It's all about contrast!

Yes, it is all about contrast. No matter what you sew contrast makes or breaks your work.

We are so very lucky to be quilters in this day and age. I feel as if I am riding the big surf wave and winning!!!!
I am so grateful to designers like Bonnie Hunter (http://www.quiltville.com/) for education about letting loose. I am no longer a matchy/matchy gal. Gotta have that contrast!!!! Thanks Bonnie!

I could not resist trying my hand at the pineapple block Bonnie has posted about for a few months now. I have been saving all my little triangles just for this project. As you can see I love browns and it shows in my use of color with this paper-pieced project.

Contrast...contrast...contrast.... Bingo-Bonnie (http://www.bingobonnie.blogspot.com/) is a great teacher too. She gently helps us learn about contrast through her swaps.

This is my batch that will be mailed off to her as soon as I get permission to do twenty sets instead of ten sets. I am a mega swapper!!!!!!!!

Now..on the home front...the chipmunks are really storing food away for the coming winter season. This one raids the bird feeder daily much to Baby (on the left) and Bess's dismay. The chipmunk KNOWS that they cannot get to the feeder and I swear the eye contact just drives Baby up the window in a total attack mode!!! Unfortunately for my blinds as Baby weighs 22 lbs.

I love Bess's expression...

I cannot get enough of this method of quilting. Kudos again to Bonnie Hunter for showing us how to do the Freehand Baptist Fans without any marking. It just flows around the quilt.

And the back looks just as good as the front. I am using a deep rust YLI quilting thread.

MaggieMae tries to help me with the sewing...lots of help.

Her fur is coming in so nice. And she likes being brushed now since there are no more tangles.

Pink Smokey Mountain Stars done!

This is my second Smokey Mountain Star quilt. The first one went to a grand daughter. I loved it so much I had to make myself one. My pink fabrics were seriously depleted after the first one. What a good reason to buy more pinks! Anyway....I hand quilted this one. I love it!

I am using Bonnie Hunter's/Tonya's Freehand Baptist Fans! Love the process. I am not marking them at all. For the first arc I kinda scratch the surface with the needle then just "go for it"!!!

I am using a deep rust YLI quilting thread. Lots of contrast. My stitches really show up!

I hope my stitches improve with more practice. Bonnie dares us to step beyond our own boundries. I jumped!

Maggie's fur is growing back in so fast. She loves total body rubs and brushing now that she no longer has those tangles.

I do have another appointment for her this month. But I do not think she needs shaved again...maybe just a bath and painted nails!

I babysat this poor pooch. My brother-in-law had to leave for the day and I would not let him keep this pooch in his car. It is 90+ out there...one dead dog...so I said I would watch him.

He cried and cried...whimpered..scratched at the door..barked and then decided to help me quilt.I tied a big bow on him. Took him for three walks...did not want any pee on my carpet. He did not pee outside. And I worked on him as Caesar Milan recommends. He minded me.

And I taught him how to sing. Hubby really laughed at that! Said I was teaching him a bad habit. I thought it was the least I could do for this poor Texas dog. He really missed his master. A very loyal dog! He stayed with us for three days. And my five cats did very well considering they have never interacted with a dog before. Well...Baby was in the closet the whole time. I brought her food and treats. She must have sneaked out to use the litterbox. At least I hope she did.

I bought a new purse at a quilt shop. It is called a Miranda Bag. I really like it but there are no zippered pockets inside. I found the pattern online and will make myself one with the inside how I want it!

Our Bonnie with my Crabapple quilt

The following e-mail greeted me when I opened my program!

Hi there....this is Bonnie holding your top early this morning in my living room. She loved it and commented on your chosing the perfect tree border. I'll holler at you when I have it finished.
Hugs!!
Mary @ Quilt Hollow

I cannot begin to tell you all how thrilled and honored I am to have our Bonnie Hunter touching my quilt and Mary Flynn doing her magic quilting! The quilt blends so nice with Mary's house.
This was the first quilt I simply had to make following the release of her latest book "Adventures with Leaders & Enders"

Now how am I going to sleep tonight?

Update on the Unwelcomed visitor and Neutral Swap Squares

I wrote a note on a piece of muslin and attached that to a braid of selvedges then tied this on the black cat. (this was suggested by one of my followers)
The note said:
" I have been visiting 227 TwilloRun Drive and watching Sue sew.
Sue wants to know if I have permission to visit her."
The black cat did not mind the collar at all. She is so very tame.
A few days later she returned without the collar/note.
Now it has been over a week and I have not seen her. I hope she is inside her home and not dead on a road somewhere.

Here is a picture of my 1 1/2" squares for the neutral swap I have going on with the regular fabric swap over at Yahoo Groups.
There was a good response with signups. This will be a great addition to the swaps. No one can ever have enough neutrals.
The container on the left is the one I use to collect the strips before cutting. And yes, on the backside of my cutting table I have LOTS of bolts of fabrics.

Here is a close-up view.

Take your glasses off...back off ten feet...they are neutrals if they read as a solid!

HA!

Here are the first swapper's neutrals to arrive....lovely little gems!

Has anyone tried "PinMoors"?

They are a spongie little tip for the ends of straight pins. Makes straight pins an easy tool for quilting smaller items. I just did some diagonal quilting on this piece of fabric. The PinMoors keep the pin in place...no sticking your fingers or palms...they remove easily.

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/