Part of the reason for the slower finish is that I elected, or rather the quilt requested, some custom quilting. The other reason was in part Zora and in part some unplanned sewing.
Zora was spayed two weeks ago. They kept her overnight to be sure all was well, and it was, so we picked her up on the Saturday. She'd had dissolvable stitches, so there was no need to return they said as all was done internally; the biggest challenge would be to keep her quiet and calm. Famous last words. Sunday morning when I had her out before 7 am and it was still fairly dark in our pretty heavily treed yard, some animal, bigger than a squirrel, hit the ground with a big thump, and scrambled away. In that split second, Zora, leashed on her slip lead that tightens at her neck when she pulls, DARTED to the side, ripping it out of my hand, injuring my pinkie, but flat out charging to the fence, and zipping around a bit more before I could stomp on the end of her leash to stop her. All appeared okay however with her incision, so on with the day we went.
Well, later on, in the afternoon when my husband was stepping out onto our deck from the kitchen, she somehow barged past (bully breed she definitely is) and the upper deck gate was not shut, and off she dashed, still determined to snuff out whatever thing had thumped down that morning. And, in the evening, around 8 pm, when she was sweetly sleeping on the couch beside him, I went to pet her and check on her, and was HORRIFIED to see the entire incision gaping open. All 4 cm. Without going into a lot of the panic I was feeling, I got hold of our vet and he said to bring her in and he'd stitch her back up. Which he did, mildly sedating Zora who lost all her supper in reaction to the sedative (which she cannot afford, as she's still too skinny) MacGyver holding her head, me holding up her one back leg for him to restitch her: four stitches that were not dissolvable. He also gave her five days of antibiotics.
That night we heard her in her crate licking, and did not get a lot of sleep as we kept telling her to leave it. We kept her quiet on Monday with good success, one of us keeping an eye on her at all times... but we still did have to go about our day. About 8:30 Monday night, we basically had a repeat of Sunday night, only this time it was 'only' about half of the incision gaping open. She'd bitten the stitches and ripped them out. Panic ensued again, and we determined we needed to get her a cone--
one had not been offered, which is odd, but I believe it's because the stitches were internal and she couldn't hurt herself or pull them out unless... you got it, she ran around. We wrapped her belly with gauze and a tensor bandage to hold it in place overnight, and Tuesday morning we took her back into the vet for the third round of stitches.
one had not been offered, which is odd, but I believe it's because the stitches were internal and she couldn't hurt herself or pull them out unless... you got it, she ran around. We wrapped her belly with gauze and a tensor bandage to hold it in place overnight, and Tuesday morning we took her back into the vet for the third round of stitches.
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| The dogs are allowed on the couch after supper, on the section with the sheet. "Well half of me is on the sheet, and a girl needs a pillow!" |
This third round of stitches plus wearing the cone 24/7 except for eating and going for short walks, finally has saved her, because she clearly needs to be saved from herself.
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| I took my eyes off her for a couple of minutes, and my husband spied this through the patio doors. |
She got her stitches out yesterday, and all looked very good, though we kept her very contained all day. Today she had some more freedom and ripped around like a whirling dervish after her morning walk. She'll be a lot more contained tomorrow, as it's only been two weeks and I don't think she should be ripping around like a demon just yet.
Back to my quilt!
Back in 2019 I bought four half yard pieces of Liberty Tana Lawn from Pink Castle Fabrics (going out of business) and a scrap pack. They are wide: 133 cm so I do have some left over and I know exactly what I am going to make! I'd considered putting them onto the back since I am in the mode of 'use it all up please and thank you,' but then I saw a certain bench pillow pattern... So there is quite the variety here. I never did find a pattern that felt right for these beautfiul florals until I came across Everlasting Stars by Paula Steel. I am not sure if it was in a quilt shop newsletter where I got the link to the pattern, but it was made in Liberty fabrics, and I loved the wee stars.
Before binding, I took the quilt out onto the front lawn as the angle of the sun in the mid-afternoon was good to show the texture.
I liked it but I was worried the quilting was taking away from the nine tiny stars that, to me, give a little surprise, a glimmer of unexpectedness.
Binding got done this morning. If you follow me on Gander, you'll have seen that. Check out the fun label! I got a 6-pack from Zipper Valley. (no affiliation)
The binding is a fairly precious piece of fabric. It's by Wenche (pronounced Ven-key) Wolff Hatling, a Norwegian quilter and designer. I used a chunk of it on the back of Winter Blues last year. I'd considered a pale pink for the binding, but I didn't have anything pale enough in my yardage, and in my less than half yard drawers, I didn't have enough of any one of the three soft pinks that might have worked. I could have combined two, but I felt it needed to be just one fabric there since it already was busy with florals. What about a very pale blue? Well, when I saw this in my blue yardage stack, I knew it was the one. No, there's no blue in the backing, but they are all cool colours and it's soft enough that it tones in just fine.
Here is the back, a couple of yards I scooped up on sale somewhere in my travels:
What to use for the background was a bit of a dilemma. However, when I saw Constellations by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics in my neutrals yardage, I crossed my fingers and toes and hoped there would be enough... Not really. However, it was just so perfect that I figured out a very prudent way of cutting, and guess-timated that I should have just and I mean just enough. When it came to cutting the sashing, I realized I did not, in fact, have enough, (heartbreak, nooo, inner rather quiet tantrum happened) BUT if I made the sashing 2" wide instead of 2 ½" I could do it! Well, I still had to piece three of the sashing rectangles! Bet you can't spot them. This fabric has very pale little stars in it with the odd gold one. I just love it so much. I'd bought three yards of it back in 2017 or 2018 and somewhat reluctantly used more than half of it as the background for Grace, such a meaningful quilt, and my first pattern that Yvonne (Quilting Jet Girl) tech edited. The link to the pattern is on my sidebar. All I have left of that much-adored fabric is a 4" x 5" rectangle and a half dozen smaller squares.
I took a closeup of six of the blocks just so you can ogle the fabric a little. The quilt is on my lap as I type this, and it's just the perfect weight of warmth for my bare lower limbs and feet. Love 100% wool batting.
The days have been gorgeous for the past couple of weeks, blue skies, warm sunshine and highs in the 20s; yesterday was 24C! Hence, there hasn't been much need for a quilt on one's lap except for in the evening when the sun goes down, when there is that bit of a chill in the air. We've only dipped overnight to 9C twice, no frost yet, and most nights have stayed in double digits. We closed the pool yesterday, yes, on that 24C day, how typical, it would've been great for a final swim! I thought I'd have a hard time deciding which new quilt to use as my lap quilt, this one or Biblioasis, but Floral Galaxy is going to be upstairs in my TV-watching/reading nook...
and Biblioasis is on the downstairs couch!
The days have been gorgeous for the past couple of weeks, blue skies, warm sunshine and highs in the 20s; yesterday was 24C! Hence, there hasn't been much need for a quilt on one's lap except for in the evening when the sun goes down, when there is that bit of a chill in the air. We've only dipped overnight to 9C twice, no frost yet, and most nights have stayed in double digits. We closed the pool yesterday, yes, on that 24C day, how typical, it would've been great for a final swim! I thought I'd have a hard time deciding which new quilt to use as my lap quilt, this one or Biblioasis, but Floral Galaxy is going to be upstairs in my TV-watching/reading nook...
Quilt Stats:
The third thing that has slowed me down is that I got chosen to be a vendor in the Windsor Humane Society's Hallowoof fall fundraiser! I've never done the vendor thing before, so I decided to make a bunch more mug cosies for starters.
I've got three more makeup bags in varying degrees of completion, two of which are dog-themed, and I have a few more ideas of some smaller makes to have on my table. Speaking of which, I need to find someone who has a large folding table I could borrow... and buy a tablecloth... The event, which is a walk where you get sponsors, as well as the vendors area happens on October 25. Lots of time right?
Size: 53" x 53"
Pattern: Everlasting Stars by Paula Steel Quilts
Fabric: Tana Lawn (Amelie, Shepherdly Song in A and in B, and Mitsi Valeria) by Liberty of London; background is Constellations by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics
Batting: Quilter's Dream 100% wool
Backing: no idea
Quilted: on Avril, 96 935 stitches
Threads: pieced on my Bernina with Aurifil cotton #2600; quilted with So Fine 50 wt 100% polyester by Superior Threads, Bottom Line in the bobbin
I've got three more makeup bags in varying degrees of completion, two of which are dog-themed, and I have a few more ideas of some smaller makes to have on my table. Speaking of which, I need to find someone who has a large folding table I could borrow... and buy a tablecloth... The event, which is a walk where you get sponsors, as well as the vendors area happens on October 25. Lots of time right?
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