New FO for May

Time for the New FO Party over at Cat Patches better known as the "just start something" party led by the great enabler Barbara.

It's always nice to look back at the month and realize, yes I did get something done, crazy busy but still finding time for sewing.

First up, a string quilt, it would have been easier to make it with just white blocks, but I love the feel and weight of string quilts plus I had a ton of white strings.

It may look familiar, I made one just a few months ago, a woman fell in love with it and had to have it for her future great grand-baby. The other one had pinks and lighter colors and we don't know if it's a boy or girl, so I promised I'd make another in more primary colors and we can switch them out if the baby is a boy :)

Next:

I call this a fake barn raising, it's not log cabin blocks. I made it just so I could quilt feathers on it! I decided I needed to stop practicing and just do it, they aren't perfect, but they're pretty and I'm happy to have finally made the leap.

This is my "Let's Book It" quilt, if you're not familiar with that wonderful idea, click the link and check it out.

And this mess is what I'm working on now, the T-shirt quilt that I had asked for tips on. I learned a lot, Thank You!

This is the pile of shirts

This is the pile after cutting, I left them big so after stabilizing I can cut them down to size without worrying about stretching. The hard part for me was cutting into someone's memories, I think the quilt will go together fairly easy. 

She gave me a bunch of polyester athletic shirts that I haven't cut, I'm not sure about ironing them to the stabilizer, I'll test before I cut, but if you have any ideas I'd love to hear them.

That's it, not bad for a crazy month that had me out of the house a lot. Please jump over to Cat Patches and join in or just check out what everyone has started.

Later Gators,

Dana

Let's Book It for May

The wonderful "Let's Book It" link up over at Vroomans Quilts is up and I was hurrying to get my quilt finished. Not only am I cleaning out old magazines, but this month it got me sewing when I needed to, there's something so peaceful about sitting down at the machine, but sometimes it's hard to get there. 

This month I made this:

It's called Star Burst by Sharla Mansius

If you look at the top corners of the quilt in the magazine you'll see that even the published people make mistakes, I love that the blocks are turned wrong, I tipped my hat to her by turning one of mine the wrong way :) 

Her's is a wall hanging, but I made my blocks bigger so it would be baby sized and I dropped some of the HST's she had so the blue stars would really pop. 

I found it here:

Quilt Dec/Jan 2011

Brady Bug wouldn't stop walking on the magazine and sniffing it, so I told him if he would lay down he could be my super model, thank goodness Maya was off chasing lizards or you wouldn't have been able to see the magazine. 

I'm still enjoying "Let's Book It" so much, instead of collecting quilt patterns I want to make someday, I'm making them. I've also enjoyed reading what the other quilters have made, lots of discoveries and challenges. Why not click the link and join in?

Later gators,

Dana

Update on Wyatt

I was just getting ready to do my "Let's Book It" post when I got the call that there's a rescue today for a cat, I don't know the story and probably don't want to know, but since I wanted to show you what Wyatt looks like now I took this video off of the rescue's site. In just three weeks, look how good this boy looks now. 

                                    

Gotta run, but I'll try to get my post up later.

Dana

Heads Up

A few days ago, a friend of mine let me know that when she posted comments to my blog she received a "Delivery Status Failure" notice. I had switched over to my gmail account, so I don't know what was happening there, but I went to my comments list and there were comments I hadn't seen, they never came to my mailbox. This morning that is still going on, three comments left this morning, I received two of them. 

The same friend sent me a link to the blogger's forum where another blogger is experiencing the same problem. Another link sent me to a blog that was saying she can't leave comments on blogger.

You may want to look through your comments list to see if you're not receiving any comments. Meanwhile, I'm looking for a new email place, gmail looks ugly and messy to me, if you have any suggestions please let me know.

Because there must be pictures :)

Thanks Dana

My First Passion

Busy, busy, there's lots going on in the blogging world right now, but I received an email asking about the Freedom Pics I mentioned, so let me introduce Oreo, who is now Wyatt.

He was an owner surrender and this is what he looked like when he was dropped at the pound. 

They shaved him and because of his skin infections he was going to be put down, this is what he looked like when my daughter ran to his rescue.

Proud mama here, when the people at the pound told my daughter his skin infection was fungal and they didn't know if it was contagious, her answer was "I'll take every precaution, but he's coming with me even if it means fungal infections for all". LOL.

We did scrub our arms and hands and change our clothes before coming any where near our dogs.

Just one week later with proper care look at how much better he's doing.

He's got a ton of personality and when his hair grows back I know he won't have a problem finding someone to love him. 

His new life will be great.

While we're on this subject, you may remember The Story of Henry, here he is the day he found his forever home, handsome and very healthy.

These two rescue stand out for me because my daughter jumped in and took over, I'm incredibly proud that she's carrying on the family tradition. 

We transport rescues and help out wherever needed, so much of my quilting is about rescue, I make quilts for fundraising auctions and I sell my quilts to give money to the rescues.

Kids and animals, they own my heart.

Dana

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I think everyone loves the Blogger's Quilt Festival, what a wonderful way to see so many beautiful quilts in every style you can imagine. One of my favorite things about the Festival is looking back on my quilts and picking one that is my favorite right now, which one do I love the best?

My quilts are usually all about color and fun, this quilt certainly fits that description.

I made this for the "Let's Book It" challenge at Vrooman's Quilts. I don't normally use a pattern, or I should say "follow a pattern", but this one was to  cute not to, it's Gumdrops by Nancy Mahoney. 

Lots of great color and it all came together really fast, the shapes are appliqued, no curved sewing, that's a big Yeah! 

What I loved most was the border, I'm not a big border person but this one really makes the whole quilt pop. Love It!

The quilt finished at 40 1/2 inches square, I machine outline stitched the petals and circles so they all puff beautifully and the quilt stayed nice and soft. I'm putting this in the small quilts category. 

Thanks so much for coming by, I know there's a lot of quilts to look at and I'm off to hop around and be amazed.

Dana