Productive Day

Last weekend I went to the Quilts On The Grand quilt show in Grand Rapids, MI. While there we (hubby & I) saw a great cutting system and my husband bought it for me for my birthday (a month early!) It's called the Quilt Cut2 system. It has a board that the cutting mat is attached to, it also has a system for holding your fabric in place so that you can cut quickly. It comes with a T-square "bar" that you cut against (you can also set it at different angles), and an adjustable ruler that allows you to make repeated cuts easily and quickly.

Using this system I cut strips from 30 yards of fabric, in about two hours. The strips were for my guild's raffle quilt and they will be cut into smaller pieces to be used for paper piecing the blocks.

In two hours, three freinds from the Log Cabin Quilters of Kalamazoo and I cut all the strips and helped me to prepare the packets of parts for our 2009 raffle quilt, which I am chairing. It's surprising how fast you can get so much done. Once we had the fabric all cut, we lined all the bits up and stuffed the baggies, assembly line fashion. We had great time and it was a lot of fun working with good friends.

I adapted a pattern from Carol Doak's 50 Fabulous Stars book, and we are doing the Michigan star. There will be apple blossoms appliqued in the center of each block and we will have robins quilted in the corners of the outer border. This will truly be a Michigan quilt!

As soon as I have one of the blocks completed I will post it here.

Today's A Sad Day

I'm very sad today because I had to have my cat Bouncer put down. He was fine when we left for a fun weekend on Friday. When we got home last night it was clear he was in great pain and very sick. He had a large swelling on the right side of his face and under his chin and had nasty drainage from his mouth. The vet said that she could not see any problems with his gums and thought that he must have had some kind of tumor that got necrotic and he became septic over the weekend while we were gone.

Bouncer was 4 years old and was a great, loving cat, though a bit on the stupid side. I often jokingly called him my rock, as in dumb as a rock, but I loved him dearly.

I still have one other cat, Peek A Boo, who is 12 years old and very healthy. Of course we thought he was, too. So today I'm cleaning carpets from where his drainage leaked from his mouth and washing all the bedding, since that was his favorite place to lay. It will take a few days, but I know life must go on.

Time for Quilting!

Now that I've finally finished all my current home dec sewing jobs for others, I can get started on some fun things.

I'm chairman for the raffle quilt for the Log Cabin Quilters of Kalamazoo (MI) for our 2009 show, which will be held next October. I've adapted a beautiful Carol Doak pattern from her 50 Fabulous Stars book and we will be making a queen size quilt.

Carol spoke at our meeting in August, and I took her paper piecing class at that time. She has graciously given us permission to use her pattern for our raffle quilt.

I've used the Michigan Star and we will be appliqueing apple blossoms (the state flower) in the center of the blocks. There will be two borders as well, which will leave plenty of space for wonderful quilting to be highlighted. The main portion of the block is paper pieced. As soon as I get one of the blocks completed I will post a picture.

Right now I should be washing the about 30 yards of fabric I bought this week. I'm not looking forward to ironing it all so we can get it cut and put into packets for the members to work on. This is a big project, but I am enjoying getting everything organized and ready for everyone. (My husband says I'm a micro-organizer, so I guess that's why I like this part!)

Besides working on the raffle quilt, I need to get to work on a couple of small quilts that will be donated, with stuffed animals to a women and chidren's abuse center, just before Christmas. This is one of our annual charity drives that the Log Cabin Quilters do each year.

Finally Done!

I've finally finished this job! Figuring out the logistics on how to make the side skirts look like they are sewn to the top, and still make it removable for cleaning was a major chore. However, I finally accomplished it and am very happy with how the arm chair covers look.
Here is the back of the chair.











Here is the front.











The side chairs were actually a piece of cake compared to the arm chairs because I was able to sew the skirt directly to the top. I'm not sure these pictures show the back tabs with buttons that hold the skirt in place.


























I always enjoy working with high quality fabric and this was a beautiful damask fabric that had a wonderful hand.