Cats and hats and brooms...

I spent a wonderful morning at quilting today.  I love Wednesday's for just that reason.  Jan, our 'VP of Education', is starting another mystery quilt for us and we spent the time in her beautiful sewing room cutting out our fabrics for step 1.   To be honest, they cut theirs out.  I haven't gotten my fabric yet so I spent the time cutting my scraps into useable strips and squares for those scrappy quilts I one day plan to make.  I barely made a dent into my pile.  But with the price of quilting fabric and the state of the economy, it only makes sense to use every bit you have.  A great site for patterns for scrappy quilts is Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.com.

I've managed to finish block #4 of the Baltimore Halloween block of the month.  It's a little different how the first 2 blocks were SO labor intensive and then the next two were much easier.  I already have blocks 5, 6 & 7 traced out and they will again get progressively more complicated.  I'd love to continue working on them, but I need to switch my focus back to the next two ships for Dennis' Ladies of the Sea (LOTS) quilt.  In any case, here's the latest halloween block.

I think the designer, P3 Designs, did a fabulous job designing these blocks to resemble a traditional Baltimore Album quilt with a Halloween twist.

Until next time, take care...

One, two, three...

That's the number of crayons I picked in the Crayon Challenge.  Actually each participant chose an envelope with 3 random crayons in it.  The challenge was to make a quilt using only those 3 colors.  You couldn't add a 4th color, but you could use any shade of your 3 crayons.

My envelope contained Gray, Sky Blue and Atomic Tangerine.  I carried this envelope around with me for months as I tried to find fabrics that fit the criteria.

Last night at guild, we all showed off our creations.  I was surprised at the number of ladies who participated and completed a quilt.  I think Jan and I were the only two who hadn't at least partially quilted ours yet.  Oh well, it had to be somebody, right?  It was a beautiful show - well mostly.  There were a few color combinations that were just way out there.  Not the fault of the quilter; some colors just aren't meant to go together.  Looking at all the quilts, I also realized I'm really on an applique kick.

When I thought about my colors, my mind pictured a koi pond.  So that's what I made.  I call it "The Koi Pond".  (Can you tell I thought long and hard about the title? LOL)

I also showed my dog quilt last night.  One lady stopped me in the bathroom later and asked how I came up with the idea.  I thought about it and I have no idea!!!  I can't remember what I was thinking at the time.  Is dementia setting in already?

I also meant to show everyone the beautiful gift I got from my secret sister this month.  Her father made me a rolling pin out of black walnut.  It is gorgeous!  I don't really bake, but then again, I wouldn't use it to roll out a pie crust if I did.  I'm trying to figure out where to display it in my kitchen.  He's obviously very talented.

Also my secret sister made me the heart block.  I know from her letters she's married with children and works full time so I really appreciate her taking the time to make me something.

Until next time...

How many left???

I'm now one project down with how many more to go?  I planned once I finished the Scraps to Treasures Challenge that I would turn around and quilt my Crayon Challenge in time for Monday night's guild meeting.  I now know that was just plain crazy...  I haven't done any sewing since I finished it.  I'm still trying to recover from my all nighter and marathon quilting session.  All I really want to do right now is sleep; however, it's only 7:30 pm and I'm going to try to make it another hour or so. LOL

In between stitching, I have managed to snap a few cute pictures.  My subject appears to be mainly David.  Not because I don't try to take pictures of the other pets, but because they won't stay still for them.  Every time I see one of them in a cute pose and turn the camera on, they either run towards it or hide.  Luckily David doesn't appear to care.  (He's very laid back as you can see.)

He's sleeping on top of the quilt I made for Moses (because she won't sleep in the bedroom).  But he's commandeered it for now.  See it even has her name on it.

Here's another picture of David in one of his more common poses.

I do hope to do a little sewing on my Crayon Challenge quilt before tomorrow night.  Then I'll have to get Dennis to help me take a picture as he's my official quilt picture helper...

By the way, I showed Dennis all of the quilts that are in the Scraps to Treasures Challenge.  There are 44 entries this year.  His comment on seeing them all was, "I didn't realize you were that good."  Wasn't that incredibly sweet and funny at the same time?  Of course, he's not the slightest bit biased is he?

Until next time...

I'm finished!!!!

I had to pull an all nighter - which I haven't done since college - but I finished my Scraps to Treasures Challenge quilt.  I can easily say that this quilt has more quilting on it then any other I've done.  I wanted to share a few pictures of it with you before I carry my tired and sore body back to bed.

The challenge was to use at least a 2" square of fabric from each of about 120 different 6" square fabrics we received from participants.  We were allowed to add a certain amount of extra fabric based on complicated calculations.  It also had to be a minimum of 36" x 48" and finished by the time our host awoke this morning.  (We had to email her our pictures.)  Tomorrow the HGTV Quilting & Needlework Forum will have a show of the quilts by all the participants (around 45).  You should stop by and check it out.

I called my quilt "Deconstructed".  Pretty obvious why, huh?

Here's another close up of the quilting on the floor boards and baseboard.  The wall isn't crooked like it appears; that's just from my dear husband holding up.  So leave a comment and let me know what you think...

Happy Labor Day!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Labor Day today.  We had family over for a cookout and it was such a nice time visiting with them.  The only issue was the weather.  It started to rain about the time Dennis put the meat on the grill.  By the time it was done, it was pouring down and he was drenched.  But we need the rain and are grateful for it.

I've been busy working on my Scraps to Treasures quilt.  It must be done by midnight this Friday - including quilting!  I haven't yet finished the top so I'm cutting it very close.  I'll be putting some serious hours into it the next few days. 

I have a few new pictures I've been wanting to share of David.  This first one is his favorite daytime past time.  He loves to sit staring out the window watching the birds and squirrels, bugs and deer.

 

This second picture is of his favorite place to nap during the daytime.  (He sleeps with us at night.)  I'll remind you that he'll turn 5 months tomorrow.

He's going to be a very big boy.  Next time, I hope to be able to show my Scraps to Treasures challenge quilt and maybe even my Crayon Challenge quilt as well.  Until then...

Long time...

I know it's been a while since my last post.  I've been busy trying to acclimate our household to it's newest member.  It's been a smoother transition than I hoped for, but it has still taken a lot of time and patience.  David had his surgery last week.  We had him fixed (no kids for him) and he also had a laser declaw.  From the moment he woke up, he was off and running.  He didn't seem to know he'd had surgery and he didn't have any bandages or sutures to remind him.    He was so active in fact that he managed to open up one of his paws and start bleeding a little, so back into time out he went for another 4 days.  He was out all night for the first time last night.  He slept half the night and played the other half.

I haven't done a lot of sewing recently, but I did manage to finish the flower blocks for a charity quilt.  Good timing too because they're due tomorrow.  I showed a couple of them some time ago, but ended up having to redo one - so here they all are again.

#1 Rose

#2 Coneflower

#3 Starflower

#4 Tulip

I also made a few 9-patch blocks that will go in the quilt as well.

I'm going to end this post here.  David has jumped on my keyboard a dozen times since I started and interrupted me and I think I'd better stop and go play with him.  Until later...

Settling in...

I haven't been doing much sewing lately. I've been trying to get David settled in and everyone adjusted to his presence. He had surgery yesterday to get fixed and for his claws, but you couldn't guess it from looking at him. He has no bandages and appears to be in no pain. Actually, our greatest issue is getting him to be less active. I've prayed about it and the whole transition is going easier (so far) than I had hoped for!

I promised this post would have something other than pets in it, so let's move on. I realized looking at old posts that I forgot to show you the last Ladies of the Sea ship I finished. She's called the Elissa. She's the last ship I'll be working on until I get some other things finished up.


I read on a blog some time ago a post asking quilters to show the first quilt they ever made and the latest. I show you all of my latest projects but I didn't have a picture of my first until now. I made this quilt for my mom about 5 years ago. Two weeks before Christmas I decided that I wanted to get my mom something else as a gift, but I didn't have any idea what. I saw this BOM (block of the month) at JoAnn's on clearance. The colors and the pattern were perfect for my mom. Having never made a quilt before, I figured it would be easy. The pieces in the kits were all pre-cut and I think I'm pretty good at following directions. And the store had all 12 kits plus the setting kit.

Working furiously, I managed to finish the quilt top in time for Christmas. I think my mom was both surprised and I believe pleased when she opened it on Christmas Day. I thought this would be a one time thing - making a quilt. But I so enjoyed making it, that I was hooked. It took another year for me to turn the top into a quilt. I tried to hand-quilt it, but was discouraged by my stitches and took them out. Finally, I just tied it.


My mom used it for a long time and washed it almost every week. It's now a bit faded and some of the seams are starting to open, but I still like to sleep under it whenever I visit. It's far from perfect, but I still love it.


I've made about 25 quilts since then and given most of them away. Of the completed quilts I've made (not just tops), I have 3 wall hangings hanging in our house. They're in the living room, the half-bath and the laundry room. It seems a little weird to have 2 of the 3 hanging in utility rooms, but one day I hope every room will have one.

To end this post, I'd like to share a couple more pictures from this past weekend. The first is a picture of my niece, Gracie. Her personality is just as sweet as she is pretty. She's also very much a girlie girl.


And finally, here's one more picture of David down at the farm.


Until later...