Friday, August 19, 2011

Pets on Quilts Show

The 2011 Pets on Quilts Show is underway and hosted by Sewcalgal. I have not entered the show in the past, but decided to this year since I have plenty of both pets and quilts lol. So here is my entry.


I am currently owned by three fun, feisty felines that love to "assist" with my quilting.  All three were rescued from shelters here in Phoenix.  Echo and Sassy came home with me on the same day in October 2009 from the Arizona Humane Society and Tyrone was adopted in November 2005 from Sun Valley Animal Shelter.

Echo is by far my most reliable helper and can be counted on to be around nearly every time there is some quilting activity going on. 

He has a rather unhealthy obsession with cardboard boxes, so he is generally the first to show up to inspect a new box of fabric that has come in the mail.

He also loves to supervise the cutting and pinning of blocks.
 

He helps squish the fabric down so the lid fits on the container.

 
He rearranges blocks when the layout is not to his liking.
 

He makes sure that the quilting is "just right".


He checks finished tops to make sure they are soft and cuddly.

 
He supervises the basting, although he can't be left unattended with the pins as he has an unhealthy obsession with those too *sigh*.
 
 
And finally, he checks the finished quilts to make sure they are all ready to go.
 
 
Sassy is also a pretty good helper, although she is more selective about the activities in which she participates. 
 
One of her obsessions is the iron and she will get as close as she possibly can without getting burned.  She will often lay on one end of the ironing board while I am pressing on the other.  Goofy cat.
 
 
She also really likes to help me prewash and dry fabric.
 

Then she checks it again once it's dry to make sure it will be acceptable for our quilts.

 
On occasion, she will also supervise the actual sewing.
 

And sometimes she is just too exhausted to be any help at all!


Tyrone is my oldest assistant and now that there are younger workers available, he tends to take it easy and generally doesn't show up for work most days lol.  But here is in his glory days helping me to attach the binding to a king size quilt.
 

He also helped sew on a label one time.


As I said, Tyrone is pretty much retired these days from his quilting helping, at the ripe old age of 6!  What a life!  But no worries, as you can see, I've got two other helpers that are more than willing to pick up his slack lol.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Still Here...

This summer has just flown by!  I have so many things I planned to blog about but got so busy doing them that I didn't get time to write about them. 

I was back in North Dakota for two weeks in July and had a great time with S and his kids.  We got to take a little vacation to dig for fossils in Montana and I also got to see my dad, my sister, his parents and one sister, as well as an old friend while I was up there.  All in all it was a great trip.  There was one big unplanned thing that happened towards the end of the trip, but I will save that story for another post as I'm short on time right now.  Surprise, surprise lol.

After I got back and got caught up a bit with the house stuff, I started working on S's quilt that I am making him for Christmas.  I'm using Carrie Nelson's Radio Flyer pattern.  Lots and lots of cutting and piecing, but I'm having a blast with it and it is going fast.  I have been putting in a lot of sewing time and have a lot to show for it, but again, pictures and details will have to wait for another post.

Oh, and I sold the Texas ranch property and that sale closed this week.  I will miss it, but it is time to move on.  And further north as S's sister said lol.

Until next time, keep on quilting!