Pineapple Quilt

 Have you ever fallen so much in love with making a pattern that you just couldn't stop? Earlier this year I took a class on making pineapple blocks using a wonderful new ruler that makes them easy peasy. In fact, they are so easy and fun to make that I actually ended up making 80 blocks. Yep, 80! Without borders, my quilt measured 80 x 100. I don't even own a king sized bed!

 

Of course, the quilt needed borders desperately. I had pulled all of the colors from a wonderfully colorful border print that I already had, but I had lots of choices on an inside border. Here are a few that I check out.

 

Each color completely changed the look of the entire quilt. So I called in a couple of consultants, Sinbad and Spook. They were charged with selecting the perfect color to complement both the blocks and the border.

 So they looked at it from one perspective...

and another...

 

and finally chose the green. The quilt is at Mom's right now waiting to be quilted. I'll take some pictures when I get it back.

 

In the meantime, I have a very ugly quilt to play with over the summer. I have LOTS of African fabric scraps (I LOVE African fabrics!), so I decided to throw them all into a pineapple quilt of their own. I have two different background fabrics - the sandy looking fabric in the blocks in the top left and bottom right and the blue/purple/black fabric top right and bottom left. I'm going to alternate them. Isn't it wonderfully hideous? I'm loving it already! African fabrics come in such a wide variety of colors and color combinations that it was impossible to find a workable background. I wanted black, but too many of the fabrics themselves had black backgrounds. The same for white. So I'm going with clashy-clashy. We'll see how it turns out.

 



We'll just leave Spook contemplating his next fabric choices. He hates it when the floor is bare of quilts, so I had to give him a lone block to sit on. Silly cat.

See you later,
Debbi

Secrets revealed...

Yes, I've been keeping secrets. For months.

First, the quilting related secret... In November I was elected President of one of my local quilt guilds, Dogwood Quilters. I certainly didn't seek this position. I have my hands completely full at work right now (my school president retired in January, and my supervisor - the second in command - quit over the Christmas break), so I really, really didn't want more work, but...

Unexpectedly, I'm enjoying the position so far. It's a two year stint, and I'm only two months into it, but I'm working with some fantastic people on the board, and the members are very encouraging. Huh. I may live through this after all. **smiling**

Still on quilting (I'll share my second secret at the end of this post)...

We've been snowed in (I know, I know, everyone has been snowed in!), so I've gotten a lot of quilting done with school cancelled for so long.

First, my latest great niece (grand niece? Which is correct?) was due on January 4. Her folks live in New York, so she needed a nice quilt to welcome her home. I had some wonderful bubblegum pink fabric with lively little bugs and butterflies, which I paired with a coordinating blue floral fabric. I tried to piece it so that the focus was on the pink. I shared photos of this quilt in the last post.

 

Well, here she is! Welcome Amelia Wren. Isn't that a lovely name? It took her parents three days after her January 17 birth to figure out who she is, but they eventually settled on the perfect name for this beautiful little bundle. I can't wait to her in person! Look at all of that hair!!!

 

And just a few days ago I got an email from her proud mama showing me three-week-old Amelia trying out her tummy time floor mat. She was 9lbs 3oz and 21 1/4" at birth, but look how tiny she looks on that huge baby quilt! : ) I have no children of my own (at least not any without fur!), but I always make big baby quilts because babies just don't seem to stay small for very long. : )

Here's Ruby the fur baby checking out her new charge. Poor Amelia looks like she's done a face plant on that quilt, doesn't she? Well, I'm sure she'll be doing somersaults in no time. Go, Amelia! Work on those push-ups! Give her a nudge, Ruby.

 

And I was so pleased to finally get all three purple borders on my Purple Diamond quilt (folded in half in the photo due to limited floor space in my sewing room). Notice the use of the word "was." Past tense. I realized when I laid out this quilt and measured it that it's too narrow. It measures 112" long by 88" wide. I'm going to send it to my sister, who has a new king sized bed. If I add another row of diamonds, the quilt will be 112" square. THAT's the size I need for a king sized quilt. So I'll be spending this weekend "unsewing" the entire four borders (one white and three purple) on one side so that I can add the final row. I did check, and I have enough fabric for the extension. It shouldn't take too long to finish it for the second time. I think I'll like it better at a more usable size. It's a good thing Mom got a larger long-arm quilting machine. : )

Now, for the second secret...

Ta da! Meet Spook. In October (hence, the name Spook), I snagged this Spooky little feline out of the middle of a county road between two highways. He was determinedly and quickly heading for the major inter-state highway that I was also heading for.

I snagged him. He snagged me. I was wearing white. Guess which one of us got the worse end of the bargain out of that little snatch and grab exercise...

I dropped him off in the sunroom of my house and headed back into work (after washing copious amounts of blood off of my white shirt and white jacket). When my husband and I got home, Spook had made himself quite comfortable on a heating pad on one of the armchairs and declared that he was never leaving. Well, that suited us just fine. Isn't he adorable? And isn't Spook a great name for a grey kitty with orange eyes who was found one week before Halloween? By the way, he's an extremely loving kitty who adores giving kisses. And more kisses. And even more kisses. The bloody start to our relationship was simply because vehicles kept driving by and scaring him while I was trying to stuff him into a car with a running engine. I should have turned off my engine first. Live and learn. And, in the meantime, buy lots of bandages.

So why did I keep him a secret for over three months? Well, some of you may remember that I adopted two abandoned tom kitties over the past year and a half and lost both of them rather tragically just months after their arrivals. I didn't want to talk about Spook until I was sure that he would be with us for a while.

There are differences this time. The other two boys were each two years old and confirmed outside kitties when they came to us. Spook was only six months old and a confirmed insider. He occasionally dashes outside when we open the door to come in, but he's easy to catch. He's always crouching down getting ready to "attack" a rooster. Let's hope he never actually gets to the pounce stage! Those roosters will teach him a lesson he won't soon forget!

So how did my existing feline residents take the news of another mouth to feed? They were a little startled at first, but they warmed up quickly. **See how well that sentence goes with the picture? Hee hee **

 

 

 

Sinbad has been delighted to have anther boy to rough house with. The two of them tumble all over the house attempting to rip each other's ears off. Then they curl up together in front of the heater to sleep it off. Even the girls have developed a little more pep in their steps now that there's a youngster to remind them of their youths. It's impossible to walk through my house right now without something squeaking, chirping, rattling, or dinging underfoot because Spook loves toys. If it has feathers, it's HIS! Thank goodness he's not outside, or my bird feeders would be surrounded by dozens of little naked bodies.

Callie (below in an old photo) just does her best to ignore the little beast and retain as much dignity as she can. Surprisingly, though, since Spook's arrival, Callie has become more playful. Toys are now of interest. It's amazing how revitalized the house has become with the advent of a furry rug rat who doesn't let a little bad temper ruin a good playtime. : P

As for Ladybug (below), she's just thankful the new addition isn't going to provide unwanted competition for outdoor resources (mice, voles, field rats, etc.). Other than that, she has always gotten along very well with boys. I can't let the girl kitties around her (she is universally hated by my girls), but she shares the sunroom very nicely with Sinbad and Spook. Which is a good thing since she was shut up in the room for almost two weeks thanks to the snow and wickedly cold temps. Needless-to-say, she's delighted to be out and about again now that the sun is shining. : )

Well, all of my secrets (and the cats) are now out of the bag. I'm back at school and my sewing has once again taken a back seat until weekends. Tonight I have a Stashbusters meeting, so I get to talk quilting with friends again. What project do I want to take to share? Hmmm... I've been working on so many this winter...

 

See you later! I'm off to inspect the possibilities.

 

Deb

 

 

 

 

 

New Block of the Month project

As if I don't have enough projects to finish, I have started a new one. Of course. Thirty-some odd projects are just not enough to keep me busy. ; )

 

 

In June I signed up for a Block of the Month at Sager Creek. Then I decided to have foot surgery. Great timing. : /

 

I've been picking up my packet every month, and now I'm finally able to start on it. A mere five months late. Oh well. Better late than never, right?

 

 

 
Here are my first few half-square triangles. Now before you get too excited about how quickly I was able to crank out these little beauties, please be aware that all is not always as it seems. The units on the right in the photo above are the HSTs. The pile of material on the left is the waste. OMG! What a pile of waste! I HATE wasting fabric. So why am I using this method? No choice.

 

The photo above shows the HSTs in progress. Have you ever seen this type of material? The fabric came printed in strips! I cut apart the strips in two-color pieces (as modeled by Tessie in the upper photo). I then use my ruler to measure out 2 1/2" squares with one side of light fabric and one side of colored fabric (bottom photo, after I retrieved my fabric from its furry protector). Fast, definitely; wasteful, even more definitely! No sewing though. I love the quick outcome, but feel incredibly guilty. Is his method cheating? Really? You think so too, do you? Oh well, just don't tell anyone else how it's done, and maybe no one will notice the lack of a center seam, okay?

The pattern is "Provence and Beyond" by Bloom Creek, and I love the finished pattern. Won't it be gorgeous? I just didn't realize how it's made when I signed up.

 Here is another picture of the pattern with less glare on the glossy page.

Below are photos of the finished blocks. I made six of them for the first month's assignment. The whole project is made up of only six monthly installments. And yes, I did catch the error in the top block, thank you for noticing. One of my green "leaves" is turned the wrong direction. Already corrected, thank goodness. Otherwise I would be quite distressed at noticing just now. So why am I showing you the photo with the error rather than one with the corrected version? Just trying to stay humble (hanging head).

This next photo is actually the same block pattern but with a different, lighter color green for the leaves. Why do the blocks have two different colors for the green leaves only? Beats me, but that's what the pattern says to do *shrugging in bewilderment*.

 Here's a photo of the July block. As you can see, this one has a LOT of applique. I have chosen my preferred method of needle turn rather than machine applique. I am actually almost finished with this block, but I haven't taken any photos yet. Maybe tonight.

 

As you can see, this block will be the center of the quilt. The pieces are large and easy to applique, so it's actually turning out fairly well so far. I should be on to the third month's package sometime this weekend if all goes well. And if I stay at home. Which is questionable since my husband loves to go out to eat on the weekends.

 

I've also been trying to measure the backing for my Day and Night quilt, but my helpers keep making things very difficult for me. Good thing I love them enough to find something else to do while they examined my workmanship, huh. Please don't be too critical, girls; I have a fragile ego. : )

 

They're not looking too impressed, are they? Tough audience.  : )

Deb

Progress on the Bright Applique quilt!

 

Finally, I have some progress to report on my Bright Applique quilt. You might recall that I have the ambition plan to make this beautiful quilt pattern using needle turn applique.

 

 

I thought that I would be able to make tremendous progress on this quilt while recuperating from surgery. Unfortunately, I did not take my kitties into account when I made this grand plan. My kittens, especially Sinbad, have other ideas about my having a stationary lap for a change.

 

 

My baby girl kitties don't mind my sewing over their heads. Sinbad, though, isn't quite as generous about sharing my attention. (I'm really not as fat as I look in this photo - I'm slumped in my chair in order to make Sinbad more comfortable. Aren't I just the cat's meow? hee, hee) I have found, however, that if I wait until Sinnie's soundly asleep, I can often sneak in some overhead hand work without waking him. Shhh... It's best to let sleeping cats lie.

 

So, on to my progress...



 

All right, all right! so there are a few little kitty hairs on my block. Quite frankly, there is so much kitty hair quilted into this project already, that I'm relieved that this photo only shows a few scattered hairs. As you can also see, my piece placement leaves a bit to be desired. My previous experience with needle turn applique included a placement guide. This pattern doesn't have one. I'm having to eyeball the placement. Oh well, I figure if I ever actually get this quilt finished, who's going to notice some slightly wonky piece placement? Hopefully, people will just see how hard I tried, not how badly I missed. : )

This photo shows the segments that I currently have completed. I'm not being at all picky about where the ends of the "teardrop" elements end up. As you can see, the ends of the orange elements on the left don't line up exactly. But since the ends are all covered by the larger orange "petals" and the red center oval, the pointy bits really don't matter. Thank goodness! This way I don't even have to worry about how pointy (or not!) the points actually are. I can cheat and leave them sloppy with the assurance that they won't actually be seen. I'm sure this pattern would be much easier to complete if I was willing to machine applique it. But what would be the fun in that?

Once I get the fourth section sewn on, I will start with the hearts in the corners. Goodness, these blocks have so many elements that I fear this really will take me forever to complete. It's a good thing I intend to live forever then, right?

I'll post again when I have more progress to show. I've gone five weeks so far without touching a sewing machine. Aaauuuggghhhhh...!

Roses and kitties!



 

See what my wonderful husband bought for me yesterday? Just because. He knows that being on crutches has been difficult, so he decided to cheer me up with roses and lemon tarts. Yum! 

 

The kitties are doing their part as well. I spent some time sitting out in the sun room over the weekend, and all four kittens decided to join me. Here's Callie peeking from her new hiding place.

And here's Sinbad, waiting for his chance to attack! "Let's see those whiskers again, Callie," he's thinking.

One of the maintenance workers at the school donated a water cooler box to the cause this spring, and the cats LOVE it! It's completely open at one end and has a hole in the other end. They spend all of their time lazing around on this box if they're not in my lap.
 

And speaking of being in my lap. All of the cats hate the cast and won't come near me when I'm in the bedroom. But if I sit down somewhere, my lap is fair game. Especially for Sinbad. I think he's feeling a little neglected.

Here he is all cuddled up in my lap. And see that sweetly curled paw?

Here's what that paw actually looked like (see below). There were claws there as a gentle warning to not wake him up. I let him sleep for about two hours before too many of my own parts went numb and I had to stand up.

 

 

The only sewing I've done since the surgery on Aug. 1 was to bind the Christmas quilt in the picture below. Can's see the quilt? Well, that's why it took me over a week to get it done. I guess all of the kitties have been missing me. Maxie and Tessie hopped up on my lap every time I worked on this binding. I love my kitties!



I know, not much quilting to show lately. Hopefully, that will change in another two weeks if I can get rid of the crutches then. Fingers crossed!

Debbi

Airing of the Quils and more sad news...

It's May, and that means Airing of the Quilts time at my guild. I borrowed these three quilts back from my nieces and nephew and tossed them over the fence.

 

This bright red and blue quilt has a pillow cover built into the design. That's what happens when I run out of two of the fabrics and still have a lot of length to make up. : )

Here are a few other quilts that were being aired that day...

I have a lot more photos to share with you, of roses and museums, flowers and motorcycle riding kitties. But I'm still feeling a little off kilter right now. I'll post those a little later.


Now for the sad news...

As you may remember, we lost my little 17-year-old Butch on the 19th of this month, just four days before my silver wedding anniversary.

Well, two days ago we lost another friend. Please remember, we are not bad pet parents; we take in a lot of strays and abandoned furry friends. We do our best for them.

For a couple of months now I have been looking forward to introducing you to Teddy - our timeshare kitty. We don't know for sure if he had another family that he lived with part-time (he was definitely a  people lover), or if he was living the wandering life of the average tom kitty. We just know that he came and went as he pleased.

 

Mr. Ted showed up a couple of months ago swearing that he was starving. We quickly realized that this kitty could put away three full meals a day. Patting his side was like testing a pumpkin for ripeness. He thumped! He was also the only one of our kitties who actually liked belly rubs.

 

Two weeks a go I took Teddy to the vet for shots and "repair" (he got "fixed"). Even though he seemed to be on time-share with another family, he still spent weekends and many week day evenings with us. I was supposed to take him back this afternoon for his booster shots. Well, he took off for almost two weeks after his surgery, but showed up again last Thursday night. He spent every day and night with us after that. I took this photo of him reclining in "his" chair in our sun room on Monday, Memorial Day. He seemed very lethargic and felt rather hot, but my husband just thought he might not be a very active cat. Remember, he was still relatively new to our family.

 

Tuesday night after work, I got home and decided that something was most definitely wrong. I rushed him to the after-hours emergency pet clinic. There he was diagnosed with Bobcat Fever. He had a temperature of 106 degrees and was already anemic. Until very recently, this tick borne disease was considered always fatal. It still only has at best a 60 percent survival rate and requires hospitalization and full-time care during treatment. His case was far enough advanced that he would have needed a blood transfusion and a possibly lengthy hospital stay. He only had a 10-15 percent chance of recovery (possibly 20 percent in the best case scenario) and would have had to spend the rest of his life indoors if he recovered - not a problem for us, but Tedders loved being outdoors. Given Mr. Ted's condition, the vet recommended not trying. The progression of the disease is extremely painful, with little chance of recovery. I had to say goodbye to my new friend.

He shared such a short time with us, but we had grown very fond of him.

Goodbye, Teddy.

If you, like us, have never heard of Bobcat Fever, please do some research on it and see if it's in your area. The vet said that he sees 4-5 cases a week just at his clinic during the spring tick season. We will definitely be more vigilant now that we know. I just wish that we had heard of this before.

Give your furry babies kisses and tell them you love them.

I'll post a cheerier message later. Until then,

Debbi