Kitty goes to the Playground

Earlier this week, I was taking pictures of my Schnitzel and Boo mini and the kitty was in the car so the kitty got to take photos in the playground also.

Be sure to observe all rules

Test out the awesome-ness of the slide

Take an imaginary trip 

Climb around on the jungle gym

Silly Kitty -- get out of that tree

Pick some flowers 

is this the snack bar?  

I'm hoping to name the kitty soon and am looking for your suggestions. 

Row by Row Experience

Have you all heard about the awesome opportunity that is coming in July? It's like a shop hop and a row along all rolled into one.

It's called the Row by Row Experience and includes 1250 shop hops nationwide and in Canada. Starting July 1 all the shops will be having a free row pattern available and once you collect 8 rows and present a complete quilt you could win awesome prizes. I found out about this through my quilt guild and think it's going to be awesome . Even if you aren't looking to get the rows it does serve as a great opportunity to find out about shops that maybe you've overlooked or are in areas that your traveling during the summer months. My husband jokingly said, quilters could use this to plan where they were moving.

check out the website for more on the Row by Row Experience and check on facebook to see if your state has a facebook page -- most of them do. 

I am in no way affiliated with this organization but am super excited to see what all they have in store. Hubs and I are planning driving trips around to see what new exciting shops we can visit. 

Happy Quilting everyone -- perhaps I'll see you out and about this summer. I'll be the one with the pink and purple kitty. 

Kitty pulls himself together for the TMQG meeting

My lesson in yarn gauge that has resulted in a larger Amineko kitty than anticipated has been coming together this last week as I am still on restricted use of my feet. (Kinda creepy view in my car the other day of the WIP). 

I finally was able to get an apt with my doctor regarding the swelling so I used this opportunity to work on the face -- I'm pretty happy with the embroidery work. 

Then I put the muzzle and ears on the body. How adorable, am I right? 

So right before the guild meeting I got my Amineko cat finished (except the eyes) and he was a big hit --

When I brought him back home after the meeting I let the kitties see him -- he received mixed reviews. 

One of the things that the story of the amineko illustrates is all the fun things that these kitties like to do so be sure to stay tuned for Kitty's first outing. 

Fast Failure

Sorry I've been away recently but I have several things that I am waiting to write about -- the posts are all started and waiting to be posted as soon as items are received and patterns are released. I did want to weigh in on the fabriholics anonymous fast and let you all know I am still here and sewing (just not showing).

6 Good things about the fabric fast/diet
-- better choices about fabric purchases
-- paid off a big medical bill (thanks mainly to the destash)
-- completed 23 quilts / quilted projects 
-- worked on several other craft projects, like pouches and crochet items
-- getting more creative in fabric combinations for projects
-- renewed joy from visiting my local shops and finding something I really wanted

For the last 6 months I have been on a fabric diet -- this was initially supposed to be a fast but that didn't work for me. I did pretty good on using up some fabrics and even destashed quite a bit more but I am not entirely sure that I ended up in the black on this diet -- you see I still don't have any more room in my drawers, as a matter of fact I think I may have less. 

I need another destash but I wonder is my blog a good place to do that -- any thoughts on a blog destash? 

I have been having a difficult time recently and have been considering continuing this diet another 3 or 6 months to see how more purging will make me feel. I know that initial list of goals has barely been touched so that and the custom orders that I have coming up are surely enough to keep me busy for a while. I am giving myself a break mid July when I go to Charlotte for a concert and that trip will include stopping at a few stores in that area. On the other hand, I have decided that I will not be doing our local shop hop in September but I am leaving myself open if a different shop hop is available. The real reason for wanting to continue on is that the hubs and I have decided that we would like to start thinking about moving and in order to do that we need to start saving more and cleaning out -- I'd love to move away from the city and if decreasing fabric purchasing is the way to do that then it might be worth it in the long term. 

When we move it would be a great opportunity to build that dream sewing room I have been building on pinterest for the last several years. The hubs has been eyeing long arm machines online and even asks me about them from time to time -- I think maybe he's wanting one, though neither of us has ever operated one. Funny right?

Hope everyone is quilting this summer, I know I am -- it's going to be a staycation in the sewing room in a few more weeks. 

busy as usual

not much quilting has been happening around here the last few weekends because of other life craziness. The first weekend my niece graduated high school and this past weekend was full of fathers day activities.I am doing some sewing but not much I can show off or tell you about right now.

Schnitzel & Boo Mini is in full swing and I am loving it so much that I am very tempted to keep it. All I have left to do is add my extras and then I will be shipping out in a very short 2 weeks. You can expect a full post about this lovely soon. 

I am trying to get a pattern test completed but it's a little tricky and so far my test pieces are not up to my level of satisfaction so I may not be showing that one off for a while.

The spiderwebs top is completed and ready for basting. 

My sewing has been a bit slow recently because I have been having trouble with my feet, so on the non quilting front, I have been working on a crochet kitty. The tricky part with this guy is all the pieces and as anyone that knits or crochets knows the size of the yarn greatly effects the size of the finished project -- well, when I decided to start this project I didn't really think about that and the resulting kitty will be about a foot tall when seated. (Awesome!!)

I am still pondering to Miller Challenge fabrics and have an idea in my head -- and need to push that one closer to reality.

I also received an inquiry about 2 more custom quilts -- that would mean that I would have 6 customs to finish in the next 6 months. How exciting and nerve racking at the same time.

I really hope this weekend is not so busy so that I can get some of these goals wrapped up. Happy Quilting everyone. 

Deadlines are looming

This post is mostly to help keep myself in check when it comes to all the ongoing projects that I have coming up so that I don't miss any deadlines. Looks like the next few months are going to be busy ones with lots of fun projects going on. Who knows what might be getting added. 

In June I need to ....

• bind 2 quilts -- June 15
• Pattern testing -- June 17
• finish orphan block quilts -- June 24

In July ....

• Schnitzel&Boo mini for my swap partner -- July 7

• Pink Blocks -- July 19
• Modern Quilt Guild Challenge fabrics -- June 25  July 25

For August ...

• Quilt Gypsy Wife -- August 1

September ...

• Mom's Apron -- September 7
• Mason's Quilt -- September 16

• Chris' Car Quilt -- September 23

And In the 4th Quarter... 

• Halloween Quilt Commission -- October 1

• Thanksgiving quilt Commission -- November 1
• Christmas quilt Commission -- December 1

when it comes to fabric I always say GO big or GO home --

Well apparently when your supposed to be on a fabric diet it may be better to just stay home -- or else an epic fail can result.

I had been doing so well in May and only bought for a mini swap project and then this weekend I went to my niece's graduation from High School. Well,  along the way I made a few stops at fabric shops -- some for things I needed and others were to get out of the car. The resulting purchases are a bit shameful but I know if I had it to do over most of this fabric would still have came home with me anyway.

TADA!!
I went after Wee Wander and some Kona

A guild mate told us about a small shop that had some Prince Charming and Parrisville so I knew I was going to buy some of those 

I also found some AMH Innocent Crush on clearance so I couldn't pass that up 

I've been working on finishing up another person's UFO and needed some fabrics that would finish these up -- and these metro rings are always useful. 

As are these little circles and a few other blenders 

Super cute fabric for $2 a yard to use for backing 

Fun fabrics that I will be using to fussy cut for my next Gypsy wife or economy blocks. 

A fun bag of strings that I hope to put to use real soon in my rainbow strings. 

See I told ya'll shameful -- but awesome. I'm already planning many new projects to use most of it and just hope that I have room to store it until then -- perhaps I need another destash to make room but as is apparent I would probably just refill it. So I'm going to take the fabric diet one day at a time and really try to not have another purge like this until the shop hop in September. 

Happy quilting everyone.