Garden Chair Finis

The Garden Chair by The Cat's Whiskers

recommended linen and Dinky-Dyes silk

Did I ever have a productive weekend! First I finished off block two of the Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. Yeah! And I did it on Saturday so I'm still on schedule. :-) Then on Sunday I spent most of the day working on finishing my Garden Chair. I don't think it's very hard but there is a delay between sections while you wait for the glue to dry. The finishing on the second chair is a 100% nicer than the first chair. I even stitched some of the pieces in place this time around - this was something that I thought I should do for the first one but didn't. I'm amazed at how much nicer the finished product is with that little step added. I'm hoping to get to the new piece (the chaise lounge) before much longer. While these chairs are not every one's cup of tea, they really do look cute sitting on the shelves in my crafting corner.

Here is block #2 of the Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.

And a photo of my progress so far. I need to order five skeins of NPI for Block #3 and I'll call Drema today. And as luck would have it, the part that I wanted to start first on the block calls for a skein I don't have so I can't start this until it comes in the mail later in the week.

Here is my progress on the Big Zipper. As you can see I almost have the border finished. I'll get that done on my way home from work tonight. Then the question begs to be asked, should I continue to work on BZ or pick up one of my new Nashville releases? I'm thinking to continue with this. I'm really enjoying it so far and why mess with something that is working? :-)

It was a sunny but cold day yesterday and of course the pugs had to find the sun. Here they are watching (ok maybe there more sleeping going on) me work on the Garden Chair. Those of you who know/have pugs will totally understand why my furniture and pillows are fawn colored. :-)

My New Year start

I made Houses of Hawk Run Hollow my New Year's start. The goal will be one block a month and since I stuck to it when I did the Village, I'm hoping to have the same results with this piece. As you can see, I have already changed the first block. I like to have a space to add my name and date and how perfect to replace Ms. Bailey with me. :-) Apologizes to Ms. Bailey of course. ;-)

I also tried to make the new mystery, Le Grand Marquoir a new start but I tried three times to work with a Hand Dyed Fiber silk and just didn't like how it was turning out. The linen I choose to work with is 35 count in Havana from Weeks Dye Works. It's a lovely dark goldish color. The three different skeins I tried all looked great but I hate the stripy look when I use skeins that use three or four very different shades. So I put in the letter A three different times trying to get happy with it. I finally decided that a variegated shade with one color family works best for me with such a large piece. So I purchased a fourth color to try out. I ended up with Steelies 2453, a medium/dark steel blue. My skein at home showed a lot of color variation within the skein and I'm hoping that the 15 skeins I purchased yesterday have the same sort of variation. Cross your fingers for me.



I thought I would end this post, with a pug photo. I've been finding a lot more pug based blogs lately so I thought I would get with the swing of the name of my blog and add more pug photos and news.

I have a chilly living room in the winter so I always use a space heater. And pugs just love heat. So hear are Clancy and Aoife snuggled up to each other and the heater. I don't know how they stand it. :-) Of course they are not your usual big/chubby pugs so they have a lot less body fat than is the norm.

How Does Your Garden Grow finis

How Does Your Garden Grow - 2008 Papillion Creations Mystery

28 count Natural Linen

Hand Dyed Fibers

I finally finished the PC Mystery today. I have lost more stitching time over the past week because I didn't touch this for at least four days in the past week. And I would not let myself do anything else because I felt I had to get this piece in the done box. So I had to ask the question, why? I have yet to come up with a really good answer. :-) I guess I feel I just have to finish things. I fell out of the love with this piece months and months ago but I still moved ahead. Next time I'm faced with this situation, I think I'll move on way before I feel compelled to go on.


I need to start something new. I have three projects ready to go, Houses of Hawk Run Hallow, the new mystery and a Loose Feathers, Blessings and Kind Wishes from BBD. I think I'll save the BBD for the train next week and I already know I have to work on HoHRH at home because it's too big for the train. So that leaves the new mystery. I think I'll put some stitches on that one tonight. :-)


I took the pugs to the dog park today - while it was cold, the sun was shinning and it felt great. We met up with some of our pug friends. And all the pugs had variations of the same three colors, red, black and white.

My three all checking something out on the ground.

Aoife saying hi.

Clancy boy.

Clancy and Molly.

Clancy, Aoife, Molly with their friend Oscar (he is a really big boy).

And the whole gang - Molly at the top, Aoife in the check, Clancy in black, Sadie to the right and Oscar at the bottom.

Season's Greetings

my pugs aren't spoiled

Yesterday I prepared the pugs stockings for Christmas Eve. They are not too spoiled are they? The stockings are full of toys and treats.

Aoife and Clancy protest, "No Mom, we are NOT spoiled. Just well loved".

It's really cold here in Northern Illinois - currently -6. And with a brutal wind chill. It should warm up by Tuesday when the snow starts again. We will have a white Christmas for sure. I've been working on St. Reatham and if I stitch all day today, I should finish it. But I have a ton of other things I need to take care of today so my stitching time will be limited to tonight. But I'll have to complete in the next couple of days for sure. :-)

and the last beastie is done

I finished up the last beastie Monday on the way home from work as predicted. But rather than stopping in the direction I was going and moving back up to the biggest motif of the piece, I decided to continue down to the corner of the piece. No special reason other than it was the piece of chart that I had with me. So I'll finish up the dogs on the bottom and then evaluate what to do next. My new Loose Feathers chart should arrive today and I think I want to stop St. Reatham for a couple of days and work the two charts on the pattern (the trinket box and part 4 of the mystery). I'm not going to do my box in the silk that is called for but convert mine to Weeks and Crescent Colours - I'm sure it will look just as nice for more than half the price.
What do you do when your puppy is feeling under the weather? Why you take pictures of course! I picked up Aoife at 9:00am this morning and she sure does look pitiful. I didn't know they were going to cone her so I didn't have a better alternative on hand. But I took care of that and a soft sided cone will arrive tomorrow. The power of overnight shipping.

Here is a close up of her plastic surgery. Widening her nostrils will really make a difference in her ability to get air quickly. And the stitches are such a pretty purple. :-) Everyone loved her at the clinic and I have to agree, she is a very special pug. :-)

Aoife is fine :-)

:-) Yeah, the doctor just called and Aoife is doing well and recovering nicely. The did the elongated soft palate surgery, removed the glands on either side of her palate and widened her nostrils. However, he did say he was not able to fix the problem entirely. I'm taking that to mean that she is still breathing loud. He said that she must have a structural issue that he can't see so he can't repair it. I'll get further details when I see the surgeon tomorrow.

They have visiting hours and owners are allowed to visit their pets twice a day for twenty minutes. It just about killed me to leave her this morning so I'm not sure if I'm going to visit her tonight or not. If her recovery goes well, I can pick her up tomorrow.

Happy Halloween from the pugs

Yes, I do dress up my pugs for Halloween. :-) Yesterday we attended a Halloween party at the training center where we train for agility. A good time was had by all. And we won second prize for best group - I also had on a poodle skirt. The hours I spent on the costumes where well worth it I think. They looked so cute - Molly's photo even made the local newspaper today. :-)

Molly in her pink poodle skirt
Clancy in his letter jacket from PUG U.
And of course little Aoife in her blue poodle skirt.



I barely put a stitch in all weekend so I have nothing to show today. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday I'll have a stitching update. I did start a small Halloween design because it felt right to be working on pumpkins. There is a small chance I'll be able to complete it by Friday but it's slow going since it's on black and I hate working on black. :-)

Friday is my birthday and no major plans for the day/weekend. Like the past few years, I'm taking the day off work so I can play. And a hot date with the SO at one of my favorite restaurants that evening. Nummy. :-) The pugs have another costume party to attend with our meetup group friends. That should also be fun. I love seeing pugs dressed up.

Yeah Clancy-Boy!

Yeah my Clancy-Boy! On Friday he earned his first Open Standard Qualifying score and it was a first place! This is our first Q since April I think. Here is a photo from the weekend (it's a photo of the photo, I'll upload a better one when I get to the scanner at work). I love how his ears stick up in the air. :-) Four of his other five runs were also very good. Only one mistake per run. We are so close to breaking out I can smell it. :-)

Here is my progress on the Loose Feathers Mystery. It's moving along nicely. I also found time to complete (ok almost!) my HoE Prairie Schooler exchange. I have to make a quick trip to Joanne's and get one last thing for it but it will go out in the mail tomorrow. I'm very happy on how it turned out and as soon as it has been received, I'll post a photo of it.

Happy First Birthday Aoife!

I can't believe my little puppy is a year old today. :-) My how time flys.

My three kids together :-) from the left, Molly, Aoife and Clancy.


Here is her first official photo as a member of the household taken the evening she arrived, from the left, Clancy, Aoife and Molly.

And about 30 minutes after that photo was taken. :-)

Last night in agility class my friend Peggy and I had a little party for our two puppies. Here is Aoife (on the left) and Seven together.

I made pug cookies for the class.

And the reason most of you stop by.... ;-) Here is my new start, from Ink Circles, Cirque des Cercles. I'm stitching it on Picture This Plus Phantom using a Vikki Clayton silk called Glacial (it's in variegated shades of light purple, light green and light aqua blue). I've had this chart since the day it came out two years ago. And I've finally started it! Yeah!

I also received my new skeins for my Celtic piece and the color change is very very slight. But I'm going to use them in any case. I might be the only person who knows there are two different colors! :-)

Clancy is a rock star

Here is my progress on Rites of Spring. I actually had a ton more done but last night I discovered a counting error at where I started the vining circle and of course I was finished with it and the whole thing had to come out. And I find that once I do so much frogging, I don't want to stitch anymore so no stitching last night.

As for Clancy, after months of struggling with the weave poles at agility trials, this past weekend, he gave me five out of six in perfect form. There were a few other mishaps on each run so no qualifying scores, but I think we are on our way to getting everything worked out. :-) Yeah for Clancy!

I leave you today with a photo of what I see when I leave the house for work every day. It's Clancy and Aoife saying good-bye. They don't leave the window until I pull out of the driveway. Where is Molly you ask? She goes right back to bed and doesn't bother watching me go. ;-)

No joy for Clancy and a nice surprise

I've been on vacation for the past two weeks and when I got into the office this morning there was a package for me. It was my Quaker exchange! I didn't remember that I had given my work address as my mailing address and so I would be late in receiving my animal. Elena from Italy sent me this wonderful Quaker Cat made into a pillow with a pocket on the back. She also included some really pretty floss and ribbon. Thanks so much Elena! I love it. Sorry I made you wait to hear if your package had made it across the water.

Clancy and I had no luck at this weekend's agility trial and I'm putting the blame squarely on me. I'm starting to freak out before the weave poles and I'm sure now that I'm the reason that he is not even trying them. I have a trial this weekend (three days outside!) and then one in August but then we are going to take a break to work on fundamentals. And I'll try to find a way to hide more of my stuff from Clancy.

Here is Clancy with his buddy, Mr. Beasley. Beasley is a Bernese Mountain Dog and weights 105 pounds! But he as gentle as can be with Clancy and Clancy enjoys being around him. :-) This was Beasley's first agility trial and he Q'd on Sunday with a first place in Jumpers.

It's hard being an agility rock star.

Quaker Cat finis

Quaker Cat by the Workbasket

HDF Premium silk in a mystery color, dark bluish green

32 count Mountain Mist by Silkweaver

Here is my finished Quaker Cat. It's for an exchange so I won't reveal how I'm going to finish it until my partner has received it. ;-)

I started back on the Ink Circles Book of Ink Circles. The new section was released yesterday so I'm two full releases behind and I really wanted to stay current with this one. Right now the plan is to work on it for a week or so. That will give me time to complete both new sections plus get more of the outside frame complete. I'm also way behind with the Papillion Creations Mystery. The new section of that was released on Tuesday - I'm now have two parts to get caught up on.

I'm a huge Cubs fan and so are the Pugs. And they like to show their Cubs Pride. :-) From the left, Aoife, Clancy and Molly.

Celtic Birds II Finis

Celtic Birds II by the Sunflower Seed

HDF Paua Abalone

40 count Natural Brown Linen

I finished up Celtic Birds last night. It feels good to put this one to bed! I still think Paua Abalone was not the best choice of varriagated silk to use but overall it looks ok. And it looks nice next to Celtic Birds I done with HDF Indigo Ocean.

The weather is turning here, getting back to more seasonabilly temps which for this time of year are in the 50's. I sure have enjoyed a week of 60's! It's supposed to rain for most of the weekend so I most likely won't get much work done outside. But that's ok, I need a break and I have two baby quilts to piece this weekend.

The pugs and I need to do some serious training over the weekend also. Next Friday starts the first of four agility weekends in a row. I'm hoping for his Open titles. :-) I had to laugh when I looked over at the couch and saw this:

I'm working from home today and this is how my pugs spend their day. Quite the contrast with my friend Jesse. Jesse has four pugs and they are/have all been involved in agility. In fact her two current agility pugs, Kittie and Abby are two of the top scoring pugs in the country. Anyway, Jesse posted on her blog today about her dog walking job - with photos of how her pugs spent the day - running, jumping, playing in the mud! It couldn't be any different on how my pugs spend the day. :-)

Have a good one!

pugs in the sun

It felt like I stitched all weekend but when I look at my progress I don't see a whole lot. I wonder why that its like that sometimes? Above is my progress on Part one of the Celtic Mystery by Ink Circles. The second part is supposed to come out tomorrow. I was hoping to have a little more done before today but I didn't even start until Thursday evening.

On Friday I took a vacation day at work and spent the day at the Rosemont Quilt Show. The vendors are incredible there. I was hoping to get a little of my quilting mojo back and I did purchase a couple of kits. One kit is a baby quilt for one of my nieces or nephew. I need two this year! I already have a top completed and but I need to make one more. And I need to get moving as the first of the two baby showers is in five weeks. It's going to be tough to find a machine quilter at this point. Anyway, I was hoping to find some stitching stuff but all I found was a ton of rug hooking things and needlepunch. There was a lot more stitching stuff two years ago. I missed last year's show. I also fell in love with several wool kits for wall hangings and table runners but I didn't buy any because I have a couple that I purchased two years ago that I never even started. So I figured why buy more?




I'm still plugging along with Celtic Birds II even though I'm still not sure about the color. At this point, I figure I might as well finish the piece as I'm almost half way done and it should look nice with it's companion piece, Celtic Birds I. Slow progress though as I'm only stitching on it while on the train.


Saturday was cold and rainy and it even snowed a bit though none of it lasted on the ground. But Sunday was bright and sunny if cold (never got out of the 30's). Since I could not finish painting what I started last weekend because of the temps I figured I could at least get everything put together. Below are the results and I think the pugs are happy. :-)


Here starting on the left are Clancy, Aoife and Molly posing on the A-frame. It's no where near full height because Aoife is just starting agility - the apex is set at about waist high I think and regulation height is over 5 1/2 feet. Molly who hasn't been near a piece of equipment in months and months was all over it the second I put it up. They chased each other up and over it for hours. It was quite fun to watch.
Here is again from the left, Clancy, Molly and Aoife showing perfect form with a sit on the pause table.

And again demonstrating a down.

Here is the dog walk. It's set low for Aoife - here it is about two feet tall and it needs to be around 4 feet. I have a really nice set of aluminum legs on order.
Here is the teeter. It's set at full height because I haven't started to train the puppy yet and she really isn't going near it. As soon as she starts, I'll have to lower it to almost to the ground and slowly raise it as she gains confidence. This is one of the hardest pieces of equipment for dogs to learn since it moves.

And lastly just a beauty shot of the girls. Molly standing and Aoife in a perfect down. :-) I can't keep that girl away from the camera. :-)