What's on my design wall?

Judy Laquidara from Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara is asking this question every monday. This was the first week.

Well currently I have a design bed. My sewing room is a bonus room over our garage. I have about 4 feet of wall, then the rest is the angled ceiling. I still love my room, but it isn't easy to make a design wall. I have a large piece of foam board that I will eventually make into a free standing design wall.

So what is on my design bed? Our quilt guild did the Underground Railroad sampler by Eleanor Burns as our Block of the Month last year. I have all the blocks completed with the sashing and cornerstones. Hopefully by next Monday I'll have the top completed.

2009 Star Block of the Month

I started the first block for our guild's block of the month yesterday. I have the task of demonstrating the first block. Before I could sew the first block I had to decide what colors I wanted to use for the quilt. The brown fabric with multicolor...uh blobs is the best word I can come up with.. is from Kaffe Fassett. I bought all they had left (a little over 2 yards) when I was at Sew Bee It a couple weeks ago.

I think this is going to be pretty and I love that the brown fabric will tie all the colors together so well. I'm excited about this quilt. I have the first block done, as well as some partially finished blocks that I'll use to demonstrate the construction of the block. I'll show those in a separate post. I so rarely have anything interesting to say I need to drag this one block out as long as possible.

And now back to our regular programming...

I'll get back to quilting talk soon. I did get a set of blocks from my Facebook block exchange group. They are all really pretty. The next block exchange is going to be basket blocks. Those are due in June.

I'm going to start the first block for our quilt guild block of the month this week. I have to present it next Monday. Eeek...where did April go?

CKC Agility Trial at Georgia Dog Gym Part II

The second day at the CKC Trial was fun but our performance was a little disappointing. There were only a couple of us there and we were all running for exhibition only because we had not qualified for Supreme the day before. We ran three Supreme runs and then did 3 games. Cyndy Douan, and the GDG and CKC staff did a great job at keeping things moving, and keeping organized. I wish more people had come on that second day. I think they would have had a good time.

We did get some cool ribbons. Two qualification ribbons for the Novice I and Novice II titles, two second place and a third place ribbon. We also got one of the big Wow trial ribbons, because there were two of us that stuck it out all weekend and ran every run.

I think that ASCII and I would have qualified on one of the Supreme runs and maybe on the Dare to Double game. ASCII did not want to be there though. He used to run ahead of me but this weekend he just kind of drug behind me. I talked to the judge, who happens to be our trainer, and she said to throw a party before and after each run. I'm not very good at being really energetic and enthusiastic. I'm kind of quiet even with the dogs. ASCII needs a cheerleader. He doesn't respond to just treats, and doesn't care about retrieving a toy, so its going to have to be me just being excited and telling him how good he is. I also might try the Kong spray cheese stuff again...we call that Doggie Crack. Sometimes I'd let him go to my husband after a run and let him give the affection and praise. He needs to get it from ME since I'm the one he is working for.

I have been calling him off of obstacles when he is about to go off course and did that a lot on Saturday. He has lost confidence and it isn't fun for him right now. We will work on that. I need to practice more outside of class, and let him take the obstacle even if it is the wrong one. Most likely if he's going the wrong way it is because I was not clear, or quick enough. More practice will help me with that too.

After the run I have to throw a party and be excited even if I'm not happy with the run. Also while I need to be respectful of the time I take to get in and out of the ring, I need to take the extra few seconds required to immediately praise him and make a big deal about it. Too often I am so worried about getting my leash and getting out of everyone's way that I delay in throwing the party. By the time I do it, ASCII has pretty much turned off. Can I get someone to kick me in the butt when I start to do that please? Yo dummy! Pet your dog!!

We are doing agility for fun, not so we can get national titles and stuff like that. If ASCII isn't enjoying himself then it is not worth continuing. A year ago he was so excited to be out there that he would take off ahead of me and run like a wild dog. One of the people running the ASCA trial said he was a great dog and to just just make sure he kept having fun. We started reigning him in because he was not listening and just running around taking what ever obstacle he wanted, I think we went too far. I'm not sure if we can get the galloping, prancing, goofball agility dog back now...I sure miss him though.

CKC Trial at Georgia Dog Gym

This blog is called DogsNQuilts so it is time for me to talk about my dog. Today was the Continental Kennel Club Obedience and Agility Trial at the Georgia Dog Gym. It was cloudy and wet from all the rain last night, but it was also a nice 70 degrees.

I like the way the CKC Agility rules are set up. The Novice levels are pretty mellow. It lets you get started trialing on easier lower stress courses. ASCII and I got the Novice level I qualification with no problem and got second place in our class. We also go the level II Q and got third place. I did notice that ASCII did not want to lay down on the wet table, and did not want to sit on the wet grass at the start line. He just got groomed yesterday and apparently did not want to mess up his 'do by getting it wet.

On Novice level III the course has obstacles side by side and it tests obstacle recognition. This should have been easy, but most of us messed it up. The course was a big S shape and on each leg of the S was a pair of obstacles and you were allowed 2 faults. The point of the course was to send the dog through the appropriate obstacle. I started out lining up on the wrong side of ASCII so he thought he should take the tunnel instead of the A-Frame.

Then the second leg of the S had two jumps side by side. I ran a little too close again and he started to go to the left jump instead of the right one. I called him back and he took the correct jump but ended up out of position for the next jump in the course. He ran by it, then when I called him back to try again he back jumped the jump.

Then we went on the last leg of the course and I think I pushed ASCII's course again. I needed to draw him to the left by running to the left myself. He ended up starting to taking the tunnel instead of the chute, I called him before he went to far in, then he wouldn't go through the chute. He's been through that chute a bunch of times, but he wasn't sure about it this time. We finally got through the chute and over the final jump but by that time we already had too many faults. Even though we did not qualify we ended up getting 2nd place in our class.

Unfortunately because we did not qualify for Novice III, that meant we could not qualify on any of the Intermediate runs. This time we were allowed to run For Exhibition Only which meant we just did not get credit for them. When we ran the Intermediate I course and would have qualified. Then it started raining for about 20 minutes.

We started the Intermediate II course and ASCII would not lay down on the wet table. Since I knew I couldn't qualify anyway I went ahead and touched him to get him to lay down. We ran the rest of the course clean.

The final run of the day was the Intermediate III course. I think we had one fault but also would have qualified.

The trial will continue tomorrow. There will be three runs for the Supreme class then there will be three different games, which I will run for exhibition only. It should be fun.

Book Signing at Sew Bee It

I attended a book signing at Sew Bee It this past week. The book was Color Mastery by Maria Peagler. She gave a nice talk about her book including 10 tips to innovative color palettes.

I enjoyed the talk. I bought the book and it looks really good. One of her tips is to start a color journal. This idea intrigues me. It seems like a good way to start getting ideas for new color combinations to use in my quilts.

Maria said that she has a monthly budget for fabric and suggests that you organize your fabric so you can determine what you are missing. Yesterday my husband also suggested I make a monthly fabric budget, instead of buying a larger amount of fabric a couple times per year. I think this is a great idea. I'd spend the same amount as I do now (or slightly more) but it wouldn't hurt as bad.

By the way Sew Bee It is a wonderful quilt shop. I wish that I lived closer...or maybe it is good that I don't. It might be dangerous if I could wander in any time I like.