Busy week and being lazy...

It feels so nice to lay around and do nothing!!!  I know, I just had 2 weeks off for winter break but I was back to work this week.  I've been trying to catch a stray kitten that was roaming around outside my building so I borrowed a trap on Wednesday from a shelter and spent all night Wednesday getting up every hour to check the trap.  The kitten (now named Vader) finally was caught at about 6:30 a.m., as I was getting ready to leave for work.  She spent the day in my bathroom in the trap, not the perfect situation but at least she was warm, out of the snow, and had food and water.  It just breaks my heart to see cats, especially kittens, outside in the freezing cold and snow with no one to love them!  We found the cat we have now, Jango Fett,  outside in the freezing cold about 3 years ago.  He was a mess when we got him - parasites, ear mites, bite wounds, etc.  He is now the king of the castle and the most spoiled cat ever!!!  We dropped Vader off at the shelter on Thursday night, where she will be checked out by the vet, spayed, and if she is friendly, hopefully Jango Fett will agree to adopt her! 

I am NOT happy to be in this cage...but it is warm in here!!!

To add to the crazy week, on Thursday we had about 7 inches of snow and Thursday night we had about 8 more inches!  I was up at 3:30 a.m. on Friday digging my car out and brushing it off.  The snow is melted and the roads are clear today but it is COLD!!!!  I can't work anymore on the "Big Jets" quilt until I go out and buy some dark brown thread but I am too lazy to go anywhere today.  So I decided to do something on my computer - I hope you enjoy the slideshow of my family opening up their quilts for Christmas!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

BIG JET'S quilt

So basically everyone got a quilt for Christmas: my husband, mom, mother-in-law, sister, dad, cousin, and best friend.  I didn't think my cousin's long time boyfriend would want a quilt - let's just say the first time I met him when I was 16 he pulled a deer leg out of his trunk - and my husband also talked me out of making him one and opted for some specialty brews instead.  After Christmas he joked about why he didn't get a quilt - so I decided to make one for his birthday in February.  He is into airplanes so I found a picture of an airplane quilt and designed a pieced/appliqued block of an airplane (my first time every doing applique!).  I found some great airplane fabric for the background of the block and a cool map-looking fabric for the outside border.  I am going to try and finish this one in the next week or two so I can get it quilted before his birthday.

Today was back to work...it's great having a teacher's schedule but it's always hard going back.  It was nice to see the kiddies though - by tomorrow I'll be back on my own schedule.

BIG SNOW headed our way so maybe that will be an excuse to stay in this weekend and sew.  I have been trying to trap a stray kitten outside our patio.  I have a cat trap (one that won't hurt the cat of course) set up sos I will be keeping an eye on it all night before the snow...

my fabric

close up of the fabric (i luv the map fabric!)

the plane block

Wonderful Holiday Season

The last few weeks of December were spent putting finishing touches (binding, labels, etc.) on the quilts I made for my family for Christmas.  Everybody loved their quilts and I was so excited to see the reaction from each person about their individual quilt.

Currrently I am in the middle of making a wall hanging for my dad that has car and tool fabric.  I will post pics of this one soon.  Here is what I will be working on in the near future:

1.  Finish dragonfly quilt (put borders on) and have it quilted
2.  Finish backing of gingerbread quilt and have it quilted
3.  Finish the wall hanging for my dad
4. Work on an airplane quilt for Scott (need this one by the end of Feb!)
5.  Misc. projects for family members with the scraps of their quilts
6.  Pinwheel quilt
7.  Learn how to make a rag quilt

So I will be very busy in the weeks / months to come...

Happy New Year!

Quilt #11 - Memories of the Southwest

I made this in a few hours with some fat quarters that I picked out at JoAnn Fabrics.  I wanted to find fabrics that reminded me of my trip to the southwest this past June.  I found some pretty turquoise and brown fabrics and threw in a little purple.  I like the different size square blocks.  This was a fast and fun one!

My inspiration... a picture I took at the Grand Canyon...

Rick and me at the Grand Canyon...can't wait to go back!

Quilt #10 - Gingerbread Man

I had this gingerbread panel that I didn't know what to do with but I found this really cute red plaid at a quilt show and made this quilt top in a few hours.  It is really basic but I think it turned out cute.  I love the small squares with the tiny gingerbread men!

Lots and lots of binding!!!

Three of my quilts are finished being quilted and so I have been doing ALOT of binding to get them finished before Christmas.  I still have to put labels on them.  I love the way the quilting turned out.  Here are some pictures...


Winter Parade - quilted with small snowflakes

Black & White - quilted with red thread flowers

Red, White, & Blue - quilted with stars

Finishing Touches and scrap busting....

I picked up two quilts from the quilter earlier in the week and they are beautiful! She did an amazing job and I am so excited, I'm not sure if I can wait until Christmas!

The first time I sewed a binding, it turned out horrible! Since then, I have been looking a many blogs and websites that offer photo tutorials about how to easily deal with the binding. This time, it went much more smoothly! It only took me a few hours to put the binding on the Jim Shore Angel quilt. Here are some pictures of it:

The quilting pattern is a flower (sunflower-ish) and I made the binding from scraps of the quilt.

I also did some scrap-busting this weekend.  My cat is always laying all over my fabric and my quilts as I am trying to work on them.  He just loves laying on them and rolling around.  I took some of my scraps from my Christmas quilt (currently at the quilter) and made him a little blanket/liner for his kitty  bed. 

I figured since this was for the cat (and he wouldn't mind mistakes) I decided to quilt it myself!  I used spray adhesive to put together the "quilt sandwich" and masking tape to sew the first set of lines.  The second set of lines I did free hand and they are fun and wavy.  I also tried to machine sew the binding and the results weren't that bad!  Instead of starting the binding on the front, I started it on the back.  Then I folded it over and sewed the binding to the front with a decorative stitch.  It actually looked quilt and was MUST faster than hand-sewing. 

wavy quilting

Machine sewed binding and part of the sewn name (not the best picture)

He loves it!