s finally time to part with them. I’ve had a few quilts listed on my Etsy store for a while, but I recently listed these three quilts in the hopes of making more room in my closets:

This quilt was a Block of the Month sew along from the Minneapolis Modern Quilters. It was a mystery sew along, which means you are making blocks for 10 months with no idea where they will end up in the quilt. On the 11th month you get the layout pattern… Even though I do like this quilt, it is not my favorite and had I seen this pattern before I started I might have passed. But, here it is… and it’s for sale here!

Now, this quilt is one of my favorite quilts! I started this quilt during a workshop with Jacquie Gerhring from Tallgrass Prairie Studios! I love the colors, I loved working on it, I love the way it turned out…. I’m just very happy with this quilt, but now it’s just hanging in my closet… so it’s for sale here.

Of all three of these quilts – this one is definitely my favorite one! Before my move I had to sort through my stash and decide what fabrics were going to come with me and which ones were going to be left behind. During that sort, I realized I had a TON of little scraps of fabric that I just couldn’t part with… so I cut them into 2 1/2″ squares and sewed them together. I think this is one of my favorite quilts because it is a good representation of some of the fabrics I had in my store. But unfortunately I don’t have the wall space to display it, so it’s for sale here. I’m hoping someone will fall in love with this quilt as much as I have and the bed or wall space to let it shine!

Since moving to Seattle I finished four other quilts that where in various stages of being finished. Two are for my kids, but the other two will be listed as soon as it stops raining and I can get out and take pictures of them.

Happy Quilting!