you do not air your dirty laundry in public.

I felt like watching some trashy TV on netflix, so I started watching Army Wives.

It's surprisingly hard to watch, actually. A lot of it is way overdone and ridiculous but there are some awfully realistic scenes. Basically anything doing with deployment really hits home right now. I know for Ax and I it's different, and it's different because we're Navy and not Army.

But I'll be damned if I haven't had some tear-filled moments.  And not many things make me cry.

I really miss Ax. It's only a few more months. I can do this. I will not quit or let it get the best of me.


Simon is currently sleeping with his nose smooshed into my thigh and keeps giving me a dirty look because he can't breathe. aaaannnddd he just farted. gross. ughhh.

I am trying to repair my mom's raggedy ann doll that her foster dog...ah...mugged. Poor Ms. Ann was decapitated and then lost half her face. Her dress was also torn, but it's so shredded I can't fix it. New fabric is on the way to make her a new dress. I'm kind of excited--I've never made any kind of clothing before! I'm still a bit apprehensive about giving Ms. Ann a new face. The original face was embroidered, and I've never done that either. Good thing I have a ton of muslin to work with. haa.

Other than that, not too much is happening around here. It rained for a solid 36 hours, which is...interesting. I have never seen it rain that hard for that long.

Time for some tea and then more puppy cuddles. as long as Simon doesn't fart more. p.u.!

Sprechen Sie English??

Ax asked me for a quick tutoring session in German, since one of his shipmates is fluent and he just wants to dick around with the guy once in a while. But the kicker is I had to write it down phonetically. VERY very difficult! I gave him the super basics like counting to 10 (and how to say 11, 12, 13, 14, etc.), yes/no, how to ask where the toilet is, how to ask someone's name (and say his name), how to introduce someone, and of course, how to order a beer. LOL.

He'll butcher the hell out of the language even with my phonetic spellings, but hopefully this guy has a sense of humor and can understand at least a little bit of what Ax says.


With that said, I wanted to show the rest of the boat blanket I was making for him. It's done! He loves it! I think it's utter shit but it's also my first completed quilt and full of flaws. I will say it is SUPER freakin' comfy though. If we still lived in WI, that could probably be an emergency blanket for the car and you'd never freeze under it. Wool, cotton, fleece, and flannel.

My husband agonized over the layout for hours. I'm not even joking. Here is the top that he picked out. If you'll notice, there is a row that is backwards...I ripped the seams and fixed it. Someone was quite agitated about it--BUT he helped me piece the rows together so he can't complain!

Because Ax is so damned tall, I added another row. The very top row in this picture are extra blocks he didn't use, flipped around to the "wrong" side with some embroidery-ish stitching on them in the square pattern. There was some concern on his end because now the cornerstones don't line up but I told him to shush or I'd cut his legs off. HA.

Here it is laid out on top of the fleece "batting" (two throw blankets sewn together for length--5$ total at walmart). The excess length is folded under to help keep his feets warm. Ax has shitty circulation in his feet (despite being entirely healthy otherwise), so hopefully this helps!

I hand quilted the blanket; the couch became the workstation so I could watch netflix and have a comfy seat...our dog, Simon, thought the part I wasn't sewing on at the time was a great pillow.

All quilted, now it's laid out on the living room floor to be trimmed and bound!

In addition to being a pillow, it also makes an excellent doggie playmat?? (sigh.)

The first two edges bound; Ax picked out the flannel backing. It's a baby blue/brown/gold zigzag. It bunched up on me a little bit as I was quilting, poo.

Binding the rest on the machine!

Having the feeling that submarine laundry facilities are rough on fabric, each edge of binding has three separate stitch lines. Also in this photo is the kind of "U" shape I quilted.

After two washings and dryings, here's the finished boat blanket! It's somewhere between a lap size and a twin size. We have a twin size bed in the guest room and it doesn't quite cover the entire mattress.


And there you have it. My first completed project as a quilter, and the reason I haven't updated since the beginning of the month--every spare moment was spent working on this! I have Ax's OTHER quilt (a queen size, roughly) spread out on the living room floor right now, trying to baste it together. Simon thinks this is also his personal bed and chewing space...oy. and it's not like he's on the other side from where I'm working. No, no. RIGHT next to where I'm stitching. Or he steps on the thread. Or he tackles me trying to get me to play.

DOG. Please stop. go chew your bone quietly ON THE COUCH OR SOMETHING PLEASE KTHX. lol. He's a goofball and just loves his mommy, so I don't really get too mad.


Before deployment started Ax and I went to the beach. We walked probably a good two miles, collecting sea shells and people watching. There was an adorable setter running around digging holes and playing in the surf. I'll find a nice day and take Simon just to see what he does when presented with moving water (instead of bath water or rain water) and sand. We didn't take him with originally since we weren't sure if the beach was a dog-friendly one or not. Anyway, it was a great time with him. We made sure to do something special before he left.

So here Simon and I sit (well, he's laying but whatever). I gave up on this queen quilt for now--the minute I go sit back on the floor and work on basting he'll find a way to be exactly where I need to be. LOL. Tomorrow if it's not raining we'll go for a walk and maybe to the pet store to get a special treat for him. For now, more South Park and maybe I'll work on my Super Mario Galaxy puzzle my brother bought me for xmas.

A fresh start

For both this blog and my sewing room. I revamped the way this blog looks so it's not so...dreary. And you should be able to use RSS feeds to follow me now. If it doesn't work, let me know!

At my parents' house I was stuck sewing wherever there was space...so either my bedroom, the living room, or the sunroom. Here in GA, I have an entire room for sewing, thanks to my hubby! :)

Since the rotary cutter accident a little while ago, I've taken a break from cutting and piecing new projects to focus on some other stuff. Namely, rearranging the room so that I can navigate it easier, and cleaning up my fabric stash so it's not so wrinkly (amazing how stuff gets smooshed when you move!) and is easier to peruse. I think my next project will be making a cushion for my chair, it's hurting my butt! haha.

I took some pictures with my phone along the way. May as well upload them! We rent our house currently, so there's not much I can do with the boring walls or gross carpeting (I HATE carpeting). I still have some pictures I want to hang...I just need to find cheapish frames to fit them. :p

This is a shot of my finger now that the cut has mostly healed. I have to wear a bandaid when we go out, or else it looks silly that I have every nail except that one painted. Plus it snags on stuff sometimes. Owies. :( ROTARY CUTTERS ARE SHARP YOU GUYS. No joke.

When I'm in here during the day, Simon enjoys sitting at the window and watching the world go by. He cries when the kids next door are out playing basketball. Today he's enjoying the nice breeze by sticking his nose against the screen and sniffing away. :)

Here's my very first sewing machine, thanks to Ax! It was a christmas present, along with the table it sits on. I had to make a point of mentioning that I would need a table to put the sewing machine on, or sewing on it would be very difficult. Anyway, it's a Brother CS-6000i. So far so good! It's a happy little machine. I should name it. Hmm.

This is a different angle of the table--if you came into the room this is how you'd see it. That's a giant pile of scrap fabric I ironed last night. Now it's in a shoebox! Anyway, that's the chair that is hurting my toosh. And next to it is a 3-drawer cart. The top drawer is "in progress" stuff--I actually have some squares cut from when I was in college that I think I'm going to do something with...sometime. Yeah. Sometime. Second drawer is the "fat quarter" drawer. Some of the medium scraps are also folded and put in there. The bottom drawer has my scrap shoebox, paper for doodles or notes, and a roll of tape. Strangely, I've used scotch tape before during quilting. ha!

My meager fabric stash...although it's much neater now than it was! The mess in that corner is gone; I shoved our file cabinet over there and another 3-drawer cart filled with other craft supplies. There's two more shelves to the wooden structure as well, but they're mostly knickknacks and the like. 

This was Simon last night during my ironing, chewing on his bone. He does that once in a while...he'll go from hanging on the couch with Ax to coming in here and chewing on one of his toys. Then he'll wander back to Ax, and back to me, etc. It's kinda cute, like he's trying to split his time with us. haha.

Some of the "not quite fat quarter" pieces I was talking about. And three real-rabbit-fur pelts that Matt had, which I have NO idea what to do with. The small box on the table holds all my Christmas fabric. Which is a surprising amount, since I don't even like the holiday that much. 

And the scrap pile after ironing. Ah. So much nice pressed fabric. The bottom-most layers were still warm this morning when I went to put them away. Probably because they were sitting on the rabbit fur. Mmm, warm fabric. :D

Well, I think that's it for now. I have some trash to take out, a dishwasher to unload, a bed to strip of its sheets to be washed, and a dog to take for a walk.