Dog Softie #1

I am very happy with my first stuffed dog softie.  The design is from Designs by Juju. 
He is only a day old and already has his eyes open! What a super dog...
The design has been waiting for a couple of weeks as I finished a long project.  The dog is made entirely in the embroidery hoop.  The five hoopings include one for the arms, the legs, the ears, the bandana, and the main body.  After the embroidery machine stitches the dog together, the dog is trimmed, turned right side out, stuffed, and the opening closed by hand stitching. Juju includes very detailed instructions with photos so each step is explained fully.  My dog is made with fleece and cotton fabric. It is always fun to complete one of her designs.

Blue Ridge Beauty is 10 years old!

This Blue Ridge Beauty quilt has been under construction since May 2010 when Bonnie Hunter was the instructor for the Kaw Valley Quilter's Guild in Lawrence, Kansas. I gathered all the fabics and started the quilt in the workshop but never worked on it again until March.  Then came the coronavirus and the need for many face masks and I was interrupted.  So a couple of weeks ago I began the quilt in earnest and with the goal of completing the quilt top. It really isn't quite finished as I still need to stitch the borders.  But the hard part is finished.  The quilt is made with 168 blocks.  The surprising thing is that it is the exact same block made 168 times with lights and darks. It was so simple and so complex because the blocks had exact placement of the lights and darks.  Making the first six blocks seemed like a snap until I looked closely to see that four of them were not correct. This really was a test of perseverance.  More to come after the quilter does her magic.