Why cats don't quilt

A week or two ago I finally mounted the pink kitty quilt onto the Swiftquilter frame. I thought I'd try an experiment and use a different machine than my trusty Juki TL-98P based on a request from someone about using another machine on the frame. I know that the TL-98P is the one for the job, but it's always worth trying new things. I won't go into my experience using another machine, because I doubt many of you are interested in that.

I do know that everyone loves a good cat photo, so let's get to the cute stuff...

I have taken to using staples to attach my quilts to the leaders (fabric attached to the roller bars) rather than pins. The staples are quick and easy to use and I flip around the base plate thingy so that the staples ends go outward rather than inward - this makes them really easy to pull out - too easy, apparently.

Here's my nice tidy setup before I started quilting. Notice the nice flat surface for quilting?

I did just a little bit of the quilting as a trial and then was planning to switch machines to really get going. Before I managed to do this, Sammy decided that the quilt made the perfect hammock for a heavier-than-he-looks cat. As you can see, where there used to be a nice flat quilt, is now a ginger-colored trouble-maker.

I'm sure if I had used pins instead of staples, this would not have happened. Then again, if I had a pet iguana, this would not have happened.

I have not yet sorted out this problem and instead have made a few more blocks from my scraps. So far, so good, but finding and trimming/cutting the scraps is a little tedious. Still, it's a nice distraction to do a block every few days. They are big (14") so should progress into a quilt without needing to make too many blocks. I haven't decided the finished size yet - I figure I'll keep going until I run out of scraps or get tired of making them.

Cotton Robin finish

For the fourth year in a row I have finished up another Cotton Robin round robin organised by the lovely Julie. This year we were challenged to use a color for our center block that wasn't one we had used. I chose purple after I noticed that I had very little in my stash and did not have a purple (or even partially-purple) quilt in my pile. Don't get me wrong - I love the color and often wear it, but I don't quilt with it.

My center block was not the most creative - next year I'm going to have to think outside of the box a bit more. I think I wanted to see what would happen with the borders if I started with a design that wouldn't be considered a centerpiece. My quilt was added onto by Kate (first border), Nan (second border), and Terri (quilting and binding). I love that Kate started in an asymmetrical direction - this was a great idea. Nan also went asymmetrical, leaving the finished quilt just off center and rectangular. I loved the piecing in the borders and the quilting by Terri was nicely done - I especially like the little spiral flowers and leaves.

My only surprise was this: it is REALLY PURPLE! Of course, I am to blame for setting the stage, and everyone followed my lead.

I worked on three other quilts along the way. The first was a sweet little applique block to which I added a circular pieced border. I made this using scrappy narrow strips of off white with little squares of brights forming the circle. I paper pieced the strips onto a template I made with the circle on it so that they all lined up. I was really pleased with the end result and the final border matched so perfectly.

The second quilt had an intricately pieced center block and a first border of flying geese. The second border introduced fuchsia and between the center and the border it was getting quite busy. This is why I enjoy doing round robins because you just don't know what you will receive and how you will add to it. I decided to just add detail to the corners of the second border with some tiny log cabins and use some solids to tie the color scheme together. I was hoping whoever did the quilting would take advantage of the plain sections and use it for some nice quilting - and she did.

The last quilt I worked on arrived with a note: something about keeping it monochromatic and small. It was very yellow (perhaps more yellow than mine is purple) and just over 10" square. I didn't want to overwhelm it with quilting, so I did wiggly lines in the center portion and some straight diagonal lines through the 2 borders.

You can see all of the finishes at the Cotton Robin website. It's always so exciting to see all of the finished quilts and to pick out my favorites, but disappointing that it's all over and we will need to wait until next year to do it again.

Luckily, my Monday Modern friends have agreed to do a round robin with 3 borders. I'm organizing it, and am quite excited to get started. Watch this space...

Q3 finish along goals

I can't believe the year is half-way through. Where has the time gone? I managed to complete 2 quilts last quarter and there was one unfinished that I had on my list of hopefuls - so that one is on this quarter's list again.

It's the pink kitty quilt, which is now a flimsy made up of 25 blocks. This one needs to go onto the frame and get quilted. I am having a bit of a creative block and don't know how I want to quilt this one and I've packed up my frame because my 'studio' (actually, a basement apartment) is currently occupied.

Believe it or not, I have nothing else on the go. So this weekend I started 'analyzing' my scraps. Everyone has a different definition of a scrap. Mine are mostly small and fill up a basket in my sewing room. The more I dig through it, the bigger it gets. Sometimes, when I am feeling industrious, I trim and sort them into 4 piles: 1-1/2" squares, 2-1/2" squares, biggish pieces (5" or more), and strips.

I've decided to do a block that I did in March 2014 with Block Lotto - it's called star chain and it's a 14" block. I've reworked the instructions slightly and am using only fabric from the scrap basket. The center stars will be hot colors (red, orange, bright pink), the chains will be cool colors (blue, green), and the background will be low volume (mostly white, cream, and light gray). I made one block as a prototype, so we will see how it goes.

The third project is to do something with my paper pieced rabbit. It's been hanging on the wall for a while now, so it's time to make it up into a pillow (or something).

Linking up with Adrianne at On The Windy Side for this quarters finish along.

Green folly - another finish

I can't believe that I have finished two quilts this month. It seems like so long since I've actually accomplished anything.

This one has been years in the making. It has been packed away a number of times and brought back out when I'm in the right mood. And now it's done, kind of sad really since it's been with me for 4 years. In fact, my first post about this project was on July 16, 2011.

The quilt started out as a handful of 'bonus triangles' trimmed off of a Block Lotto block and turned into a massive project comprising 3,200 triangles. I used every shade of green imaginable from scraps and purchased fat quarters. There's a bit of grey in there too to cut down on the green-ness and a mix of white and cream too (who says you can't mix white and cream).

The finished quilt is about 76 inches square. I used a wool blend batting which is lightweight but is really warm and slightly puffy. This is a heavy quilt, even though the quilting is not very dense. All of those little triangles have seams and I figure that almost doubles the weight of the top compared to a similar sized quilt with less piecing.

The back is pieced from necessity - I did not have enough of any one thing to use for the backing. I refuse to go buy 'good' fabric for this purpose, so I found what I could and made it work. I admit I am quite fond of the back and the quilted feathers forming the squares look good on the plain background.

I'm linking up to Adrienne's 2015 finish along - I managed to finish 2/3 of my proposed finishes. I admit that I have barely touched the third one in the past 3 months. It will be top of the list for the next quarter.