A month with Opus

A month with Opus

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Opus has been with us for a month. Here is a picture of him on the day we brought him home at 8 weeks and at 12 weeks. He was about 10 pounds when we brought him home. He is now 26 pounds.

Opus doesn’t like to walk which is really bumming me out. I need a dog to push me to walk everyday. Here is the way Opus looks at me when I tell him we are going for a walk.

He does like to sleep, play with this rope and eat out of his ball.

Since Opus sleeps a lot I was able to mount and hang my miniature quilt.

And put a quilt on Ava.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial weekend.

Happy Quilting

Patti

Sarah’s Menagerie

Sarah’s Menagerie

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My daughter Sarah finally got her quilt so I can post pictures. I started this quilt in October and worked on it most of winter. I finished it in April.

It is Elizabeth Hartman’s Delightful Desert Pattern. I bought the kit on Ebay but don’t remember from whom. I really love it and more important Sarah loves it. She’s an animal freak.

Here is a close up. Yes we still have some snow piles.

Here are a few puppy pictures. Opus is really a good puppy. At least so far.

  • Too much play
  • Chillin in the sun
  • My sanctuary

I got a new digital camera. So far I have only used the pre-program. Hope to learn manual mode soon. Here is a picture of a Blue Heron flying over our lake.

Hope you are all saying safe where ever you are.

Happy Quilting

Patti

Big News

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I have been working on making these square in square blocks for the border of this quilt. The squares will float.

I would love to make it a double border as seen above but I don’t think I have enough fabric. I have 51 done and I need to have 92 to go around the quilt once.

I also have this quilt on Ava and have one more row to go so will be posting about it soon.

But the big news is that I will be getting a chocolate Labrador Retriever sometime after April 19. Its a boy and I think he will be named Opus. Lance picked that out because he always says my dogs are a “piece of work.” We have also kicked around the name Ziplock. I am beyond excited but have so much to do before the puppy gets here. I need to paint my bedroom and bathroom, puppy proof the house, and get puppy supplies. All hard to do when your on lock down. Once he gets here my quilting may have to go by the wayside for a while.

I will post pictures of the puppy once he arrives home. For now I hope everyone stays healthy.

Happy Quilting

Patti

Another Top Finished

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I finished this top today. It was a kit I ordered from Blueprint in December when they had a buy one kit get one free. I got two kits in similar colors because they will go well in my living room. I was able to make this quilt with plenty of fabric left over to use on another project.

Now I have two quilts tops ready to go on Ava. I will either have to piece the backs or order some fabric. With all that’s going on its hard to figure out where to get fabric from. Some states like mine are a “safer at home” i.e., light marshal law and non-essential business are to be closed. Other states are not. I would like to order local but I don’t think I can right now. May just wait until my local shops can open and get my backing from them.

I did order a canvas from Amazon which should be here on Friday. Hopefully I can get my mini Tie Dye Courthouse Step Quilt mounted and hung. I also ordered some watercolor paint and brushes. I’m going to try some painting.

I hope you and your family are all healthy and happy.

Patti

A Little Help

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Ta Da. Here is the mini tie dye courthouse step quilt. I need some help please.

I would like to mount this quilt on a piece of canvas so I can hang it on my wall. I really do not want to quilt it. I have been looking on various sites for tutorials on how to do this and there are several ways. Have any of you ever mounted an un-quilted top? Any suggestions or tips.

How is everyone handling the self-quarantine. There are so many great things on Facebook and other sites to keep us quilters engaged and motivated. The Quilt Show is doing an International Quilting Weekend with 25 free shows now through Sunday. You can check that out here.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy quilting.

Patti

Coming Along Nicely

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My Tied Dyed Courthouse Steps mini-quilt is coming along nicely.

The governor of Michigan closed all restaurants and bars on Monday. Wisconsin’s governor followed suit today. There will be nothing to do up here but quilt. Its kind of a bad time of the year for this to happen. We are already all going stir crazy from all the snow this year. I’m hoping when all the snow birds return, which should be soon, they don’t bring the virus with them.

Everyone stay healthy and happy quilting.

Patti

Tied Dyed Courthouse Step

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I am participating in an online quilt guild run by Rebecca Bryan called Playful Colorful Quilt Guild. I joined it way before these crazy times but now it might be pretty fortuitous if my local guilds get cancelled. I am working on her Tied Dyed Courthouse Step quilt. The concept is to paint a square with watercolors and then use that as inspiration for your quilt colors. Here is my watercolor painting, my fabric pull and and my Courthouse Step quilt I did in EQ8. I had a little trouble matching my fabric colors in EQ.

I am making a miniature version of this quilt with the blocks finishing 4 inches so I am doing paper piecing. I like EQ8 because it creates the foundation blocks for me. No math! (Although secretly I love math.) With that said I did have some issues with the piecing. As you can see after I had my foundation block I labeled each log with the alphabet letter I assigned to each fabric. When I went to make the block though I didn’t realize I should have labeled them in reverse. (Think fusible applique pieces. You have to reverse your templates.) Plus I wasn’t paying attention to the orientation of the 3 small blocks in the middle.

Here is my first block. It is the last block in the bottom row on the right in my EQ quilt.

I really like this block and who will know it isn’t exactly like my corner block in my EQ8 quilt. Well you guys will. Hah!

What I am most grateful in this whole process is that I get to use all of the tools I have accumulated over the years. I did not need to buy a single thing to make this quilt. Yea me!

Yep that’s a 1/8″ add a seam. Not sure I have every used it before. I’m using that binding tool as a iron mat. I have never used it to make binding. Well at least not yet.

I will post more blocks as I get them done. For now I hope everyone is staying safe and not fretting too much about what is happening in our communities. I hope everyone gets to do something this weekend to calm their nerves whether it be quilting, reading, watching a movie with popcorn. Oh my! I have to go I got a lot to do this weekend.

Happy Quilting

Patti

A Sneak Peek

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Hello again. I have not posted in quite a while. Not because I haven’t been doing anything. I still need to work on making this a habit. So this post is a sneak peek at what I have been working on over the last 4 months and upcoming topics of future post as I explain more about each project. Here are some pictures of things to come.

In addition to working on the many projects above I have been working part time taking public defender appointments. I spend half my time in Florence County and the other half in Forest County. I appear in court about every other Tuesday and Wednesday. Not a bad side hustle. Plus I’m helping people.

So stayed tune. I’m either going to post like a bandit. Or you won’t hear from me again for 4 months.

Happy Quilting from U.P. Haven

Patti

Working on my Off The Cuff

Working on my Off The Cuff

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I have been working on my Off The Cuff- Playmaker Block of the Month quilt. I started this quilt nine months ago but you can still sign up here and start any time.

This is the inner portion of the quilt.

Right now I am working on the braided border. I really wanted to learn how to do the braided border and I really love it.

It really does take a lot of starts and stops adding each braid but I am using starters and stoppers so I’m really getting two for one.

Before I add the braided border I will have to add this border.

It is going to be a big quilt (93″ by 93″). I am getting excited to get it done but definitely will not have it done in the nine months. That braided border is going to take some time.

In some non-quilting news, I saw this out my bedroom window the other day.

She was eating the seeds knocked out of my bird feeder.

The best part at U.P. Haven.

Its football Sunday so Go Pack Go!

Hope you all get some quilting in the week.

Happy Quilting

Patti