Pet Beds

Since the cats love to lay around in my fabric, I've decided to make a few pet beds for them. I've found a couple tutorials online, and hope to try my hand at one (or 8) this weekend.

Here are my two favorite tutorials:

The first is from Lori Marie over at Pretty Little Things

The second is from Martha Stewart, and as expected is a bit more "frou frou" (even her cat has 100 times more class than all of mine put together:) !!! )















I also love these pet beds over at Amazon, which I think I could figure out how to make without a pattern....

Quilting with Cats...

I've been getting back into my quilting (mostly finishing projects I stopped midway...) but its proven to be somewhat difficult since the cats decided the best place to sleep was on whatever quilt I'm in the middle of sewing. I have to admit, I've been almost shocked by how little they care about the sewing machine, or the fact that they keep drifting closer and closer to it as I try to move the quilt through the machine.

I'll make no comment on how hard it is to lay out a quilt on the floor with a small army of cats nearby...

Curtains

Now that the time consuming Harry Potter party is over, I've finally been able to get back to my sewing. Not that I wasn't sewing for the party, I just wasn't sewing non-Harry Potter related things:)

Since I had to switch the curtains in our bedroom with the curtains in the living room (see earlier curtain post) I realized how great the lighter curtains look in our room. So after switching them back I decided to make some bright yellow simple curtains for our room. I think they came out pretty cute, and they really help add a little cheeriness to the bedroom! They also made it nice and happy in there last night during a pretty intense lighting storm:)

Starting the Chirstmas Production Line...

I finally made a few quilted coasters.... so easy it isn't even funny!! They also look pretty cool as a finished product (I think the best sign of that is Adam telling me I should sell them on Etsy!!). I really, really like them and will be making a few for our house!

I grouped four of them together for a set, and now have a simple Christmas gift that I need to mass produce for all the random people I'd like to give small things to just because.

Of course I now officially feel like I'm back in Santa's Sweatshop!!!!!.....

This is why I can't have nice things

As soon as I put a quilt on the floor to lay it out, Zadie runs over and messes the whole thing up. Apparently the new rule is "only quilt when Zadie's sleeping". She just can't stand not adding her own touch of flair (i.e. crazy)!!

The beginning of a Christmas Tree Skirt

I'm working on a quilted Christmas Tree Skirt that has three tree blocks and four star blocks... so far I've finished two trees, and have the third one cut but not pieced. I haven't even started on the stars, other than to decide I want them red to coordinate Christmas style with the green tress.

You'll have to use your imagination (or flip around your computer...) to see these right side up. I uploaded them from my phone and haven't figured out the editing features on this blog site (if there even are any...).

Fall Decorating

I started my holiday decorating yesterday, and to kick it off right I made this fall table runner. The fabric is really cute.... little wolves and squirrels (because they naturally are friends...). The backing is a dark brown with tiny white polka dots, but I forgot to take a picture of that side so you'll just have to use your imagination.
Next up are the pillows. Not sure what to do for fall (I'm trying to stay away from an overwhelming Halloween theme so that I can leave everything up through Thanksgiving), but I do know what I'm doing for my Christmas pillows:)
Now I just need to also figure out my Christmas presents this year...........

FFAI&II

I started my Far Far Away I & II strip quilt yesterday, and I love it!!! I definitely need to make a smaller version of this for Sofi and Ella (maybe in place of the hand sewn quilt that I still haven't finished). I think I'm going to use Kona Coal for the backing, and still a bit undecided on the binding, but I've got time for that later. I want to make the smaller second one first. So much fun to make these, and so cute!!! I love fabric that can stand on its own!!:)

Underwater Sea Adventure Quilt

I've gone back and forth on this quilt since I started it, but now that it's finished I have to admit that I really like it a lot. And Adam said it's his second favorite quilt that I've made so far, which I think is saying something (especially considering that it's Heather Ross fabrics...).
It's the smallest quilt I've made, but I think it works. And I really love the back despite its simplicity (or maybe because of it?!).

Charm Quilt

I finally finished quilting the charms squares quilt, and while it does the job of keeping my legs protected from crazy cats while I watch tv, I don't really think this is my best looking quilt. I had a really hard time keeping the fabric on the back from bunching (even with a quilt adhesive and binding pins). But at least it's done and I can move on....
Zadie seems to like it though. And I am getting better at binding...!!!

Living Room Acutrements

Whew, I finally finished the curtains for the living room. I also made a couple "man pillows" for the couch (although technically they're just pillow covers, which I had to clarify when Adam responded to my "do you like the pillows I made" question with "do we really need more pillows?").
I still have one more curtain to make for the kitchen window, and I want to make two more pillows for the couch (although I need to buy more Echino prints since I've now decided to have a pillow theme), but we're getting closer to done!! At least until I start a new project. Like making new quilts for the couch. And making aprons and dish towels for the kitchen.


PS. I'm fully aware that these pictures are terrible, but that's what you get when you try to take them with your iphone at 7:30 in the morning while trying to rush out the door to work...!!

String Quilt Blocks

With all my quilting this weekend I ended up with a replenished stash of scraps. Naturally I made a few new string quilt blocks to add to the pile....

A plethora of projects

I have about 8 different quilts going at the moment, most of which are stacked on top of my ironing board. The big squares are the basis for Paty's "mix-matched"quilt, and there are a couple of gnome blocks on top that.... I also have my string quilt blocks, my underwater sea adventure quilt blocks and two new quilts I started this weekend (both "math" quilts, with plus signs as the main design).

Not exactly sure when I plan on finishing all of these, but at least I have something to work towards!...

Math Quilt

It really has nothing to do with math, except that it reminds me of plus signs, which reminds me of math....

Sleepytime

Back in 2007 my brother ended up being my roommate for about 2 months, before he set off on another one of his random adventures. And while 2 months may seem like a short amount of time in which to accumulate a lot of random stuff, my brother managed to not only do this, but to also convince me he should store said things in my apartment after he moved out. Now, a little over 2 years later, I decided it was time to clean out his closet and actually put the clothes to use. So I cut them up and made pillowcases out of his old button down shirts!! So much more functional than feeding silver fish!!! Thanks RyRy:)

Purple Bow-tie Underwater Sea Adventure

This is my new purple underwater sea adventure quilt. The little bow-ties are all Heather Ross fabrics, and all (obviously) depicting ocean life. There are mermaids, seahorses, lobsters, octopi, turtles, etc. and I love it!!! For the reverse side I want to have larger blocks of each of the fabrics, so you can really see what they look like. Of course I'm still a ways off from finishing this quilt...

A Grandmotherly Quilt

Gnome Homes

Two gnome homes down, an undetermined number to go...

No scrap left behind....

I decided to put some of my scraps together to #1 cut down the size of my scraps bag and #2 try a new quilting style. I love the design the quilt blocks make, especially since there is no real pattern or rules or color scheme... just one strip of pink in the center of each block to tie all the blocks together (and make there appear to be actual squares within the quilt). Not having anything to figure out also makes this go pretty fast.... of course I won't have enough scraps to finish an entire quilt for a while, but its nice to have a stack started!!

Almost there....

I finished layering the UM quilt for my brother, and managed to sew the layers together (albeit poorly), so now all I have left on this one is the binding. I just need to figure out what fabric to use and then find the time/energy to bind it. I'm kinda over this one already!!

Layering:

Top side stitched:

Back side stitched: