My Kitty Peyton

My granddaughter is part of her school's art docent program. Once a month she gets to take a trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum and learn about art. I am lucky enough to be a chaperone and I love it. It's an amazing opportunity to get to experience the art with a guide who is an expert. We all learn so much. These are all of the 4th graders who get to participate in the program from her school. 

While we were there we had some fun taking photos among the art. She is such a pleasure to be around. 

I was lucky enough to score some scrap batting from the quilt shop this week. We have so many samples made and there's always a little batting leftover from each project. If the batting scraps are big enough we use them for table runners. If they're too narrow for table runners I take them to my church sewing group. We sew the scraps together to make batting pieces big enough for our charity quilts. It looks like I have a lot of sewing ahead of me!

                                

My kitty loves to help me quilt. When I'm sewing she sits on the sewing table and when I'm planning quilt tops, she's right there to make sure she sees what's happening. When she rests in the sewing room, it's usually on a quilt loaded on the longarmer.

                      

                                         

I love hanging with her. She is absolutely delightful. She's just 9 months old and so much fun. Her energy level is through the roof. One of the funniest thing she does is she chases the ball on the television screen. Whether it's a Bucks game or in this case, the Super Bowl, she loves to go after them. Footballs, basketballs, and even baseballs are fair game for her - haha!

 

Since she's an athletic girl who was born in Denver, her name is Peyton Meowning. 

 

Peyton helps me iron table toppers.

 

Peyton takes a break in her hammock.

Peyton wishes she was outside.

On a fun note, my boss has a hot dog steamer and I borrowed it to use while watching my granddaughters. I couldn't wait to try it out and surprisingly the hot dogs tasted so much better cooked this way. I don't know if it was the steaming process itself or just the fun of thinking that it made a difference. 

 

Valentines Fabric Envelopes

I love sewing on winter days. When there's lots of snow on the ground there's no better place than my sewing room. My grandkids do like winter fun though so grandpa obliged. I bought Jeff a stabilizer bar for Christmas for his ATV. I don't totally understand the physics behind it but apparently it makes the sled move better when attached to the back of the ATV. So he decided to test it out with the grandkids in tow.

                                           

In the meantime I whipped up a few fabric envelopes. I used the tutorial found here. It took a bit of planning because I didn't have a snap tool. I thought about ordering one online then I remembered that my daughter had one. I borrowed hers and luckily she had tons and tons of snaps in many colors. The only problem I had is that it looked so foreign I had to find a YouTube vide to teach me how to install them. Don't you just love the internet? 

               

The next hurdle was the edge foot. The instructions said to use an edge foot to sew all the layers together in the final step. I went to the quilt shop and picked one up and I was ready to go.  What a great foot to have in my tool box. I think I will be using this for more projects than just this one.

Using up Fabric

This quilt was made with a pattern called Kwik Shifted Blocks by Two Kwik Quilters. The pattern showcases large prints but I planned on using it as a way to get rid of some leftover fabrics from another quilt project. I have to admit, I cut the blocks exactly as stated and usually I'm pretty consistent with my measurements and sewing abilities but this quilt top did not measure up. I ended up cutting up some of the blocks in order to make them fit. So even though I liked the pattern, I won't be using it again.

The pattern called for more varieties of prints to be used but I was so determined to use up what I have so there's not a lot of variety in the blocks. I accomplished what I set out to do and I don't think it hurt the final result.

I made an effort to only use charity fabric to make this 3-yard quilt called Easy Street. The focus print has some fun colors so I picked out some blue and lavender coordinating fabrics. These 3-yard quilt patterns from Fabric Cafe go together so easy that I can finish a top in just an afternoon. 

I thought it would be fun to use a butterfly pantograph for the quilting.

The backing fabric is from the Moda Grunge line. I can't tell you how much I love Grunge. It's so versatile and it works with most of my projects. I'm happy to have another finished quilt to turn in at this month's Quilts for Kids meeting. I am determined to use up all the donated fabric that I have.

Happy New Year and More Charity Quilts

It's new year's day and it's pretty quiet here. We had a lovely homemade steak and seafood dinner that we made after my husband's favorite team, the Wolverines. So yes, there was a little whining but it was a wonderful evening. We had cocktails and wine with dinner and enjoyed being home. 

The whole week has been a quiet one. We hosted Christmas Eve dinner and once all the gifts were opened and the dishes were done things settled down. That left me with lots of time to sew. In the last three days I quilted 3 charity quilts, made 3 additional quilt tops and today I finished sewing the binding on the ones I quilted. 

These are all 3-yard quilts made from patterns by Fabric Cafe.  

This pattern is called Sew Quick. The focus fabric is in the big blocks with nice bright color prints in the 4-patches.

This pattern is called Suite Times. I was supposed to use 1 yard of three different fabrics but I had more than a yard of the pink print and not much of the blue so I altered the cutting instructions a bit in order to make it work. 

This pattern is called Traditions. It's from Fabric Cafe's Christmas pattern book. I chose to make it out of everyday fabrics instead of Christmas colors.

Now it's time to go watch the Packers game. Here's hoping for a better outcome than last night's Michigan game!

Chain Reaction Quilt

I completed this 3-yard quilt called chain reaction using some charity fabric I got from Quilts for Kids. They seem to have lots of fabrics with fish prints so I thought I would grab some to help get rid of it. It's quality fabric but it's been around for so long I'm pretty sure everyone is sick of working with it. I added some prints from my stash to give the fish some extra pop of color.

We made the decision last week to get an artificial tree. We've haven't had one since we had kids and the kids are way over 30 now so it's been a very long time. The reason for the change is the kitten. Our sweet little girls has so much energy we're pretty sure she would climb on the ceiling if she could. She gets into so much trouble sometimes we wonder what we were thinking. So a real tree would create quite a mess if she were to knock it over. 

She's hard to see, but she's in there. That's halfway up the tree. We put very few ornaments on the tree so she had less temptation. I think we made the right decision.

Sweet Sundays Quilters

My church quilt group met this week for our annual Christmas luncheon. We celebrated this year's work and enjoyed a nice lunch together. Our leader, Judy gave us each a gift bag with a homemade ornament and a few other little goodies. It was so very kind of her. I always find it amazing that we always make more than 100 quilts for our charities. This year was no different. 

Before I headed to lunch I stopped at church to drop off some pet beds I made. Each December I take my leftover batting scraps, cut them into small pieces and stuff them into beds I make with denim on one side and flannel on the other. 

At church we have a Christmas dedicated to the pastor's first dog, Harley. Since the dog passed away there's been a tree put up in memory of him. All the gifts and monies collected around the tree go to a local animal shelter in Harley's name. It's a wonderful thing. 

Hillside Coffee House Holiday Bazaar

I set up my space at the coffee shop first thing the morning of the bazaar. I usually like to do these things a day ahead of time but there was a snow storm on Friday.  It was just enough snow to make it miserable while trying to unload stuff from the truck. I was surprised how easy it was to do everything just a few hours before opening. Usually I would panic at the possibility of not being ready on time but I guess over the years I've learned to relax.

The bazaar is a wonderful event and I've had the most success there. I sell aprons, wine gift bags, bowl cozies, pot holders, table runners, table toppers, gnomes, quilts, bags, zipper pouches, and other homemade items. It's a great way for me to make some money to help support my quilting habit. Sort of a self-supporting hobby. So the bazaar is worth my efforts.

The hard part about working at the bazaar all weekend is that it's December. I have a tough time thinking about crafting and prepping for the upcoming holidays at the same time. I guess I have to learn to manage my own stresses better. 

Once the weekend was done, I was happy I attended and yet happy it was over. Now I can think about Christmas without distractions. Tomorrow we will put up a Christmas tree!

Girl Scout Quilt & Minecraft Quilt

I finished these two quilts just in time for the holiday market. I've been hanging on to so much cute fabric that I really needed to start using it up. Sometimes I let my charity projects get in the way. At the last two events where I had a booth I sold more lap sized children's quilts than bigger ones so it makes sense to make some more.

I took a Girl Scout panel and just put some borders around it. It is so cute that it didn't need much embellishment or fancy blocks around it. 

I quilted it using a pantograph that has a lot of swirls and curls adding to the cuteness.

I found some cool swirly purple backing fabric at the quilt shop. It's a perfect compliment to the quilt top.

If it doesn't sell at the market I will probably find a reason to give it to a Girl Scout.

I got Minecraft themed fabric from our local Ben Franklin Store. It was going out of business and I spent two hours just loading my cart with lots of cute fabrics. I hate that it's not there anymore. I chose an easy pattern called Favorite Things that had large blocks to show off the focus print. 

I have a really fun pantograph that was a perfect match to the fabrics. The backing is green shadow blush that picks up the many shades of green in the Minecraft print. 

I really enjoyed digging into my stash and feel inspired to make some more. 

Outside there's a hawk hanging around the back yard. We can always tell when it's near because the birds and squirrels all disappear. I spied its hangout - on the very top of a tree! What a pretty sight.