the goose loves the elm creek quilt books

Slowly but surely, I'm working on all those goals on my 25 for 25 list. I'm down to about 4.5 months, but have lots of things still to do!

One goal that I didn't start tackling until 2012 was reading 25 books. Yeah, I really gotta catch up there. I got a great head start when I travelled to Santa Monica, CA for a business trip, though - plenty of airport/plane/hotel time to get through a few books. I started with The Aloha Quilt, by Jennifer Chiaverini.

via

I'm not going to go into great detail here, but maybe enough to get you to read it. Jennifer Chiaverini has a whole series about "Elm Creek Quilts," a group of ladies that formed a quilt camp together. The books take you through the various challenges and joys of their lives, and always describe the quilts that the ladies are working on that tie in with the story. Sounds cheesy, yeah. But they're awesome feel-good stories that keep you engaged and wanting more.

I read several books from the series when I was in high school, but the quilting terms never meant much to me. Now that I'm best friends with my sewing machine, I can appreciate the concepts and challenges of each quilt they work on.

In this story, a lady travels to Maui to start a quilt camp, and learns how to quilt in the Hawaiian style. I didn't even know they had a style! Below is a real-life version of the quilt that the lady worked on in the book. In the Hawaiian style, the quilters make their own patterns by folding cloth several times, drawing patterns, cutting it out, and then opening it up. It's like hardcore snowflake making.

via

 So go read the book. Or not. But at least I'm checking off my list, one book at a time.

the goose loves puppy coats

Greetings, my dutiful readers! Welcome back to my blog! A lot has happenend since I was last here... the year changed to 2012, it snowed, and I did a lot of things without blogging them! I did even more without taking photos, so you'll never know about that stuff...

But I think I'm back for good, ready to get back on the blogger train and give you some interesting things to read about. Hopefully.

We'll start with one for the pooch, the cutest thing about my blog. Last winter, we bought Bentley a red checkered fleece sweater-coat thing. Here it is, to refresh your memory.

Well, believe it or not, the little terror has gotten bigger since that last snowshoeing trip. Now his nice hunting sweater looks a lot more like a tank top, and there's definitely some midriff showing. So why not make him a  new one, with material I already own?

I started with his rain jacket (yeah, the dog practically has a whole closet full of clothes... haha not).

I didn't want to use quick relase buckles, so I traced strap-like pieces in place of the webbing. I made a muslin pattern first so that:

a) I could make sure it fit him before using my fancy real material

b) I could use it again to make him a closet-ful of jackets

I tried the muslin on him while bribing him to stay still with dehydrated sweet potato sticks wrapped in chicken jerky (yum, right?) Once I was satisfied with the size, I traced the pattern onto my front and back pieces - I used a green checkered flannel that I'd gotten on sale at Joanns for like $1.99/yd last year and a brown minky that I used to back my parents' anniversary quilt (more on that later).

Before cutting out my back, I decided I wanted to quilt the pieces together, and I remembered that when I quilt things, the layers shift. So better to use bigger allowances so that the exact pieces don't shift away from each other. The cream-colored layer is Warm N Natural quilt batting, also on hand from some other project.

I pinned the layers together and quilted them together, just following the checkered lines on the top fabric - I spaced my lines out with four "boxes" inbetween.

After cutting off the excess around my main quilted piece, I made some basic binding with the brown and white polka dot material I used to bind my parents' quilt (again, I'll post that later).

I started by sewing the binding to the back (brown side) of the jacket, with the raw edge facing out, and the folded binding edge facing in. The curves around the shape were tricky, believe me.

For the strap corners, I mitered the edge using the normal technique for blanekt/quilt edges. I then took the folded side and wrapped it around to the green front, and topstiched it down. Not my best binding work ever, but not too shabby. Sorry for not having a photo of it.

The dog doesn't seem to mind my less-than-stellar binding job.

Yeah, that's right. He's wearing a quilted three-layer jacket and he still has to keep warm by the fire?!

Billy doesn't mind the jacket, but says that it looks like a horse blanket. Oh well.

It velcros in the front (under his collar) and on his underside (around his tummy).

And, once I finished it, I realized that it's reversible! So maybe a photo of the brown side another day.

Lovely dog/horse coat for my sweet pup. And he really doesn't mind it so much! Now the next one I make should have buttons. Or feathers. Or maybe sequins? Maybe I need a girl dog next...

the goose loves friendsmas

Christmas came early this year!

Not real Christmas. Friendsmas (Christmas+friends). This year (like last year, actually), my two best friends  here in Portland are going home for Christmas, while Billy and I stayed up here. We still wanted to get together and exchange some gifts, though, so we all gathered at our house on Monday (you like how timely this post is?! it's not weeks late, like my usual ones!). Our evening involved food (duh), some sugar, some holiday movies, and some gifts.

We started with a present for the Bentley, from his girlfriend Dakota. Bents is pretty good at opening his own gifts. He's better at opening them than I am at focusing my camera, actually. Except sometimes once he gets into the gift, he gives up on unwrapping and just starts chewing on the gift. Usually they're chewable, though.

 Look at those stockings, all hung by the fire! more on that later.

 It's a chewy stick! And I'm sad to report that Bentley has already chewed off like 14 little pieces of red "bark." But that also means he loves chewing on his new toy. Thank you, Kody!

 We baked a pizza and filled Christmas cups with soda. And I still haven't learned the art of focusing.

 Jackie brought adorable party napkins and plates.

 And our stockpile of gifts. Yay for pretty wrapping!

 The evening also included some sugar cookie making and decorating.

 And more drinking. Like my christmas display in the background? More on that eventually, too...

 Love the Christmas shapes!

 But this batch got a little crispy. Uh oh.

 We got some green, red, and white frosting going.

 Meanwhile, the dogs got a little Christmas "lollipop" - completely dog safe, of course.

 They loved it.

 Once I burned baked enough cookies, we got to decorating. Let the sprinkle fest begin!

 Even Billy got in on the action. I chose not to share his version of a decorated gingerbread boy, though...

 Pretty snowflake, pretty snowflake, falling down from the sky.

 And a J for Jackie!

 Lucia's the star. (And a rare appearance on my own blog, actually!)

 Carolyn decorated this pretty mitten, but when she picked it up for a photograph, a shower of sprinkles rained down. Hahaha.

 A few of our results.

 Then it was present time! Jackie gave Carolyn a rotary cutter for her fabric cutting pleasure.

 Bentley opened his second present, which I failed to photograph - it was a doggie backpack! Now he can carry his own water and poop bags when we run or hike... yesss.

 Jackie got us these ADORABLE beagle prints when she was in Florida! They're not speckled with white, though - they're reflecting our Christmas lights. And mom, can you spot the advent wreath? :)

 Carolyn got Jackie a series of pig-themed cooking utensils - Jackie loves pigs. And these are super cute.

 Billy and I got Jackie two squashes and a pencil. Yes. Anyone else watch the Jimmy Kimmel video where parents get their kids bad Christmas presents? You tube that stuff. Its hilarious.

 Okay just kidding - we got them a both a trip to the Columbia Gorge! It's a lodge about 30 min from Mt Hood, so we'll do some skiing/snowshoeing/snowboarding/relaxing/jacuzzi-ing/eating. The only drawback? They have to go with us. :)

 We spent the rest of the evening eating more cookies and watching the movie "The Holiday." Jude Law is hot.

It was an awesome Friendsmas celebration. And now we can all have equally-awesome Christmas celebrations with our families! T-minus 4 days...

the goose loves dog collars

Finally, I'm making my way through my list of to-dos! That list included making a few dog collars - two for Jackie's dog Dakota and two for my sister's BF's dog, Cru. The best revelation in dog collar making since I originally made some? Use ribbon.

 I order the webbing and pieces online, and the webbing comes in increments like 3/4", 1", 1.5", etc. Ribbon comes in measurements like 5/8", 7/8", etc. That leaves a perfect match between ribbon and webbing, with just a little on the sides. And totally economical too.

 For Dakota, who's a black lab/border collie mix, I chose black webbing, classic silver clasps, and two different pink/black ribbon. I used an applique stitch to attach the ribbon securely to the webbing.

 For Dakota and Cru, who are both about 50 lbs, I started with 24" of webbing (and 36" of ribbon, since I purchased yard increments). I chose 1" wide webbing, 1" metal parts, and 7/8" ribbon.

To keep the collars durable and professional looking, I looped the ribbon over the both ends of the webbing, rather than stopping the ribbon at the edge of the webbing on front. I don't have a good photo of this, but the ribbon basically goes from front to the back on each edge. I then sewed the ribbon down, going through the ribbon on front and back at once. Looks clean and finished.

 That bottom blue one is for Cru, and I have another for him with blue/green/yellow stripes.

 These are easy to make, and look so nice, too! I hope the puppies enjoy them a lot! Dakota got hers at our Friendsmas celebration on Monday (that post to come soon), and Cru will get his in his stocking this weekend!

Yay for Christmas being almost here, and hooray for crossing things off my list!