Catnip sachets and an UNWELCOMED visitor

Last Fall, Hubby and I harvested our own catnip. We hung it upside down in the garage to dry over the Winter.
This Spring I cleaned it and got that huge pickle jar full of homegrown catnip.

I ended up making 75 catnip sachets just from scrap cat fabrics. I donated all sachets but one to a Steam and Engine show in our area this August.

Of course I had catnip sachet testers during the construction phase.

Bess is very, very happy!!!!

And we had an unwelcomed visitor during the sewing phase.

This female beautiful black cat comes around a couple times a week. There is not a white hair on her. She has all her claws. And I see no signs that she has any kittens. I hope she is well cared for by a home around here. But they should NOT let cats roam here in the city. It breaks my heart.

She seems tame and allows us to pet her. I see no fleas or ear mites. She also has no desire for food offered. She just sits in my birdfeeder and irritates my Macy. Macy growls and gets puffy tail. She eventually gets hoarse from growling. The black cat is totally unaffected by Macy's display.

My longarm quilter worked her "magic"

All freehand...no marking...every stitch perfect. What can I say???
Lisa Olinger is a magic quilter/artist!

Honest...I was ready to give up. My LA quilter has had this quilt since the end of February.

I had told her I was in no hurry but I did plan on entering it into the big show here in August.

Unfortunately, she did not remember me saying that.

She returned it just 6 days beyond the entering deadline. I still tried to get it in but they refused.

Oh well...maybe next time.

Considering I have never felt that my work deserved to be seen in a show of this magnitude, I am not missing what I have never had.
My LA quilter is Lisa Olinger...an amazing seamstress/quilter/friend. She did her magic all right! There are feathers all around each long legged star. A ditsy spiral in each star center. And she did such a great job. I am speechless.

The next show for the venue I wanted to enter in is in two years. Sigh! I will have to wait. In the meantime, the quilt looks great on my bed. I may have to use it this winter. DARN!

I just finished the hand sewing of the binding. I enjoyed every inch of the sewing. I really liked this quilt while sewing it. I am totally in love with it now.

My wonderful Hubby gave me a Collage photo program. It was really easy to use. The pictures above were taken in February 2010...the dead of winter...a sunny dry day. So I layed it in the driveway. I knew the driveway was clean as I had been shoveling it daily and knew every foot of that concrete!

I struggled with this design, Amelia Earhart by Kaye England. Not in the sewing of it; but she had the design just stopping and not finishing around the edge. So...this was my first time followers...I designed the edges to finish the design. It took me two days but was sooooo worth the time and effort. I do not know how Bonnie Hunter does it with designing quilt after quilt. I felt as if I was "birthing" a baby!

I used every one of the 47 fabrics that were in the quilt in the binding. All the fabric came from my LQS "A Quilt of Many Colors" in Leo, Indiana. The exception was the background toille', it was a stash find. I must have been saving it for this quilt! And I have been saving all of the fabrics from my stash using. They did make it into my last Postage Stamp Swap. I needed 50 different fabrics and here I had 47 all pressed and "together". Now I can work them into my future scrap quilts!

I cut one 10" piece of each fabric. That gave me lots more binding than I needed (470"). I needed 346 ".

But I wanted to err on the safe side. I have never done a binding with such short pieces. I love the effect! Only one corner had a seam really close but it all folded and behaved.

That is why I enjoyed hand sewing the binding on. I got to say hello to each fabric and tried to see if any of the same fabric was close to the binding. Some were! Almost like an "I SPY".

Buckeye Beauty Final border & a GIVEAWAY!

I know I said I was going to add another row of squares to the outside....
but Hubby (Whose artistic eye is 20/20)...said it was enough and to just frame them with the cream again.

I cannot wait to quilt this one. I want to try Bonnie Hunter's way of doing Baptist Fans without marking!

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2010/05/questions-on-fans.html

And doesn't it look great just thrown across a chair?

On the right you can see my quilt police (Bess).

Really she is a thread sucker. And a thread pooper...what a mess...and she has also eaten two threaded quilting needles and then needed surgery to remove the needles from her tummy and the thread that was wrapped around her tongue. You would think she would learn that this hobby is NOT good for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is now too big for my design wall. I so want to move the design wall to another part of the room. I could spin it and have the entire length going up and down instead of across. This would involve major moves in this room.

Sounds like a good time to paint too!!!!! Oh James!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dionne has a great giveaway over on her very colorful blog. She says she heard me on the radio interview with Bonnie Hunter and Pat Sloan. That was such a hoot!! I cannot believe I got through to talk to Our Bonnie.

Anyway here is her blog address. Tell her I sent you!!! http://sewmanyquilts.blogspot.com/

Second Buckeye Beauty quilt w/borders

I tried using the units I made for the Crabapple quilt. But since the center of the quilt is based on 4-patches I felt it did not do justice to the quilt. Never fear....I will use these for something yet!

Here is my choice. I decided to use the same size patches as in the center of the stars after I added a 2 1/2" cream border. Everything fit perfectly!

Now I think I need to add another row of patches to mimic the 16 patches in the centers.

But need to stop sewing for the day. I have a doctor's appointment....DARN!!!

Second Buckeye Beauty quilt

Can you see the stars??? love this layout. I put in a DVD (How the West was Won) and assembled the entire quilt by the end of the movie yesterday.

I am going to pull out those extra Postage Stamp units I made when doing Bonnie Hunter's Crabapple quilt. I am crossing my fingers that they will surround and compliment this smaller quilt. It is 54" square right now.

I mailed away my 24 sets for another swap of these units in Autumn colors.

More quilts to follow!

We're singing again!

I met my husband through music. I have to admit I fell in love with his music first. The rest is history!
We played out and still managed to hold down 2 full time jobs. This was years ago.

Fast forward to my back surgery. They went through the front of my neck to add bone/pins/rods.
I never throught that my voice would be damaged from the surgery. The doctor said that since I could still speak that there was no damage. No need to tell you how CRUSHED I was.

So, I am sewing away on the Buckeye Beauty quilt and here my hubby comes with his famous guitar and I sang and sewed while he sang and played. What a wonderful end to our long weekend together.
Now, my voice is much lower. But I was able to sing! Some of our songs seem too high for both of us. But I bet that after we really loosen up the ol'e layrnx we may be able to hit those notes again.
Did I mention that I love his music???? He writes all our songs.

And here is the result of my weekend sewing. It is 49X65. I see a narrow light border and then some random squares all around followed by another cream border.

I also started another quilt with the same units but with a different layout.
The end result looks like large Ohio Stars. I need to make some more 4 patch units.

Buckeye Beauty Blocks

Why oh why did I wait so long to sew on these units?
I was in a swap 6 months ago for these units. I just mailed away 24 more sets for another swap and then played with the ones I had. I think I have enough units to make three quilts. Very scrappy. I was happily sewing away today. Even though it is Friday it feels like a Saturday to me.

Here is my package as it was waiting to be mailed away

Here is my sewing area while working on the Buckeye Beauty units. Happy chaos!

This delightful little pincushion was gifted to me last week from a fellow guild member. Just because she said. Lovely Rita (not a meter maid) knows how much I love kitties. She was my secret sister this past year. I so enjoyed seeing her using the gifts I had given her during the year. THANKS RITA! And this little beauty looks like my two dark torties.