OPAM and RSC15

Due to ongoing medical issues, I haven’t spent much time in the sewing room until this past week, when I was able to kick it into high gear!  I belong to a club at one of the local Quilt shops, and we’ve been having a UFO challenge for the last three months.  This week is the final chance to get my name in the drawing for a nice prize, so I finished two quilts.  

I pieced this a couple of years ago at a guild retreat.  I remember it well, because I had all the rows assembled, and most of them attached when I realize that I had done the hourglass blocks wrong.  The seam ripper got a good workout that day!  This is a Schnibbles pattern, Brocante, so it’s relatively small.  Good thing with all the needed ripping!

Next was Peony Star by Kathleen Tracy.  This was done at another retreat, and features my first attempt at needle turn applique.  (the leaves)  They’re not perfect, but give a bit of an ‘organic’ look, don’t you think?  I had a lot of fun quilting this one.

I hadn’t done much for RSC this month, and when the new color was announced earlier today for September (orange!), I knew I needed to use up some more black and gray before I started with a new color.  So I headed straight to the sewing room and whipped up a doll quilt. 

I don’t automatically think ‘child’s quilt’ in association with black and gray, so I added a nice bright splash of color.  Instead of stitching in the ditch, I used red thread and a decorative stitch for quilting. 

This cat wasn’t meant to be part of RSC, but I did use up some black for the background, and gray on the back.  I had prepped this two or three weeks ago(?) and it got buried under some books.  I appliqued the wool last night, and finished  the small amount of embroidery and the binding tonight.  

And in case you’ve missed kayaking pictures, we went for a short paddle on Saturday.  We went to a small, nearby lake, and didn’t stay long, but it sure felt good to be out on the water!

Have a stitchy week . . . Sunny

This little guy is SO determined, but our new birdfeeder is truly squirrel-proof.

At last!

Breaking news:  Just moments ago, these two cats were seen sitting together, with no apparent hissing or growling!  We’re making progress.

When I got Sydney, I thought she was a small cat, but she has the potential to be BIG.  Very long and tall, and she eats a LOT!  So happy to see her healthy and happy and adjusting nicely to our home.

I actually attended two sewing days last week, but it doesn’t seem like I accomplished much.  On Wednesday, I spent the day sewing hexies together.  Now I’m stumped for how to make what I want, so the hexies are on hold while I mull over some ideas.

On Thursday, I ironed my black scraps, and made a Dresden plate for RSC15.

This turned out so much better than I expected.  The color for August is actually indigo, but since I don’t have any, I decided to work with my black and gray scraps.  I think I’ve come up with an idea for a doll quilt, too, so perhaps that will happen tomorrow. 

FNSI was spent embroidering my Val Laird BOM block for August.  And I have most of the quilt top assembled, just waiting for block number nine.  I’ll wait to share pictures then.

I’ve also basted 3 small quilts in the last couple of days, and assembled and sewed together the final eight placemats for my service project.  I will be doing some major quilting in the next few days.  Stay tuned . . .

Happy stitching . . . Sunny

Another Week Flies By

There wasn’t a lot of stitching happening here this week, but I did manage to finish my monthly cross stitching for Gifted Gorgeousness.  I’m so excited to have finished 8 of the 12 stitcheries now.  And I’m off to a very good start on Number 9.  This is all being done on one large piece, so I’m not ironing it until I’m finished.  Pretend you don’t see the wrinkles.

You can click on the link if you’d like to see the linky list on Jo’s blog and see what other GG’ers are up to this month.

Because I spent no time in the sewing room this week, I still haven’t started on this month’s RSC15 color.  You can pop over to Angela’s blog to see what everyone else is up to.  I did manage to baste a bunch of red hexies for a little project.  I’m working on sewing them together, and might have something to show you when I post next.

Sydney’s health continues to improve, and she is turning into a little firecracker.  She loves to rip and tear through the house now that she’s feeling better.  Here she is at rest, watching birds or squirrels through the window.

And Zippy is jealous that she didn’t get her picture on the blog last time.

They’re still not BFF’s, but we’re continuing to make progress there, too.

DH and I went for a little drive the other day, and I took some of my quilts for a photo shoot.

We had another fun little outing today – the Clustered Spires High Wheel Bike Race.

There was a children’s race.

A penny farthing stack – a self supporting row of bikes.  I think there were 28 bikes present.

And then the main event.

So much fun to watch!  We didn’t stay for the end because it was just too hot out.  The winner was determined by who rode the most laps in an hour.  I got the impression that most of the riders were just there for the fun of riding, not the competition.

I hope to spend more time in the sewing room in the upcoming week.

Happy Stitching . . . . Sunny

What a Week

Ahhh…summer

You know the expression “There’s no such thing as a free lunch?”  Well, there’s no such thing as a free cat, either.  The cat I adopted on Free Cat Friday last week was apparently sick when I got her.  We’ve been to the vet twice, tried three different meds, and had a discussion about hospitalization.  I think she’s pretty well cured now, and did not need to be hospitalized.  Now, I may be a dummy, and didn’t realize that she was sick right away, but they surely had to know at the shelter.  Sad.  But she’s in a loving home now, and will be well cared for.

I still need to work on getting some really cute pictures, but at least now she’s eating and drinking and sleeping in the open, not in hiding.  Her name is Sydney, and she’s about a year old.  Very tall and long!  She and Zippy aren’t quite friends yet, but we’re seeing progress.

I’ve also been to my own doctor twice this week as I’m dealing with a minor medical issue.  My sewing is not affected, but I keep finding other small annoyances. 

This is my container of basting pins, and it is full, because every quilt top that I had basted is now quilted!  Which means that I need to start basting again.  Which means that I have to clear the top of my sewing table.  Since small projects often pile up on the table, I thought I should finish a few of them instead of just moving them around.  I don’t know where they all come from!

A couple of years ago, I was going to make a watermelon wall hanging, and lost interest for some reason.  I had about 3 1/2 of the watermelons made, so I turned them into placemats.  One project off the table!

I also needed a new journal cover for my travels.  My old notebook was full, so I bought a new one in New York earlier this summer, and it didn’t fit my old cover.  But that’s okay, I like making and using them.  I always journal when we travel so if/when I get around to scrapbooking our trips, I’ll have some details to work with.  I found that giant paperclip in my scrapbook supplies, and thought it might make a nice bookmark.  Since I didn’t make much with my red scraps in July for RSC15, I’m continuing with red in August.

I went to a Quilt Show in Frederick MD this past week with several friends.  I ran into so many people that I knew, that I spent more time chatting and didn’t get many pictures.  I didn’t purchase a lot, except at Cathi’s booth – Shakerwood Woolens.  It’s impossible not to want everything she has on display.  When I showed her a pattern picture in a magazine and asked for a suggestion for one of the wools, she said she had exactly the right thing at home, and would ship it to me as soon as she returned. Customer service at its finest.

And I almost forgot – I’ve finished one more quilt!

I could NOT get a decent picture of this.  Too bright outside, and too dark indoors.  It’s similar to a rail fence, with four different light fabrics.  I purchased this fabric on my first shop hop nearly six years ago.  The top was pieced at a retreat a couple of years ago.  It’s quilted with free motion flowers, and I still really like it!  I plan to take some quilts to a park in the near future for some pictures, and maybe I’ll try more with this.  I can’t tolerate sunshine right now, but all will be well soon.

Happy Stitching . . . . Sunny

Wrapping up July

Another month bites the dust.  It was ushered out by a beautiful blue moon.  We saw the moon rising last night as we were returning from dinner.  We stopped for a few pictures, but we didn’t have our ‘real’ cameras, so didn’t get great shots.

And since I had received several mosquito bites earlier in the day, I was not willing to walk in the grass for a better angle!!

I’d share a picture of my new cat, but I can’t find her at the moment.  Much time has been spent over the past two weeks with a sick cat, and then having to say good-bye.  I’d had Chloe for over 14 of her 15 years,   She was a sweet little thing, and it was hard to say good-bye.

I wasn’t planning to get a new cat immediately, but our vacation is coming up soon, and I didn’t want the remaining cat to be an ‘only cat’ while we were away.  So we decided to start looking around.  I found the most awesome cat at the Humane Society, and since they have “Free Cat Fridays”, we ended up with a new cat.  She is a little love bug!  She has alternated between hiding or sitting in one of our laps for hours.  She’s friendly, outgoing, and doesn’t appear to be afraid of anything.  I can’ believe that some other family gave her up.  Pictures will follow when possible.

I went to the Hershey Quilt Show last week, where we were allowed to photograph some of the quilts, but not share them online.  There were some awesome antique quilts, and the remainder were art/show quilts.  Beautiful to look at, but they were obviously made just for competition.  I prefer ‘real’ quilts.  I had hoped to get some inspiration for quilting my own tops, and was disappointed in that area.  There was a huge vendor fair, and while I kept my spending very low, I did buy some stencils and a ruler for my Sweet 16.

Patience and I have been doing more quilting, and here is a quilt that I started a couple of years ago.  I had started echoing the hexies on my regular machine, and quickly determined that was NOT the solution.

It has become apparent that I need to work on my basic math skills, as once again, I did not have enough binding made.  Fortunately, I still had some of the fabric in my scrap bin, and was able to rectify the problem. 

In other hexie news, I’ve been working on my GFG again.  I’ve seen a couple of finished ones cropping up around blog land recently, and I’ve been motivated to spend time on mine.  One friend recommended ‘one thread a day gets it done’ so that has been my goal. 

I think I have all the hexies made, now there’s just the tedious chore of sewing them together.  I did recently run across a really interesting way to finish off the quilt when I get there, so I’ll try the technique on a small project before determining if I want to proceed.

Another quilt was quilted but not yet bound, because I had a new kitty in my lap.  I’ll save it for next month.

Happy Stitching!      Sunny