Halloween Cat Quilt is Finally Done

I put the final stitches in the binding of this little quilt last week.  This is one of my oldest UFO's.  I pieced this top when I'd only been quilting for about 6 months way back in 2001.  Not having a clue or the skills to quilt it, it sat for all these years.  I finally felt comfortable with my FMQ skills earlier this summer to give it a go on quilting this quilt.  I just did a simple loop-de-loop in the cat blocks and then did my wavy line thing in the sashing and borders.  I am pleased with how it turned out and now I can display it for Halloween.  If I remember.  I am not the best about decorating for holidays, especially one that I'm not too thrilled about.  Don't get me wrong, I love the whole color scheme of Halloween, and love making Halloween quilts and stitched pieces.  I just don't like the actual holiday itself.

So here is the finished Halloween Cat quilt:

A couple of close-up pictures of the blocks and the quilting.  I used Sulky Rayon thread in purple and orange for the quilting - purple in the blocks and orange in the sashing and border.

A peek at the back:

And finally, a picture of our own Halloween cat, Mr. Echo, lounging in the sun:

Lots of Cat Mats Done!

When I took my trip to North Dakota recently, I took a lot of yarn with for crocheting cat mats on the plane and when visiting.  It was definitely worth the luggage space it took up.  I even bought two more skeins of yarn while I was there since I was quickly using up what I had brought with me.

I got six done while I was back home.  This picture only has five mats in it because the sixth one was completed in the car on the day I left and I didn't get a picture.  All of these mats were left with my sister to mail to me along with some other things of hers that she is passing on to me.  These weighed just enough to put me over the weight limit for my checked bag.  They also couldn't be put in my carry on because that was jam packed with all of the fabric I had purchased, which weighed far more than the cat mats.  So, they had to stay behind.

I've gotten a few more in this style completed since I've gotten home.  Actually, the colorful one in the picture below was mostly completed on the plane ride home.

I had some other yarn I wanted to use up, a melon color and some black, but rather than alternate the two to make the type of cat mat in the above pictures, I used a J hook and crocheted with two strands at a time, one of each color.  I've never done that before and it was surprisingly easy and didn't take long at all to whip up the mat below.  I will definitely use that technique again, maybe for a scrappy rug for the house.  The colors in the picture look more orange and black, but the reddish yarn was really a melon color.  This style is really thick and sturdy.

Flannel Baby Quilt - Quilting is Done

As I mentioned in a previous post, my original gift idea for our nephew's new baby was a flannel baby quilt using a large piece of flannel that I had in my stash.  I subsequently found a lightweight crocheted afghan at the thrift store in new condition and sent that instead.  The flannel quilt will probably end up being the baby's Christmas gift. 

This was definitely a quick and dirty quilt.  The flannel piece was just large enough that if I cut it exactly in half I would end up with a quilt about 3 feet by 5 feet, plenty big to lay in the crib or on the floor.  A few weeks ago Dawn and I had a quilting day and I spent the day basting and quilting this quilt.  The quilting was simple too as I just quilted on the wavy lines in the flannel, alternating every other line so it wasn't too dense.  The binding will be a blue moda marble from my stash.

Here is the full quilt.  Not the greatest picture, but I didn't want to take the time to vacuumn up the dog hair from the shedding dogs in order to lay it on the floor.  You can't tell how bright the fabric really is in this picture. Click on the close-up picture below this one and you will see the true colors of the fabric.  It's really quite bright and Dawn said that all the activity on the print will provide visual stimulation for the baby.  Who knew?  I just bought the fabric because it was cute and on sale :-).

Confessions of a Fabriholic

I figured before I show you all of the fabric I bought before and during vacation, I better fess up to some other stash enhancing that I've done this year that I never posted about.  I just finished washing all of the fabric I've bought so far this year and let me assure you, it's ALOT.  We are already in a drought and I don't think I have helped the situation one bit.

Given that I have gone a bit overboard with the buying this year, I have challenged myself to a "no-buy" goal from now until the end of the year, when I will use the GC my sister got me from the Fat Quarter Shop when they had GCs for 20% off over the 4th of July holiday.  Given that I already have the GC in my hot little hands, and have had it since I arrived home on July 9th, I'd say I'm doing pretty good so far having not even been tempted to use it.  Have I mentioned that the GC is for $200????  But it only cost $160.  Great deal, huh?  I kicked in $10 and the rest came from my sister.  I am making her more table runners so the GC is what I got in exchange.

Are you ready?  Here goes.  This is everything else I've bought this year that I haven't already posted about.  You might want to grab a cup of your favorite beverage and maybe take a bathroom break too as this is going to get a bit long.  What can I say?  Some people can't resist shoes while I can't resist fabric *sigh*.

During tax season I finally broke down and bought one of the Fat Quarter Shop's grab bag boxes that I'd been eyeing for quite some time.  These boxes contain 12 pounds of fabric.  That's alot of fabric in case you were wondering.  They were on sale for 58.49, so a pretty good deal for that much fabric.  FYI, they are REALLY cheap right now for anyone that is interested - $41.99, plus $10 shipping.  I removed some fabrics from the box for my post tax season giveaway and this is what I had left.  As you can see, most of what was in the box are good size pieces of fabric.

The darks:



The mediums:

And the lights:

I'm not sure when I bought these batiks, but it was on one of mine and Dawn's quilting days when we stopped by the shop near our houses.  I think she needed something and I was supposed to just be along for moral support, but of course I had to get these, because I'm weak I tell ya.

Then along came a sale at Burgundy Buttons, which is a great on-line shop.  I found them through Ebay, but you can buy directly as well.  Anyway, this older Moda bundle was on sale for $60.  It's Soiree by Lila Tueller.  It fit right in with my new infatuation with "modern" fabrics.  It's the first and only fat quarter bundle I have ever bought.  So far *grin*.

And then there was the quick stop at the Quilted Apple in Phoenix while I was across town for a chiropractor appointment.  These lovely items came home with me.  A couple of yards of black dot fabric for a potential border, a batik, and two rolls of 6 inch strips.  They sell the rolls of strips for $5.00 and there are 12 different fabrics cut 6 inches by WOF.  Great for a scrap quilter like me.

Hmmm, what else.  Oh yes.  The pre-cut sale at Fabric World right before Easter - 25% off all pre-cuts.  I have also developed a fascination for Layer Cakes, so off I went.  I was really weak at this point as Easter weekend this year was right before the end of tax season, so I really needed something fun.  I got two Layer Cakes and two Charm Packs of Butterfly Garden:

And two Layer Cakes and one Charm Pack of Blush.  The charm pack was used almost immediately, so it did not make it into this picture.

Finally, I loved the Blush line so much that I decided that I had to get some coordinating yardage of my favorite pieces so I could make a decent size quilt or two from this line.  I know, a scrap quilter wanting to limit themselves to just one line of fabric in a quilt.  I couldn't believe it either.  Here is the yardage I purchased from Fabric Shack, my favorite on-line shop.

I think that's it.  Congratulations if you made it this far in the post!  Soon I will post the sequel to my fabriholic confessions when I show you all of the fabric I bought before, during, and unfortunately after vacation, although the after vacation fabric wasn't much and most of it was the backing for the kit I won from Carrie. 

Cross Stitch Pieces Framed & Ready to Hang

One of my goals for this year was to get these two cross stitch pieces professionally framed.  I finished the stitching on both of these pieces in 2009, so for once I wasn't dilly dallying too much to get them framed and on the wall.  We won't discuss the year in which the stitching was started.  I waited patiently until Joann ETC had a 60% off your entire framing order coupon, which happened to be in June, and then took both pieces in to have them framed.  They were ready for pickup when I returned from my trip to North Dakota.  Can you believe that the framing for both of these pieces with custom frames and museum quality glass was only $120?  Plus tax, of course. 

I've found that the key to getting pieces framed at places like Joann's is to find a good framer there that understands how to properly frame needlework using silk pins and stretching and then make sure you ask for them to do the work.  I know how to do it, and Joann's will let you do the stretching and pinning part yourself, but I find it's more cost effective to just pay the pros to do it if I'm buying a custom frame, etc.  If I am using a frame I have on hand, then I do everything myself.  Don't even get me started on what Michael's did to some of my pieces.  Never again will they touch any of my stitched pieces.

The first piece is by Shepherd's Bush, whom you cross stitchers out there will probably recognize since they've been around so long.  I love their pieces.  This one was a kit called Old Glory.  It's stitched on linen with silk thread.  Interesting lesson learned with this piece.  I have always washed my silk pieces before framing, even though they say not to, and I've never had a problem.  Until this piece.  I used the Orvis soap for needlework like I've always done, but this time, one of the green silks used in the flower sections completely lost all of it's color.  Everything else was fine, but I had to take all of that stitching out and re-do it. 

The second piece I had framed is "B" by M Designs.  I've met Mary, the designer behind this lovely piece, and for a time we talked frequently via email and on the phone.  She's a great lady!  Anyway, she charted an entire alphabet using this letter styling.  The letter "B" is the only one I've stitched so far and it represents our last name.  I stitched this piece on hand-dyed linen with Silk 'n Colors thread in Amethyst.

And for the kitty fans, here's Sassy helping me with some of the fabric I washed last week.  As a side note, that dot fabric is one that I picked up in North Dakota.  Isn't is great?

Testing the pile:

She also made sure that the drying rack was ready for the laundry I was doing:

She's so helpful!

Scorpions!

I mentioned in a previous post that scorpion season is upon us here in the desert.  Well, we have just had something happen that has never happened in the previous 13 summers that we have been in this house.  I was working away in my office and DH was in the kitchen when we suddenly heard hissing and what we thought was a cat getting beaten up by one of the others.

Not so much.

DH went to investigate, as did Koda.  He got there in time to see Echo take off running.  When he caught up with him he realized that he had a scorpion in his mouth, as evidenced by the tail hanging out.  Thankfully, Echo chose to drop the very much alive, adult scorpion at that point and DH stomped it.  Oy vey.  We've caught both Maya and various cats batting at scorpions or following them as they walk across the floor, but NEVER have we caught any with one actually in their mouths.

Echo seems to be fine and in fact has been hunting the same area hoping for more new toys to play with.  I think I would have stroked out seeing that tail hanging out of his mouth.  This after he ate some yarn yesterday and thankfully threw it right back up before it could do any damage.  I know how dangerous stuff like that is for cats, so I'm normally very careful with the yarn, especially around Echo who I know likes to chew on stuff like that, but he got into some anyway.

Afghan for Nephew's New Baby

One of our nephew's on DH's side of the family had a new baby on July 10th.  Ok, he didn't have the baby, his significant other did, but you probably already figured that out.  By the time I found out when the baby was due, I didn't have much time to come up with a gift.  The first plan I came up with involved using a large piece of children's flannel from my stash, cutting it exactly in half and using half for the front and half for the back.  By doing do, the quilt ended up just the right size for a baby and I had an easy to make gift.

After I got the quilting done on the quilt, I ran across this afghan at the thrift store.  I had a coupon for 30% off, which made the price about $1.50.  Can you believe it?  $1.50!!!  It is in perfect condition and much more appropriate right now for a summer baby.  So I snapped it up and both Dawn and I thoroughly examined it to make sure it was indeed gift worthy.  I ran it through the wash and it's been wrapped and mailed and is on the way to it's recipients.

Here is the full afghan:

 And here's a close-up of the pattern and yarn.  It's really pretty in person.

It is kind of depressing to see items like this end up in a thrift store after someone put so much work into it, but I'm glad I was able to rescue it and hopefully give it to a good home, provided the parents like it and will use it.

Oh, and I had an unplanned break to my work the other day. 

Why, you ask? 

Well, it could have been this that did it:

You could never accuse Echo of not getting comfortable wherever he's at.  I know sooner snapped the picture when he suddenly rolled into the cup full of pens, etc., behind him, which of course tipped over hitting all of the other junk around it on my desk (yes, my desk is very messy right now), and startling him into full awakeness, which of course knocked more things over and off the desk.  He's such a dork sometimes :-).