More crazy quilted cats

These two were commissioned, and are the first ones I've attempted to make to look like actual cats; a big fluffy tuxedo cat and a small thin, pointy-eared black cat. You can click on the photo for a larger view.

Watergarden round robin

This is my work on Nikki Lee's block from the
Watergarden round robin.

Me in my hat! And a give away....

Here it is, as requested!

Glinda: What the munchkins want to know, is are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Dorothy: I'm not a witch at all. Witches are old and ugly!

Well, that answers that question.....

And as I was thinking about that movie quote, another came to mind:
"Tomorrow is a 'Say Something' hat day."
The first person to tell me what movie that quote is from wins a CQ prize (but not my hat). I'll admit it's pretty obscure, as movie quotes go, so I'll give you a hint or two:
1) This movie came out in 1995.
2) It featured some famous action-movie stars, but was more of a chick flick.

Happy Halloween!

 I've been working on this hat off and on for two years. Got it started the first year the CQI retreat was in Estes Park. As you can see, it's almost done. I still need to finish the outer edge of the brim and tidy up the inside of the brim where it's attached to the cone part.

 This has been such a fun project that I sort of hated to finish it. And I kept finding things and thinking of things to add to its "witchiness". But I really want to wear it this year, so it had to get finished.

 It's got some wording on it: "something wicked this way comes!" and "You say WICKED like it's a bad thing" and "Hocus Pocus". On the brim it says "Don't make me call the flying monkeys" and "Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble".

 This view is looking straight down from the tip of the cone.

And this is the bottom of the brim. I still need to add a spider to that web; probably a dangling bead spider, though I have some pins that would work as well. Getting it put together was as complicated as I thought it would be, especially getting it to fit on my large head. I used some heavy-duty interfacing to support all that embellishment, and it was difficult to needle through. I ended up having to attach the cone to the brims by hand, and it was very slow going. But it's done and I like it so much I may wear it for Thanksgiving and Christmas too!

Brown color study; Shannon's block

 These have been fun and challenging to work on. This one belongs to Shannon. I did the triple button seam,

 the arches and leaves seam,

 this paisley, and the seam above it and the lace to the left.

More cats!

 Here's one of my latest cats for sale at the bookstore. I made some much smaller "kittens" too, in other colors than black.

 This one was a commissioned piece, and is of the small variety.

Best of the Web!

I was recently asked to have my blog featured on Best of the Web, which is a blog about, well, blogs. Check it out here:
http://pocketchange.become.com/2012/08/best-of-the-web-be-home-76.html

and leave a message!

Peacock cat, Christmas is coming....

 This is the cat that was special-ordered a month ago. It's ready to be sent to its new home, and right on schedule!

When you start seeing Christmas ornaments for sale at Hobby Lobby, you know Christmas is............well, still months away, but that you'd better start thinking about it. The stockings I've been making have used all my tiny light charms, so I bought some more. You can buy some that are about twice as big as these that are tiny ornaments. The ones I like are strung on gold cord, meant to be used as garland for a small tree. And if you're as practical as I am, you will note that you can untie each little light charm and voila! You not only have 12 tiny light charms, you have a yard and a half of gold cord that is thin enough to be threaded in a chenille needle and used as embroidery thread in Fool's Gold work! Hey, it only took me about 15 minutes to untie all those little knots....yeah, I know, I need to get a life.

Brown color study, stockings, Corbin

 This is Doris's block in the brown color study RR I'm involved with on CQ4N. She printed an image of her dog, Maddie, as the center patch. I'm the second to work on this and my additions are the button heart motif, "Maddie", the wagon wheel seam, and the ribbon roses on the brown doily.

 When I did this motif, I first stitched down the button, thinking it would be my guide for placing the heart around it and the embellishing stitches. But when I had the heart stitched on, I could see that I'd done it a bit off center, so I had to remove the button and scooch it over a fraction of an inch. Next time I'll do the heart first.

 These are two of the Christmas stockings I'm working on for Cindy, a lady I work with. Parker is her grandson, and Brielle is his twin sister. I've been saving those tiny little Christmas light charms for forever, and as luck would have it, I had exactly 15 of them, enough for 5 for each of the kids' stockings (the twins have and older brother, Zachary).

 Corbin spent one week of his summer vacation at a science camp where they learned all about different types of creepy crawlies. One of their projects was making a fabric hand puppet that was like a frog, then when you turned it inside out, it was a tadpole. It was just glued together at the edges, so when he got back here with it, I threaded a needle for him and he set about stitching the edges where the glue had missed. Why he is wearing a paper snake skeleton on  his head while he does it, is anybody's guess.

What I've been up to....

 Here are some hearts I've made to have on hand for our CQ for Newbies Hearts and Flowers showers. I will embellish them as  I have time, or as need arises.

 This is the cat that was special ordered, with the peacock theme. I hand dyed my last peacock lace motif, and stitched the triskell-shaped feather design to match

 These are two little cats waiting to be embellished. They'll be about 6" tall when finished. The largest (lying down) cats are about 11" tall at the ears when finished.

Crazy cats

Remember these kitties? They were put up for sale in May in the bookstore where I work, and both have been sold, along with 2 others. And we've taken an order for one to be made. Woohoo! Crazy cats rule!

Outlander RR

We're still plugging away at this RR. It's met with obstacle after obstacle, but we persevere! This block was done by Lauri.

This one was done by Leslie.

This one was done by Maire.

These are the two blank ones that are left, and one block is still being worked on by Jacque.

Christmas in July?

Here's a progress report on the Christmas stockings I've been commissioned to make for my friend Cindy. There are 3 more to piece, for her grandchildren. Those will be the most fun, so I saved those for last!

Brown RR, cards, and a toad

I finished the scallops out to the corner of the patch on this block and it's ready to go to the next stitcher.

I've been collecting counted cross stitch card kits for years, and used to do a cross stitch piece for the insert (not always the one the kit came with). But I thought I'd give CQing a try. Turns out that works pretty well too!

A lady who came to view the quilts at the show we had at the store gave me about a dozen little spools of vintage silk button hole twist. To thank her, I made this card for her. The silk twist is a finer thread than I'm used to using. It's a little finer than size 8 perle; maybe closer to 12, and oh, so shiny! It's what I used on all the cards.

A recent visitor to our back yard.

Brown color study round robin

I'm participating in a color study RR. In a color study, you work the whole block in shades of one color, in this case, browns. This block belongs to Erika.

I added three different buttons with starburst designs stitched around them.

And a scalloped edge next to some lace that I dyed for this RR. Hmmm, now that I look at it, I think I will carry it on into the corner of that patch....

Happenings at the bookstore

We had a quilt show and author signing event this weekend at Grand Valley Books. Traditional quilter Joan Walker showed off many of her creations, and I got a chance to show some CQed items I've made over the years. I've posted photos of my crazy garden quilt before, but here it is again:

Both Joan and I sat and demonstrated our stitching during the event. It was lots of fun to talk to people who'd never seen a crazy quilt, or who had never seen one close up, or who would like to give it a try someday.

My table with CQed cats, wooden boxes with CQed tops, a little rocking chair pin cushion, a bear with a vest...

My color wheel quilt, which has never been hung before this weekend, but just might get some wall time at home now that it has a sleeve.

Joan's quilts...

Joan and Margie.

Joan's sunflower quilt.

And more of Joan's beauties!