It’s a Shelby Weekend!!

See this cute girl? She has me laughing every time I turn around!

Wait, you thought I was talking about LISA?! Well, yes, she has me laughing non-stop too, and she is more than extremely cute, but this cute little Shelby dog is the Bees Knees, Y’all!

I’ve always been a big dog girl. From the time I was little, a dog wasn’t a dog unless it was at least a lab.

Cocker Spaniels were only pseudo-dogs because when we had one it took too much grooming and foo foo to be a REAL dog --- ((You know I’m saying this tongue in cheek, because I love anything that barks or meows but ---))

For a while when the boys were little, we even had dachshunds – two of them. Very sweet, but VERY LOW! However, they were fun to take camping—they’d hunker down into the bottom of our sleeping bags and keep our feet warm ;c) We loved those dogs!

One of them, however, had a penchant for the bathroom trash can, and if you weren’t careful to close that door, you’d come home and find its contents, including any discreetly discarded feminine products shredded and scattered all over the house. UGH! Those were some fun times!

That was our LAST stint with small dogs. The boys weren’t little any more, and we moved back to bigger dogs. Since then we’ve had our Buddy, the golden retriever we lost last year --- and he was with us over 11 years. And we’ve got Sadie who is medium sized, and as sweet as can be. From what we can gather she is a yellow lab/beagle cross. Doesn’t matter, she is all sugar! We think she is about 6 years old now, we adopted her in 2007 from the rescue kennel when we still lived in Columbia, SC.

So how’s this for a bunch of background ground laying? Where is this leading? Sadie is NOT a small dog --- and in walks Shelby like she OWNS the place. AND Sadie goes all stiff and shifty eyed. She is slightly SCARED of Shelby. And it is so funny to watch.

Yesterday we were eating lunch in the dinning room, and Sadie lays just off the dining room floor onto the living room carpet, just watching. Shelby goes over to her to give her a sniff, in that Shelby “I OWN THE WORLD” way…and Sadie looks up and to the side completely keeping Shelby OUT of her line of sight. As if to say…”If I can’t see you, you aren’t really here…..” It was HILARIOUS!

SO what did we get done yesterday? LOADS!

Lisa is working on a commissioned quilt --- a triple Irish chain variation from clothes –the clothing belonged to the mother of the woman who ordered the quilts – 1 for each of her daughters. There is everything from cotton to linen to poly blends, to flannel, and I think I even saw some double knit in here. What an awesome way to capture the life of the woman that wore these items! Quilt Police be Danged!

The quilt pattern also replicates one that was in the family years ago, so it has special meaning. What special memory quilts these are both going to be!

She set up her featherweight and it’s been humming along!

And as for me --- this might NOT look like much --- but this bin holds the makings of nearly 60 kits for the cruise NEXT WEEK! WHOOOOWHOOOO! That’s double the amount of kits I took last time, because we have double the Cruisers on this shin dig! The only thing missing in this bin is the chocolate! :cD

I was going to assemble everything ahead of time, but it was going to take too much room to pack it…so it’s all in here…including nearly 180 charm packs!! We’ll get them all assembled ON the cruise.

I had my Accuquilt Studio going like mad yesterday….and let me tell you…if I had to cut all these layer cakes into charms by rotary cutter, I think I would be dead by now.

I know I hemmed and hawwed about getting a die cut system. My biggest concern besides the cost was WASTE. But after seeing it used several times, having it available to me in my classes in Cordova, Alaska – the light bulb dawned. The "GO" was too small for me. The "Baby" was even smaller, and wouldn't work with the volume I go through. I needed the BIG GUNS.

I bought dies in all the strip sizes I use most: 1.5”, 2”, 2.5”, 3.5” ((And I bought the 5” squares die for cutting these layer cakes…it worked great)) There is really ZERO waste when cutting strips. No more than there would be with regular rotary cutting. From there I can use my specialty rulers, my easy angle ruler, companion angle ruler, tri recs rulers, what have you from these strips. I can even layer the fabric dark to light with right sides together so they are ready to use my specialty rulers on them.

And if there is waste? I’d maximize it by having larger margins of waste, and feed the left-over pieces that are at least 3/4” to 1.5” wide into my strings….strings are NOT waste! :cD

I was cutting through 16 layer cake squares in one pass yesterday, stacked 8 layers twice, side by side ((two stacks of 8)) so I was getting 128 5" squares in every pass. That's fast!

TODAY?? It’s another Shelby Day today too…..the more the merrier. I’m just down here in the basement working away anyhow, and it’s sure nice to have the company! Shelby and Lisa will be showing up some time this morning, and the quilting in the basement continues!