Letting the Cats Out of the Bag

I need to make cats and the cats need to make tracks. 

Between the thunderstorms today, I have been playing catch-up with some blocks

I need to make and mail.

These are for bunch of sweet birthday gals in my 

Me and My Kitty Swap group on FB.

I cut and bagged all the pieces last month.

Yet I am late to the June birthday parties.

So I am letting the cats out of the bag and sewing, sewing, sewing.

Assembly line kitties.

I am following my 

Katitude Block Tutorial Here

Hopefully I will have these kitties on the way to their new homes tomorrow.

At least I will be early with the July birthdays.

And if I get all of them sewn, I will be ready for the August 

and September ones, too.

Back to sewing before the thunder and lightning descend again

or I fall asleep counting kitties jumping over the sewing machine.

Tomorrow is forecast to be hot and sunny again.

Have happy quilty dreams tonight! 

Blue Magnitude

Scrappy Blue Magnitude Star Block

It is Scrap Happy Saturday,

which I have been missing the last few weeks

due to other happenings.

Today I dug out my blue scraps between the thunderstorms

and sewed a block for blue month.

I started this quilt with a red block Here

The pattern is

Magnitudes @ Canuck Quilters Designs

I love star quilts and I love making these blocks.

Linking up today with the

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ So Scrappy

I love looking at all the beautiful scrappy inspiration in these links.

Have a Happy Scrappy Saturday Night! 

Long-Armed and Ready to Load

My quilty kitties and I have had a good quilty day.

The backing is pieced.

Top and Backing are pressed.



 My Pineapple Rain Quilt

is ready to be loaded for quilting tomorrow.

It has been a very warm day here.

Summer has found the northeast.

I hope the window fans cool down the house tonight.

Time for bed, Kitties.

Sweet quilty dreams, everyone!

My Quilt Dance In the Pineapple Rain

Here is my Pineapple Rain Quilt Top! 

I designed my own modern version of the Pineapple Day quilt.

This top is featured today on 

The Jolly Jabber

Pineapple Day Quilt Along @ Fat Quarter Shop

This is my Pinkerville Pineapple Day Quilt

I was piecing pineapple paper blocks with the rain falling outside my sewing corner window

when suddenly the sunlight streamed in my window.

After three days of rain, the bright rays felt like a blessing.

So I went out to snap this photo from my back porch on my small urban hill in New England.

I call this a Pineapple Rain type of day.

Five minutes later it was deluging again.

This photo was the inspiration for my own layout of the Pineapple Day Quilt. 

I designed and sewed this quilt for the ... 

Here is the layout and

Free Pattern PDF download and Free Video Tutorial

for the quilt as designed.

To make my quilt I sewed

Four 12.5" pineapple papers blocks

and

Twelve 6.5" pineapple papers blocks

To piece my blocks I used these easy sew-by-number 

Pineapple Papers @ Fat Quarter Shop

Then I set my small blocks on point to represent the falling rain. 

Twelve 6.5" blocks on point 

My Tutorial for How I set these block On-Point Here

After trimming and squaring, these on-point blocks now measure 9.5" square.

To sew them into my quilt top I needed then to be the same size as my Pineapple Sun Block.

Sew I added 2" strips to the top and bottom on these elongated blocks.

I sewed them together as shown, adding 2" strips to either side of my on-point blocks

and four 12.5" squares of background fabric for the

negative spaces in my modern quilt layout.

I added 4.5" strips of outer border fabrics as shown

to represent the sky and earth. 

The day I took my quilt top outside for photos was a gray day with impending rain.

It has been a very rainy and cool spring in the northeast.

Suddenly it has become summer and I am spending a lot of my time outside

catching up on garden work.

I hope you like my quilt top.

I hope to have it quilted soon. 

Have a happy Pineapple Summer! 

I Like Thursday Post # 17 ~ Summer Is Here

Summer has burst into bloom in my quilty corner.

We have been doing a lot of yard work.

I put summer flowers in my new window boxes and moved my pansy boxes

to cooler shadier places.

You can see them peeking out around my birdbath in this photo

of the new garden gate we are putting up across the end of our driveway. 

I bought the gate and trellis units online and there was one small issue.

The center fleur-de-lis was a little bit bent.

When I called the company to ask what could be done about this, 

they said they did not have replacement parts 

and really did not want the whole thing back

so they gave me a big discount for keeping this one.

My hubby was able to fix it as you can see in the larger photo.

I have always wanted a garden gate.   

Now I have one.

I am picturing a climbing rose on one side and some english ivy growing up the other.

More photos later.  

Still more planting to do and, of course, the never ending

weeding, watering, mowing and trimming.

We are spending a lot more time in our screenhouse

and enjoying the yard during our work breaks.

The perennials in the front are starting to bloom, too.

The lavender and  coreopsis have taken over this front section,

but I love the way they spread and bloom all summer.

They are also hardy and survive the road salt of winter.

My poppies are still blooming and my cone flowers have buds.

Things are looking bright and colorful inside, too.

The quilting is finally done on my

  Blueberry Park Fat 8th Fruitcake Quilt

It measures about 68" by 78."

I am pretty happy with how my attempts at hand guided free form quilting is looking.

So my second quilt is off my longarm.

That means I am now averaging one quilt per month.
That is two more than I likely would have completed
without the long arm. 

It was very hot in my sunny room when I finished this quilting 

so I went outside to do the evening watering ... 

and then relax on my yard swing and watch the last light of the day slowly depart.

The I went back inside where I am getting my next quilt ready for the frame.

It will be my 

Pinkerville Pineapple Quilt

My full post for this

 Fat Quarter Shop Pineapple Day Quiltalong 

will be up later this morning

and will be included on their blog post.

Quilting this quilt will be my next quilting  adventure.

Today is Thursday so I will be visiting the

I Like Thursday Bloggers @ Not Afraid of Color

and see how their gardens are growing.

Have a Happy Thursday! 

My Quilty Adventures ~ Back To Quilting

Remember this quilt?

You can still see the impressions from the old quilting lines I picked out on the right.

The last time I posted this quilt was  Here  in early June.

In the interim, I have added two more quilt tops to the queue now.

When I started wearing this thing for awhile

I have found that quilting on the long arm is the thing that apparently aggravates 

my wrist pain the most.

I have been trying to figure out how to do all I want to do,

including quilting, and not have to wear the brace.

It has been going well until tonight

after a long evening of long- arming.

I will have to wear the brace tonight again.

Maestro has been supervising, of course.

Maestro says, "Time to call it a night, Mommy."

Tomorrow is another quilting day.

I am pleased with how the free motion hearts and swirls are looking.

This is a learning quilt.

I will love it even though it will not be "perfectly quilted." 

I hope tomorrow to get this one done.

Sweet quilty dreams!

Happy Scrappy Prize Pattern Day!

Here is my Block 1 for my new scrappy quilt!

The pattern is 

Magnitudes @ Canuck Quilters Designs

I love this scrap friendly star pattern.

Joanne @ Canuck Quilter

was one of the sponsors of the

Beothuk Star Quilalong @ mmm!Quilts

and I was a lucky winner.

I sew for fun and not for prizes, but two new patterns to sew is fun, fun, fun.

So I went on a mini shopping spree and picked my two prize patterns

Canuck Quilter Pattern Shop on Etsy

I love the fact I can use small strip scraps in the center of the Magnitudes Star block

and scrap stash for the rest of the block pieces.

I will be working on this quilt while I am sewing other projects.

I love to pick up and sew a scrap block or two as I go along.

My other prize pattern pick was this gorgeous

26 Snowflake Complete Set

This is a foundation pieced pattern and very detailed.

I have seen these beautiful snowflake blocks online and

this pattern has been on my to-do list.

I am sew lucky to now have the pattern.

Since I am very much a seasonal sewist, 

I will not be working on these blocks until the snow flies.

Winter in New England can be long, though, and I have plenty of blue snow fabrics

and a beautiful white tone-on-tone snowflake fabrics for the snowflakes.

So I will have plenty of fabric and time this winter

to work on these blocks.

Thank you to 

Sandra @ mmm! Quilts

and

Joanne @ Canuck Quilter

 for making this a happy day

and a wonderful quiltalong! 

Counting Down to 100 Days

I am taking a break from quilting and getting ready to piece
Block 1 

for the 

#100days100blocks2019 

Event and Pattern Info Here

@ GnomeAngel

This officially starts July 1st but I need to make sure I have everything ready 

and my fabrics will work so I am sewing one block ahead of time.

I like to sew the blocks one a day a intended by the sew along.

If I miss a day, I am okay with it.

I sew for fun and to make a quilt and share with the other quilters. 

Not for prizes

... although prizes are fun , too.

I learned about this sew along on Instagram

from Kimberly @ the Fat Quarter Shop
who are one of the sponsors of this world-wide quilty event.

 I Joined the Party Here in This Post

My fabrics are 

Curio by Betsy Olmsted for Windham Fabrics

and 

Gossamer by Sharon Holland for Art Gallery Fabrics

for the background.

I am also pulling fabrics from my stash as needed to make the blocks.

I am really excited about sewing these fabrics and participating in this quilt along.

Hope to see you sewing along! 

#100days100blocks2019