Saturday, November 28, 2009

Pink Smokey Mountain Stars saved!!!!!!

I was lucky enough to have a block of time Thanksgiving morning to assemble my quilt. I am VERY pleased with the results considering my last attempt.
I have done more reverse sewing on this quilt than I have ever done on a quilt. I am thinking of calling this one Pink Lemonade.

And here is Clue#1 in Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery.
WHOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!


Monday, November 16, 2009

Wasted my precious pinks and my time!

My bird question was answered by several responders. It is an American Goldfinch in Winter colors. Either a young one or a female. Thanks to all who helped me. The bird is gone now. I hope it found it's flock.
My goal was to make ME a pink Smokey Mountain Star. The first one I made went to a grand daughter in Indianapolis. Well, I wasted three days of piecing and wasted some fabric from my precious pink collection. There is not enough contrast for the pink stars to shine. My pinks are too pale and my neutrals are too dark. I have all the pieces made to assemble and after doing two rows I realized my error. When I made Tarraha's quilt I only used two very light backgrounds. I remembered too late or I was in too much of a hurry grabbing pre-cut fabrics from my Stash User's System.

Now what do I do with the pieces I have? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Any suggestions? Maybe make snowball blocks from them...whatever...anyway I now have a bagillion (400) of waste half square triangles. I added them to the bagillion (400)I had from the first quilt. SO I guess all is not lost.

Saturday was a productive sewing day. Nice and sunny and a pleasant distraction from my family troubles. Too bad I wasted my time and fabric!

I do have all 50 fabrics cut for my postagestampquilt swap on Yahoo. They simply need to be sorted in 25 piles. A task that I have to lock the cats from the room! They are very unhappy with ANY closed doors. But I do not need any kitties helping me sort my neat piles. Thank you.


Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Twilight Block quilt done ,pink/brown Star Struck done, teaching quilting and what kind of bird is this?

I was in a swap on Yahoo. This swap was called Twlight Swap. Only black, red, gray or white were allowed. The blocks were 12" finished. I made another block to replace the "odd" one in the next picture. It just did not play well with the others.

Anyway, the quilt measures a perfect 60" square. Hubby's artistic eye says it is done. I will leave it on the wall for awhile to see if anything hits my artistic eye. I think it is done too.
I need a bigger or another designwall. It ends up being a catchall for leftovers.

There was a small bit of gold in the black fabric which was a no no. It just did not make the cut for me.

Does anyone out there know what kind of bird this is?
The poor thing kept flying into the window. It was all by itself. I saw no others of it's kind. Maybe it was seeing itself in the window and was trying to join others. There were plenty of my House Sparrows feeding and the squirrel was in the bush too. So there was a lot going on. And this poor little bird was trying to get into the window.

The bird appeared very healthy. Just determined to enter the house through the window.
Now those of you with inside kitties can only imagine how my 5 were reacting to this bird.

It was also perching on the window sill and staring into the house with no fear. It seemed to be watching me frantically getting photos and looking through my bird books. Yes, I am a bird watcher big time. That was one big reason I moved my sewing machine to under the picture window.


As soon as I moved to pin up the Twight quilt, MaggieMae took my chair away. The poor thing can really not even groom herself. Too much DENSE fur and a short face make for a daunting task for my little Persian tortie-point.
I take her outside for her weekly major brushing. But she does get lightly brushed everyday.
She hates the outside brushing. I use a different comb that gets the tangles out of her undercoat. I try my best to not pull too hard. But the teeth of that wonderful comb do seem to be a little on the sharp side. And her skin is sooooooo tender. Like a little girl with long hair that cries when it gets combed. MaggieMae cries real tears when I take her outside. She chokes and sobs like I am killing her. But once back in the house she carries no grudge. Everything is fine between us.

My pink/brown Star Struck has reached the "borders all on" phase. And the backing and binding are all made too. She is ready for quilting. I want to keep this one!
There are 10 quilts on the back of my quilting room door in the same condition. I cannot keep up with myself! Anyone else have that problem?
I purposely allowed you all to see the background in the above picture. The room was my sewing room. It is now my fabric prep/storage room. I cannot believe that I used to cram myself in there for hours on end. I have a "big board" that I leave up all the time. LOVE IT! And one of those new Reliable Velocity digital irons. LOVE IT!
In my spare time I am teaching quilting to this sweet lady, Jann. She has been bitten by the quilt bug real bad. I wish she lived closer. It is quite a drive for her to come to my home. Would you believe she found me through this blog??????? About six months ago. I take it as a compliment that she wants me to teach her.
And there is Macy as usual in the thick of things. She loves it when I have visitors so she can share her lovliness.
All five of the kitties like Jann. So she is a welcome guest anythime.
I did a major cleaning in our bedroom and found 17 of Macy's favorite toys. The round rings from under twist-off caps, strings and feather balls. She leaps in the air when we toss them. And she brings ALL her toys to us to play with her. Just like a dog. She fetches all of them. She will even bring them closer if we cannot reach while playing. She looks so very content in this picture.
And another funny thing....when the food bowl gets low enough (but not empty) to see the china bottom she leaves toys in the food. We do not know if she is hoping we see the toy and fill the bowl or if she is telling the other cats that what food is left is hers!








Friday, November 6, 2009

Christmas Lights done!

I used Autumn colors in my Christmas Lights. I will call this quilt my Fall Lights. I love it! The borders added so much pizazz to it. They frame it perfectly. I cannot wait to quilt it.
Here it is without borders. I started assembling this morning at 7:00 a.m. and I was done at 11:30 a.m. I liked the quilt but was not IN Love with it at this point. I really do like "on Point" settings. Seems as if you need less blocks to get a bigger quilt!


Here is a closeup of the fabrics I used.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween Pumpkin and Macy in the basket

My hubby is so artistic. He was allowed to finally make his "vomit" pumpkin he has been wanting to do for years. The Trick or Treaters really got a kick out of the pumpkin.
Macy's turn in the basket. Bess and Baby LOVE this basket. I only ever see them in it. Today I found my Macy in it. Now to get pics of Pearl and MaggieMae in the basket and my list will be complete.

I also made this construction pillowcase for my greatgrandson. It matches his construction quilt and toybag I also made. His BD is November4th. He will be three already!


Purple Kaleidoscope quilt DONE!

I made a pillowcase to gift with the finished quilt. I still need to go buy a pillow!
Quilting process. Can you see the three helper kitties?????

And here it is...all done. Whew!

I cannot thank Elaine Adair enough for inspiring me with this wonderful ruler and designing options.