QuiltsnCats

 January 30, 2025 Day 17 Amazing day. I feel good. Machine sewed binding on a quiltlet needing one, worked on the woven heart pillow top for the swap, discovered Snowy had an ingrown toenail and needed to go to the vet, made dinner, baked muffins and toasted the tops. and caught DH cheating on his AA meetings.  Dinner was good; spirited chicken, kasha, broccoli. Muffins are ok even toasted. Dana's friends Jim and Tammy came to get the leather sewing machines. I got the potato chip quilt top sewed together. Put it in the pile of things to go to a guild meeting, whenever I get to go to one. Made labels as to which month they belong in. Finished the hand sewing on the quiltlet for the next small quilt club -- hope I can go. I'm really feeling cabin fever.  I want to go to the Folsom quilt show. The Potato Chip Quilt They said "Betcha you can't make just one" I say "Oh yeah? Watch me"

January 18, 2025 Day 5  The last day to take the prednisone, thank goodness. That stuff made my glucose go to 345. Fortunately it is down by the next morning but rather scary to see it that high.  Last night was the first day of the five shots. DH got the pleasure of jabbing me.  I don't have the nerve to do it to myself yet. I just stood there with my eyes scrunched shut and let him do it. I'm trying to keep a log of symptoms, side effects, etc. so I know what to expect when in the following 8 chemo cycles. Have some vertigo today so I'm keeping the peppermint inhaler and compazine nearby in case the dreaded nausea/vomiting arrives. I'm really hoping I can skip that part. I did an online CraftNapa class by Pati Fried about making vignettes.  One of my creations: Preserved leaf with acorn I'm trying to be productive as long as I can; this is my February project for my little quilt club: It's 11 " by 12" and made from my basket of one inch scrap strips

 December 15, 2024 A quilty interlude.   Before Dad passed at one month short of 104 I was helping clean out closets and drawers.  In one drawer were several quilt tops and some applique blocks my great grandmother had made.  I estimated the blocks to be about 100 years old, made in the 1920s.  They were brown with age so I wasn't sure If I could restore them or not.  They were appliqued on a muslin that felt almost like a lightweight canvas,  We sure don't have any muslin like that now.  I held my breath and soaked them in Oxyclean for about six hours. The Oxyclean took away almost all the brown, just leaving a few light stains.  I put them together with red sashing.  Not quilted yet but here it is:

Retreat was wonderful. It was at Mercy Center, a convent (or maybe an ex-convent, not sure) and had nice immaculate private rooms (bathroom down the hall) and the food was good; excellent salmon  Friday night and yesterdays stew and biscuits looked and smelled delicious even thought I couldn't eat it due to my gluten allergy.  No worries -- I aways bring alternative food for situations like this. Friday I put together charity quilt top, my "guilt quilt" -- once I had that done I could feel free to work on whatever I wanted. My 18th charity quilt; I hope some little girl enjoys it. I sat with three of my sewing buddies. Kind of bittersweet since it will probably be the last time we will all be together as two of them are moving. We had a great time and even sneaked off for a couple hours to the nearest quilt shop. Our big well-lit room with view of rain and wild turkeys. Two of my friends busy at work; I think the other one was taking a nap. Two o...

Having spent yesterday going up to the hills with DH and then doing the shopping that should have been done a week ago (ran out of chocolate!), I had some catching up to do. My first-thing-in-the-morning waking up thing to do is turn on my phone and see what the 365 Challenge block is for the day. Oh my goodness did that wake me up fast! All the blocks so far have been 3 inchers so that is what I was expecting. Upon further investigating I (fortunately) discovered that we are now doing the center block, which is 18 ½ inches. Feb 28 This is the center; so tomorrow we add a couple borders to make it 18 ½ inches. Computers sure do odd things to colors; what looks to be yellow is actually cream and gold and those purpley triangles are really mostly blue. This is the one for the previous day: Feb 27 T Then I proceeded on to the Circa 2016 blocks. They are easy and so relaxing to do. These are bright and scrappy. I'm doing Westering ...

Today The guild had a Jelly Roll Race class so I went, even thoughI've made a couple of them already.  I used to be in a group that exchanged batik strips so I figured this would be a good use for some of it. I picked out reds, hot pinks, oranges, and yellows. I took a Featherweight as I didn't feel up to lifting the Bernina in and out of the car. A half empty spool of orange variegated thread. I'm into using up stash this year. I was into using up stash last year too but it didn't made a difference. I think someone is sneaking into my house when I'm sleeping and leaving fabric because I look at some of it and honestly can't remember buying it or what I used it for. So put on your sunglasses, here it is. Some strips were cut on an angle and some had squares in between. The squares were kind of an afterthought just to see what it would look like. The class suggested the name Tequila Sunrise. If you can't make it good make it bright! The Featherweight ...

Beautiful sunny day, a little windy in the morning but not at all cold. I could smell Spring on the wind. The plum tree has tiny green buds and I saw a tree in bloom in town coming home from our Valentine dinner. Violets are just beginning to bloom.  I've had daffodils bloom for Valentines Day every year for 30 years except this one. Lots of strappy green leaves but instead of the hundreds of blossoms we usually have there isn't a single one this year. Another drought victim :-( Today was the first day of the Splendid Sampler sew along and as could be expected it is a heart design. I love hearts. But I don't like appliqué. I would like it much better if I could still sew by hand, but I can't so have to do the fusible machine thing. It just isn't the same. I have lots of reproduction fabric so that's what this quilt will be. It is a cute little block anyway inspite of being done on the machine. Here is Hearts Aflutter: Here is the 365 challenge block; sorry...

Yesterday was a landmark day for me. I didn't use the seam ripper all day. I believe this is a first.  I made the 365 Challenge block and five Gypsy Wife blocks and finished the folding block station for the Splendid Sampler, all without using the seam ripper. Unfortunately I made up for it today assembling the center medallion for the Circa 2016 quilt. I kept getting the hourglasses turned the wrong way. Shops during Quilt Rush used to hand out pretty nice favors: charms for bracelets, rotary cutter holders, rulers, coin purses, tape measures, etc. But since the downfall of the economy such dandy items have become obsolete. The last several years they have handed out charms, the 5 inch fabric ones. The fabrics mostly are ones I wouldn't buy; probably from the bolts that have been on the half price shelf for the past year. If I owned a shop that's probably what I would do, too. Anyway, I had a box of these charms that I had no idea what I would do with. I decided to use...

I woke up to sunshine and blue sky--a beautiful day about 72 degrees. Most years we get a week of nice weather in January or February and I think this is it. I love it; it makes you believe that Spring really will happen. Another good thing about today was the vertigo was mostly gone. So I sewed. First I did the 365 Challenge block of the day -- that's my wake up exercise every morning. Then I did all of the various square-in-a-square blocks for the Gypsy Wife quilt. It's going to be one wild quilt. Not like my usual somber reproduction quilts. I guess everyone needs to climb out of the box now and then. The pictures look slightly askew because they are sideways and I forgot to turn them properly.                                                                               ...

                                                                  Superbowl Sunday. I wonder when it will be made a national holiday. Since it's always on Sunday everyone would get Monday off, thus giving them time to get over their hangovers. There's probably going to be a lot of people calling in sick anyway. I'm not a football fan, can you tell? I spent the day in my sewing room watching the Kitten Bowl and making more blocks for my Gypsy Wife.                                                                                                         Here are two ...

The mailman brought me Great Treasure today: The patterns for this years Little Women Club. There are a couple I won't be able to do as I can't do much handwork anymore due to RA in my hands but there will be enough to keep me busy inbetween all my other projects. A nice selection of Jo Morton fabric came with the patterns. I'm looking forward to using it. I'm glad there are more light colors this year as I usually run short on it. Wish there were more blues. After I got through petting and rearranging the fabric I made a few blocks for the Gypsy Wife quilt. I made the two blocks that are just 16 HSTs, the cute little heart block, and another whose name escapes me right now.  I wanted to make this bright and scrappy but I'm beginning to be afraid that it may be too bright, like put on sunglasses before you look at it. Or maybe it's just that I'm used to the more muted and somber reproduction fabrics I've been working with for the ...

Spent the morning sewing the last three 365 Challenge blocks; I had to go to my Civil War sewing group yesterday so got a little behind with these but I'm all caught up with them now. Until tomorrow morning, that is. Took a trip to the grocery store for more fresh veggies and to PetSmart for more cat food. DH treated me to dinner out at Golden Corral. I like it there as I can pick out  gluten free options .I hope -- time will tell. I really pigged out on the sweet potato fries sprinkled with cinnamon.  These are my 365 Challenge blocks for the past week. A couple of them were real challenges -- those teeny tiny ½" half square triangles and the T block. If were doing the easy blocks now I hate to think what they will be like by the end of the year. DH had to go out after we came home so I took the quiet evening time to finish up my homework from the class yesterday. Then I sewed up this week's Circa 2016 blocks. 28 hourglass blocks. I'm using up charm squa...

The mailman brought me treasure today! New books are always fun. Something else to keep me busy, at least until Jo's Little Women Club 15 comes out. I love my little quiltlets. The following quilts are some from Jo's Little Women Club #14 from 2015. It was the first year for me and was a lot of fun.  This is Gosling. I put off making it for a while as the ½" by 1" flying geese were rather intimidating. But I gave it a try and it came out rather well, and those baby geese weren't bad at all. Stars for Autumn. The colors didn't photograph quite right -- they look rather yucky in the photo but the are nice fall colors in reality. Lots of little hourglasses. This one went fast. Instant gratification.                     Little log cabin blocks in winter holiday colors. Snowy claiming Burgoyne Surrounded as her own. I want it on record that she is not my cat. She's my husbands spoile...

Temecula Quilt Shop is doing a quilt- along, with each step being posted on Fridays. This is for the second Friday: twelve nine patch blocks, 3 inch finished. Last year was my year to finish up UFOs and WIPs and I think I did pretty good, quilting six bed-sized quilts, piecing and quilting several others, completing all of the Jo's Little Women #14, and generally just getting projects done. Then there was the lull after finishing all that and before my Civil War group started it's 2016 project and Little Women #15 isn't out yet. So I started projects: the 365 Challenge (one block a day), Temecula's Circa 2016 (once a week), Barbara Brackman's Westering Women (one block a month), Gypsy Wife (whenever I can get to it), and my Civil war groups several blocks a month. And of course I want to do Jo's Little Women Club again (6-8 little quilts). When it rains it pours. I hope I can keep up with it all. Oh Sheesh! I just realized all those tops will have to be quil...

 Last summer we drove up to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon. One of the quilts exhibited intrigued me but I forgot about it on the drive home; we stopped at so many quilt shops that I gathered enough Row by Row patterns to make the quilt. This is the quilt from the show. Playing around online one day I found there was a pattern booklet. I didn't waste any time ordering it, even though it was rather pricey, and it came yesterday. So I made the first block for it. I'm going to use bright colors befitting a Gypsy Wife.

Independence Square Today I made the first block for Barbara Brackman's Block-a-month Westering Women. It went together fairly easily, only needing the seam ripper once  :-). I like reading the historical bits on her Civil War site and going to the links she provided. I have always enjoyed her books, especially Clues in the Calico and both volumes of America's Printed Fabric s.  Both of her blogs are very informative. Now we have to wait a whole month for the next block, but I think I can find a thing or two to keep me busy until then. The colors on the photo don't look like the real thing; the blue is a dark navy blue and the white is actually yellow.

Some years ago I cut up some fabric and put it in a shoebox with a picture of a quilt and then got busy and  forgot about it. Last week, being in-between projects, I found the box during a sewing room tidy-up and sewed the pieces up into 20 jewel box blocks. The scraps were tossed in the wastebasket. I went to empty the wastebasket this morning and saw all the scraps -- perfect little triangles of batiks and black, and just couldn't throw them away. So I sewed them together into little pinwheels. Most of my quilts for the past two years have  been scrappy quilts. Scrappy was very difficult for me at first as I was a very matchy-matchy quilter and everything has to be symmetrical. I jumped into scrapping with both feet and haven't looked back. I have boxes of scraps --2", 2 ½ ", 3" 4" squares. and strips:  1", 1 ½". 2", and 2 ½". My 365 Challenge and Circa 2016 are being made with scraps. I kind of consider them to be "free...

Sunshine today after the fog burned off. The fog is almost welcome -- we haven't had enough rain the past several years to produce fog so I'm taking it as a good sign that maybe the drought is lessening. I slept late, as I do almost everyday because I'm retired and I'm a night owl. In what was left of the morning I made the 365 block of the day and the 4 pinwheels for the Circa 2016 from Temecula. In the afternoon I quilted the little Jacob's Ladder doll quilt and will do the binding tomorrow. Circa 2016 blocks Why am I writing in a blog? Well, I signed up for a workshop next November that involves drawing and journaling on fabric. What on earth possessed me?? I can't draw and I haven't been able to write a journal since I was 15 and my mother read my diary. So this is my attempt to get ready for the workshop. I haven't had the nerve to try and draw yet….