finally some quilting!

It seems like it's been forever, but I haven't forgotten how to quilt!

Last week I had nothing much to share, but I was busy making cat hammocks and other such stuff.

This past week, I decided to make some quilted goodies for the ladies from my quilt guild that meet for lunch a couple of times a month (weather and schedules permitting).  But what to make?

Pinterest provided me with inspiration and I was off!

But I got so wrapped up in the work, I forgot to take any photos except this one during the construction...

And this one...

...I had to unwrap the last package midway through the process because I realized I had NO photos of these little magnets finished!

Yes, these are tiny (1.5" finished) quilt blocks.  Quilted.  And a magnet is on the back.  (The link above is how I made mine.)

(And Carol, if you're reading this before we get to lunch, you gotta act surprised, okay?  Because I have errands to run on the way to lunch and I'm not sure if I can figure out how to make this publish AFTER I leave...)

With that emergency (sort of) sewing out of the way, I could focus on the next emergency (sort of): the baby quilt.

I don't see my niece often and I'm hoping she and her hubby will be able to make it to the family Christmas.  She is due for baby #2 in February, so I think Christmas is a perfect time to get that quilt to her.

But it wasn't quilted.  The top is done.  The back is pieced.  The binding is made.  I have batting and thread.  But I'm really good at procrastinating - I predicted this a while ago when I shared the finished top.

So Friday dawned and I was mentally ready, despite the grey weather that made things harder to see...

The colors aren't quite right here, but you can at least see that I've got it about ready to go!

I wanted to do a woodgrain-like motif and was struggling because I didn't have a big enough back to load it sideways to make the woodgrain go up and down.  But I found this kinda-tutorial and she went sideways with it and it looked just fine.  So I'll be fine.

Off to the races!

This went really fast, but it could probably have done better with a little more effort to mark things ahead of time.  It's very "organic" (as one of the bloggers I follow likes to say when things get wonky and are clearly not done with a computer!), but it gives great texture.  And if my niece complains, I'll just take it back.

The binding is sewn on, but the hand-sewing portion is awaiting me.

I was going to do that yesterday, but after finding out that the 18 or so packages of catnip birds did not cover all the employees at my work (I have no idea what happened except to think someone double-dipped), I spent yesterday making 16 more.  Birds.  Not packages of birds.  Just one coworker has mentioned he didn't get any, but this way I have four extra packages, just in case.  (Worst case, my whole family have cats, so the niece and nephew and brother and sister kitties will be stoned this holiday, too.)

Speaking of kitties - they have been hard at work helping me with all the things, but I've been busy and focused and not had my phone handy.  All I have is Finn helping with some hammocks.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I can get back to more quilty stuff.  I've set myself a mental goal to get more quilts longarmed, but I also have about 85 tiger sections to go on that quilt, too.  And the pile of hammock fabric has decreased some in the past few weeks, but that is also still there.

Lots to do - just some days it's a struggle to decide WHICH task I want to take on.  And with the cold weather finally truly here, mostly I just want to snuggle under the finished quilts with a cat or three and a book!

Happy quilting!

Katie