Ginormous Hexagon Update February 1

oh my, oh my... one fine day I will finish this monster !!!!  Actually, this photo is very encouraging, because I can actually see the finished quilt at this point - for the first time.  I figure it will take two more months to fill in the two big gaps that are left. 

Here's Mystic, watching Bonnie Hunter on her Quilt-Cam - he is waiting for a glimpse of Bonnie's kitty!!...

and here's Mystic again, helping his Daddy put together a kitty play toy!!  You can see our kittens other favorite thing, a beat up old cardboard box, in the background.  Doesn't every den need a beat up cardboard box in the decor??

Happy Quilting in the coming month!

Kate

WAAAY OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE

Oh, Hello my dear Blog Friends...

I jumped WAAY outside my comfort zone... 

I have always been what you would call a "private quilter"...
I never held up a quilt in show and tell...........no, never even once...
I never put a quilt up for judging..........
I just quietly made my quilts and stacked them up in the corner or the closet, or gave them away...

And then - on a whim - I submitted a quilt to the ROAD TO CALIFORNIA juried quilt show...

And then I though, oh, my what a joke - oh well.

AND I GOT IN...  so, I thought, well, they must have taken LOTS of quilts..
Probably a whole wall of mini-quilts, like mine...in fact, I figured I would probably have trouble finding it, since there would be so many...

So, Friday, DH and I drove down to Los Angeles to see the Road to California Show... I had never been to it before, being new to California and all..

It's in a fabulous conference center...  here's the view as you enter - great quilts!!

And, here is my name tag - which so nicely got a sun shadow on it to block out my last name, good form on the internet, of course...  But - do you see that ribbon - I am a 'contestant'... good grief, I didn't realize I was competing...  probably everyone has one of these ribbons... I looked around but didn't see so many after all.  

 So, I go into the show, walk down one aisle, turn a corner, and BANG - walk right into MY QUILT... MY QUILT .... MY QUILT...  the little basket one with the purple border.....I started it in a class with Sally Collins last year.   The half square triangles are 3/8 inches finished...  so fun.

OMG, there are only a few minis - there must be a giant wall of them somewhere else - but no, there's the blue ribbon one - oh my, do you mean there are only a dozen  minis - and mine is one?????
And then, the kicker...The "official card"  for my quilt, number 11051... well, there's no being anonymous now, is there????  Can you believe each quilt had a lovely card about it??

There were lots of people gathered around to see the minis ... "oh, no, I wanted to say, don't look - the seams aren't perfect, the quilting isn't perfect, oh no, oh no, it is imperfect"... I just hid away and took the picture.

Did I survive this sudden thrust into quilty notoriety?  All day people stopped me and said 'congratulations' on having a quilt in the show... in the class I took, they clapped... 

oh my goodness, I was so very far outside my comfort zone...

..........................but I guess I must have liked it at least a little bit, because I have already started thinking about what to enter next year!!!!

THANKS TO ALL THE ORGANIZERS AND VOLUNTEERS WHO MAKE THESE QUILT SHOWS POSSIBLE!!

Happy Quilting,
Kate

Kitten Vs. Waterford Lamp

here's the evidence (not the actual photo, not even a Waterford, but you get the idea)

 and here is the face of the culprit!!!

Shiver MeTimbers...  Kitty is in time out !!!!

Kate

Back to normal..............

What a great and fabulous three-day weekend !!!!  So sad to see it end... boohoo.

I worked a lot on infrasture - you know, pre-cutting, putting on some bindings, making a label - all stuff that takes time but does not show up on a 'finishes' blog!!

I did make some major progress on my "Easy Street"  - the color is off in this photo - taken at night, oranges never photograph correctly, but...  I thinkI am going to make it a three by three row quilt, rather than four by four -  more of a wall hanging than a full quilt.. I will sleep on it!!

 Lots of time was spent today watching the inauguration...  As you see here, Gloucester was particularly interested in the car called "The Beast"...  fortunately, the Beast did not try to jump out and get us!

 Kitty antics continued with her trying to put her entire head in my small purse...  which of course ended up with the purse on the floor!!

 As you can see, she is camped out on the never-ending hexagon quilt... so let me get to working on that... finish deadline is May 1...  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can............

Friday I go to Road to California to see my quilt hanging and to take a class with the fabulous Cindy Needham - there will be lots of photos!!!!

Tomorrow it's back to Jury Duty and my regular job after court adjourns... 

Happy Quilting,

Kate

Describe your Favorite Quilty Day

How would you describe your favorite quilty day??

Is your favorite a day when you focus on one project, making massive progress on piecing, or quilting, or even finishing??

Is your favorite a day with quilt activities shared with friends???  Going to a guild meeting, a quilt show, your LQS??? 

Or is your favorite a day when you wear your sweatpants and socks all day, and work a bit on this, a bit on that, jumping from one project to another when the spirit moves you to work with bold colors, or to machine quilt, or to press and cut? 

Well, I had one of those last ones today - a bit of this, a bit of that...  I machine quilted this little 'I Spy" quilt - it's got "boy" things on it, so hopefully will serve the deficit of boy quilts - still needs binding now.  It will be a charity quilt, not sure to whom yet.

Mostly I worked on this scrappy pineapple - with little paper pieced 5 inch squares - oh my I love making these squares...  I just love having only tiny, tiny pieces left over to go into the trash...  and this is just gonna be gorgeous.  Pattern from Bonnie Hunter - "Pineapple Crazy".

 And kittens played all day - they have a routine now - breakfast, then play til noon - romping, fighting, running at breakneck speeds...  then at noon they sleep for five hours, followed by dinner, and more sleep .  Then at the stroke of Eleven PM, they go nuts again - just when we want to sleep!!!!  oh well, I love them too much to be annoyed.    That's my Orca Bay quilt they are playing on - I am still quilting on it!!!One day it will be finished...  lots of ditch work there.

Well, it was a great day - and there is still tonight to make hexagons and attach to the hexagon quilt, which I have set a completion date for -  May .... yippee --  (top only)...  hard to believe the top might be finished!!! 

Well, pardon me for rambling on and on...  Happy MLK and Inauguration Day to you tomorrow!!

Kate

Quilting with a Handicap

I SEEM TO BE HAVING TROUBLE GETTING MY QUILT TO SLIDE AROUND WHILE FREEMOTION QUILTING...

I WONDER WHAT MIGHT BE THE PROBLEM???

Does Supreme Slider make a Slider that is cat-sized????

Mystic is the most loving kitten - just has to be near me no matter what I am doing...  gives me kisses and ear nibbles.  He has a bed beside the sewing machine, but of course being ON the quilt that is being quilted is sooo much better... 

Sewing and sewing on this wonderful Saturday with a vacation day tomorrow!!! 

In five days I go to the fabulous "Road to California" show where I have a quilt hanging!!!  I still can't believe I was accepted into a juried show! 



Kate

Get Ready .................

Oh, Happy Day.... 

I do NOT have Jury Duty today !!!  Yippeeeeeeeeeeee

I do NOT have to work at the University today !!!  Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

And the same is true for tomorrow AND Monday ............woweeeeeeeeeeeeeee

LET THE QUILTING COMMENCE!!

more photos to follow..................

Kate

But, Your Honor!!!!

So - the summons said 'you must appear at the court on January 7......for jury duty...  but I didn't worry - they wouldn't pick MEEEEE

The Judge said .... the following potential jurors are excused................
But she did NOT call my name...........

The Judge said... the trial will run  for FOUR WEEKS....
And I thought..... BUT , YOUR HONOR, I can't finish Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street   !!!

The Judge said...  you must always be on time, and no absences are allowed !!
And I thought but, YOUR HONOR Honor, I have charity quilts to quilt....

The Judge said ... there is a possibility the trial may be extended......
BUT YOUR HONOR, I have to put the binding on my quilts for the quilt show!

So - thank goodness for SATURDAY and SUNDAY - i'm quilting as hard as I can today and tomorrow! 

and - thank goodness the trial doesn't go on FRI, cause I can still go to Road to California to see my quilt in the show!

Maybe I'll have a photo of something tomorrow!

Kate, aka Juror no. 11

My Easy Street Reveal

Hi - Just stopping in with a mid-weekend update on my Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt, "Easy Street"....  I was going to use Bonnie's colors, then decided to switch out Bonnie's lime green for a nice deep orange...  hmmm, purple, orange, turquoise, and gold...  oh my, I thought...

So - today was mostly spent on other projects that do not show much on photo, but I did get one of the alternate "B" blocks completed so I could sew up two of the rows...

OH I LOVE IT LOVE IT !!!!

Still one more day in the weekend...

Tomorrow night I have to call in and see if I have to go to JURY DUTY - yuck yuck!!!

Kate

Oh my, Oh my, Easy Street Progress

Oh my, Oh my...  I have one block of the Bonnie Hunter "Easy Street" mystery finished...

I made bold color choices, and really worried that it would be a) gaudy;  b) lacking definition;  , or worst, that it would turn into color vomit!!!

 Surprise, surprise - I think I like it!!!  Will show more as I get more done...

Meanwhile will close with some cutie kitten photos... Mystic napping in the "parts" to the mystery quilt, at the end of the sewing machine... he always keeps me company when I sew; 

 and Gloucester, who just looked so incredibly naked and exposed in her sleep-time pose that we just had to cover up her private parts with a dish towel...  isn't this just the weirdest pose for her to sleep in????  oh to sleep that soundly.

Weekend starts tonight - yes, I have declared Friday the FIRST day of the weekend - it's all in the attitude!!

Having great fun quilting,

Kate

A Brand New Year

oh, my...  a brand new year...

Sort of like a new bolt of fabric, all smooth to the touch...

or a new cutter blade, that slides through the cloth so beautifully...

I am so very much looking forward to this year...  with 4-5 years to retirement from my "day job", I am really working to prepare to do more teaching and lecturing around quilts - seems like a great way to enjoy some of my retirement time, doesn't it????

So - let's see ...

THIS YEAR I WILL FINISH THE TOP OF THIS HEXAGON QUILT.......I just know i will.  Or, at least, I think I will.  As you can see, there's one substantial corner left to go...  ugh...........  I figure it will take three or four months...  and then I have to add a bit around the sides and top and bottom to allow some breathing space and space for binding...  

I WILL ALSO FINISH THIS QUILT... This is "Pineapple Crazy"  from Bonnie Hunter's latest book, and I just love these little five inch pineapples, which are paper pieced.  I just started it, have done around 20 of the 220 needed - so, not to many left at all - - haha...

And so - since I have these two ENORMOUS projects underway, I spent yesterday and today focusing on these projects  doing SOMETHING ELSE ALTOGETHER!  good grief I have no discipline at all...

I simultaneously am working today on two mysteries.... first, the New Year's Day Mystery by Kris Driessen of the Quiltbug Shop in Esperance, NY...  in these fabulous Crayola colors:

 and then, of course, the ongoing Bonnie Hunter mystery, Easy Street, which is looking like this.  (goodness I hope I don't get those two mysteries confused, they would make one ugly quilt, wouldn't they??)  I can't tell yet if I like the colors I chose for Easy Street, will need to get more of it put together.  Am wishing I did not choose a white white - perhaps a little tea dye when it is done???  Can't tell yet. 

I wish all of you the Very Most Happy New Year.... and many successes in all your endeavors...

Kate