Gratitude and Glimmers #104

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of February. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color. 

1. I love this house for its brightness. Despite it being small, with no closets to speak of, and having painted-over panelling from the late 1940s (it was built in 1947), the brightness due to lots of windows, and something about the lot upon which it sat, told me it was a good place. Slowly over the years, we well mostly MacGyver, have renovated this house to the point where there isn't a room or wall that he hasn't touched/redone. When we did the major renovation in 2019, converting the half story to a full useable second level, we moved my sewing room to where we'd originally thought our bedroom would be, because of the light, which our wise builder had noticed. I love how it streams in through the entire day, thanks to windows on three sides that face east, south and west. Yes, it can wreak havoc on fabric and quilts, but I am careful to move them or shield them if in direct sunlight. This gave me a glimmer of joy early one morning when I walked by.

I made this cover for my longarm in 2019 when I was an Island Batik ambassador. filling it with all kinds of quilting motifs.

Gorgeous fabric and a gorgeous if I do say so myself, double ribbon candy motif.

Gratitude and Glimmers #85

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise.

It is not that we seize them,

but that they seize us.

--Ashley Montagu

I like that perfect description of a glimmer. Welcome to my post for June where I share things that have given me a glimmer of joy over the past month. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1. I think the thing I like best this month happened on June 26 around 2 am. The tiniest of foals was born on Black Goat Sanctuary, which is just under 300 km northeast of me in Ontario. I've followed them on Instagram @totes.thegoat for some time, but since they saved the latest two mini horses, who were used as they do female dogs in a puppy mill, I've not missed a post or story I do believe!

Harper's Heart Quilt

Another long-standing request of Dayna's is a quilt for Harper. Yes, I made her a cat mat a few years ago, which she loves, but Dayna wanted an actual quilt for her. When I was making the pixellated heart quilt for Millie, Dayna's BFF's daughter, I made one using 2.5" squares that ended up being too small. I made the second one, using 3.5" squares to get it to a better size. The small pixellated heart has been sitting for almost exactly two years, waiting patiently for something to happen with it.

When Dayna and Tyler were in Detroit for last week's game against the Rams, which the Lions won, woot woot, we met them at Toast, a family-owned restaurant in Windsor (no relation to Toast in Ferndale, Michigan across the river). Meeting up with them was the impetus to check off this item on her list of quilt requests.

Gratitude #77 Glimmers

Welcome to another month's list of things I notice pretty much on a daily basis, for which I am grateful. If you would like to write your own post, or read more of these uplifting posts, pop over to LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color.

Yesterday I learned a new word for these moments I note each month thanks to Mx. Domestic who reposted it from Tiny Buddha Official on Instagram.

1. I'm grateful for my library; I've loved loved LOVED libraries my entire life. The quiet, the smell, the knowledge-keeping, the worlds contained in the thousands of books, ahhh. I was in one day quite a few months ago, and Elaine, who is also a quilter, and in charge of the Artist of the Month display, asked me if I'd like to be the artist for September. I told her absolutely, and that that was fitting timing as I had a quilt coming out in Love of Quilting in the September/October issue! Well, here is the display that has been in the library all month.

Gratitude #76

Welcome to my monthly gratitude post. There is a group of us who write these, so feel free to join in anytime you like and let LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color know. You can hop over there and see more  uplifting posts.

I just love Calla lilies and am I happy that we have the perfect spot for this group of five. This is their third summer! They are in a south facing bed close to the house, so I think this is why they continue to survive the winter.

Mr. Whiskers Project Quilting 12.4

This is my quilt which, sadly, annoyingly, my own fault-ingly, missed the deadline by eight hours.

Sorry, crazy windy today, so it's a bit of a wonky look!

No matter. It is done, and I absolutely love it. 

It was a literal DrEAMi, (I did nothing but madly sew on this all weekend) because as I have been ahem, known to do before, I left it until the last minute.

Cat Mats Installment #3 of 3

Finally I am publishing a long overdue post. You may recall I participated in Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs, and Paige of Quilted Blooms, first book release, Modern Plus Sign Quilts back in 2018. I chose to make Kaleidoscope Plus (you know my love affair with kaleidoscopes runs deep).

Oh how I love that quilt! Fabrics, front (so many cat-themed ones) and back (a soft grey textured Minky), quilting, the design, just ahhh. I named it Cat-Eye-doscope and it went to my dear friend of many years, Linda.

Well I had leftover fabric and I knew I needed to make Linda's cat daughters their own quilts, seeing as how much cats love quilts... I showed the finished mats in this post, and I alluded to needing to tell more of the story behind giving Linda her quilt and her cats their mats.

Cat Mats Installment 2 of 3, Centred Winners and a Coupon Code!

Another item on my Q2FAL list is to make a (ahem) rather long overdue cat mat for Harper, my grand-cat. I am happy to report it is now done.

This fabric was given to me a few years ago, so it's high time to get it off the shelf and into use. It was a panel, Cat-I-Tude by Ann Lauer for Benartex. I debated on putting two of the cats on the front but it would have been rather large then, so I decided to have a reversible mat, and use one cat on the front and one on the back. Harper is a girl, and Dayna likes pink, so pink is the 'right' side. I simply added some pink strips to the sides and purple strips, left over from Dayna's graduation from university quilt, Shoot for the Moon, to the top and bottom to make a rectangle approximately 13" x 19".

Cat Mats Installment 1 of 3

So that will get people coming back for more right?!
One of the year goals is making at least two cat mats for either the Windsor Humane Society or the Leamington Kittenaide Program per quarter. I am happy to report that my two are done for this quarter, and it's another item checked off my Q2 list!

I like to call these 'A Cushy for a Tushy' and I think two cat bums will love to curl up on these as they wait for their forever homes.

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.

Jethro Tull the Bull

Good and bad news with ol' Jethro... He's done, yay and I love him.  However, something happened when I printed out the pattern last summer, and he is a 1" smaller block than the cows. 😖

You may recall his main squeeze, from my previous post, is Myrrh.  Aka Myrrh Tull. 😉

He goes together very slick, despite the rather daunting amount of, and look to the sections.  This is Maartje's (Maartje Quilts in Amsterdam) Mad Bull found here.

Pets On Quilts - Bella

Bella is making another appearance in the Pets On Quilts party at Lilypad Quilting.  She is in the Cats on Quilts category.  If you like what you see/read about in this post, click the link to 'like' Bella (she is #30).  There are lots of fabulous prizes to be won, four more days to enter your own fur kid, at which time voting will begin!  This is, as I said in yesterday's post, probably my absolute favourite linky party going.  My three fur kids are a major part of my life. Period. Of the three, Bella has probably the biggest influence in my quilting/sewing life.

This is not photo-shopped; her eyes are that blue; she's sporting a bandana made just for her by a sweet friend

She is a part of every quilt, from birth to final finish.  This year the two of us have been pretty busy creating quilts.

Planning

She often tries to steer my pencil as I sketch out a possible design, be it block, layout or FMQ.

Choosing Fabric

 Cutting

Measuring

When I question whether I have block sections sewn to the correct size, she willingly lies her furry body down to help measure.  On the left, she is measuring the hypotenuse of one of the Triangle Transparency by Quilting Jet Girl blocks for Radiance, and on the right, making sure the flying geese unit will fit the centre square from a Henry Glass 'Better at the Lake' fabric.  We were chosen as the June designer of the month.

Appliquéing

She parks her butt on freshly appliquéd blocks, helping to secure the layers.

Much to her exasperation, she was removed (more than once) from said appliquéd block

Piecing

Bird's eye (or cat's eye?!) view

Checking that 1/4" seam

Chain-piecing

Even FaceTiming!

Tish on the iPad

Looking after you:

Stretching

Balancing

Back in May, the early days after Rocco's knee surgery

We both firmly believe in the importance of exercising and stretching to ease those stiff joints and aching muscles, and to work out knots from long hours sewing, or sitting too long at the computer writing up a post!  Check out the Sunday Stretch for Sewists tab up top for lots more moves to keep your body limber!

Bananasana....it's a real Yin Yoga pose!

Make sure you bend to both left and right!

Labelling

Writing is blurred out for privacy

Basting and Quilting

and let us not forget...

Cleaning

Machine Maintenance with Bella

And finally, 

Enjoying

On her very own cat quilt

This past year saw her work with wool, both knitting and appliqué

She quite liked it!

And of course she helps out with...

Writing posts 

this very one, as a matter of fact!

She knows how to get my attention, tapping me if I'm spending too much time on the iPhone or on the laptop

Pattern Writing!

We did it this year!  And she helped...

This is Sunny Days; you also get the pattern for Blue Skies, both on sale for $5 right now in my Craftsy store. Both quilts are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Calling me

to leave my sewing when it's time to eat

And it's time to go now!  Tea and treats time!

Treats?!

I believe I just have to give one of the Blueberry Park fat quarter stacks a home.  At CA$57,  US$44, (50% off), that is a pretty sweet treat.  There are many many more, but don't be like me, and put them in your cart and 'think about it' (aka forget)....only to find they disappear because they are no longer available, waaah, or you remember about them on Monday and the sale is over...waaaah again. Might have personal experience there.

As always I thank you SO MUCH if you click through to Craftsy on my links in this post or on the sidebar.  I do get a small commission on sales and on classes; if you are interested in how to become an affiliate yourself, shoot me an email.  And always remember, if you don't buy through me, that is fine, but please choose a favourite blogger to buy through since we are the ones who help spread the word.  I would not endorse anything I haven't used or bought and I have been very very pleased with every single thing I have got, supplies and fabric and classes-wise from them.  They also have excellent customer service.  :-)

Remember you have 4 more days to enter into Pets On Quilts. Voting begins August 25!

Linking up with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Lilypad Quilting

Cat Mats Tutorial #1

Top o' the mornin' to ya!
I have two tutorials, but I suspect it will make for a much too lengthy post, so this is the tutorial for the rail fence cat mat, and I will post the second mat, a double 4-patch, tomorrow.  Click here for the original post on both designs.  Here is what we are making:

It finishes at 12X18, so you could omit the extra stuffing (in my case trimmings from blocks and bits of batting) and just make it with the one layer of batting.  The photos will not be the extra-large size to try to conserve some space.

You need:
--two width of fabric (WOF) strips cut at 1.5" of each of your 3 colours
--a roughly 13X19 rectangle of fabric for the backing
--a roughly 13X19 rectangle of batting, or scraps pieced together to make that size

Construction

1.  Sew the strips together using a scant 1/4" seam.  Press to one side or open, your choice.

2.  Straighten the one end.

I put the entire strip under the ruler, so you see I'm using the 1/4" guide along the top grey strip. This stablizes the entire strip, a tip I learned from Pat Sloan.

3.  If you are working with scraps, you will need strips of multiples of 3.5".  Here I have a 10.5" strip, so I lay my ruler on the entire piece and cut backward, a tip I learned from one of Alex Anderson's guests on her "Simply Quilts" show years ago.  It is pretty slick, and holds more of the strip down than if you were to cut from the regular side.  Slide your ruler back to the 7" mark and cut.  Then to the 3.5" mark and cut again.  Voilà! three 3.5" squares, or however many are in the strip you are cutting.  Cut 24 squares at 3.5".  Lay them out in the rail fence pattern.  Bella approved of the layout, but decided to play with a couple of the blocks...my design wall already was full, hence the carpet design wall was used.

4.  Lay out the pieces (again, maybe where a cat cannot disturb them) in a 6X4 grid as shown below.

5.  I use my Book It! method tutorial which you will find in more detail in the Tutorials tab at the top of this blog.  In short, you sew the quilt into columns, not rows.  Flip column 2 blocks onto column 1, RST, and stack them on top of each other with the top pair on top.  Chain sew, leaving a tail of thread at the first piece, which will then tell you that is the top of the column.  Take them to your ironing board and flip each "book" or pair from one side to the other as you see in the lower 2 of the 4 pairs below. Press closed to set the seams.  Then flip each pair open, thus pressing the seams to alternating sides.

6.  Take the column (you still have not cut those threads between each pair) back to your machine and piece each pair together. The opposing seams will butt up against each other nicely.  You will have 3 columns of joined pairs.

7.  In a bigger quilt, or in a colourwash quilt, which is the class where I learned this method, you can label each column with a number to keep them in order, either with a small piece of masking tape on the back, or with a marker in the seam allowance of the top 2 blocks.  This quilt has each column identical, so no numbering is needed.  Sew the columns together.

Ta da! Quilt top complete.

8.  Layer.  Backing and quilt top RST together, batting on the top, as I have it here, or on the bottom. This arrangement gave me some grief being a "poofier" poly batting, so I'd recommend putting the batting on the bottom under the backing, which is what I did for the second set of cat mats with great success.  Pin around the edges, leaving about a 6" opening along the one long edge.  I like to put 2 different coloured pins there to remind me to leave that section open.

9.  Sew a 1/4" seam.  I also trim the corners at a 45-degree angle to get a sharper corner.

10.  Turn RST. Press the open edges under 1/4", and then edgestitch around all four edges at about 1/8" to close the opening and finish it off.  Quilt however you want.  I meandered the previous cat mats but these I wanted to leave with a little more poof since I tried this batting on sale at JoAnn's a few weeks ago, so I just did a grid with my walking foot between each column and then one across the middle.  With all my fabric scraps from my Mini Swoon also stuffed in Bella's mat, I went very slowly.  You could always bind these, but I found the flip as in a pillow case method, faster and just as nicely finished.  See top photo.

I'm sure you've heard of the fabulous sale going on at Craftsy today (and you know I am an affiliate so get a small compensation for any purchases made through clicking the link) and all weekend.  Um, at up to 60% off some of their best-selling kits and supplies, this is going to be a tough one for me not to take advantage of...and yes, I'm enabling again...because as I said with the Connecting Threads sales this week (no affiliation) I love/need some company in my craziness, gluttony, er glee.  I saw a hilarious cartoon on my LQS website, Expert Sewing Centre, oh yes, I've been stalking them too, as there is a local quilt show this weekend, and they always have a special to coincide, like 30% off everything...oh I do need an intervention.  Anyhow the cartoon basically is a husband getting a call from the LQS asking for his wife to go to the quilt shop as they're running low on fabric and need her to bring some of hers back!  Bahaha.  Anyhow take a look at this tempting array and see if you can resist some of these deals at Craftsy.

Such perky Spring colours, no?  Don't forget there are also other kits and supplies on sale:  knitting supplies, cake-making and paper and crocheting supplies, and all sort of kits deals like bag-making, tablerunners, quilts, etc.

See you there!  Linking up with NTT at My Quilt Infatuation.