Perpetually Playing in Purple

I know! I have a thing for alliteration, and, although it may come as a shocker, I have a thing for squirrels. So although I should be either quilting Brady's quilt, or working on my September Island Batik challenge, I chased that scrappy squirrel. I mean scrappy in both the fabric and the feisty sense, because he is hard to resist!

I showed you the start of this box in my previous post. Well, it kept enticing me, and so I caved. I had the sides done in no time, and then gave in to temptation. Before I get into the box, I want to give a reminder to everyone (including myself!! I've been rather offline of late) to check out Benita Skinner's Creative Space for the

which is on until the end of the month. Terrific tantalizing prizes are up for grabs! There is an entry at each blog post, so the more bloggers you visit, the more entries you will get. My own post is here.

Purple is Percolating

Purple is the RSC colour for September, one we all knew was coming. What two colours make purple? Why, red and blue of course. So the first project in my purple post is is mainly red and blue. I finished the flimsy for Brady's football quilt!

You may have seen it on Instagram last week. You know that feeling when you find the perfect quilt pattern for someone, and you gather some potential fabrics? It's a rush.

And then it sits for some time, because of other life and/or quilt requirements. And then! When you do pull it out and get it to the flimsy stage, and know that the finish is imminent? An even bigger rush. Yeah, it's a great feeling and I have it. However, I do not have enough of the backing I'd bought (a football Minky) so I will have to pop in to my favourite LQS in Leamington, which is the town just down the road from me. Haven't been in a while, so it's time. They have a terrific room, yes a small but entire room, of Minky.

Pattern Release

...or is it 'Pattern Releases' because there's more than one...

or 'Patterns Release' because I'm releasing two, and 'release' is just one event...

I'm feeling rather Lorelei here.  Do you recall that episode of 'Gilmore Girls'? It's in Season 4, the season of which I am in the second half at the moment.

Any-who.

I have been busy doing a bunch of not-sewing, but quilt-related stuff: that of pattern-writing. The first one that was released this week, on Tuesday, to be exact, is 'Oh, the Places You'll Go!' a quilt I designed for the January Island Batik blog hop.

There are two styles of suitcase blocks in the pattern, and each 'pocket' on the suitcase is a different 6" block.

TBT #21 Raffi's Quilt

Welcome to Throwback Thursday! On the first Thursday of each month either I or Andrée of Quilting & Learning - What a Combo! host this. It's for the quilts you made before you started blogging. Write up a post telling about them and link it up here. It's rather amazing the stories that these quilts have to tell.

Mine definitely has a story.

This is a quilt I made as a memento of my darling cat, Raffi, who lived to be 18 years and 2 months old. She was the most amazing cat.

Quilters' Meet & Greet

Greetings! I was asked (again this year, oops) to be a part of this hop, and this time I said yes! Last year I was, I dunno, busy? an idiot? but I didn't sign up... Anyhow, I am in this year and I am very pleased to welcome everyone, including any newcomers to my blog.

I hope you'll stay, poke around a bit using the tabs up top, or visit some of the links in my sidebar which will take you to to the magazines in which my designs have featured, or my pattern shop on Etsy. Some of the links in the sidebar can help you investigate some of the linky parties I host here both annually and monthly.

I also hope once you are done here, you'll click the graphic above which will take you to the main page for this hop where you will find the list and links to all the other quilt bloggers in the hop. And, yes! There are some absolutely amazing prizes. Read on through to find out how to enter! The hop runs through the month of September, so you have lots of time to visit and enter from each blog.

DrEAMi! #31

Yikes! Here I go again, not realizing it's Saturday, the last one of the month, and that means it's time to celebrate those moments when we Dropped Everything And Made it! over the course of the past month. I should've scheduled this one as I have with the past several, so this slipping my mind thing doesn't happen!

Well, part of my excuse is that I had a DrEAMi! of a non-sewing, but quilting related kind over the past two days: putting my nose to the grindstone (for both entire days) and focussing solely on finishing my Oh, the Places You'll Go! pattern for the quilt I made in January for Island Batik.

It is ready to go. I'll pop back to this post with the listing deets once I give it one last 'fresh eyes this morning' perusal and list it on Etsy.

I Like/Love #31

I'm sharing my monthly list of things for which I'm grateful. You can see other posts written by like-minded peeps, or join in and write one of your own and link it up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

1. I love books. I am on track to reading two books a month this year, which is actually peanuts when I consider how I often would read nearly 50 in a year... Retirement and part-time working is not as full of unplanned time as one would think. I've been reading my own library, having learned the hard way once never to take a library book with me when I fly away somewhere. Still, I did take Harry's Trees with me, but left it in the truck parked safely at Toronto airport while we flitted around Europe and the UK. Finished it on the drive home. It's excellent.

I read these two while we were gone:

I have one more to read in the Rhanna saga. Good to read about an imaginary Hebrides island when one is travelling to Scotland! 

If you haven't read any Derek Tangye, you must. He and his wife had very intense jobs, his was in MI6, hers in a top position at the London Savoy Hotel. They left it all and went to live on a little farm in a 17th c cottage in Cornwall, making their living by selling daffodils and potatoes, which they grew on their farm. He just has such a gentle way of describing their lives, musing about life in general, and telling us about the cats that adopted them over the years.