July Surprises

July has brought many surprises,

like this wonderful "Vintage Chic"

Fat Quarter Shop Sew Sampler Box

and ...

 ... this little shadow ...

Now who can this be? 

As you know,

My Butterfly

crossed the rainbow bridge in March.

Not a day goes by I do not think of her.

We have all have been very sad.

Although I will always miss her,

it was time to find a new kitty to love.

So my hubby and I went to the 

Salem Animal Rescue League

in nearby Salem, NH,

where there were many pretty kitties to play with ... 

and this little cutie,

just three months old,

who conducted her way right into my hubby's arms

and our hearts.

We could not leave without this baby kitty.

Meet The Maestro!

Maestro is dressed to the nines in a black tuxedo and white cravat.

Maestro settled in right away in her new home

and is very busy 

learning to be a quilty kitty.

Maestro is a natural when it comes to 

inspection and testing.

How does The Katniss feel about her new buddy?

Katniss is very purry and happy and playful again.

Maestro is very cuddly and her

favorite place to sleep is curled up against my arm

in the same spot that Butterfly always slept for so many years.

It is a little uncanny how many expressions, mannerisms, habits and haunts
that were always Butterfly's own
that Maestro has adopted.

I know Butterfly is smiling.

So am I.

:-) 

Fiction and Fun and the Summer of '61

Back in March I joined a reading group

Fiction and Fun

organized by

Bernie @ Needle & Foot

Above is the book and the wonderful fabric goodies that I received from

Melody in NY. 

I love  Literary by  Heather Givans Fabrics

as you may know from my previous post,

so these fabrics were a great addition to my stash,

especially the book print on the top as I did not have any of this pretty. 

I was in Washington visiting my daughter when 

the book was received by my guys here in Massachusetts

so I got a late start on reading the book.

It was a fun and easy read.

When it was time to pass on the book to the next person in the book group,

I found that the book was only going as far as Connecticut to

Nancy @ Flew the Coop Designs

so Nancy and I decided to add to the fun ...

... by meeting up at the 

Greater Hartford Quilt Guild Show

where Nancy was a vendor.

While I was there I could not resist this cute pattern from Nancy's shop.

Nancy made the fabric bag to give to customers at her booth.

How cute is that!

Here is a close up of ...

... the fabric goodies I gave to Nancy,

I also added some cute buttons.

The gifts are chosen to relate to the story.

You will have to read the book to see why.

The only hint I will give is that 

the main characters in book are 9 years old in 1961.,

which is the summer I turned 9 myself.

Parts of this book really brought me back to those days.

It was a very enjoyable summer read.

Thanks, Bernie, for including me in this Fiction and Fabric Fun!

:-) 

Back to Sew

I am going Literary for the

Magnolia Mystery @ Meadow Mist Designs

Fabric Requirements and Tips Here

My fabrics are from my treasured stash of

Heather Givans Fabrics

of which I am

Literary (ly) Paper Obsessed. 

For the background I am going dark.

This is a leap in faith for me.

I am making it a free fall by adding the large border print fabric 

on the right into the challenge.

I will have to figure out how this story ends as I go along.

I have been taking a hiatus from blogging and from sewing for the last month.

I had a fun trip to the Pacific Northwest to visit my daughter and grand-darling

while my son in law was in the field and when I got back I did not even open my computer

except to check email for the past two weeks.

I have mostly been gardening, reading, and enjoying summer.

I did hand stitch a couple of Patchwork of the Cross blocks.

I will post about that later.

Hope all is well with my quilty blogging friends.

Til next time ... piece out .... :-)  Pat