Wednesday, December 31, 2008

This is Just Sick!!!


I'm taking the day to clean up my attic, which is also my "studio", "workroom...for all my quilting and sewing material, fabrics and notions. My sister Kris is going to visit in a few days and we are planning to have a couple "sew days" up there. I thought I better make some space for us to work. It is in horrible shape, I tend to use that space as a catch all for anything and everything else I don't know what to do with and with Christmas decorating on top of it all, that space has become way out of hand.


No only do I have too much fabric, but I also have unfinished projects from years and kits that Ive purchased to do. Sad thing is These pics only show part of my total "stash"!  So I am looking for new scrap quilt patterns.  If you can help, I am open!

"Quilting Tip of the Day!"
Regarding scrap quilts, this time focusing on creating quilts that look vintage or antique...( by Jill Reid, from a booklet I got from Windham Fabrics)
  • Don't over think your color combinations! If you study antique quilts, there are many unusual color combinations presumably because they used what they had available. You would be surprised how appealing these "odd" pairings can be.
Happy Quilting!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Corliss's Corner Block Lap Quilt

My sweet little "Corliss's Corner" Quilt!

Several weeks ago, I told about the "split nine patch" block I was working on...see blog on November 14, 2008. Here is a finished product. We are calling it "Corliss's Corners, since our good friend Corliss shared the idea with us... I set this one with alternate "reads as solid" blocks, so it went even quicker than I expected. This is a lap quilt, so the size is small, but not as small as a crib size. Just right for the couch! I love it! Fun to quilt and fun to sit beneath! I caught this shot just before Ricky landed on it! If you click on the bottom pic you will see him on the upper left hand corner, heading for the center of the quilt for a quick nap! If you need a quick quilt, this is the one!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Kadens gift...


Kaden's Christmas Gift!
So, here it is! Kaden's Christmas gift for this year. A super hero quilt...starring Superman, Spiderman and Batman. How fun this was to make....I found the pattern in an old magazine I had. Their pattern focused on lighthouses... The hardest part was making the half square triangles go all the same direction on every block. Dyslexia has its draw-backs...I only tried for so long and then thought, who cares??? The best part is that this is a gift he has asked for. If you click on the pic you will see that I added a little applique on the borders...the gray bars are supposed to be city scape...so you will see the heroes sitting on the building tops or flying in the night sky....I think he is going to love it! Ricky does!

Quilting tip of the day...
Back to our scrap quilting lesson:
  • Be sure to sprinkle strong, bright colors or raucous (what does that mean?) prints across the quilt.
  • As you cut patches from each fabric, evenly parcel them out into boxes for each quilt quarter, row or other division. Then construct your quilt in sections, drawing patches from the appropriate box. (ok, this seems way to organized for me, but it would be a good idea to incorporate in my crazy lifestyle!)
  • OR sew all blocks and then arrange them before you join the rows (this would be me!).
  • Place patches or blocks on a vertical design wall and if possible view from a distance.
Happy Quilting!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

My Alley Cat...



The "house cat" watches the "alley cat"

Toby

This is my Toby, my "Alley Cat". Several weeks back I read an old Golden Book to my grandchildren call the Four Kittens. Very cute story, about a litter of kittens who were born in a barn and the mama helped them figure out what kind of cat each was. Each one ended up differently: one a farm cat, one a ship's cat, one house cat, and one an alley cat. We had such fun with the story. They knew my 3 kittys were house cats, and they got to meet my "alley cat" Toby.

I don't know how Toby got to be living on the streets of Walnut, all I know is that one crisp fall evening in 2003, he was sitting on my back steps, looking very hungry. He was more than shy, he was feral and in the five years that followed, Toby came to my house for a bowl of food and warm milk nearly every day...sometimes twice! I touched him once. It took him by surprise and he jutted off. Not too far off though and he did come right back. Winters were hard, for me at least. I tried rigging up different "beds" for him. One was a old wicker table, turned on its side and wrapped in a blanket. I put it on the most protected side of my porch, but he didn't use it. Lately I have had a large plastic basin in the same corner of the porch. Its all padded with batting and blankets. Someone has been sleeping there, not sure if it's Toby or not. I took to sweeping any snow, sleet or ice off the steps before feeding him. I would warm a tea towel before laying it on the step, so his little feet would at least have a warm dry place to rest while eating. But being a true Alley Cat, he would most normally stand to the side of the towel, feet in the snow. I'm pretty sure the winters were worse on me than on Tobs....he most likely had a warm, protected place all his own somewhere.

I tried hard to "tame" him. I would sit on the back steps and talk softly to him, but he would just sit and watch me, until I went into the house. In five years the closest I could get to him was about a foot, but if I tried to reach out, he would leave.

When several of us cat lovers decided to form a small community effort to spay, neuter and release our ever growing population of feral and stray cats in town, Toby seemed to be the perfect first choice. So, yesterday after a good breakfast of warm milk and beef stew scraps, off I took him for his neutering appointment.

Maybe he was much older than we imagined, maybe he was sick with something else, maybe he had an aneurysm or a stroke, but Toby didn't come out of the surgery. We lost him.

How can a kitty you have never held, one that has never curled up by your feet, one who has never asked you for a thing, steal such a big part of your heart?

Maybe he was spared from a worse death. Maybe I shouldn't have taken him in...maybe...maybe...maybe...

The fact is, I miss my Toby. Ive always loved cats, but with the B&B we thought a cat wouldn't be a good idea, so Toby filled that void for me. I could take care of him and since he wouldn't come in if I asked him, he wasn't a threat to the B&B. Also we had dogs! Then when the dogs were gone, Toby filled the void of not having pets in the house. With the addition of Lucy, Ricky and Possum, Toby was still my first thought each morning....get up - go downstairs- warm milk and feed Toby. He would be there 19 days out of 20 and if he didn't come, I would worry.

God's word says "Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God." So, it's my prayer today that my Little Alley Cat Toby, has found a place to nest, a place near my Lord, my King, my God...Rest peacefully Toby, be warm...I love you!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A Little Help from my Friend!



Neck is feeling better enough that I was able to quilt a small quilt for a friend. Hurrah, I think Im finally on the mend. This has been a slow process, but each day seems a little better...still sore, and Im being very careful, but each day God is showing me His healing power.

I love Possum. She is a fat round kitty...has been since day one...here she is, "helping" me to sew on my sewing machine when she was just a little bit of a thing. And here she is now...continuing to help me with my quilting machine... She is so good, she loves to just sit there and watch...she doesnt go after the cord or try to get on the quilt while Im working on it...Such a doll baby.

Quilting tip of the day...
Cat Hair is good extra insulation for your quilt....

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Cats Sleep Anywhere...


"Cats sleep anywhere,
Any table, any chair.
Top of piano, window ledge,
In the middle, on the edge.
Open drawer, empty shoe,
Anybody's lap will do.
Fitted in a cardboard box,
in the cupboard with your frocks.
Anywhere...
They don't care!"
Eleanor Farjeon

I took this picture a while back. I was in my sewing room in the attic and all 3 cats normally follow me up there. They pick the strangest places to "rest". Usually on the chair I want to sit on, or directly on top of the things I need to work with. I have ironed a complete quilt top, with a cat sleeping in the middle of it...But seeing Possum in this bin made me laugh. How could she be comfortable in this position?? She slept there for hours and didnt even realize I had gone downstairs... My sweet kitties...

"Quilt Tip of the Day"

The seam allowance required for your quilt to come out correct, is a "scant" 1/4". To achieve this you can put a piece of masking tape on your sewing machine so that whenthe edge of your fabric butts up next to it while sewing it is exactly 1/4"...as long as you are consistant with your seam size and you are the only one working on your quilt blocks and you use the same machine, you should be fine. Consistancey is the key here. My best advice is to spring for the $20 or whatever to buy a quarter inch foot for your machine. The reccommended sewing test is to sew three 1.5"x1.5". The width of these 3 sewn together side by side should be 3.5". As with anything practice makes perfect! Happy Quilting!

Update on our Beloved Mrs. Gray

  Those of you who have been with WIFCaP from the beginning in 2011 and most of the following years of our TNR journey, know and love Mrs. G...