It's Been a 'Challenge'-ing Day

From this (10:00 a.m.):

To this (4:00 p.m.);

And finally to this (11:00 p.m.):

I've made a start on the Guild challenge quilt. It's one of those 'make it up as you go along quilts'.  And since it can't be more than 160" all around, it's likely going to be 'reversible' (ha ha).  Lots of rotary cutting, lot of stitching, and way more math in my head than I care to think about.

I've been procrastinating on this project for so long that today I finally gave myself a good shaking and told myself to do something fun that I could learn from. Foundation piecing was one of the things on my bucket list, and I've always loved piano keys, and wanted to do something with nine patches, so why not jumble it all together. And somewhere we'll throw in a little applique too...and we'll go crazy and make it fusible applique too (Who are you, and what have you done with Susan?) 

Oh, I'm still here...as can be evidenced by the photo above. These are apples/berries for one of my Baltimore Album blocks. There were so many of them in this one block that I decided to go with something I saw in one of Elly Sienkiewicz's books and use ultrasuede instead of making freaky little gathered around template circles that would take days to do. And, so that I didn't regret this decision, I stitched them all to a scrap of my background fabric and gave it a good bath, with dishwashing liquid, no less, to be sure that the ultrasuede wouldn't bleed.

Once I was assured that they wouldn't I stitched them all to the real block using a little running stitch around the edge in silk thread the same color as the ultrasuede.

I have had my doubts about this block being sort of out of scale to the rest of them, so I thought I'd plant the thing in a huge basket to make it look more like the rest of the blocks. Not sure I'm enamored with that idea either, but I'll leave it there and see what Mimi and my monthly class thinks of the idea. It's easily removed. One of my problems is that I wanted to make two blocks of vases to offset this tree and the squirrel in the tree block, and sticking this tree in a basket kind of confuses the layout. (In other words, the basket is probably coming off, and it's likely the whole tree won't make the final cut in the end).

If you're a Facebook friend, you know about Tucker...the long coat chihuahua puppy that joined our family two weeks ago. Everyone is thrilled with the new addition...well, not everyone....Paco tried to push him through the second floor railings (oh darn....Mom anticipated that and installed netting...curses! foiled again!). 

He likes to hang out in the studio. Here he is picking out some fabric for a lounge pillow as Paco patiently waits for me to catch him chewing on the corners of the stack he pulls out and scold him  (Paco loves it when Tucker gets in trouble).

Mostly Tuck spends his time sleeping in Paco's bed, while I 'm working on the computer or sewing. They look so peaceful and sweet when they sleep, don't they?

Don't let that fool you. Tucker is now 3 lbs 5 oz of Trouble with a capital 'T'. He just learned how to go down the stairs, though he still can't jump off the bed or the couch. We went to the pet store yesterday and bought a second set of teething bones because Paco was jealous and would take them from Tucker...now Tucker takes them from Paco and then whines and cries when Paco takes one back. The little terror chases Paco around the house, and poor Paco gets yelled at constantly for growling at the puppy.  I've begun calling Paco 'Mr. Grumblypants'.

I looked at the hubs yesterday evening, as the ruckus went on around us and remarked that it's like we're raising a couple of 2 year olds now, to which he commented 'well, if that's the case, then it's not going to get any better as they get older, is it?'