Halloween Quilt

I thought it was time I made something for myself, for the fall season.
I used my cat and pumpkin design and then added to that to make a wall hanging.
It was a fun piece to do, even if it is crooked;)
I am trying to make more smaller items, to get more practice with my sewing skills.

Sunday Sillies

The kitties were at it again and for once I had the camera in the same room.
One of Dora and Izzy's favorite activities is wrestling and it is usually Izzy who instigates the match.



Dora is not one to back down and the fight begins.





As you can see, Dora gets the upper hand and pins down her opponent. Considering Dora weighs 3 times as much as Izzy. Izzy is all fur and bones and Dora is all solid muscle. Do not think this deters Izzy, she comes back for more, she loves to play rough, even if she loses.

New Witch and Thrift find

I finished a new witch last week, but wasn't sure what to do with it.
It is a larger piece and I just didn't want to make it into a pillow and I am too lazy to make something wood to put it on.
Tonight I attached a black quilted piece to it. It gives it a nice look and I figure it can still be put on something this way. I see a lot of people selling flat pieces and the nice thing, is the buyer can use it on their favorite item. What do you think about flat pieces?
What do you think of this piece? I was thinking of putting it on ebay tomorrow. It is an adapted pattern from an old post card. The original hag, was sitting in front of a fireplace. I do have the other witch scanned in for a pattern, but I was waiting for this one, so I could offer them both in the same pattern.



I also have been experimenting with hugo and felix items for Lynette and made a mess of this one. It was supposed to be a business card holder with hugo and felix. I made a mess of the sewing, should have done it by hand instead of by machine;)
Then I used wool threads in a tiny area and hugo and felix are a mess.



I was feeling better today and finally got out of the house. I hit Jo anns, love coupons, used printed ones and ones I get in the mail. You can sign up and get ones online and have them mailed to your house, and they allow you to use both as long as the numbers are different. While in the area, I had to hit Savers and glad I did. I found a bunch of old rug hooking magazines, so I took them all. The bad thing is they smell musty, didn't notice that until I got home. My big find of the day was a Belleek cat covered dish. It was only 5 dollars and I know they go for a lot more, so I took it. I collect cats, but not fancy ones, so it will probably become a gift.

Wooly Pumpkin Pieces

I have been sick with a bug or something, but I still need to keep my hands busy.
I cannot just sit and watch tv, it is not in my nature. I have to be really, really sick for that to happen;)

I decided to make up some wool projects as gifts, something fun and simple.
The candle mat is a design from the new Whimsicals book.
Lynette was sweet enough to get me a signed copy at the show in Pittsburg. I made up my own little item, since i am not up to doing anything big or sitting at the machine. I left the sides empty so the person can put a candle or any other prim goodies on it without covering a design. Do you think it looks ok, this way?



The second item came from a pumpkin in Gourdy's Gang penny rug. I won it on a giveaway from Brenda of Pumpkin Patch Primitives. I love the pattern, but it is too big for now. The fun thing about this pattern, is you can use the pumpkins you like and change them around and make new items, from the one pattern.

I decided to make one pumpkin that can hang on the wall, as is. Later I will do the tiered pumpkins, at least some of them. When I finished these two pieces, I started one for me. I am making a wall hanging from my tall kitty and pumpkin, that I made up as a punch.

Friends Quilt

I wanted to make something special for a friend and found the cutest free stitchery to start with. We met online and met in person one time. She decided that we were adopted sisters, so I thought this saying was perfect for the wall hanging. I wanted to keep it scrappy, so no fancy stitching or perfection;) I did not notice until I took the picture that I forgot an arm, lol. I always forget one thing on my quilts or put something upside down. I tend to design and add as I go, and wanted to fill the empty spaces. I put apples at the bottom, well they are supposed to be apples, not look like pumpkins. Then I added the leaves to give it all a fall look.

If you would like the free pattern that I used you can find it at AppleBerry Farm.

Scrap quilt finished!

I am finally making headway on my big projects and today I finally finished my scrap quilt.
I went with ties, which just don't look right to me, but doing free motion on a quilt this big, was not something I was up to;)
The quilt is 96" wide x 83" long. I wanted plenty of overhang on the quilt, so I wouldn't have to tuck in my sheets, haha.
This quilt was supposed to be my summer quilt, just something quick and easy, so I will use it for now and then switch over to my super heavy, keep me warm comforter when the weather gets colder.

While sewing the border to the back, Izzy tested the quilt out and said she just loves how comfy it is.



Once it was on the bed, Dora had to try it out too. The ties were really intriguing her.



Dora gave it her final seal of approval as nice and snuggly.

Kitty Quilting

Since Dora is an attention grabber, I though it only fair that Izzy gets her turn at what she does best, harass me when I am sewing. I finally got the backing on and started putting the tacks in my scrap quilt. I was going to pin it, but when I realized how long it took me to do a few, I thought, why not just start tacking and roll as I go. I am using prequilted fabric and doing it on the floor, so it lays flat, no batting to shift around on me.

Of course, the minute I put it on the floor, Izzy has to get in on the action. First she took the the far corner, she does that at night too, sleeps at the far end of the bed. As you can see, I stock floss for my punching. I have the big plastic container with dividers for my floss and the top tier is for the nest of scrap floss. When I need a little bit of a color, I just pull up a strand and cut it off.



After that, she noticed the floss I was using and I began to get attacked when I least expected it. Izzy's favorite game is sneak attack.



I don't know about your animals, but I have really dumb ones, or maybe smart ones, lol. When my dog is out of water, he lays at his bowl until I notice him and the empty bowl. He will sit there for hours if I don't see him. Now that Izzy has figure out how to drink from the tap, she does the same thing. I find her sitting in the sink, waiting for me to turn it on.

Silly Saturday

Today I worked on my big runner some more. Just a bit more on one end and some little spots and I can go onto the border. The border will go faster, so hoping to have it done next week. Since I have nothing to show, I thought you would like to see the kitties are their best and worst.

Izzy like most cats loves my rugs, she sleeps on them and likes to hide in them while I am working. Her favorite game is hide and attack. Dora could care less, if I don't have a frame she can crawl into, she wants nothing to do with me. And yes, I like to wear silly jammies, these have bright colored kitties on them.



The cats love to play on the stairs, so I thought, why not put catnip on the stair rug. I took from another bag this time, I think this stuff was much more potent, lol. Dora starts out with her rolling and cute and as you can see by the progression of pictures, this is what she turns into. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.





(This is really scary, you do not touch Dora at this stage;)


Izzy made the mistake of trying to join in on the fun. Izzy is not too smart, Dora plays rough, even when she is not on catnip.



And then she calms down and we are back to her cute phase.

New punched Pieces

I have been working on a few pieces this past week, some I cannot show.
I had a day when I was not in the mood to work on those projects and decided to make a small punch to fit a basket I had.
I just drew up a simple and prim design with my favorite fall things and then put it on this basket. It is a fun little piece and up for sale on ebay this week. Low start and no bids, a great time to snag one of my creations. I also have my Ghost cat up for sale this week and at a ridiculously low start. Originally I wanted 800.00 for this piece, but decided to take my chances on ebay, ugh, I must not have been in my right mind;)



I have been working on new punched pieces for Lynette's new book. If you have stores in your area that are going to the Houston show, make sure they check out Lynettes booth and get their own copies. It will feature crows from her quilted designs and punched pieces that I have done to match. For the show, I made Lynette a name tag with some of her crows on it. I will be working on some more surprises for her, this tag was the first, I wanted to try one and see how her name looked and fit. The tag looks much better in person, just took a quick shot and too lazy to do more;)

I love doing name tags and it is a fun idea to make for yourself. In the future I will make a booklet with alphabets and designs to do your own. I also will try and get the patterns done, that some of you have been wanting, just having a lazy few days this week.

New England Seaport Painting

I used to tole paint a lot and thought I would share one of my older pieces with you.
I made this for my husband to hang his mugs on, but then realized the pegs were too big.
Maybe I will redo the pegs with my antique nails. We still need to finish our cellar some day and it has walls, but a cement floor.
My dream would be to design it like the old captains quarters, but I will be happy to just finish it off;)
I am not the best painter in the world, but I do like this piece. It has been knocked down, one too many times and the last time it broke, so my husband reglued it, and I hung it back on the wall for now.

This is from an old painting book I had. I took two of the pictures and changed them around to fit the chalkboard.

Quilt Challenge

I can finally show one of the projects that I have been working on.
This was for a challenge in our quilt group. Sue Spargo gave us the tree and leaves as a base and then we had to work around that. I used fraktur drawings for my design, and had fun with it. I added yarns and needle felting and buttons and a little of this and that. I started out with free motion quilting on the background and then my machine went on the fritz, ugh. So, I had to finish the rest by hand and then did a large black scroll around the red border. Of course I could not get a decent picture and the nice prim look. Keep an eye out for the challenge on Sue's Blog, for the rest of the pictures from the challenge.