second try

These are the cat fabrics. (The background fabrics did not show up.... But they are similar only fairly solid - in a Ioda marbles kind of way...) In each column I have two sets, arranged dark on top, medium in the middle and light last. I am pretty sure that this is the final arrangement as I like to mix the dots with checks or stripes, etc. Please confirm that these are neutral - not that I am going to change them.... "My quilt, my rules."
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use these? I have about 36 total, some repeats and some different. I bought these at a quilt show - don't know why... Other than because the "hard" work is done. IMHO the fussy cutting, wrapping around the shape and stitching together is the hard part.

I do know that I do not care to add another round to the flower...

Also should I fix the block on the upper left? (2 out of 4 of the hexagons are not facing the center...)

Some ideas for uses that I had are: stitch them together, sandwich, quilt and bind; applique them to a yellow ground; applique them onto a border...

Any other ideas? 

Blogger & Picassa are behaving badly

I have photos, but I apparently can not share them using either site! Wah!

My blog du jour was/is/will be about (I'll post the photos - eventually) the last month of Project Spectrum - Neutral. In my book a neutral is any color that could appear on a cat naturally so I am including some orange...

I am doing buggy barn crazy cats found in this book. Yay, at least by following the last link, you can see the original quilt & I don't have to post my photo of the quilt in the book. The cats need to be made of dark, medium, and light fabrics & I've got those selected - thank you black and cream - you make everything else look medium! Thanks for reminding me about that book - it has been living in my "cat fur fabric" stash. Cat fur fabric = anything that when used will look sort of realistic as a cat. I have a lot, some hand dyed, some Moda marbles, some chopped into already - do you remember the realistic cat appliques on the colored stars that I have been sharing - those kinds of fabric too.

From the photo in the book, you can see that they used plaids... (My fabrics are more "modern" - concentric squares, dots, stripes... most of the 12 fqs are NEW - I am so bad... I did not want to use the "chopped into pieces." This is my first Buggy Barn quilt & I am not sure how much of the FQ is needed, I also did not want to use the fabrics that I want to use for applique, etc. excuses.) You can also see that they made flower blocks. I don't want to make "neutral" flowers, so I am making plain (or maybe Tonya lettered words - like "crazy cats") squares in those spaces. AKA fun places for quilting (like the halloween houses near the bottom of this link) also ala Tonya. You see I love the layout - even though I could just as easily take the 12 cats and make a 3 x4 layout.

I hope that covers all that I tried to post earlier...

After quilting, we must return to life (AKA avoiding homework) Michael & I went house hunting on Saturday & Sunday, we like the first place we saw... So cross your fingers that enough "things" will fall into place...

And that brings me to a couple of responses (not replies) to some blogs out there... Yay for the August fabric depression - $$ goes to house, o.k. condo.

I saw a last mad shopping spree & did not feel so bad for my own shopping cart that started at $76 and dwindled down to near $40 - but is now "gone." - I love internet shopping - hit the "X" and it is all gone. If those kitties are still available when my budget is stronger, then they will be worth the wait.

A look back on dating (Or my how bad my past could have been...)

For those of you who do not know, Michael & I met on line... (I even had other long-term relationships that were also founded online & quite a few 1 date here, 2 dates there situations - some good, some bad, & some indifferent.)

Thakfully this never happened to me. Dating story. But I did have a guy who I had 1 horrible date with try again later - I guess he forgot we already tried once...

I just had to share it!

A MEME

As always, I got this from Deb R - bt she did hers a long time ago... (I just saved it for when I had time to nblog, but nothing to blog about...Ya know what I mean?)

Rather quick & "simple" - it is not so easy to think of just 1 word for some things...

One Word for -
1. Yourself: overwhelmed
2. Your partner: sharp
3. Your hair: red
4. Your Mother: lost
5. Your Father: odd
6. Your Favorite Item: cats
7. Your dream last night: work
8. Your Favorite Drink: mudslide
9. Your Dream Home: owned
10. The Room You Are In: windowed
11. Your pleasure: quilting
12. Your fear: fearless
13. Where you Want to be in Ten Years? vacation
14. Who you hung out with last night: classmates
15. What You're Not: nice
16. Your Best Friends: old
17. One of Your Wish List Items: home
18. Your Gender: woman
19. The Last Thing You Did: email
20. What You Are Wearing: t-shirt
21. Your favorite weather: snowy
22. Your Favorite Book? mystery
23.Last thing you ate? chinese
24. Your Life: adequate
25. Your mood: blah
26. The last person you talked to on the phone: realtor
27. Who are you thinking about right now? Michael

Tag you are it!

Oh Darn!

I just had a nice post going complete with hyper-links, but the computer killed it!

So I will dutifully try again....

Last night I unsewed the pink border.

Piano key was suggested, but I have done that a few times now & am not feeling it again... (Anyone else feel that way? -Not just about piano key borders, maybe about doing the same quilt blocks, or just slapping on a plain border - like I tried to do with the quilt to begin with... etc.)

All of the "good" borders need a light fabric, IMHO.

I think I have "some" of my light left... depending on how much, I may applique a couple of hearts or I may piece a few light stars - to be the opposite of those in the body.

Luckily, I know how I can use the pink that I just took off - my black batik bricks quilt, which happens to still need a border, but will get a plain black border so that fancy quilting will show up nicely.

Quilt show blues... I wish I did not know about the show in Hershey this weekend, then I would not miss not going.

no hyper-links this time... sorry, I just want to get this posted.

A few things

I was going to repost the wedding signatures star quilt with the medium floral batik border that I don't "like" and noone came to her rescue, but alas blogger is not playing nice. (I used picassa this morning.) So I am going to do something that I "never" do. I am going to remove the border and try again. I am a "done is better than perfect" kind of gal. But as Mary pointed out, this is a special quilt. Since I only have dark batik scraps, I am contimplating a lasagne border. You can see one here on Bonnie's blog. Any ideas... Please tell me what you think - any alternate ideas?

And I think I am now finished with the Australia part of this quilter's travel blog. (For about half of a second I thought about making a second blog...) Thanks for putting up with me...

And finally, there is a big-ish quilt show in Hershey, Pa. this weekend, but with $3.20 on average per gallon, I am not going to cajole my husband into going. (If I could hitch a ride, I would go, but I am not driving.)

London Bridges

Not unlike one of the Apostles that I mentioned earlier (that you will read about later if you are starting here...) one of the bridges fell down in June of 1990. Once upon a time ago, you could walk out to the edge... Two people got stranded out there when the middle span gave way....


Here you can see where the missing span was originally located. 

More...

Another grouping....
(I finally learned how to use the timer....)
 

Assorted views...

I unfortunately do not remember the name of this feature (Might be razorback...)
Closer photo
same location form a different vantage point
even closer... 

Loch Ard Gorge

This is Loch Ard Gorge, you can read about it and the rest of the Great Ocean Road by clicking on the hyper link - that is the official site. This is the perspective from the top.
But you can climb don the stairs and venture more closely, even dip your toes in the water...

(The best part - I finally remembered to blog what i want you to see first - last!) 

More photos from Loch Ard Gorge

Another perspective.

 

The last photos from Loch Ard Gorge

Another perspective.
Is this grafiti? People carved messages into the sandstone cliffs. (this show how easily they are eroding away.)
My "grafitti" - I wrote in the sand & the incoming tide washed it away.
This rock that Michael is sitting on was also carved by people wanting to leave their mark. 

More...

I may actually learn that I need to post in opposite order...
The dramatic and imposing limestone cliffs that are the backdrop to the Apostles tower up to 70 metres, while the tallest of the rock stacks is around 45 metres high. (the taller ones are in the next post...)

Twelve Apostles

This ladies and gentlemen is the number 1 reason why I went to Australia for my honeymoon. Get prepared to be amazed!
The photo does not do it justice, those monoliths are several hundred feet tall. natural reosion that is being sculpted as you look at it. (You can't see it - but it is happening. As a matter of fact about 1 year ago, there would have been yet another monolith in the front (where you see the tiny bit on the lower left) it fell all of a sudden, no warning at all. {There are only about 8 apostles left standing. And another tid bit of trivia, they were once referred to as a sow and piglets - but who would travel to see that...}

 

Where in the world are we?

Map showing our tour of the day and our location. (And you can actually read it!) This was our last day in Australia. We had Lamingtons (A Lamington is an Aussie delicacy of songe cake dipped in chocolate and then rolled in coconut - they probably only feed them to the tourists...) and Billy tea this morning near Lorne. We lunched in Apollo Bay and had dinner in Warrnambool - or close to there... All of which was "road food" and not much to write home about, I am just layinging it out to give you an idea of the length of this excursion. 

More from the road

O.K. this is probably only funny for those of us who drive on the right side of the road.


 

Great Ocean Road

Here you can see the road. The small white "square" in the middle is a caravan - camper - winnebago. So you can see how close the road is to the edge of Australia.
Another view of the road. One shot that I missed was of the "old" road. Occasionally the road breaks away... (not what you want to hear in a bus.) and they have eased some of the curves. We passed by a couple of places where you can see the old road bed. We also passed a few places where you could go off of the main road for a hike - but not while on a bus trip... Maybe there is another reason to return...
Some views from the road.
The waves "should" have been more "expressive" since it was late fall/early winter, but the ind was blowing from the wrong direction and in effect pushing them down.