Holiday fun!

 My sister has been here visiting from Canada the past week, so while she was at my house she worked on her quilt she started last Christmas while she was home. Here is her first complete block!

 I have wanted to redo my mouse pad for ages, so did that the other day using some wonderunder and fabric.

Doesn't it look great? 

Friends at last...

 Conrad is growing like a weed, though he still looks tiny next to Smokey. He is15 weeks old now. They are friends most of the time. He likes to play and runs up to her ready to wrestle. Sometimes she is in the mood and sometimes she isn't. She doesn't always want him by her, but tonight she curled up in the chair with him.

His fur isn't really black now, it is more of a dark charcoal. He's so dark that it is hard to get a good pic of him. I'm really glad that I got him!

Quilting day in Earling, birthday party and baby shower!

 I went to my hometown last weekend for my mom's birthday, so we decided to have a sewing day too. My mom and sister had sewn their squares together for Twister quilts, sowe got busy and cut them with the Twister ruler and they proceeded to sew them together.

 They both have gotten them sewn together since I took these pix, and are trying out borders.

 My mom with her newest great-grandson.

My niece's baby shower was the next day....she loved her baby twister quilt. She especially loved the little twisters around 2 sides. They really do add to the fun!

I have all my shopping finished and have been cleaning to get ready for my sister's arrival from Canada tomorrow night. She will stay with us for a couple days and then up to my hometown. I have to work until Thursday, then 2 weeks off! I can't wait!

Beginning Quilting and Rag quilting

 The ladies in the Beginning Quilting class are almost finished with their quilts. It is so much fun to see them develop.

 They layered and tied them last week. This Thursday they will learn to make binding and attach it.

 Then they will have their first finished quilt!

 They all turned out so beautiful!

 I didn't get very many pictures during the Peekaboo Rag Quilt class....darn!

A new family member

You might remember this quilt from earlier posts, but doesn't it look so much nicer with my new great nephew Emerson on it? We realized something at the hospital after he was born last week... he is the cutest baby we have ever seen. It has to be true, we all noticed it.
 He and mom are doing just fine!

I have 2 more nieces who are pregnant. One is due in January. She is also having a boy. The other one is due in May....they don't know the sex of her baby yet. Makes for an exciting year for our family!

Love the Twister

 I have been working on this Twister quilt for the past few weeks. The quilting is completed now and I am ready to bind. Maybe tonight.

When you make this quilt, you have squares left over in between your cuts that are approximately 4.5" - 5" so I squared them up to 4.5", sewed them together and then used the little ruler I adapted to make the mini Twister last summer to cut a small twister border.

 I was trying to get a good pic of the little twister border, but it doesn't show up that well here. They would show up better with a bit more contrast in the background fabric, but I wanted to use the same as I used in the quilt so they would float. You will just have to take my word for it, they are really cute!

The quilting panto is called Oriental Illusions. I like it because it is a nice allover design. It reminds me of  the tops of palm trees, or maybe even claws. I used a variegated gold/green thread. I am going to bind it with the same fabric as the back.

A few more letters and I can't resist those asterisks!

I would have to say that lower case Ls are pretty easy to make! The J was easy too.

Love those asterisks...not even sure I will use them in this project, but felt like making some. I have been quilting the Twister quilt. It is going quickly. 

Long weekend...

I love long weekends! Especially when we have a holiday mixed in. I traveled to my hometown with my daughters to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. It was a great day and it really helped that the weather was nice for everyone who traveled.

I don't really want anything bad enough to get up in the middle of the night to shop the Black Friday sales, but I always meet my sister who does,  mid-morning. I shopped with her and her family for awhile, ate lunch with them, then met my other 2 sisters to shop the rest of the afternoon. It was a fun day! 

I am even getting some sewing in this weekend. Made 4 letter Es for my next project. I tried to use the circular pattern in the orange dots to help make that E look rounded, even though it isn't. Remember, the first person who guesses the phrase I am making wins something squishy and fun! At the rate I am going this may take a while!

 The new Twister center is finished, and I decided to use up the leftover squares in a twister border. I am just putting it on 2 sides of the quilt. It is already about 55", so I don't want it to get too big. Plus that uses up the squares.

 We have already had Conrad 2 weeks. You can probably tell he has grown and fattened up a bit. He spends much of his time racing around and then resting up to race around some more. He is still cuddly. He wants to eat Smokey's food, not his. I gave him a divided dish with both foods in it, so he wouldn't eat out of her dish. But he does it anyway.

 He is really grayish under the longer black hair, so it will be interesting to see what color he ends up.

Of course he loves to quilt!

A new Twister quilt

I think I mentioned that I started a new Twister quilt the other day....here it is with the squares all sewn together.  The twister blocks are all cut and sewn into rows now. If I could've mustered up some ambition last night, I would've sewn the rows together, but it didn't happen. Wednesday, I'll do it Wednesday!

I will be spending Thanksgiving with my family in my hometown this year. It's large family and most of them will be there. I have a niece who is due to have her baby any day now, so that might be happening on Thanksgiving, too! 

A cutie pie for sure!

 It was a crazy busy week, probably not the best week to have a new kitty. But things are going well with him. Smokey is still hissing a bit, but she is getting used to him. I had been keeping him in a spare room when I'm not home and at night, but last night I left his door open, so he could go back and forth. I plan on doing that tonight too.

 He found a comfy spot to curl up in...Smokey doesn't seem too worried at this point. He really is a good natured cat and very lovable!

Lots of ladies did lots of sewing Saturday during the UFO Saturday class. It was fun! I worked on the baby Twister quilt today. I have the twister blocks cut and sewn into rows. I was going to sew a bit more, but Conrad wanted to cuddle, so I couldn't.

Only two days of work this week, a sampler class on Tuesday night  and then a loooooooooooooong weekend. Can't wait!

A finish!

 I finished quilting the baby Puzzle quilt on Sunday and bound it with the same green polka dot fabric that I used in the border. (I took this pic right after I took it off the quilting machine, so it isn't bound in these pictures.) I made one of the puzzle pieces black to look like a piece was missing.

A little closer and turned a different way. This one measures about 55" x 55". 

I used a blue polka dot fabric on the back, with the "missing piece".

I started another baby quilt Sunday...this one is going to be a twister quilt.

It's a baby boy!

Kitty, that is.....meet Conrad!

I have been thinking about getting a new kitty for awhile now. So the other night my daughter and I went to Petsmart ...just to look...the local humane societies have some of their cats there for adoption.  He was so snuggly and lovable, I just had to adopt him.

You can see he seems to enjoy quilting!

Plenty of things to play with. He moves so fast, a lot of the pictures are a blur.

Tuckered out, time for a snooze.

I have had a hard time getting a good pic of him since he is so dark. He is black with a little white under his chin and the tip of his tail is white.

My other cat, Smokey, isn't totally happy about this...but they spent last evening in the same room without too much hissing, so there's hope.

Peekaboo Rag quilt class

I had a full classroom for yesterday's Peekaboo Rag Quilt class. I had given them a cutting sheet, along with the supply sheet so they could cut ahead if they wanted to. For this quilt, that works well, since the cutting is simple. That way they can spend most of the class time sewing.  

 This rag quilt has peekaboo Xs made by using a chenille technique, so that was something new to learn. Sometimes sewing straight lines is the hardest! My Peekaboo model is hanging on the wall (left side) on the
above picture.


 They were very enthusiastic about jumping in and sewing.

 It was a first quilt for one lady!

 There was lots of friendly chatter....and snacks of course!

 The time seemed to fly by!

What could be more fun on a Saturday afternoon than working with layers and layers of flannel?

This beats Saturday football any day in my book!

National Corduroy Day!

As it is National Corduroy Day, many quilters are sharing their quilts made with corduroy. You can see some here. I didn't get in on this show, as I only found out about it this morning, but thought I would share pix of my corduroy quilt too.

 I made this several years ago. I loved the texture of the corduroys, there are so many pretty prints as well as different wales. I only used solid corduroy in this one.

 I made scrappy 9 patches to go in between, thinking that it would help with bulkiness in the corners as well as look really nice and homey.

 I tied it and put old buttons on the corduroy squares.

I used a soft flannel for the back and a scrappy binding to finish it. This is still one of my favorite quilts. I take it to my beginning quilting classes sometimes to show them a simple but beautiful way to quilt!