Friend Looking for 2002 Fabric (5-6 yards)

Hi there! A dear friend of mine is looking for 5-6 yards of this Andover fabric:

AFAM (American Folk Art Museum) P0260 Pattern 1294 Color Brown from 2002:

Andover offered a free pattern using this fabric called Savery Friendship Star (I don't believe it is in the Archives any more but sounds pretty, doesn't it!). That is what she would like to make with the yardage, preferably in the brown as shown but apparently it comes in red also.

Hope everybody had a great Quilty Day!

Apron and Graphic Design Activity

I really enjoyed making this All Day Apron from Indygo Junction last week-end out of this cute Hoedown fabric:

I have been Graphic Art-ing away as well, having designed this flyer for Marcie. She will be in Booth 2358 at Houston and has been so busy preparing all kinds of goodies for her booth, so be sure to visit if you are Houston-bound. In the meantime, if you need any graphic design, I'm your gal!

Cats at Work and Last Les Fleurs Show and Tell

Jack and Rembrandt continue to monitor Stray Cat:

Stray Cat's extreme eyes make me think of that Night on Bald Mountain creature in Fantasia:

Don't even think about it, Rembrandt:

Devil Cat.

Ar, going right for the skull.

I had to move the chair.

update on the Bernina 930: The Bernina-Fixer made a house call; he worked on the 930 for 2-1/2 hours and I got to watch the whole time. The Bernina never had to leave the house. It was all very interesting. He said that the machine has been used very little over the years but was kept serviced, so it's in dandy shape. He was not able to loosen the handwheel, however. He said at first, it's probably the bearing (uh oh, thought I), but then said, no, it isn't that, it would be making a noise in that case. Otherwise, it is running so beautifully and I am just thrilled.

Last Les Fleurs Show and Tell:

My long-time email friend Betty's son, Reid, has Hodgkin's. He is in between treatments just now and is in a lot of pain; his cat Ashely, is keeping him company. If you would like to leave a comment on Betty's blog, I know she would appreciate your good thoughts.

Happy Happy

There has been some happiness around here lately :-). First I finally managed to get, after years of faithful eBay watching, a Bernina 930. My first Bernina! Not only is it working okay (after some cleaning and oiling of the parts I understand), but it has turned out to be the kind that has the precious and elusive needle-down feature! Of course I can take it in for servicing, but if anybody can tell me how to clean/oil the area you see when you take the top off, do please email me. The handwheel is too hard to turn and I would like to see if cleaning that area helps at all. I don't want to fiddle too much for fear of harming that precious needle-down feature. But the handwheel is far too tight:

Next happy thing happened yesterday as I browsed through the latest Quilt Sampler. Oh! Ye Olde Schoolhouse is featured. They have bought my patterns!

I peered at the pictures hoping to catch a glimpse of one of my patterns. And here it is! Homestead Toile along with a shop sample they made up:

See how I cleverly have directed your eye to my little pattern lol?

A Start and a Finish All in One

Despite Rembrandt's shockingly bad behavior amongst my perfectly-aligned fabric strips...

...I was able to use part of a most generous gift from friend and fellow quilter Mary Jo (no blog) of a bit of each fabric (!!) in Jo Morton's new Spice Chest line...

...to make the Black and Beyond quilt from Evelyn Sloppy's "40 Fabulous..." book:

I also used the Jo Attic Shirtings that I won not too long ago in Kathie's giveaway. The star centers is one of Andover's Vegetable Dyes, for which I feel a recurring urge to write Andover a Fan Letter to thank them for bringing out one of my all-time favorite fabric designs ever. Thank you, Mary Jo and Kathie (not to mention Andover and Jo Morton!)!!

Oops, the very last block got turned sideways. I fixed it :-).

Les Fleurs: a lot of it together

Another picture of Little Miss Stray, who so far won't let me pet her (or carry her off to the vet); isn't she adorable? Incredibly slanty eyes and really big ears. The poor thing has a limp, although it was worse several weeks ago, so maybe it will get a bit better:

And of course Miss Kissy-Toes needs no introduction:

Thanks to multi-tasking during Day Job Duty, I finished the last regular Les Fleurs block (I moved the parts around, added a vase, and deleted a few fronds):

Then, filled with (as I told a friend earlier this morning) steely determination, I did the next six lengths of sashing (having resorted to machine applique in complete desperation since I have so much else I should be doing) necessary to allow assembly of the regular blocks:

I can't believe this thing is pretty much together. The very wide piece of applique that goes across the bottom has yet to be made. Now it's off to other Quilting Activities. What a Les Fleurs Relief!

The Little Applique Bag

Day Job has switched to a different school, elementary level rather than high school, which means I have duty three times a day outside of the media center. Now you know a quilter cannot just stand around when she could multi-task, so I am wearing this bag I just made and put in a few stitches on the fly during the first morning duty time when I am greeting students in the corridor :-).

All I need are the scissors, ripper, toothpick, thread, needle, and a few tiny pins.

Love the Cat

Tell you what, this is one Darn Good Cat :-) :

Meanwhile, four cat ears watch the pigeons (and why I ask you, do we suddenly have pigeons? what happened to our crows?):

Good Wives, Marion OH

Ah, my Silhouette No.1 pattern is on the wall at the charming Good Wives shop in Marion Ohio. Follow the link to see the other photos of their shop, oh die for Primitives!

Show and Tell - Repro Divas

While I was working on this blog post before Day Job, Rembrandt was first pulling pins out of a few bits of fabric on the table. I shrieked and grabbed those away from her, checking for pins in the mouth, then she started pushing the papers off the table, which is why the papers are now secured under the milk pail. And she never once blinked :-).

Show and Tell from Evening Repro Divas (we were supposed to make table runners and several of us actually did). The Day Group showed so many wonderful things I may borrow our noble leader's photos for the next post: