sliding into fall

After most of August off as a break, time to start posting here again!  We had a lovely month, full of all kinds of fun things, most of which I'll touch on here in a photo-heavy wrap-up post.  Hey, those are the most fun, right?

I've been working on the blackberry invasion in our side yard, trimming back and using Round-Up on the stalks once I've cut them to the ground.  I usually have Martok outside with me when I work on this project, as I think lightly supervised solo playtime outside is important for puppies as well as children, and one day he figured out how to eat blackberries off the bushes.  He'd never even HAD a blackberry before that day, which makes it more impressive to me!  Ezri eats berries off the vine as well, but I had to show her where they were the first time out - Martok just did it all on his own.

Our friends were out for a long weekend as one of them did an Ironman triathlon up in Canada, so we kept three of their dogs for them while they were away.  Martok and his favorite girl Flirt (half BC, half mini Aussie) finally stopped playing after about three days and even took a nap together!

We had a tournament in mid-August, rescheduled from April when it was pushed off due to a severe bordetella outbreak in our region. We set a new club record on Saturday of 16.018, with me running my beautiful Ezri in start and Chris running our teammate's dog Savage in second.  Nala and Sprite rounded out the lineup - we think that breaking 16 is going to happen very soon!

Our flyball teammates convinced us to join them for a group run for The Zombie Run, a 5k involving running away from zombies to try and protect your life balloons.  We had a good time, Kristie and I finished in just under 40 minutes so that was kind of exciting, and Chris did really well and finished around 26 minutes I think.  The zombie bit got kind of old near the end, as there were some injuries (I had to jump over someone who fell right in front of me) and at the end there were so many zombies it was impossible to "survive" with any of your life balloons intact.  If there's no way to make it, then that kills the fun for me.  It was a good time with friends, though, and we'll probably do other 5k races together in the future.

And of course, Labor Day Weekend means PAX Prime!  We attended for the eighth year running, with Chris an Enforcer running Unicorn Theater and me being my social self for four days this year, instead of the previous three.  I spent a lot of the weekend running around with other friends, such as my friend Pete in the picture above at the Cards Against Humanity booth, with dinner plans with different groups each night as well as stuff during the day.  I learned how to play Castellan and Zombie Dice, saw some good panels, got my PAX XP prize, and generally had a blast.

And of course, there were buttons.  This was my fourth year doing Buttoneering, and it was definitely a lot of fun.  There were no "dinner plate" buttons this year, so I was able to fit them all on a single bulletin board without hanging off the sides, which was nice!  I still need to move the boards around, as I only have space for the previous three where they are now, but I have a plan for moving them around to a different wall.

Martok continues to grow and learn, and a few weeks ago I took him (along with Ezri and Flirt) to Marymoor Park and the offleash dog area for the first time.  He needed a bit of convincing to swim in the river, but once he figured it out he was having a great time despite the photo above.

And of course, the knitting.  Last night I finished the striped portion of my Color Affection shawl, and miraculously ended up with the right number of stitches.  I have about twelve full-length rows of edging to do and then it's done!
 

I'm also working on a Wingspan shawl, which I picked after getting the most beautiful long-gradient yarn from an Etsy store.  The color made me think of dragon fire (it continues shifting all the way to red), and so a pattern that looks like dragon wings was eminently appropriate.

We are enjoying a bit of a lull here in September, between PAX and when our next batch of flyball competitions starts up again, and it's quite nice.  Chris has decided to do the Tough Mudder run and obstacle course, so he's training for that right now which makes Ezri happy because it involves 8-10 mile runs.  I'm still doing some running, but I'm keeping it short with just 1.25 mile runs or so as my legs and body acclimate to the new activity, plus that's a good distance for little Martok.  Our next tourney is in two weeks, and then we have three straight at the end of October into November - Auburn WA, Hurricane UT, Cloverdale BC.  Hopefully all this running pays off in Ezri's stamina!

my biggest quilt yet...and it's for a Christmas gift!

This is the project that I'm currently working on, it is one of three quilts that I am giving as Christmas gifts this year.  One quilt is complete and ready to send, but it is going to someone who might read this blog or see my FB page, so I haven't posted any pictures or information about it because I want it to be a surprise.  :)  This one, however is for my 4.5yo "niece" Averie who lives in New Jersey, and I am also making a similar quilt in reds and oranges for her 6yo brother Aidan.  As you can see in this picture, it's a twin-size quilt and it's much bigger than anything else I've made, including the coffee quilt that I made for Chris around this time last year.  It takes up nearly the entire ping-pong table when I laid it out for basting - so if I ever make a bigger one, I'm going to have to come up with some other solution for the basting step!

Of course, this quilt didn't just spring into being fully formed over the last week!  I've been collecting fabrics for it and its companion for over a year now, and cut the squares and strips in September.  I kept with a single color theme of pink and purple since those are Averie's favorite colors, but I also wanted it to be sophisticated enough that she will continue to like the quilt as she gets older, so not everything is bubble-gum pink and there's a bit of coral included as well.  There's quite a lot of the recent Lizzy House collection "1001 Peeps" in this quilt, along with various fat quarters and yard cuts, and even some pink jelly roll strips left over from the boy baby quilt I made earlier this year.  There's even several fabrics that I got from two "Blog Destashing" boxes that I purchased this summer from quilt bloggers!  The border is from the Silent Cinema collection in the pink/coral colorway, and the quilt will be bound in the dark purple kaleidoscope print from 1001 Peeps.

My design board was barely big enough to hold all of the panels as I made them!  I made the three block panels (6" finished blocks, 3 high by 8 wide) first, carefully mixing up the prints for color and type.  Originally I was going to do three strip pieced sections (2" finished height, set of 4), but the Towers print from 1001 Peeps seemed to be a much better idea, so I used that on the top and bottom of the pieced section in place of more strip panels.  The strip panels were made last, using a variety of widths and colors with diagonal seaming (like when making a binding) to add additional interest.

I'm particularly proud of the last piecing seam I did, putting the top section (2 block panels, 1 strip panel, and the tower panel) together with the bottom section (1 strip panel, 1 block panel, 1 tower panel), where the widths of the fabrics ended up perfectly matched.  Of course, as it turned out the width of the quilt was beautifully consistent between the top and the bottom, but there was one section of strips that was a little short on one side...so I did have to trim the quilt a bit to account for that.  My final quilt size when completely pieced and laid out on the ping pong table had a variance of 1/8" across the width of the quilt and no variance across the length, so overall I'm quite pleased!  I've learned that pushing that big of a quilt (especially one with a flannel backing!) through my sewing machine for quilting is very tiring, however - it's a lot of weight!  So again, if I make something larger than a queen not only will I need a different way to baste it together, but I think I might send it to a longarm quilter to finish up for me!

Back in August before PAX, I made another bag to use for collecting my buttons during the Buttoneering community event, similar to last year.  This time I made the bag with some incredibly awesome heavy fabric printed with Viewmaster reels, which just makes me insanely happy.  The fabric unfortunately did not stand up as well to the buttons as the plain cotton fabric I used last year, however, so I won't be using it again for next year's collection so as not to permanently damage it.  I'm pretty proud of how this one came out, especially since I measured/designed my own pockets on the inside that include gathers for the different sizes.

One pocket is for my wallet, and the pocket on the other side had a space for pens (regular, sharpie, and my tablet stylus) and a space for my iPhone.  The pockets fit perfectly and worked great, I'm very pleased with how I did them!  I think this is the last bag I'm making for a long time, however, as I'm pretty much tired of making them and I now have two to use as needed, having given away three and sold (for the cost of materials only, since it's a pattern not to be used for profit) one more.

So instead of making bags, I've bought two from a awesome lady from Spokane who makes bags of all types, Borsa Bella.  I first saw her stuff at the Bellevue Arts Festival with Christy, and we both hemmed and hawed all the rest of the day before giving in and going back to get bags.  I got a Moxie in a lovely neutral black/chocolate/white print, which is a nice travel bag for flat stuff.  Once I saw the giant bee print by the same designer (Melody Miller) who did the viewmaster print, I knew I *had* to have a bag made from it.  So I picked up the fabric, handed it off to Borsa Bella at the Issaquah Salmon Days, and just a week later had the most amazing BEE BAG in the Hobo style.  :)  I love it and have been carrying it everywhere outside of work since I got it!

Next post will be (hopefully) about what I saw and did at PAX during the last weekend of August.  Alternatively, it will be about flyball or starting up Aidan's quilt!

another sewing / creative post

May brought about not only Mother's Day, but also a birthday, and so I made items to celebrate both occasions. First up is a bag that I made for my mother, using the same pattern I've been using since last summer (this is the fifth bag I've made with it, I rather like it!). I picked out handpainted fabrics at the Sewing Expo in March, selecting a light purple with a silver sheen and swirly pattern as well as a shades of gray with silver and a raindrops pattern. Rather than just doing one side of each color, I used a strip of each one to slash the opposite fabric, and cut my pieces from those. There wasn't enough fabric left to make the outside handles, so I used a dark purple dupioni silk that I had on hand from a project a while back and that turned out really nicely. I was a bit nervous using the silk, but I didn't have any issues with fraying on the parts I was working on and it turned out really lovely, I think. The lining is a royal purple ballistic nylon, and inside (not shown) are two pockets made from a quilting cotton in a green/cream/gold butterfly print. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. Of course, I forgot to take pictures before shipping it, but my mom sent me these pictures she took, including this last one that shows the bag next to the quilt I made her two years ago (the first one I ever made!).

Next up was my best friend's birthday, and I decided to make her an iPad cover similar to the one I made myself a few months ago. I originally picked out the blue flowered fabric seen in the lining on the left, and then changed my plans based on a mutual purchase of the geometric/metallic fabric that makes up the center stripe. Shortly after we bought yardage of that fabric to split, I came across the green flowered fabric that fit with it perfectly, and so the design was set. I made the dimensions a half-inch smaller in width than mine, and it is a little snug on the iPad but seems to be breaking in well. Mine is really just a bit too big, so maybe the happy medium is a quarter inch in difference. The binding is a sage green leaf fabric that I used to bind the baby quilt I made for Finley last year - little projects like this are great to use some leftover binding for, saving me a lot of effort in cutting and ironing! I'm really happy with how this one came out, and even more pleased that I finished it with several days to go instead of finishing it just minutes before leaving for the celebration! Yay for me!

I've completed one other project which is enroute to its recipient, who reads this blog so I will wait to talk about it until she has received it. I am currently quilting a small baby quilt (meant to cover the baby-pod carrier thing) for a brand new baby another friend had, and again will wait to post more about that until it has gone to its recipient.

I read an awful lot of quilting blogs, and have been awaiting the release of the 1001 Peeps fabric by Lizzy House, which is an Arabian-themed followup to the Castle Peeps fabric she designed last year. The end of last summer is when I really began reading a lot of blogs, and at first I was irritated with how much of the fabric was showing up everywhere, but some of the design did grow on me - of course, too late to buy it in most retail locations! I did find some of the green castle print at the Sewing Expo, which I used to make my iPad case, and I bought some half-yard cuts of the blue colorway from a seller on Etsy earlier this spring. When the new 1001 Peeps fabric came out, including a gorgeous purple colorway, I bought quite a lot of it...mostly half-yard cuts, but some full and multiple yard cuts as well! I was super thrilled when it arrived, and I've just about settled on my first project with it - a sleeve case for my Nintendo DS, rather than the large snap-on case that I currently use. I'll post about that when I work on it next month, never fear - I want to have it in time for PAX!

Speaking of PAX, both Chris and I are planning to take part in the Buttoneer exchange this year, which is where all participants make up their own buttons and bring them to trade. I took part in it last year and had a great time, so it was a no-brainer for me to do it again this year and Chris doesn't want to be left out. I can come up with great designs in my head, but I'm not so good at the art of drawing them up myself, so instead I chose two photos of Curzon and Ezri from our photoshoot last fall and with the permission of Artis Photography I made PAX buttons from them. I can't wait to trade them in August!

We're about to head out on vacation, as our friends are coming from NJ with their two kids and we're taking the RV out to the Olympic Peninsula for a week and a half. It's going to be a lot of fun, even if the weather is not being so cooperative, and we're really looking forward to it.

are you still there?

Almost seven months since my last update. Ooops. What I really wish I had was a way to download all of the blog posts I design in my head directly to the blog, as I've written lots mentally and just don't manage to get them online!

So, what have we been doing since April?

Lots of flyball, for starters. Seven regional tournaments since April, one of which was our own tournament that we hosted in late May in Seattle. Jadzia is rapidly closing in on her FGDCh-50k title, with Phoebe right on her heels. It's entirely possible that they will title at the same tournament next spring, depending on how the point totals run over the next few events. Curzon is back racing full-time, and earned his FGDCh in late March and is already halfway to his FGDCh-40k, and is consistently running 4.5's in cleanup position with as much enthusiasm as he ever had in start. Ezri earned her FM in April and her FMX in July, just after her first anniversary of racing. She's continued to speed up, consistently running in the mid-high 3.9's in start position and pulling out a PB of 3.863 in August, followed by a 3.896 in October.

At the beginning of October, my friend Deborah and I drove to Indianapolis, IN taking my truck/trailer rig, her 5-month-old daughter, and four of our dogs (Ezri, Curzon, Epic, and Indigo) in order to attend the NAFA Can-Am Classic (aka NAFA Flyball Nationals). We ran two teams combined with Canine Mutiny, the club Deborah ran with while she interned in Boston for a year, moving the red girls over to their club to race Regular and entering a JCJ team in Open with one of their height dogs. Deborah's husband Ben flew in for the weekend to run Epic and help with the baby, and my mother drove over from Virginia to see me, see her granddogs race, and also help us out with the baby. There's a ton to talk about from this event, and even more pictures, so I'll save the rest of it for its own blog post.

August brought us the annual nerdfest known as PAX (the Penny Arcade Expo), where Chris was an Enforcer for the third year and I took part in BYOC (bring your own computer) for the third time as well. This year we split the dogs amongst our kind friends and stayed in a hotel downtown for the weekend, which made the event much easier for both of us since there was no issue with how/when to get home to care for the critters. The event was a blast, I met some awesome people from Ars, and got to play a -ton- of games all weekend long. My favorites were getting to demo Portal 2 by actually playing it, finding a fun physical-puzzle game called Pajaggle, seeing the Penny Arcade D&D game live, and seeing Wil Wheaton's panel. I also took part in the Buttoneer exchange, which really made the event personal for me and also satisfied my dragonlike "must acquire shiny things" tendency nicely - I'm definitely going to do that again!

The events leading up to Portal 2 were probably the most entertaining, as I was lucky enough to be brought along with an Omeganaut as his "plus one" to enter the Expo Hall on Saturday morning before the regular crowd. We made a beeline for the Portal 2 exhibit, and were in the second group to go in for the day (and got t-shirts, yay!). I happened to be wearing my Portal t-shirt as well, which might have influenced what happened next. As we sat down in the theater, one of the booth people came up to me and we had the following conversation:

Booth Guy: Did you play Portal?
Me: Yep!
BG: Do you know how to use an Xbox controller?
Me: Yep!
BG: Do you want to help us demo Portal 2?
Me: OMG YES!!

So I got to play the second player during the co-op demonstration of the game! It was WAY fun, even moreso than Portal, because now there are two players with two portal guns, making all kinds of neat things possible. The game comes out around my birthday, and I know what I'll be playing that weekend!

I have also been sewing more, including taking an awesome class on how to maintain my Featherweight sewing machine(s) as well as further reorganizing my sewing room. I'm up to a total of six sewing machines now, which may alarm some people, but oddly enough they all have their uses. My fancy Janome MC6600P is my main machine, and I've been using it to work on a quilt that I'm making for Chris, partially shown in this photo. I've also picked up a Featherweight to use for going to classes, so now I really need to FIND some classes that will work with my schedule, and I used it to piece the borders on the quilt as well. I got a second one very inexpensively from Craigslist, that I will try to refurbish and if that fails I will use it for parts for the first one - they are 50-year-old machines, after all! I picked up a really pretty replica Singer with sphinx decals that I wound up taking on vacation, again inexpensive and while not as good as the Featherweights it is certainly lovely to look at. I finally refinished the cabinet and refurbished the Pfaff 130 that I picked up from Freecycle in February, and I'm trying to figure out how to make it work on some thick webbing in order to make various dog-related items. And of course, we still have the original Janome L-108 that Chris got for Christmas in 1998, as it's the only free-arm machine in the house should we need to hem or mend something!

That should be enough to get over the "oh I haven't posted in so long!" hump, so here's to another post next week! We're heading to Canada for a tournament this weekend, so no online access until late on Sunday.