My Beaner

I unfortunately have sad news to share today. We had to have our Beaner put down last night. She was her perfectly peppy, happy, sweet self when I got home from work yesterday, but around 6:20pm she became lethargic and seemed to have difficulty getting up.

We took her to the emergency vet where they diagnosed her with a cancer. Her issues were caused by a cluster of tumors on her heart, one of which burst and caused the sack around her heart to swell with fluid, making it hard for her heart to pump blood and oxygen. They removed the extra fluid, which made her peppier, so we were able to spend some quality time with her, say goodbye and be with her through the end.

Unfortunately or fortunately (because I had knowledge about it), I had an Akita back in 2002 who suffered from almost exactly the same thing. When the vet diagnosed Beaner, I knew, but dreaded, what had to be done. To be completely sure, we asked if surgery would help her at all, and he said it would only give her a couple of weeks at best.

Needless to say, we are completely saddened and shocked. She was only 7 years old, and we had her just over 2 years. The vet said that these kinds of cancers can be totally silent and not noticeable until one of the tumors ruptures, and that it's very aggressive.

She was so full of life, and such an amazingly sweet dog. At Christmas, I walked into the family room and saw my one year old nephew sitting with her, just the two of them, and he was petting her snoot and head. She just loved it, and was so gentle with him.  I will miss her Wookie/Werewolf howling, the woo-woo conversations that she and I had, her kisses and her snuggling. I'm just glad that she didn't have to suffer and that we could be with her through it all and that we gave her the love that she craved, even if only for too short a time.

A true Husky, she loved to sleep in the snow.

I walked by the basement and saw her laying like this. I cracked up.

When she wanted in, she would press her nose into the door and usually licked it too. She would stand like that for the longest time. It totally cracked us up every single time.

She liked wildlife shows. Especially those with wolves or dogs.

She was a good pillow for Magic.

Beaner and Bug, their one winter together.

I miss my girls something awful.

Beaner loved her stuffed toys.

The other dogs knew not to take her babies from her!

I hope she's playing with Bug, Methos and Barqy now.

Christmas catching up

I never shared some of my Christmas projects and decorating from this year, so I thought I should do that before we take it all down.
This is for Julie, one of the lovely ladies I know from Tammy Tadds. She wanted to make this quilt, but I brought the sample home too quickly.
I love this quilt. Basic Grey designs fabulous Christmas fabric. This year's line was called 'Fruitcake' and it's a follow up to my all time favorite (so far) 'Figgy Pudding' from last year. The nice thing is that they coordinate nicely together, so I can use both in the 5 quilts I have planned for the line!

The pattern is 'Plaid About You' by Tammy Tadd. I also love this pattern. It goes together quickly and showcases large prints extremely well.  I was able to match up my stripes on the border everywhere but on the bottom. Se la vie! C'est la vie! (Pattie corrected my Frenish (combo of French and Spanish).
I like how the stripes on the bias do the arrowy-angle thing on the corners.
Of course I quilted the snot out of it. I can't help myself. I love the look of quilting, and I try to make it part of the design rather than an after thought.

I quilted it with metallic thread. I don't know if you can tell or not in the photos above and below. I was trying to get the sun to shine on it to show the sparkle. The Husky hair is an added something special that I put on it.

I have it hanging on the back of my new leather chair that I bought at my friend Kelly's estate sale and the dogs rub on it as they walk past all the time.
Kelly moved to a loft in the city and had to get rid of a ton of furniture that didn't fit into her new place. Kelly is a designer and has impeccable taste. I bought several really nice pieces from her for what I would consider a steal. She priced the stuff to move!
I love this chair. It's totally comfy and it looks so much nicer in my family room than the band-aid colored, poofy, pleather recliner that was there previously. I sit in it all the time.


I also got this desk  and the lamps at Kelly's sale. I use it as a table in my front hall. I put it in place and immediately decorated it for Christmas.

The hubby thought the candles on the plate were real cookies and asked if he could eat one. Donna and the kids came over on the 23rd to help decorate our tree and also helped me decorate the little white one. Donna thought we may have put too many ornaments on it, what do you think?
The kids also put the Husky by Santa and the Santa Cow next to the Christmas card sleigh.

We had a great time decorating and drinking hot chocolate. Then about 2 hours after they left, I was standing in the kitchen drinking the last of my hot chocolate and there was a huge CRASH! SHATTER!! BANG!!!  The tree had fallen down! There was a loud expletive from me and the hubby came running. Luckily the ladder was still in front of it and helped to break it's fall. We only lost one good ornament, my cow in Bermuda shorts drinking a pina colada lost his legs. The others that broke were just cheapy after Christmas sale ones.  We put him on the tree anyway.

This is my favorite Christmas decoration. Truth be told, I leave it up all year. It looks pretty at night.

This is one of my vintage Christmas tablecloths. I think it's so happy!

I think I'll save the rest Christmas projects I've made for another post. I think this is enough eye candy for now.
Happy Quilting!
Vicki

Industriusness

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday. I've been having a great time. I had 2 weeks off of work for the holidays, and got a lot and yet nothing done at the same time! I had really, really wanted to clean out my basement and make my sewing cave into a real honest to goodness studio. but that didn't happen.
I did get some sewing done though. I made this mini wall hanging:

The applique in the middle and the corner circles are wool. I appliqued it with fusible web (steam a seam lite, 2) and then machine button hole stitched it down. I used LakeHouse fabrics for the rest. It totally went together in no time.


It's from the book 'Pennies from Heaven' by Gretchen Gibbons.

It's a really nice book with great ideas. I like mixing fabric and wool for two reasons, 1) wool is pricey and 2) I hate hand work and it's easier to applique by machine on fabric.

This next project is DiscoJen's birthday present, so if you are DiscoJen, don't look any further until after your birthday!

DiscoJen travels quite a bit w/the kids, so I made her a Smarty Girl Bag from the Heather Bailey pattern, but with a few modifications to make traveling w/the chillens easier.

It has a nice long handle, so it can go across your front, crucial for travel.
I added a poofy divider on the inside, as well as several pockets. The divider is for her e-reader thingy. I put 2 layers of fusible fleece into the divider to protect the reader thingy and it's screen. They other side of the divider is for general stuff, and has 6 pockets. (By general stuff, I mean snacks.)

I also added tall pockets on both the front and back, perfect for easy access to tickets and passports for 3 people! I used different colors on the pocket interiors so that if she's harried, she might remember what color the pocket was that she put the thing in that she's looking for.

I picked the Lila Tueller 'Spirit' fabric from Moda because it's busy enough that hopefully it will hide travel dirt!
Last night I finished the first of 8 rows for my Sew Mod group's row exchange. We each provided a fat quarter to each person in the group, then we were given a chart w/different blocks on it. We use the fabric provided and the block assigned to that person and make a row for them. They are due by February, so I need to get a move on!
Lorrie gave us all Halloween fabric, which is totally awesome! I have pinwheels for her, so I made applique pinwheels out of Halloween motifs.




Lorrie provided the yellow bat fabric. I used some of the Moda 'Haunted Mansion' and 'Spooktacular' by Sanae and Riley Blake's 'Boo to You' for finish up the row.
I was so excited to get the row together that I forgot to sew the appliques down, so I'll be working on that today. Hopefully I can get another row or two done today, on my last day off. Sigh.