Photobombing

I was going to do a quick post today to prove I’ve done a bit more on the curtain, however Fletcher had other ideas…

And he does this kind of thing quite regularly, he likes to get involved when he’s not welcome…

And a lovely soft wadding pillow for his old man head… I was actually quite annoyed by this – dog hairs!!!- but at least he wasn’t getting in the way/crying/photobombing/getting his nose too close to the iron or sewing machine at the time, he was just quietly minding his own business whilst not being able to be apart from me for an hour or so…

So I’ve changed my banner a little up top 🙂 There will be more changes afoot on this blog over the next few weeks, but hopefully this won’t disrupt anything.

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Noo Fabric

I was going to post about my curtain- yes singular- this weekend but they were a bit of a shouty disaster so I shall leave that for a time when I have fixed the problem and can think about it without feeling disappointed with myself.

So on a positive note, there are new fabrics in my Spoonflower shop- Barn Owls, Narwhal and a scribbly flowery thing. Here’s what they look like on Kona cotton.

Go get some if you like 😉

And here is a picture of my idiot dog.

Bird cutting die giveaway!

I found this die whilst tidying up my room this weekend- I’ve never used it! It works in most die cutting machines and cuts paper, card, etc into cute birdy shapes…

It’s the Bird of Paradise die from Marianne Design and the wing is separate so you can do 3D stuff with it if you wish. RRP is around £8.

So I thought one of you might like it? This giveaway is open internationally until the end of Friday 27th July 2012. To enter, just tell me which of these pictures of Fletcher you think is the cutest- I’m entering him for the Pets on Quilts competition next month and we had a photo session on Saturday (in that I lured him outside with his favourite biscuits and tried to convince him to stay sitting and not lay down)- I just can’t decide! He does look a bit dumpling shaped sat down, instead of generic greyhound shape, but I don’t think that matters…

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In other news, I finished my Fireworks Display block and totally ballsed it up when appliqueing onto the background fabric. It all wrinkled and went weird so it looks like I am unpicking it tonight and might be handsewing it on a hoop or finding some kind of stabiliser. Also, Karen and Patricia have been selected as pattern testers- I shall email you both later!

If you want more die cutting stuff I’ve got a few bits on eBay this week, ending Wednesday and I may add some more tonight. Click here.

Penny and Fletcher – all finished at last!

It’s finally done, the binding is on, the sleeve has been sewn onto the back, the paint has been set, my label is attached and it’s in the post…

I’ve pretty much dedicated my weekend to this quilt. Aside from housework, a jaunt to Morrisons, a nap, reading Giant George’s book, watching Snakes on a Plane again and cooking roast beef, this is what I’ve been doing.

Saturday saw me finish the quilting after finally getting to grips with the free motion pre-flight checks I had to run on the machine, then Sunday morning was the painting and doubt stage (thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on the painting!), by lunch time I had set the paint and by tea I had sewn on the binding, made the sleeve (using this tutorial) and sewn that on too. By bedtime the label was tacked to the back and the threads had been tidied up and lint rollered to remove real dog hairs. It’s being posted today!

I would probably make another one. I say that- I actually quite liked the process and WANT to make another one, I’m not yet sure of the subject matter though. I’m planning on selling the pattern from the next one I do so it will take a bit of thought. Maybe a puffin from my photos last week? Or the vintage HMV dog (if I don’t sell the pattern), or maybe even a landscape. I’m really not sure yet but if you have any ideas of something other people might want to make too, you know where the comments box is!

One month today and I will be seeing it on display at the Festival of Quilts! Are you going?

“Penny & Fletcher” Technical details:
Finished size 48.5″ x 30″
Technique: Machine Turned Edge Applique
Fabrics used: Mostly scraps from my box- I didn’t keep track of them all, but there is some Pezzy Print by American Jane, a scrap of my own fabric, some Meadow Friends by Deb Strain and a couple of grey fabrics from Ruby by Bonnie and Camille.
Paint: Pebeo Setacolor in transparent black (with lightener), transparent tan and transparent dark sienna.
Piecing: Madeira Monofilament
Quilting: Machine quilted in thread painting style on dogs, bubbles on noses, squiggles (and name) on white and straight line on blue. Gutermann thread, mostly 414 but some dark grey, tan, dark brown, black and a varigated Aurifil at one point.
Backing: Peach Klona cotton
Binding: White Klona cotton

If you want to follow some other people making their first ever quilts for the Festival, see Ali (though she’s not giving very much away 😉 ) and Dvine‘s blogs…

Want to enter a raffle to win your own custom pet quilt like this? Click HERE!

Did you get here from Lily Pad Quilting’s Pets on Quilt competition? Click here to go back!

Goodbye Penny

I’m writing this now because I won’t be able to do it later, I’ll be too sad.

For the last week to ten days, Penny has been falling over a lot, whether indoors or even in the middle of the road. She’s always had bad legs, but it spread to her front ones and has been dragging her feet with every step, leaving a trail of blood all the way home from the park. She doesn’t seem to be in any pain, but on Tuesday she fell over in a pile of her own poo (not for the first time) and looked up at me to say, “I don’t want to do this anymore”.

Today we took her to the vets. OH thought she could be fixed as it was only her legs and she was on medicine for them. However, we were told it was neurological and there’s nothing more that can be done for her.

She has tablets until Tuesday to help blood flow to the brain, and some stronger anti-inflammatories. But unfortunately we know this will be the last few days we have with her, she is going to be put to sleep on Wednesday so we need to make this weekend extra special for her. We will really miss her, but the vet and Penny have made the decision for us, so it is not so tough and we know now that we are doing the right thing. She will live on in memory through PennyDog and our favourite photographs, and of course she was Best Veteran 2010, so this “useless” runner won something in the end.

I am very honoured that I could give Penny her twilight years. We got her just before her 10th birthday a nervous wreck of a stray, frightened of men, socks, footballs, cats and pretty much everything else. She has turned into a self-confident, if not slightly contrary old lady, with the occasional kleptomania streak and adamant that when at OH’s mum’s house she will get dog meat otherwise she is not eating it thank you very much. She is a campaigner against bathing dogs, and surprisingly tasty when she has come in from the rain (well, Fletcher thinks she is!). She takes no crap from puppies and communicates by moistening her palate. She either lays on her back with a single paw in the air or on her front like an aquatic dinosaur fossil. She can fall down a flight of stairs and come off unscathed, and has only barked twice in all the time we have had her.

So this is in memory of the inspiration behind PennyDog, also known as Penny, Pencilface, Penelope, The Penz, Mrs P, Pickle, Honeypickle, Stumblina, Peas, Penelope Pankhurst, Pixie, Pix, Chief… We will all miss her so much.

OMG I am a pushy parent.

I took Fletcher to a dog show today and together we entered Most Handsome Dog and Dog Judge Would Most Like To Take Home categories. I couldn’t enter Best Specimen of breed because he’s got a spot of alopecia and a tear drop tattoo on his face which as far as I’m aware people in prison have those done one for each person they’ve murdered. And I forgot to enter Best Rescue Dog. Booo. Oh and I have a rather sore one-arm tan weirdly- don’t know how I just got sun on one arm as I was out all day.

Anyway the judge didn’t even look at him despite everyone in the crowd cooing over him. I was quite disgruntled he didn’t even get 4th place, and I vowed to go to every Dog Show I could to get some rosettes to put on the wall above his bed. Then it hit me, I’m going to be one of those pushy parents who expects top grades from their kids whilst riding a unicycle, singing show tunes and playing Grade 6 Clarinet at the age of five! I didn’t realise I had such a desire to win, but seriously, who could resist my Fletchiboo? 😛

Next Sunday I’ve found another local dog show (ha!) and he and Penny have entered the online one for our local Greyhound Rescue kennels here, we’ll show ’em!

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In resin news I tested under the 100w bulb and it took 2 hours to set and not be tacky, however it was still extremely bendy due to the warmth so even thugh this is a fast time, it will need popping in a cool place for a good while longer- not one hour setting I’m afraid!

Almost didn’t fail…

I am off again with the vaccuum former trying to make moulds, the first two attempts proved I had the right material this time, though has taught me about height limitations on bangles and also to really really secure the lock before switching the vacuum on to avoid injury and failure as shown here…

Now the blimming release platform has locked, so waiting for OH to come home and unjam it for me and hopefully I will be able to test my first mould tonight!

Another failure this week was Fletcher- I took him to the BBC Over The Rainbow auditions for Toto and he got really anxious with the two hour wait (not to mention the 45 minute journey in my little car) and the fact that he was surrounded by other dogs that all wanted a piece of him, that when we went into the show arena thing, he wouldn’t look at the judges and wanted to excape- I think he thought he was at the vets! Needless to say he didn’t get through because of how stressed he was (to the disappointment of the carpark stewards), so I now know acting isn’t the boy for him. He was totally exhausted when he got back home!

Custom order finished… and some other stuff

Firstly- and most importantly- I need to let you all know that the price of the moulds in my shop will all be going up 50p on 1st January because of changing exchange rates and customs charges. But the good news is that for the whole of January you can get 15% off everything (moulds/jewellery/homewares…) in my January sale with the code “jansale09”. I hope that makes up for it!

I thought I’d show you a custom order I made for Chelsea on Etsy. It’s a full size king chess piece made from pearlescent powder and blue resin, cut in half with text applied and a bail attached. The idea was for it to be a good luck pendant for Eric’s chess tournament, but I think the King piece is a little on the large size at 12cm, so it will possibly be used as some other kind of ornament.

In other news I have started making resin buttons, but not a clue on how to price them! Do you think 80p-£1 each (depending on size and shank vs holes) is too much?

Also you can see Fletcher is back to normal after his ordeal- he interrupted my photo session as it was what we like to call “Fletcher-time” where he gets upset if you do not devote 100% of your attention to him! He does still look a bit spaced in the pic but it was the angle I took it on, saying that he looks dopey most of the time to be fair!

Death by Chocolate

I had a bit of a scare today. Fletcher managed to eat two boxes of chocolates (about 400g) whilst I was out at the post office today, including a box of Thorntons! I rang the vets and they told me to bring him down immediately. I nearly cried as the nurse took him away from me. I was there an hour as they gave him an injection to force him to vomit. Apparently it’s the most chocolate they’ve ever seen a dog throw up, and if I’d left it he could have been dead from organ failure by now.

He was a complete vegetable when he got home, pretty much too weak to move. He laid on the rug in the living room and slept it off for a bit and then had scrambled eggs and rice for tea.

He’s pretty much back to normal now thankfully….

Worried about P

I am conscious that this is a craft blog, and as such, here is a picture of what I sent Jennyflowerblue in the button jewellery swap now that she has received her package:

But anyway, I am worried about Penny (aka P, Pennydog, Mrs P, The Penz, Honeypickle…), she was chasing a squirrel yesterday and it jumped over a fence, and Penny, well, she almost went through it and cut her face on the wire…

And this morning she fell over like Bambi three times getting out of bed. She nearly gave up on the idea completely. I had to pretty much carry her out of the house and into the garden. She’s been very wobbly recently, her arthritis is getting very bad, especially if she has been laid down for a long time, but there again, she is 12, maybe that’s normal….