Good Day for me, not so much for Goldie

I was finally able to get into my sewing room today! I didn't do that much sewing, but I was able to organize a bit. I also got Hawaiian Hug basted, finally!

Poor Goldie was spayed today. Last week she started giving the signs to male cats that she was "available." It got so bad on Thanksgiving Day that Parker was really freaked out. He came to me in a panic, "Mom, there is something really wrong with Goldie!" Thank goodness he has been studying life cycles of plants and animals at school because "mating" was a term he was familiar with. We explained that Goldie was ready to mate and were able to leave it at that. I didn't expect to have to do this until January, based on the age information we got from the woman who gave us Goldie. Either the woman was a little off in her birthday calculations, or Goldie matured a little faster than most cats. We picked her up a little while ago and she has hunkered down in safe place.

Poor baby! I know it hurts. I paid extra so she could have the post-surgery pain medication. They said it would last for at least 36 hours. I know she appreciates it.

I have made a little progress on this recently.

I have some beads and cording set aside for embellishments. I also got some white buttons, but I don't think they will work for this. They are "too new." Maybe I will be able to find some old white buttons that will work. If not, I'll just use something else!

Ski Season has begun

We had a nice Thanksgiving. I hope you did too. I cooked all day Wednesday and Thursday. I enjoy cooking and it is fun to do a big meal every once in a while. Bright and early Friday morning my husband left for two days of skiing. He got back late Saturday night and slept all day Sunday. I tell you this so that you know why I haven't gotten very much done over the Thanksgiving holiday. I sure was glad things were back to normal today. However, I didn't get any sewing done today either because of all the errands, grocery shopping and dinner making.

On Friday, in little spurts, I was able to make a few gift bags. Parker had a friend over for the afternoon. They played very nicely and left me alone for the most part. I made these two birthday bags as a gift for a friend.

Then I made a few Christmas gift bags. I made two each of these.

Once I get on a roll with these they are very fast to make. You can go to my pattern/tutorial for the bags I make by clicking here.

Raffle Quilt Leftovers

I served on my guild's raffle quilt committee recently. I do not have a picture of the actual raffle quilt yet. We won't start selling tickets on it until next year. However, we grossly overestimated how many half-square triangle units we would need for the quilt and had a lot left over. So one of our members, Peg Collins, made this little quilt.

 Front

Back

It is a generous crib size quilt. We plan to raffle it off among guild members. I sewed the binding and label on which is why I currently have the quilt.

More Satin Edge Blankies

I finished up the last two satin edge blankies (aka boppies) yesterday afternoon.

Click the link to read my first post about boppies. These will be mailed to Jean at the Quilted Cupcake for her Project Night Night quilt challenge. The links will take you to Jean's blog and her Project Night Night pages, respectively.

I was going to direct you to the tutorial I published about how I do the satin edge binding on these. However, I took a bunch of pictures for a tutorial, but apparently never wrote the tutorial! Maybe I will be able to get that done over the Thanksgiving holiday, but don't count on it. Unlike some folks who have extra time to sew during holiday breaks, I have less time.

Now for a few Goldie pictures. I got out a flat rate box to see if I could get all of the boppies I made into one before assembling it. Goldie was "helping" me.

Pillowcases

Yesterday I made a few pillowcases that I plan to give as Christmas gifts. Parker really likes Garfield so these will be for him.

Another special child is a Peanuts fan. These will be for him.

They need to be washed but I finished these too late in the afternoon to do that yesterday. Parker would have been home from school before I could get them washed and dried. It's on my list for today.

Another set of gifts can be checked off my "to-make" list! Yippee!

Hawaiian Hug Backing

I got some unexpected time to sew yesterday afternoon. My big guy went skiing so I was planning to have to entertain the little guy all day. Then the little guy got invited to go play at a friend's house for the afternoon. So I did this.

I was trying to use up the whole jelly roll of batiks and I was successful, except for about four 6.5" rectangles. Those just went into the scrap bag so the jelly roll is gone!

I need to get batting for this today. I hope to be able to get it basted together tomorrow so I will be ready to quilt on it if I get any time over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Next Art Group Project

My art group has completed most of the projects we wanted to do in the current book we are working through. We've been doing a lot of wonky piecing recently. So continuing in that theme, I suggested we do some wonky stars next month.

Since I suggested it, I have to figure out how to make them to be able to teach the rest of the group. Above are pictured my first two tries. The turned out pretty good. I'd probably like them better in different fabrics. However, I made these practice stars using the same scraps as I used for my first wonky piecing practice blocks. I am planning to continue practicing using these scraps. I am making all 9" and 4.5" finished size blocks so that they will easily go together when I get enough. I'm also planning to wonkify (I know it's not a real word but I hope you know what I mean) a few other star blocks.

Have you ever purchased any fabric from Connecting Threads? I get their catalog but I haven't purchased any fabric from them in many years. Mainly because they don't carry the style of fabric that I prefer. However, last week I purchased a magnetic pin holder from them and decided to get some other stuff too. You know you get free shipping if you spend $50. It would have been cheaper to just pay the shipping on the one thing I needed, but I'm glad I allowed myself to splurge. Look what I got!

In the picture you can see the pin holder in the top left of the photo. I got myself the green one. It works quite well. I am getting tired of moving my pin holders around my sewing room. And the new kitten, Goldie, loves to pull pins out of pin cushions and drop them on the floor to chase. I am just so tired of trying to keep one step ahead of her that I thought I'd give this a try. You put it on you shirt so your pins are always with you. The only problem I have had so far is remembering that it is there since I'm so used to using my other pin cushions!

The fabric is from their Quilter's Candy Basics line. I got the Bright Palette, no big surprise there. The Fresh Palette and Garden Palette also caught my eye. I was pleasantly surprised by the fabric quality. I was worried it would be really low quality because it doesn't cost very much. I wouldn't classify it as "quilt shop quality" but it is probably comparable to good quality JoAnn's fabric. I also bought one spool of their Essential cotton 50 wt. thread just to give it a try. I got the Fushia color. I am really trying to move toward using Aurifil thread as much as I can because it is such nice thread. But I have never tried this thread and it goes so nicely with the fabric. After I have used it, I'll let you know what I think.