Puppy of Procrastination

Remember that day when the only sewing I accomplished was an emergency rhinoplasty performed on a stuffed unicorn dog toy?  Totally worth it -- check out Samwise PuppyPants, napping with his unicorn like it's a pillow for his sweet, furry face.  I sewed up the gash where the unicorn's nose used to be nearly two months ago, and I'm astounded that the repair has held this long.  Let's hear it for heavy duty upholstery thread!!

Samwise Snuggling With His Best-Loved Unicorn Toy

Little Rottie dude is nearly 7 months old now, and he weighed 82 pounds the last time we weighed him (a few days ago).  

No One Can Resist This Face

Sam is such a snuggler.  He is also very much a lap dog, no matter HOW big he gets.  Anyone know where I can get a bigger lap?

THIS is What Keeps Me Sane During Quarantine!

Even though seven months is still very much a puppy for a large breed like the Rottweiler, every once in awhile I get a picture that shows me a glimpse of the big boy he's growing into, like this one.  Doesn't he look regal?

Majestic Mister Samwise, At Peace With Tennis Ball

Oh my gosh, you guys -- my mean husband just called out from the other room:

"Didn't you say you wanted to sew today?  Are you falling down a rabbit hole again?"

Umhmmm...  Shamed!!  Fine.  I'll go sew something, but only so I have something to write about next time.

The One Where Rebecca Performs an Emergency Rhinoplasty on a Stuffed Unicorn

Keeping Me Sane: My Husband (Bernie) and My Puppy (Sam)

Greetings, y'all.  Happy Sunday.  I wish I had something fabulous to share with you today, but I am not one of those people who is productive and thriving under the current circumstances.  I have not deep-cleaned my home, reorganized my closets, or remodeled any bathrooms.  I have not been sewing masks or other PPE for medical personnel.  I am not creating gourmet meals from scratch, nor is my family enjoying idyllic, Rockwellesque "family time" together as we play board games, engage in craft projects, or worship together online.  (Tried that last one this morning -- my husband refused to participate, and my sons were cracking jokes and talking and generally making fun of the whole idea of online worship to the extent that I could not even hear the prayers).  Both of my sons are supposed to be doing "online learning," one for his college courses and the other for his high school classes, so I'm stressed out about how all of that is going and how it will impact them academically, yet they are too old for me to really be "in the loop" and know what's going on, let alone for me to be creating schedules (that no one would follow anyway) or attempting to "home school" them.  In short, I am NOT the Martha Stewart of COVID-19.

I Am Not an Instagram Mom (photo from lindsaycz via Instagram)

From what I see on social media, it looks as though a lot of people are using the unexpected extra time on their hands to tackle home improvement projects or to be productive in their sewing rooms.  I'm personally feeling a lot of stress and anxiety that has sapped my motivation, making me feel like showering and putting on clean clothes is a huge accomplishment.  

Channeling My Inner Roseanne Barr Through the Coronavirus Pandemic

I've got nothing against those Instagram supermoms; it's just way more than I can muster right now.  And I know that everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, is experiencing stress, uncertainty  and disruptions in their lives right now, and I do appreciate that many people are going through much worse than what we're experiencing.  We don't have job loss, no one in my family is sick, and we have plenty of food and toilet paper.  Our biggest stressors are probably too much TV news and too much "together time."  Nevertheless, when I dragged my sorry self into my studio yesterday to mend a stuffed unicorn toy for my dog, it felt like a major victory against ennui and inertia.

Emergency Unicorn Rhinoplasty in Progress

This is one of Sam's favorite plush squeaky toys.  He likes to grab it, shake it, tug with it (when I'm holding the other end of it) and chase it around the kitchen when I toss it just out of his reach.  He had chewed the toy open at the front of its face and was pulling stuffing out through the nose when I took it away from him -- eating that stuffing is dangerous and could result in emergency veterinary surgery.

What the Unicorn's Face Looked Like Before He Met My Puppy

By the way, this particular unicorn is one of those toys that are advertised as being "virtually indestructible," and invariably there is a picture of a Rottweiler on the packaging to make shoppers think that this is a toy that a Rottweiler won't destroy.  

False Advertising!!!

Hahahaha...  Maybe that's why they call it the "Mighty Liar" Unicorn!

I considered sewing up the unicorn's face with the sewing machine, which would be a stronger seam than a hand stitched repair, but I decided against that because machine sewing would create a seam allowance ridge protruding on the outside of the unicorn like a scar.  I'm pretty sure that my dog would be attracted to that ridge and would deliberately chew the new line of stitching, so that's why I opted to hand sew the hole shut instead.  I used some heavy duty polyester upholstery thread and sewed the hole shut as tight as possible, with all of the loose fabric tucked inside of the plushie for a smooth seam on the outside of the toy.

Unicorn After Receiving Major Nose Job Surgery

So the unicorn looks pretty disfigured now, but puppy Sam was very happy to have him back again:

First Sam Batts the Unicorn With His Paw...

...and then, CHOMP!!!

Methinks the unicorn be not long for this world.

How are all of YOU coping with this pandemic situation that we all find ourselves living with?    Have you found something that helps to keep you sane or that helps you hold on to a little bit of normalcy in these bizarre times?  Anyone else, like me, feeling like their feet are stuck in cement and they just can't seem to put a plan into action lately?  I have GOT to get away from the news but my husband keeps checking the TV multiple times throughout the day, and even if I leave the room to get away from it, he has to report to me about how it's all getting WORSE AND WORSE by the minute...  This just feeds my anxiety because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it!

So I take a deep breath, and play with my dog.  My big sewing goal for this afternoon will be to cut the backing fabric for Spirit Song and seam the lengths together, maybe even get the backing loaded on the longarm.  Wish me luck!

-- Hey, by the way -- today is the 10th anniversary of my blog!  If you're interested, you can read that very first blog post, "Gardens of Deceipt," right here.

I'm linking up with

·       Slow Sunday Stitching at http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/  

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·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com

The Path to Hell is Paved With My Tuesday Intentions... In Which I Am Inspired By Coronavirus, and Make a Plethora of Excuses

Was yesterday Tuesday again?  I'm not entirely sure -- the days are just melting into one another, now that my schedule is wiped clean and there's nothing to distinguish a Monday from a Sunday from a Saturday anymore.  Supposing that it IS/WAS Tuesday, it's time to revisit the goals I set for myself last week and to consider what I hope to accomplish in the coming week.

Last Week's To-Do List for March 17-24

1. Add borders to Spirit Song to complete quilt top.
2. Piece Spirit Song backing
3. Make Spirit Song binding and set aside
4. Paper piece next block for Anders' Beware the Ishmaelites sampler quilt
5. Load SOMETHING on my frame -- either a practice piece, a charity top, or the Spirit Song quilt -- and START QUILTING!

As you can see, I only accomplished one of the 5 goals I set last Tuesday. In my defense, when I set those goals I had no recollection of the 16 Y-seams awaiting me in that vintage Nancy Cabot block for Anders' sampler quilt.  I think I worked on that over three or four days, and I wrote up a Y-seam tutorial here on my blog so I can refresh my memory next time I tackle one of these challenging vintage blocks.  Also the news has been distracting and worrisome, having both boys at home and starting "online learning" experiments has been distracting and worrisome (and expensive -- just had to buy a new laptop for Son the Elder because his previous laptop had a design flaw that caused it to continually disconnect from the Internet while he was trying to participate in an online class).  And of course Samwise, a.k.a. Mister Puppy-Pants, demands lots of time and attention while providing an exquisitely appreciated distraction from the worries of the day...

Samwise PuppyPants (Great Aunt Lulu in the Background)

The microscopic images of the novel coronavirus are fascinating to me.  How can something so beautiful be so deadly?  Some of the images popping up on the news look like batik fabrics or digital prints.  I can just imagine the wildly recolored version that would be "COVID-19 in Chartreuse by Kaffe Fassett Collective", can't you?

Doesn't This Look Like Quilt Backing Fabric?  COVID-19

Doesn't this one look like one of those green styrofoam balls sold at craft stores that you can cover with beaded and sequined stick pins to create Christmas ornaments?  Or like some kind of anemone in someone's saltwater fish tank.  Where's the clown fish in all of this?  As the song from A Little Night Music goes, "Send in the clowns..."

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Under a Microscope

Just last night, a 21-day Stay-at-Home Order was announced for the entire Mecklenburg County where I live, encompassing all of the Charlotte metropolitan area.  Although I'm not aware of anyone I know personally in my community who has tested positive for Covid-19, it was distressing to see that our zip code 28277 (the South Charlotte suburban and mixed use "Live-Work-Play" community of Ballantyne) is among those with the highest number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in the county.  

Bubble Tip Anemone, Doppelganger to COVID-19 virus

I know a lot of you are sewing face masks right now.  I'm not, but I've donated 150+ yards of quarter inch elastic that I had stashed away to some friends who are making masks for local hospitals.  I'm not good at fast-and-furious sewing projects, and I know they are putting that elastic to much better use than I could.   Those who have been following along with my projects here know that I sew at the speed of glaciers (about 25 cm per day) -- by the time I finished making a few masks, the pandemic would probably be over anyway.  Which is why I had all that elastic in the first place, by the way -- grand intentions of sewing all of my own bras and underwear that never materialized, or maybe I bought that roll when I was pregnant with Lars in 2000 and deluded myself that I was going to sew all of his baby clothes?  I don't remember exactly why I bought the elastic, but it has been mocking me from the shelf in my studio for decades.  I was glad to see it depart from my house and be put to good use.

And so, when I'm not traveling from grocery store to grocery store (one of the only places we're allowed to go under the Stay-at-Home Order) in search of meat and toilet paper, and when I'm not busy with the puppy or with laundry or disinfecting surfaces or obsessively checking in with news updates, what do I hope to be sewing this week?

My Spirit Song Quilt Top, Patiently Awaiting Borders

This Week's To-Do List for March 25-31

1. Procure batting for my Spirit Song quilt
2. Add borders to Spirit Song to complete quilt top.
3. Piece Spirit Song backing
4. Make Spirit Song binding and set aside
5. Load SOMETHING on my frame -- either a practice piece, a charity top, or the Spirit Song quilt -- and START QUILTING!

It's especially poignant to be working on my Spirit Song quilt right now, which I named after my church's contemporary music group due to its color palette -- the pink/orange/coral with khaki that is almost always our dress code for Easter Sunday.  We moved to online worship only on March 15th, and that was my last opportunity to sing with the choir for a live-streamed service with no one sitting in the pews.  Now that the mandatory Stay-at-Home order is in place -- through April 16th! -- who knows when I'll be singing with Spirit Song again?

Rather than dwell on all of the things we're giving up right now and cannot do, I need to focus on the things I enjoy that are still available to me.  I enjoy creating; I enjoy learning; I enjoy a good challenge -- so the overarching Goal of All Goals is #5 on that list: getting a quilt on my frame and firing up my longarm for some quilting time!  I have an added incentive to get to the quilting sooner rather than later, because I want to have something to link up for Karin's Ruler Work linky party next Tuesday at The Quilt Yarn!

What's keeping YOU busy during these days of disconnection and social distancing?  Is your community under mandatory restrictions, and if not, are folks following the guidelines requested by the CDC?

I'm linking up today's post with:

·       Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

Spirit Song Quilt Progress and a Puppy Update

Look, you guys -- all of my Spirit Song Birds In the Air blocks are sewn together!  The top row of three 16" blocks are connected, and the remaining three rows have two blocks connected and one more block needing to be attached.  This phase is going MUCH more smoothly now that all of my seams are nestling nicely again, but alas -- my studio is not at all puppy-proofed, so I'm not getting in much machine sewing time these days!

Spirit Song Quilt Coming Along

I sewed and pressed exactly ONE seam this morning.  The rest of Sam's morning nap was taken up with laundry.  Hopefully I'll get back up to the Studio later today.  It's so exciting when a quilt top nears the finish line, isn't it?

Joining Blocks Into Rows

I've been piecing this quilt on my smaller Bernina 475QE while the bigger machine (the Bernina 750QE) has been set up for paper piecing.  I have a block all cut out, foundation papers printed, ready to go for Anders' Beware the Ishmaelites sampler, and had even pulled fabrics and printed foundation papers for a 16" star block for our guild's new Community Education Blocks on the Move program, but then so many guild members stepped up to create and donate blocks for the program that I now have more mini quilts for the display than fit on the display racks!  That takes the pressure off me to make one right this minute.  

Samwise at 4 Mos., AKA Mister Snuggle-Bucket

The adorable puppy you see pictured above weighs 49 pounds at 4 months old, and although he has learned to go UP the stairs from the first to the second floor of our home, he is afraid to come DOWN those stairs.  So every morning, my husband opens Sam's crate in our bedroom to get him out, and Sam sits in the back of the crate and won't come out until I get down on the floor next to the crate -- THEN he comes running out straight into my arms, tail wagging furiously, and plops down belly-up for cuddles and puppy kisses.  And then I have to CARRY THE 49 POUND PUPPY DOWN THE STAIRS so he can go outside and pee!  

I'll Be Strong 'Til the Finish if I Eats Me Spinach, Like Popeye the Sailor Man

I prefer my spinach served fresh in salads...  But I really do need to teach Sam to walk down those stairs on his own, before I fall and we BOTH get hurt!

Back to the quilting that is currently not getting done.  I still need fabric for borders:

Original Border Plan, 3/4 Inch Inner Border and 1.25 Inch Outer Border

I was originally planning something like that for the borders, kind of a mustardy outer border with a skinny teal blue inner border.  That would give me a 52" x 68" quilt top.  But then today I played around some more in EQ8:

One Inch Inner Border, Three Inch Outer Border

That's an Anna Maria Horner print for the outer border, I believe.  Increasing the borders to 1" for the inner and 3" for the outer border would bring the quilt top up to 56" x 72" before quilting.

My Favorite So Far.  Kaffe Fassett Border Fabrics

Of course, these are just fabric images in the computer, not actual yardage that I own.  I think I'm going to need to take the finished quilt top to a quilt shop and audition border fabrics in person to make a final decision.

My One Monthly Goal for March -- Quilt-wise -- is to get this top assembled with borders purchased and sewn on!  My One Monthly Goal for the puppy is to teach him to walk down the stairs before we both stumble and plummet to our deaths.  

I'm linking up todays post with:

·       One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts  

·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

·       BOMs Away Katie Mae Quilts  

·       Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

Doggie Detour: Introducing Samwise the Brave (with a Brief iPhone 11 Pro Max Review)

Introducing the newest member of our family, Samwise the Brave!

Baby Rottweiler Samwise at 13 Weeks

We lost our 9-year-old Rottweiler Otto the week before Christmas, leaving a giant hole in our hearts.  Although Otto can never be replaced and we still have his littermate Lulu, we decided that our home needed a puppy.  Even Lulu was miserable as an only dog for the first time in her life -- all the play went out of her when she lost her brother.  So we went back to Alice of Guardian Rottweilers in Indiana and selected this plucky little fella.  

Bernie and Samwise

After extensive family debate, my 16-year-old son Anders won all of us over with the idea of naming our new puppy after the Hobbit character Samwise the Brave from Lord of the Rings.  He's Frodo's loyal sidekick who rescues him from Mordor and is never corrupted by the evil power of the Ring...  Perfect name for a Rottweiler!

My Son Anders with Puppy Samwise

My 19-year-old son Lars, on the other hand, is beside himself.  He has not yet met this puppy because he is away at college (Appalachian State in Boone, NC).  I've been texting him photos and videos, and Lars is like, "BRING HIM TO BOONE!  HE MUST COME TO BOONE!  WHEN ARE YOU BRINGING MY NEW DOG TO BOONE?!!!"  Poor baby.  Spring break will be here soon enough!

Me Bonding With Sam During the 9 Hour Ride Home

Bargersville, IN is a long way from Charlotte, NC.  I rode in the back seat and snuggled with Sam the whole way home, which secured my position as The Most Important Human in his universe.


Interesting aside -- all of the previous photos in this post were taken with my new iPhone 11 Pro Max, which I bought primarily in hopes of taking better photos.  The photo below, the one of me holding the puppy, was taken on my husband's iPhone 8 Plus.  

Unflattering Photo of Me with Mister Adorable, iPhone 8 Plus

I am much happier with the photos I've been taking on my new phone.  I had an iPhone 6 before, so not only are my photos looking a lot better with the new phone, but I also have significantly better battery life going from a 6 Plus to an 11 Pro Max, my Bluetooth range is a lot bigger (so my earphones don't cut out when I walk too far away from my phone), and I now have wireless charging capability so I can take advantage of those wireless charging armrests that some of the airports have at the gates now.

SIT! Samwise at 15 Weeks, Same Lighting as Above, iPhone 11 Pro Max

This is how little dude Sam looks up at me when he wants some attention.  No jumping up!  One of the advantages of picking up Sam at 13 1/2 weeks instead of the 8 or 9 weeks that is typical for puppy adoption is that our breeder and her family gave us a fantastic head start on training.  When Sam wants to say hello, he plops his butt on the floor just like this and locks his eyes on me, waiting for instructions.  When it's time to eat, he's been trained that the food dish won't be set on the floor until he's sitting.  Who can resist that sweet little face?  Definitely not ME!  Again, comparing the previous two photos -- they were both taken in my kitchen, the one on Bernie's iPhone 8 Plus and the other on my iPhone 11 Pro Max -- the one on my new phone is so much crisper and clearer.

DOWN!  Sam at 15 Weeks

He already has a really good sit and a good recall (when we call "PUPPY PUPPY PUPPY"), courtesy of our breeder.  In the week we've had him, we've been teaching him to differentiate between "sit" and "down" (he initially thought that both positions were a sit), as well as Touch (to touch with his nose).  Dude weighed 32.5 lbs at 13 weeks but he was afraid to go down the deck stairs, so we've been having to CARRY him out the back door, through the screen porch, down the stairs and out into the middle of the grass every time he needs to go potty (hourly).  My back is KILLING me!  So I was very excited that I got him to go down stairs by himself three times yesterday.  

Samwise Loves His Toys

Sam is sleeping a lot, but when he's awake he's FULL of energy -- with bursts of excitement like a Tasmanian devil!  Of course he's teething, too, so we have dog toys strewn all over the kitchen.  I have an assortment of textures so that, when he chomps into something I don't want chewed, I try to swap out something that will feel similar.  The fuzzy plush toys get swapped out for chomping on clothing or upholstered furniture, the horns and antlers are swapped out for chomping on the metal or wood furniture, and the rubbery puppy Nylabones with a little "give" are handy when he wants to nibble on the hands that are rubbing his belly!

Lulu is Slowly Acclimating to the Newcomer

The biggest challenge is managing our two furbabies with an attitude of "separate but equal attention" as our 9-year-old Rottie, Lulu, is very gradually warming up to the little guy.  Samwise desperately wants to play with Lulu and will whimper and plop down right up against the gate to be near her, but Lulu isn't there yet.  She growled at him a few times initially to make her discomfort clear, hence the baby gates blocking off the kitchen.  She's doing a little better with him each day, and they even had about a minute of playtime yesterday afternoon in the back yard -- that's how I got Sam to get over his fear of going down steps.  Lulu was lying on the path at the bottom of the steps and he wanted SO badly to go to her.  His longing to visit Lulu was bigger than his fear of the steps!  But I kept the play-chasing brief to ensure that it would end on a positive note.  Both dogs looked happy with wagging tails and appropriate sniffing of unmentionables.  Baby steps!

Samwise Napping in his Nursery: the Puppy Play Pen

One of the best investments I've made is the puppy play pen pictured above, available on Amazon here (affiliate link).  The Carlson Pet Yard and Convertible Super Wide Gate has six 24" panels that hinge together, and I purchase the expansion pack with two additional 24" panels as well to get a decent size for my super-size cutie.  This gate/play pen is only 28" tall, though, so I would never leave him in the play pen if I was leaving the house.  He can jump up and put his paws on the top edge easily already, but it's very sturdy and there's no danger of him toppling it.  Even with my kitchen and family room gated off, there is still too much for Sam to get into unless someone is watching him like a hawk.  The play pen/nursery is a place where we can put him while we leave the room to use the restroom, and we've been moving him into his nursery pen whenever he falls asleep, as well.  That way we can open those other gates and let Lulu come and go as she pleases -- which is HUGE, because before we got the nursery pen Lulu was isolated in the rest of the house while Bernie and I were on puppy patrol in the kitchen.

Anyway, this is why I've not been posting anything (or sewing anything either, for that matter!).

WOOF!