All Caught Up......

Finally I'm all caught up, for 3 days I even slightly ahead! My bottom borders are done but not visable hanging over the skirt hanger behind my cake block.

Of course, there were dramas - the furballs did fly in the Quilt Kitty household. I always cut my blocks bigger than specified but one Friday night I must have been very taken with Midsummer Murders as my ice cream cone finished up on a very definate angle. In order to cut out a fairly straight block I ended up with a 10 inch high block rather than 10.5 inches. So after careful thought while lying awake in the dark later that night I came up with a solution that didn't mean starting that block again. I trimmed a bit here & there and added another row of 1 inch blocks between my coffee cup & book blocks. Problem solved & now I cut my blocks with even more excess!

My coffee cup block is actually the hot chocolate block but as I prefer coffee to hot chocolate so I made another change. I think it is easy to see why this is my favourite block to date. Purrrrfect!

Here's my book block too. I pondered long & hard on which book to portray but couldn't come up with one I knew I would be happy to still be looking at in 10 years time. Being a total readaholic to the point where it interferes with my sewing, I thought of just titling it 'To All The Books I've Loved Before......'. However a kitty reference prevailed and I settled for The Cat Who in deference to the cosy mystery series of 29 books by Lilian Jackson Braun which featured two Siamese cats Koko & Yum Yum who helped their owner to solve crime in their small town.

Quick Chooky - mark me off for December, January & February at last! I can't believe it's nearly March already, roll on winter.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

My First Block.....

Here's proof I have finally started & will catch up very soon. I thought the blue jeans block would be a good one to start with for a needle turn newbie. Funnily enough, the crotch gave me a few problems with 1 or 2 stray threads not wanting to tuck, but while not perfect I got there in the end. Lots to learn doing this new method of applique.

I didn't add the Peace sign as that was just before my time but sewing my stonewash denims had me racking my brain for the name of that fabric that came out in the 70s that changed colour as you wore it depending on how warm you were. I loved it & had a couple of tops in that fabric that looked just so 'choice' with my stonewash jeans. I was in NZ at the time so there wasn't that big a change in temp but that poor fabric must have worked overtime here in Aussie.

Now block 1 is done, on to the next tonight. I admit I am a bit worried about getting those points right on the umbrella block. After my crotch problems they seem a step up in trickiness. As almost everyone is ahead of me, any tips or tricks you found when doing this block or any others would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully in a few weeks I will feel confident enough to lose my L plates.

It's great to be on the SAL again!

Happy Stitching
Tracee xx

Quilt Top Finished

Here's my finished quilt top. I'm loving it, very Christmas RED!

That's all 13 stitcheries for me Chooky as I have my quilt label in the mittens block.

Now I need to go back & look at everyones ideas on how to quilt. That is one of those scary subjects in quilting.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

Final Blocks & The Seal of Approval

Today I did the machine sewing on my final three blocks.

I was all so excited by finishing my blocks that I put them together too. The 12 blocks I left on the couch ready for the borders, hopefully on Sunday. You would think I sew with catnip flavoured thread, the speed that cats find my sewing in this house. At least this fun project now has the approval of my darling old Brutus cat. Where did I put that defluffing brush???

Happy stitching

Tracee xx

June Blocks & Other Pretty Things...

After 2 weeks without my usual laptop & then getting it back from the repairers completely wiped & with a new, hopefully non-faulty hard drive I am back and slowly trying to reinstall software, find email addresses, recreate favourites & now catch up on some blogging. They are such wonderful machines - when they work.

So here are my blocks I did finish in June;

And I have finally done something with my 4.5 inch reject blocks. I'm not totally happy with it & will replace the little sprig of holly when I find something just right to go in those spaces. I also did the little Christmas cover for my cat hanger but think he needs a bow on his tail too to be truly festive.

I also made one of the small pillow which turned out gorgous, great little gift;

The last 3 stitcheries have been done in the last few nights & are awaiting their borders. At last a project that I am confident will be completed, not just the stitcheries done & then in the box with the other orphans to await a much later finish. Already looking forward to the next SAL!

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

The Penguin Invasion!

Every time I try to do a post lately I am getting an error message so fingers crossed for today XX.

The penguins invaded in my house this month & a cute little invasion it was.

This weekend we have had the quilt fair in Perth. Thread & Ginger had a stall so it was great to say hi to Natalie & see the completed TTS Quilt. The hexie bag looked even better in real life so have to put that on the to do list too.

My three reject blocks are now sewn together in another wall hanging but still have to do some embellishments before I post some pics.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

March Blocks Done

After great enthusiam at the begining of the month I now have 3 finished blocks to show you just in time.

I decided after doing my 3rd block as per the pattern that I just did not like my results with 4.5 inch stitchery blocks so those 3 blocks have gone aside for another project & here are my 3 new blocks using a 5 inch stitchery centre.

Sorry I haven't followed the list of what block everyone is doing in which month, I never read instructions properly, too enthused to get going...

So that is just 3 completed blocks for me Chooky.

Loving all the great pics, threads & fabric comblinations we are seeing for this project!

Happy stitching
Tracee xx (Quiltkitty)