Peer Pressure....Don't let me pack this thing away again!

Allright Quilt Chicks...

Help me out here.

 

So I"m working on digging my way out of a mess in my sewing room.

The dig lead me to this quilt.  

Hibiscus.

Pattern by Karen Stone.

Started by me at least 10 years ago.

I assembled the last of the border sections yesterday and sewed them on.

Used stash fabric to create back.

I still have to sew a scrap of batting to the end of the twin batting that I'll be using..

(When will I learn to make quilts that correspond with the size of available battings?)

After that this thing goes on the longarm and hopefully will be done in a couple days.

The help I'm asking for?

Do Not Let Me Put This On The UFO Pile Again!

S 

 

Today's project is inspired by my youngest daughter.  An aspiring  Crazy Cat Lady and Future Animal Hoarder who's compassion and love for the homeless and un-loved animals in the world is tempered by me, her (hyper-critical) mother who claims to be THE VOICE OF REASON when it comes to all things feline and canine.

This child is the mother of Doug the Cat, who has been featured on this blog as well as Instagram and Facebook.

Anyway…..

In an effort to get my girl to switch her focus from the desire to own all the animals she sees on the rescue sites, I suggested that she perhaps volunteer in another capacity.

Like making kennel quilts for the animals in the shelters.

(One thing I didn't think about , until now, was that if she delivered those quilts to the shelter, she might be overcome with the need to rescue those animals and bring one or more home with her…)

Like I was saying,

I suggested the idea of making some kennel quilts.  She did a search and sent me a link to some directions / sizes.

So here I am, today, with several projects littering my sewing table, sewing fabrics I really don't like and using batting scraps to make some of those darn quilts.

(The daughter is no where in sight.)

These are NOT works of art.  

I'm just using up fabric and getting it out of here.

Finished size 12" x 18"

More to come…

S

P.S.  ….  I'm hoping that as I go along I will uncover my Pineapple Crazy blocks that I have LOST in the chaos of my sewing space.

Bloglovin'….and other things….

I love following blogs through Bloglovin'.  

It makes it so easy to see who's doing what…all the inspiration and information I need is just waiting for me, every morning.

It's a huge timesaver…and it cuts down on my already over-flowing email inbox.
The only down-side?  Sometimes I get lost in other peoples projects and creativity, and neglect my own!!!!!
So now, A Certain Someone should know that SHE can follow ME via Bloglovin'!

I took a very simple project with me on my recent beach trip.

Reverse appliqued circles, inspired by someone i found, obviously, on another blog!

(I'll find the name and share it)

I had purchased  quite a few indigo batik fabrics and a creamy colored Grunge fabric with the thought that they were going to before something entirely different.  The need for a take along project had me cutting them up at the last minute.

So the sky, water, sand and shells proved to be a bit inspiring to me…and as I walked along the beach, (trying to get all my steps in), I took pictures and collected shells, many that had little holes worn through them, and I had an idea…

I'm going to keep stitching these circles…and I'll see where this takes me.

S

Neutrals!

I've made a baby-sized plus quilt , a plus pillow, and now a lap-sized plus quilt, this time in neutrals.

The last time I mentioned this quilt was in December of 2015.

Crappy lighting today…no helpers available to hold it up anywhere.

I feel bad that I let this one sit so long, un-quilted.

But now it's done.  Washed.  Squishy and fabulous.

Minky-backed.  Ready to be loved.

A little peak at one of my little garden spaces.  Everything is so green and lush right now!

S.

Mother's Day, 2016

Mother's Day Doug

Doug stayed with us this weekend, which resulted in very little sleep for some of us.

Shortly after posing on my kitchen table with the flowers I received from my son, Doug embarked on a very long nap….

Yesterday I finally got to quilting Nancy's charity quilt 

(which has been in my possession for almost 2 months)

The quilt and back were so square that it was easy to load and work on.

MY work is imperfect, but I enjoyed the practice and look forward to the next one.

In addition to the flowers I received from my son, Elle & Nik sent me these beautiful macaroons from NYC, and Nik had these note cards printed from one of her recent photos.

I'm feeling blessed!

S

Thank You, USPS!

The mug rug I made the other day arrived at it's destination!

Instant Gratification Project

My favorite kind of project:  The kind I can start and finish in one session in my sewing room.

(Usually resulting in a mess that is not equal to the size of the project!)

I'll be sending this off to NYC…and the recipient will no longer have to share another 

Certain Someone's mug rug any longer…..

S

Obsessions….

Lately, I seem to have two obsessions.

My grand cat Doug:

 And these darn Pineapple Crazy blocks:

The fluorescent light in my workspace seems to wash out the colors in the photos…

I love the way seeing the blocks in greyscale allows the pattern to show up so well!

I"m going to have to take a break from making these blocks.  All the trimming has my hand, wrist and arm in a great deal of pain.

I have a quilt on the long arm that is begging to be finished…maybe I can work on that for awhile.

S

A Finished Top

So......here are those bullseye blocks.
All sewn together.....

I'm still not in love with the thing but it doesn't matter.

A big Thank You to my friend Nancy for the gift of fabric from her stash that I used for the borders...there are several more cuts that will work great as the back and the binding.

I'm looking forward to getting it quilted, bound and washed....and donated at the next guild meeting.

S

Scraps, Mostly

I was trying to clean up my disaster-area sewing space.

As usual, I got sidelined.

I found a pile of un-sewn bullseye blocks that I had long ago abandoned when I learned that sewing with scraps that I didn't like only created blocks that I didn't like.....

So these got packed away, thinking that I would toss them into my donation bag and drop them off at the thrift shop.

Well, I never did that, and the pieces have resurfaced.

My cleaning and tidying stopped and I decided to sew them together and turn them into a charity quilt for the guild I belong to.

I still don't like them all that much, but I'll get these squared up, sewn together, and have them out of my life once and for all by the end of the month.

I look forward to seeing them done.

Working on those bullseye blocks has just added more to my overflowing scrap pile!

(One of many, I'm sorry to say)

Before I had to leave my sewing room for the day I got another Pineapple Crazy block done.

Only about 250 more to go...

Playing with Scraps

For some reason, I decided to start making these Pineapple Crazy blocks from the Bonnie Hunter book String Fling.

There are 45 pieces in each 5" block, but like Bonnie said in her blog post today 

(http://quiltville.blogspot.com)

they are all short seams!

The top 4 blocks show how the dark pattern emerges.

There are 250+ of these blocks in the quilt , and that doesn't count the border blocks.

I have no deadline for making this quilt.

I'm just going to make the blocks when I feel like it.

One thing is for certain, I have more than enough scraps to use to make this thing!

Knitting Season

Just showing another Lovely Ribbed Cowl from Purl Soho.

This is , I think, the 4th one I've knit this winter.

Gifted to Claudette because green is her color!

Cat Knitting Part 2

So Doug got to try out his new knitted cowl…..

He was feeling a little camera shy…so it was hard to get a really good shot of him….
He didn't seem to object to wearing it at all, and didn't try to remove it, so I think I will make him another one soon…I'm sure he's going to want to be able to switch things up once in awhile!

A Little Cat Knitting….

My latest project, hot off the needles last night.  A knitted cowl for Doug the Cat.
It's knitting season for me, and after making several cowls for the girls, friends and myself I decided Doug needed one as well.  I found this little beauty on a blog that linked me to Ravelry…
it is The Triangle Cowl for Tiny Creatures by Sylvia Bo Bilvia.
It only took a tiny bit of yarn and a few minutes of knitting seed stitch, which is not my my favorite and my hands are not happy this morning….
I'll be seeing Doug this evening so he will get a chance to try this on and I will treat him to a little fashion photo shoot.
But for now, the cowl is being modeled by Rex.  He likes it very much.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A little bit of catching up...

Working on projects and spending time with family have taken up much of my time this past December…

The patchwork pillows for my kids turned out to be a hit and were a fun , quick project to work on.