May NewFo

It's the end of the month (really?!) so it's time to show off what you started in May, no finishes required. I'm linking up to the NewFO party at Cat Patches. Yes, I'm a day late, but Hurricane season starts today and it's announcing itself with rain and boomers, so taking pictures and doing a blog post is better than the grocery run I'm supposed to be doing. ;)

First I started and finished this baby quilt:

During the Bloggers Quilt Festival, I saw a quilt made by Teje over at Nero's Post and Patch, which I couldn't stop thinking about, the colors and fish were so cute, I had to make it. Does that happen to you? I hate to copy, but this quilt wouldn't go away. Teje's is much prettier and has more color, but this laid that quilt to rest.

Then I made this:

That's a cage cover for our cockatoo Gus, he has a huge corner cage which needs a custom cover. Gus wants the sun gone at 5:30 every night, no light, no noise or he will tell you about it. If you've ever heard an angry cockatoo, you know why I took the time. Little side story: I bought the fabric at WalMart, 8 yards of duck. After the woman had measured and cut, she just picked up this huge wad of fabric, stuck a price on it and put a rubber band around the whole thing, no folding, just a pile of fabric with a rubber band. I'm glad I see humor in most things. 

Then I made this:

Quick and easy, just trying to use those daisies and lady bugs.

Now I'm working on this:

That's half of a string quilt I'm making, I love string quilts when I start, but about now, I'm over it. 

 Thanks to Barbara for hosting this party, I do like seeing what I've done for a month, although I always feel like I've forgotten something. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Dana

FMQ Challenge for May

The May challenge was from Leah Day who I've been fascinated with for a long time. Her Free Motion Quilting Project is a wonderful source of inspiration and better yet, ideas if you're not sure what pattern you want to master next. I've watched a ton of her videos so this month felt like I was visiting with an old friend.Her design for this month was easy and well explained

The only problem I had was when I started and forgot that I was supposed to be filling all of the space. You can see that in the top corner, I was concentrating on the stitching and not thinking about the space.
The second half was the train track which I think I will actually use for a little boy's quilt as a train track, I'll add a second rail, I think it will be darling. 
I've listened and read a lot of Leah's tips which are included in the first video, but one idea I loved was to have a stack of small quilt sandwiches ready to go so you can practice everyday. Genius! With the Free Motion Project you'll never run out of practice ideas. 
I really want to thank Leah for taking the time to make the videos and to help us all out and as usual Thank You to SewCalGal for this wonderful idea and putting the work into so we can all learn.
Thanks for stopping by,Dana

Foto Finish - Gardening

Saturday means Foto Finish at Cat Patches,  poor Barbara has to go on vacation to Ireland, so this will be the last until July. Today's optional theme is Gardening, so I'm going to share one of my favorite plants. My daughter and I planted the top of a pineapple when she was about 4 years old and this is what we grew

Every year it gives us a small pineapple then the plant dies and puts out a baby plant on the side, the plant seems to walk all around the original spot, it's about 2 feet away now. It's a fun plant and of course I love it because we planted it together.

I hope you'll hop on over to Cat Patches, I'm sure the other pictures will be wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by,

Dana

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I think we all love the Blogger's Quilt Festival, so much beauty, talent and inspiration all in one place. I do want to thank Amy for all of the work she puts into this, Amy you're amazing.

This is my current favorite quilt. About every third quilt I try to follow directions and make a quilt block, it's my attempt at learning. 

I hand dyed the aqua sashing since once I had that color in my head nothing else would do and of course I didn't have any in my stash.

I kept trying to figure out an individual design to quilt on the separate flowers, but nothing seemed right and the quilt wasn't talking to me. Finally it decided to shout. I quilted different size spirals all over and it turned out to be perfect. I love the look and the texture is amazing.

I hope you're enjoying the festival, I'm off to enjoy it myself,

Thanks for coming by,

Dana

Happy Mother's Day

We held up traffic yesterday to let what David called "Ducky Daycare" cross the street. It seems like the perfect Mother's Day picture.

To all the women out there, I think Mother's Day is about nurturing and we've all done it, human babies, fur babies and just kindness to others.

Happy Mother's Day.

Dana

No Reply Comments

I've been asked how to not be a "no reply" commentor, so I'm going to go through the steps. I'm a visual learner, so there are lots of pictures.

This is all for blogger, since that's what I know.

First of all you need to have a blogger account,  from the research I've done, it looks like, if you don't have some kind of account, WordPress, Blogger, etc. then you will need to leave your email in your comment. Make it easy on yourself and set up an account, it's easy and fast.You don't have to have a blog, just an account and who knows you may want to blog someday. Go here to set one up:

Blogger Setup

Now here are the steps to make sure your email is used for comments. No one sees them except the person you are commenting to, so it's safe.

The white on white may be hard to see, but just look for the red arrows I put in.

Go to the blogger dashboard:

At the very top you'll see this, of course it will be your name, if it's my name I've given you way too much info  :)

See the little down arrow next to your name, click it

You'll see this:

 Click on Blogger Profile and this will come up.

Click on Edit Profile

Make sure the "show my email address" box is checked and make sure your email is listed.

Then go all the way to bottom of the page and click "save profile"

That's it, you're done. Remember no one sees your email, when you leave a comment it's just like you sent an email, your comments show up in my email and I answer you by just hitting reply. It's easy for all of us. 

Want to test it out? Leave me a comment and I'll answer you. (If it worked.... insert evil laugh here)

Good luck,

Dana

Foto Finish - Stripes

The theme for Foto Finish at Cat Patches this week is Stripes.

Easy Peasy, I went with the ultimate striped animal. These guys always amaze me, they look like something Dr. Suess would have dreamed up. 

I hope you'll visit Cat Patches and join in the fun and while you're there tell George "Welcome Home" he's been under the weather and in the kitty hospital.

Thanks for stopping by,

Dana