My dog is a wimp, and other social-distancing stuff

Today, Richard and I took Abbey to the Warhill area to walk again today. After about a mile of dodging other people and enjoying the warm weather and sun, she was pooped! LOL Here we are, olds, and she's so out of shape that the walk wears her out. We added another halfish mile and called it a day.

I woke up this morning and stayed in bed till 10. I just didn't want to get up. I was mostly awake and had taken Abbey out at 6. She wasn't interested in getting up either at this point. So, we played the sleep/wake game for a couple hours and finally got up. I just wasn't feeling it. No spunk at all. I had planned on making breakfast when Richard got back from Richmond, brunch really. He got back really quickly, so I started sausage. Then I got to thinking that we needed those potatoes I had planned on frying up with left over baked potatoes. At that point, I went ahead and got out the eggs to fry. I wasn't into it, but I got it all made and it was delicious.

Since the walk, I've done my pill box and vacuumed the dining room, as well as set up a fan since it's going to get extra warm today. Winnie is cooking on the old grill tonight (hot dogs). I ordered a gas grill to play with and it should be here any time. Toys are good right now while we're isolating.

I'm sure there's more happening today, but feet up and internet cruising works for me. I have Wyatt Earp on demand and Richard is sitting next to me relaxing too. Go us!

As seen on Facebook:

God bless the internet and a world of creative people!

Potholder-palooza, rescuing dead pillows

So, I have this puppy. She's a delight, but she is still young enough to think everything belongs to her, including shoes, food, pillows, and anything else left on the floor or within her reach. She has an affinity for stuffed things and my sewing patterns. My sewing patterns! What makes them so derned interesting?

Interestingly, my last blog post was about turning a potholder fail into a pillow. And here I am writing about turning pillows into potholders. I sense a pattern emerging!

This is Abbey. She joined our family in November of 2012. She's my mischief maker.

This is Lindsey. She was with us for 10 years. I show you this photo so you can see one of the pillows that I spoke about above and you can see where the fabric for the potholders came from

Now to the potholders. Abbey decided yesterday that the pillows in Lindsey's picture belonged to her. She proceeded to quietly, systematically, one at a time chew the backs to bits. I was able to rescue the tops. The pillows were made from a vintage quilt top that I had bought some years ago as a cutter. My original intention was to make a vest, but there were too many holes in the quilt top. I was able, though, to make the four pillows. I was crestfallen to find the pillows in an after-dog-play state, but if you know me, it won't surprise you to see what I did with the quilt tops.

I took those lemons and made lemonade - potholders. I had a roll of 2" strips of denim, so decided to make a simple back with that. I cut down the pillow tops to 6-1/2" squares with rounded corners, added Insul-Bright batting for heat protection, and strip quilted the denim through all layers. I had some yellow bias tape left over from another project, so I added that by machine on the front side and am working on attaching it by hand on the back. They were photographed on some recycled denim placemats I made years ago and which were on the table and looked like they wanted their picture taken.

Yes, I have a puppy. Yes, she thinks the house is hers. Yes, she tears a few things up. But that won't get me down. I will turn trash into treasure whenever I can. And now, I have four potholders to give as a gift or to use. 

What have you rescued today?

Been sewing a bit

I have a ton of Steeler fabric hanging around and it was time to put some to use. I cut out some emblems and pieced them together, than made a quilted potholder with InsulBrite, batting, and denim on the back. I used commercial bias tape for the binding. I have a bunch of that too. When that's gone, I'll go back to making my own. The potholder is about 8" square. I like to round the corners to make the binding a little easier. Is that a cheat? Maybe so :)

General instructions for making potholders can be found in our tutorial. 

This was a really quick project, but I felt good making it. I'm working on some Steeler mug mats similar to the Virginia Tech coasters/mug mats I made recently. These are about 5" in diameter and I used orange fabric to go with the Virginia Tech fabric and some M&M fabric for the back. There is a thin piece of batting in the center. You can learn how to make a mug mat using our tutorial 

I'm trying to get the puppy to understand that mama's gotta sew! She treated me to a lovely pose this evening to show me that she gets it.

Happy sewing! Be safe, my neighbors to the north. You're about to get slammed with a lot of snow, they say. I say it's a good time to cuddle up with your fabric and hand sewing if your power goes out, and if you do have power, hit the machine and do some quickie projects to keep your creative juices flowing.