retreat prep

Last week at guild, my friend Barb mentioned about the retreat she and I and two other friends are attending in early January.  I couldn't believe it, but she was right - just a month away!  What was I going to work on, she asked.  Ummmmm....

Well, there are design walls, so maybe the graduation quilt for my niece?  So I decided to cut parts for that first.  It has a deadline, so this makes sense.  I didn't take a photo of the parts (oops!), but I do have this comparison of the front and back of the blue...I think I like the back better!

It's kinda hard to tell, but the back looks more like a mottled woven texture - I wish they'd have printed it on that side!  But it's okay.  Only you and I will know the difference!

With those cut, I had no other projects in the works that would travel well.  I mean, there's the Bird Seeds quilt, but that's at a point that it's prep and handwork and not the easiest for a retreat project...

...but I am at least working on it some.  But when I ironed the fabrics, they smelled like stink bugs!  There were no stink bugs in the bin or nestled in the fabrics that I could find, but ewww!  (And I may or may not have been listening to a new CD while this was happening...)

I also have the tiny stars project, but only have about a dozen fabrics cut to sew and need to raid my mom's stash for more.  So I decided to set that up for Friday.  It's my guild's sew-in day Friday (and Saturday too, but I have to work), but I think cutting for tiny stars makes more sense.  Even if I will miss sewing with my friends.  And I plan to use tonight and tomorrow (after chores and such, of course) to sew the remaining fabrics I have cut currently.  This way I have maximum bags to store sets of squares from mom!  And this will make a nice backup project for retreat, but I need another major project...

So what now?

Oh, Pinterest, you never disappoint.  I have a board with a lot of quilts saved.  Some are just color or setting inspiration.  Some I want to duplicate exactly because I love them so much.  Most are somewhere in the middle there.

But this X-Plus pattern has been catching my attention lately.  First as a wild and crazy, all-brights with a few black/dark greys in it.  But then...I saw the green one...and it was over.  So I decided that I would raid my stash and cut and kit these blocks for retreat.  My green stash is the biggest, so it was perfect.  And though my greens range from very, very dark to very, very light, I knew I would still have enough in that middle ground where the quilt lives.

My stash of greens was fairly tidy, thanks to the rainbow scrap challenge.  The black and grey were okay, but not as tidy.  The white and off-white...ugh!

That's okay, right?  I can sort through these and tidy them up as I go!

First I cut greens.  I knew I wanted the quilt to be green-heavy, so I cut all I could, using each fabric only once.

No, wait, first I raided my stash of 2.5" squares.  At some point long ago, I decided I would go through my scrap bins and cut these squares from anything I could and leave the rest for strings or discard them.  And then what?  I don't know what to do with these!  This was a great opportunity to sort them (thanks to feline assistance, they were in a bit of a jumble) and use a bunch!

There were quite a few that I had enough of...and a few I was able to just cut a few more from the larger piece in the stash to make it work.  So happy for stash reduction!

Okay, then I cut the greens.  And then on to the white and off-white stacks.  I didn't want the quilt to get too dark with the black and greys, so it seemed to make the most sense to cut these lighter colors next.  Even though my brain was screaming that it likes greys and blacks better!

After this, my white and off-white stash is so nice!  I sorted out the solids from the prints, so there is a stack of each that will be much easier to raid for future projects.  And I hope to keep my stash more tidy in the future...

Finally I made it to the darker colors!  It seemed to take forever, but I was cutting 36 sets for a 6x6 setting of blocks.  So I made 36 piles of each of the four sets of pieces and planned to mix and match them after they were all cut.

I had help in this endeavor, of course...amazingly, she didn't mess up much!

It is at this point, the mixing and matching of pieces that are on your floor, I highly recommend some stretching exercises first.  Like as if you were going to go jump hurdles and perform a high jump.  Because today, day two after my mixing and matching, I am struggling to get up from a seated position (let me tell you how fun it is to try to sit down on a toilet...) and even walking is painful at times.  I am NOT that old!!!  But doggone it, I guess I am out of shape!

But I did not know I had pulled a muscle in my thigh until that night.  So I was happily crawling around the floor with my beautiful fabrics!  And at the end of the day, had this:

I have clipped these all together and they are ready for retreat.  First, I used up all my Clover binding clips.  But since I only have 25, I supplemented with binder clips.  They aren't as cute, but they work just as well!

Yesterday I had to work, so this quilt simmered.  The original pattern calls for this 6x6 arrangement and a HUGE (by my standards!) border.  But when you get to quilting, what do you do with a border that large?  That almost always stumps me.  So I thought some and decided I would make it bigger by a row, for a 7x7 setting.  This will make a nicer sized throw quilt and, if I decide to put a border on, will not require a very wide one to help the quilt along.

So, yep, gimpy Katie pulled out ALL the fabrics again this morning.  There were a number of greys and blacks that did not get used the first time, so I decided, the first batch feeling very white-heavy, I would start there.  And use the fabrics I hadn't used before...mostly!  And then use my favorite greens to round things out...

I am happy to report that the second set (13 of them) are all cut and ready to be matched.  I even found a green I hadn't used yet hiding in a separate pile!  Later tonight I will match these up, but I have to acquire a few more binder clips...thank goodness the dollar store stocks them.

I am also going to be very careful in my efforts so I don't pull a muscle in the other leg!

Before all these antics could start, I made sure to accomplish my "assignment" for the week - the next five Christmas blocks.  Only 7 more to go, but due to my plans to visit my mom Friday and having to work Saturday and Sunday, next week will be delayed.  It's okay, though.  Life happens.

The toy soldiers have something like 70 pieces in them, but they did turn out cute and my points match better than I imagined they would, so I'm not complaining.

And yes, my train has a bra in it.  I'm okay with it, so you should be, too.

Finally, we are to the part of the post where the cats shine...

Earlier today Lexie was not helping.  She may look like it here, but she was demanding ALL the PETS, RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!

She's so pretty in the sunshine (that I am loving!), but what you don't see is her grabbing my hands, standing on my cutting tools and fabrics and, when I gently put her on the floor, her burrowing into my fabric cupboards (which were open because I was putting things back as I worked - they are usually closed because of her) and dumping things onto the floor because she has apparently forgotten how to jump.  The best part is that she is deaf, so you can turn around and see her doing these naughty things and holler at her and she just keeps going.  Not because she's ignoring you, but because she can't hear you.  (But to be honest, if she could hear, she would pause, look at me, and then continue whatever she was doing.)

And then there's sister Emma.  Usually Emma is being naughty, but I don't think she's been feeling great lately.  Lots of coughing and picky eating.  If she doesn't perk up in a few more days, she'll be seeing her "favorite person" after a little jaunt in the car...hoping for this to just pass, as I'm sure all of you cat owners can understand!  But that's not the photo story...we bought a new couch like a year ago or something.  I don't remember when exactly.  Not important.  What is important is that it came with throw pillows.  My husband hates them.  He throws them on the floor or on my half of couch or anywhere he doesn't have to touch them.  So there is often one sitting in the middle of the couch.  I have learned to call that the Princess Pillow.  Here is why...

You have no idea how rowdy and annoying she is when hungry in this photo.  You just see this beautiful kitten taking an adorable nap.  And while her crazy has diminished with the adoption of Spazarella, her hungries have not, and her efforts to fit her whiskers into my nose and nuzzling me with a cold, wet nose while I (try to) sleep have intensified in an effort to convince me that her hungries are important NOW!!

And with that, the funner parts of my week have been shared.  Now I will go finish baking bread and get ready to take dinner to my mother-in-law for her birthday.

Happy quilting,

Katie

PS My kitchen may or may not look like a bag of flour was dropped in it right now...

30 done!

There are 42 blocks in the Very Vintage Christmas book and sampler quilt.  I can't believe that I have 30 of them done already!  When I started the quilt-along, I thought five per week would too many.  It is a lot, but so far, I've been doing okay keeping up.  12 more go to, which I assume means three more weeks and then we'll see how long the blocks hang out before I decide to sew them together...

Blocks this week swung back towards more traditional piecing, which was nice.  But I struggled with matching points (or not losing them) more than I thought I should.  Perhaps I got a bit cocky after all the fussy blocks in past weeks?

Anyways, here they are:

I about lost it on that last one.  It should NOT have been that hard.

But they're finished and that has me happy.

That also leaves me with a few days to spare.  I will probably talk myself into prepping some "seeds" for my Bird Seeds quilt after I finish typing here.  I did well on them for a stretch this summer, but they've fallen off the radar again.  The prep, though it isn't that difficult, is just enough to turn me off doing them.  Wanting the quilt, though, will eventually win that battle.  Eventually.

This week I purchased some fabric for my niece's quilt that I mentioned in the last post.  I went in with plans to do bright, jewel-toned fabric.  I couldn't find a red or a purple or even a good blue that I really liked.  So I brought home what feels like Easter...

In my original drawing, I used four colors.  There was some corner-touching of colors going on, so I thought I'd add in a fifth color to help that issue (and make the layout maybe easier?).  And then I threw the grey in there, too, just in case.  (I have a grey problem and a dot problem, so if I don't use this in her quilt, I'll use it somewhere else...or just stare lovingly at it for a while...)

But now I'm torn.  I feel like maybe that light blue in the middle is too light.  Maybe it should go and the grey should stay?  Or should another color go?  Keep the grey?  What are your thoughts?

While I was shopping, I also picked up some adorable, tiny buttons for the Christmas quilt.  It needs such embellishments and I might have gone a little crazy...

...there is also a package hiding in there that has stars and hearts.  I may not need them all, but seriously, how could you not buy those tiny flowers?  They're like 1/4" across!  My button box just got a whole lot cuter.  (Previously it mostly held buttons I'd rescued from shirts that were headed to the trash bin.)

In other sewing news, I pulled out a bag of "lost" corners left over from making my sheeps.  Due to block construction, I had only three of each colorway, so pinwheels weren't a good option.  At least not matchy ones.  I thought about making less-matchy ones, but then thought I'd get creative.  I planned to use these as leader-enders since my cute pink pinwheels ran out.

And I made the Ugliest Leader-Ender Project Ever.

And yes, I see the error.  I'm debating now whether to fix it, throw it out, or what.  It was not the first error, but that other one was found and corrected early.  This one will require much more trouble.

It's about 8 ugly inches square.

How can fabrics that made such a wonderful, amazing, beautiful, loved quilt come together to make THIS?

Ugh.

So that's it for sewing news this week.  But we can't have a post without cats, right?

This week I purchased a new window seat for the cats.  They have one in the bedroom upstairs that is a coveted place for both Lexie and Gabby (my two grey babies).  So I thought, in the wintertime absence of the air conditioner in this window, a new seat downstairs might be nice.  You know, to keep tabs on the squirrels and such.

I'm a little wary of the suction cup mount, but have seen enough of these in other people's cat photos (and no note of disastrous aftermath), that I finally purchased one.  Cleaned the window first.  Cleaned the suction cups first.  Followed all the directions.

And the cats are afraid of it.

Of course they are.

Gabby prefers the quilt ladder...

...of course Gabby prefers the quilt ladder.  Then again, she rarely stays in one place for long, so shortly after this, she was knocking things off the adjacent bookshelf and climbing on top of it to peer down through the window below - the same window that has the new cat seat in it.  Obviously.

Off now to decide what the remainder of the afternoon will hold.  The hubby will be home soon, but other than asking me to make dinner, he's pretty easy going.

Happy quilting,

Katie

quick before the hubby gets home!

I should be sitting at this desk and computer paying bills, but the hubby isn't here yet, so I'm gonna quick share my quilting from the past week!

I finished the blocks for last week's Very Vintage Christmas sew-along before the next set was assigned on Friday.

First was block 19:

This one was fairly difficult and required some ripping of seams.  I think there may have been a better way to construct this, but was not in any mood to figure it out just then.  It's a lovely block, but I don't see any more of these in the future!

Then number 20, putting me very near halfway done!

A super cute mitten.  And that blue for the main part?  I rescued that out of the trash at a sew-in group I belonged to many years ago.  It seems to have been cut as border strips or something.  I have no idea, but I still have a bit of it and am hoarding it for life.  I don't know why, but I adore it still.  My tastes in fabrics and block styles and everything have changed a lot over the years, but this fabric is still IT.

Thanksgiving happened in here - lots of eating!  And I worked Black Friday.  My first experience working the day in retail.  I didn't open, so I didn't experience the mad rush at 6am, but when I arrived at 10am, the store was calm, customers were kind and patient, the lines weren't very long (and the other cashiers said the early rush wasn't even that terrible!) and the store wasn't even in that bad of shape.  We stayed relatively, but not crazy, busy until about 2pm and things dropped off significantly.  So the other cashier and I traded on and off who was at register and who was working to straighten the areas near us, with an eye towards the line getting backed up so we would come back.  And I know there are other stores out there that were probably a mad rush with a clientele that are less likely to be patient (farmers...well, they sorta have to be!), but I am thankful that it was as easy as it was.

I managed to have the following weekend (both Saturday AND Sunday) off, but Saturday, after a round of morning sewing (the hubby had Thursday and Friday off, but not the weekend...go figure!), I started to feel not so great.  Symptoms were as described by one of my cashier coworkers...well, we share the same area most days, so it didn't surprise me I caught it...but at least I had an idea of what was ahead.  Nothing as terrible as the last round that knocked me out for 11 days and I was STILL coughing from it when this hit.  I took it easy Saturday evening and most of Sunday, though I did make a run to the grocery store...partly due to the predicted snowstorm (we did get 7" - an inch more than the high predicted, but we survived just fine!) and partly because I knew if I was sick, I'd better have hubby-friendly foods (bologna and white bread, Little Debbie snacks, etc.) around so he wouldn't "starve"...as if...  Anyways, this cold hasn't been terrible, but I'm trying not to overdo things!  The worst right now is I'm on day two of almost no voice - that's hard to do when you're a cashier!!!  (Also hard when you have an Emma-No who is training a Gabby-No!)

BUT...I did sew all five blocks already this week!

#21 (the halfway point!)

I snagged that awesome turquoise ric-rac from my mom at Thanksgiving.  I think it adds more pizzazz than the white (which she didn't have).

#22

I had to go stash-diving to find something that would work for a snowman on a white background.  This is leftover from the Tula Pink kitty plus quilt I made earlier this year and, other than that one butterfly hanging out on the snowman's shoulder, does look a bit like snowfall on a grey day!  (Though one gal at my local quilt shop suggested I make him yellow...oh Janice...)

#23

This little guy.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Lots of pieces, lots of lost corners, lots of trimming and lots of ripping and realigning things.  But he's so doggone cute!  And look - I used the grey-white again!  (It's not showing up quite as distinct from the background in these photos as in real life, but many of these photos were taken after work...in the evenings...)

#24

Grey-beard Santa!  Another of those I had to figure out how to make it not-white.  Stash-diving again produced this grey.  I was actually looking for a white-on-white that had swirls printed on it, but never did find it.  (I think I used it up a while ago, but you never know...)  I think he looks great.  And who's to say he has a white beard anyways?  I've never seen him!

Also, this red is in the stash with the same status as the blue.  Hoarding for life.

Last but not least, #25

This one was so easy.  I'd say like cake, but I've made a few cakes that were far harder than this little block!  I'm thankful for an easy one mixed in to the bunch.  (The snowman wasn't bad...once I wrapped my head around his scarf...)  I've peeked ahead and it looks like next week there will be more traditional-looking blocks, which will be a nice change from the character-based blocks.  The quilt seemed to have a good balance, but I felt like I was doing a lot of character blocks lately, so now we swing the other direction!

I still have embroidery to do on quite a few.  Last night I finally did the reindeer and ice skate, both of which had a fair amount, so the few that are left will be easier.  And some of the details I'm going to use buttons or beads for after the quilt is quilted.  (No need to try to quilt around tiny buttons and accidentally break a needle (or worse) instead!)

Today I have the day off work (as well as the next two in a row!!!), so I tidied up the house, being mindful to not overdo things (I want to get better fast!) and then relaxed on the couch with my graph paper, crayons and a quilt photo for inspiration.  My middle niece on my side of the family is graduating this year.  She and her sisters have attended a Christian school for years and this niece is the one that finds the most solace in the church teachings, so I thought this pattern would be wonderful.  But she also has a very curious, intelligent mind, so the tessellating pattern is a nod to that.  Sadly, there is no pattern or even a link to anything that could help me.  So I pulled out the graph paper and made a drawing.  It's going to be a doozy to get together and require a lot of attention, double-checking and some sort of design wall, but I'm excited to make it for her!  Now to decide on colors...hmmm...

And now, being caught up on Christmas blocks for the week, UFOs for the YEAR (!!!), I think tiny stars will take center stage for a day or so.

But first, I'd better look like I'm busy paying the bills, as the hubby is due to come through that door any minute!

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS I put up my Christmas tree the other day...

...Gabby is bigger and has a shorter tail, but is having much the same fun as last year...

PPS Emma

for once she looks not-mad...kinda...

ufos I don't want to admit I have...

I wasn't sure if I could keep up with the Very Vintage Christmas sew-along, but so far, so good!  Each block has its challenges (and I'll share the next batch later in the post), but I'm enjoying it.

While I'm sewing these blocks, I pulled out an OLD batch of project leftovers.  When making my Garden Variety quilt (which apparently I haven't blogged about actually finishing - like quilted and everything finished), I had a LOT of lost corners.  So I saved them.  I stuffed them in a bag with the extra fabric from the kit and then...the end.  I had pressed them, but never did anything else.  So I decided I would trim a few at a time and use these as leader-enders for sewing the Christmas blocks.

They live in the little set of drawers on my cutting table right now.  And I only have enough half-square triangles to make two more pinwheels!  I think I'll have 42 pinwheels when I'm done and already have an idea to make a little bag with them.  They finish 5", so they're a good size and the bag pattern I think might work uses charm squares!  More seams, yes, but I think...I think...it might work!

As you can see, though, there is still a bag of other fabrics in there.  I'll see what I can use up for bag parts and then decide what to do with these fabrics.  I have this urge today to just give a bunch of bits and pieces away instead of having them in my sewing room any longer.  We'll see how that goes...

So that's ONE UFO I didn't want to admit I had when I made my list for 2018.

And here's another...

Back at the end of 2012, I decided to try to make the block of the day provided by Quilt Pro via e-mail.  Some of the blocks were actually quilting diagrams or applique, but many were not.  I decided to pull some fabric and make blocks with it until it was gone.  Add in colors as needed and get myself into the sewing room every day.  It lasted a little while...maybe a month or so.  And I ended up with a fair number of 12" blocks.  Twenty-four, to be exact, and they were turned into two quilts that were donated to the local VA hospital in 2014.  But there were fewer 10" blocks to be had and I petered out with just 5 blocks.  I chose lighter colors, planning to make a smaller baby quilt to donate, but these got stuck in a corner and "forgotten" for quite a while.

Earlier this week, they started hollering at me from their neglected corner.  Why couldn't I make a few more, sash and border them and have another quilt (top!) for Jack's Basket?

So, once the Christmas blocks (they're coming, I promise!) for the week were done, I was free to play.  I went to Quilter's Cache, knowing I could find a list of blocks sorted by size, and looked until I found four that didn't seem too difficult.  (The goal here was to finish, not challenge myself further!)  The first five block patterns were from Quilt Pro - those pictured above.

While I was pulling fabric for the Christmas quilt, I decided I would find these fabrics, or fabrics that would play well with them to keep the color scheme going.  I found the green and peach, but no blue.  That's okay - my stash of blues is the biggest...well...maybe greens are bigger right now?  Anyways, they sat there, staring angrily at me while I sewed away on the UFO for the month and the Christmas blocks, but their turn was coming!

Yesterday I made two.  Today I made another two.

Please pardon the slice of sunlight in the corner, but I am NOT going to complain.  Sunshine in the winter here is wonderful, even when it's so bright in your sewing room you consider finding some sunglasses!  (And the colors here are more true than the first photo.)  I think the new blue plays well and was running low on the peach, so I added that stripe.  I think it's fun (and wish I had enough to use it for binding, but I don't) and adds a little punch.

Next up was to add sashing and borders.

I put this strip on the floor to make sure I was lining up the upper half of the quilt correctly (making sure the upper border was on top and the cornerstones inside) and Gabby came tearing into my sewing room from who-knows-where and flopped here.  This is the second quilt this week she has done that with...

...my stack of blocks that conclude the Arcadia Avenue adventure (well, the block part) after I finished the last one - the UFO for the month...

...you see, this quilt is obviously hers.  (I have about three more shots of her on this stack from different days.)  (You can also see big sister Emma's shadow on her rear end!)

And you can see her short tail in that first photo.  The fur is growing back, but it does look a little goofy.  But she continues to do well and doesn't seem to mind it at all.  But it's funny because usually you see a cat gracefully flipping their tail around.  Gabby has a stump that she wildly flips and it kinda reminds me of someone flipping me the finger!  You know she's gracefully waving her tail at me in her head and I'm not going to tell her it's anything else.

Okay, Katie, back to the quilt.

In no time at all, I had the top finished!

I even made binding!  (With one of the selected blues that will play nicely because I didn't have enough of ANY of the fabrics for it - not even the white!  Yay stash reduction!)

So this top is the second UFO I didn't want to admit I had when making that list.  And this one is finished...well...a top!  And I plan to get it quilted sooner rather than later.

Okay, on to the Christmas blocks!

#9

(this one looks kinda plain...might add bead-ornaments or something later)

#10

(smoke has been embroidered in a darker grey)

These are the end of last week's assignment.  On to this week!

#11

(this one feels very spring-y to me!)

#12

#13

(I am glad I don't have to many any more of these!)

#14

(this one still needs the laces embroidered)

#15

And that's it for this week!  More will be assigned on Friday and I'm hoping to get the skate laces done before then.  It's not easy to trace the lines onto the fabric and I probably should have done it earlier while the sun was shining brighter, but maybe I'll ask the hubby to help me?  (Ha ha, that will be amusing...)

And we can't have a post without an actual photo of Emma, right?  (Shadow Emma doesn't quite show how helpful she is...)

This day she followed me.  If I was sewing, she sat here.  If I was cutting, she tried to sit in the middle of that.  If I was ironing, she walked across the ironing board.  Wherever I went, she was there.  I tried to pet and love her, but that wasn't what she wanted.  I tried to get her to sit on my lap while I sewed.  That was not what she wanted.  I never did figure it out, but finally I finished sewing, so she quit being a pest.  (Maybe she just didn't want me to sew?)  And she looks angrier here that she was.  She usually looks pretty angry with me when I take her photo (unless she's sleeping), but she's not usually that angry.  Just hungry.  All. The. Time.  Oh, Emma...

Time to go make dinner and the requested apple pie.  (Spoiled hubby...maybe he WILL have to help me hold that book to the window so I can see through the page to trace?!)

Happy quilting,

Katie

christmas blocks!

In my last post, I shared the acquisition of my new book and fabric...

...and fabric pull...

...and then it was finally time to start sewing!

With five blocks per week being the "assignment" for the quilt-along, it's easy to get behind quickly.  And getting the book 5 days "late," I was already at a disadvantage.  But I've been working on them and only have a couple left to be totally caught up!

First up was a block with 45 pieces.  Yep, that's a lot.

I'm making the 6" blocks.  All 42 of them for the sampler quilt on the cover of the book.  I'm not using a green background for some of them, as indicated in the book, so sometimes that is making color choices change.  Like here - baby Jesus has a blue blanket in my version, as the white one in the book wouldn't show up!

But for scale...some of the pieces...

Yes, that is the 1" grid on my cutting mat.

And if those weren't small enough...

...yes, I have to do the stitch-and-flip lost corner with them.

But I'm being very careful and trimming each unit as its sewn to help keep things lining up correctly and keep my points pointy.  (So far, so good, as you'll see.)

With that one done, I pressed on to block 2:

...and again some creative fabric choices to keep the stripes standing out from the background.  Both of these blocks required a few additions to be made to my original fabric pull, but I think I'm doing okay.  I haven't changed it too much!

On to block 3:

This one went very fast compared to the first two.  And look at my points!!!

Next up, encouraged with my awesome points, block 4:

This one, too, had a LOT of pieces and there are buttons needed to mimic holly berries, but even if I had them, I would wait to sew them on until after quilting.  But I had fun cutting the chevron print for the flames - they came out perfectly to look like the inner cone of a flame!  (That wasn't entirely on purpose.)

On to block 5:

This star doesn't look very Christmassey to me, but if I want to balance out the other colors needed in some blocks, this one seems like a good place to start.  Though being a Michigan State grad (green and white), it was very hard to put those colors together, as they are our arch nemesis (University of Michigan) colors!  But I do know they are wonderful colors to put together and play so nicely.  So it's okay.

And block 6:

This was another quick one and I had fun with the fussy cut center.  Again, not super Christmassey colors, but it's a pretty block!

Block 7 (holy cow, 7!):

This one also had some tiny bits (though not as bad as that first block), but with trimming and careful sewing, I nailed the points!  I'm hoping to keep this up throughout the quilt, but we'll see!

And last so far is block 8, with a whopping 50 pieces.  And some of them as small as the first block.

Holy cow she's cute!  I had a little trouble with one of those ankles being a little fat (a cankle, if you will), but a little wider seam took care of it well enough for me to be happy.  Though looking back, I wonder if maybe her shoes should have been blue to match her hair ties or green to match her belt?  Ah well, I'm not changing it now!

The book has an "x" embroidered for her eyes.  I did NOT like that - isn't that what they do when something is dead?  So I thought on it last night and decided she'd be sleeping and have eyelashes!

It does look a bit like she had some trouble with her mascara, but if you consider the lines for her eyes are less than 1/4" long, I think it's pretty good.  And when it's all done in the quilt, your eyes won't be drawn to it like here when it's front and center.

So that leaves me two blocks to get caught up for this week.  I can do that.  The next one is a Christmas tree, which looks fairly simple.  I'm not sure what the last is, but I'm kinda hoping to get both done today.  I have a list of other goals for the month, including my UFO project, but I have 3 days in a row off (including today), so that's promising!

I've started a box of bits, as sometimes these blocks require tiny pieces that normally you'd throw in the trash.  Like strips that are less than an inch wide.  But it's served me well, as the hair ties on the dolly as well as a few other parts used up some bits already!  They live in this box for now...

I'm also sewing and saving any "lost corner" triangles from squares that started out 2" or larger.  I'll probably make some little pincushions out of them now that I've bought a huge bag of "lizard litter" (aka crushed walnut shells).  Perhaps even in time for Christmas?  HA HA HA HA HA!

Little Gabby went to the vet today for a follow-up to her tail amputation.  As expected, she's doing just fine.  But that official word from the vet was needed.  She is now the Angriest Cat in the World and hiding from me FOR.EVER.  Of course, I had to upend a sofa and bed in my bedroom to eliminate enough hiding spaces before I could catch her.  And then suffered some nice gashes on my hand (I put on a heavy sweatshirt prior to trying to catch her, knowing it was a good safety measure, but my hands were exposed!) before I did finally get her into the carrier.  So now we just have the period while she decides I'm not the evillest thing ever and will come back out.  In the meantime, I'm going to go about my business (I'll hold off with the vacuum until tomorrow at least - she hates that!) and let her be.  She'll come around.  It will just take time.  Patience.

So that's it for me.  Not as much sewing as I might like, but these blocks are taking a while (well, some more than others - as expected) and I'm taking my time with them.  If I get behind on the quilt-along, it's okay.  The goal is to finish and I will.  No excuses!

Happy quilting!

Katie