Kitties

By now, if you've ever read much of this blog, you know I love cats and make lots of cat-themed quilts and other projects.  Right now, I'm working on an Elizabeth Hartman designed cat quilt.  I modified the pattern a little and made a black tuxedo cat with green eyes and a little brick red nose.  I almost like it more than the black-eyed, black-nosed kitties of the original design.  My husband thinks the black kitties look like Batman.  Sigh.  Anyway, I've been enjoying making her 'Fancy Forest' quilt all year (we are on month 11 right now... one more to go!).  So I thought I'd make her kitty quilt, too... blocks are done and rows are sewn... just need the horizontal sashing strips cut and the rows joined together...

But I think I'm done working on this one for the day...

Now it's time to switch gears and go back to work on Fancy Forest... gotta keep up the pace or I will fall behind.  I figure if I get my firefly blocks at least cut today, I can sew them together over the weekend.

This is a tough time of year for most people... me included... with the holidays and such, everyone is uber busy preparing for parties, family gatherings, making or buying gifts, and other activities, plus there's still all the usual day to day stuff to deal with as well.  Sometimes it's wise to take some time and just breathe deep, be calm and have some quiet time... relax!

Mystery part deux

So today I made 100 little pointy units for the second clue of Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Mystery Quilt. 

That's 10 piles of 10 units, each pile made with a different neutral , but with a constant magenta for the corners.  

You can see more folks' progress here.

I'm really enjoying this mystery!  But now what do I do for the rest of the week til the next clue comes out on Friday??? Just kidding - I've got plenty of other projects to work on - I am doing a bom and I get my December fabric tomorrow (Tuesday), so I'll be able to make those blocks, but I have a whole month to work on those... and I've got LOTS of embroidery to do on some other blocks I made for a Bonnie Sullivan quilt (Tuxedo Tales)... and 3 blocks to make to finish my Buster Cat Does Halloween quilt (yes, it might be late for this year, but I'm on track to finish it for next year!).... I am NOT lacking projects to work on!... But I will still be waiting with baited breath for the next En Provence clue!

WIP

I've been lax again about posting here... and I have no defense, just rationalizations which are less than useless and no excuse, so I won't state them here.  Just suffice to say I've been busy, and let some things slide.  This blog was one of them.  My apologies to all who read here.

Lately I've been doing more piecing than applique, a sort of reversal from the recent past.  It's been a refreshing return to my quilting roots.   I'd forgotten how much fun and relaxation I got from piecing.

I am participating in an online mystery quilt called 'En Provence', designed by Bonnie Hunter.  So far, we've only had one clue, and here are my neutral 4-patches that I made for Clue #1:

Can't wait to see clue #2!  I'm excited about this one, which is strange for me, as I'm not a 'scrappy' quilter generally.  I usually like to plan and select my fabrics with care and an eye to color.   I am definitely stepping out of my comfort zone for this one.  Anyway, I really love the neutral background horse print I used in some of the patches.  Hopefully it will not prove to be too much for the quilt.  Here is a link to the 'Monday Morning Links' to see the progress of others participating in the mystery.

I worked on a second butterfly quilt.  Now I try not to repeat myself too often, making the same quilt over and over again is boring and I learn nothing new from it usually, and I like learning new techniques, skills or tools.  However, my class wanted to make the butterfly quilt and so I'm teaching it to them...   They should have their butterflies done by Saturday and I will teach them how to applique the antennae on and show them how to trim the blocks... Here are a few of my blocks pre-trimming:

I also made a second tuffet (yes, I know... repeating myself, but it was so much fun to have a finished piece of furniture in the house after making it, and I wanted a purple and green one.)... I even signed up to take a class in January on how to make a square one!  

I also started cutting for Elizabeth Hartmann's Cat Quilt.  I've got the background and the black for the eyes and noses all cut... and I'm ready to start cutting and piecing my kitties.  Looking forward to sewing these and seeing the different kitty faces emerge.

Finishing Binge

I've been on a finishing binge of late... just got another one done this morning... the binding was done as of last night but the label was only half on... I finished it up today. It is a king sized log cabin made of 4 1/4" blocks. Started in 2008, all from scraps I had around from previous projects.

It sat in a cabinet for 7 years waiting for the perfect border. I agonized for a long time over piecing or appliqueing a house border, and then sort of backburnered the entire project and forgot about it. Then this year, the theme of the Row by Row Challenge was 'Home Sweet Home' and LO!, one of the fabrics for the line was a house row print. It was perfect, and I bought some... Just enough it turns out, as I didn't have a lot left over. 

 Glad to have this one done, as it's for my own bed, for use as our 'winter quilt'... Time to wash and put the summer quilt away and get this one on the bed!

Two views of the quilt:  'A Barn Raising: My Life in Quilts'

Old Skills, New Methods

I used to be a whiz at setting zippers... in clothes.  I could do any kind of zipper - normal or invisible, single or double placket... and I was good (and fast) at it!  But that was 40 years ago when I used to make clothes!

So when I bought this pattern for a 'Bionic Gear Bag,' I dreaded putting in these 5 zippers, but figured I'd remember it all, like riding a bike... you get on it and it all comes back to you - the balance, the coordinated movements between pedaling, steering and keeping your balance.

I was surprised... no, call it SHOCK, when I read the instructions in the pattern (didn't even bother with the ones that came with the zippers, saving them to read only in the event that the pattern instructions made no sense to me.  Luckily, they did and it was EASY... zipper FEET have even changed (probably mostly because of movable needles)...

I feel, alas, that my old skill with zippers will have to remain an artifact of days gone by.   I'm rather proud that the Bionic Gear Bag is done, and the zippers (and the bag in general) came out perfect.

This is the bag all zipped up and closed, followed by a picture of the bag opened up showing all the interior pockets and zippers... SO much storage space in such a tiny bag!... and I love the little 'shelf' in front when it's open... I keep my pin cushion there, and use it to store things like binding clips when I'm sewing binding (my other current project).

Change is a Good Thing

Change can be a good thing.  Most of us are a little afraid of change. I know I am.  I have always been loathe to make changes to my life, my stuff, anything.   Sometimes change though can be great.  For example, we're all looking for a change from the heat of summer to some cool autumn days, at least those of us in southern California are, anyway. 

I bought this bag at a quilt show last weekend.

I decided that, while I love the colors and theme (Halloween is my favorite holiday!),  I didn't like those teeny tiny pumpkin buttons.  Yeah, they went with the theme, but they were lost on the bag, and they were cheap, plastic buttons.  I took them off and gave them to a young (6 years old!) quilter to embellish something she made.  Then, I went to the store and bought some larger buttons and put them on, and changed the pocket on the right a little bit (made it a little deeper by sewing up the left side of it a bit).   Here's the final result:

Much happier with the bag now.  I LOVE the big black button on the right pocket and the other two wooden buttons will do... they aren't perfect, but they were the closest I could find to what I want... I'll be keeping my eye out for something else in the meantime.  Still, I'm happy with the changes and love the bag even more now!  Change worked!

Tomorrow I'm going to quilting class, something I had planned to miss because we were having company over.  I had to cancel the event due to illness of one of the guests, so now I'm free all morning, might as well go work on a quilt or two. 

More changes, with positive results.  I could get to like change after all!

Long Time No See

Excuse my absence for so long... I've been really busy and barely keeping up with my Facebook page, and kind of let this one go by the wayside.  My bad, I'll try to do better.  After my Hawaiian cruise, I was feeling very down.  I think I barely survived that trip to be honest.

I think I recovered by mid-April, which is when I started my diet.  I've lost 70 lbs since April 12th and feeling great.  Playing Pokemon Go isn't hurting either... While I'm not walking as much as I could to do it, I'm walking more than I used to.

Add to all this, we adopted a new puppy.  We named him Chewbacca, but we call him Chewiee for short.  Bad name for a puppy... he chews on almost EVERYthing - people, furniture, our other dog.  At least he doesn't chew on quilts!

This is Chewiee just before we adopted him... all fluff!  but not a spare bit of anything on him (he was malnourished when the rescue organization, Sunny Saints, got him, and he looks so much better in this picture than his initial rescue photo!

 This is Chewiee today (he's the smaller of the two), sleeping with our adult Saint, Maggie:  He weighs in at 40 lbs already and growing daily!

I've been really busy - working on a lot of projects I felt I could finish... which leaves all my BOM projects in half-done or not-even-started-yet stages.  I am SO far behind on those... I think I will take them all to my quilting retreat in November!

Now, on to the quilts.  I finished my Matryoshka quilt... worked on this for about 3 weeks two years ago, then sandwiched it and let it linger for  a couple of years.  Finally sat down and quilted it!  Very pleased with this little wall hanging... Not sure what I'm gonna do with it, but it was fun to make.   I collect matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls), so this one was a real pleasure to make... it doesn't really 'go' with my house at all, so I may donate it to my guild for an auction quilt.  We'll see.

Every year, there is a sort of multi-state/multi-national quilt run called 'Row by Row Experience'.  You visit shops, collect patterns based on a theme.  This year the theme was 'home sweet home'.  My rows were the ones shown here.  The first people who complete a quilt and take it (finished, bound and labeled) into a participating shop win a prize (25 fat quarters plus a bonus prize if the shop's own row is in your quilt).  I took mine to Roxanne's A Wish and a Dream Quilt shop in Carpenteria and won 25 really yummy fat quarters and some templates.  Very cool.  

I made this butterfly quilt, all made from batiks, in a 'class'.  The pattern is by Buggy Barn, and while I don't need a class to make a Buggy Barn quilt, it's always more fun to quilt and sew with friends.  Used up the fat quarters I won from LAST year's Row by Row Experience, so win-win!

I made this log cabin quilt years ago... my  first (and possibly last) log cabin quilt.  The blocks are 4 1/2" square, and there were LOTS of them - the quilt is king sized... but it languished in my UFO pile for several years while I tried to decide how to border it.  Then I discovered the perfect border fabric for it (from this year's Row by Row fabrics - a pre-printed border fabric with houses and quilt shops - perfect!)  I put it on 3 sides because just didn't need the quilt to be longer, and don't need it at the top where the quilt tucks into the pillows.  I sent it to Stover's for quilting and waiting for it's return.  It will be our winter quilt for our bed.

This is a Saturday Sampler I did at one of my LQS - Quilty Pleasures in Simi Valley.  It was supposed to be blue and white and square.  I don't like square quilts, and didn't like their colors, so I used my own fabrics and added some blocks to make it rectangular.  This one was sent to Stovers too... waiting for it's return.:

Here is my finished quilt.  While the pattern is called Arcadia Avenue, I call the quilt "Adventures in Technicolor".  I posted pics of the blocks under construction in the past, but that was a long time ago... I finally finished it and it has been juried into a show later this year.  Can't wait to see it hang in an exhibition!:

I made this top, called 'Confectionary' from 20 fat quarters and a little white and gray for the backgrounds.  I made it for fun... a 'use 'em up' fat quarter challenge in a group I belong to called Stashbusters.  I picked 20 mismatched fat quarters and made this top.  I donated it to the guild to sell at their show boutique and sell it did!  Hooray... but I'm glad I made it!  It was fun!:

I made this quilt for our guild president to thank her for 2 years of service.  I designed and pieced the center, and my mini-group designed the borders.  I did most of the sewing on the appliques (3 of the border strips were mine), with one other person doing one border strip (thanks, Melanie!).  We got it quilted and bound and gave it to her last month.  It hung in our guild show last weekend, and it won a ribbon!:

This is a layer cake quilt called Speedwell.  The pattern is available free on the Moda website, and it was SO fast and easy to cut and piece.  Lots of fun to make... Not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet.:

This is a little tool tote I made.  I made a bunch of them for the guild show boutique, but I decided to make one for myself (no flowers, and my colors (love that purple and aqua!  Sew much fun!:

This is my latest complete finish, 'A Walk in the Woods'.  I loved making this with it's funky animals and images.  The borders took forever!  - Not my usual color palette, I don't usually work in taupes, homespuns and flannels, but it worked. Very happy with it, and I've submitted it to Road to California to see if it will get juried in... Probably won't know til late October or early November.  Until then, it will hang in my house!:

 A detail shot of the amazing quilting by Georganna Hawley:

In my Saturday class, we made mesh bags.  I made one out of ugly fabric for a contest and enjoyed it and like the results so much, I made a second one for me!  (of course, it's cat fabric!):

Well, IF you're still with me, and aren't bored out of your mind... That's what I've been up to since April.  I've also been playing LOTS of Dungeons and Dragons and Pokemon Go, so all my non-quilting time is pretty much spoken for.  I like having lots to do, but sometimes it seems like too much.  I get overwhelmed easily...

Speaking of overwhelmed, you probably are now too... so that said, I'll end this, but I'll try to keep it up more regularly so I don't need a repeat of this endless post. 

WAYWO??  (What are You Working on?)