Our Visitor - Is he stray or gone astray?

This is Stallone:

I call him that because he looks like Sylvester. No idea what his real name is or if he even has one but I suspect he does. He appeared at our door in January on a -30C day and when I opened the door he walked right in, helped himself to cat food, had a nap and then asked to leave. So I let him go. It was cold all weekend. Stallone came and went several times. I decided if he was still around on Monday I'd take him to be checked for a chip but on Monday he didn't show. We didn't see him for a week or two and after that he turned up occasionally but wasn't very hungry and didn't look skinny or injured.
In fact he looked very comfortable.

My my cat Stella has adjusted to his presence.

But Maybel is worried he'll steal her toys:

All of this has led me to believe he lives nearby. His family likely goes off to work and school each day and he goes on his route including a stop at our house for a bite and a nap. I don't mind at all. Oddly, several other cats have been lurking around lately. Stallone must have spread the word about the buffet and pretty female cats at our house!

Sunday Summary - January 19

Well, it's not -30 anymore. That's good news, I guess.

I spent the week sewing up a storm! Finishing 6 cat quilts and getting them shipped. That always makes me feel good. Love finishing things. Must get to those UFO's though. Do you have UFO's hiding in your craft room? I'd love to hear about them. I plan to get busy on mine again soon. I finished 3 in 2013. I should aim higher for 2014, right? Four?

Here's what I made this week:

                   

There was one more cat quilt but I forgot to photograph it.

Our little buddy, who we've begun to call Stallone because he looks like Sylvester, is still coming by for food and some love. We're still not sure if he has a family around here somewhere or if he's really a stray. Anyway, we're always happy to see him when he stops by.

And, finally, I got a lot of fabric this week! 

Cat fabric:

Dog fabric:

Christmas Fabric on sale, because you know how fast Christmas comes around?

Some great basic fillers, also on sale

And, finally, some fabric to make pillowcases to match the quilt I made before Christmas for my daughter-in-law's mother's birthday.

So I guess I better get busy and make some more stuff or I won't be able to get into my sewing room anymore!

Sunday Summary - Oh wait it's Monday - Jan 13, 2014

Back to normal after the holidays. And yes, I know, it's Monday. Kinda missed my deadline there.
The weather went from frigid to dripping. What a switch!

I got busy with Etsy orders. One for 5 coordinating cat quilts. They're done and ready to ship. And another for a charm quilt with a black cat silhouette which I haven't finished yet.

Five Cozy Cat Quilts!

For Brownie, Bob, Lucas, Mouse and Spartacus!

I also continued working on string quilt squares. I've completed sixty-five 6 inch squares, My scrap boxes were overflowing and it was time to put them to work. Not sure what Ill do with that one. Im sure something will come up!

I got lovely reviews and comments from one of my best customers on my Etsy store. If you've ordered from me I'd love to get your feedback too.

One of my fabric orders arrived today. That's always a treat. Love getting packages in the mail. This is what I received from Fabric.com. Looks like I'm branching out into dog quilts or football lover quilts. We'll see that next week maybe.

And this guy (the one without the collar) has been hanging around since Christmas. It was so cold we let him in for awhile. Now he comes and goes. He seems to like the food and the company. Oh, and the beds!

Well I'm off to make biscuits to go with split pea soup for supper.

Have a great week!

Sunday Summary - The Big Reveal!

So you probably noticed that although I mentioned I was making 3 quilts for Christmas orders I only showed you the two cute baby quilts. They were ordered for Christmas gifts and from what I'm hearing will be loved and cherished by two little ones, Emma and Daniyal.

Couldn't show the other one because it was commissioned by my daughter-in-law for her mother's 65th birthday on December 31st and i didn't want to ruin the surprise.

Now that the big day has passed I can share some photos. This quilt was easy to make using a pattern called Spring Bouquet from the book Quick Method Quilts Galore. The pattern was easy to follow even though I didn't have the special tool called the Companion Angle. The tropical colours chosen by my client were fun to play with especially in December.

Leaf Quilting on the borders and flowers in the blocks

Adding the binding

Stella's quality control session

Ready to pack up.

The unveiling

And the happy recipient! Happy Birthday Nicole! 

                  Bonne fete Nicole!

This week's project? FIVE, count em, FIVE cat quilts! Orders from my etsy clients www.etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquilty

Sunday Summary - Happy New Year!

Christmas week is always a whirlwind! This year it was almost an ice storm too! We were luckier than many families in Ontario, southeastern Quebec and the Maritimes who experienced a Christmas without power. Some are still waiting for repairs to bring light and heat back to their homes. Having "survived" the great Quebec ice storm of 1998 I sympathize with their plight. Although the storm in 98 was a terrible experience it at least had the decency to arrive after the holidays. I sincerely hope that the affected this holiday season were able to find warmth and food with family, friends, neighbours, or at shelters.

I remember another ice storm in that happened in the 60's. I was a kid and it was great fun! Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, grandparents and friends congregated at our house because we had the good fortune to have a fireplace. We, meaning the adults, cooked tons of food that would have otherwise spoilt directly on the fire and then we enjoyed our feast in front of the fire and camped out on the living room floor. School was cancelled for more than a week!

This year our family Christmas was a wonderful, crowded, three days of continuous eating, drinking, laughter and merriment. Parents, grandparents, great grandparent, children, grandchildren, friends and cats and dogs! One big fantastical zoo! I think the dishwasher is almost worn out and the fridge is still bursting with leftovers.

We may not be wealthy but we are fortunate. We have the love and warmth of family and friends! I feel blessed to have time to pursue my love of quilting and one quilt at a time, I am achieving my goal of making everyone cosy! The day our the power goes out everyone I know will have a cosy quilt to keep them warm!

Power or not, friends and families celebrating together is always special!

Happy New Year to all my quilty and non-quilty friends.

Sunday Summary - Merry Christmas - Dec 22 2013

Two more days to finish the quilts I was commissioned to make. The monkey quilt and girlie baby quilts are finished and ready to go. I hate to part with them, they're so cute!




The queen size quilt is almost done. It's the first queen size quilt I've quilted on my new Babylock Jane. It was a pleasure, not a struggle due to the 9 inch throat on the machine, Just the binding and label left. So it should be finished tomorrow.

I will upload a photo next week after the birthday girl has received her gift!

At this very moment we are watching Christmas Vacation for the millionth time! Well, I exaggerate at little!

We're having a gang for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and Im looking forward to celebrating. This is my first Christmas since retirement. No more getting home at 4PM and shifting into high gear immediately. I can ease into the excitement gradually. Yeah, right!  LOL

My wish for everyone is a peaceful, safe and healthy holiday season.

Sunday Summary - Dec 15 - Christmas Deadlines

It's been a whirlwind week! How about you? Getting ready for Christmas is so much fun. 

Even Maybel got in on the at  doing quilt inspections!

This is Emma's quilt. It's ready for Christmas giving. 

And this on is for a client to give to his nephew. With his name on one side and monkeys in the other. Just have the binding left to do. 

And I m working on a queen size quilt for someone's Mom who has a birthday coming up. It's a secret so I can't share until the end of the month. Have a great pre-Christmas week. See you next Sunday for the final countdown.

Sunday Summary - Christmas Prep

Tree's up! Albeit a little one. We spent this morning at a kids Christmas party with our Grandson. He didn't like the noise of the music and loud speakers but sure like his gift from Santa. A garbage truck. What else would a three year old boy want from Santa? Then we all came back home to decorate the house, eat, drink and be merry.

As far as my week went it was a productive one. Two baby quilt tops done for custom orders and I started cutting strips for the queen size one. These are all due for Christmas so I've got my work cut out for me!

 DaniyalEmma

Finally the orders poured in from my Etsy store www.etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquilty , 4 cat quilts sold and orders for 8 custom ones! Goodness! Fortunately, the custom ones will wait until after the holidays. No way I could get them done for Christmas unless I give up sleeping!

And right now? Just me and hubby watching Home Alone.

How was your week? I'd love to hear about it. Decorating done? Shopping? Gift wrapping? I haven't done that yet, yikes!

Sunday Summary - Black Friday Edition

Black Friday! Wow! Hubby and I crossed the border into the US and braved the crowds for the post Thanksgiving tradition called Black Friday. I have to say that upstate New Yorkers and  Vermonters are a great bunch. To be fair, we avoided most of the really crowded places but we did go into Best Buy and stand in line for a deal on TV. Nice folks all standing patiently in line waiting their turn. I even met a bathroom cleaning attendant in The Christmas Tree store that was smiling happily. Speaking of The Christmas Tree store there's a great Chicago style hot dog vendor outside. We ate delicious hotdogs outside in the sun. They were great!

Joann's Fabric was open at 6 AM and all the quilters and crafters were there. I'd been wanting an Accuquilt Go for quite awhile. It was 40% off, so, you know! why not.

Visited a quilt store too. Yankee Pride in Essex, VT. Nice store. I needed fabric for a couple of baby quilts and a queen size too. Here's a little teaser:

Earlier in the week I continued quilting Nancy's quilt this week. I'm making progress, slowly! I've used 700 yards of thread so far!

Oh and I won a giveaway! I'm so excited. Two yards of fabric from The Fabric Worm. I got this email from Deby at So Sew Easy:

"Yay – you are a winner!

 

You won the Fabric Worm Giveaway

 

http://so-sew-easy.com/holiday-mug-rug/

 

If you would please confirm full name and postal address, I will ask Fabric Worm to contact you about picking your fabric choices.

 

Congratulations and thank you for entering"

Well, that was my week. 

 

2 yards of fabric from ...

Sunday Summary - It's Sunday Again Already?

Who sped up time? Can't believe it's Sunday again already!

This week the cat quilts were delivered to the rescue in Albany NY by good cat loving friends. If you live in Albany these look like adorable adoptees!

                                     And the challenge quilt was shown and admired by my guild buddies.  I didn't win the drawing but that's ok, I have a great wallhanging to enjoy and the Fabricville contest is coming up soon!

I finished the quilt top for our massage therapist Nancy and was fortunate to have access to 3 large tables at the local seniors club so that I could get it basted along with another very special quilt for a very special birthday boy. The birthday boy doesn't read my blog so I can share a pic of his quilt which I managed to machine quilt in a day and the binding is on and almost finished. Should be completed tonight. It's a lap quilt so it went quickly

Now on to Nancy's quilt. It's a big one and I'd really like to get it done before Thursday.
I started quilting it today and it's going well so far. Here's a peek:We're going away for this coming weekend so I'll be shopping for new fabric for a commissioned quilt, a flowery queen size. It needs to be ready for Dec 31st so i better get my act together fast!.And I have an order for a baby quilt with monkeys! What quilter doesn't love fabric shopping! If you know of a line of monkey fabric in earth tones Id love to hear about it.

So, to summarize; we have happy cats, a birthday gift, free massages (I hope!) and new projects to get busy with.

Sounds like the beginning of another great week. Tell me about your projects. I'd love to hear them

Sunday Summary November 17th

This was a a great week! Felt so productive compared to last week. I got four completed orders into the mail. I know that one already arrived in the UK. The others should arrive at their destinations shortly.

I also completed or worked on:

Two extra large (26 x 42 inch) cat quilts got finished with cozy flannel backings for a cat rescue in Albany NY. I liked them so much I posted a custom order listing on Etsy. They'd make great multi-cat quilts or back of the couch savers. Friends of ours have graciously offered to drop these off at the shelter on their way through NY state next week. Soon rescue kitties will be snuggling up on these cozy quilts! Warms my heart and hopefully theirs as well.

A Christmas cozy cat quilt got finished and posted on my Etsy site: www.etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquitly.

After all, kitties need Christmas gifts too! 

My quilt guild is having a Christmas Party tomorrow and with a pincushion exchange. I made this one that I found instructions for this over the arm of your chair pincushion (a bit hard to see, its better on the website), on Pinterest at this link: http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/cutting-corners/2012/3/30/dainty-blossoms-couch-pincushion/

And at the meeting tomorrow we'll have our Celtic Quilt Challenge. Remember this one that I got ready for September because I thought it was due then? 

                                                                                   I worked on this quilt for our massage therapist. She was looking for something for her massage table and I know she likes African music and themes. She has a humongous painting of zebras!

I hope to get it basted and under the needle for quilting next week. Maybe it'll be back as completed on next week's summary. Who knows.
















And, best of all, I bought a new high speed sewing machine! A Babylock "Jane". I think Jane will help the coming week be even more productive! Once I get used to "her" I will post a review but so far she is fabulous!

Phew, now that was a great week!!! Hope yours was too. I'd love to hear about it.

My New Baby

If you read my blog you know I've been looking for a new machine. I looked at several and tried them out. They're all great and have plenty of neat options and beautiful embroidery stitches. Price range for a machine geared to quilting with my requirements (needle threader, thread cutter, knee lifter) varied from $1800  - $4500! And I'm sure there are more expensive ones too.

I mentioned to my dealer that I really only piece and free motion quilt and that a heavy duty machine would be a good choice for my needs. He showed me the Baby Lock Jane. Wow! 1500 stitches per minute. Straight and free motion sewing only. Needle threader, automatic tie off and cutter. Knee presser foot lifter and all feet included. And the price? Less than all the others.

Hmmm, my Bernina still works well enough for those occasions where I'll need zigzag or embroidery stitches....perfect!

I'm unpacking it this morning and will give it a spin today and tomorrow. I should have a review ready for my next Sunday Summary.

At 1500 stitches per minute, I should be able to rock and roll!

Sunday Summary

Just thought I might share some pics of what I made this past week.

I completed two custom orders for memorial pet quilts and a dog quilt for a client in the UK.

And got these awesome photos from a few of my satisfied cozy cat quilt customers:

Gozo

Vindaloo

Elwood

Lucas

Heinsenberg

I love getting these fantastic photos of cats enjoying the quilts I sell at www.etsy.com/shop/pieceandtranquilty

Thanks for having a look at my progress this week. I'd love to see what you've quilted.