Fat Cat Quilts

Favorite Fabric Friday

Garibaldi and Garibaldi II by Windham Fabrics

I was first introduced to the Garibaldi collection of reproduction fabrics from a friend of mine in our quilting group. Maria and I have very similar tastes in fabrics and often covet things in each other's stash. Even better, we often SHARE things in each other's stash. It's a really good system.

One day, Maria showed me this collection in the Keepsake Quilting catalog, which we spend copious amounts of time pouring over throughout the long, dark winters. Ok, not really, but doesn't that sound dramatic and exciting? The Garibaldi line is full of red and I was immediately interested. I'm such a sucker for red. I was so drawn in by the warm reds, blacks and tans. And I set out to find some of my very own. Since then, I've accumulated a fairly well-rounded collection of this delectable fabric line and I treasure each fat quarter like it was a shiny gold coin. Given that, you can imagine how I feel about my YARDAGE. Someday, I dream of making an intricate bed quilt that drapes over the sides of my bed to touch the ground. With black velvet binding and thick flannel backing. I love it so much, I even dream of making heavy drapes that hang to the floor and keep the cold out during the winters. I dream of my bedroom being enrobed in this gorgeous fabric. It has such a wintery feel to it. Not wintery as in cold. But wintery as in it evokes thoughts of cozy, heavy bedding that tucks you into bed at night while the snow silently piles up on the doorstep.

 

Verna and Me

This weekend while I was playing with charm packs, I made a runner with a pack of Verna charms. I used one of my favorite go-to table runner patterns, Little Charmers.

At first, I made this:

Then I thought, well, I have some extra charms, I'll make a fourth star and make a square table topper, rather than runner.

And then I just couldn't stop. I bought more charms and kept going. This is the prettiest line of fabric. I really like how the brown isn't a dark chocolate brown which you see in every line of fabric these days. It's a nice light brown, without being a tan. So now I have nine star blocks. I'm going to put a thin pink inner border around it, and then I ordered some of the large green floral for an outer border.

By then, it should be about 50" square. A perfect size for a little girl. Bright and fresh, but not juvenile.

This weekend, as I was preparing backs and batts for some quilts, Butters helped herself to a pile of batting on the couch. She likes to burrow and settled right in. Sweet dreams.

 

Not to be outdone in the cuteness category, Tigger took a nap IN my fuzzy slipper. I hope it smells AWESOME in there.

 

Fun with Charm Packs

This weekend, I took a break from my UFO's and dug into my charm stash and set to work on some fun, quick projects. I whipped together three full-size runners and a couple little mini table toppers with the leftovers. The first one I finished is one of my favorites. I love the warm colors and this is exactly what I was trying to share with Keith when THIS conversation occurred:

ME: Hey look, I finished a table runner. Doesn't it look like fall?
HIM: No, it looks like something you'd find in a second-hand store.
ME: (standing mouth agape)
HIM: What? That's not what you were going for?

Here's the table runner in question. What do you think?

I'm getting together with some friends to sew today. I'm going to finish quilting and binding the other runners and I'll be back tomorrow to share them with you. In all their thrift-store glory.

A Month of Sundays is Best

I finished all sixteen double bow tie blocks for the February Schnibbles and I just love it! So much that I ordered more charms to enlarge it. I hope they get here in time to finish it by the end of the month. So for now, it's on the back burner, patiently awaiting the mailman.

I'm half-tempted to order some yardage in one of the large floral prints for an outer border, but then I don't know what I'd do with all the strips already cut for the piano key border. I guess I could make a little coordinating chinese coin quilt with them. Hmmm.....now there's an idea. I'm really not a big fan of the piano key border on this particular quilt to begin with, so we'll see what I come up with. The large floral in this line is so pretty and I think it would make a great border. Definitely something to think about.

Sunday's Best marks the middle of the Year of Schnibbles. I wonder which Schnibbles the other half will bring?

President's Day Progress

Today, since a group of us quilting friends all had the day off work, we put together an impromptu sewing day at the quilt shop. I decided to take a couple smaller UFO projects and get the tops finished and ready for quilting.

My first project was a french braid table runner I made last fall with some Chelsea Boutique charms and another pack of coordinating charms that I can't remember the name of. This is not my usual color palette to work with, but the browns and blues were soft and pretty and I like the end result. I had a glitch in one of my borders resulting in a really nice wave at the end of the runner. So I took it off and re-sewed it on, being more careful to ease everything in. Now it's done and tomorrow, I'll get a backing together and quilt it. Then I can dig up the trusty Magic Marker and cross one more UFO off The List.

Next I moved on to this scrappy black and tan Hunter Star quilt. I saw this quilt as a model in the quilt shop in Whitehorse, YT several years ago. Being the ADD quilter that I am, I immediately dug out my scraps and started one of my own. Then the next new pretty thing came around and this poor little quilt was shoved aside. So far aside, in fact, that I lost four of the HST's for the final block. So I dug out scraps to make those final squares, sewed them up into rows and slapped some borders on. The outer border is actually a Christmas print with brown holly leaves and deep brick red berries on black. I don't know who decides that's suitable for a Christmas fabric, but someone did, and it worked out well for my border. I pulled the red out from the berries for a small inner border, which is a nice change from all the black and tan. And unless you look closely, you'd never know it was a Christmas print. I have some black with small brown buttons the size of split peas that I'm going to use on the back. I'm hoping to get this quilted this weekend so I can mark one more off The List and then celebrate by starting something new.

Oh, and speaking of starting something new, I worked on my February Schnibbles today also. I chose two charm packs from my stash - Woot! - from Moda's Renewal line, but had to shop for a suitable off-white background. Everything in my stash was either too yellow or too grey.

I loved working with these colors and once I got all the pieces cut out, blocks went together very quickly. I'm hoping to get the top finished tomorrow.

 

And lastly, but not leastly (is that a word? It is now), I worked on the final quilt in our long-distance game of Round Robins. This is Peggie's quilt. Peggie lives in Arizona, where it is sunny and warm, and the desert blooms with color as said warm sun gracefully sets each night. You can see all this in her quilt. Jane did the first round, adding the orange, red and yellow arcs around the original blue center square. You can't see it in this picture (because award-winning photog I'm not) but the yellow portions of the arcs are PLEATED! It's awesome. It looks so cool and I would like to learn how to do this myself someday. Janie added the red and orange wave borders and the embroidered coins in the four corners. Now, at this point, the quilt came to me and I found it rather small. So I immediately wanted to make it big. But out of fear of the quilt being out of proportion, I stuck to something medium-ish. I think this quilt is warm and sunny and altogether very smile-inducing.

Peggie, this little gem is off and running in the mail to you this afternoon!

  

 

Happy President's Day!

What do THIS

 
and THIS

 
and THIS

 
have in common?

They're the three UFO's I'm working on today at our Sew-In.

Enjoy the holiday!

Jane's Round Robin

Last night I finished Jane's Round Robin. I really enjoyed working on hers. The colors were fun, and batiks are always great to sew with. I love how they iron so crisply with clean pressed seams. Jane's round robin came to me looking like this:

Janie had just finished adding some gorgeous embroidered snowflakes, and I was unlucky enough to have to follow it. I had no clue what to do. I spread her quilt out on the back of the couch, to which Butters promptly sat on. Sorry for the hair, Jane. It took several days for me to come up with something to do that would compliment everything else. I really felt like the dark teal needed to be brought back out for balance. I added a small one inch inner border of the teal to bring the center up to 36" to fit 9" blocks around. I really really REALLY wanted to do small sawtooth stars all the way around, but I just knew it would be too busy. I finally decided on the woven ribbon border and I think it settles things down quite nicely. Off it goes in the mail to Peggie this morning. Have fun!

Sweet Hearts & Chocolate Cake with some quilting on the side

 
  
Aren't these the sweetest little Valentine's cookies? I found them on Family.com, which is a Disney-owned site with great resources for crafts and fun food things for children. If you want to make them for your little lovelets, you can find the recipe and directions HERE. I don't have any kidlets, but I'll be making them none the less.

This weekend is the Annual Inventory Sale at the quilt shop where I work part time. It's THE event of the year and our quilting friends from near and far travel over 100 miles from the Yukon to come party with us and score some good deals. We have tables and tables of bolts of fabric on sale, but more importantly, we have a small table front and center with sweets and goodies. We always have a crock pot of spiced cider mulling because it makes the place smell awesome, and it feels great when you come in from the cold.

And then we have chocolate cake.

Let me tell you about this chocolate cake. It is a mystery to me. I think some ladies come more for the cake than they do the great deals on fabric. I made it for our very first Inventory Sale years ago, and it has become a staple. A tradition. A legend. People actually email us beforehand and ask if we will be having chocolate cake at our sale. Pretty crazy, I tell you. But yes, we always have chocolate cake at our sales. It's a very simple cake really, nothing more than a glorified cake mix. It's a recipe that was given to me over ten years ago from our then PA in town, who has since moved away, but her cake lives on. It is the single most often asked for recipe that I own. Which makes it mildly embarrassing to admit that it's first and foremost from a box. But the mystery is this. No one else can make this cake. And by that, what I mean is that it doesn't turn out for anyone else. I have made this cake everywhere....Utah, Alaska, California, Washington, Canada. It's my go-to potluck dessert and it turns out beautifully every time. But whenever I share the recipe with anyone, they always come back and say it didn't turn out. I don't get it.

So in addition to the sweet little Minnie mouse heart cookies above, I will also be making our traditional chocolate cake for our big event this weekend. I will also be sharing the recipe with you, which seems the polite thing to do after I've just prattled on about it for half a page. Unfortunately, I have no good pictures of it, other than one from our Halloween event, where it's sharing prime real estate with pumpkin bread and banana nut bread. But it gives you an idea.

 

Inside Out Chocolate Bundt Cake

1 chocolate cake mix, dry (any brand, any flavor of chocolate)
1 4 oz. package of INSTANT chocolate pudding, dry
2 eggs
1 3/4 C milk
1 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 C chopped pecans

Mix everything really well in a large bowl. Batter will be very thick, and you might be tempted to add more milk. But don't. Spray a bundt pan very thoroughly with PAM spray. Spread batter in pan and smooth out the top with a spatula. Bake for one hour at 350°. Remove from oven and immediately invert onto a plate to cool. I just put a dinner plate over the top of the pan, grab the edges with a kitchen towel and flip it over. It should just slide right out. You do not want the cake to cool in the pan or it won't come out nicely later on. The melted chocolate chips will harden and stick to the sides of the pan and leave little craters in your cake when you release it. Once on the plate, allow to cool completely before slicing. Then with a sharp bread knife, slice into 1" thick slices. Now try to share with others and don't eat the whole thing yourself. But if you do, I won't judge.

I've also been working on the next round in my Round Robin project with three other friends. Next up for me was Jane's quilt. She started with the four center stars. Then Janie (not to be confused with Jane) added a row of embroidered snowflakes. Next up is me.

 
I added a narrow teal border around the snowflakes to settle things so it wouldn't get too chaotic. My first inclination was to mimic the sawtooth stars from the center and add them around the quilt. But again, I thought that would be too busy. So I decided on a two tone angular teal block that brings all the original colors back out and gives the eye a place to rest. When the blocks are side by side, they look like a woven ribbon border.

 

I had hoped to finish this up today, but I got sidetracked and didn't get much accomplished. Tomorrow, I'll finish the blocks and sew them on and get this thing in the mail to the next person.

 

Coming Home

I love coming home from vacation.

No matter how much fun we've had, it's always great to come home. Sleep in our own bed. Shower in our own shower. And wear something other than the same six outfits that have been flopping around in my suitcase for the past three weeks.

That being said, we're already planning our next trip. We had so much fun at Disney World, and we think we'd like to make it a yearly tradition. The marathon, nightly fireworks and tiramisu. Does it get any better than that?

We took almost a thousand pictures on our trip and I won't even begin to bore you with the majority of them. Here's a few highlights to tempt you into planning your own winter escape.

Our top ten favorites from our 2010 vacation:

1. Keith running (and finishing!) his first marathon. Disney World is the perfect venue for your first marathon. It's loud and full of music, characters, great visuals and lots of positive energy. Keith was a little nervous about running in the heat and humidity. But we were greeted in Orlando with 29 degree weather and snow!  What a shocker! Who even knew it could do that in Orlando? Keith was in his element and felt right at home. I'm sorry to all you other runners who were freezing your bums off.

2. The nightly Wishes fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom. We loved this! Can't say enough great things about it. We watched it almost every night and just stood in awe and wonder.

3. The tiramisu at Tutto Italia in Epcot. It didn't last long enough to get a picture, but good heavens, it was a-maz-ing. I knew I wanted this for dessert, so I didn't even order an entree. I ordered an antipasto plate from the appetizer menu for dinner because I didn't want to be too full for dessert. Next time, I'm getting this as my appetizer. The strawberry tart at the Patisserie in France comes in a close second.

4. The World Showcase in Epcot. This place is brilliant! We had so much fun traveling the world and visiting all the different country showcases. Learning about their heritage and cultures, trying their native foods, watching the local entertainment. We loved every minute of it. And really, where else can you visit Norway, France, England, Germany, Italy, Japan and Morocco all in one day?

5. Swimming with the sting rays in the Cayman Islands. I was terrified to go on this excursion, but didn't want to get home and have to tell everyone I was too chicken to do it. So I went. And I am so glad I did. The water was warm and crystal clear. The rays were terrifying. They're so BIG and they come at you and bump into you like blind puppies. They're soft like wet mushrooms and really flappy. I spent the majority of my time clinging to Keith like a burr, half drowning the two of us together. But at one point, I kinda sorta held a big female ray just a little bit. Maybe for a second. Just until my brain kicked in that I was HOLDING a sting ray and then I may or may not have totally lost it.

6. Visiting the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum in Cozumel. This was something we really looked forward to doing on our cruise. We hit the mother lode with our tour guide. His name was Angel and he's an Anthropology graduate filled to the brim with knowledge. He was so friendly and eager to share the history and culture of these people. He really loved what he was doing and it made for such a fun and exciting day. And while were in Tulum, we ate lunch at this little local hole-in-the-wall joint for fish tacos and some Aye Aye Aye salsa. It's made with habañeros and you scream Aye Aye Aye! when you try it.

7. The Bahamas. Enough said.

8. Our dining companions on the ship. We had a set dining time for dinner on our cruise, at the same table, with the same six other people each night. At first, we didn't know how we felt about this, but the first night set us at ease and we were so glad we did it. We had a stellar table! There were three other couples and they were all awesome. We looked forward to spending time with them every night and had so much fun.

9. The Jam Patch quilt shop in Stuart, Florida. Holy. Cows. HOLY COWS. I have found the quilt shop of my dreams. I try to scope out local quilt shops whenever we visit a new place and it's always fun to see them. But this one takes the (Moda Bake Shop) cake! Fabric everywhere. More Moda pre-cuts than you can imagine. It was a huge space, and bolts were just arranged in piles all over the place and I didn't know where to start. They give you these little sand pails when you walk in to use as your shopping "basket". Really now, they're what little kids use to make sand castles at the beach. They hold a handful of FQ's and a couple charm packs. We need some serious shopping baskets for this place. Or a sherpa. I didn't bring my camera (duh!) so I don't have any pictures to share. I know, I know. How could I be so...well, I was on vacation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The only bummer about this quilt shop is they don't have a web store. They have a website, but no shopping. They were celebrating their 5th birthday when I was there and FQ's were 20 for $25. They were also doing a big sale on Christmas fabrics and 40% off any bolt you finished. I may or may not have finished several bolts, depending on whether or not Keith is reading this. I mailed everything home before we went on our cruise and it isn't here yet, so I have no fun goodies to show you.

 

*Above photo from the Jam Patch website.

10. My SECOND trip to The Jam Patch quilt shop. (Too bad we don't have little emoticons in blogging. This is where I'd put the little embarrassed face one.) After our cruise, we rented a car to drive from Ft. Lauderdale back up to Orlando where we were flying out of. We just happened to pass by the exit where this quilt shop was. I couldn't help it. Those rental cars have a mind of their own and before we could figure out what was going on, we were magically back in the parking lot in front of this quilt shop. I swear. All during our cruise, I had been thinking about this giant Gathered Over Time 2 Fat Roll by Windham that I kicked myself for not buying when I was here earlier. Thank goodness no one bought it while I was gone cause that would have been depressing. I also picked up a couple Gobble Gobble charm packs just out of principle. They're so hard to find and here were TWO.

 
Well, that's the run down. I'm happy to report laundry is done, house is clean and I'm busy sewing. I'm working on a Round Robin and hopefully it'll be done today and I can show it to you tomorrow.

Have a good week!

Drumroll Please.....

Good morning!

We had sixteen finishers in the Snowball Challenge.

That's roughly 1584 snowballs.

7680 half-square triangles.

23,920 scrappy pieces.

352 feet of binding.

All adding up to sixteen smiling, happy quilters.

Don't you wish we had a big group picture? Like we were at some exclusive quilt retreat, all working on the same project? Tucked up in some cozy lodge with a grandroom with lots and lots of electrical outlets. Ott Lites aglow, cocoa on the stove.....

I digress.

So today, everybody's name went into the bowl.

Tigger took a peek....

And then gave me this look when he realized there was nothing to eat in there. Bless his heart.

 
After placating Tigger with a treat, we dug in the bowl and picked a name. The lucky winner of the Red and White Snowball Challenge is:

 
Lizzie! You're the lucky winner of the Snowball Challenge! Send your address to the prize patrol at skagwayquilts at hotmail dot com. Your bag of goodies includes eight coordinating cuts of Kansas Troubles fabrics, a mini pattern, Verna charm pack and Garden Party charm pack. Plenty of projects await you with these treasures. Congratulations Lizzie!

 

Have a good weekend!