A couple of years ago, we rescued Pete.

He’d been picked up as a stray, but was so sweet and cuddly.    One of his transition issues was that he loves to hunt, and considers every plush toy to be prey.  Couple that with an insatiable desire to always lay on something soft and  my seat cushions for the furniture on the screen porch didn’t stand a chance.   I think what happened is he was trying to get the cushions through the hole between the arm and the seat so he could lay on them.   Since he doesn’t have hands, he was using his teeth.  Once he reached stuffing, he was in heaven and confused.   I can just see the thoughts in his head, “Do I lay on it?   No, I need to kill it!   No wait, lay on it!   No, Kill it!”  He does the same thing when he has two toys on the ground in front of him.  He’ll pick one up in his mouth, then see the one of the floor.   So he’ll drop the one in his mouth to pick up the one of the floor and then see the one he just dropped.   He’ll do this loop over and over until he finally picks one and runs off, forgetting the left toy for the moment.

The cushions for one of the chairs was beyond repair.   Half the “innards” were gone.   The other 3 just had small holes from being pulled to the floor to lay on.   For a while, every dog bed suffered the same fate.    I’ll admit it was frustrating.

If he weren’t such a snuggle bum,  I’m sure I would have pulled my hair out.  The problem is he’s just so dang cute!

Yep, that's Pete, curled up on his Daddy's pillow. How can you resist that?

After a fun day of playing in the yard. Yes that's mud caked all over him.

Then I discovered that Pete can tell the difference between cushions.   He’s never destroyed a bed pillow.   We cured him of the couch pillows quickly.   And miraculously, when I made a new dog bed, he didn’t chew it either.   He obviously respects and appreciates my work.

So, I decided it was time to recover the cushions on the screen porch.   I found the outdoor fabric.

Then I created a pattern, removed the cushion inserts (for 3, I bought new foam for the 4th), and created some new seat cushions.  At DH’s suggestions, I added ties to hold them bottom cushion to the chair to hopefully prevent Mr. Pete from deciding to put these on the floor.   He’s already hopped up on the chairs and expressed his approval of the new cushions (ie.  he took a nap).

Cora looks out to see what the fuss it all about.

I think they turned out well.   The only issue I had is that they aren’t quite as taut as I would like.  I think next time I recover cushions like these, I need to only allow for 1/4″ seam allowance but still take the 1/2″.   I think that would have pulled the small amount of slack out.

As part of this project, I made new seat cushions for the chairs that were out on the deck which never had cushions.  They’re a little smaller than I wanted, but DH is happy with them.

I’m so excited to have new cushions.   I think that means it’s time to BBQ!

I’ve been working on a very special quilt for a very special couple who is going to have a very special baby.   If that describes you, please stop reading.   You’re not supposed to see this yet.

I started with a pile of this fabric. . . . .

Then I got bold and decided to do my first applique project.    So the fabric above, started to look like this. . .

The pattern called for machine applique’ing the circles, but I didn’t like the way it came out, so I did these by hand.  Once I  began to lay out the center of the quilt,  it started to look like this . . .

Now the center is done!   I’m changing up the pattern a bit.   It called for tan squares to be used in the outer border, but I didn’t like the sound of that.   So instead, I came up with a  different solution.

I think this is much better than tan squares.  Don’t you?   It’ll have a chocolate brown binding as well.     I just have to finish the applique for the outer border and then I can finish piecing the top.

I’m not sure how I’m going to quilt this one yet.   It’ll definitely be the biggest piece I’ve tried to quilt on my own.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back in January,  my mom had a mini stroke  and lost part of her vision.  Since then, it’s been a daily struggle  for her, between dealing with not seeing the way she did before,  extremely high blood pressure, and just trying to get through normal day to day activities.   My mom’s a great christian lady and she finds scripture very comforting .

I decided to make a small quilt for her.  It’s not a full lap size quilt, but it’s really to big to be a wall hanging.   It’s got scripture blocks scattered around it.   I think she’ll find it comforting to snuggle around her. I hadn’t finished the binding when I took this picture but you get the idea.

I did straight line quilting around the blocks.   I didn’t want the quilting to distract from the scriptures.  I’m pretty sure she’s going to love this.   Now to get it delivered!