Sunday, October 23, 2022

Jazzy Blues Progress

 

After a long lull without sewing, I have been making progress on the Jazzy Blues quilt. This quilt is a part of a quilt along, named Aunt Daisy. All the blocks have been released and many people have already finished their quilts. There are a lot of beautiful colorways showing up on my Facebook feed, and only a couple with alternate layouts.

Last week, I spent a fifteen minute session making a trial equilateral triangle block. I have a acrylic template set to help me make them, but don't have directions. I figured it was probably already taking the seam allowance into consideration, but I decided to make it big and trim if I needed. It worked out perfectly (except for the trimming I didn't need).

 

 

So this week, I made a whole bunch of triangle blocks. I didn't make the number required because I wanted to try out different layouts and decide before making these blocks.

I need to make more of these, and also some in the contrasting colorway. Then I played with some choices. I don't think I will ever have this many different blocks available so it is fun to play around and see what kinds of designs they can make.



Did you notice that my design choices have 25 components?

That number doesn't include all the blocks that I made. The actually block has more components.


This is more like the actual layout, except I haven't made the alternate colorway for the equilateral triangle blocks yet. Can I just say that I am so impressed with the original designer of this block? There are 49 pieces and so many different types of components.

Plus, this block is so big that I don't really have a good place to lay it out. I put it on top of the crate, but then it isn't easy to photograph it or look at the layout. For some reason, my desktop isn't tiling the background picture so I will have to figure out a different way to see how this will look in a quilt.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Weeks 40, 41, 42

 


 

I worked on Jazzy Blues this week, although I did take a look at the Olympics quilt. I am not going to meet my goal of finishing more quilts than I start if I don't finish two quilts this year. I might finish another couple of quilt tops in the flimsy closet instead, but the Olympics quilt is closest to being done.

15 minute days these weeks --8 out of 21
15 minute days this year -- 215 out of 296 days
Success rate  = 77%
 

Linked with Life in Pieces: Stitching Stuff


 

Monday, October 3, 2022

Learning about Zoey

One of my blogging friends posts an annual birthday post for each of her children. It is a nice place to document the growth of her children and I thought I would do the same for Zoey.

Instead of finding a name for her around the original Jaslyn that she was given at the shelter, I have settled on the name Zoey. She didn't know the name Jaslyn, and Zoey just seems to fit her. Then I remembered that Bonnie Hunter also has a dog named Zoey, so maybe subconsciously that is why I thought of that name.. Her vet and prescription company think of her as Jazz so I will keep that name too.


She is a fairly sweet, very affectionate dog. She followed me around everywhere I went on the first few days, but now she will stay where she is while she is taking a nap. She does not like to be outside without me, but she does not seem to be frightened of sounds. Trains, planes, thunder, wind rustling the leaves, loud cars with blaring music, sirens, dogs barking, people talking, band practice, and kids screaming in the playground get her attention, but she does not seem to be afraid of them. I have been coming in and out of the house for her to get used to being outside without me. She loves it out there.

 

Zoey needs more training to keep her from jumping up, not mouth me, or pull at my clothes. When she just wants more food, especially what I am eating, or if she wants to play tug, or she just needs to take a nap, she will start nipping me. I got a crate for her, and she can stand and more around in it fine, but she can't sit without bending her neck, so I have returned the old crate and will be getting a bigger one. It will be challenging to find a place for a bigger crate in my house, but I can't leave her alone without one. She ate a bag full of treats when I left her to pick up her food.

 She is also very smart and can think of other ways to get what she wants, like jumping over the arm rest on the couch or jumping down off the side of the porch.


She is so funny when she is outside. She takes a passion fruit off the vines and throws it a few feet away, catches it and throws it another few feet away. She can play catch like this for a long time, and if the passion fruit breaks, she eats the seeds inside. She now has a 2.5" soft squeaky ball that she can use. It is a little bigger than a passion fruit but she likes it too now. It is a nice way for her to use up her energy. She will just sit at the door if I am inside so I have to stay outside with her. This will be a problem as the weather gets cooler, but I do try to keep coming in and out of her house to get her used to being outside by herself.

She has a lot of energy and does zoomies around the yard when she is upset.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 37, 38 and 39

 


 

I haven't been doing any significant quilting these three weeks

15 minute days this weeks --1 out of 21
15 minute days this year -- 207 out of 268 days
Success rate  = 77%