Snow Kitties

My kitties love quilting. 

They have been a great deal of help during this snowy time in the south this past week. 

See they are making sure that projects are minded, held in place and I don't get lonely while quilting. 

Kahn and Nugget take quilt inspection very seriously. 

They ventured outside a little onto the roof overhang to make sure that the weather was still purrr-fect for quilting. 

Kahn says -- no thanks I will just look 

Hurley tried to have a Ralphie moment with the downspout. He loves the snow. 

Nugget was not a fan -- so much so that his neck disappeared.

And there is as always lots of this going on. 

Scouting out another UFO

Last weekend and the last week have been quite a whirl --- here are the highlights .....

Basted my Lazy Sunday during Lunch one day 

Quilted 2 projects 

Teri brought me a big ole bag of fabric 

Scout class started

I made a huge pile of HST  

We've had a bunch of snow and Ice this week and I spent some quality time with my sewing machine so stay tuned for the next post to have a pile of finishes and adorable Kitty snow pictures. 

Tiny Beauties

Recently I participated in the 14th round of the Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr and you all saw my mini California Dreamin'  that headed off to Jen @ Quilter in the Closet. 

In watching the items in the swap, I had a few that I was so hoping were for me but there was one (two) that stood out in the group. Now I figured there was no way that these beauties would be coming my way because the quilter lived on the other side of the world . Well you can imagine my surprise when my husband calls me and says I have a package from New Zeland -- really I thought he was kidding me because he knew my obsession with certain minis in the group and I figured he was playing a prank on me. So I rush home and this is waiting for me.

I quickly opened it and the squealing started --- my partner was indeed Rebecca @ One Wee Bird and the received items were.... for lack of a better word AMAZING. She was super generous with her item and the extras she included and had nailed all the things that I was looking for from the swap. 

I Love these little pouches and am already putting them to use.

(Adorable and he knows it)

Rebecca initially had made this mini for me but had encountered an incident with the iron as she was finishing it. 

After much work to remove the iron stain she decided that she would also included the 1st mini in my parcel -- now you can't tell it was stained initially. 

Being the awesome partner that she is she decided to make another mini -- even though myself and several others in the group were insistent that the mini was excellent and should be sent -- the story made it more special. It had numerous offers for homes it could come to if she wasn't going to be sending it to her partner. 

The 2nd mini is also AMAZING but in a very different way -- more simplistic in design but beautiful handwork, and as a person that has no handwork skills I really appreciate the effort and time that goes into the process. 

I was still in shock and awe at receiving these items when my happiness suddenly changed to compassion and sorrow as I read the letter she had included. This is part of the reason that I have been putting off making this post --- out of respect for Rebecca. During the time that she was working on the swap. she had a great personal loss when her husband died suddenly in an accident. In reading her beautiful note the mini became even more special to me. 

I could not begin to tell you which mini, of the pair is my favorite because I love them in very different ways but one thing is certain, Rebecca is amazing and though we may never meet in person -- she is special to me and I will think of her often and hope for healing for her and her family during this difficult time. 

Getting Skinny 2014

I've been invited to join in on the skinny Pinnie swap hosted by Amy @ Amy made that  (there's also a flickr group here). This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun and something that will be a good quick little project to share the love among sewers.

So, recently  I got my partner and I have to say I'm pretty excited to make for her because I have been reading her blog for white a while. I know she likes color and modern fabric but there wasn't much more to go off of. I checked her blog and she likes lots of color and I'm thinking of going scrappy (shock I know), but where to start.

Then I remembered that the last time I was cutting down scraps I came across this cut little bird from collage.

He wasn't the right size to square up but I couldn't bring myself to toss him so he's been hanging out on my cutting table waiting for inspiration to strike so this will be the perfect use for him and I know my partner will appreciate having him come live at her house.

I'm also pulling in these other fabrics and hope to start putting this together pretty soon. I may need a little more of that aqua to brighten things up but I like the way things are going so far. 

Now, to show you guys how serious I am about weight loss (haha) here's a pick of the cake I made a for work today to celebrate a co worker's birthday -- that's a banana Pudding Cake. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend and happy quilting!

Star Light Link up

My 2nd selection for fabrics are cut for the star light, star bright hosted by Melissa @ Happy Quilting --- I used fabrics from my stash again on this project and I was hoping to make a 3x3 layout with the 16 inch blocks. 

Apparently I took this photo before I cut the background fabric -- but I think it's going to be really cute and I am hoping that this will be a good item for a craft fair or baby shower gift. 

Well it turns out that my math skills aren't great (my guild mates hear this all the time) and I either miscounted the pieces of mis-measured the background fabric so I will only be doing a 2x2 layout without sashing -- or the sashing will be a different fabric. 

This week's assignment is to make the flying geese units. 

(Chain, chain, chain -- Jen that's for you! ;)
It was my first time using the no waste method and I really like it. Here are my results

Happy Quilting everyone -- It's not to late to join in on the sew along so pop on over and check it out. Next week is HST's and I know there is going to be a bunch of them. 

Goals for the Month

I discovered that I was starting to get deadlines mixed up so I made myself a little calendar to keep track of all of the link ups and deadlines and appointments that I have this month. 

I decided that this was also a good place to list my goals for the month -- since I can keep in on the wall behind my machine and as a constant reminder of things I should be working on instead of starting new projects and continuing the cycle of always feeling behind. 

My goals for this month are (but not limited to)

• keep up with my 3 linky projects -- lazy Sunday QAL, Star light star bright QAL, Gypsy wife QAL
• complete the blocks for the 2013 Block of the month -- apparently I have lost momentum for this project and need to force myself to get this done. 
• finish binding 2013 Block of the Week -- it's attached but not turned 
• quilt at least 3 of the quilts I basted this past weekend -- these may wait till after I take the feathers class 
• Scout and free motion feather classes
• continue fabric fast -- no buying and purging out 
• apron project for MIL
• One very special project -- VSP

I am using this as a way to see how much time I quilt, so each day I write this is before I shut off the machine and so far I have over an hour in each day. Last night I got the top pieced on the Lazy Sunday and started making backing. I thought I may need to buy backing but the hubs looked in the drawer and found something I had overlooked. 

Stay tuned for the top reveal later this week. 

Happy Quilting everyone.

Fabric Fast -- part 2

Statesville quilt show was a lot of fun this weekend and it was my last hurrah before getting back on the fabric fast for Fabricholics Anonymous. I had a great time out with friends and got some lovely goodies -- 2 backing fabrics, 6 items for the Gypsy Wife Quilt, Charm pack of Botanics -- to keep me from buying a bundle, Daydream charm pack and 2 FQ's were gift, the yellow was to put in my Lazy Sunday QAL and so that means I only am adding in 3 pieces to the hoard of fabric with no plans at this time.

It was kind of a bitter sweet moment because I knew that it meant going back to not buying fabrics and I will be in the quilt shops in the upcoming weeks because of classes that I am going to be doing -- but I am hoping that I will find strength in completing projects this month.

Yesterday I went to the guild sew in and got 5 UFO's basted and ready for quilting.

Mack's Unwind

Food Fight 

Opal Burst

Purple Mini -- needs a name

Sunday in the Park 

I am also doing a sew along with Sew Lux for May Chappell's Lazy Sunday pattern -- this week's goal was to get the blocks made. I finished them about 11pm last night but I did meet the goal and got the blocks up on the wall to start working on the layout.

This week's goal is to sew all the blocks into a top.

Also this week I will be linking up with happy quilting melissa for her star light, star bright quilt along -- so that means cutting to link up by Wednesday. My initial fabric pull turned out to be fat eighths rather than fat quarters so need to pull different fabrics.

Lots of sewing going on here this weekend in the upcoming week -- Happy February everyone looks like I have lofty goals for the month.

linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday