a top and the usual

Let's start with the most exciting part of the week...a quilt top!

As you've seen over the past few weeks, I've been working on the Two Colour Mystery quilt from Canuck Quilter.  Last Thursday the latest clue came out and it was the layout and borders!

She had some very specific pressing instructions, which made me believe there might be a fancier layout than this basic one, but all the seams nested nicely this way.  And seeing the borders, the straight layout makes complete sense now.  Of course, I sewed the blocks rotated 90 degrees from the pattern instructions/photo, which meant those "mitered" corners (shhh...it's a secret she told us how to do in the pattern!) were backwards.  I quickly realized it was wrong (before sewing the LOOONG seams down) and with a little seam ripping and head-scratching, I got my diagonals to go the correct way.  (Thankfully Lily was sleeping at this point, so my design floor was a safe place to be.)

While I had everything out, I also cut and pieced and pressed the binding.  I think the instructions had us at least cutting the binding at the start, but I was lazy and didn't.  But in an effort to clean off my shelf of unfinished projects, I wanted to get that project box cleaned out and stashed away.  Also, later Katie will thank me.

I plan to give this quilt to a great niece, so it needs to be finished sooner rather than later, but life around here is a bit chaotic with the hubby's new (temporary, thankfully) work schedule.  Soon, I hope!

Since the mystery has been "solved," the pattern is no longer free, but if you want to make this beauty, you can find it in her Etsy shop, called "Half 'N Half."  Some folks in the quilt along did the dark fabrics scrappy and it looked cool.

Next up, the 100 day stitch book project is nearly done.  Today is day 95, which means I'll be finishing up the second to last page.  It's gone pretty fast, though it has just dawned on me that this means the 100th day of 2024 is nearly upon us.  Apparently the year is also going fast!  I missed yesterday, so you'll only get through day 93.  I'll catch up tonight.

Day 88

Day 89 - more of the same

Day 90 - I realized some of the edges and corners weren't stitched down well and ran out of room for bigger circles, so if you look close, there are some smaller circles echoed inside the larger ones.

Day 91 - Page 19!

Day 92

Day 93 - I'm getting better at planning ahead, but also  sometimes not.  This page is a good planning ahead page, as I thought to stitch the diagonals first, before sticking on other elements or stitching around the block.  I guess some pages I just have a better vision of what they'll be from the start?

And last on my sewing agenda this week was FINALLY finishing up the smaller (fat quarter size or so) pieces of fabrics from Saved By Zade, the cat rescue (and more) group that I work with.  I contacted my volunteer to set up a meeting time, but also mentioned if they had any other sewing projects (or wanted more of what I've already been working on), we could chat about that.

Well.

She had a project.

The group does a lot of spay and neuter work.  Sometimes it's what's called "Trap, Neuter, Release" which means they catch (often in live traps) kitties who are part of a feral colony, spay or neuter them and then, once they've had a bit of time to heal, release them back to their colony.  Often these colonies have a human caretaker (think barn cats), but there is just not expertise, time and sometimes funds to control the population.  They'll be fed and looked after, but if you've ever tried to pet a feral cat...well...you've probably never even gotten close enough to try, if you've seen them at all!

Anyways.

There are also the rescued kittens and mommas.  They also need to be spayed or neutered, too, to help control the populations.  There are so many kitties in need of homes, reputable rescues will not adopt out a kitty without making sure they will not be a part of the overpopulation problem.  And usually when you adopt from a rescue, that adoption fee is a lot less than getting that surgery on your own.  (Case in point - we adopted Freddie for a fee of $100 and we only had about a $70 vet visit for his second round of vaccinations after that.  Lily cost me over $500 for all her vaccinations and spay.  For a healthy cat.  I'm not complaining, but if you are - this is easy math.)

Back off the soapbox, Katie.

Okay, okay.

What this means is that there is a lot of transport involved.  Kitties go in a carrier (or trap in the case of the wild children) and then into a car.  Sometimes the back of a minivan is packed a few carriers deep when doing a spay/neuter day.  Towels and blankets and whatnot are used to drape the carriers and keep kitties from seeing each other.  They can smell each other, but this does decrease the stress.

But towels and blankets are generally heavier.  Bulkier.  They take up a lot of room in a washing machine and a longer stretch in the dryer than something like a sheet.

Enter Katie the crazy sewing lady.  Can I make covers?  Just flat with a hole for the handle?  For three sizes of carriers and live traps?

Of course I can.  I'm crazy!

My volunteer had a bunch of fabrics for me, including a fair amount of Christmas fabrics, and I came home with an idea.

After some videos about how to make that hole for the handle (it's faced inside) and some measuring and math, I had the cover you see above.

This is a "medium" carrier and takes just about a yard of fabric.  So these are going to eat up a fair amount of fabric, but more will fit in the washing machine and the dryer will be able to work faster.

Lily, of course, helped.  I brought the carrier up to my sewing room because I figured that was easier than running up and down stairs to measure and test and whatnot.  She climbed right in.  The other cats gave it the side eye or hid.  Not Lily-No-Brains.

So now I have a few covers made (and a couple more to go) and plan to meet with my volunteer later this week to hand over the trial pieces.  If they're too large or too small or whatever, I'd rather find out before I make dozens.

If you're still reading (thanks for hanging in there on my tangent), I'll mention that the Bramble Blooms quilt has not been touched, nor have the yellow squares for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  The excitement of a new project took over a bit these last few days, but once I get the trial cover business done, I'll probably move back to those a bit.

Maybe.

Happy quilting!

Katie

caroline's quilt

The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind of finishing quilts!

Mid-March every year is National Quilting Day.  In years past, when my guild was still a guild, we had a quilt show that weekend, so I spent the day with quilty friends doing quilty things.  The guild, due to the pandemic and other troubles, has folded.  This year, Modern Quilt Studio hosted a quilt along, making their Friends All Around pattern, on National Quilt Day.  (The link takes you to their videos that they recorded from a live stream on that day.)  I saw the pattern and thought it would be beautiful done like theirs in jewel tone colors, so I bought the pattern.  And then worked on talking myself out of making another quilt.

But it just so happened that a coworker was just about to become a grandma a second time (the first grandchild got a whale quilt a few years ago) and originally I had decided I wasn't going to make another quilt.  But you know quilters - we can't miss an opportunity to start a new project, right?  So I pivoted to making it all pink and raided my stash.

Since the blocks are made of four parts, I decided to cut out four blocks - one part from each fabric.  Because I could always turn back at four, right?  It would make a nice dolly quilt if it was too hard or I was able to completely talk myself out of it.

My camera (phone) doesn't want to represent the colors correctly and sadly, the first photo above, with the sun streaming in the window and onto my cutting table, is most accurate.

Four blocks weren't bad.  I mean curves take a bit, but this isn't my first time.  I was a little discouraged that the arcs weren't going to line up perfectly, so maybe this layout will be okay instead?  Maybe I'll make a few more.  Five sounds like a good idea.  Because, again, if I talk myself out of this whole quilt, 9 would make a nice dolly quilt.

(Lily says hi...rather wp3oeir;alf00000000000000)

Ah, this IS a better layout and it's going to be a baby quilt and the recipient (mom and baby) aren't going to know better anyways, right?  (Also, they got better as I went.)

I think it was about this point when the baby was born.  I knew I was cutting it close, but that's okay.

So I guess I'll keep going.  Do I want to do 6x6 or 6x7?  Let's just make a few more and decide later.

(Oh look, all the colors are way dark again.)

(Lily please stop chewing on my thumbs.)

Before I knew it, I had all the blocks made.  I think they take about as long to cut (I used freezer paper templates - as you can see in the first photo - layered about 4 fabrics and pinned and cut multiples, but it's still a lot slower than squares with a rotary cutter!)

Time to fight the cats for a layout.

Lily the 6-pound terror cat for size reference?

Label rows, pick everything up and start working towards the dreaded long seams.  Thankfully, since I sewed the rows left to right, when I got done with making the rows, there were few seams to match.  (I tried my best with the arcs, but some just weren't gonna make it.)  That was a nice surprise.

This felt good to have it done to this point and my pink stash is depleted some.  (Not as much as one would hope, but it never goes that way!)

I raided the stash again and found a pink flannel that had been purchased years ago for another project and never got used.  It was enough, though I was hoping to not have to piece it and did.  Flannels are kinda skinny like that sometimes.  But I had enough and that is the important part.

I took no photos of the back.  Oops!

A short while later, I got it on the longarm.  (You can see the back side of the backing fabric in the lower right corner here.)

And after this, you're just going to have to trust me.  Because while I bound and labelled it, I failed to take a photo of that part.  I have no idea how I managed to forget, but I did.

The quilt was given last week Wednesday to grandma and it turned out that baby, mom, big brother and great grandma all came in to work to visit, so my coworker (grandma) could pass it along right away!

Quilt stats:

Pattern: Friends All Around by Modern Quilt Studio

Size: 42" x 42"

Pieced and quilted by me

My other projects - the 100 day stitch book continues to progress.

Day 80 and end of page 16 - the one I should have had done last Monday but didn't.

Day 81, start of page 17.

Day 82

Day 83

Day 84

Day 85, end of page 17  (There are beads - that's all that's different from the previous day!)

Day 86, start of page 18

Day 87

I'm struggling at this point to force myself to sit down knowing it's just a short bit of stitching.  So I've ended up doing a couple of days at a time.  I guess that's okay, too, right?  At this point I don't want to give up.

And last but not least is the Two Colour Mystery quilt.  This week the clue that gives away the block was given, which means it's no longer a free pattern.  But you get to see the block from me!

We still have the layout to tackle and since there were pressing instructions to press half the blocks going one way and half going another, I'm pretty sure this is not going to be a straight layout.  I'll find out on Thursday!

If you want the pattern, it's now in her etsy shop, called  Half 'N Half.

Cat hammock construction is underway, but I decided to just press and cut all the fabrics I had left, working assembly line style, which gave me nine.  And nine takes a lot of time, so progress is slower than one at a time.

Bramble Blooms is still in time out.  And hasn't gotten much thought this week, but it was a busier week than usual.

Rainbow scrap challenge is on the radar, but hasn't made it to the sewing table yet.

And that was my week.  The hubby has had to switch his hours due to his third shift manager quitting unexpectedly and a third shift team that will not survive well without at least some management presence, so I'll be seeing him home about in time for lunch for the foreseeable future.  (He's planning to replace that manager, but between the skill set desired and being third shift, it may take a bit.  We'll make it work.  We always do.  He's worked all the shifts over the years and we've managed to not kill each other when we're home together too much, so this will be fine, too, just an adjustment.)  So I'd better go get done what I can before he turns up wanting food!

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS No new cat photos this week, though Lily chewing on my plastic thread storage box would have been a great one.  Or Salem on top of the light fixture in the bathroom.  Sadly, my photography skills weren't as quick as the cats.

connie's quilt (and all the usual things)

Do any of you remember waaaay back in 2018 when I made an impulse purchase at a quilt shop on the way to a vacation destination?

Okay, maybe in reading the blog post from back then it wasn't ENTIRELY an impulse purchase, but it definitely was not entirely planned either.

It continued on with me to my vacation, but didn't get worked on.  (I had a few other projects going that week!)  And then it sat around a while.  No idea why.

Then in 2021 I started my "sticks" project and in April, I pulled "quilt from a kit" and this was the only kit I had.  (But this kit was the reason that stick existed.)  Time to open it up and see what's going on!

I vaguely remember I may have had to go searching for the pattern, as it didn't come with the kit, but my blog post about starting to make this quilt indicates it had been emailed to me.  Hmmm...whatever.  If you want to make it, the pattern is free from Jedi Craft Girl, called Cabin Fever.

It went together quickly (referencing this blog post from June 2021) and then it sat around.  I wasn't sure what to do with it.  While I had bought it to help me break out of my traditional quilt background color use, now what?  So it went to the Rack of Shame.

The green-ish color of the background isn't true here, but probably best captured in the photo above with the sewing machine.  It's an odd color to be sure.

I was reminded of it last year when the hubby asked for a quilt for his coworker, Jude, for her retirement.  It did not make the cut for her, which is fine.  That just means it was meant for another purpose.

Last week, it told me where it was going.

My assistant manager at work has been sharing tidbits about his mom, Connie, who was admitted to the hospital a few weeks ago needing a blood transfusion.  The first week or so was a lot of tests and confusion, as it wasn't easily determined what was going on.  Then the test for leukemia happened.  We all hoped for the best, but it came back that this was the underlying reason for all the problems.  He hasn't shared a lot with me, as we're both busy and work just isn't the place for that, but I knew it was weighing on his mind.  He mentioned that she couldn't seem to get warm up at the hospital, and though it took a few days to click, when it did, I knew.

I ran out last Thursday to my local quilt shop to get a back.

Finn is helping model the fabric, though mostly you can just see the wrong side of it here.  The greenish background proved a little difficult to match, but with the help of an employee (and friend from guild), this was found and I deemed it perfect.

I pieced it right away, knowing I needed to get this done sooner rather than later.  While she has made it through her chemo, tests are pending to see if it worked or if she needs another round.  Also, it would be nice if she could use it at the hospital to keep warm!

Friday morning, I jumped out of bed, knowing this needed to be my (nearly) first priority.

I chose a light mint green thread I had on hand that seemed to blend best with both the back and the front (a choice I would kick myself for later as the sun started to shine in my face through all those windows!) and opted for an all-over pattern versus something more custom.  While I'm guiding it entirely by hand, something that doesn't require too many stops and starts goes faster.

It took about four hours, all told, from prepping the longarm, loading and then quilting.  The machine is still having issues with breaking thread, but I limped it through and the motif I chose has lots of pause points that make ripping out stitches not a huge task to get back to a good point to bury threads and start again.

The binding had been made with the top, as it was part of the kit, so Saturday I did all the binding - machine and hand sewn parts.  Sunday I made the label and checked the schedule at work.  He would be there to close and while the weather is gorgeous (which means the store will be busier), I headed in anyways and managed to catch him in the back room, away from the needy customers.  I knew it had to be quick (needy customers are why we're there!), but that's okay.  He was appreciative and asked me if I knitted that myself.  Well...I did make it, but not by knitting!  Silly boy!  His mom will get it tomorrow afternoon, so I'll have to report back with the final result next week.

The quilt?  You're going to get two photos - one that shows the quilting better (in the sun) and one that shows the colors sorta better (in the shade).

These are off opposite ends of my porch and I am NOT going to complain about the sun!  We've had a long, dreary winter and I'm happy for the sunshine.

Quilt Stats:

Pattern: Cabin Fever by Jedi Craft Girl

Size: 53" x 67"

Pieced and quilted by me

Now on to the other usual things.

The stitch book is coming along still.  I got carried away reading last night and didn't get my day of stitching done, which would have finished the page, but I at least have the six previous days to share!

Day 74

Day 75, end of page 15

Day 76

Day 77 - this is where I realized I'd created a monster.  As you see the final page, you'll realize my little bit of stitching would be covered up my future parts so I had to keep stitching.  Ugh!

Day 78 - OMG DONE STITCHING!

Day 79 - see what I mean?  Had I been thinking, I would have done the stitching going the other way or something.  I have plans for what else is going into this page, but I'll make you wait till next week to see what it is!

Step five for the Two Colour Quilt Along Mystery was released on Thursday and I promptly made those units.

I think there are still a couple more days you can sign up for this quilt along and get the pattern free.  But this week she will release the step that shows block assembly, and at that point, it's no longer a freebie.  The instructions, as expected, are awesome and I can't wait to see what this is going to be.  (I'm leaning towards stars, but that's because I know she loves them!)

And lastly on the things I actually did this week, after I finished the quilt for Connie, I was still in a good frame of mind to fight with the longarm, so...

Friends All Around went on the longarm next!  I used the same quilt motif because it was going okay on the last quilt, so why mess with it?  (Also, I didn't want to try to echo the piecing pattern, so something overall was perfect.)

This quilt has also been bound, but just needs a label.  I plan to get that taken care of later today so I can take this quilt to work with me tomorrow, as it goes to a coworker's daughter who had a baby a few weeks ago.  I'll be posting more about this next week...I think!

On the things I didn't do list:

Bramble Blooms - ideas still percolating, but this week got away from me, what with two quilts being longarmed and all!

Cat hammocks - I have a few fabrics left still, but I should be making more of an effort to get to them to just get that shelf cleared up so Lily can stop pulling everything off of it.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - it's yellow and I'll get there!

Time to go swap the banana bread in the oven for some brownies.  (Banana bread is going to work, so I decided to make some turtle brownies for the hubby to keep him from complaining too much.  We won't eat a whole loaf of banana bread before it goes moldy.  He'll eat an 8x8 pan of brownies in no time, so they're safe!)

Happy quilting!

Katie

all the things again!

It's nice to have a number of projects going at once so I can pick and choose and not get bored.

It's also a problem to have a number of projects going at once because it can be overwhelming to decide what to do and if you choose the funner option, knowing there is one with a (self-imposed, usually) deadline that you SHOULD be working on, you might feel guilty.

So I try to work on everything a little bit.

The 15 minutes (approximately - some days it's longer, some days it's shorter) a day 100 day stitch book is coming along nicely and we're nearly three quarters of the way done!

Day 67

Day 68

Day 69 - I was running out of ideas and didn't want to cover up the birds (they're printed on the fabric, please don't give me credit for their embroidery) and I decided on some little leaves.  I could have gone on forever with these - it was so spring-like and we need that here.  The weather has been a tease, but I'm ready for steady warmer days, not just here and there.

Day 70 - instead of yet more leaves, I added a little gold to a bird.  It might not be accurate to any actual bird, but that area was looking a little drab.  (The yellow on the trees is also printed.)

Day 71 - start of a new page.  I only sewed down the  block, but left all else pinned and ready for future sewing.

Days 72 and 73, as I forgot to take a photo after day 72.  Here you see all the parts from above actually sewn down, but the fabric at the bottom needs a bit more stitching.  (I ran out of floss and my time was more than up anyways.)  The red skinny stuff is leftover tie from mask-making.

Just a few more pages and then assembly can begin on the book.

The Two Colour Mystery step did not disappoint this week - a little more involved than previous weeks, but at least I didn't have to trim any half square triangles!

I expect that very soon we'll start putting parts together and the mystery will become less mysterious.

If you want to join in, it's still free for about another week - click the link above.

Lily wanted to help with this step:

She held down the parts I wasn't using.  For her, this is pretty good.  As you'll see in later photos, she was not always this good at helping...

The Friends All Around quilt made some big strides!  Last week I shared the stack of blocks, but this week I decided on a layout.

(Lily helped - she is getting rowdy with her claws and snagging at anything and everything, including fingers, even if it doesn't move.  This makes laying out quilt blocks on the floor extra dangerous.)

Then I sewed the blocks together.

I'm not sure if Lily was checking for an accurate quarter inch seam or maybe seeing if I needed to clean out the bobbin area, but she sure was intent.  (I gave her an empty thread spool, carefully placed where she could see it and told her it was not for her.  Guess what she went straight for?  Ha!  Score one for me, but I'm going to have to sew a whole lot faster to keep up with her ability to lose the empty spools in seconds!)

It's a top!

I found some pink flannel with daisy-like flowers on it in my stash (I'd forgotten about it, but hooray for more stash reduction) that was plenty enough for a back, so this will be quilted soon.  I thought about doing it today, but I'm supposed to meet friends for lunch, so that's as good an excuse to procrastinate as any.

I've also been sewing cat hammocks here and there, but have no real photos to share.

But then I realized...  This photo, "Seconds Before Disaster," shows them folded on the (messy, storage) shelf at about the level of Lily's belly.

She tried to jump (claw) her way up to where her left paw is and managed to drag the couple of small quilts stacked there down with her as she flopped to the floor.  Thankfully no one was hurt, but she made a good mess with all the stuff she took down with her.

The chair has been removed.  (It didn't belong there anyways.)

Bramble Blooms continues to be in time out.  I think about it from time to time, but that's about it.  I've had a few ideas, but haven't done anything about them.  Letting it percolate.

And the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for the month is yellow, but as today is just the first, I haven't dug into those squares yet.  Soon.

And a few more cat photos because you haven't seen enough of Lily yet!

This week she was absolutely fascinated with my spin mop.  I was mopping the bathroom and she was determined to help.  She not only tried to help when I was rinsing it, but also chased it as I mopped.

(Last week she attacked the vacuum hose as I was vacuuming the stairs.  She is insane.)

Big (middle) sister Salem is perfect by comparison.

Heck, she's just plain perfect.

The other kitties did not pose for photos this week, but they're all still here, making a furry mess of my house with their shedding due to warmer(ish) weather.  It's okay.  There are far worse things.

And that was my quilty week.  Time now to go finish a few more chores before it's time for lunch!

Happy quilting!

Katie