The newest addition to our family!!

Isn't she sweet?  This is Gabby and Robbie.  We picked her up Tuesday, and she is so adorable.  She's a 9 week old dachshund.  I love her coloring.  She gets mistaken for a beagle a lot!

We lost our chocolate lab in June after 14 years.  We were all devastated, but Robbie took it the hardest.  He cried for days.  Then our totally awesome neighbors bought this book for him.  Once he realized that Snickers was in heaven having loads of fun jumping on the clouds, he felt much better.  He knows he'll see her again someday.

I couldn't stomach the idea of a new dog for a few months.  But when I saw Gabby's picture, I knew we had to have her.  These two are totally in love and inseparable.  She loves chewing on Robbie's ear.  Go figure.  Welcome home little bit - welcome home.

Angela

Pinwheel posy tutorial.

As promised, here is the pinwheel posy tutorial.  My camera is terrible.  I really need to invest in another one.  But it's too close to Christmas to be buying anything for myself.  This was done in a hurry and it took forever to get good pictures since my camera wouldn't focus properly, and it kept shutting off.  So naturally, I was getting frustrated.

First, draw your circle on your fabric where you want your posy.  For the purpose of this demonstration, I made an extra large circle.  Ideally, you'll want the outside of your circle to be the last of your wraps.  See below.

Next, you'll want to insert your pins into the fabric.  The closer you space the pins, the smaller the circle.  The wider you space the pins, the wider your circle.  Again, for this demo, I spaced them wider.

Next, you'll bring your needle up to the left of the top pin as shown.

Now move your needle out of the way as shown and begin wrapping your thread under your pins as indicated.  I went clock wise, but it would work well counter-clockwise too.

For the purpose of this demo, I wrapped maybe 7 or 8 times.  Obviously, the denser you want the posy, the more you'll want to wrap.  When you have made your last wrap, you'll take your needle down in the same spot you originally came up - to the left of the top pin.  Ignore my pathetic nail.  I've got to get a manicure!

Now, you'll need to secure your posy.  You need holding stitches at each space between your pins.  So bring your needle up on the inside and cross the wrap and take down on the outside edge as shown. You'll want to angle your needle slightly so it goes just under your wrap.

 And this is what it should look like.

 Then finish the other three sides.  And this is what it should look like.

Notice that I did not take my posy all the way to my circle.  That was done purposely for this demo.  If you were to keep wrapping, you could go all the way to make a fuller posy.  Remove your pins.

And this is the finished posy.

You can add french knots to the middle if you want.  I added them to my daisy but chose to leave them plain for my day gown.  It all depends on your project.

Angela

Baby daygown....sneak peak.

This is my first attempt at making a daygown.  I've always made bishops even for newborns.  So I thought I'd try my hand, and I really like it thus far.  I'm using this pattern.  It's fairly simple thus far; although, I had some trouble with lining up the pin tucks at the top.  I'm hoping I'll correct this when I add the collar, or at the very least, it'll be less noticeable.  The embroidery design came with the pattern and are done in between the pin tucks and button holes on both sides.  I finished the embroidery last night, and it looks so sweet.  I love the little pinwheel posies.  I used this same embroidery stitch on my daisy purse.

Here is another, larger view of the stitch.  The posy is the very center of my daisy with french knots inside the circle.  I've tried to find a tutorial on this, but alas, there is none. Had I known that, I would have snapped pics and posted one.  I'll try to do that later today or tomorrow.  Basically, you draw a circle of the basic size of your posy onto your fabric.  Then insert 2 pins into the fabric inside the circle to form an +.  Next, bring your needle up at the point to the left of the top pin. Take your thread under the pins to make your circle.  Make certain your thread is under all the pins.  I only wrapped 4 times on the day gown, because I wanted smaller posies.  I wrapped lots of times for my daisy, because I wanted it to pop.  Once you are finished wrapping your thread, bring your thread down at the same place where you initially came up.  Then you'll need to anchor your posy.  To do this, make small stitches at each point where your pins come together.  You can see the anchor stitches (there are 4) in the daisy picture above.

Hopefully, I'll have a tutorial on this today or tomorrow.  It's really easy!

Angela