Further Quilt Repair
I just so happened to find a chunk of quilt at some thrifting something I was at awhile back. Someone had taken a commercially made quilt, I think from Target, and cut a chunk off of it. I got the chunk for a couple bucks. It’s long and skinny, the perfect length and width for laying on the couch! Booyah, person who gave away their quilt chunk! What were you thinking?
Of course, there was one long edge that was just open to the world, and we can’t have that. How indecent! So I took it to the craft store with me and pipcked some quilt edging that matched. The important part of this terribly blurry-because-I-craft-at-night picture is where it says “Extra Wide Double Fold”. There are several kinds of this stuff (quilt binding? quilt edging? I’m not sure), but the double fold means that this thin strip of fabric is folded in half, and in half again, so that the edges are all tucked inside. I prefer the look and feel of that to the single fold. And be careful, because there is some that’s not folded at all, and I don’t even see the point of that.
Flapjack has fallen in love with this quilt btw, and was an adorable impediment the entire time I was working on it.
I opened up one package of the binding, and started jamming it onto the edge of the quilt. This process is a bit tricky. I left an extra inch or so hanging off the end so I could tuck it in later. Your goal is to get the edge of the quilt pressed into the crease on the binding, so that the binding wraps around the edge. You will sew through the bottom edge of the binding, through the quilt, and through the binding on the other side. My sewing machine can’t handle that, so I did it by hand. (There’s Flapjack again. Aren’t you jealous of how cute my dog is??)
Once I had one whole edge sewn down, I went back, tucked the ends in, and sewed them shut. Here’s the finished end, but I had to use the flash so the colors aren’t great.
The hardest part for me was keeping the central fold of the binding touching the raw edge of the quilt. It kept creeping upwards, so I would end up with very little quilt to sew through. I think I did a pretty good job, other than that. For now, I have only completed on edge, and I’m not sure if I’ll do the others. The colors look cool as they are, and I have to complete NEW crafts for you piranhas. You’re insatiable!
Round Rock Dog Park
I guess I’m a little bit of a bad dog-mom. I have just now taken Flapjack to a dog park for the first time. Where I grew up, that was not a thing people did, but this town is dog-park crazy. I finally drove myself and little Flapjack over to Round Rock Dog Park for an adventure. It’s located at 800 Deerfoot Drive, in Round Rock, Texas.
This place is super nice. There’s a ton of grass, trees, and shaded picnic tables for the grown-ups. There’s also a water tower with a baby pool for dogs that like water. There are separate areas for big and small dogs, and there were some teensy little puppies in the small dog area. There were also, apparently, tons of interesting smells, but I did not partake. All the pet parents were friendly, and paid attention to their animals, preventing any possible issues.
Flapjack ran around for an hour or so, and crashed out in the car. It was so adorable!
He’s so sleepy! Overall, it was a blast. I wish it was closer to us, but I am now inspired to find one nearby.
Part 2: Seriously, call Stephen Hawking
This is part 2 in the Strange World of Clever Chick. Odd things have been happening to me for weeks now, and I had to document it, or lose what’s left of my sanity.
We have a very sad peach tree in the back yard. The previous owners, who we all know are morons, planted the thing at a 45 degree angle, so that it’s leaning across the only pathway in and out of the back yard. It is also surrounded by tons of massive trees, so it never gets enough sun. We live in Texas, so it never gets enough water, but neither does anything else. The first year we lived in the house, there were a series of hail storms that knocked every baby peach off the tree. The second year, squirrels at them all. This year however, we have Flapjack.
He chases squirrels like he’s in doggy heaven. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the trees, or on top of the fence, or in the yard. He races after each one as though he will really catch it. When they get into the peach tree, he can reach them because there’s a bench next to it, so I had high hopes of harvesting my own fruit this year. The peaches had a guardian. I have even been watering that crooked, ungrateful wretch every night. I went out there on Thursday to water. The peaches were about the size of a 50 cent piece, and starting to turn peach! I went out there on Friday. No need to water. They had all vanished overnight.
Last night, Tinkerbell, our Siamese cat, inexplicably started attacking the Chrsitmas lights that hang over our bed. They’ve been up for over a year, and she’s never taken any notice of them. She has brain damage from being hit by a car years ago, so I just picked her up, and carried her away from the lights, hoping she’d forget they were there. Hubby and I were laying in bed reading, and petting Flapjack. He likes to lay in bed between us for a little while before he goes to sleep on the floor. He suddenly perked up, and I realized he was looking very intently at something to the left of my head. I looked to see what was so fascinating. A roach.
I think I teleported. The next thing I knew I was standing on top of the ottoman, shrieking. Hubby already had a shoe in hand. Somehow he’d gotten the roach onto the floor, and was attempting to destroy it, but those things are crafty. After much shrieking, running, jumping, and more shrieking on my part, Hubby destroyed and flushed the beast. Woe ye who piss off my Husband, for that shalt be thoroughly vanquished with a flip flop. I, of course, was super-paranoid the rest of the night. I had to sleep with my hair in a braid, because I would flip out every time I saw one of my dark brown locks from the corner of my eye. We all know I do not deal well with roaches. I hope this teaches you all to pay attention to your animals. They don’t just predict hurricanes, and notify us of children in wells.
Another tiny weird thing happened the other day. I was in the shower, and I was washing my very long, heavy hair. A section of it dropped, hitting me on the shoulder. It felt like someone laid their hand on me, and it was freaky as hell!!
Some of you know that we’ve been attempting to have our upstairs bathroom remodeled for months now. There was a long-term leak (again left by the previous home owners, those fantastic human beings), which caused a ton of sheet rock to be damaged, so we have to have the entire tub, and tile surround area removed and replaced. All of this was supposed to be completed in April, but everything has been delayed repeatedly because we ordered our bathtub from Austin Plumbing Supply (link is to the Yelp page because their website has been shut down).
They were constantly putting us off, saying there were delays, or just not responding to emails or calls at all. After a few weeks of this, I looked them up on yelp, and they have only terrible reviews. They have an average of 1 out of 5 stars, so that should tell you something. Sometimes, I’m just not as clever as I try to be. I should have researched them before making a major purchase, but hopefully all of you lovely little minions can learn from my mistake. We finally got the tub and one of the parts delivered to the house, with the promise that the other part would be arriving in a couple weeks.
After even more back-and-forth, I got an email from my contractor this morning. They are closed. Went bankrupt. I think it’s kind of funny. I mean they deserve it, but they either owe me a part, or $75. I’ve already called my bank to dispute the charges since they didn’t deliver the product, so in a way this isn’t my problem any more. It’s nice to not worry about that horrible company anymore (at least for now), but we’re still no closer to being able to shower upstairs.
To top EVERYTHING off, my high school reunion is THIS FRIDAY (as I’m writing this. As you’re reading this, it was yesterday)!! That’s right it’s my ten year five year reunion (yes, I’m uh..(carry the 4)…23! Really!!) on Friday. I’ve been dieting, and I’ve lost about 10 pounds in the past 3 weeks, but it’s getting hard to be good. I went to Wendy’s yesterday. I still hang out with lots of my friends from high school, so I don’t think I’m nervous, but I keep having crazy dreams, like I’m supposed to get married but forgot to plan the wedding, or I’m supposed to be in medical school, but I never went to any classes, or I got a job but forgot to finish college, so now I have to finish it on the side without my boss finding out. All these crazy things keep happening, which are small, but they’re big enough to keep my slightly off-balance. Add bad sleep to that equation, and you get one crazy Clever Chick. Everyone, please wish me luck, and don’t let me have any carbs until Saturday.
More Fun with Blocks
This is the second session of me wandering around the house playing with blocks. Lots of people seemed to find the first one pretty funny, so I hope ya’ll like these too!
Tinkerbell was sleeping upstairs, so she avoided torment the last time. I love how Flapjack photobombed the background!
Sadly, it’s true.
Random thrift store things:
After this, I made the pink octopus, which is just a plastic kid’s toy, into a necklace (like in this previous post). I was then promptly complimented on it at Home Depot. I am so amazing, I hardly know what to do with myself sometimes! Then I almost set my house on fire, and my swelled head goes back to normal proportions.
And this one is just for my sis, Beans, who is almost a celebrity now, thanks to my blog!
cause SHE LOVES TIGERS!!!
How to make a dog bed
Look at my precious little baby dog! Would I ever let him sleep in a cold, bare crate, especially with the way the weather has been? Banish the thought! I am not dumb enough to spend $80 on a pillow for my dog to lay on, so I decided to make my own, crafty chick that I am.
He’s already laying on some of my homemade pillows, so I’m sure he’ll love any bed I make him.
These are old mattress covers that have been in my garage. We used them for padding things while we moved, and for covering plants when it frezzes (before all my plants died because I’m terrible with them). So these were laying around, useless. They are all lightly padded, so I could fold them into the shape I needed, but it would still be cushiony for my sweet precious baby, Flapjack.
You can see the dismal blankie he’s been stuck with up until now. I measured the width and depth of the crate so I could make the bed fit. I left a few extra inches at the front for his food bowl.
I folded the matress pads as evenly as possible into the right size. I tried to make sure the bed was an even thickness all the way around. I used 2 full size mattress pads, because that’s what I have on hand. My sis, Beans, used an old sleeping bag once, and her dog loved it. My mother’s dogs stole her yoga matt, so she just let them have it.
I used a big huge needle, like the kind for crocheting, and I used crocheting yarn, and I ended up needing pliers to pull the needle through. I would stab the needle through as far as possible, and use the pliers to pull it all the way out. I used the really simple tie method to attach all this stuff to itself. You can do this in lazy quilting also. You just sew down, then up, very close together, then tie a knot. Leave the ends dangling, an inch or so, then move onto the next spot. I made sure all the dangling ends are on the bottom, so Flapjack doesn’t try to eat them or anything. Somehow this whole process made me forget to take pictures.
Once the bed was done, it fit snuggly into the crate, and I have to actually wedge his food bowl between the crate and the bed. This is actually a good thing, because it prevents him from flinging his food all over the place, which is what he has been doing. So far it’s working great. I wrapped him blankie around it, so I won’t have to wash the whole bed, just the blankie.
You can use whatever stuff you have laying around the house for this. For small dogs you can even just stuff a pillow case, sew it shut, and throw it on the floor. You can also get great stuff for this at thrift stores. If you plan on having the bed on a floor, rather than in a crate, you can use an old rug for the bottom to keep it from sliding around, and to make it more durable. You could sew a ton of old towels together. The possibilities for recycling are endless!
Snow Day!!
Texas is definitely prone to weird weather. We had 80 degree weather one day, and a snow day the next. I’m sure people up north laugh their asses off at the miniscule amounts of snow and ice that keep us homebound. I think it’s more like we take any excuse to have a snow day, since they’re so rare for us.
These are some of the shots I got first thing in the morning. Isn’t my little Flapjack so picturesque?
This is a little later in the day. Hubby and I took Flappy for a walk in the first snow of his life! He was very curious, and did not like getting hit with snow balls. Shocking.
That says “Feb 4 2011″, in case you can’t read my car hood.
Everyone stay warm and toasty! I’m glad spring is on its way!
I can haz puppy?
My dear sister, Beans, worked at the Alpine Humane Society until recently. During her last week there, a 3 month old corgi mix was brought in. He had a spiked leather collar on, but no tags. Her last day there was also his, because she brought him to me!
This is Hubby with our new sweetie pie, Flapjack! He is so sweet and adorable! He’s getting the hang of potty training (somewhat), and he is very cuddly.
We’re pretty sure he won’t get much bigger, and look forward to some more puppy posts!!
