picture time! :D also, Pet on Quilt pic!

First, pic of my pretty, completed 30's Plates

Measures ~42x42 inches. Cotton top, fleece backing, cotton binding. Simple machine quilting in the sashings & centers of blocks tacked down.White circle edge & interior colored circle edges are raw, so when washed, (hopefully!) will have a fuzzy appearance.
The fleece backing is a little "sophisticated" for this bright, kid-friendly top, but it just seemed to work. It's dark green & pink floral on white. *makes note to take a pic*


Now, the improv blocks:

 My attempt at a cross-like block. Teal strips measure 1" wide, if I remember correctly. This is from leftovers of the 2nd block...

Destined to be a pillow, I guess :) Irregular widths of end pieces from cutting my Gypsy Change pieces set mosaic-style with 1" wide cut strips of muslin. 1.5" cut teal strips frame before the 2.5" white was added.









Finally...my entry for SewCalGal's Pets on Quilts Show! It's not the greatest pic (I have mentioned I need to work on this picture stuff!), but it's the best I can get of this hyper lil monkey :) We're going to try another photo shoot later, so might have more than 1 pic in the end!

Meet Paisley, my puppy niece. She's my sister's almost-7-month-old Maltipoo(ish). She joined the family when my sister was *just* going to watch a puppy for a friend of a friend who needed to be hospitalized for a heart issue. At the time, she was barely 2 months old-a tiny, squeaky, shy lil thing. She didn't have a name, wasn't going to be part of that friend-of-a-friend's family (the lady was trying to sell her and her siblings for someone else).
She *thrived* under individual attention. The lady had complained that she squeaked and cried all night-the 
poor baby slept in a laundry basket! Even with "catbrother" around, she behaved fabulously. When the week was over & the lady went home...we were devastated to send Squeaky back (she deserved a name of some kind!) Heartbroken, my sister was resigned to the fact it was going to be her and the cat only. Even Bobby (aka "catbrother") seemed sad the lil scamp was gone.
The next morning, our friend called my sister with an offer-the lady would *drastically* cut the asking price for Squeaky if we would take her. She couldn't handle a puppy in her condition (she had two older dogs of her own that didn't want to play with the pup), so she figured Squeaky might have a home. My sister IMMEDIATELY jumped at the offer & picked Squeaky back up that evening!
When we were "what if"ing the night before, after Squeaky left, she asked what I would've named her if we could've kept her. All of our pets had names based on musicians, so I said "Paisley", after Brad Paisley. Just so happened that the puppy slept at night listening to a Brad Paisley CD (oh, what would've been if my sister had chosen Green Day first!) When the puppy arrived back to her forever home, she was renamed Paisley :)

*that was a bit long...sorry about that!*

On Sunday night, I took my 30's Plates to finish hand-sewing the binding. To be honest-it's kind of hard to do ANY work with Pais around! She's hyper, runs all over, climbs on laps, hops on and off of couches and chairs...a regular tiny tornado.I had been able to position myself a certain way on the couch so I could work with only a few interruptions. As I was nearing completion of the 3rd corner, the insistent pup kept trying to climb on the part of the quilt she could touch. As I ended off a thread, I offered her 2 minutes to lay on it if she would let me work-she backed off, watching intently.

So, without the binding finished, I laid the quilt on the couch and let her climb on. She sat, laid down, stretched out...all puppy kinds of things. I was making sure she wasn't going to bite or dig at the quilt...all while trying to take pics too :) She lasted a bit longer than 2 minutes before I had to pull her off for trying to dig (she always does that to the slipcovers), and as I was settling down to start sewing again, she thought she could climb in my lap to "help".

I finished at home :) Percy (my dog), isn't quite as "helpful" as Paisley.


EDITED TO ADD: more pics of Paisley with the quilt...I think she thought it was hers! Silly girl will need something a bit simpler so I don't cry when she inevitably kills it ;)