Strawberries and Sugar Quilt

Hello!  Don't fall off your chair, but I have an actual proper blog post for you today.  I finished this quilt a while ago, but I finally managed to get myself organised to take photos this weekend so I can share it here.

I started this quilt earlier in the year, when I was teaching a baby quilt class using this pattern.  It was a pretty quick sew, and I really enjoyed working with these lovely softly coloured fabrics.

 

I quilted this quilt in an organic grid design, using fairly dense but not evenly spaced or perfectly straight lines. I used my trusty favourite Aurifil 2021 thread, but this time in a 40 weight, for slightly more distinct stitches.  The backing fabric is from stash, and is a pretty older Tanya Whelan fabric.

 

I'm always delighted when a friend announces they are having a baby, and my lovely quilting friend Cathy announced earlier this year that she was expecting a girl.  Her baby shower was this weekend, so I washed and dried the quilt in anticipation of gifting it to her.  It crinkled up quite a lot due to the dense quilting - I really love that look.

 

It's really hard for me to resist a striped binding, and that's exactly what I did here.  This striped fabric  from Stitchbird was the perfect fabric to finish off this quilt.

As usual, I stitched on a label before gifting.  I bought the "made with love" stamp from Typo last year, and I've used it a few times.  I've edited out the parents' names, but I think this will be my new go-to wording for baby quilt labels where the name of the baby is not yet known.  Baby is due in the next couple of weeks - I'm wishing Cathy a smooth and safe delivery and looking forward to meeting the newest member of her little family.

Caturday Wisdom #135

The key to camouflage is choosing somewhere super-obvious but staying very still. Ivy

Believe it or not, it took some searching before we found the cats this day. We had both just come home from a walk with our Dad and the family dog, both of which Ralph had laid eyes on but they hadn't come into the house or anything but the cats were nowhere to be seen.

They're very much 'scaredy-cats', they don't like strangers and particularly men with loud voices so they will often disappear temporarily if we get a courier delivery or visitors.

We know their normal hiding spots by now but after checking them all we were flummoxed until out of the corner of my eye I saw something by the window which turned out to be Ivy in weasel-mode! We had spent a good 5 minutes looking and calling them by this point so she had been watching us the whole time from her window spot.

Eventually we also discovered Ralph's rather terrible attempt at hiding, his head was hidden to be fair but there's quite a lot more to Ralph than just his head...

I don't know if their hiding or our seeking is more embarrassing.

Lizzy House Meadow Quilt class - one place left

THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST - THIS PLACE HAS NOW BEEN FILLED BUT I WILL TAKE NAMES FOR THE WAIT LIST.

Unfortunately, one of the participants in the Lizzy House Meadow quilt class I am organising has had to drop out.  It's a real shame, but it does mean that a place has opened up for one more person to join the class.  If you've been thinking about coming along, now is your chance.

The class is in Wellington on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 October 2014.  You can find all the detailed information about the class here.  If you would like to attend, please send an email to adriannereid at gmail dot com.  The place will be filled on a first come first served basis, so don't wait too long.

Make sure you check out all the Meadow Quilts appearing on instagram - there are so many beautiful examples!

THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST - THIS PLACE HAS NOW BEEN FILLED BUT I WILL TAKE NAMES FOR THE WAIT LIST.

Caturday Wisdom #134

"This is just my face" is always a valid excuse. Paris

 

Paris the Persian lives in Australia and thus is an international guest!

 

Ralph and Ivy have had a great week: a trip outdoors on the weekend, I was at home on Monday and Tuesday and they got to sniff my vomit bucket (very intriguing) and Adrianne kept them company working from home on Wednesday (she did not catch my bug luckily).

They have not had any photos taken though, which is why Paris is featuring today. Thanks Paris!

Primary Industry

I was really pleased to find that my mosaic "Primary Industry" is a finalist in Rachel from Stitched in Color's Almost Primary mosaic contest.

I would totally love to win these fabrics as a bundle - if you're so inclined, please pop over and vote for my mosaic here.  Thanks!

Caturday Wisdom #133

 Who says cats don't recycle? Vivi

I love how there's an actual cat bed *right there*.

I have found that cats are quite good at repurposing items, they're just not always the items you would like to be repurposed.

Cardboard boxes are fine as a bed but too messy as a cat chew-toy.

String is fun, the shoelaces on my shoes are not string. Same goes for drawstrings on tousers or sweatshirts.

Pins and matches are both useful items but are not good things to carry around in little cat mouths.

It's lucky they're cute, right?

 

Almost Primary mosaics

It's been a long time since I've entered one of these mosaic contests, but today some virtual fabric play was just what I felt like.  Rachel from Stitched in Color is running a contest centered around the theme "almost primary" - think blue, red and yellow, with a little something extra.

These are my entries, using fabric swatches from Lark Cottons.

Pretty Primary

For this first mosaic, I was inspired by the centre fabric, and pulled a selection of bright and cheerful fabrics to complement it.

Primary Industry

For my second entry, I wanted to go in a darker, almost slightly grungy direction.

I suggest you hop yourself over to Stitched in Color to check out the other entries and maybe enter yourself.

Caturday Wisdom #132

A cup of tea and a lie down sounds just as good to a cat. Ralph

 

Ralph is happiest when you sit down and stay down. He is unhappiest when you go into a room and shut him out, even if it's necessary because he won't let you sleep or won't stop lying on fabric you are attempting to rotary-cut and you are trying to avoid giving him a haircut.

I have just caught my first cold of the winter so I will be doing plenty of sitting and staying this weekend, particularly as the weather is supposed to be miserable. Ralph WILL be happy.

 

 

 

 

Caturday Wisdom #131

Don't catch birds. Mojo

Mojo is modelling his anti-birdcatching collar, and loving it obviously. The bright colours are supposed to alert birds to Mojo's presence, and according to his owner it seems to be working.

It does not work on rats...