Finished Quilt and a Win!

I finally finished my barn quilt.  I made the top in 2013.  I combined two quilt alongs from Bee in my Bonnet.  I finished it in September while living in TX and then moved to MO in October four years ago.  When one of the categories announced for our local quilt show was country homes I knew I needed to get this top quilted!

 Due to a few setbacks I did not start quilting it until last week.  I decided to just do wavy lines since I can't draw a straight line much less quilt one!  Of course I had lots of help quilting it on my treadle, a Singer 66 with Lotus decals.  It is 100 years old and a workhorse!

 I was sewing the binding on at the very last minute, washed it, dried it and took it right over to get it entered!

It was not a technical judging, area businesses hosted categories.  All names were hidden from the judges.  The country homes category was hosted by United Realty, who sold my house to me last year, and she picked my quilt!  She said it was a quilt she would want to put on her bed.  I got first place, I'm super excited!

 I also entered another old quilt from 2014.  You can read more about this quilt here:   http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2014/08/cat-quilt-finished.html

I entered this quilt in the Wild about Animals category.  This was part of a block exchange and a friend made the center cross stitch section for me.  It also won first place in it's category!

They really liked the descriptions I wrote talking about my quilts.  That is training I got from writing blogs.  LOL  This one was held by Caryl Stillings of the Ava Art Guild because she wanted an animal theme.

The show prize money is a great blessing also.  I know my quilts would never win a "technical" challenge, but that's okay.  I would be totally stressed trying to make my quilts perfect.

If you live near Ava, MO, the quilt show is running until August 24 or 26, I can't remember.  It is free and being held at the Ava Art Guild Gallery.

I'll be sharing quilts by category all week!

Have you ever entered a quilt in a quilt show before?

Missy

Treadling along!

 I've been getting in a few minutes of quilting a day.  Today I got about an hour in.  I am wanting to get done by the end of January, so I picked a quick and simple quilt design.  I am doing a circle loopy in each square.  Since a few of my blocks do not line up I could not do the cross hatch I wanted to do.

I am watching Petticoat Junction on youtube while I quilt.

 I was a able to fit all 108 inches of my quilt in the throat space!  Perfect!  Some people call it harp space, I prefer throat, what do you call it?

 I have the quilt in my lap and spread all over the place while I quilt.  As soon as I open the sewing room door Muffin jumps right up on the quilt.

 He just loves my quilts.

We might have a snow day from school next week, if we do I'll spend the whole day quilting!
Have you stayed inside from the weather quilting?

Missy

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!

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

New Cat Blocks received!

I got my cat blocks from the exchange in the mail today!  I so wish I would have had time to make more!  I got blocks from all over the country and even one from the UK!

Here is the last blog post with pictures of my blocks.  I love my blocks!  Here are a couple of close ups of the two cat prints.

Of course as soon as I laid the blocks out one of the fur babies had to lay on them!  There is another one under the coffee table.

When I was unpacking I found a fabric painting my mom made for me when I was little, she used Tri-chem.  It isaround 28-32 years old, maybe?

I love it and want to to hang it in my sewing room.  I have been saving it all of these years to hang in my child's room but the Lord never did bless us with children.  What would be the best way to wash it and hang it?  I was thinking just sponge washing it and putting it in a picture frame.  What do you think?

As many of ya'll know I have only lived in my rental for about six weeks now.  I have had the best surprises in my garden!  This is the only hyacinth.

There have been daffodils popping up all over my garden, front yard and back yard!

 There are also wild onions all over my garden, I'm wondering if they are supposed to keep aay bugs or something, or if it is just a weed?

 The daffodils sure are hardy things!

I have a black thumb and am so happy about my flowers because I love flowers, but just always kill them!

Don't forget to enter my book giveaway here!

Happy Spring!

Missy

Song of Solomon 2:12  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

Cat Blocks

 I joined a block exchange on Treadleon.net for 8 inch cat blocks.  I was planning on doing two sets of ten, one with the sitting cat and one with the reclining cat.  I had gotten the background cut for the reclining cat, but with my sudden move, I was not able to get them done in time.  :(  The requirements were jewel toned background and either a small cat print for the cat (I used two different cat prints here) or a small calico print.  I made an extra block of each material I used to keep for my quilt.  My black and white cat is half finished on my very small design wall.

 We had to sign the blocks and put our name, city, date and the machine we used to make the block on the exchange blocks.  Here is a link to the pattern we used:  http://vickisvintagestitches.blogspot.com/2014/01/treadle-on-cat-block-exchange.html   If I ever have time after unpacking, making things for the house and finishing my quilt for my bed, not to mention all of my other obligations, I need to make some more blocks!

 One of my bloggy friends sent me a block as a house warming gift, which I thought was very sweet!  Thank you Joan!  I love the pink!

 There is not a door on my closet in my sewing room, so I took a shower curtain and some curtain clips to attach one of my quilts to.  I'm using a quilt my mom painted when I was little.  The blue is perfect in my sewing room with all of my other blue stuff in there.

Here is another picture of my cutting table, I really should have waited to hang the quilt until after I had arranged my furniture!  LOL  My cutting table is just a card table that was bowing in the middle, so my husband bought a piece of wood to put under my mat.  I then confiscated a table he had made to use as a lap desk across our comfy chair (it sits on the arms) to put at the back of the table for my supplies.  Both boards help to extend the size of my table.

Here are three of my babies curled up asleep on the bed.  Oreo has such an awesome tail!  The calico is Cupcake and my big baby is Tiger.

I'm not getting much sewing done, but my house is starting to come together.  We had unloaded all of our boxes in the garage when we moved.  That helps to not have boxes everywhere waiting to be unpacked, so what I have been doing is bringing in a few boxes at a time, unpacking them, making a mess, clean up the mess, and then start over again!  I'll try to keep ya'll updated as get things done though!

Missy

Cat blocks!

 I have finished 6 of my cat blocks for the cat block exchange!  I wish I had more of that cat fabric, I love it with that turquoise blue!  I have two other cat fabrics to use for the rest of the blocks though.

Pippi and Precious

 My husband and I tried to get the cats to pose with my blocks, but they were not cooperating!  Yes, those are cat toys all over the floor!

Muffin

Custard

This block was a lot easier to make then I expected and I am in love with this block.  I have decided to make it a twin size quilt instead of a throw.  So if a twin size mattress if 75 by 39 then I would want 10 (80") blocks down and 6 blocks across (48") making 60 blocks? Plus a border or two. Is that correct?  The blocks are 8 1/2" finishing at 8".  I am terrible at math!  Which would mean I need to come up with a lot more cat fabrics because 30 blocks is the max for the block exchange!  LOL
Here is the pattern we are using:  http://vickisvintagestitches.blogspot.com/2014/01/treadle-on-cat-block-exchange.html

There are two patterns, a sitting cat and a reclining cat.

Have you ever made a cat quilt?  Please share it in the comments, I would love to see them and add them to my pinterest board!

Missy