These last 10 days, I have been concentrating on finishing all the blocks for Solstice Dream. Last night, I finished the Curvy Caterpillar block.



I rather enjoyed stitching the tiny caterpillar and I am thinking I may add some caterpillars and bees to the borders.
This afternoon, I stitched all my Solstice Dream blocks together. The quilt is now 24 1/2" by 30 1/2".
I really like all the blocks but I think my 3 favorites are Pretty in Pink, Curvy Caterpillar and the Marsh blocks.



I have the top border prepped and really to appliqué and embellish. I am beginning to think I might be able to finish the quilt by November 1st.

I woke up this morning to bright sunny skies and a beautiful fall day in Phoenix. I turned on the computer and read a blog posted by my friend, Sandy.

Sandy wonders - "What will this post on my not-widely-read blog accomplish? Nothing, I’m afraid. Only our government representatives can pass laws to assure help for the mentally ill or to get automatic guns out of private hands. We absolutely must push for them to do exactly that."

I often wonder the same thing when I call, write or email my elected representatives. What can one phone call do? What can one letter do? Probably not much BUT many calls, letters and emails to our elected Congressional representatives does work, maybe not right away but persistent pressure DOES WORK! I decided to support Sandy's blog post by posting to my not-widely-read blog.

How many mass shootings will it take for the United States Congress to pass common sense gun control legislation? When will the United States Congress stand up to the NRA? When is enough really enough?

I took a week off from stitching September Fresh Cut BOM, I was able to finished blocks 9 and 10 of Solstice Dream.
Nest Building

I always go a bit crazy stitching drizzle stitches, I love to just pack them in.


I fell in love with the colors of Morning on the Seine silken pearl which was used to stitch the cast on bullions and crested chain around the cotton appliqués on the petals.



Just had to post latest picture of Lillie. She is getting bigger everyday. Lillie is 17 weeks old and now about 25 pounds. She is getting too big for a small dog bed but she did manage to curl up small enough to fit this morning.

Yes, this might be a problem. I definitely think this is a problem as I do not know where this wire came from!



Do you think this angelic face might be responsible for the current problem?


Katie and Molly vote GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!

I have been stitching quite a bit lately, I have more projects started than normal and I want to finish Solstice Dream before the end of 2017. I finished stitching Woven Petals and Pollen Gathering. I now have more than half of the blocks are completed.


The woven petal block has feathered chain stitch in the leaves which adds an interesting look to the leaves. I sewed blocks one through eight together, these blocks are 18" by 24".

The girls got groomed on Monday which is always a good time for a poodle photo shoot. It was not easy to get 2 poodles posed and I was thinking posing 3 poodles might be impossible. I actually got some great pictures of Katie, Molly and Lillie.

2 black poodles and 1 white poodle equals a poodle Oreo cookie!

The girls were amazingly cooperative of posing for me however Lillie did decide that she needed to climb over Molly.


Lillie is now 15 weeks old, she seems to get bigger each day. She weighs 22 pounds and is 15 1/2" at the shoulders. Lillie is a sweet puppy and keeps Katie and Molly on their toes.

Trying to stay on track, finished block 6 of Solstice Dream quilt. The block is 12' by 12" finished size.

This blocks used a variety of threads which always adds interest to the finished block. Rousseau Ric Rac is appliquéd in place then thorns, pistil stitches, were stitched with Painter's Rousseau pearl cotton. Painter's Kadnisky shimmer floss adds a beautiful shimmer to the bird wings and tail. New to me was the Feathered Chain stitch on the 4 larger leaves, adding a small in the chain really added a lovely touch to the leaves.

Turkey work is never my favorite stitch, I did preserve and stitched the 4 bee bodies using Thread Gathers Sheep's Silk. I used a Bunka brush to fluff up the cut stitches. The Bunka brush is a notion for turkey work which makes the fluff so much easier.

I have not posted for a while, web site needed a major update plus I have a new puppy.

Lillie was born on June 4, 2017 and I brought her to my home on Saturday, August 12th when Lillie was almost 10 weeks old.
Chrissy, Lillie's mother, is Molly's litter mate, so Molly and Lillie are aunt and niece. Molly had a tough time excepting Lillie as a new sister but after a 5 day snit, Molly and Lillie became friends. After 5 weeks, Molly and Lillie are now almost inseparable.



Katie, who turned 11 years old on September 2, 2017, leaves most of the puppy sitting duties to Molly but still has accepted Lillie as a permanent member of the family.

I attended the second class for the cactus collage today. I spent many hours this past week trying to finish 9 of the cactus.

Thursday night, I bonded the 9 cacti to the background. I also traced and bonded over 30 pads for the prickly pear which will be the full length of the right side of the quilt. Today, at class I cut out all the prickly pear pads an a few more flowers for embellishment. This weekend, I am hoping to get the prickly pear cactus bonded to the background. The left side of the quilt has a large saguaro cactus so I still have quite a bit of work to complete.

Friday, I attended a Cactus Collage class at the Bernina Connection.
This is the quilt made by our teacher, Mary Lewkowitz.

The class is using the pattern Collage Cactus Sampler by Laura Heine. Before class I pieced the background for the cactus collage. The background is abut 46" by 63".



Laura's collage technique is a bit different, she uses Steam A Seam 2 which I dislike. I last used Steam A Seam about 6 years ago, I stopped using Steam A Seam because I thought it gummed up my needle plus I think it makes wool appliqué difficult to needle. I can say that my opinion of Steam A Seam has not changed, in fact I found the new improved Steam A Seam awful. Since I purchased 10 yards of Steam A Seam, I will continue using it for this pattern. The new Steam A Seam is more gummy and IMHO more difficult to work with.

The first step was to trace each cactus onto Pattern Ease which is a non-woven material. An appliqué pressing sheet is placed over the cactus tracing, then the Individual pieces are cut out and placed according to the pattern. After the entire cactus is built up on the appliqué pressing sheet, it is pressed to make one complete unit. The completed cactus unit is then placed on some parchment paper. After all cactus units are completed, they will be pressed to the background.

This weekend I was able to complete 5 cactus units which is good start but still leaves a lot of work yet to do.