Please vote for me!

 Cupcake wants you to know that her brother, Oreo, entered the cats on quilts category at the Pets on Quilts Show.  He is number 16 in the show.

 Muffin says to please go here to vote though.

 Custard thinks she is cuter but still wants you to vote for her annoying brother, Oreo.

Oreo says that he heard Custard but will wait until no one is looking to pounce on her.

I do love this show.  Be sure to check out our post here.  Look at all of the other posts while you are there too please!

Thank you!
Squeeky, Tiger, Muffin, Pippi, Oreo, Custard, and Cupcake and our Mommy, Missy

Cake Blocks

This month I am the Queen Bee for the Sew Sweet Bee.  I thought I would combine my love of cake decorating with my love of quilting!  Since my birthday is in September and my Anniversary in August, I felt it would be a great way to celebrate!

Here are the five blocks I have received so far, I asked for a variety of different cake patterns to be used with unique touches added to reflect each person's personality.

Donna sent me a needle book that she made also.

 Don't you love how she fussy cut the cats?

 Sharon sent me two cute patterns with her block.

Here are all five of my blocks together.  I will be putting a sashing between the blocks and a border or two.  I'll be getting ten blocks and will need to make two more blocks and will make it into lap quilt.  Maybe I can find a cupcake print fuzzy blanket to use as the backing!

Have you ever participated in a sewing bee before?  It is a lot of fun.  I have been a terrible bee member this year though.  With teaching (working 12 hours a day), moving, and two vacations this summer, I have been behind on all of my blocks.  I have July's cut out, but school started this week so I have been busy with that.  No time to sew.  Things should start to slow down now though since I am only teaching three days a week now.

Have a sweet day!
Missy

Feline Friday

I wish I had taken this picture for my Pets on Quilt entry!  Pippi and Muffin were all snuggled up on the back of the couch.

 Oreo was testing out my new carpet, I think he approves!

 Here are my helpers from the Route 66 quilt.  Cupcake made sure the thread was working properly.

 Pippi tested out it's comfort level and gave me a big yarn.

 She decided it passed her inspection too.

Don't forget to vote for my entry in the Pets on Quilt Show on Tuesday!

Missy

Route 66 Quilt

 The Birthplace of Route 66 Festival in Springfield, MO was on Saturday.  Of course I had to take some pictures of my quilt there!

 Here is a closeup of my quilting.  This was my first time to put cornerstones on a quilt.  I circled my FMQ in the corners.  The border I put sporadic cobblestones, kind of using a feather technique.  I was going to do cobblestones until I decided it was too much work.  On the inner border I quilted straight lines to resemble a road.

 Sorry about the sideways pictures.  I quilted in the ditch on all of the squares.  In the big squares, some of them I quilted the Route 66 emblem with a 66 in the middle.

 Sorry this one is upside down.  The dark squares I just wrote Route 66 since I could not see the blue lines I traced for the emblem and I was too lazy to look for my white pencil.  :)  Just keeping it real!

 Sorry all of these are upside down, I could not figure out how to rotate the pictures on my new phone, although I have since figured it out!  My husband likes to buy patches when we are traveling Route 66.  Since he did not have any plans for them, I sewed them on little squares that did not have any Route 66 fabric.

 These are all of the patches he has so far.  I'm sure I'll be adding more!

 I thought the quilt needed a little extra, so I appliqued a Route 66 across the top.  Since red is my husband's favorite color and I did not have any Route 66 red fabric, this is the only way I could add red to the quilt.

 You can see more pictures of the quilt here:  http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2016/08/pets-on-quilt-show.html

I did all of the piecing of this quilt on either a hand crank or treadle, and all of the Free motion quilting was done on my Singer 16 industrial treadle which is over 120 years old.
I was supposed to finish the quilt last year for our 20th anniversary but I was having problems with the tension so I got mad with it and put it up.  It was suggested to change the thread in the bobbin, but I didn't want to.  Well, guess what?  When I pulled it back out, I changed the thread in the bobbin and did not have any more problems.  Lesson learned.

I am so glad to have finally finished this quilt just in time for our anniversary!

Missy

Pets On Quilt Show

 Today is the Pets on Quilts Show from Lily Pad Quilts Blog!  I look forward to it all year but was starting to worry I would not have anything to share!  I finished my Route 66 quilt for my husband on Thursday!  I laid the quilt on the floor and Oreo volunteered for pictures!  I have seven cats so I knew one of them would come along!  I have to say that I think Oreo is one of the most adorable cats I have ever seen.  He has a personality to match his looks!

As soon as I walked out of the room, he stopped posing and decided to play with the quilt!

 His sister, Custard, is posing with him in this picture.

Cupcake, his other sister, came along and wanted to curl up in the blanket.

 Squeeky was feeling left out too.

I am entering the cats on quilt category and Oreo is the one entering.  Be sure to go over to the party and vote for me!
I'll show more picture and details of the quilt in another post.  This post is all about the cats!
The party will be open for ten days and then the voting begins!

Missy

Progress

I picked up an UFO from last year.  I was having problems with my tension and got mad at the quilt and put it up.  For a whole year!  School started and I did not have any time to sew.

I had to trace the Route 66 shield onto the 8 inch blocks for quilting.

 My husband has been picking up patches from Route 66, I decided to sew them onto his quilt.  The only ones that state actual places along Route 66 is the one from Cuba, MO (we went there last weekend for our anniversary) and the one from Springfield, MO (we live an hour from there). 
Oreo was helping me sew the patches on and making a mess of my thread.  Silly cat.

 The cats like to sleep in my rocking chair in my sewing room while I am in there sewing.

 The binding is on, I just need to finish the patches and quilting the big blocks.  I should be done by this weekend since I have already quilted in the ditch around all blocks and quilted the border.  I am quilting it on my Singer 16 industrial treadle.

Wish me luck!
Missy

Berry Mint Salad

I made a delicious berry mint salad for a potluck at church yesterday.  I did not think about taking a picture of it in the pretty bowl though.  There was not any left so I had to make some more!  It is super easy to make.

Slice a quart of strawberries, add a pint of blueberries, add two kinds of grapes.  You can add any kind of berries you want, in fact I have some cherries I'm going to add to the last little bit.  Put a couple of spoonfuls of sugar on top and let it sit for at least an hour to make a syrup.  (This is how I make my strawberry shortcakes)  Stir it a couple of times.  The longer it sits, the more syrup it makes.  Add some fresh mint from your garden, or you buy some from the store.  The mint is what makes this salad special.

To make the whipped cream, pour about 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream into your mixer.  Add about a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar.  The powdered sugar makes the whipped cream stiffer and sweet.  Add about 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla.  Add the zest of one lemon.  I did not measure anything, the measurements are all approximate.  The lemon adds a special touch of freshness.  Use the whip attachment on your mixer and whip until stiff.  Don't whip it too long or you will have butter!

Mix it all together and enjoy!

I was super excited, I actually got three strawberries from my plants before the bunny ate them!  The mint and strawberries are my first garden plants!  I also have a rosemary plant and my husband has a couple of elderberry bushes he planted.  I will never be a full scale gardener, but I love the feeling of growing something I can eat!  Now if I can just kill the stupid Japanese beetles that are eating my roses!

I'm working on my husband's quilt from last year, hoping to finish it this week!

Missy

Feline Friday

Please play with me instead of cutting quilt blocks!

Oreo wants to be cuddled!

Custard and Cupcake love my treadle.

Pippi