Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Who are the Pink Doxie Girls?

August 13, 2014

This early a.m. is our third rainy start in a row.  I won't protest. We needed the rain here, and I will be inside sewing today without guilt. The Doxie girls and I are having coffee outside while listening to crows, chattering birds, and the occasional zip of a hummingbird arriving for breakfast.



Have you met my beautiful Doxie girls yet? It's high time for introductions then.


Lucy is not a dachshund, but an Australian shepherd. She is about 6 years old, and bite your tongue on comments about her weight. She's allergic to everything, and this is the best summer she's ever had. We keep her strictly gluten and grain free, and have to watch the time she spends outside as she has so many contact allergies. She has a bum shoulder that makes exercising hard, so weight control is by portion control. She's sweet and loving, and prefers to sleep with pillows. We prefer it also as she snores less.


Effy is a long-haired dachshund, 5 years old, whom we adopted from a local rescue at a year old. She is intensely devoted to me, and is rarely out of eyesight when I am home. She lives for ball playing and fetch, and we refer to her as 'Effy Noodle Brains' or just 'Noody'. There is an ongoing struggle between Effy and Lucy to be alpha dog. If there is ever a squabble, her sister tag teams on her side.


Minnie is the doxie model for Pink Doxies. We believe she is Effy's sister. Minnie is loving, cuddly, and needs to be covered up at night since she's a short-hair. The two were found walking together on a road somewhere as puppies, and seem to be identical in age. They are inseparable best friends, and while we were only looking for one small dog, they seem to share one heart. We felt we had to adopt both girls. There is always time for a pick-up game of Chase, or Doxie Wrestling, or Little Dog Under the Bed. They take turns in their play as to whom will win at that time until they tire out. This goes on all day long, and they are prime entertainment.



Doxies have fairly sharp teeth, and toys take a beating. Squeaky toys are good, but stuffed toys are their first pick. Tug-of-war is common, and the stuffing flies. Do you know what dog toys cost? At our house they get re-stuffed, and then I sew them back up to be destroyed again. This is why the Doxies started hanging out by my sewing machine. They wait for me to finish and throw them the toys. I've explained to them that I do more than sew their toys, and have serious work to do, but that point evades them. They snuggle into the beds or on the couch, and wait until their mom finishes, and can take them back outside.

Today I'm working on a happy quilt. This bright, multicolored batik started with a couple of jelly rolls found on clearance. I added fabric that had been cut out for a summer dress, but my daughter outgrew it before I got it done. I repurposed the cut out pattern pieces into 2 1/2 inch wide strips, and fed it in between the jelly roll strips during the Jelly Roll Race. This was a quick, simple project with lots of color bang for the buck.

Missouri Quilt Jelly Roll Race

Did you feel her energy?

I took my top and laid it on the floor, attached it to the cotton batting with a spray adhesive product called 505, then attached the backing, and free motion quilted it "in the ditch". It was an exercise in just moving fabric through the machine.


The only thing left to do is the binding, and tomorrow I'll show you how I did it.

Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.


Oh, thank you, Huong! I love them.

1 comment:

Living to work - working to live said...

Doxie darlings, I should say. They're a lovely pack.