finishing and starting

Where did I leave you last...

Ah yes, with a pile of bright parts...

After running out of background fabric (math...) and purchasing just 1/4 yard more on Thursday, plus a few sewing delays, yesterday I sent these beauties off to their new home:

And what photo would be complete without an actual cat in it?  These are for Emma's Plan and it would probably be more appropriate if my Emma cat was there, but nope.  Skitter is being very friendly lately in the sewing room, helping with floor layouts, so here you have scaredy-cat Skitter (who is much less scared after living here for 14+ years, but definitely still skittish!).

There are 40 and it was hard even to pick just 40 fabrics from my stash.  The quilts they will be sewn into will have only 30 cats each and I thought about choosing just 30 and finishing a quilt, but then thought better of it.  If I can't choose just 30 fabrics, how am I going to choose just 30 finished blocks?  So I'm sure they will be incorporated as needed into little quilts and I'll let someone else do the hard part!  Well, the next hard part.

I also left you with this photo:

This was for a challenge from Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  To honor National Craft Week, they had a mini challenge.  While I'm not sure I'd consider their 4" blocks "mini", I was in.  I decided to make enough of the blocks to create a dolly quilt, and make the best use of my fabric and time!  (Plus, why not try to win some beautiful fabrics?)

I cut...

...I sewed...

...I struggled to get lighting right...

...I sewed blocks together...

(see what I mean about struggling with colors? I think the fabric pull photo has the colors represented best)

I also quilted and machine-sewed down binding and will proceed to finish the binding by hand in the evenings.

So I started a new project, but it's almost done.  And at 16" square, it's not going to take long to sew down the binding.  (Of course, I'm still only about halfway around the UFO quilt still, but I'm getting there...)

I'll share a photo when it's truly done. I promise.  Maybe I'll take it outside to see if I can get the colors right...

And while I was working on these, of course I was taking breaks and looking at Pinterest and blogs and Instagram and such, so another project (or three) is roaming around in my head.

Somehow this next one got first pick...

There's an organization, Jack's Basket, that provides a lot of support to families who have babies with Down Syndrome.  Having grown up with an aunt who had Down Syndrome, this struck me immediately.  She was such an amazing person (we still giggle at the stuff she did, but I'm always amazed that she taught herself to read (yes, taught. herself. to. read.) so she could black out the shows she didn't want her dad watching from the television guide printed in their small-town weekly newspaper!) and I wanted to help make sure others have an amazing aunt as well!

Anyways, part of their efforts include quilts.  Smallish quilts (36" square).  And I had this Churn Dash running around my head, doing a little obnoxious hollering, so I thought why not?  I decided to use up some off-white-on-white scraps and dig into my darker greens and blues, as they are often neglected.  I did some math (this time it went well) and cut some pieces and had this just a few days ago...waiting for me...

(yes, they're in a shoebox...cat "insurance" if you will...but the colors are truer here)

And then over the past two days, I sewed what seemed like the longest time on just 16 blocks, but had this to lay out yesterday evening:

The blocks have been sewn together now, but it was getting late last night (and I was having problems...me and the seam ripper...ack!), so you'll just have to settle for this photo, complete with Emma and Gabby giving it the once-over.  I had to take about 5 photos before I got one they didn't run through as I took it, but this one is pretty sweet, even if they are a little blurry...cats don't sit still on command, you know!

I'm going to see if I have anything large and appropriate enough for a back and make get this quilted later this week.  (I don't generally buy large cuts, so what I have is almost entirely left over from other projects, which makes it pretty hard to have quilt backs ready.)

I had visions of this quilt making a dent in my stash.  It didn't.  I didn't even use up all the blue or green fabric, though I did make a little dent in the "neutral" stack, even if it wasn't so big to start with.

I have ideas of what to work on next, but the quilt idea that's screaming loudest isn't telling me what colors it needs to be, so I'm not sure where today is headed...probably a shower before anything else!

Happy quilting,

Katie