I won!!

I'm sorry I have been so quiet on here!  I might only be working part time as a teacher, but the day does not start and end when the bells ring.  I'm also an OCD planner which means everything takes twice as long!  I have not left the school before 5:00 yet, sometimes 6,  but I'm sure as I get the swing of things it will get much easier!

First of all, my cat quilt won the Pets on Quilt Show!  I can't believe it!  Thank you to all who voted for me!  Right now I have it hanging behind my desk in my classroom!  Here is the post of the Viewer's Choice winners and to see what I won.

I also won a quilt through a raffle at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  I am so excited!  Sarah is trying to help her daughter raise money for the adoption of a little deaf boy from China.  Be sure to check out the quilt here:

While I have been working, the cats snuck into my sewing room and made a mess.  They found the tulle and pulled it out of a box.

 I think I found the culprit though!

Oreo

They have also learned how to manipulate doors!

Cupcake

They also claimed one of my quilts for "their" love seat.

Of course they have the cat beds set up in my husband's office and sleep in there while he is working.

I had a turtle as a class pet for a week, but he really started stinking with all of the heat, and yes I did clean the cage.  He is now back where he was found.  I'm sure Bob is a lot happier now!

I'm really hoping to have time to quilt tomorrow!

What have ya'll been up to?

Missy

Pictures

I've been super busy with getting my classroom for school, school starts on Tuesday! I've been trying to find good Christian books for my 3rd through sixth graders to read also.
 A couple of weeks ago we went to Branson for our 19th Anniversary, I found a groupon for an old fashioned photo.

I also got to briefly meet one of my bloggy and treadleon.net friends.  We were passing on a treadle for another friend.  We met in Springfield at the Bass Pro shop there, it's humongous!

Cheryl from Cheryl's Teapots 2 Quilting.  Be sure to check out her blog, like me, she does all of her quilting on people powered machines, but she has a lot more then I do!

I'll leave you with a cute picture of Pippi.  She thinks this is her rocking chair, LOL

Don't forget to vote for me at Lily Pad Quilting!  All of the links are in this post.

Pray for me as a start a new school year, it's been a few years since I taught in a school!

Missy

More Baskets and a reminder

Hello everyone!  I'm sorry I have been so quiet on here, but I started a new job.  Last week I got hired as a part time reading teacher at a local Christian school here.  I am super excited!  That means I am super busy trying to get ready for school to start next week!

Don't forget to vote today over at Lily Pad Quilting.  I have entered the cats on quilts category (#6) which you can see here, and the cat themed quilt category (#54) which you can see here.  If you like my entries, please vote for me!  You can vote here:

A week ago I got several more basket blocks from the Sew Sweet Bee.

These two pink ones came from Pam Kitty Morning.  She said that she did not like the first one, so she made a second one.  I think both look great and will use both of them.

 This pink one came from Amy at a Quilting Sheep and she also sent me a sweet charm pack!

 This last yellow one came from Heather at Vintage Grey and she sent me a sweet fat quarter!

I love how all of the blocks I have been sent have had practically the same fabric on the baskets!  I am loving them!

School starts next week so I am going to be super busy getting my classroom ready.
I hope ya'll have a great day!

Cat quilt Finished!

 I am really excited about my wall hanging!  Wednesday last week I decided I wanted to put together my cat blocks from an exchange on Treadleon,net  with the cross stitch Amy gave me.

All of the cat blocks were made with either hand cranks or treadles.  I pieced it all on my Singer 99 hand crank.  I quilted it on my Singer industrial 16.  Pippi was a big help!  I love this picture!

I quilted the border with tiny straight lines, I used the edge of my walking foot as my guide.  I love this bright cat fabric I used!

I was not sure how I wanted to quilt the cats at first and then decided to quilt faces and zig zags on the bodies.  I'm not sure how well you can see it.

You can see the faces better on the dark fabric.  The black block with the yellow fabric has a bird that started as a fish, but my husband said it sill looks like a fish.  LOL

I went ahead and signed the bottom of the quilt in lieu of a label, but I wish I had drawn a paw instead of a spiral.

 The purple has a fish, blue says cats and red says meow.  My paw prints definitely need work though!

 The backing and binding is a navy material with a tan print that says I love my cats with paw prints.
 Here is a close up view of some of the stitching on the back.

 Here is a full view of the back.

I had to show you this picture of Tiger helping me decide where to put the blocks.

I am entering this quilt into the cat quilt category at the Pets on Quilts show at Lily Pad Quilting.  If you like my quilt, please vote for me!
I have also entered a cats on quilt post, be sure to check out that post also to see more of my fur babies!

Murder at the Mikado by Julianna Deering

I love blogging about books for Bethany House publishing, sometimes they send me a book to read that I would not normally pick.  Julianna Deering is a new author they introduced to me.
They just sent me Murder at the Mikado by Julianna Deering.

Here is an excerpt from the book.

I had already read book one and had to go buy book two before reading the third book in the series.  It is part of the Drew Farthering mystery series.  I never knew that I would love murder mysteries!  She is great about inserting how God can help you in different ways and it is part of the story.

Drew Farthering is an English gentleman and Madeline Parker is is an American dubutante, they make a great team solving murders.  I don't want to ruin the story for you, be sure to check out the books, you will really like them!

Missy

August Goals

It's already August!  Can you believe it?  It's time for another month of goal setting!
I counted how many blocks I have left for my scrappy trip around the world blocks, I think there are only 19 blocks left!  So my goal this month is to finish sewing all of my blocks, I can see the end!

 My husband was doing stuff in the living room and I wanted to be near him, so I just set myself up in there with him!  My husband is so sweet and bought me that black table at Wal-Mart, it is adjustable and great.  The best part is I can take it with me on retreats too!

I finished a top!  This is going to be a wall hanging.

The center is a cross stitch made by my friend Amy, she stitched it on burlap.  When I quilt it should I hand quilt it by tying it?  Just the center.  Or can I free motion quilt burlap?

I was thinking of FMQ the word "meow" between paw prints.  I can do that either on the burlap or the cat blocks?  I was also thinking of skinny straight lines on either the cat blocks or the outer border, there is also the idea of tiny free motion circles on the outer border?  What would you do?  I'm hoping to get it quilted tomorrow so I can enter it in the Pets on Quilt Show.

When you set monthly goals, do you prefer setting a lot of goals or easy goals you can attain?

Missy

Cats on Quilts

Welcome to the Pets on Quilts Show from Lily Pad Quilting!  I decided to express what I go through during the making of a quilt when a person has cats and wrote a corny poem illustrated with my cats!  I am entering this photo in the cats on quilts category.

Custard and Oreo on a log cabin quilt my MIL made

Seriously, how do you pick just one photo when you have such cute babies?

Oreo

Piecing a quilt,
A labor of love,
Stopping to move a ball of fuzz.
Now I'm full of guilt.

Custard on my scrappy trip around the world blocks

Ready to FMQ,
Again, here's the cat,
I gently say, "scat!"
What am I gonna do?

Tiger and Cupcake on a great granny square quilt

Stop, let her sleep,
The camera I grab
Snapping away, she looks fab!
Out of her, not a peep!

Pippi on a nine patch quilt

Now it's time to smile,
The quilt is done,
The race has been won!
But my cat is full of guile!

Tiger on a rail fence quilt

Trying to take a picture,
Don't see a cat anywhere,
Taking the shot with care,
There are the cats out of nowhere!

Custard, Cupcake and Oreo fighting

It's a well known fact:
Cats on quilts,
Quilts on cats,
Where there is a quilt, there is a cat!

Oreo in the wagon on my strings quilt, Cupcake's behind under the quilt, and Pippi sleeping on the log cabin quilt.

Oreo, Custard and Cupcake.  Siblings on the nine patch quilt.

I hope you enjoyed my corny poem!  Don't forget to hop over to the show and see some more great blogs with pets on quilts!
 If you are wondering, yes, I have eight cats but did not want to put more pictures then I already have on here!

Missy