Waiting It Out

Today is one of those days when I must have had an exposure to something that didn't give me headache but has left me with chills and depression. Or perhaps this is the tail end of yesterday's exposure to vehicle exhaust fumes. I don't know; I get tired of trying to figure it out. I just have to tie a knot in my rope and hang on until it passes.

(photo by Craig Jewell, lifted from Flickr.com)

Saw this quote on Run Away Quilter's blog and had to copy it over for myself:

We have to trust our own choice after all,
and end with the simple belief that what pleases us is beautiful.
Indeed, no other rule is of any use to us,
and if we do but honestly please ourselves,
and make forms which genuinely give us pleasure, we shall find ourselves credited with the power of designing beautiful things.

--Richard Hatton

Maybe I'll go sew some scraps together...

Gizzy Quilts

Some time ago Lynne, over at The Patchery Menagerie, needed to raise money for vet bills. She came up with the idea to make smallish quilts for cats and see whether they would sell or not. They were a hit. You can read the whole story here. She has also kindly written a tutorial describing how she makes these quilts. (It's on the sidebar of her blog, towards the bottom.) The first time I read through it I knew I'd have to give it a try.

I made my first one a little bigger than the ones Lynne makes specifically for cats so I could donate it to the neo-natal intensive care unit for a preemie baby.



Yesterday I made another one, this time with a cat theme so I can donate it to our local Humane Society for their upcoming fundraiser auction. I have it layered with backing and batting but haven't done any quilting yet.



At the moment I'm slightly incapacitated. I pin basted the Halloween quilt yesterday before I started working on the cat quilt. I smoothed the layers out on my double bed and then slid a cutting mat between the backing and the quilt I've been sleeping under to keep that quilt from being pin basted to the Halloween quilt. My back didn't take kindly to being bent at that particular angle for an extended period of time. I probably would have been smart to lay down and rest it rather than moving on to the Gizzy Quilt but when have I ever claimed to be smart?

We're having such a lovely day here today that DH and I went for a drive. It was a route we've taken many times in the past, but it's so pretty that we never get tired of it. It's been such a long time since I've been out anywhere beyond the Food Co-op that I felt like a starving man at a banquet! The slight headache I have from getting out of the car to get a better look at this view is totally worth it.

And now I think I'm going to go check out Picassa per Tonya's recommendation. When I clicked on the picture of my Halloween quilt in the previous post it didn't enlarge. Guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and learn yet another photo program... :-P

Ta Daa!

Here's my finished Halloween quilt, in all its' glory (I didn't reduce the file size before uploading so hopefully you can click on the picture and see every detail).


I started piecing a back out of other Halloween prints from my stash but kept running into fabrics I didn't want to sacrifice for the back of a quilt. Eventually I remembered a leaf print my mom had given me years ago. There was just enough of that to accomodate the length of this quilt. It was much easier to add a bit to the sides to get the width I needed. Now all I need is batting (again!) and a decision about whether to quilt or tie this one. If I were a free motion quilter this would be a lot of fun to quilt. Unfortunately, my free motion skills are not what I'd like them to be, nor am I willing to take time out to make them better at the moment. So I'm leaning toward tying. I think it could even add to the whimsical quality of the quilt. Better yet, I'd probably get this quilt done before Halloween this year!

Slimy Crawlies

I've turned my attention back to my Halloween quilt now that the fungly quilt is done. You can read about my first steps with it this year here. (It began as a set of lottery blocks I'd won several years ago. Last year I finally set the blocks together with the intention of making a Halloween quilt for our use but got stuck before I got very far with it.)

My friend C~ recently bought about four yards of this adorable snail print. When I saw it I thought the snails would be perfect to include in my Halloween quilt. And I was looking for something to fill out my new plan for the top and bottom borders. C~ generously shared some with me :- )

I put the snails underneath the "Happy Halloween" I'd fussy-cut from a tablecloth panel and stretched out the flying geese units on either side. This is a detail shot of what will be the top border:

Black is really hard to photograph, did you know that?

Once I got the top and bottom borders put together I discovered they were about 2" too long - of course. Back in the day I would have taken the side bits apart and narrowed the compensating strip between the flying geese to adjust the size. Now, in my maturity and wisdom (yeah, right!) I plan to just add a strip to either side of the body of the quilt and call it good. I'm excited to get all the pieces of this quilt together and see how it looks. I think it's going to be fun to have around.

Well Blow Me Down!

I almost missed it!

Talk Like A Pirate Day was Friday, September 19. (It's always Sept. 19. I need to put that on all my calendars next year!)

Guess I was so distracted by my Fungly quilt that I wasn't paying attention. (Thanks for all the nice comments by the way.)

Fortunately some pirates are partyin' all weekend long so I haven't missed the boat completely. There's even evidence, right out there for all the world to see! Pirates have no shame.



While I was busy stitchin' and tyin' JoWynn dropped by and left me a lovely award :- ) I'm always honored when this sort of thing happens.

"Who, me?!"

She said I didn't have to pass the award along because she knows all too well how precious my time has become to me and it does take time to pick 5 other bloggers whose work I admire, email them about the award, and link to them on my blog. The hardest part is picking the 5 other bloggers. You should see my favorites list! The folks I've put on my sidebar are seriously only a fraction of the blogs I've visited and loved. So in lieu of my nominating 5 specific bloggers, if you haven't already done so, take a tour of the Liberated Quilters web ring and enjoy their work. It's not a large ring and I would bestow this award to everyone on the list. Look for the liberated star badge (it has a yellow background) on my sidebar and click on one of the options under the star. Oh wait ~ you might want to make a cup of your favorite beverage and grab a couple of cookies before you start your journey!