McCalls M6127 – Entry 1 Pattern Analysis

I’m going to be making the top with cap sleeves, view B. This top is made from knit fabric, has a cross-over top with pleated fullness in the bust, the front and back attach to lower pieces and the view I’ve chosen has a cap style sleeve. I anticipate that this will be a quick top to put together…if everything fits correctly. I’ll be looking through my fabrics for an appropriate knit.

Einstein’s first week

Just a quick update on Einstein’s first week with us. He is truly a beautiful dog and so very sweet. I have been taking him to work with me and everyone has taken him on as a mission…although my boss is starting to teach him bad manners!!! Well. He’ll come to work until he gets to be about 16 weeks old and then we’ll keep him confined to the kitchen during the day. At least that is the plan. I’m hoping by then he’ll have enough of a house training pattern down that he won’t mess too much if left alone, if at all by then. One of the teens in my neighborhood will be looking in on him during the mid-day to give him a break so I think this is going to work out. It is amazing to have a new puppy. So many people are so anxious to meet the new arrival and with this little guy I don’t have that fear of meeting new dogs (as was the case with MTD). Such a relief! He is such a charmer and has been so good with everyone…but then I guess that is to be expected from a puppy. Last night was a play date with a Lab that is 5 weeks older. Wrigley is twice the size! I can’t believe that he’ll be that much bigger in just a few short weeks. Wrigley wrestled Einstein and pinned him down good but the funny thing was Einstein just took it and kept coming back for more. It was hilarious. They would just wrestle and wrestle, chase sticks, and nudge each other out of the water bowl, then go tussle some more. I guess no harm was done to the little guy, he loved it and slept like a rock all night, though the increased water going in so late in the evening made for a quick exit to the door this morning!!!! Guess I’ll need to watch that next time. We spent Saturday at the Vet. Both Chloe and Einstein were scheduled to get their shots. Einstein weighed in at 19.5 lbs and Chloe kept her 8 lb svelte figure. Can you believe how much vet prices have skyrocketed in the last few years? It was almost $350 for each pet!!! Thank goodness it is just once a year for the annual round of vaccinations, year supply of pills and flea protection. We go back for another booster in three weeks, but you know what, we knew these vaccinations would be expensive so it’s all good. Maybe I can find a place that is a little cheaper next time but right now I’m just used to the program where I’ve been going. Also on Saturday a package came for Einstein and it included his CCI training cape. Here is his first official photo in his cape. Aawwwwee!

What’s next on the machine… McCalls M6127

I have picked up a few patterns over the last few weeks during the mega monster pattern sales. This is one of them by McCall’s M6127. I’ll be making the top with cap sleeves as I need to have a few more tops for the summer. This is a plus size pattern, which I hope will fit without having to do any alterations. Wish me luck!

How a perfectly good idea to reduce some excess fabric turns into a project snowball! Or, how I create work for myself with a little inspiration.

It starts with a bag of muslin, leftovers from various projects over the years.  Some dating back to the muslin I made for my sister’s wedding dress in 1993.  Odds and ends of various width and lengths.

I can’t hardly throw anything of what I perceive as true value away…so here we are…

I pulled these out because I finally felt like I knew what I could do with all of this…cut it into those 10 inch foundation squares like the ones we used at the QOV string quilt gathering a few weeks back.

So chop, chop, chop, wedding dress muslin and all.  You actually can see the front there…

Then because I had purchased a slew of red, white and blue fabrics recently.  And, oh yes…let’s not forget all those plaid shirts I picked up for a pittance, I spent a few hours cutting these up into usable blocks and strips, leftovers and strings went into a string bag.

A revelation occurred midway with a 2-1/2″ strip.    I asked myself “isn’t it possible to cut enough triangles and squares to make one of those Prairie Point Star blocks out of this strip?  hmmmm…let’s try.”

Just add a 2″ square and a 4″ square to those EZ triangle rulers I bought for the Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt and lo and behold I was making all kinds of star blocks just like this:

And with some of the 1-1/2″ strips I cut…because you just never know when you’ll need a postage stamp…figured I’d try out putting a few of these together…

And you know…since all this cutting and putzing around with design I have lots of leftover strings… which guess what?!  Now I have something to put the strings on!  Those 10″ muslin squares.

The process has gone full circle.

And I’ve created in a roundabout way a few more projects for myself!  The starts of a Star Quilt, a Postage Stamp Quilt and now a QOV string quilt….do you see now how THEY get you hooked?!?!

Einstein’s First Day

His name is Einstein and we picked him up in Milwaukee, flown in special delivery. Do you want to know his stats? Well…the official stats are coming in the mail and I’ll know his weight once we see the vet this week but he feels like he weighs about 15-20 pounds. He’s a handful! So far he’s mastered his name and the ability to eat and eat and eat. We went on our first walk this morning and he was surprisingly very easy to walk. A natural. He even had his first retrieve last night when we rolled a ball out in front of him. He got up, chased the ball and brought it back for me to do it again! He’s a little mouthy right now and we are working on it. He looks a little put out when I tell him no on the biting of my limbs but got to nip it in the bud…pun intended. There’s plenty of other things to chew on besides me, the couch, the coffee table and my shoes! This is going to be a very busy year! Here’s a few pics. He’s a keeper and we’ve got high hopes for this fella!

Burda 6-2009-120 Women’s Shorts-Entry 4 Finish

The shorts are finished! And it took us a little bit to get them to this point. A not so funny thing happened when Ale came back from her camping trip and tried them on. After going into the bathroom to give it a try I heard “oh no!!!”. What? What? That is not something you want to hear! Well, she couldn’t quit get them to zip up! My first thought was they were too small and when she showed me I completely thought that was the case. But really…with most styles these days the waist is worn so much lower than the actual waist that it then dawned on me “of course! the waist doesn’t fit because she doesn’t want to wear them at the actual waist!”. Long story short, we took out about 2 inches throughout the seams (risking serious seam split) and then I added on a couple of inserts to the waistband facing pieces. She likes them and she’s putting them in her suitcase to take on her sightseeing trip… It’s a good thing!

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Our First Cherry Harvest

Last year we planted two fruit trees in our yard. A cherry and a peach tree. With a year under our belt as fruit tree growers we’ve learned that growing fruit is a very…very…slow process! We waited and we waited and we waited. We sprayed to keep the Japanese beatles from eating the tree again this year…and we crossed our fingers. And what do you know? We have a cherry.

Puppy Einstein is coming!

Today we have big news to report. We got the call (although a little early than expected) from CCI that they have a puppy for us in need of a certified puppy raiser. The tentative plan is to drive to Milwaukee and pick him up at the airport Monday evening! Can you believe how fast that is! Just in a few short days…holy moly…I need to puppy proof…and not to mention break the news to Chloe that she’ll have a roommate. Very exciting.

Memorial Day Musings

Today is Memorial Day and the shorts are on hold until our charge returns from a camping trip.  Over the weekend I decided to take advantage of a few sales and drive out to a cute little quilt shop called Quilt in Joy for their first ever clearance sale.

I decided to pick up Red, White and Blue fabrics and start a little mini collection.  I was a little inspired last week from the Quilts of Valor Sew-In and surprised at just how quickly one of these string quilts goes together.  Here’s a fellow that can give a lesson if you care to take a looksy.

and here.  And just to quote Al, “Get Off Your Duff and Quilt!”:

and Dad…if you ever do get too hurt from golfing you can always follow Al’s directions here…

Al’s my new quilting hero.  I read an article that said he’s made about 400 of these quilts.  Truly amazing and he really cares about letting those service men and women know they are appreciated.