Quilt Along Flimsy

It took me all day, but I finished up the last three borders on Judy's Quilt Along #1. The HST's took most of the time and then of course the speed bumps along the way - HST's going the wrong way, bobbin thread breaking, not enough fabric for the final border (I made them 1/2 inch smaller), and cat interruptions. This first picture does not show the true colors as it was dark in my quilt room and my camera is not working properly. This close-up of the corner shows the border fabric a little better, however, the orange looking border is really a deep pink with orange strips.
I'm very happy with how the quilt turned out and want to thank Judy once again for giving us a great quilt pattern.

Cat Report

Before I rush off to my Quilt Studio for a day of sewing/quilting, I thought I would give a report on my visiting cats.

My knitting bag, which was against the wall by a chair in the living room, fell over and the cats have declared this a wonderful cat bed. It is cozy and warm, and for now I am allowing it as it is keeping my furniture free of cat hair! Cats are known to bring dead mice as gifts to their humans. Thank goodness there are no mice around here (that I know of) so my visiting cat brought me a scroll cover (for counted cross-stitch) that was on a shelf in my Quilt Studio. This is the third time he has brought this long piece up from the basement. I feel loved.

Flower Power

My cousin gave me a quilt kit that uses a wedge tool which I have never tried before. Great big whimiscal red, blue and yellow sunflowers grace this little quilt with a white fence at the bottom. I'm having a wonderful time doing something new and challenging. These are pictures of my progress so far. The pieces are just placed on the design wall.
My camera is not behaving nicely so I feel lucky to have gotten two decent pictures.

Today I am grateful for ........

1. Irish Soda Bread

2. A day at home to sew

3. My visiting cats keeping me company.

Quilt Along progress

Sashing and first two borders are completed on Judy's Quilt Along. I'm loving this quilt! Judy's instructions are so good and accurate. It is a pleasure to work on the project and watch as strips and HST's turn into great quilt designs. Gratitude List -

1. Great weekend with good friends

2. Visiting cats behaving like gentlemen

3. Looking forward to Bee tonight

Cat Interference

It feels like I have not done much counted cross-stitching since the visiting cats arrived. They are lap-sitters so it is hard to manage counted cross-stitch with a huge purring cat in your lap - plus they shed hair that doesn't look good on the canvas. Here is a little piece that I finally finished, sneeking my stitching in when the cats were napping elsewhere. Trying to type on my computer is near impossible with dear Elliot insisting on helping me. IMPROVE is prominently displayed on my desktop screen and Elliot is striving very hard to improve his interference skills. He is gets an A+

Fresh Air

It is a beautiful, sunny, warm day today. This is the first day since my visiting cats have been here that I could open the door to the back screened-in porch and let them investigate. Elliot went right out the door and began sniffing and investigating. His tail was up which means he was very happy. His nose will ache tonight from all the sniffing. Whereas Rudi is a different story. He sat in the doorway and would not venture out onto the porch. He watched his brother and sniffed the air, but simply would not take that scary step into a new world.
Rudi is in the computer room right now, staring at me, and probably wondering what other horrible thing I will be doing today. So far I have vacuumed (he hides under my bed), played the recorder, (he can't stand the sound and goes downstairs) and now I opened the back door and he is afraid of the new sights and sounds.

To which cat do you relate - Elliot or Rudi ???????

Stash Report - #11 - March 15

Fabric purchased this week - 0
Fabric used this week - 0
Fabric purchased this year - 0
Fabric used this year - 28.25 yards

There is still plenty of fabric in my stash

Stash Quilt

Flimsy finished - Stash Quilt - pattern from Judy's Patchwork Times. This picture does not show the true colors for the border, so I did a close-up below. The border is purple with gold dots.
The whole quilt was made from scraps and old stash. Now I need to dig around for a backing or take the time to piece a backing. There is enough of the purple left for binding.

12 blocks completed

As I was working hard to finish the 12 blocks for Judy's Quilt Along, my visiting cat decided it was lap time. It is hard to navigate the sewing machine when a cat is riding shot gun. However, in spite of cat interference, I managed to get all 12 blocks done just in time for today's deadline. I'm happy with how they look.
And Elliot would also like to take a bow.

Stash Report Mar 8

Fabric purchased this week - 0

Fabric used this week - 10.50

Fabric purchased this year - 0

Fabric used this year - 28.25

This week I counted the stash quilt even though I still have the borders to do. All the fabric is pulled and ready to be added.

I also gave away four yards of fabric to my BIL who is a quilter and needed some backing for an antique quilt top that he is finishing. "Why is that man taking fabric out of our house?"

Scrap quilt progress

The plan was to get this quilt done today, but since I put the whole middle row upside down and didn't notice it until it was completely boxed in - and then had to rip, rip, rip and re-sew - this top is still missing the borders. The pattern is from Judy's Patchwork Times website where she challenged us to use up our scraps. Mine truly is made up of scrap fabric and definitely looks scrappy and unplanned. I'm not in love with it but when the borders are added and it is quilted I may change my mind. Here are the borders I picked out. The grey-green is the first border that matches the setting triangles, then the narrow gold border and finally the outer border of purple with gold dots. None of the fabrics match or even go together, BUT, they were what I had in my stash that fit best. I'm finally getting low on pieces of fabric that are more than two yards. Most of my stash now consits of fat quarters, some one yard cuts and a very few two yard cuts. Hidden away are some five yard cuts of sale fabric that I'm saving for backings.
Don't know if I will do the borders next, or go back to working on the Quilt Along also from Judy's website. That lady is keeping me busy! ! !

Scraps are fun

Today I worked on making the blocks per instructions from Judy at Patchwork Times. I thoroughly enjoyed working with some of my diverse fabrics and scraps. The light fabric on the right with the weathervanes is vintage fabric I found in an Antique Shop and I paired it with a sewing themed fabric. The violin/trumpet/harp/music fabric was given to me by a friend and I paired it with a lush fuschia. The pinwheel fabric seemed to go well with the wild graphic fabric of which I must have purchased 10 yards since I never seem to run out of it. I like the apple slices fabric with the Wear Warm Clothes fabric.
The colorful guitar fabric I obtained in a fabric bag exchange and it works well with a bright yellow. The little scarecrow men are happy sharing the spotlight with stars on a rust background. I don't know yet how Judy is going to lead us in putting this quilt together, but so far I am having fun and thinking of more combinations I could do on a future quilt.

For leaders and enders today, I snuck in little 1-1/2 inch orange pieces to make Halloween pumpkins. More on this in a subsequent post...................

It was a good sewing day today.

Stash Report March 1

My fabric stash report remains the same as last week even though I "used" a lot of stash this week. I cut fabric for a Halloween quilt, I cut fabric for Judy's Quilting Along, I cut fabric for Judy's scrap (don't know what it is yet) quilt and I cut scrap fabric into useable squares and strips. However, nothing is completed so I don't feel like I can count it yet. Therefore my report is:
Fabric purchased - 0
Fabric used - 0
Fabric used year to date - 9.75
Fabric purchased year to date - 0 Fabric crumbs in the waste basket - ? ? ? ?