Operation: Like My Dog / Beauties Pageant 26

I completed this bassinet project well in time for Easter giving.

There’s a canine roaming the halls of From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters. Her name is Rose, and she’s a high-energy golden retriever. She’s a lover, not a fighter, and if burglars broke into my house, the worst she could do is lick them to death.

To my three-year-old niece, however, Rose is scary. Rose towers over this sweet little girl, and with every bark, my niece runs into my sister’s arms, pleading, “I need you!” The relationship between Rose and my niece affects every family visit, and that was the impetus for Operation: Like My Dog.

First, I showed up at my niece’s third birthday party with a gift specifically from Rose. It was a small golden retriever stuffed animal, and Rose Puppy, as this creature has been named, has the privilege of sleeping in my niece’s bed every night (along with, like, 20 other stuffed animals). Then, for Valentine’s Day, Rose sent my niece a card signed with a paw print stamp. (My husband thought it was ridiculous that [1] I own a paw print stamp and [2] I signed a card with it. I thought it was brilliant!)

Later in February, my niece and sister visited for a few days to watch my boys while I went to QuiltCon. My sister noted significant progress. She said that my niece was much calmer around Rose, even when Rose was barking. One night, as the kids were getting ready for bed, my niece walked over to Rose’s crate, said a big good-night, and then crouching closer to the dog whispered, “I love you.”

Rose and my niece have come so far—I don’t want to lose any ground!—so when I saw the sweet bassinet Bernie (Needle and Foot) made for her granddaughter’s dolls, I started plotting my own for my niece from our dog.

I took the opportunity to use up a yard of garden novelty fabric that features springy colors and bunnies hiding in watering cans ...

Because I didn’t know when I would have another occasion to use this fabric, I used as much as I could in this project—on the exterior, as the lining, and in a simple coordinating doll quilt.

This stuffed bunny will accompany the bassinet to its new owner. Fingers crossed that Miss Hopsy will join the chosen few in my niece’s bed at night! : )

To make your own doll bassinet, visit the tutorial on Sew Mama Sew!

If you have other ideas of what Rose can do for my niece—crafty projects and otherwise—please let me know in the comments.

* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

Fab Five Ruler Remix

I am always looking for small projects to intersperse among all the quilts I have in the works. Quick projects like a pouch or bag give me the thrill of a finish without the time commitment of a quilt.

So when the Fat Quarter Shop offered to send me a Fab Five Ruler and pillow pattern to try out, I responded with an enthusiastic yes. A pillow project was just what I needed to get out of my current quilty doldrums!

This ruler, created by Abbey Lane Quilts, makes cutting out tumbler shapes easy. Using bits of various Alison Glass lines, I auditioned a few different layouts and asked Instagram friends for feedback. I decided on a rainbow-like gradation with what I consider to be a more modern tumbler layout. (Instead of orienting my tumblers so that short ends of blocks line up with long ends, I laid them out so that short ends butt up to short ends and long ends butt up to long ends.)

To finish my pillow off, I quilted it and bound it in the same way I bind my quilts. I love how the dark gray Alison Glass print frames and unifies the patchwork!

To see others’ pillow projects, head to the Jolly Jabber, the Fat Quarter Shop’s blog. If you have a favorite FQS project, I would love to hear about it in the comments. I have sewed along in the past. Check out my Bring on the Dancing Horses Quilt, Mini Charm Mix Table Runner, and Odori Quilt.

For more on my experience matchstick quilting this project, look for a post next week. : )

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, and Needle and Thread Thursday ...

Pssst ... I’ll also be linking this bit of loveliness to the new monthly finish linky at Meadow Mist Designs, slated to launch on March 31.

Let's Build a Wall / Beauties Pageant 25

My husband and I built our house—replete with high ceilings, a cavernous foyer, rooms whose beginnings and endings aren’t always clearly defined—almost 17 years ago. It’s a beautiful, open-concept design but has proved to be less functional than we’d like. In particular, the living room and dining room should be adult spaces that we use at night. Because sound travels easily from those rooms up to where the kids sleep, however, we don’t. The solution? We’re erecting a wall with noise-dampening insulation and adding two doors.

Someday soon there will be a wall and door here.

This plan is brilliant for a variety of reasons. First, we can get rid of a gate that keeps Rose, our naughty golden retriever, out of the dining room. (My lower back is already anticipating a day when I don’t have to step over that blasted thing!) Second, the living room and dining room are where I sew, and the renovations will better delineate my creative space from the rest of the house.

In the meantime, I’m squatting in a corner of the master bedroom on a fold-up table, trying to be as productive as possible. The sacrifice is that I have three projects ready to be quilted but no time to get to the longarm at my local quilt shop and no dining room table on which to spread out and work my magic. I’m considering doing some free-motion quilting in my temporary space. Someone—please!—talk me out of it!

When I am sewing at the dining room table, I smile. When I sew in the cramped
and dark corner of my bedroom, not so much.

How are things in your sewing space? Are you at peace with the happy place you’ve carved out of your home, or are you plotting improvements like reorganizing your supplies, improving your lighting, or erecting a wall? Praise or pout in the comments below.

* * *

And now it’s time for this week’s Beauties Pageant! (Note my own contribution: a link to Rose with an old whole-cloth finish. It’s included solely to indulge all you crazy dog lovers. You know who you are.)

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

An InLinkz Link-up