Cats, squirrels and spool block progress

Our Macy is so special. She fetches toys like a dog and we know she understands what we say. When her food bowl gets near empty she brings the bowl toys.
So funny. Her newest favorite toy is a piece of string from a grass weed whacker.

DD#1 braided my hair yesterday. I so need to get a trim to straighten up my self mutilation. It lasted all day and overnight.

This is some of the fabric that I bought at Quilts and Friends in Roanoke Indiana. We were hired to play during a sale day for the above shop. Of course after staring for two hours as we played and sang I could not NOT buy fabric.

The quilt is still in it's design mode...more to follow.

As I work on the butterfly quilt I am cutting into the swap strips and making spool blocks. Some of the fabric were too light for the spool body but I was able to use them as the backgrounds.

The paper shows 190 made but with yesterday's sewing session I now have 200 even sewn. 1/4 of the way to the 800 needed...

Here is a closeup of our newest squirrel family. The mommy squirrels all bring the babies from their birthing nest to our trees. I am sure it is the food supply. We have two families right now in the front trees. There are occasionally some territory squabbles. But we can stop them by adding more peanuts to the argument. They then get so busy eating that they forget to fight with each other!!!

But this little baby has a very gray cast to her fur. It will make her easily recognized when taming. She is already quite comfortable with me being close to her. I make them peanut butter sandwiches and slices of apples with peanut butter. And tons of raw peanuts and sunflower seeds.

I have all of the quilts quilted that I made from Craig Robison's shirts. He would have been the grandfather to the new arrival (due in June) SO I thought it was appropriate to use the shirt fabrics as baby quilts. I managed to squeeze 4 quilts and all have Minkee backing!!!

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My Precious Pearl & eleven inch strip swap

The quilt she is on is NOT for the cats. It is my very own Minkee backed lap quilt. If I get up I MUST fold it up or this happens!!!
Pearl loves the backing so much she hugs it!!!!

I started a new swap over on the Yahoo quiltvilleswap group.
We will be swapping 11" strips of fabric with ten fabrics to each set.
Washed or unwashed fabrics...well just go join the group and read the rules in the Files section there.

Second Easy Street completed.

I am totally in love with this color scheme of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street pattern.
I had to remove one offending 31/2" square this morning. Somehow two of the same fabric made it all the way through final row assembly before I noticed that they were side by side. DH said to leave it...but I decided to replace it. If it would have been a more subtle fabric I might have left them together. But it was the hot pink leopard that simply just screamed at me!!!
So I fixed it and sewed the final seam this morning.

Right now it measures 65" square. I have a nice piece of pinky-brown batik that I will add as the 1 1/2"  outer border...then I may add a bunch of the extra 4-patches around it then add some of that marvelous striped border that I out on my Minkee backed quilt.

I use a piece of batting to lay out my blocks as a removable unit if I get interrupted from sewing. I can simply fold the batting over the pieces and put it away and they stay put.

I have LOTS of extra pieces. Someday they will become another pink/brown quilt!

I have so much help while sewing. Each of my four kitties has to try to claim the batting as a great resting area.

I have the best husband. He is a wheeler/dealer. He found a used bass amp that I can lift!!! It weighs only 35 pounds. We had to drive a little over an hour to go buy it. But it was quality alone time for us.

Macy (on the right) has the rewarding job of moving any kitty so she can steal their heated sleeping spot. For one of the other kitties to remain after she attempts the steal is nothing but amazing! So I had to photograph this episode as evidence that they all can share.
Macy and Pearl came from the same breeder. But different breeding lines of course. I really feel confident buying from this breeder. The cats are raised underfoot in their home and are people lovers.
Happy Sunday everyone.
Bonnie Hunter is doing a quiltcam in 15 minutes!!!
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A mitered quilt and a Disappearing 9-patch

Two of our guild members presented a program on some very different piecing/cutting ideas. They called the technique "disappearing 9-patch".

One of the results is a sweet little pinwheel showing up in the middle.

Don't ask how I did it as I do not remember now. But I did sew it the day after the meeting. It was very much a liberating day. But that was 12 days ago and lots of fabric has been through my sewing machine since then.

I was digging through my backing supply and ran across this border fabric that I had been saving hoarding. Darn it! I am going to use it. And I did!

 
I love how a mitered border adds so much more drama than a plain border. Don't get me wrong...I do plain borders a lot. But this Medallion Edtya Sitar inspired topper needed a BEAUTIFUL border. There is not very much pink in the quilt but the border still compliments it just right.

Here it is before quilting. I really enjoyed making this design. I can see myself making another one in a more controlled pallet. Almost an explosion of color from the center out maybe...like a colorwash. Hubby likes to help arrange those type of designs. He has such an artistic eye.

Everyone I have ever gifted a quilt to has also received a quilt with a Minkee backing. But I have never made one for me.
It is all quilted now and just waiting for me to have a spare moment so I can lie under it. But where are the spare moments???

I have lots more photos on the camera...I will post more soon!

I am loving this cooler weather...a couple good freezes and the bugs are almost gone!!!! WHOOOHOOO!
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Zoey's birthday quilt is done!

I love using Minkee as a backing on a quilt. And my Grand daughters all request at least one Minkee quilt a year. I try to oblige if I have the right color on hand. My GD Zoey loves purple. I made her a fun 9-patch purple cat quilt and the Minkee I had goes perfect with it!
I just did simple straight line quilting on the quilt. And the back is so yummy I just want to pet it!
And I also made three Project Linus quilts exactly like Zoey's quilt. They will be turned in next Monday at Quilt Club meeting. I used up lots of fabric. And that was my goal! Shop the stash!

 I found another use for those pencil boxes. My bolts tend to slide/lean when I remove one for cutting. Then I had a lightbulb moment and slid an empty box to hold the place on the shelf. It worked great!

And here is just one view of my fabric cutting room. My wonderful DH made me shelving that spans the entire room . And this is just one view of the cutting room. I will take some more pics soon.
I am so amped up waiting for the first cutting/sewing clue from Our Bonnie Hunter. Once again she is generously doing another Mystery Quilt for her fans. The title is Orca Bay. You can see it at her blogspot. (http://www.quiltville.com)
Colors are reds, blues,blacks and neutrals.
So, I added a quick swap to the Yahoo group "quiltvilleswap". I am doing a washed fabric black/white swap due on December 1st. I am thinking these swappers could all use some reds too if they are planning on doing Bonnie's Mystery.
I am crossing my fingers here in beautiful Indiana!!!!