Pillow sewing and Pit Bull Awareness

October 23rd was Pit Bull Awareness Day so we celebrated by going to the Dog Park. Wilbur is now a fixture there and everyone is always happy to see him. I like this park because several of the dogs that go there have bully blood in them (our shelters here are over run with them right now) and almost all are rescues. They are so social and will play for hours, and I have yet to witness any aggressive behaviour on the part of these dogs. Actually a Golden Retriever spent the day last week terrorizing everyone, and when it went after Wilbur, he hid under a picnic table.





Here is Wilbur and Toby. Toby spent the first 5 months of his life chained in a basement. He was rescued when his owner was arrested for gassing dogs in his garage! Nice guy, huh?
Toby loves to play and his sister Gracie (a brindle pitty who was rescued from a kill shelter in Ohio the day she was to be put down) is unbelievably sweet and spends her day fending off suitors (if you know what I mean).


I find it amazing that dogs who have gone through so much can be so loving.




Check out Toby being very patient with Hurley, the tea cup Chihuahua (all 4 pounds of it!). Wilbur, Toby, and Gracie were fascinated yet never even tried to wrestle with him. They all touched noses and were very careful around him.
Wilbur has a strong prey drive and this dog is the size of a large rat so I was very nervous. The owners later remarked that the only dogs who were nice to Hurley, were the pit bulls.

I only wish I'd had my camera ready when Wilbur let Hurley chase him all the way across the park. That would have made a great YouTube video!


I'm leaving today to join Hans in Annapolis so we can get a move on and sail our boat to Florida.
Poor Hans spent the weekend on it with no electricity (so no heat, not hot water etc...). And this is after we spent a ton of money having the electrical system upgraded! The electrician is coming back today to look things over and I hope for his sake the problem is resolved before I get there!



My baby will be boarded while we're gone and I wanted him to have soft pillows and a blanket for his bed. I used a very soft plush fabric and covered two pillows and zig zagged the edges of the left over piece for a blanket.

Apparently I need to be supervised when I sew.













Enjoying the end results.





















And no pampered pitty should be without a fur stole.

I found this gorgeous fur at the Salvation Army for $20.00. Some poor old woman must have died and her family cleaned out her closets!

Hans nearly choked when I told him how much I paid for it. Years ago, his father bought a very similar one for his mother and spent well over a thousand dollars for it (and then he had to buy another one for Hans' grandmother because she was jealous!).

A finished Amy Butler Bag and a new sewing machine

Long time no blog, but things have been heating up here a bit. Hans left this morning for Annapolis where our Knotty Cat has been anxiously awaiting our return in order to sail her to Florida. I was supposed to go with him but Baby Girl neglected to inform me that her college soccer team is celebrating Senior Day tomorrow, and since she's a senior....

Anyway, I'll fly down on Monday and at that point Hans and I will sail south. But this is a delivery trip only. We'll return home so we can be here for the holidays and then in early January the Knotty Cat is going to sail us to the Bahamas.

At least that's the plan.


I downloaded Amy Butler's Blossom Bag from Freebies for Crafters. Here's my bag made from Sunbrella fabric. Am I happy with it?

It's okay.

I looked everywhere to see if I was supposed to add seam allowances to the pattern. It didn't appear that I was supposed to so I didn't. However, her finished dimensions say that the purse is supposed to be 16" wide. I don't know how that's possible since the pattern is only 14" wide. Not a big deal but I have to wonder where I (or they) went wrong.



I know everyone loves Amy Butler but when it comes to purse drafting I still feel that Nicole Mallalieu is#1!!

Here are the inside pouches. I'm trying to get rid of some of my stash and this fabric appeared to be a close enough match.

I found the instructions for the pouches to be a bit convoluted and not to be mean, but I know that Nicole has directions for some of her coin purses that I could have used. I just realized it a bit too late.

I tried to match the flap print as closely as I could to the main bag.

The magnetic snaps.

And you can see the Bahamas over there on the far right side.

My twenty year old Janome New Home (one of the first embroidery machines made and very expensive) died on me all of a sudden, and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put her back together again.

I still remember buying her just in time to make all my kids' Halloween costumes. That year they were Power Rangers and while Butterick has the best costume patterns, each one had like a thousand pieces!

So I now have a Janome Magnolia. Fewer bells and whistles but I don't need all that anymore!

Our poor Wilbur had a rough time last night. But I guess I did too since at some very odd hours I had to clean up some pretty smelly messes!

I am now forever swearing off cheap doggy biscuits!

Anyway, this is what a pitty with a tummy ache looks like.


Wilbur will be boarded during our two week sail and it just kills me! But if he sailed down with us, he'd have to fly back on an airplane and I won't do that. However, he will be in Doggy Day Care during the day and I'm hoping he's worn out enough at night to not wonder where his mommy is!

I found some nice fluffy fabric to make a couple of pillow covers and a blanket for his doggy bed while we're away.
You can see he felt the need to supervise.

Enjoying his new pillows and blanket.

I just love this dog to pieces!

Some Sewing in my Future!

After leaving Wilbur at Doggy Day Care the other day I went shopping and ended up with two pieces of fabric (a big no no since I'm supposed to be thinning out what I already have!). But I couldn't resist a one yard piece of Sunbrella that was on clearance for $5.00!! It's normally $30.00 a yard. I had yet one more big bag kind of thing in my head but then I stumbled across this at Freebies for Crafters. It's an Amy Butler bag and even though I'm not a huge fan of some of her purse patterns (I realize everyone goes GaGa over her so you can just shoot me now!), for some reason I like the look of this one. I can also see a couple of potential problems with it ie, a flap that could be too stiff, and matching up the print where the flap meets the front, but I think I can work around my concerns.

The colors look pretty accurate in this picture. It's a kind of yellowish gold with orange accents.

A close up.

A silk charmeuse print, and I do love brown and gold. I want to make a nice dress that can go to the Bahamas with us. January through March is supposed to be nice and not nearly as hot as this summer was!

I interrupt this post for a special report!! A rampaging pit bull has taken over an apartment in the Big City....

After fooling a local couple into believing he was a sweetheart, Wilbur the Wonderdog, a vicious pit bull, has finally shown his true colors!

"I would never dream of killing a stuffy," Wilbur was often heard to say. "Stuffies are our friends."

"Just you wait! That dog will turn on you." Several friends of the couple had warned.

But they refused to listen and now it's too late.

The first victim of the vicious lying pit bull was a small defenseless peep.

After a frantic search by the concerned couple, it was found deep under their king size bed where the pit bull had built its lair.

Here, the peep describes to his cronies his escape from the jaws of death. "His mouth was thiiiiiiis wide!" He demonstrated.

The next victim was Crabby Cake. Crabby Cake had been a favorite of Wilbur's (or so everyone thought) ever since the couple took him to visit Tangier Island where Crab is King!

Here is Crabby Cake in happier times, yet we have to wonder--did he have a premonition?

And then Crabby Cake lost an appendage. It was quickly sutured back into place but that didn't make a bit of difference to the marauding pit bull. He simply ripped out the rest of the stuffing and Crabby Cake now swims with the fishies.

Lamby-kin was one of the first stuffies Wilbur ever had. He loved his Lamby-kin. And then that love turned deadly.

After surgery, everyone hoped Lamby-kin would survive.

However, it just wasn't to be.

Wilbur claims the sutures must have been of the disolving kind, but witnesses swear they saw him nip at them with his tiny yet deadly front teeth.

"I was only loving my Lamby-kin!" Wilbur cried. "Our love will never die!"

It will now be up to a jury to decide.

But how could anyone miss the menace in Wilbur's crazed filled eyes?

As everyone knows, Wilbur has received a full scholarship to Harvard and apparently he decided to get a head start in 'frog disecting'.

That little guy in front (who was holding a water safety seminar that day) is now missing his eyes, and our censors won't allow an 'after' picture.

A pin cushion is also missing so maybe Wilbur decided to make amends and put those eyes back by himself.

Somehow we doubt it!