Happiness is a Puppy!

Meet Neeko, Mom and Dad's new puppy. This photo was taken minutes after Dad held 11-week old Neeko for the first time. The smiles have continued for both new parents. Neeko claimed Mom and Dad very easily and has been playing with Sneaker and anyone else possible.

A treasure trove of reading

My sewing friend often includes wonderful quotes from books on her blog. The night before my surgery, she arrived on our door step with a delicious casserole and homemade bread in preparation for our return from hospital. (and her kindness certainly cheered me as I dealt with pre-surgery jitters). Then she asks, "is there anything else I could do?" Now, normally one often says, 'oh no, you've done enough'-- as she certainly had. But I knew there was one way she could help. I needed some good, light, interesting reading and I was pretty sure from her careful choosing of quotes from her blog that she'd be able to help me out. When I got back from my day and night at the hospital, there was this wonderful stack of books waiting. It's a wonderful treasure of stories -- already polished off one. Are some of your favourites in here also?

While lying down

I discovered I could cut out felt shapes for J's projects while resting after surgery (Though one does get covered in a lot of coloured lint!). She and her friend enjoy the Klutz Fun with Felt. It comes with all sorts of shapes and felt boards that you can make various creatures out of. The problem is, it's very tempting to start to start gluing the one and only shapes that come with the kit into your other fun, crafting, kid projects. So I pulled out the felt I've been collecting through the years and starting cutting out shapes. It's also given us a quiet project to do together. Here is J making a lady bug with great concentration. It's her first time following picture directions in a book and I think she was inspired by the real lady bug she discovered on the window sill earlier in the day. Before the ladybug, the pink cut outs went very quickly. Have to cut more of that colour!

Comfort for Resting

I know that photos of people actually wearing the clothes are better for blogs but I'm just not up to modeling these days!

Monday I had surgery. I'm fine. What was causing me considerable pain is gone and now it's time for recuperating. Partly in anticipation of surgery, I had made this fleece robe. I've made enough of them through the years that sewing this didn't take much thought but was a good distraction from the discomfort I was having. My previous robe was made out of microfleece. It's a nice colour, red, but I've decided microfleece isn't warm enough for me. The new one is made of thick, polartec fleece. Wonderfully warm and big enough to be used as a smaller, cozy blanket for taking naps -- which it was used for this afternoon!
For top stitching, I used one of the new machine's embroidery stitches -- vine leaves, it seemed to be. The stitches embedded into the thick fleece and I like the decorative touch. Someone once told me not to bother with interfacing on fleece robes. But I think the extra step actually helps define the collar better. I didn't bother with interfacing in the red one and the collar frequently gets caught underneath. The extra step is worth it.

Fun with the new Janome

The new machine arrived a month ago and I've no regrets on my spur of the moment purchase. Sure, my 12-year-old Elna is still a good machine. But the new one runs smoother, has an alphabet and a good instruction manual that's taught me new ways to do many a sewing technique. And....it's a got a bit of pink/purple in the design.

Above is one item recently finished on the new machine: a new night gown based on Burda's 02-2009-122. (small inset photo from magazine) The green flanellette was in the stash. I purchased matching yellow for the waistband. For our long winters, I needed long sleeves so that meant loosing the coordinating color on the armbands. So I decided to make some trim from the coordinating yellow fabric for along the bottom of the skirt. I've seen more and more pleated ribbon trim on RTW clothes. So I cut narrow strips of yellow fabric, sewed them together and finished the edges with a rolled hem. Then I set my ruffler foot to make pleats and fed the trim into it. I'm rather pleased with the trim since this is my first time using the ruffler foot for a garment using pleats. The ruffler is a great tool but it does take a bit to learn how to use it. Here's a link to a helpful, free resource, The Ruffler...Unruffled.

Puppy needs a name

The folks are looking for a name for the Maltese puppy they'll pick up from a local breeder when they visit at the end of the month. In some 40 years of having dogs, this is the first time they'll have a boy dog. Dad says they're looking for a big, masculine name for their puppy that will be all of seven pounds full grown.
Any suggestions? At supper, here were a few names we came up with: Brutus, Zeus, King, Rex...
The photo is the latest from the breeder.