Georgie

I had a question last week regarding the fabric around my embroidery hoop. I've seen it called many things, I always call them my hoop huggers. I put one around everything I'm working on whether I'm using a hoop or q-snap. They are super simple to make. This one pictured started out as a 6 inch strip of fabric. I measured the hoop around the outside and multiplied that amount by 2.5. I cut a length of quilting fabric to that measurement six inches wide. I turned under the edges on both sides to make a nice clean edge, stitched up the two ends together to make a continuous piece of fabric and put 1/4 inch elastic under the long edges to gather it and make it stretchy. I like mine wide enough to tuck the extra linen into it while I'm stitching. It does keep the linen nice and clean and every so often I just pop the covers into the wash.


I have seen them on sale on the internet but unfortunately I don't have those links anymore or I would share them.

Just to clear up any confusion I do live with four pugs. :-) But I only own three. Georgie officially belongs to my mom who I live with. When I move out in a couple of months Georgie will remain behind but don't worry, he won't be alone. He will be living with Lily the big yellow lab that also belongs to my mom. In the event that something happens to my mom, I will happily take Georgie at that time to live with me.

back on puppy patrol

Now that I'm back on puppy patrol, I don't have as much time to stitch at night as I did the days Izzy wasn't around. But as I've said before, any progress is progress! :-)

No plans for the weekend except the International Kennel Club Dog Show in Chicago (need to buy puppy stuff!) and dinner with friends. Hopefully the rest of the time will be spent stitching and playing the pugs and lab.

I had a great suggestion for my blog name - three cool pugs, me & the lab experiment. I love it. :-)

Have a great weekend!

all I can do is smile today :-)

Loving my progress on Pink Hill Manor. My dye lot of Jacky Brown isn't as pink as the photo and it's a nice color.

Thanks so much for all your kind words regarding the return of Izzy! I'm still pinching myself. I got a call last night from my BIL and they just couldn't take the chaos of two puppies anymore. The two puppies were not playing well together at all and were total terrors when they tried. Izzy who had totally bonded to me didn't want much to do with them and they thought her offstandish and not very affectionate. Hunter was preoccupied with playing with Izzy and in turn ignored them. While the puppies were with me I crated trained them so they would sleep in crates at night giving them a break. But my sister and BIL are not fans of crating so they let them roam around at night. They would disrupt the household in the middle of the night with their antics and no one was sleeping. All good for me it turns out. :-)

When I got her home Izzy ran around with the pugs and greeted each one. The pugs were like, where've you been Iz? Georgie was especially happy to see her. She didn't stop waging her tail until we went to bed and she fell asleep.

She is bigger than all of them!

I'm one happy camper. And I am here to tell you, it really is easier with only one puppy. Breakfast was so easy without Hunter around. I think most things will be easier with just the one. I'm so glad I get to find out.

Now I really need to find a new name for my blog. :-)

She's back!! :-)

And all mine now and forever. :-)

it's almost a house

I stitched over the weekend! Miracle of Miracles. :-) I didn't have as much time as I had planned. I kept getting distracted by this pile of dust and this pile of laundry, oh, look there is a dust bunny! And before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and I finally sat down. But the house is nice and clean.

No train ride today - I'm working from home. So there is a good two hours less that will get stitched today. :-( But the extra two hours sleep I got this morning sure was nice.

a great start

I had a really good start to Pink Hill Manor. Almost the entire border complete in just two train rides? I wish they were all so constructive. But the seasons are changing and it's almost light for the morning train and light for the evening train and that really helps keep me awake. Who knew I was half bear? I'm coming out of hibernation! LOL!


Have a great weekend! The pugs and I are going to do our best for the same. Most of the snow is gone now and all that is left is a yard full of mud and dog poo. I know what part of my weekend will involve. Yuck.

A Wish For You finis (for now anyway)

A Wish For You - design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Purely Primitive by Silkweavers

Recommended overdyed cotton floss

I finished up A Wish For You on the train ride into work this morning! Yeah! I got another couple funky dye lots of some colors so my windows look totally hosed. I need to just stop stitching when this happens and pull something else out of my stash rather than complain when the piece is completed. I plan on adding a different saying that continues throughout the entire piece ala House of Hawk Run Hollow. I just need to find something of suitable lenght that I like. Once the last two charts come out I'll see just how much space I have to work with. I'd like to do 2 over 2 but I'll make 1 over 1 work if I really like something that is longish.

I'll get started on Pink Hill Manor on the way home from work tonight. This is aonther one where I love the chart but not so much the colors. But I'm just not up to changing it around right now. I just want to stitch and not re-design. :-)

back to it

I've been trying to find time to start stitching again. Enough feeling sorry for myself already! :-) I'd love to get this piece finished over the weekend and since I don't have any plans, if I just plant myself on the couch and ignore my Facebook page, I might actually do it.


I've starting house shopping! Prices in the area where I live and want to buy have finally come down to reasonable prices and with interest rates where they are I think I can finally do it and still eat. And that means the pugs eat! So it works for everybody.


Izzy is doing fine and my sister and brother-in-law love her very much. I just worry they won't have time for her like I would have nor have the skill set to train a high drive dog. But I'm sure it will all work out. I'm going to hold off on my lab puppy search until I'm in my new place. I'd love to have a puppy more of less potty trained before I move but I don't want to complicate my life even more right now.

She's gone :-(

I came home from work yesterday to find the house emtpy of labs. I miss Izzy already. But I know she will be fine - my sister is kind even if my brother-in-law is isn't.

I'm still here :-)

As you can see not a lot has been stitched in the last two weeks. Mostly because of the following photos. It's still full blown puppy time at my house. :-) So between the puppies, a blizzard and jury duty last week, I haven't had much time to stitch. And whenever I try, one or both of the puppies wants to eat my project. Not good.

But here are some random shots from the last couple of weeks. The aftermath of the blizzard. I missed the snow of '99 as I was living in LA at the time and I was only 5 years old for the snow of '67 and I don't remember much. But this will will linger in my mind for years to come. 20+ inches of snow is a lot. It's hard to tell from the photo just how much snow is in the backyard because of all the blowing and it's also hard packed and the dogs are running on top of at least 12 or so inches. Over the course of the storm I had to go outside every couple of hours to keep shoveling snow away from the door because it would have been five or six feet high if I didn't and we would not have been able to get out at all. This is Hunter, Izzy and Georgie running and playing. Hunter loves it, Izzy and the pugs not so much.

Hunter playing while it was still snowing. I had to shovel a path for the pugs.

I don't let Hunter on the couch but every time I turn my back this seems to happen. That's Molly with him.

Izzy loves to go back to bed after she goes outside - every time she comes back in she runs right to the bed and snuggles in. She is not much for the cold and snow.

See what I mean about turning my back? Hunter, Aoife, Izzy, Molly and Clancy all taking a nap. When Izzy came two and a half weeks ago, she was smaller than my smallest pug, Aoife. Now she is bigger than the biggest, Georgie.

Molly and Izzy taking a nap. Yes, Izzy is special and she gets to sleep on the couch.

I have all but begged my sister and brother-in-law let me keep Izzy. My sister is willing but my bil won't. They have no clue what they are taking on. Maybe if they had been able to train Hunter to do anything I would not be so adamant that they are making a mistake but that 5 month old lab is out of control and they are clueless as to what to do. Now they are going to ruin another. And my bil has stage 4 colon cancer and is in no condition to take on another puppy and my sister isn't up to the job either as she is sick with an autoimmune disease. I told them it was stupid idea before Ken got sick but now it's asinine and borders on insane.

I love that little puppy so much. It hurts just to think about her leaving but I expect one day this week I'll come home from work and she will be gone. No good deed goes unpunished for sure. :-(

a wild week

It's been a wild couple of days at my place. Last week my brother-in-law had some pretty intense surgery that was very unexpected. He originally was supposed to go in on Wednesday but the surgery was stopped midway through after the docs realized that it would be much more complected then they first thought and rescheduled him for Friday. So I picked up my sister's 16 week old yellow lab, Hunter. Such a sweetie! The pugs even like him despite his larger than life size. :-) My sister needs to be at the hospital as much as she can and not worrying about Hunter was a huge relief for her.

Sweet Hunter.

Hunter and Georgie deciding what to play with next.

Then just to really complicate things more, the OTHER lab puppy my sister and brother-in-law purchased a month ago was scheduled to arrive into town last Saturday and once again I was pressed into service. Meet 9 week old Trixe (I've been calling her Izzy, short for Isabelle).

She is the sweetest thing ever. I'm secretly hoping she will be just too much for my sister and brother-in-law, with his very long recovery before him, to deal with and she will get to stay with me forever. :-) Yeah, I know, it's just wishful thinking as my sister stopped by last night to meet her and also fell in love. As it is, it will just kill me to give them both up after three or four more weeks. I think one little black lab is perfect payment for all my trouble. :-)

Izzy would make a wonderful agility dog. At nine weeks old she is just a tad smaller than the pugs. By next week, she will be larger then all of them.

So not a quilt or stitching piece was worked on since mid-last week. I just don't have time with all the chasing after puppies I have to do. :-)

Sewing Bird Pinkeep finis x 2!

Sewing Bird Pinkeep - design by Country Stitches

32 count Purely Primitive by Silkweavers

Assorted over-dyed cotton floss

I finished up my two little Sewing Bird Pinkeeps over the long weekend. These are going to live with my niece and niece-in-law. They were intended to be Christmas presents but I got behind and didn't finish the stitching until the day after Christmas. After that I was in no hurry. :-)

Here is my progress on A Wish For You. I've almost finished the house. I thought for sure I was going to get this chart finished over the weekend but I ended up working on a quilt top. But I didn't get that finished either. But I got in lots of nice naps with the pugs and that was as good. :-)

finally a new start

I finally got started on the fourth BBD piece to the Anniversaries of the Heart collection - A Wish For You. I wish I could say it was because I was in the Alps skiing or on the beaches in Cancun but in truth I was in Gurnee, IL on my butt watching TV and eating bonbons. :-) This one won't go as fast as the last one did - that is one big honking house! Shades of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow all over again. I love the colors of this one and I love to stitch houses so it at least will be fun.

Thanks for stopping by and hanging in while I figure things out. I am reading all the blogs I can but not taking much time to say hi. There is some great stuff being stitch right now.

Bonus finis

Anniversaries of the Heart Bonus #1 - design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Purely Primitive by Silkweavers

Recommended overdyed floss

I finished up the first bonus pattern on the way into work this morning. It did go super quick but I'm looking forward to moving on. I really didn't care of the colors on this piece but I love the ones on the next one - A Wish For You. I'm hoping to start on the way home but I'm feeling pretty tired so who knows if I'll be able to stay awake. :-)

so close!

As you can see, I only have a bit to go on block #3. I should have stitched more over the time off but I just didn't feel the stitching bug in me. I had a great agility trial with the pugs. Both got a qualifying score and the other runs we just one little thing away from a ribbon. They are both getting so good! I was a very happy pug handler. :-)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Three - ops, Four Cool Pugs and me!

a lost weekend

A week ago I really thought I would have this block completed by today but a bad case of food poisoning on Thursday pretty much ended that idea. I was on my back for a solid 24 hours with the rest of the weekend a loss. I have never been so sick in my life! Stitching was the last thing on my mind. But hopefully with a couple days working from home this week I'll and being able to find more stitching time and I'll start to make some progress. My dye lots of my overdyed floss are off compared to the chart. I not really happy with the colors (it's the alphabet I don't care for) but I also just want to move forward. So that's the plan. This piece will be so large that I'm sure it will end up fitting in nicely. Or at least that is what I'm telling myself. :-)

Have a great week!

Valentine Rose finis

Valentine Rose design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Purely Primitive from Silkweavers

Recommended Overdyed floss

I love that these are as fast as I thought they would be. :-) Given how little time I seem to have these days to stitch I'm working through them pretty quickly. As you can see with the piece, the changes I made were to the vase, I made it longer to fill in the bottom and I added a stem of flowers on the left. This covers up where the personalization is supposed to be nicely I think.

Here is the start to the bonus pattern #1 (what a boring name). This one is going to fly! I'm losing track of where the publication of the charts is at. Maybe through September? That would leave three more plus the bonus pattern #2. I wonder if I can get caught up before the last one comes out. That would be sweet. :-)

so close and a big thank you :-)

I'm so close to finishing up Valentine Rose I can taste it. :-) Just that little bit on the house and it's finished. I have the chart and floss to start the next section and most likely will tonight on the way home from work.

The pugs and I had a good four day trial. Our overall Q rate (we ended up 1 for 16) does not show how good we really were. Day one was shaky but it got better from there. Clancy made each and every contact for a total of 12! And his tables were perfect! That has never happened before. Clancy's only Q was in Excellent B Jumpers and it was amazing. I love that pug. :-)

Aoife was 50/50 in terms of excellent versus bad pug. :-) Her jumpers runs were almost all Qs but her standard runs.... She got picked up four times out of four. We still need lots of work.

When I got home I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me! A box of Christmas goodies from Edgar! How cool is this? He even included some treats for the pugs. Edgar those cherries are to die for and what can I say about the white chocolate?? And I can't wait to try the jam. Huge thanks to you and Rico. You guys are the best. :-) That is Clancy checking everything out as I unpacked it.

I don't often chat much about Georgie my fourth cool pug and I never chat about Lily the lab that also inhabits my life. But here they both are keeping each other warm during this cold streak. They can be found like this most days. :-)

oh so close

I'm almost ready to start the last step of Valentine Rose - filling in the bricks on the house. But I won't have much time for the next week to finish. Tomorrow I have dinner with friends so no stitching time there. On Thursday to Sunday I'll be attending my big agility trial of the year in Milwaukee - Hounds for the Holidays and I'm staying this year in Milwaukee rather than driving home each day. I'll bring the stitching along but I'm sure I won't have the time or energy as lots of friends will be there.

Wish me and the pugs luck - we have been working really hard and I'm hoping for a couple of Qs. Especially for my wild child girl pug, Aoife. :-)

busy weekend

I got a lot stitched in on Valentine Rose over the weekend. All that is left now is the big honking house. I did make a couple of changes - I made the vase longer to cover the personalization and I added the flower on the left of the short vase. I like how it turned out. I also changed the funky "S" on the door. I never like how it looked in past pieces so I figured why not change it for this one? :-)

Have a great week!

Snow Garden finis

Snow Garden - design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Purely Primitive linen from Silkweavers

Recommended overdyed floss

I did finish up my Snow Garden on the way home from work last night with time to spare. And got a start on Valentine Rose this morning. :-) I'm happy with the two extra keys I stitched in. It was easy to remove the initials on this piece but it won't be so easy on some of the others. But I'll work at it and I'm sure I'll come up with something I like.

I took a photo of the entire piece of linen. Wow, I have a way to go!

Here is the start of Valentine Rose. Not sure if I will work on it much over the weekend. I'd rather get some more done of my silk glove project.

Have a great weekend!

almost

Just a few more stitches to place and I'm finished with the first part of Anniversaries of the Heart. I'm going to find a couple more keys to stitch in rather than the personalization recommended. In fact that is the plan for all the charts to the series. I'll pick out something from another chart in the series or something that relates and stitch that rather than the initials of others.

Hopefully I'll start on February's chart tomorrow. :-)

a great long weekend

I had a great long weekend. Lot's of cooking, eating and crafting! I only worked on two project but feel good about both. I picked things that I can't take on the train with me and that have been laying around for a while.

The first is my Goldwork Glove project. This is the restart of the project. I started back in the early spring but was so unhappy with how it was looking I pulled everything out and put it away. I was chatting with a friend a couple of weeks ago and she sent me some links to videos on long and short stitches and it gave me the urge to try this again. First I pulled the linen from the scroll frame I had it on and put it on my set of evertight stretcher bars. I got this tip from one of the websites I had visited last week and I thought I would give it a go. And it worked beautifully! With the evertights I can get the linen really nice and tight. Then I had to find the frame clamp for my Needlework System 4 stand. I figured it would be with the stand but it wasn't. Took me over two hours to find the little bugger! I was so mad at myself. Why didn't I store it with my stitching things? No I put it in a closet on a shelf with my unused linens. Go figure. :-) But finally after three or so hours of prep, I was ready to stitch. And I think it looks ok. I there is still a lot of room for improvement but I can live with what I ended up with. The silk is very forgiving. I ended the day with the first half of lesson one finished.

Then I pulled out the little hooked rug I started back in the spring. I only had the background to fill it and I worked on it Saturday and Sunday until I was finished. I'll make this guy into a pillow like the other small rugs I did. I have one more pillow to go and then I'll start to look for a bigger rug design to work on.

That's all for now. It's back to working on my BBD project. If I can stay awake on the train that is. :-)

Enjoy the week!

half way

I've managed to make it half way with Snow Garden. I've decided not to personalize each block as recommended in the series of patterns. I'm just going to add motifs or little sayings where I need to fill in space. Notice the linen is enclosed in the brand new wooden hoop. I LOVE it! It really does hold onto the linen and it's as tight as a drum. On Wednesday I will get myself to Joanns so I can purchase the twill tape to bind the bottom hoop. That will make it even easier to get it drum tight.

Aoife had a crappy agility trial. There were a couple of small highlights but for the most part she was in it for herself and not the team. :-)

Enjoy your week!

Friday at long last

I'm super happy with the progress I'm making with Snow Garden. I really enjoy working BBD pieces. I don't think I'll have much time this weekend however for stitching. I have a two day agility trial with Aoife and I'm always wiped out when I get home at night. And I need to start getting ready for Thanksgiving. I can get some cleaning done this weekend and that will get me a little ahead for next week.

Have a great weekend!

I'm still stitching!

Believe it or not, I'm actually still stitching! Yeah for me. :-) Thanks for all the great comments about my choice of linen - Purely Primitive. I think it's going to work out great even though it might not be the best for the first block of this piece. Of course IRL the color of the linen is brighter and the fibers do show up better. It's just my crappy picture taking skills not making it look nice.


I've been doing a bit of shopping - like I actually have money. :-) I did finally purchase the four of the chair series from Cat's Whiskers from the shop in Western Australia. It's called La Roseraie. I hated not having all of the series. It should be here next week but I'm thinking I most likely won't get to it for a while as I only purchased the chart and not any of the supplies. I figured why pay shipping from the other side world for the same stuff I can get here?

My friend Kelly also turned me onto some really nice hoops and after seeing hers in person I had to have a couple. They are the ones from Hardwicke Manor - wooden and made in Germany with the heavy duty brass hardware. - I purchased a 6" one and an 8" one. I'll take the extra step of binding them before I start to use them. I can't wait to get them in the mail. I also resurrected my Floral Glove Needlecase project from the bottom of my craft closet. It's the one designed by Tricia Wilson Nguyen of Thistle Threads. I had such a hard time with the opening stitches that I pulled everything I had done because it looked like crap and walked away from it. That was beginning of the year maybe? Well Kelly helped me find some really great online tutorials as well as some videos of the long and short stitch that I needed and I'm going to give it a go again. Wish me luck. :-)