Quilting Kittens

I did finish the two small quilts, Not Kitten Around. They measure 12.5" X 14.5". They're not very big so I thought it would be so quick to quilt them. Wrong! The pieces are so tiny that I have to be very careful. I usually use a ruler for my arcs but I don't have anything small enough so I had to free hand everything. That's something I'm not used to!!

Each leaf block finishes at 3" so those squares  and HSTs are only 1" square. I did arcs in the full squares and along one side of the triangles. This took awhile only because I had to be so careful.

Here are the two blocks side by side on the longarm. I quilted some ribbon candy in the pumpkins. I used white thread so far but switched to black when I started quilting the cats. 

This is so hard to see but I quilted large pebbles on the cat. Using black thread made it hard to see what I was doing! I think it worked out okay. These little quilts are so hard! I'll take a larger size anytime! I'm planning on switching back to white thread and finishing up the background. I'm hoping to have them done soon before my next BOM directions are released next week.

Not Kitten Around Progress

 I'm making 2 versions of Not Kitten Around. One version uses the fabric that came in the kit but the other is just similar fabrics I had in my stash. The stash version will be going to my daughter and her boyfriend. It's a little bit of a challenge keeping the fabrics separate but I've caught myself before I made too much progress. Here are the cat heads and bodies.

Here are the two tails.

Here are the two pumpkins the kitty will be sitting next to.

These leaves will be placed at the top of this piece, above the kitty. This pattern is from Riley Blake and will measure about 12.5" X 14.5". I think it will be a cute addition for Halloween!

I Like Thursday #284

 It's once again time for Thursday Likes! Please visit LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more participating blogs. I love how my Facets quilt is coming along! This pattern is found in Victoria Findlay Wolfe's latest book, The Quilting Experience. I'm using my fabric stash but still buying a few fat quarters to infuse a little color where needed. Each block is 6.5" square. Each round focuses on a different set of colors. Fun!!!

I bought this little kit from Riley Blake. It's a series of monthly banners or can be made into a quilt using all 12 months. I'm just making this one for October. It came with enough fabric to make one quilt but I'm also going to make another one at the same time for my daughter and her boyfriend. They'll love it! Both of them are cat lovers!

Our tomato plants are bursting with tomatoes! It took awhile. I thought I'd share the largest ones! I love how tomato plants smell.  The smell reminds me of nature and the great outdoors! Such a clean smell!

The question this week is which do you prefer, creamsicle or fudgesicle???? As a child, I would have chosen the fudgesicle. I have always loved chocolate especially when I was a kid. However, now that I'm much older, I think I would choose the creamsicle. I'm not sure why but that's my answer! I would never say no to either one!!

Have a great weekend and stay cool!!!!!

Facets Round 4

The heat is back again and I seem to be moving much slower! My house is cool but if I have to go out to do anything, I get pretty hot. I did manage to finish the blocks for the 4th round of the Facets quilt. This round featured red as the main color with light pink contrast. The middle is made up of a flower motif of any color. The blocks measure 6.5" square. I use paper piecing for some of this block which helps me go a little bit faster. I love the contrast of the rows. My next color is purple! It's supposed to be dark purple but I plan on using what's in my stash.

I couldn't find anything in my stash for the binding of the Halloween table topper. I had to go to my local quilt shop to buy a few replacement lights for my longarm and I bought this fabric for the binding.  I only had to cut 3 strips so it was quick to prepare the binding. I'm hoping to sew it on tomorrow. If the heat doesn't get to me!!

I Like Thursday #283

 It's Thursday so it's time to talk about all the things we like! Please visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more participating blogs. I've been working on this peacock for ages! I finally finished needlepointing the peacock yesterday. I still have the background to work on but I'm thrilled that all those feathers are done! I hope to make it into a 16" pillow. 

I machine quilted my Halloween table topper. I wanted to make a spiderweb in the large light triangles. I looked online for ideas but didn't see anything that I thought would work with this shape. I came up with this idea and like it! It's not perfect but it works! The machine quilting is all done so I just need to make the binding.

I got new couches back in May and put quilts on them to add some color to my family room. I switched one of the quilts to this one, Arcadia Avenue. It measure 72" X 90". I love how it looks on my couch. It adds some really great color. This quilt really showed me what paper piecing was all about. I became very comfortable with this technique after making this quilt.

Our question this week asks if we used a hula hoop when we were younger. I certainly did and I loved it! I remember a few of us would get together in our neighborhood and just use our hula hoops for awhile. We thought it was so much fun!! When my kids were younger, we bought one. I couldn't wait to try it. Was I ever disappointed!! I couldn't get it to even stay up!! It just kept falling down. I never tried again! I guess things just aren't the same once you're all grown up!

It's been a much milder week here temperature wise but things are supposed to heat up once again. Ugh. Have a great weekend!!!

BOO!

This is the August block for the Frightful Fun Block of the Month. It's appropriately named BOO!. It measures 12" X 24". The letters are actually purple even though it looks blue in the pictures!

The directions recommended we make the skulls first since they were going to fit inside the two O's. Although small, these 2 blocks weren't very difficult except for those mouths! Each mouth starts as a square with tiny triangles sewn on each to corner to round it out. Mine didn't come out perfect but close enough. I attempted one mouth 3 times until I liked the result. Done is good!!!

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to center the skulls properly but it really wasn't too hard. I saved the exclamation point for this morning. This was the fastest part of the block! It was nice to finish earlier than expected.

Next month is the final month of this BOM. I have really enjoyed working on this quilt. The patterns were so fun to work on. I can't wait to put it all together and see the end result!