Playful Kitten

I just finished another small quilt.  This appliqué is my favorite one.  I'm calling this one "Playful Kitten".   Below shows some of the prep work I did a couple of months ago.  Yep, it has been sitting for a while.



Preparing for the applique.



I did the same ol’ pattern Crazy Eights with lots of bright kitty fun fabric.  I know I should come up with a new pattern, but I like how it uses up all those fat quarters I bought during a weak moment.  Okay.....Several weak moments!  I also like the fact that after the patchwork is done, it feels like a blank canvas just begging for me to appliqué something on to it. 

Playful Kitten

To give the ball of yarn a little more texture, I used the Portuguese Stem Stitch.  I think the twisting thread gave the illusion of twisted yarn.

Backing and applique

I found another quilting series!  I have already read all of the latest Elm Creek Quilter's series.  I am so happy I found Marie Bostwick's Cobble Court Quilters Series.  Marie's fourth book comes out on 31 May and I can't wait!  The first book starts out with a newly divorced Evelyn leaving Texas behind.  She decides to settle and open a quilt shop in Connecticut.  Soon she has a quilting circle filled with new friends.  There's no mysteries this time.  Just good friends supporting each other during the good and the bad with lots of quilting and quilt talk.....

Before we left Clermont, we got some photos of the local Sandhill Cranes. We have never been around Sandhill Cranes. Big bird! Very big bird! And very protective. We had a family come by a few times.  Mama and papa would dig around looking for grubs to feed to their younger ones. Yea, not so little. They were as big as mommy and daddy! While they were near our site we watched a stray cat trying to sneak by the family. One of the parents would have none of that! It sounded the alarm to warn the others or the cat. Now the sound they make – it sounds like something out of Jurassic Park’s movie. A little prehistoric sounding if you know what we mean. It certainly got all of our cats’ attentions! It then confronted the poor cat with its wings out. If it was trying to look bigger, it was succeeding! The poor cat decided to take a different route through the wood’s underbrush.



I'm the pretty one! ~ young Sandhill Crane



Sandhill Crane ~ parents

Happy Quilting!

Busy as a Bee - Quilting



Great Blue Heron

I really let time get away from me!  We spent all of April at Patrick AFB near Melbourne, FL.  We had a wonderful view of the Banana River with many sightings of dolphins, ospreys, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and Great Blue Herons.  We did a lot of walking along the beach and I finished another quilt while sitting outdoors in the screen house.  Once that was finished, I had to give up sitting outdoors.  Either it was too windy or too hot.  Not to mention, very noisy.  We decided we could never spend a winter at Patrick’s FamCamp.  Our Key West relaxed attitude was becoming a little frazzled.  Noise from the base terminal, gun fire from the firing range, and low flying helicopters were just a few of the noises we heard though out the week.  It took the cats a few days to get use to it, but we have discovered that nothing will come between them and exploring the great outdoors.



So, I moved my sewing machine indoors and finished two more tops using a block suggested in Emilie Richards book “Sister’s Choice”.  The blocks name?  Sister’s Choice, of course.  One of the characters said the block made a great baby quilt.  I had to agree once I looked up the block.  Now that the tops are done, I’m trying to decide what to applique on each one.

Sister's Choice blocks

Below is the quilt I was working on at Patrick AFB.  I call this quilt Purple Lotus.  I went outside my comfort zone on this one.  I love bright colors, but I was a little unsure about the purple and lime green fabric.  I have had this material for a while and I found myself wondering “what were you thinking when you bought this?”  I have to admit I am quite pleased with the end result.  Oh!  And would you believe I found the perfect backing?  Purple with tiny specks of lime green! 

Purple Lotus

I found the material while visiting a wonderful and very friendly quilt shop called “The Quilt Place” in Rockledge, FL.    Their store ad boasted of having 8,000 sq. ft.  Oh it was!  It was 8,000 sq. ft. of quilters’ heaven.  It was jam packed full of bolts (10,000 or so), all the items a quilter needs or wants, a class room, and four long arms.  Sigh!  Dan had to run an errand and said he might be a while when he dropped me off.  “Take your time” was my answer!  After six plus months of no quilt shops, I needed a big quilt shop fix!  Oh yea!  I got it!

I was also a little sidetracked with my new camera.  I got a Nikon D7000. I wanted to spend time reading up on all the new functions it offered and taking photos before we spent a week at Disney World.



Magic Kingdom

 On 1 May, we moved to Disney World’s Fort Wilderness camp for a fun filled week at the theme parks. We would leave early, get back late, apologize to our accusing cats, and spend the rest of the evening recuperating. Ah, the colors, the imagination, and the energy had me thinking about new quilts to make. Very inspiring. We had a lot of fun, did miles of walking, ate lots of good food, and I took too many pictures.


Now I am trying to get caught up on e-mails, blogs, and photos while we spend a few weeks in Clermont, FL just west of Orlando. Winter season is over and the campground is very quiet. I am hoping to get some more quilting done as well.

Welcome Neighbor! Got any food?



Good-Bye Key West! Hello Patrick AFB, FL - uh, did you say Tornado??

On 30 March, we left sunny Key West and arrived at a stormy Patrick AFB near Melbourne, FL.  We no sooner had parked the motorhome in front of the RV Office when the high winds and driving rain hit this area.  Since our rig was getting hit from the side, it was really rocking and rolling.  On the following day, a lot of the counties in and around Orlando were in Tornado Warning or Watch condition.  What a great way to start our trip Back-to-Civilization.  Well, at least it is a little bit cooler here and we have full-hookups with a view of the Banana River.  I know our cats are a lot happier.

A very alert Hitch.  First day after storms.

Before leaving Key West, I finished two more quilts!  I'm so happy we bought the screen house with a floor.  I can keep the floor clean and I don't have to worry about my fabric flying away.  I could not quilt on Vi's quilt.  We were in dry camp for the last two weeks and Key West felt like a steam bath even at 9 pm.  We had cats sprawled all over the floor and across the table.  Anyplace that felt cool to them or had a breeze.

Bear Hugs

Upclose of appliquéd bear's face with embroidery.

Baby's Toys

RolyPoly Clown upclose.  Ribbon is tacked down so baby cannot pull it loose.

I have to say spending the winter in Key West was very inspring for me.  We have a lot of new friends and I hope to see them again.  We will probably spend next winter either in Arizona or in Texas.

National Quilting Day! Happy Quilting!

March 19 is National Quilting Day.  I won't be able to quilt today.  I am volunteering to be a Docent for a Key West House Tour.  I did the tour yesterday (no photos allowed - darn!).  My favorites were their gardens.  So inviting.  So relaxing.  Many of the houses had a lot of character with a wide range of colors giving me a feeling of being in the tropics.  And of course, it gave me lots of ideas for more quilts.   hmmmm, just what I need - more ideas.

I did prep-work on 4 Dresden Plates yesterday.  The unfinished Dresdens were donated to Project Linus.   I don't have any matching material for borders.  I might have to go shopping if there is nothing in my stash.  In the meantime, I will start hand sewing the Dresdens to the background.  A good project to do while we are traveling to our next location.

2 years ago on 19 March, I retired from my job to full-time with my husband in our motorhome.  I can't believe it has been 2 years!  On 22 March, we left Albuquerque and started our adventures on the road.  Wow!  Our second anniversary of freedom and full-timing.  And yes, I would do it all over again.

STAR BABY Quilt

This winter weather has been perfect for me to get back into my quilting.  I have spent a lot of hours outdoors with kitties just quilting away the gorgeous days. The salty air, the vibrant colors, and the cry of Ospreys overhead.....Sigh! I am really going to miss Key West. I hope we can come back here someday.

I had started this top in September.  The top took only a couple of days to sew together.  I decided to appliqué 'BABY' and crooked stars to the top using freezer paper.  I did not leave the paper on since I ironed it to the right side of the fabric.  This time I marked the fabric with a water soluble pen, pulled off the paper, and used the turn-under as you sew method.  I used bright bold colors so a baby can see them.

The appliqué is done and the top is a wrinkled mess!  Time to iron!

All done.  I used the meandering quilting.  The binding is made from the same bold material I used for the stars and BABY.

I just had to show you the perfect t-shirt I found at the Navy Exchange.  I had just washed it so it is a little wet.

Oh, you can't see it?  Here's a close-up!

I have my sweatshirt saying "Life is Simple:  EAT, SLEEP, QUILT" for cold days and now - I have a t-shirt with a one white sock orange kitty saying "Life is Good".  Oh yea!  (break out into song) And these are a few of my favorite things!

Last Block – Done!!

We have rotated back to dry camping. During our two weeks with full hook-ups, I managed to layer (not easy to do on breezy days) and quilted 4 small lap quilts for Project Linus. I am really going to miss having my outdoor sewing center/screen house with an oceanview. It was so nice to smell the salty air, watch boats float by and a variety of sea birds fly by during my breaks. It doesn’t get any better than that. Oh, a couple of times we saw dolphins swim by in the early mornings.   I can hear Enya in the background...

Now I get to watch the Iguanas.  They come out during the day to eat the vegetation and soak up the sun.  A couple of them actually cross the dirt road to the camping sites for the taller grass around the site's markers.   The cats spend time watching them and Hitch has tried to chase a few startled Iguanas on our walks.

I guess I was in a dog theme mood this time.  Shhh!  Don't tell the kitties!

I just finish the binding on #4. Ahhh! That feels so good!

Here’s a photo of the last block on Vi’s quilt, but I still have all the outer sashings and two borders to quilt. Yea, I think it’ll take a little bit longer to finish.

I bought a new mesh that is supposed to make it easier to transfer a pattern to my quilt. I trace the pattern onto the mesh with a pencil or a pen. Easier said than done.  Then with the fabric pen, I retrace the pattern onto the quilt. The fabric pen is supposed to go through the tiny holes. I’m not sure how well this is going to work, but I will give it a try. I have been making my own stencils which is not easy to cut out. I’m hoping this will make transferring a little easier for me.

I could spend hours browsing through quilt shops online, reading blogs and message boards. All these wonderful links take my time away from quilting, so I thought I just had to share them with my friends.

This website just started in January of this year.  It is perfect for me. I get a read-along murder mystery, clues, quilts, fabrics, browsing/shopping online and a chance to win a prize. Every Saturday, I receive another chapter to the murder mystery with links to several shops to look for the clues. They also have a great blog with interesting stories about historical quilts and unusually colorful, but real characters.

A new series starts on 1 May 2011.  http://www.quiltingismurder.com/default.aspx

I joined this message board for quilters. I think it has just about everything a quilter could want and if it isn’t there, well just ask! Someone is bound to know or can link you up to a great website. They have tutorials as well.  http://www.quiltingboard.com/

I became a FB friend with Emilie Richards. I am finishing the last of her Shenandoah Album series "Sister's Choice".  She has a wonderful website and blog.  http://www.emilierichards.com/ Quite a few of Emilie’s Fans including me have been asking when she is going to publish another Shenandoah book. Emilie explained that she has another book written, but her publisher says not now.

Recently Emilie posted this in FB:  Oohh. . . Just discovered there's an email address you can write to let my publisher know you'd like more Shenandoah Album books. It pays to ask. This is SO much easier. Just email: customer_ecare@harlequin.ca

So, if you want another Shenandoah Album book to read, please do as I did and just send a short request to her publisher. Who knows maybe if there are enough requests, they will publish #6!

I don’t know about you, but Copyright laws have become rather confusing for me as a quilter. This website goes into great detail clarifying our rights as a quilter. They are good about answering their emails as well.

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/HallOfShame/PatternCompanies/articles/KnowYourRightsAndWrongs_Issues.shtml

Happy Quilting!