Do You Remember Creamsicles?

Oh boy, I do!!!  

They were my favorite ice cream when I was a child!!!  Orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream swirled together - pure heaven on a stick!!!!  (I wonder, do they still make those?)

That's what I think of when I play with ORANGE fabrics =^..^=

For March, Scraphappy Saturdays will be filled with lots of bright, bold orange scrap blocks, as well as some mellow peaches, and let's not forget those deep, rich pumpkins! Sounds good enough to eat, right? LOL!!!




I was a little surprised when I pulled out my ORANGE bin to find that I really don't have that many orange scraps.  The drawer holds oranges and yellows, and somewhere along the way they had managed to get all mixed up in there.  I can't imagine how that happened LOL!!!

So before I could even begin to plan my RSC blocks, I had to go through and separate the scraps.  Here they are, all tamed and playing nicely in my scrap work basket - dig that wild orange animal print LOL!!!

As I said, not many there, but I think it will be enough.  The larger scraps are in the basket, while the glass jar holds the crumbs.

There wasn't a lot of time left for sewing today after all that organizing, but I did manage to get the ORANGE Lone Starburst blocks done....

These paper-pieced blocks are so much fun!!!  And I love the quilty words in that gray text stripe :*)

Stash Enhancement Report -

I added these two half yards of Kaffe Fassett oranges to my stash this past week, but they won't be used in the RSC - that's strictly for scraps!  The colors here are a little washed out, but take my word for it, these are YUM!!!

In addition, a group of us made a road trip to Whittles in Kentucky this past Monday.  My plan was to try to find backings for my current and upcoming projects - and I was very successful!!!  I found six pieces for backings at a GREAT price - whoohoo!!!  I don't know about you, but I really hate to spend a lot of money on the back of a quilt.

The first one I picked out was a wonderful aqua fatback for Easy Street so I won't have to piece the backing and it's now ready for quilting.  Then I couldn't believe it when I found this fabric on the clearance shelf  .... can you guess the quilt I will back this with?

Oh yeah, Daddy-O!  Cool Cats!!!!  This was not a fatback, but at only $2.50 a yard I'll be happy to piece the back for that :*)  And could it be any more perfect for the Cool Cats quilt?  No way!!!

Why not hop over to Patchwork Times to see what others are adding to their stashes?

March came in like a lion here in our neck of the woods - Here's hoping it goes out like a lamb, can I get an AMEN?  We even got a little snow this morning although it was all gone very quickly.  It looked really pretty on the trees....

It looks like I'm not the only one wishing Spring would hurry up and get here!

Gypsy looks pretty wistful doesn't she?  She keeps crying to go out, but when I open the door and that cold air blasts her in the face, she shudders and backs up, looking at me as if I've played a nasty joke on her.  Poor girl, I know how she feels!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Getting it Done - February 2013

For February, my Get It Done list looked like this:
1.    Complete Easy Street and have it ready for quilting, including the backing.  DONE!
                                    Go HERE to see the completed quilt!

2.    Complete instructions for Stitchery Keeper and have it ready for sale.

3.    Catch up on all Curve It Up QAL blocks.  Blocks 3-6 DONE!  (see note HERE)

4.    Prepare and stitch next block in The Blue Collection.  DONE!
                                     See progress HERE .....

5.    Complete and assemble the 2012 RSC quilt - Rainbow Pineapples.  DONE!
                                     See the finished quilt top HERE!

All of these goals were completed except #2 - the Stitchery Keeper instructions.   I added a few new elements to it the last time I made a sample - see HERE - like a zippered pocket in place of the former velcro pocket.  So what I have already done will need some more tweaking.

Plus, I am reading a lot on the Web about protecting myself and the potential for getting sued if I put it up for sale and someone has created something similar before me!  .... at this point I'm pretty much too nervous to try to sell this as a pattern!  More research will need to be done on that.  Any wise words from my designer followers would be lovely!!!

During February I also finished up one of my Winter Wonderland stitchery blocks, made lots of yummy PURPLE blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and started Cool Cats, my February NewFO Challenge project.  I have to share the next block with you that I completed yesterday!!!

This is the arched-back cat I talked about HERE with the spiky fabric!  I'm so glad I saved this fabric for this cat!  I almost wish I had cut a few spikes into the back instead of keeping it round like the pattern.  But overall I'm happy with the effect the fabric gives it.  What I wasn't happy with was the way its legs blended too much into the bottom background.  So I put little purple paws on it to give them some definition :*D

Here it is all stitched down and bordered..... =^..^=

I love the happy purple border around it. That little block border will end up at 1/2 inch.   And those eyes!  My goodness, they are WILD!!!  My friend Linda does not like the eyes on these cats at all - she says they follow her around the room LOL!!!  I'll link this little kitty up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday!

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge, TN with some really fun friends!  WhooHoo!!!!  We'll do lots of sewing while we're there, so I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished.

For March, my Get It Done list will look like this:
1.   Finish instructions for the Stitchery Keeper
2.   Finish the next 3 blocks in the Curve It Up QAL
3.   Finish the 4 remaining star blocks for Starry Night (UFO #1)
4.   Quilt and bind Rainbow Pineapples
5.   Prepare for Bonnie Hunter's visit to our Guild the first week in April - whoohoo!!!!

Go to Patchwork Times to see how others are Getting It Done!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

A Cat of a Different Color (but NOT Purple!!!)

Wow!  You all blew me away with your lovely comments about my Rainbow Pineapples!!!  

Thank you SO much :*D  

It feels wonderful to know that you love it as much as I do =^..^=

I also loved all your comments about my first folk art Cool Cat #1 which is my NewFO Challenge project for February =^..^=


I had just about gotten used to him in all his crazy jaggedness...

.... and had decided to keep him as he is, until I read the comment by Quilting Babcia who blogs over at Amity Quilter.  She pointed out that that fabric would also look great on the "arched back" cat in the bottom left of the pattern photo - this cat is the one she meant .....

...... and it clicked - YES!!!  That would be the perfect fabric to make it look like her hair is standing on end!!!  Can't you just see all those spikes on the back of this cat???  I can almost hear her HISS!!!

So of course there was no going back from that epiphany - right?!?  

Back to the drawing board!!!  I chose a new fabric, redrew and cut out new pattern pieces for another #1 cat, fused them to the new fabric, took the spiky fabric off, and fused down the new cat!

I wasn't even sure if I would be able to remove the old fabric and cover it with new.  I was really hoping I wouldn't have to make a whole new background as well!  When I made the new pattern pieces, I drew them just very slightly larger than the original ones in the hopes they would cover any sticky residue, and happily it worked!!!

Here he is all stitched down and adorned with his 1/2-inch border.... it sure would help if I could take a straight picture LOL!!!!  This really is a square - I promise :*D

This kitty may not be quite as hip as the first Cool Cat, but I like him =^..^=  

What do you think?

And since this is the last Scrappy Saturday this month, I spent some time last night playing with the remainder of my PURPLE scraps.  I'm not sure about the name of the the large block - I think maybe it is called a Hatchet Block?

I've seen several quilts lately made with this simple block, and I thought it would perhaps work up well in a rainbow setting and use up a lot of the bigger dark chunks of scraps as well as some of the smaller lights.    Here is one quilt I especially liked....

Made by Susan at The Thread and I blog

As for the half-square triangles (hst), early in my planning for the RSC this year, I had thought about including some hst's using the smaller light & dark scraps to my project list. Here is a quilt I pinned on Pinterest that got me thinking about making some scrappy hst's....

From My Fabric Obsession

And this one too...

From Lyn Brown's Quilting Blog

I eventually decided against making them each month because of the work involved in cutting them all out.  But then I had a happy surprise when I started making the hatchet blocks.... I was delighted when I realized the corners I cut off could be sewn together and trimmed down to make perfect 2-1/2 inch hst's!!!

So each month if I have time and scraps enough, I'm planning to add this block and the resulting hst's to my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  They were mindless sewing which is a nice change after Easy Street LOL!!!  And I really enjoyed playing with matching up the lights and darks.  PLUS, I really made a huge dent in my PURPLE scraps -- Whoohoo!!!  That's what its all about, right?!?  Now I need to go back and make up some out of my pink scraps too :*)

I hope you are all planning to have a FUN and SCRAPPY weekend !!!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Rainbow Pineapples - Finally Fininshed!

Here they are - finally - my Rainbow Pineapples are a quilt top!

I'm so happy with these little sweethearts!  

Each Pineapple is just 3-3/4 inches finished - and the entire quilt top is only 21 inches without binding! 

What do you think of it?  Do you LOVE it as much as I do???

I made this quilt without a pattern after seeing a quilt on Pinterest that I loved.  

It was made by Barbara Polston and is called Birds Fly over the Rainbow.

Mine is entirely paper-pieced.  I even drew up a pattern to paper-piece the flying geese, which I think is MUCH easier than piecing them the normal way :*)  I looked in my stack of quilt magazines and found a paper-pieced pattern for the pineapples and reduced it to the size I wanted.  Then I made two pineapples each month in the color designated by Angela in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  At the end of the year, of course things got very busy, so it has been sitting waiting on me to finish up the flying geese and assemble it all.

Here are some of the block centers that I fussy cut to show off the cute little motifs in the fabrics....

Now I just have to decide how I want to quilt it - I'm thinking some very light stitching in the ditch and a little FMQ in the black border and the corners of the flying geese border.  Any ideas?

So..... since I have now finished up TWO quilt projects so far this year, I decided to play with a new one last night!!!  I started my NewFO Challenge project for February.  It is this pattern...

Folk Art Cats by The Stitchin' Post

I've started with the first cat (the one in the upper left).  All the pieces were prepared....

And the background was pieced.... I was having so much fun playing with this that I forgot to take a picture of the checkerboard bottom, but it was attached to this top with the sky and mountains.

I think this quilt will challenge me a great deal!  I like for things to be "proper" and these cats are anything but "proper"!!!  For instance, this is my first cat fused down....

WOW!!!  Is he wild or WHAT???

To be honest, I'm not sure I like him very much - he doesn't look very furry and cuddly, does he?  More like I would get splinters if I tried to pet him!!!  LOL!!!  But I'm going to wait to pass judgement until after I do the blanket-stitching.  Since this is a folk-art quilt, all the stitching will be done in black - a new technique for me - and I think that will give this crazy cat more definition.  Hopefully I will like him better after he has been glamorized LOL!!!  If not, then maybe I'll have to go back to the drawing board.

I'm thinking I will name this quilt "Cool Cats" because it reminds me of the stylized drawings of the Cool Daddy Cat 60's!

That's it for me.  What are you working on?  

You can see lots of other fun projects at Judy's Patchwork Times!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

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