cat charm quilt

cat charm quilt
Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

Some of the blocks from before the quilt became a quilt. (Do you see the fishies on the orange - clever, huh?)

The baby is fine, the doctor is not worries about the rash. It is only on his tummy which rules out a lot of things like a reaction to the flu shot & food allergies.
I just have to apply cortizone & it should clear up on its own.

Back before blogging & before quilting as a matter of fact, I had an elective lumpectomy. I had found a lump while shaving. It was tested and determined to be "nothing." (According to my cousin, we are "lumpy.") Call is a personality flaw, but I could not live with it. & I knew that id I had "lived with it" that I would have become complacent about any others... So I had it removed - So I am predisposed to be a "take the baby to the doctor" type of mother.
(I am not willing to admit that I am a hypochondriac though.)

Cat charm quilt

Cat charm quilt
Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

I quilted - rather I worked on binding! I made a deal with myself without a reward or punishment attached. The deal is that in the past I have done hand work in bed in the evening without issue, so I should get back to it.

(I have far too many quilts that need the hand part of the binding done to ignore them anymore.)

& that is what I have done. I did a whole side on Friday & one length of thread on Saturday.

On Sunday, we went up to New York for a birthday party, so I did not do any hand work on Sunday. 8 hours in the car was enough...

& that is all that is fit to write from my weekend, once again it was too short & over far too quickly.

Now I am off to have the pediatrician look at a rash on Jacob's tummy. The nurse does not think that it is related to the flu shot that he got on Friday, so we are going in for a look see. It is probably nothing, but I am a first time mom, so I'd rather hear the doctor say that, thankyouverymuch. (Not that any of you were questioning me. - but I have heard giggles & questions about my son's sick visits... Apparently, there are seasoned mom's who just give out infant Tylenol & wait to call the doctor if that is not helpful. I'm not a self-medicator for my son.)

kittens (The fabric kind & the human kind) Advice needed

My kittens all have homes.

If you wanted a kitten & did not hear from me - please let me know I am running on about 1/4 of a tank, but the litter was big enough to accomodate everyone - even if my postage piggy bank is BROKE (If you want to repay the postage that would be lovely, but that was not a stipulation...). the cherry coke zero is starting to infuse some energy, but not enough.

I have mailed a few - please be a dear & let me know when they arrive. the last ones will go out on Saturday.

The calico kitten is doing wonderfully & we will be trying to get him to self feed soon. he can get the teething biscuit to his mouth, hopefully "Puffs" will work too - & then I will not feel like a big dummy when I set diced fruites & veggies trying to entice him to do more that pick them up & drop them on the floor. What first foods did you use?

Another calico kitten question - pampers or huggies - or something else? Yes, Jacob had his first Diaper rash & with our "wicking" cloth diapers, we could not use rash ointment - it would impede with the absorbency (& what exactly is the point of a diaper that is not absorbent)... So we have been using pampers - he came home from the hospital in them & traveled to Oregon in them, so that is what we bought... (We are trying out huggies right now...) I know that is a "personal" question, but I'd love some advice.

Even more loot from the longarmer

The last of 3 quilts & YES! I made it three weeks for posting. (I thought for sure that they would all be posted on the same day - I am kind of proud of myself for waiting.)

Surf & sand - a very matchy-matchy quilt. I used an Atkinson Designs pattern. (It might be called birthday presents, but that could be completely made up be me.)
Even the back matches! (I found the back after I pieced the top or that trellis fabric would have been the border...)
A crumpled shady shot...

Fair quilts!

Not that I would ever make it, but this was my favorite!

Baltimore Album
Do you think she just quit when she got to 8 blocks?
This reminds me of what Wanda was working on...
Each one of those blocks is a cross-stitch block! It is an ABC quilt - she filled it in with ABC samplers.
I always like the New York Beauty quilts too - but again, I'll never make one.
There were at least 3 different stack & whack quilts. I made one of these - it ended up a stack & oops.
I like how she did the outer border.
This one was entered in at least two big shows.

What did you do this weekend?

We went to the fair!
We saw chickens:
(I think this was actually a rooster.)
We saw bunnies:

We saw horses:

We saw cows:

We rode on a tractor:

We saw raptors:

We went to the Old Timers Show where we saw a horse drawn fire truck:

& a horse drawn school bus:

& tractors

& other implements of farming:


Add in a dose of fair food & a good time was had by all!

Help! or Free to a good home

My cat had kittens...

Not that cat, she is a spay & the boy that she lives with is a neuter.

I'm talking about the cat that lives in my stash.

You may recall that I mentioned that I was going to go through my stash again - including the cats. Well I did just that & these are the ones that were culled by gut instinct.

The big cat!
4 of her kittens.

This is what I got done last night, I am going to continue to divide the pile of cat into kittens. Each piece is roughly 1/4 of a fat quarter, so I am going to be giving away kitten bags. There may also be a bag of fat quarters & there may be a couple bags with "yardage" instead. I have a coordinated set that I will keep together as an example. But what you get will probably be random...

If you want to provide a good home to one of my kittens let me know. If you really really want a coordinated set in pink let me know that as well.

Oh & there is one "not cat" bag that has among other things some black, white & yellow fabrics.

I may also have a generic I SPY bag or two available by the end of the weekend as well.

Let me know...

Have a good weekend.

IBOL

DSC08556.JPG
Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

Not sure what I am talking about... well I first heard about it through Jan's blog Bemused.
I believe the URL for you to get more information is IBOL.wordpress.com

Anyway, my box was sent earlier this week. If nothing else, I have stash - stash enough to share. I may even be sharing with you soon - yes, I am doing another sort. Let me know if you are looking for anything in particular (colors & novelty images/letters needed for an ABC project)- I may be able to help. I am even going through the cat stash, apparently I can have too many cat fabrics.

The next post shows my IBOL box before I got a chance to stuff it.

Minutes before

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Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

New cat toy?

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Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

So My MIL came down & brought with her this monstrosity! The cats are the only ones who liked it. I did not even get a snap of Jacob in it... shortly after this photo was taken it was pladed under a table. Yesterday while running errands, I donate this sofa to the Salvation Army - someone might want it... Definately not me.

When should I worry about my son's favorite toy - a cat toy?

When should I worry about my son's favorite toy - a cat toy?
Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

Are you talking to me? I want to play with the cat toy. All of those age appropriate baby toys are not so much fun. BAH.

So we donated a few to other more grateful babies. (An exciting errand from my day yesterday.)

When should I worry that my son's favorite toy is a cat toy?

When should I worry that my son's favorite toy is a cat toy?
Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

He was too busy to look up at his mommy. :o(
The repairman never came. :o( The condo association has to make the repair, so I don't have to pay with $$, he will let himself in to do the repair today - I hope.
I actually was off yesterday to take my cat to the vet for Kitty dentistry. He is the one who likes to play with those sparkly balls. When he got home, he carried those balls around for at least an hour. When I woke up, it looked like he brought every sparkly ball into the bedroom.

video time & a quilting scenario

I may not ever remember to hold the camera correctly for videos, but I do get to a point where I turn it this time. :o0 We had a lot of fun at the park on the swing. Jacob loved watching the big kids on their skateboards. (I was just happy that they were playing appropriately without a lot of swearing.) The park that we went to was especially nice, I liked how the toddler section was fenced off from the rest of the park.

Quilting advice & why I use patterns...

When piecing & figuring out the size of a piece of fabric to cut, remember seam allowances. Just sayin'.

Luckily the lack of seam allowances aka add another piece of fabric was not a big deal on what I sewed today. :o) But it was humorous considering that I actually "did the math" & cut 2.75 inch pieces - the add on piece looks just right as well, whew! Without grabbing my ruler, it looks to be about 2.5 inches - very close!

Now I am pressing on my design wall project while Jacob plays on his mat & while we wait for the repairman.

I am only posting this because this is a quilt blog.

I believe that this quilt won Judges Choice at Hershey. I thought it was too, too clever.
You can read all about it & it's maker here.

& While I am posting again, My Mother-in-Law came down with her husband & he installed baby gates - THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN.
Also we had an ice cream social to attend, Jacob tried ice cream for the first time. Once he got past the part about it being freezing cold, he loved it. I have created a monster.

& I heard a silly story from my Mother-in-Law. When my husband was a small child, she used to soak & smush up arrowroot cookies in milk before feeding them to the baby? (Aren't they supposed to be hard for teething?)

More loot from the long armer

This could actually be the "tale of two quilts." You see, I repurposed a top into a back.
Let's start that one cloer to the begining...
In the Keepsake Quilting magazine I saw a pattern that made my heart go pitty pat, so I ordered it with the "starter pack" of batik fat quarters.
In the magazine, the quilt looked "winey."
In reality it was just scrappy. So I returned the starter pack & made the blocks winey with batiks. & there it sat for EVER! I can only say that I must not have wanted to deal with the sashing that the pattern called for...
So I ignored it for a long time. I finished several quilts in the mean time... Heck I got married in the mean time... I made a lovely quilt for my husband

close-up:
(My husband might be a Jets fan.)
& decided to make the same pattern using batiks & Hand Dyeds. (This one sat around for a while waiting for a border - in the end I opted out of the border...) The quilt is also smaller than I remembered... (Stuff changes when you ignore it for a while...)
The repurposed top into a back. I was going to sash it with the blue/green & border it with the purple - I think... By the time I got this far, I had fallen out of love with batiks & wanted to use them up. Isn't that block great - BIAS on every edge, I am so lucky that it turned out so nicely - If I must say so myself. (I bordered those puppies right away to help keep them "square.")
The top:

I call this pattern "bricks" because the black sashing is like the mortar to the colorful bricks.
The bricks are 2.5 x 4.5 & the mortar pieces are 1.5 x 4.5 & they are sewn together like a rail fence. This pattern was very popular on a yahoo group that I participated in before blogging.
The quilting:

That idea was totally stolen from Jody & Because I'm me.
& the model:

He sat there while I photographed my loot & then we hung out for a while plaing with grass & a quilt - he loved it when I would grab the side of the quilt & make him roll!

What do the last two movies that I saw have in common? Apparently, Amy Adams. I had to look up the release date for Charlie Wilson's War (Dec. 2007) to remember the last time that I had been to the movies. And apparently, Amy Adams was in that movie. Tonight my Mother-in Law was in town, so she watched the baby while we went to see Julie & Julia. It was a lovely movie & well worth watching.

About a week ago, my husband was taking about getting a sitter to see this movie - I (along with quite a few other people) like to watch cooking shows on TV, so he knew that I would be interested in seeing this movie.

I also like "period" pieces and this movies hit the 40's & 50's on the head. I romanticize about wishing that I had been born in the 40's & lived in the 50's. I have mentioned this to people in real life, & I get pooh poohed... Oh well.

Anyway, for what it is worth, I can recommend Julie & Julia.  

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy
Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

I'll have to capture this (well a very similar) moment again without the camera shadow.

I was tickling his tummy. :o)

The Rocking Horse

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Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

What small child doesn't like a rocking horse? (or a cat.)

An early happy Halloween to you

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Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

Actually I was asked to post this quilt from the Sisters show. I love how she did the cat!

The lime green miniature

I am a fan of lime green, I can admit it. Actually I like all super brights, lemon yellow, orange, hot pink, electric blue...

So this one combined with my like of miniatures (see previous post) was a no brainer for me to capture on film (digital - doesn't have the same ring).


a close-up:

The stippling is beyond micro... That is a seed bead in the middle of that flower. I am not usually a fan of whole cloth, but the darker green thread & the contrasting threads really make this work for me.

I am also not usually a fan of the beads, but it is effective here instead of just "I need to add something else." (It is also perfect for the quilt in the previous post.)

The "only" other time I liked buttons were on this quilt:

closer-up:

(You might have noticed the bright green again...) I blogged it along with a ton of other quilts in early 2007. - March & February to be exact if you car to take a trip in my way back machine. Back then I took copious notes on the titles, makers & ribbons won... Not to rehash it, but some "art" quilters did not like me (& others) posting their quilts (with complete credit) so I quit jotting down names & titles...

While I am on a button kick...
The was a cute quilt that hung at Sisters & used HUGE buttons:

Closer...

(Yes, those buttons are lime green....)

A miniature quilt from Hershey

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Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

The grapes are seed beads.

At quilt shows I have always been drawn to miniatures because I can get the whole thing in one frame. :o)

This is quite annoying...

Back when I was a child, we had a phone without caller ID & on occasion we would get a wrong number. We would say, "You have a wrong number." & that would be it. (Does this ring true?)

So this "guy" texts me, "Whach doin?" (I don't know the number so I know it is a wrong number.)
I reply, "You have a wrong number."
He replies, "I know it is you ___, quit teasing me."
I reply, "You have a wrong number."
He replies, "How is cat."
I reply, "My cats are at home."
He replies, "How is Nat?"
I reply "Nat is perpetually in reruns on The facts of Life with Tootie."
He replies, "What?"
I reply, "Now do you believe me when I say you have a wrong number?"
He replies, "No."
I delete the message.

Quilt Shows

Once upon a time ago, I was pretty darned good about posting the quilts that I wanted to share. Well, I only shared a few from the last several quilts shows intsead of the breadth that I had planned on sharing. With that understanding here is one from Sisters by Michael at State of the Craft:

& another quilt from Hershey:

I could still post more & more, but...

(But, I did not get requests to share more, I did not get a lot of feedback on sharing one way or the other, & they feel a bit old now, I mean Sisters was almost a month ago. I'm torn. Then again, I did not share all that I wanted to for quite some time. I could do a retro spective for quite some time...)

Crawling?

Crawling?
Originally uploaded by aviva_hadas

To begin, when I did not have the video going, he moved with purpose.
But he actually is crawling for the cat toy - don't tell grandma.

Loot from the longarmer

How bad is it when you get a box from a longarmer & you are suprised with what it holds? (I sent this box before Jacob was born.)
Here is one of my suprises:

Those pinks cover "every" variety. I sent many pinks to Cathi after this was pieced. At the time she was piecing a scrappy pink project. But Wanda's quilt made me post this today. I love what she is doing - even though I may nto be a big fan of pink. (I'll eat those words again some day as I have 2 cat based pink UFO's & Several "pinky" taupe projects.)
The quilting emphasizes the diagonals:

The built in border that convinced me to make this quilt:
Did you notice the plaid binding?
The back - I love that hydrangea print.

The quilt pattern was in a magazine in this exact coloration.