Citrus Triangles

A sneak peek...

....at some pretty

I just finished piecing the second and final baby quilt made with the blocks from block-a-palooza.  I'd show it to you, but I folded it and its batting and put it in the car to keep it away from the cat army.  I did this before I took a picture so no picture until it is finished tomorrow.  I'd bring it in to take a picture, but that is just what the cat army would want me to do.

To make up for the lack of a picture on the finished product, here are the fabrics I'm planning to use in my next project - a half square triangle quilt.  I'm using three colors from Patricia Bravo's Nature Elements line, which is a fabric line I'm a little obsessed with at the moment.  I find myself going on-line several times a day so I can touch her fabrics on the screen with a mangled claw while whispering, "precious, my precious."  I own several  most colors already and am thinking of buying a few more.  The quilt will be three of her citrus colors with two Kona solid greens and, of course, Kona White for the other half of the HST.  I'm debating whether I should add a Kona orange to the mix - I'm thinking School Bus or Tangerine, but I don't know.  I don't want it to become too orange and I don't want to detract from the Nature Elements fabrics either.  Plus as much as a like the Kona solids, they don't glow like my precious here does.  Any thoughts?

What I did on national quilting day

I made a festive banner...

and hung it in my friend's office at work....

...but not before slicing a bit of my finger off with a rotary cutter.  

I've never doubted that rotary cutters are sharp.  However, I have wondered from time to time how people manage to cut themselves with rotary cutters.  It seems simple, keep your hand on the ruler to stabilize it and cut away from yourself.  I mean, really, its a simple concept - it isn't like the fabric is a moving target.  So, here I am merrily cutting triangles for the banner when I hang a finger over the edge of the ruler and slice a chunk of my finger off. I ran to the sink to wash the cut off and soon realized that I couldn't get it to stop bleeding and I live alone and this is how I'm going to die.  I called my friend at home who didn't answer, called another friend at home who didn't answer, then called the first friend on her mobile who picked up.  I blurted out that I had cut off part of my finger and made it very clear that I am not the person to call in an emergency because I was clearly freaking out about the blood (the cats slept through this because it was not the kind of emergency that involved their food dish).  The friend with the mobile was shopping at the time but told me that she would be at my place as soon as possible and in the meantime called her husband who came over and patched me up.  They also brought ginger flavored vodka because I clearly needed a blood thinner at that point.  At any rate, the finger was saved and I can go another night without the cats eating my face. (And ginger vodka = yum.)

The banner was hung today at work as part of a surprise party celebration for a friend of mine.  I also made brownies with peppermint patties in them and red velvet cupcakes - all while wearing a rubber glove on my hand.  I wanted to sew the triangles right side together and then fold them out before sewing them together in a line. However, the excitement of bleeding out on my kitchen floor prevented that from happening and I just sewed the triangles with wrong sides together so there will be a pattern from whichever way you view it.  I'm happy with the results and this little accident may have prevented me from doing way too much work.

The Stimpy Quilt - completed

The Stimpy Quilt with its pretty, pretty binding.  

A pretty corner, which is on its way to Wisconsin.  

I finished up my brother's quilt last night for Friday Night Sew-In.   I'm so happy with how it turned out and will be sending this off to him soon.  Today I'll be doing some more sewing for National Quilting Day and then tomorrow it is off to finish up a baby quilt at Bayside.  I initially said that I would quilt the baby quilt on my machine, but there was time on the long-army this weekend and I could not pass up the opportunity.

Now that the cat has left, I can show the back.  

Off to eat breakfast and figure out if I should go for a walk.  It is really pretty out right now and I think I should take advantage of it.  And, the cat is back on the quilt so I won't be washing it or boxing it up anytime soon.

Baby quilt

Block-a-palooza baby quilt

I actually finished this yesterday.  The cat army was most impressed and helped by getting muddy footprints on it (which will definitely wash out before I send this out).  I don't have batting or appropriate thread here, so this will wait until the work week to be quilted.  No need to drive into town today when I can get supplies at my lunch hour.  The quilt is about 32 by 36 - its laid out over the backing in the picture so it looks a little bigger than it actually is.  It is bright, I hope it goes to a person who appreciates bright colors and not someone who will react in horror at bright colors.  I like it - I think it looks happy.

March is National Craft Month

Block 9 - my new camera really brings out the stains in my cutting mat.  Also, the second in a series of cat butts. 

More fabric?  I'd better take a bath. 

To celebrate National Craft Month, I've decided that it is about darned time that I do some crafting.  I'm still way behind on the block-a-palooza, but I'm going to do something with what I've done so far.  Cherry House with Cherry House Quilts put out a call for help on behalf of the Baltimore Headstart program.  They need baby quilts and lots of them.  I think these blocks would look lovely and bright in baby quilts so I'm going to try to make one or two of them.  I'm also going to try "gasp" quilting the baby quilts on my home machine.  That shouldn't be too hard because they will be small and I have a walking foot, but it will be a new challenge for me and I feel like I'm up for it.