Something new to us

A slight diversion from things I am working on...

For just over a week we have been getting used to a new member of the household.

Meet Holly.

A friend of ours is facing chemo having been given the hope that it might give her more than a year. She is a very matter of a fact person and at this point is looking at things logically. Or maybe regaining a sense of control by getting everything organised.

So, she wanted to find someone to have her dog... now...while she has say in the matter...while the dog has a chance to get adjusted. And since Pepper has been gone nearly 2 years the Thoughtful Man thought perhaps we could. It seemed every other option our friend explored had come to nothing.

Holly isn't particularly the sort of dog I would choose, but in this circumstance you couldn't say no!

So we have been getting used to her and she has been getting used to us. Quite different from Pepper in a lot of ways. Many of them very good. For a start, I have never met a dog that isn't hanging round your feet when you are doing something with food! Not even a twitch from the comfort of the settee!

And some days she eats all her dinner and some days she doesn't and some days she takes one bit at a time several feet away from the dish, eats it and goes back for one more...etc, etc, etc!

So that has made it quite easy to stick with the resolution we'd made that any new dog was not getting fed as much people food. This was in the hope that whatever thing it was that suddenly made Pepper get sick and die wouldn't happen to another - if it was even due to people food in the first place.

Holly has really taken to my husband, which at this point is a good thing for him. Besides working full time, he leads our church and is also heavily involved on the Committee at the Community Centre. It has been fun to hear noises of a dog running around in the hall upstairs. It means my husband has stopped for a break.

She is violently opposed to the idea of sleeping in the kitchen or in the storeroom, also known as 'Pepper's Bedroom', so currently it is the front hall! But maybe as she gets settled we can get her to move into the kitchen at some point. (It is tiled, so a better choice on our part.)

At present she is also not happy about both of us being gone at the same time. Cue the violently opposed part again. But we think we have found a system. Our friend was out and about a lot more than me, and often took her along. (My husband is meeting all sorts of people round the neighbourhood, when they are on a walk, who know Holly!)So, it is taking her a while to realise if we go somewhere without her, we will come back.

Stop pointing that thing at me.

Oh yeah, I don't think she looks like a 'Holly' either, but apparently she was a rescue dog, found around Christmas time a few years ago. Our friend decided Holly was a lot better name than 'Crackers' (!) which the rescue place had named her.

We are finding it hard not to call her Pepper, so her name is morphing a little into Polly! She actually came when I called her "Polly-wolly-doodle all the day" so that was good.(Meaning it was good she came when I called her!) Most of the dogs I have lived with had several names anyway.

She is not as clever as Pepper was, so she hasn't necessarily been able to work out just what she is meant to do in certain situations. But she will learn in time. I think some of it is that we use different commands than our friend did. We didn't know Holly very well, only my husband saw her now and then when doing stuff at the Community Centre. So, we weren't familiar with her habits.

Anyway, so far, it looks like she isn't really a friend for me to talk to about decisions when I am working here in my studio. But now and then she brings 'Ted' to have a grrr and a tug. And the house isn't empty, which is also good.

BlacknWhite - Pepper finished

I finished the quilting and then the edge stitching on the piece about Pepper today. If you are visiting via Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, the link you followed should show the posts I have been doing this week in the lead up to this piece. If you want to read each of them in order, just scroll down to the bottom and work your way up to this post.

This was the original sketch I was working from...a small bit of post it note one day when she was in here being my friend. I am glad I did it, I have several photos of her doing things, but not many just being my friend.

I showed the thread sketching previously. I used regular black sewing thread which is much more like Pepper's fur than a rayon would have been. Photos don't really show, but I went over certain parts with black rayon to be highlights.

Here is the quilting finished.

and then hanging on the 'design wall'*.

A look at the back. I was getting too much of the black bobbin thread coming to the surface. Not too bad for the part I designated 'floor'. But I changed to grey bobbin for the top section which I designated 'wall'.

I think I will finish off the piece that reminds me of York, to submit with this one for the Grosvenor Show Journal challenge. I may get around to working up another Pepper one, but the idea for it has been in my head for ages. Trouble is, she was so black that it is hard to discern where the limbs stop and start in photos.


*Currently a black linen skirt I intend to refashion in some way! LOL

BlacknWhite - dog

So, I got Pepper 'coloured in'.

I have started the background quilting. It needs to be tight and close to take care of the puckering. However, the fabric the image was printed on is very sturdy, and with it layered on the quilted piece, the puckering is not as bad as it could have been.
Will finish it off tomorrow.

BlacknWhite - this one!

Okay, I realised this print (from my pile of screen print fabrics) is the one which works as a background for the 'something black and white' that I want to put against it.
Which is...Pepper! A sketch I did of her in March 2009.

I really miss my little friend hanging out with me in here. So I thought that would be a great idea for Memories in Black and White.

In the above photo I was working out placement. Now I have started thread sketching over the image. The actual sketch was done on pink post it note! So, I took it into Paint Shop Pro, used the colour changer tool to convert the pink background to white. Then printed it out onto cotton printer fabric. Because the sketch was done in pencil, the graphite was read as grey with a cyan hue. I was just going to stitch over the image to give definition, but because the image looks grey, the black definition stood out too much.

So, I have started colouring her in!

unfortunately, I had decided to leave the 'shadow' on the image when I fused it to the background. So I will have to colour it in as well so it doesn't look like it is a lighter area. She did have white on her chin, but only in front. and white on her chest, which doesn't show in the sketch, and her toes, which does show.

Will work on it more tomorrow when I have a bit more brain.

Farewell to a friend

Pepper  2 April, 2012

Goodbye Special Friend

It is too quiet around here now. But she is not suffering anymore.

Through a hedge backwards

a dog that has been enjoying the weather...investigating neglected corners of the garden.

So she had a 'face wash' and then got to play with the towel as well.

Now though, she'd be soaked if she went in the corners.
Finally, we have had enough rain which should put out the fires in the forests near to us. They have been threatening the village down the road.

Watching dog

Pepper...

on duty keeping the pigeons from eating the grass seed. Very subtly hiding so they don't know she is there til she bursts out the door.

dangers of playing with the dog

moaning monday?
Well, even though I took this on macro setting, the bruise from the broken blood vessel can just be seen. Believe me it was worse, but I put arnica cream on it.

I was playing with Pepper and 2 little friends who visited on Sunday. I had Pepper do her 'party piece' which is to catch the ball that has been balanced on her forehead or just on her nose in front of her eyes. She is good at it, but sometimes it gets away from her and one mad dash to catch it also caught my hand on her tooth...oww.

It has happened before, on a finger which hurts worse, so it is really my own fault.

well no beading

In spite of plans and desires, I did no beading. I spent most of the day form filling, bank visiting and bank revisiting with even more documents and more form filling and post office visiting.

Oh, and I bought some bits and pieces like masking tape, a charity shop net curtain, and other strange combinations of items for the Masterclass I am doing at the Festival of Quilts.

So, you get a photo of one of the other things I made on Wednesday when I was Copper Dragoning.

A nest for a thunderstruck dog.

If she is under something like this, especially if I make it for her when she is worried, she stops trembling at the thunder and goes to sleep for a while.

Well, at least it is safer than when she used to try to hide under the ironing board!

A good time was had by all

We got up twirly in the morning and were at the seaside before the park ranger opened the carpark gates. So, had a lovely quiet time of it before it got crowded.

Pepper refused to give up on having the ball thrown into the sea so she could swim out to get it and repeat...repeat...repeat. tonight she is exhausted and can hardly move!

It was a very lovely day.

Featured Blog

Here's another blog I am enjoying. It is 365 Happy Things Project. Lynn Krawczyk is posting something which makes her smile everyday in 2010. Although some of the posts are of things she has seen outside or photos of buildings, alot of them are of bits and pieces she has in her home.

I think this might be a good idea. At first you might wonder just how you could do 365 things. But actually, part of the reason we keep little trinkets and knic-knacs is because they give us pleasure or because we remember someone when we see them.

I went to look for a photo of one of my happy things, but stopped when I saw this.

My friend Pepper in the warm sunshine.

What makes you smile?

Lynn also has an ongoing "photo essay" called Where I Stand. As she says, it "examines the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell." Every Sunday a new photo is posted on her blog.

Does it give you some good ideas?

Inspiration Monday

A bit Silly

This photo is from sometime back, but Pepper still does this. It makes me laugh!

I would like to use the idea for getting the placement right to do a dragon wallowing on a pile of jewels, but the dog is so black, it is hard to tell where the lines should go.

Any ideas?

inspiration - up VERY close

The Fast Friday Challenge this past month was based on Micro inspired art. Looking at small parts of things very close and changing the scale. We are also to use paint effects.

I am very behind, what with one thing and another, but here is a start on mine, based on microphotographs of agates and other crystals. I started this last night. At the moment, no paint effects or stitch, but there are layers of torn tissue paper which have been applied with acrylic wax. I am trying to get the translucent quality. I did some similar design work back in the day for C+G design principles. It was when the design principles were split up by themes...this was my "landscape" ..stretching it as always! I figured that rocks and stones go to make up the landscape and decided to look very close in stead of at a distance.

Today, as is probably true for most people, was taken up with baking. My husband even got in on it. He decided to make a Christmas pudding himself this year. We are trying an idea from the Internet of steaming in the slow cooker. Smells good round here, but I am tired.

Oh, and there was the matter of a broken tooth, for which I am grateful to have had happen today when the dentist and his crew had not yet gone home! So, he put a temporary bit on, which I hope lasts till the proper appointment...in FEB!

Parting shot:

We started to put presents under the tree. Pepper remembers and loves the game of taking the paper off her present. We put hers under there and promptly she took up the guard post. It is the round wrapped tin with dog biscuits. Well, the edible Christmas card had to be put up on a branch! She was nearly under the tree!

She has been hanging out with me in the kitchen all day in case there was something to lick or a bit of apple peel or whatever.

Special Weekend continues

Today our friends Dennis and Aimee stopped by church in a surprise visit. They have been living in Dubai since last June and have been missed much. Aimee is the one who helped me with the modelling of the Bernina Gowns since they were near her size.

They were on their way to somewhere else, but since we stood outside talking after everything was closed up and beyond when I knew the automatic dinner control had finished at home, I said just come have dinner with us. I thought there would be enough to go round. Besides, there was plenty of the lovely Birthday carrot cake my husband had made. I also had baked one of the huge marrows from the garden filled with a made up in my head sort of filling.

So they came! It was great to catch up with them and hear what it is like to live in the desert. And in 45-50°C heat!

However, I never thought to take photos. But they gave us some dates, and so that will have to suffice for something to look at. (They are much better than the kind we get here at Christmas, which have the texture of eating dried out scarab beetles...not that I have eaten scarab beetles, but you know what I mean.)

And now

for fun, you can see Pepper, yesterday, break dancing on the lounge carpet whilst playing with my husband's hankies. She pinches them out of the pile of laundry when we bring it down to start the washing. She makes a game of trying to get you to come get them off her. Then she lays on her back flopping back and forth from side to side and throwing them up with her paws.

When you get to doing the whites, you have to go searching round the house for where she has put them all.

Applesauce

Since I went to town today and was unsuccessful in getting a few things I thought I would need in Houston, I won't bore you with that story.But I will show you what I did on Monday.

A few weeks ago, my husband picked all the apples and pears and then pruned the trees. Well, that was when I was rather busy with a micro-teach in my teaching training course. We quite like pears when they are still crisp, so they went fast. But, the bag of apples just sat there. Monday, I decided I better pick them over and cut some up before the fruit flies took over the house. I put the ones I thought would keep in the fridge and the ones that had spots, etc. I cut up and used the good parts for stewed apples. (I just put a bit of salt to bring out the flavour, like you would veg and that's how we like them. No sugar.)

Then, I decided to make a chicken stew in the slow cooker. I knew it would be too much for the two of us, but we have some friends who had moved house a few days earlier. Their house needs a lot of fixing up, so I thought it might save them from making a meal or two. So I took most of it to them.

Anyway, while I was cutting up stuff for the stew, the apples turned rather into mush. So, we have applesauce instead. I have been saving pickle jars...in theory so I can put dye in them, but so far that day has not come! So, while the apples were hot, I put most of it into 2 pickle jars. I thought, if they seal, good, we can have it later in the winter. If not, we can have it now. And lo and behold a while later I heard the satisfying click of one and then the other jar lid sealing! Cool. I had 2 labels left from ages ago when I used to do this sort of thing more often. I think I might get some fruit like plums from the market when I get back from Houston and cook up a few more stewed fruit jars. I can make fruit crumble for a pudding now and then in the winter.

Tonight the clocks go back. As it is less than 2 weeks til Bonfire Night (5th November), they are now selling fireworks. And of course, people are already letting them off. So, my not-so-little friend is in here hiding under the ironing board. I told her that wasn't very safe, but she didn't believe me. Here Pepper is in less worrying times.