Post #23: A dog, a tent and some pillows on Pinterest

     A while back a friend of mine turned me on to the sights, delights, and sometimes frights of Pinterest. Well, I sometimes hesitate to call her a friend, (just kidding), at least in those moments when it seems I can get nothing done because I've wasted half of a perfectly good afternoon doing absolutely nothing but perusing those very same sights, delights, and yes, even the frights, on whichever electronic doodad my hands and eyes seem to be attached to at that particular moment, provided, of course, that they are not full of fiber and beads and wire and whatnot.
     But a tirade about the ins and outs, woes and fros of the internet universe are not what I came here to share, so let me, albeit finally, get right to it. This is really about one of my 10ThousandProjects. What I stumbled upon on one of those afternoons was something that I subsequently did "Pin" to a board so I could reference it later. It was something that I am sure brought about one of those "V-8 smack-in-the-forehead moments" to many because it is soooooo simple I can hardly believe I've never thought of this myself.

     DH and I have no little ones running around, except four-legged little Alice, so the sleepover cushion idea shown in the picture was not my thing, but I could imagine how comfy they might be if you folded them to fit your needs,  to sit on the floor and lean back against the sofa, for instance. We could use these for extra floor seating while watching TV or sitting around with friends, knitting and relaxing.

     In case you are new to this blog, now's your chance to Meet Alice. 

Oh, did I mention that she likes to burrow? 

     Yes, she's in there. Under there. The truth is, we are one or two Ragg Quilts short for all the rooms in our house, so we have to keep moving them around to accommodate her. She's a riot, a regular riot, kind of like Alice Kramden from "The Honeymooners," although we're not too crazy about Ralph Kramden, because all he did was scream at everybody all the time, but that's a whole other subject; but my Alice, yes, she is a riot.  If her quilt is not on the couch at the appointed moment she will dig at the cushions to get underneath them. The only problem is the cushions are fully attached, so I am always alert and somehow manage to bring her a "blankie" right when she needs it. 

     Well, back to the pillows. So, a month or two or three go by, I really don't know how long since I saw the pillows-sewn-together-on-Pinterest. I'm still in my cleaning out phase which began in the forced winter fibernation of 2012, and I'm reaching into the back of the guest bedroom closet, waaaay in the back, all the way to the right, under and behind the clothes hanging there, faaaar out of sight, barely within reach of the pads of my fingertips, so much so that I have to go get a broom to assist or risk knocking all of the clothes off their hangers, and then, finally, (yes!), with a stretch, there, I've got it...it's a small black suitcase, and it is FULL and fully zipped up. 

     Wow! Just what was inside? This thing is pretty heavy for its size. Maybe there was something really special in here, some long-lost treasure I had forgotten about, or maybe just something small...like maybe a winning lottery ticket! Yeah, that's the ticket! (Well, a girl can dream, can't she)? Well, as it turned out, I had hit the jackpot, a HUGE jackpot, in fact! I had just hit the Pillowcase Bonanza! I must say it was really strange to find these at this time, after seeing the pillows-sewn-together-on-Pinterest so recently, since the pillowcases had been packed in that suitcase for a period of time that exceeded 6 years and had survived many moves during that time without ever once being opened. 

     So, I got out all of the pillowcases, washed and dried them, chose the ones I wanted to use, sewed them together (easiest project ever!), filled all five pillowcases with five pillows, respectively, and folded the whole thing up in the corner of the living room where it sat for a while.

   One day I was in the room designated as my "office" when Alice came in and couldn't find a place to park herself near her "mommy" so I got up to get her a quilt. Well, you know the rest...no sooner did I bring it into my office than she took permanent possession of what I now refer to as the "Pillow-Tent." This simple, silly little project turned out to be like the "Castro Convertible" of dog beds. As long as I leave it folded over itself, she now has a daybed if she lays on top, and for those times when she wants it a little darker to get a better nap, she climbs right in between the two layers of pillows. If Fido was Queen of the Pillows, then surely Alice does reign supreme as Queen of the Tents, don't you think? 

Alice is in there, comfy as can be. She's just happy to be near her mommy.

See, there she is.

The Convertible Pillow-Tent works double-duty.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post # 22: Holly Berries for Holy Bear

     Here it is...I actually finished the collar I had promised for Holly Berry. If you're wondering about the title of my blog today, it turns out that some of the younger members of Holly Berry's extended family have trouble pronouncing her name, as is the case with young folk sometimes, so occasionally she has been called Holy Bear. Well, we met just the other day, and I've got to tell you, either adorable name suits her just fine. She is one cute wiggle-butt, and I mean that in the most endearing way! What I don't need to tell you, is that I am a self-proclaimed dog-addict. I love dogs. I always have. I always will. It is not by accident that I end up involved in groups of fiber-art type people and almost all of them either have dogs or cats, or take in foster pets, or volunteer at the Humane Society, or have farm animals like chickens, goats, llamas, alpacas, & who knows what else. They say like attracts like. Fiber. Fur. You get it. But dogs are my first love. Enough said. (Sorry DH)!
 
     As I revealed in my last post, the final collar ended up looking quite different than the way I had originally laid it out (and there must have been about fifteen other variations in-between).

On the left is her original collar.On the right is the design I began with.

I ditched the white beads and added some shells I had found at the beach that I painted with iridescent paint.

 The leaves and stems on my fig tablecloth just begged for some playtime. I guess I have a bit of an attention problem. Maybe it's more of a distraction problem. Actually, it's not a problem at all. Hmm. Smile.

 The night I started on the collar I had just hemmed another pair of jeans for DH. The pieces of denim I had cut from the bottom of each leg were sitting on my table, and once again I thought this would make a fantastic base for a dog collar. If Dear Hubby was taller I guess I would have had to come up with another solution, but I love denim for this purpose and this is simply the way it was supposed to be. I also wanted to add some leather, which I cut and braided, and I added the shells for a Florida influence. The flowers are crocheted in cotton, and it is non-mercerized, so it is not ultra-shiny, and will not wear as well as the mercerized type. It will fade and it will get fuzzy. I've tried these out on Alice and I actually like the effect that age and wear has on it. It's kind of like how it's acceptable that your favorite pair of jeans fades and breaks in and wears over time...it just makes it better, even though it makes them look older.

 I could go on and on adding things, like these size 11/0 pearl white beads, till the cows come home. Sometimes I don't know when to stop or when to stop changing my mind, but it's all part of a fun and interesting process. I've spent most of my life following directions, orders. road-maps, signs, charts, graphs, and other people and their ideas, but lately I've been breaking out of that mold and I've really been enjoying mixing things up a bit: still using all of my organized charts and graphs in the crocheted flowers and the beadwork and knitting that I so love to do, but now adding a dimension of play that I had not fully allowed myself to experience before. THIS IS FUN!

     At this point I was auditioning different crystal and bead embellishments, pinning them in place temporarily until I could make up my mind. I eventually traded out the square crystal for a Swarovski margarita. 

It seemed to me that the colors needed a bit more oomph and then it hit me...Holy Bear! Holly Berry needs some holly berries! Also, since all birds and dogs seem to love each other, I felt that Holy Bear should have a little bird sitting on her shoulder chirping away, waiting for her three eggs to hatch. See her little suede beak?

Here's Holly Berry, aka Holy Bear, posing with her mom, Deborah. 

It's not always easy to get a wiggle-butt dog to pose for the camera.  ;-)

 Isn't she cute? She's so darn cute I can blame her for my inability to decide which photos to include,

so I included almost all of them, and It's Holly Berry's Fault! 

I especially like how well her new collar coordinates with her mom's knitted jacket. 

Thanks Deborah, and thanks Holly Berry, for helping me to find my peace. I think you look beautiful in your new collar and I really enjoyed creating it.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post #21: Holly Berries for St. Patty's Day & Me, NOT Stuck in the Middle

   Here is a preview of a project I've been working on for Holly Berry, who is the medium-sized dog companion of a very talented fiber friend. If you've read my earlier posts you've probably seen some of my dear Alice's embellished collars that I've made for her. One day while at one of the four fiber-art-related groups I attend regularly, I felt the impulse to ask this friend what size her dog's neck was and if she had any old collars lying around that she could spare...and would she mind if I either built a new collar on top of it or took it apart to reuse the hardware? Of course, she said yes, brought it the following week, and I've been working on it (on & off) ever since.
   I recently started on this new jaunt in this, the middle of my middle-ish decade, nearing the center of what some would term my double-nickle year, that time which struck fear and horror on the faces of some who have gone before me, but, not me..oh, no. For me, it only brings a sense of boldness, of testing the waters, and I find myself signing myself up to do things that I may have time or inclination to do...or not. But I sign up to do it anyway. I question myself. But I do it anyway. What I'm referring to is deliberately following my instincts...listening to the spirit within me...going with my gut...leading with my heart...call it what you will I try hard, well, that's not exactly right...I relax into not second-guessing myself. Maybe deliberately wasn't exactly the right word, but then again, maybe it was, given all my past conditioning to "go against my gut." Anyway, many times these days I don't quench what I feel led to do, and boy, it feels great! I simply go ahead and make the commitment, not really knowing the direction this will lead.
   That's quite a switch for a former manufacturing planner and scheduler who had to know every last detail ahead of time and have everything worked out in advance. All of my boxes had to line up, my numbers had to add up, my squares had to be filled in, the lines had to be straight, etc. Then, wouldn't you know it? I decided to try quilting some years ago, and I loved it. It was the late-90's and I was sewing quilt tops on a machine and doing some hand quilting and some machine quilting, but mostly on the machine. It was so anal-retentive and precise, all of the lines were so neat and the measurements were so like my old planner job. Really, I'm not kidding. But I honestly have loosened up (ever so slightly, but I feel the top is about to blow off the volcano any second), and I'm enjoying my newly found playtime. All of the tight rules of perfection have boxed me in too closely and it is time to color out of the lines a bit. I NEVER did that as a child. It's about time I did. However, I don't wish to abandon all the rules, for they do have their right and just place in our physical world, for what good would any collar be to Holly Berry if it was only 10" long, even if it was the prettiest collar in the land? I promise, Holly Berry's new collar is the specified 15-1/2" from buckle-tip to  buckle-tip.
   The only problem my freedom has created is that now I tend to have an even harder time making decisions, always changing my mind, auditioning different colors and materials, trying new techniques. It seems I've gone from one extreme to the other. But I am also learning to be more patient with myself in the process, and that ain't so bad either. Maybe my rubber band will bounce back toward the middle again. Haha, the middle, kind of like me!

In these first nine photos, the top collar was her original collar. Of the other items, only the blue leather, the cream leather braid, and some of the crochet made it into the final collar, which is now complete. I will post pictures very soon; I just don't feel I should post them here until after Holly Berry and her faithful fiber-lovin' companion have seen it first.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post # 19: Fido's Ill-Fitting Furry Sweater and a Lumpy Bumpy Quilt

    
Sometimes it's good to be a hoarder. Really. Not the reality TV, over-the-top, jaw-dropping, eye-popping, gross-you-out sort of hoarding, not that kind, oh no! What I refer to instead is the good kind of hoarding, the kind where you have something you know you don't need, can't use, it simply doesn't work, yet for some unknown reason, you do not get rid of it, whatever the thing might happen to be.Then somehow, sometime later, it turns out there was a good reason to keep the item after all...a happy ending of sorts. That's what happened with these two things I made for our dog, Fido, a long time ago.

     When I first started knitting I went online and found this dog sweater pattern because Fido needed a new sweater. I chose this particular pattern because it seemed like the easiest and that was the scale by which I measured which project I should attempt, I was so new to knitting. It is a Lion Brand pattern and you can find it here: http://lionbrand.com/patterns/kff-dogSweater.html
This is the photo they provide, which shows up very nicely. It's a bit easier to see than in my photos with the black-on-black (not to mention my slow-to-improve photography skills). I used the Lion Brand Fun Fur and other Lion Brand yarn recommended in the pattern.

I have been unable to locate a picture of Fido in that darn sweater. It was huge on her. All I can tell you is she looked like a sad, soft, procupine or an overgrown hedgehog. Here's a picture of Fido in another outfit just to remind you of her sweet face. If I come across a pic of her in that sweater later I'll post it. That was one good dog. I surely do miss her.

Now, Fido was a much better model for the camera than Alice, but what do want for nothin' - your money back? It's almost as though she has stage fright, it's funny. I dug the sweater out of Fido's dog box, tried it on Alice, and it fit like it was custom-made for her. I'm so glad I didn't get rid of it. One time about a year ago I actually almost turned it into a purse, but then some life event came along or some other project or distraction, and it got stuck back in the dog box for, hmmmm, let me see, 5 or 6 more years.

 Alice seems to be saying, "Come on, mom, just take the picture already." What the pictures don't show is how excited she gets when I begin to put a sweater or a new collar on her. She really acts like she loves to wear the stuff, but she just isn't very cooperative about posing.

     The flannel "biscuit" quilt that I made especially for Fido was also a dud of a gift for her. I made it in a class and it took a lot of time and effort. It was one of those pain in the a-- type projects that you really like at the time but swear you'll never do another one when it is finished.

      Each little puffed up biscuit is stuffed individually and when it was new it was pretty lumpy and bumpy, much more so than it is now. Fido, who was nicknamed Queen of the Pillows, refused to lay on it, and she would normally lay on anything that had a little bit of cushion to it. I guess it was just a little too lumpy for her missy prissy ways. Kind of like the princess and the pea.

      Over the last ten years it has spent time as a bath mat, a bedside rug, and mostly as a decoration inside a box inside my closet. During my winter fibernation and cleaning out of the cobwebs from my craft supplies and my mind, I came across it and draped it across this ottoman. Alice has adopted it as her morning sunning blanket. Yes, I do believe...sometimes...it's okay to be a hoarder.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl