I love neutrals!

 And it shows that I love neutrals. I invaded the dreaded quilting/storage room and harvested neutrals that have been buried and have not made it into any quilts or swaps yet.
I guess I was saving them for my next life!
I cut 1/2 yard hunks off 54 neutrals. Yes...you read that right 54! There was 2-3 yards from each fabric left. Once again these were purchased before I discovered scrap quilting.
And I did find two chocolate browns and added them to the group for cutting.
I think I wore out my iron and I used a whole bottle of spray starch!
Now all I need to do is cut into these lovelies. I will have two sets of 25 neutrals for my Yahoo swap! Yes!

 Love my Baby...she always gets into any container she can. Even if the container is too small.

 Here is one of the three baby squirrels. Their mother is the one that climbs the door. Stubbie allows them to feast here too. I watched the Mother bring each of those babies from somewhere in the addition. She carried them one at a time in her mouth. The youngin's curled around her body. She rested every few feet. And them climbed the spruce tree with each of the babies. I bet she was worn out! Then after a few days the babies ventured down the tree. They are still shy of me and the feeding ritual I have with their Mommie and Stubbie. I am looking forward to watching them grow. Their little tails are sooooo sweet! I think this one is a boy.

Here is Baby and Bess helping me to quilt. They always have to test drive the quilts. This one is destined for Grand daughter Zoey.

Tubs and stacks and cats and squirrels

Yes, I have many cats and LOTS of material. I do drape towels over any unprotected material to prevent too much cat hair collecting as they lay everywhere.

And I mean everywhere. MaggieMae has to be close to me. I try not to disturb her nap.

I quick trip to my LQS happily ended up with me bringing home 26 FQ's who needed a home. I also try to buy a neutral. I never know when I need some. A quilter's stash needs neutrals.

The temp outside is slowly melting the deep snow. We had freezing fog this morning. And a cloudy day. I felt the squirrels needed a treat so I gave them some apple slices. This young squirrel ate his apple in front of the window so I could take his picture.

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.

Bonnie was at my home! and Star Gazing from Bonnie Hunter's Scraps and Shirttails

EVIDENCE! Bonnie was at my home on Friday September 4th! She is entering Teri's address into that great GPS tool, a Tomtom! It gets our Bonnie to where she needs to be. Or very close anyway!

I managed to ask my "across the street neighbor" Sharon, to come and take a picture of Bonnie, myself and Carol after we had pigged out at Rack&Helen's. It is a great new/old eating place here in New Haven, Indiana.

And me with our Bonnie.

And here is the Star Gazing all assembled. Those sashing strips were tricky but the end result is awesome! I still need to add a narrow border and then make all the picket fence units. But for now it sure looks great!

As usual, whenever a quilt is laid on the floor for a picture, one of my five kitties has to investigate. Looks as if Pearl was the only one awake and I managed to get a couple great pictures of my Precious Pearl.

Looks as if she likes it. And the colors go with her so well.

Then I climbed two spaced stools and got the Star Gazing onto the design wall. I put lots of pins in the top area to prevent and stretching from the hanging. On the left are some leftover blocks from former quilts. Anyone know what they are?

Today I feel a bit hung over. My hubby's older brother, Ron Mohr, is currently in a PBA bowling competition. We watched him at the alley last night and then closed a great Mexican eatery afterwards. We were up way past our bedtime. So Hubby went to watch more playoffs today. I stayed home to finish my assembly.

Ron Mohr is currently in the LEAD!!!!!!!! You can check out his progress on my hubby's blog: In one Era and Out the Other. http://jimmohr.blogspot.com/

I found this sewing box in the clearence aisle at Walmart. I paid only $10 for the box. I love pink/brown combinations. The box is light and has all kinds of clever things on the inside and the outside.

The sections inside can be configured by moving the velcro or removed completely.

Little plastic side pockets. I do not think I would put sewing items in them while traveling but once at my location I could place the scissors or marking pens and grab them as needed.

And this side is advertised as a pin cushion. They are so very clever!!!!!

And here is my Bess. She was worn out from being the sewing/pressing supervisor today.

Progress on Christmas Lights in rainy Indiana

I love machine quilting and I love my cats. The problem is they will not wait until I am done with the quilting. Pictured are MaggieMae and Macy. My two torties.

I am all ready for the third installment of Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery. The pattern is called Christmas Lights. The fabrics I decided on will make this quilt be called Autumn lights. The gold is all leaves. The green is pinecones and evergreens. The brown is all pinecones. Yep! Autumn it is! My favorite time of year...next to Winter.

I still have good ties to my ex's family. His nephew just became a father to identical twin boys. The babes were early so they are still in the NICU. I made matching quilts for them. So far they can only be identified by their little bands. They are really identical! I plan on embroidering their names on the quilts before giving them to the lucky parents.

All done. I used chalk to mark the straight lines. Easy peasy quilting.

Thursday sewing marathon-White Chocolate

This is the second quilt of this same design I have made. With the first one I tried a quilt as you go method. The results were nice but the process was not. So this quilt will be for DD#1's BD in July. I plan on quilting it with cross hatching on my Janome6600P. I finished the backing today. It is all Wizard of Oz fabrics. Lisa has wanted something made with those fabrics since I bought them a couple years ago. I bought the sepia toned collection of panels and yardage. It was like making a puzzle to get it to fit the White Chocolate's measurements. But I did it!

I am in two other 4-patch swaps this summer. Actually I was in three. That first one is completed. The next mailing is the end of June. A totally scrappy swap. The last one I am doing with Bingo Bonnie at HGTV. These will be for Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery quilt. I love Bonnie's quilts. Lots of pieces and stunning settings. If you have never tried one of her quilts you are missing a great sewing adventure.

Anyway I wanted to show you all the 2" drawer. It is so full I can barely pick a strip out. I swear they multiply during the night!

And here is the stack of drawers I keep under the cutting table. I feed the drawers as I cut for other projects! The blank drawer is full of odds and ends...some strings and odd block pieces.

When I assembled the White Chocolate quilt I moved my "Big Board" into the livingroom so I could reduce walking through the house. I can only do this when hubby is at work. I really am taking over the entire house!

Here is the pattern I am using. McCall's Quilting August 2007 page 68. I assembled the block sections way back in 2007. So after I found the plastic box with all the pieces all I had to do was assemble them. I still have enough left for a third quilt. Can you tell I love neutrals??????

This is old news. The Pink/Brown is all done and has been claimed by the kitties of course.

I really love the Accufeed foot that was an additional accessory I had to buy for the Janome6600P. Best investment I ever made!

And a kitty picture of course. This is the back of Baby. She is so very fat. But such a sweetie. A gentle giant. I bottlefed her. I stole her from a feral cat colony when she was real young. So young that she needed me to be her mommy. Now she weighs 20+ pounds and is still my BABY!

Trying Marilyn Doheny's ruler and some kitty pics

I am on a pink streak. I am not complaining just observing! Here are two of the blocks using Marilyn Doheny's 45 Kaleidoscope Ruler.

I broke down and bought another speciality ruler. I am such a gaget girl. But this one I am actually using with ease! I was only going to make a couple blocks but now I have enough cut for the entire quilt. I thank Elaine Adair for blogging about this ruler.

Check out these two kitties. They NEVER get close to one another. Macy (the one on the left) must be heatseeking. She gets so very cold and I think she joined Pearl to siphon heat from her. No one but my hubby would get a kick out of this picture. Most people's cats seem to cuddle together. We have five cats who all want to be the only cat in the house. No one cuddles except with the humans.

Batik Virginia Bound progress report FEATHERS????

OH! My aching shoulders! This is only 1/3 of the quilt as I did decide to quilt it in sections and then join the sections. The finished size will be 144X120. I am using Quilters' Dream Wool batting. Oh my goodness do I ever love the feel of this batting. I want to buy a whole roll of the stuff. It is yummy to work with. I really like cutting batting from rolls. There are no wrinkles in it at all that way. I have to let the batting relax from the bag. I used two super queen size batts to have enough for this quilt. I will have a nice chunk left from each to use in something else.

Besides the obvious size of this quilt, I have to cope with kitty approval of the quilt. I step away to stretch and the kitties pounce on it. It is more than just seeing what I am doing. They also love the wool batting. It immediately radiates their body heat. When I first tried this batting I made them a small kitty mat. They all love it. And I have washed it many times and it holds up just fine.

So far just some straight line quilting to stabilize the piecework. In the batik part of the quilt I am using a nice chocolate brown 40 weight thread by Signature called Mother Goose. In the light sections I am using a King Tut varigated tans #996. I am using a 50 weight thread in the bobbin as I want this quilt to last a long time. I usually use Bottom Line in the bobbin. But decided I wanted a heavier thread instead. I am using a size 16 needle to make a good stitch through the tightly woven batiks. There is a lot of bulk where the seams meet. Even though I pressed those areas open there is a bump to deal with. I have been hand cranking the machine through those heavier areas.

I want to try feathers. I want to try feathers. I want to try feathers. Maybe if I say it enough I will get the courage to try some Sally Terry feathers. I bought her book and she makes it seem so easy. But this quilt is so very big!

So, what say you fellow quilters????? feathers?????????

mini 9-patches and some kitty pictures

I am in a swap on a Yahoo group. We are each making 10 sets of 10 different 3 1/2" 9-patches. I am nearly done making this little beauties. So I am sending in 100 blocks and will get 100 back! WHOOOHOOO!!!!!!

There are 5 cats in this picture. From left to right they are: MaggieMay, Pearl, Baby, Macy and Bess. Yes, I have 5 indoor cats. I love each of them!

MaggieMay is on the smaller table. Pearl is on the blue cutting mat. Baby is sitting like the sandbag she is (20#'s) and Bess is peeking out the window at the birdies.

Hubby just called and said he has seen robins today. It makes him so happy to know Spring is coming and that there will be no more snow plowing for him.

Cats and the quilting process

There is nothing more precious than a child or an animal asleep. They are so innocent and trusting. MaggieMay is leaning her head on a fold of my quilt. She can be so very trying at times. And then I find her like this and I forget all the troubles she can cause.

I was chosing thread colors for Arika's birthday quilt. I left the room for a moment to get the bobbin thread and Pearl decided this was a great place to take a nap. I used a "King Tut" thread for the top and a John Flynn "So Fine" for the bobbin.