August Sewing and a new September Goal

August was a great month for sewing. With all our kids having flown the nest long ago (and now sending THEIR kids off to school), our focus was just enjoying the summer, family, the garden, hobbies, and - in Bruce’s case - work. Yes, he really loves his post-retirement job at The Leonardo museum where he is the Resident Engineer. It keeps him out of trouble (and my hair) for 4 days a week.  :-)

I completed three quilts, all of which were near the final stages at the beginning of the month. They just needed basting, quilting and binding. More information about them is in the Quilt Gallery tab, above. They are Groovy Guitars for Bruce, an aqua donation quilt and the Farm Girl quilt for me. So glad to have these all done!

But this past week I just focused on moving other projects along.  I basted Linked Squares.

I started another quick quilt (gulp). It’s just going to be a quick patchwork baby quilt for our friends Marilyn and OD from Kenya, who are visiting here in September. It will be a simple patchwork quilt. The patches are already cut. The zebra fabric on the left below is the backing (with a stripe of the blue) and the blue will be the binding. It’s for their son S. This fabric is from an older line called Origami Oasis by my favorite designer, Tamara Kate.

I made progress on Orange Lozenges by sewing up an additional five blocks - each block containing 24 lozenges. The last row that’s pinned to the design board is overlapped by the row above it due to space considerations - my design board isn’t long enough.

So, I only have four more blocks to finish, and one of them is almost done.

The other three are ready for their corners. It was a challenge to make sure that there were no more than two of any one print in any block, so I was sorting and re-sorting until the end.

This WILL become at least a finished top in September, although I want to finish the entire quilt. In fact, I’m declaring that as my OMG - One Monthly Goal - for September as I link up to Elm Street Quilt’s September Goal Link-up, HERE

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Moving along, I also began sewing together my Bow Ties into a quilt. These little blocks are 4” (finished), and there are 288 of them that will be set 16 x 18, resulting in a quilt that will measure 64x72”.  I got half of the quilt done!  I have so enjoyed this Rainbow Scrap Challenge project over the last two years and really look forward to seeing this one completed.

I finally settled on this very basic, traditional set with random color placement. It’s going to be a keeper for me. There are just so many memories stitched into it from all the fabrics!  I would love to finish this top in September, too, but September promises to be a hectic month (more on that later), so we’ll just have to see.

Here are some close-ups.

Alfie and Darla won the voting for the 2018 Pets On Quilts category Cats on Quilts over at Lily Pad Quilting. YAY! Thanks to all of you who took the time to go over to see the contest (it’s for a good cause) and vote. They won a jelly roll of fabric, which they gave to me. And some of YOU won prizes, too, for participation. Way to go!

And now we start on dark blues for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I’m happy we’re finally getting back to the blues. I have lots more birds to make in blue this month, plus all the rest of the blue Irish Chain blocks for the top.  And we have another block for our Squared Away quilt, so there is certainly a lot on my plate for September.

And speaking of a lot on my plate, my brother Steve will be returning to visit us in the coming week. He found a cute house in Montrose County, Colorado (southeast area, about an hour from Grand Junction) with about 3/4 acre of land, and bought it. He closed on it a couple weeks ago and is now ready to return here to gather his stuff and haul it home. 

Steve will return here by train so that he can rent and drive a U-Haul truck and trailer (to tow his 1930 Model A Ford) home. While he’s here for about a week, he also has all sorts of business - banking, medical, etc - to wrap up. Since I’ll need to chauffeur him around, I imagine it will seriously cut down my sewing time for a week or so. LOL. But the upside is seeing him, to say nothing about getting our storage areas and guest bedroom back. So it’s all good, right? 

Time to Vote for Best Cat(s) on Quilts!

Hi Folks,

We are Darla and Alfalfa (Alfie). You’ve seen us around here on the blog, although some people say not enough.

We are entered into the annual Pets on Quilts contest, in the Cats on Quilts category naturally.  You might remember that we did a blog post for your viewing pleasure HERE. We worked hard to earn the title by re-enacting some children’s stories and fairy tales.

Anyway, many of you read our post and visited to “Like” it. Thank you so much! But, now IT’S TIME TO VOTE!!

We’re hoping our friends will click this link to Pets On Quilts VOTING post, and leave a comment (you tell them in the comment who you are voting for). We are #5, Alfalfa and Darla, vying for the Best Cats on Quilts title.

And feel free to pass the word! And thanks again!

Kitty cuddles from

DARLA

and ALFALFA

Pets on Quilts 2018

Cats shouting in unison:

Hello everybody, we're the Little Rascals, Alfalfa and Darla! 

Alfie: 

I'm Alfalfa (that’s me in orange) and my sister Darla is in the brown stripes. This is our third time participating in Pets on Quilts at Lily Pad Quilting to show off pets, quilts, and pets on quilts! It’s always fun to party with Snoodles, Padsworth and Dragondrop!

Usually we hang out with our mom during the day in her sewing studio. We have impurrtant responsibilities there, and we take them very seriously. 

Even as a young kitten, I would help my mom measure her quilts.

And that’s me helping her cut some yellow fabric. 

And of course I supervise the things Mom cuts, too....

Darla works hard, too.  Here she is winding bobbins....

Or she supervises the actual sewing and occasional ripping out of stitches.... It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!

Here we are, checking out Mom’s progress in picking colors. Darla sometimes gets a little impatient.

Darla: 

Now this is me, Darla, taking my turn to talk to you. I get to tell you about a little surprise we prepared for you. You see, we want to EARN your vote in this awesome Pets on Quilts show. How are we going to do that, you ask? 

Well, for your viewing pleasure, we have taken the time to re-create some of your (and our) favorite fairy tales and other stories!! And most of them involve a quilt or two or three.... So, here we go....

GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS

HAHAHA..... Alfie hates when I call him Goldilocks!

SLEEPING BEAUTY

I do believe my furs are more beautiful than Alfie’s, but he insisted on equal time for the Sleeping Beauty title.

PRINCESS AND THE PEA

PUSS IN BOOTS

Well, here is Alfie, checking out the boots.....

Sheesh, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, is he? I TOLD him put the boots on, but I guess I didn’t tell him which end to use.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Naturally, I play Beauty and Alfie is the beast, but I’m sure you already knew that....

RAPUNZEL

Well, here I am up at the top of the tower, just like Rapunzel. But my furs aren’t really long enough, so you’ll just have to pretend, OK??  Really, I tried.

ROBIN HOOD

I know, this one’s a stretch. But we didn’t have a green quilt, Alfie wouldn’t wear a hat or tights, and Mom doesn’t let us play with arrows. So we’ll have to pretend that he’s just taken something from the rich and is hiding it under the quilt to give to the poor (probably himself!)

(Alfie and Darla in unison): BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!!

Alfie:

My mom went to Africa last month and you know what? She met my 14th cousin, 22 times removed. His name is Leo, and he is the KING!!  I guess that means Darla and I are royalty. Well, probably mostly me, since I’m the same color as Leo. Mom said she gave him our very best greetings and that he was very nice. We wanted his pawtograph, but she didn’t get that close to him (I think my mom is part chicken....)  So anyway, I compiled some photographs from our family albums to show you the Striking Resemblance between me and my cousin Leo. Hold onto your furs!!

And with that, I’ll turn you back over to Darla.

Darla:

See what I mean about Alfie being a beast? Oh, gag me with a spoon!

Hey! I look just like that leopard that Mom met in Africa! Maybe we’re related....

Alfie:
Well folks, it’s time to wrap up this fun post for Pets on Quilts. And we’d like to remind you that cats and quilts are meant to be together, whether you are being all cuddly and stuff...

Darla:
.....or just looking beautiful with a polka dot tummy ...

Alfie and Darla, in unison:
...or working hard to help your favorite quilter....  Thanks for dropping by!

This is Cathy here, taking over from the cats, who discovered a wee bowl of catnip that mysteriously appeared upstairs and ran off to imbibe.

One of the purposes of of the Pets on Quilts Show is to highlight Padsworth's Project. Padsworth and the gang like to focus attention on projects to help local animal shelters. You can get more information HERE and follow the links given. Or, you can just do as we do here at Crazy by Design - work with our local pet shelter directly. We love our Best Friends Animal shelter in nearby Sugarhouse, Utah. To date, we have donated 96 kennel quilts and dog beds there. Of those, 69 were in 2016-2017, and 27 have been from September of last year through July of this year. You can click on my Labels (in the right column - they are links) for Best Friends Kennel Quilts, Doggie beds or charity sewing to see some of the pictures.

Thanks for joining us in our Pets on Quilts! Voting will open 10 days from today and I’ll remind you.   :-)

Pets on Quilts

 Be sure to join us tomorrow for the start of the Pets on Quilts show at Lily Pad Quilting!

Darla and Alfalfa are excited!  This will be their third year participating.

Working those Neutrals

It’s been another busy week here, but at least I was able to spend lots of time down in my studio, sewing my cares away. There was quite a variety of things to work on this week. My ADQD (Attention Deficit Quilting Disorder) was in overdrive, so I switched between sewing neutral string blocks, quilting the pineapple quilt, and sewing tulips and leaves. And mending clothes, sewing on buttons, etc. Life in the fast lane. Not.


But there is a method to my madness. The needle in my machine needed changing, so I figured that sewing on a paper base in order to do the 4.5” neutral string blocks would be better on the old needle. Therefore, for three days I cut, sewed and trimmed blocks. The result was 78 (of 168 needed) neutral string blocks.


There are plenty more strings and scraps and fabrics where these came from, and I will be working on them throughout the month.  Come visit us over at Angela’s blog for Scrappy Saturday. Lots of us are working through our neutral scraps this month!

Anyway, by Wednesday I put a new needle in the machine and switched to quilting the pineapple quilt, which I had basted on Monday. The first thing I did on the pineapple quilt was to stitch all the vertical seams in the ditch with my walking foot.

And then I began doing X quilting in the pineapples themselves. So much moving and shifting the quilt around (!) and my Bernina has an average-at-best harp space. My shoulders hurt after quilting five pineapples. So, I set myself a goal of quilting 5 pineapples a day. With 24 pineapples in the quilt, that will take 5 days. To date, I have completed 15; 9 left to go. I’m using a light, icy yellow on the front instead of white - not that you can really tell from this picture. The thread on the back is a variegated light green. When I finish the quilt next week, I’ll have pictures.

After quilting my quota of 5 pineapples a day, I figured it was a good time to start assembling tulips and leaves for the quilt that my friend Terri and I are making for our friend Diane.

I originally added the gold color in because there is gold in the small pink floral print that you see in almost every tulip. But I think the gold strips overpower the pastels and need to be taken out and substituted with another pastel (probably that aqua with pink strawberries). What do you think?

All the tulips will have a stem and leaves; that is the next step. And this is only half the tulips anyway; Terri is making the other half of them.

So now I am a stem-and-leaf-making fool, and hope to get those done this week in addition to finishing the pineapple quilt and making the rest of the neutral strip blocks.  The next project on the horizon is Bruce’s guitar quilt....

Finally, if you have a moment, why not stop by Lily Pad Quilting and the Pets on Quilts Show for 2017. Darla, my sweet quilting tabby, is entered in the Cats on Quilts category. You can visit the linky party HERE. Voting will open next week, and we hope you will consider voting for Darla, the Quilting Cat!

And now, it’s back to the sewing room for me...... unless Darla is using the machine! (wink)

Darla the Quilting Cat

Hi Friends! It’s me, Darla the Quilting Cat. Yep, it’s true; my mommy taught me this year. I even have pictures to show you in a moment. But first, I am so thrilled to be joining the Pets on Quilts parade for 2017! We always have fun visiting other animal friends online, and I especially want to thank Snoodles, Padsworth and DragonDrop at Lily Pad Quilting for hosting the fun!!



So, let me introduce my furry self.

My name is Darla (“The Girl with the Polka Dot Tummy"), and I am a 4-year old tabby. I live with my mom and dad and my litter brother Alfalfa. Alfie is an orange tabby. He didn't want to be in the show this year because he's been spending much of his time on Neighborhood Watch duties at the windows, keeping an eye on the birds and other critters that visit. It is an impurrtant job too.

By the way, I have the softest furs EVER invented! Silky smooth, I am. I can’t help it!  All the better to leave them behind on the quilts I get to test. Besides being a sewing cat, I also lay on quilts to hold them down (we don’t want them to fly away, you know) and test them for snuggle-ability. It’s my favorite part of the whole quilting process.




Now I would love to show you my sewing lessons to purr-oove my quilting abilities.

First, here I am watching while Mom explained how to use a rotary cutter. She helped me cut squares out for a quilt. Because I don’t have opposable thumbs, she used the rotary cutter while I held the fabric down or held the ruler. Or both. I`m good like that....

Then I learned to thread the machine. Can I tell you how much I love playing with thread?? I like Mommy’s machine. I think it’s a Purr-nina.

Here I am guiding the fabric through the machine, being careful to catch WATCH that quarter-inch seam.

Sewing is hard work, and as quilters we all must remember to take frequent breaks to relax and stretch our muscles. Here I demonstrate my PROVEN technique. Mommy wonders exactly what it is I’m trying to prove, but sometimes she’s no fun! 

And the finished result!  How can you argue with success?!

When the voting begins in a few days, I hope you will come back and vote for me! I can’t promise, but I might even sew a quilt for you!

xo,
DARLA