Here are our two babies ... Holly looking much less like a baby. It looks like Holly is nibbling on Gracie's leg, but I wasn't really fast enough with the camera, she's actually cleaning her. Too sweet - they're friends already.Do you see the little bows on the floor there, and the lego? The kitties have been busy taking the decorations off the tree, and chasing Cam's toys around the house. It's fun to see them playing together.In quilty news, I'm still piecing away with the mystery nine patches, and I see that the next clue is up already. I hope I can catch up at some point! These little blocks are really taking me some time!And last of all, sadly our netball girls lost the grand final tonight. They played so well, and the margin was only four goals in the end. I'm so proud of them all! They're just wonderful girls, each and every one of them.Have a great weekend everyone! x o x
Wow! Bonnie wasn't kidding when she said this step should keep us busy for a bit! Working with these little pieces is definitely time consuming. I guess I'm around half way through Part 2 right now - I'll be done with them by Friday I'm thinking. These little blocks are so cute, and I can't even imagine right now where we're heading with this project :-)
Not quilt related ... a number of you have asked how Holly is getting along with Gracie. I'm amazed and happy to say that after a nervous first couple of days they're actually playing together. Holly was very unsure of her to begin with, and we were a little concerned because she's so much larger than Gracie. We knew things were getting better when Holly wasn't hissing at her, and even went so far to lick her a few times. While I still wouldn't leave them together alone for any great length of time, I feel sure they're going to be snuggle buddies in no time. I'm really glad we didn't leave Holly alone for too long, it could have been a tricky situation.
And most importantly ... tomorrow is Miss Amy's birthday. Can you believe that my little princess is turning 13! Where did all that time go? I have to work at the shop during the day, so she's having the day at a friend's house, and then in the evening we're taking her out to dinner with family at her favourite restaurant. It should be a lovely evening.
I'll check back in with you all on Friday to let you know how things went. Have a good one :-)
Meet Grace - the newest 'fur person' addition to our family. She's Holly's niece - so she was family before she even joined us. I've been calling her Gracie, it sounds so cute. She's so tiny, I think she may even be smaller than Holly was when she came to us. (Ohhh, and I must mention - that is Holly's toy lizard on the floor ... not scary wildlife in the house *s*)When we visited on Saturday to bring one of the kitties home, it was really hard to decide which one would come home with us - I decided on Grace because she was the smallest and shyest one and not the one with the prettiest markings. I knew all the others would find good homes because they were all cute and perky, Gracie seemed so shy, so my heart went to her. She's a darling little thing, and we're having fun welcoming her to our home.In Stash Report news:No purchases at all this week. Good going too, as Hancocks of Paducah have free shipping going right now, including international orders. That took some strength to not take advantage of.I haven't done as much piecing of my own as I'd like this past week - I've made up part one of Bonnie's mystery project, and I made up three of my total of four Royal Cross blocks. I've started piecing the nine patch units for the mystery too. I guess maybe I've used 1-2 yards of stash? Not sure, it's hard to tell.Wool stash (does this count?) I finished one 'car sock', and I've started another. Hard to knit right now given that we're in Summer, but found time is found time, and I'm happy to use it. No purchases on the yarn front either.Well, that's it from me - happy stashing everyone!
I can't believe it's almost Christmas, I just don't feel like I'm ready for the whole festive season yet. Heavens, I have barely started the shopping, and almost no quilted gifts - this is so unusual!! Amy only has two days of school left for the year, and Cameron has five. Soooo ... I thought I'd put together the traditional gift for their teachers - Seasonal mugs with mug mats. I hope they liked them!I should probably put a few more together, you know, as 'justin presents' ... just in case ...
And because I just couldn't resist - I decided to dive into Bonnie's mystery project. I haven't made many projects that use a great number of my 1.5" strips, so I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to start.I decided to go with some brown in with the red and blue, I had to cut up some of the brown and red especially, but there were plenty of blue strings in there to use. I have three customer quilts I need to finish up before I can start working on step two, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll be up to date.This weekend is sure to be a lot of fun, in one hour we're going to pick up the new kitten. Cheryl is going to have one too. The kids will definitely be entertained, and it'll be interesting to see how Holly deals with the new arrival. I'll share pictures as I have them! Have a great weekend! x o x
Four blocks down - twenty one to go! I made three blocks up on Tuesday - I wonder if I can keep that up on the days I don't work. The quilt top will fly together! Don't you love the circular pattern that is already starting to appear? I'm really thrilled with how it's looking.I've cut more of the dark value pieces, so I'd say I'm 80% of the way thru the cutting for this quilt. Quite a few people were interested in how I'm cutting out the pieces, so I'll elaborate ... I made up templates from regular template plastic. I then layered up 4 or 5 fabrics with the wrong side facing me - traced the template shape on the fabric, and then used my rotary cutter to cut out all 4-5 pieces at once. Slow going on the curved pieces, but much easier and faster than tracing out each shape and cutting with scissors like I probably would have done it in the past.As I've been cruising blogs these past couple of days, I keep seeing all the wonderful results of Bonnie's mystery quilt. I'm teetering on the edge of diving in with you all. The only thing holding me back is the fact that I don't have a lot of 1.5" strips cut ... but I'm seriously contemplating just getting busy and cutting some more. Don't be surprised if you see me having a go at it ... I'm on the verge ...Today I have a couple of things I really need to do before heading to the quilt store. I MUST put up the Christmas tree and get busy decorating. And I MUST get busy with Christmas gifts. Last year (and in other years) I started in around August. Where did this year go, and why did it go there so fast??!!?? Better run, lots to do, and not much time :-) x o x
Just a quickie post this morning. Sooooo many people have commented on and totally loved the mug mats/coasters I often make for people, so I thought I'd share the pattern.It's available as a freebie download over at my website. Just click on the 'free patterns' button. It's super easy - I guess the only tricky bit is the binding, but once you know how to do it, you'll be churning them out in no time. Enjoy!
I promised in my last post that I'd start working on something for myself this past weekend, and true to my word, here is some evidence that I did.My stash-busting effort consisted of almost cutting out all the pieces for my Royal Cross quilt. I cut all 100 of the light value pie shaped pieces and triangles. Also cut are all the medium value squares, and half the medium value cross pieces. I've cut a few of the dark value pieces too.In the foreground is one block I put together, because I just can never resist the lure of the piecing. I just love it!Amazing how much more time consuming cutting out curved pieces can be. This lot took a few hours on Saturday, a few hours yesterday, and I'm still not done!Today after I get busy with some chores, I need to get back to some customer quilting. When I've finished the one quilt that is half done, then I'll allow myself to get back into some cutting. Better run - those chores won't take care of themselves! x o x
... some of my own stuff. Really, I mean it! I put together a drawing of a quilt a little while back, and I'm going to start chopping up some scraps to make it up.
This is the quilt I plan to work on, but don't think of it in terms of the colourway I'm sharing here - think of it in a really scrappy way, using reproduction fabrics in the light medium and dark colourway. I'm really excited to work on something that has curved seams. It's been a long time since I've made one of these blocks, so I hope I don't stress out too much over the curves. They're reasonably gentle. I'm sure you'll be seeing my progress.
And here's the last two customer quilts I worked on. The one in front is the end result of a class I taught a while back. The girls made up table runners from charm packs, and this one is from the 'Roman Holiday' range, with a little yardage for the border. It's very nice.Behind is a courthouse steps quilt from a shop customer - very nice to work on and a very nice lap size. I quilted it for about an hour yesterday afternoon, and then finished it last night. I have four more quilts to work on for others - I'll space them out over the next week or so.In sporty news - Amy's school netball team had a huge win last night. In the semi-final, they had a wonderful victory against a team that has not lost a game all year. This puts Amy's team directly into the grand final in two weeks time. I imagine we'll end up playing the same team again, so let's see how we go. Go team!Have a great weekend everyone! x o x
Here are our two babies ... Holly looking much less like a baby. It looks like Holly is nibbling on Gracie's leg, but I wasn't really fast enough with the camera, she's actually cleaning her. Too sweet - they're friends already.
