Vote for my quilt and Stumpy!

We were given permission to blow our own trumpets so toot toot toot!
Pets on quilts is a wonderful display of all the things I love best. There are so many themed quilts and cute pets. I was amazed.
It is time to vote for favourites this week. Just letting you know. My pet themed quilt is #56 and my cat on a quilt is #59

The quilt.
My original blog post in March.

Stumpy on the quilt.
More photos on Flickr.

Head on over to Lily Pad Quilting to vote.


Happy Quilting,
Val

Pets on Quilts

I have enjoyed looking at all the animal quilts and wonderful pets and when I realised there was still time to enter I just had to include Stumpy and my catnip quilt.

Stumpy doesn't care what is on the quilt. He just likes to be included in every step of the process. I think he likes it when I am sewing because I stay in the one place for long periods of time.

Here is a reminder of my finished quilt.

And a couple of Stumpy helping.

An early inspection.

Is it finished yet?

Not quite enough cat fur on it yet.

Original post

Flickr set

I am linking up with Pets on Quilts 2013 at Lily Pad Quilting.
Entries close Sat 17th
Voting starts next week. Sunday Aug 18.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Comment on Facebook if you are not on Google +
or email me at valspierssews@gmail.com
or comment on a photo on flickr.

Finished the Catnip Quilt

Just some photos of my cat quilt. I am so happy with how it looks.

I finished the bag.

I finished the quilt.

The back.

Ready to give.

I just wrote the label so it is not really picture worthy. It says the quilt is 90% cotton and 10% cat fur. Stumpy was there for the final stitches.

This quilt is for my daughter. I am going to give it to her when she visits for our family day on Good Friday.

Linking up to 

Link a finish Friday 

and 

Finish it up Friday

Happy Quilting,
Val

Getting Things Done

The cat quilt has been coming together nicely but it has now come to a screaming halt since I need more wadding and I have spent all my pocket money on other stuff.

I spray basted the 1st border strips to the wadding. I was supposed to do it in one wide piece but I forgot and cut strips.

The I sewed across all the strips in one inch lines.

Then cut them apart and stitched two together to fit down one side. Measured it up and sewed them all on. I pressed the seams open as I went.

Next it was the second border. I spray basted on two strips then quilted in a cross hatch pattern across both strips at once. I cut them apart and sewed them on. Then did the same with the other two strips.

Two borders done. Now I need to do the wide writing fabric border but I need more wadding.

The next wider border will make it fit a king size bed.

I drew up a design for my February mini quilt block. You can see it in my Mini Quilt Diary.
I have also finished the teapot block in my felt applique quilt. You can see my progress in my Summertime Quilt Diary. Not a lot of progress with Nanna's Farm but I have cut out some flowers for rows 3 and 5. I am keeping a progress diary for that too. There are also links to my three Quilt Diary blogs in my left side bar.

Happy Quilting,
Val

WIP: Cat Quilt

Such a flurry of activity since last Wednesday. I did a bit more on Nanna's Farm but great progress was made on the cat quilt. I now have some of the rows sewn together and when I make a note of what has been doe so far I feel like it is under control.

Bug Fabric had a great sale last week so I bought some cute cat fabric for the backing and cat words fabric for the 1st and 3rd borders. I probably should have bought another yard of the backing fabric but I so wanted the bird fabrics and I had to get a yard of each. Seven yards is the limit in the post pack before the postage jumps and I couldn't afford to add another seven yards. It worked out at about $7.55 per metre (since we talk in metres) even with postage. The bird fabrics are Nature's Walk Journal and Nature's Walk Birds by Clothworks. I will post pictures when I make something with them.

So far I have sewn two of the sides of 4 1/4 inch squares for the 2nd border and have the other two piles ready to sew. Ages ago I pieced the binding and ran it through my Simplicity binding and bias machine to fold it.

I have been doing quilt as you go by putting wadding on every block and quilting around the applique. It is quite easy to sew the blocks together and press the seam open. I will do the borders in strips with wadding and quilt them before sewing them on. I will then spray baste the backing on in one piece and stitch in the ditch down and across the blocks to hold the backing on place. The quilting is not as glamorous as long arm quilting but I like to do it myself.

I was looking at Pinterest and found a lovely Christmas quilt that comes in a book. With practiced ease I clicked over to The Book Depository UK and bought the book with Paypal. I didn't even have to move. I so love internet buying. I paid $15.39 and free postage.It's called Welcome to the North Pole. The picture will take you to their site.

I was wondering if anyone else had this design and would like to work on it during 2013. It is now my latest WIP . The pages are nearly all stuck together with drool. Not really. I like to keep my books like new. But I just love all the little houses.

This week I am linking up with:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

and Applique Thursday at A Quilting Reader's Garden

Cat Quilt

I have been neglecting the cat quilt a bit while I played with the pieced birds but I managed to do some more today. I have also just rediscovered a bird applique book that I used years ago and will now make an applique wren instead of the tiny fiddly pieced wren. I think I have practiced that skill enough for a while :)
The cat quilt is now piled in row piles against the wall so I can use my gym again. I have been working hard with the weights and some intense walking. 4 weeks I have been exercising hard and have put on 1 kg. Ah well, at least I must be fitter.
I have been playing with another tote bag too. It has side gussets and the seems face out and are bound. It is so fiddly to get the binding on. I think having a plastic pocket on the outside makes the handling more difficult than usual. The second gusset is just taunting me now.
The picture shows the cat head, noses and ears just after I ironed them on. Now I have nearly finished all the stitching, wadding and quilting of the cat blocks. The quilt is for my daughter and she didn't like the parrots and mice blocks so I will be putting in some owls and possums instead but they will have to wait til I have some more pocket money for the applique paper next month.

Happy quilting,
Val