Fiber Babble: December 2010

Kitten's First Christmas

December 25, 2010

What had changed was me. "Bloodfever" by Karen Marie Moning ♦♦♦♦◊

First off, welcome to friends & family who just found out via Christmas card that we have a new addition to our household. As Mr. W. said, you can read the whole story of how MoonPie came to us by clicking here.

Secondly to my regular readers, let me assure you: This isn't turning into a Cat Blog. Remember that everything kitteny is new to us right now and we tend to think that MoonPie is the cutest critter on the planet and exceptionally clever. We'll continue to think that for her entire life but I'll hopefully only inflict evidence upon you occasionally rather than constantly.

We have a small tree that sits upon an end table. I don't know if it was intentional, but Mr. W. put the ornaments in the perfect spot for MoonPie to play with without undue effort.

And he was also smart enough to leave the crystal ornaments in the box & use sparkly paper-based ones.

Ahhh, the wonder of Christmas through a cat's eyes...

Hey! What's this? Something else that sparkles and shines?

Man, being a Christmas Ornament/Garland/Light/Present Inspector just wears me OUT!

Labels: babble, holiday

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It's Finally Christmastime

December 15, 2010

Abandoned book "Muletrain to Maggody" by Joan Hess ♦◊◊◊◊

Mom & I have this "thing": it's not really the Christmas season until one of us hears Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano on the radio. Okay. Maybe it's just my "thing" but Mom humors me.

Using that indicator, on Sunday the 12th it officially became Christmas for me/us. The good (and fairly surprising) news is that I've got most of my shopping done. Last week we mailed the gifts that needed to be mailed.* I even have most of the 'stay at home' gifts wrapped (I LIKE wrapping presents).

I don't think I'll be wrenching anything out of joint patting myself on the back just yet, though. Just this morning when I was marking things off of my list of things to get I came up with a couple of perfect additions to gifts that are already purchased. In more than one case, these 'perfect' additions involve me actually MAKING something.

The gifts are okay as they are, so if I choose to NOT try to overachieve in the next week they'll still "do". They'd just "do" much better with the additions. We'll see.

But look! A picture of Gingerbread Toss in the same month it was made! What a concept!

This is another of the (Accuquilt) die-cut quilts. It looks like I'll be making one of these about every 2 months. We started with Leaf Toss in October, Gingerbread Toss is now in December. In February we'll do something like Valentine Toss, and there are plans for the rest of next year, too.

The quilt top only takes me about 2½ hours to put together after it's cut. I'm just wondering when I'll have or take the time to finish these quilt tops!

*Today's the day I'm mailing the final gift to my Secret Quilting Sister, so I can't truthfully say I'm completely finished with the mailing quite yet.

Oh, and there are no decorations (or tree) out yet. We're waiting for Mom to arrive to do that. At least, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it

Labels: holiday, quilting

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Another Cat Post

December 06, 2010

I loved my life. "White Witch, Black Curse" by Kim Harrison ♦♦♦♦◊

This one is of the quilty variety... our shop is doing a monthly BOM of Helene Knott's Garden Patch Cats. You may recall that I shared one cat, Walla Walla Kitty, back when I was publicly comforting myself about my method of appliqué.

Here's the next (and probably the last) Garden Patch Cat block, Yammy Cat.

I certainly don't hate the blocks, and compared to my 'usual' projects they're pretty easy. But I don't plan to make a Garden Patch Cats quilt anytime soon (like, ever) and since BossLady has taken over the samples for the shop I'm probably done.

The blocks finish to about 18" (says she who can't be bothered to walk into the other room & measure). The two don't really "go" together, so I'll want to find something to put them into individually. Any suggestions?

Oh! What about this? What if I had a giveaway? Do you think anyone out there in blogland would be interested in taking these unfinished blocks off my hands?

And just because so many people have asked (not because I'm smitten or anything. Really.), here's a recent MoonPie pic. She's 5 months old now. Sometimes it seems like we can WATCH her grow. She no longer is a little starving kitten; she looks like a small (well-fed!) cat now. I keep threatening to weigh her, but haven't gotten around to it.

I'm afraid that if she grows into her feet and her nose, she's going to be a very large cat. Very large.

Labels: quilting

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It's Almost Cheating, I Tellya

There will be no services. "Trap Door" by Sarah Graves ♦♦◊◊◊

Hi, me again... breaking another long stretch between posts. The last few weeks have just been go, do, go, do, collapse, go, go, do. Knock wood I've stayed healthy throughout, though I have experienced some stress. You'll pick up on it, I'm sure, as I regale you with blog posts (by the hundreds, I'm sure!) telling of the many things that have kept me from you, dear readers.

A friend of mine asked me a few weeks ago about how I come up with stuff to write about. Well, if I only write once or twice a month it's not that hard, you know? If I were to do it daily? You'd get some interesting stuff interspersed with

"Went to work.
Did math for a quilt design.
Hyperventilated when Adam hung quilt blocks on the wall.
Came home & potato-ed in front of the Netbook & TV while Mr. W. cooked a frozen pizza for dinner.
The end."

But I do have a list of topics and events, small and large, to share with you. By the time I get around to it, the ship may have already sailed (notice a lack of Thanksgiving turkey pictures? Don't fret - I'll get to them eventually!).

Heard in Casa de Babble last month:

Me: Honey, you ordered my Christmas present today!
Mr. W.: I did? How thoughtful of me!
Me: I thought so, too! You rock!
Mr. W.: What did I get you?
Me: I can't tell you, it will ruin the surprise!

This is an Accuquilt Go! Baby fabric cutter. For the non-quilters or scrapbookers out there, it's a nifty tool that uses blades formed into shapes (dies) on which you can precisely cut multiple layers of fabrics. The Go! Baby's big brother, the Go! Cutter, has been all over blogland and Facebook these past few months because Accuquilt has been doing some pretty heavy-duty give-away-ing.

We have and sell Go! Cutters at the shop. We also have the grand-daddy, the Grande Mark, which is the totally not portable Janitor-In-A-Drum-sized version, complete with dozens of dies in all shapes and sizes. This might lead you to deduce that I really have no need to have my very own Go! Baby cutter, since I have such resources at my disposal. You'd be right.

But it is soooooo stinkin' cute!!

It even has an optional little carrying case in hot pink that reminds me of a 'purse-dog purse'. (No, "Mr. W." didn't order that for me, too.)

I put a couple of the dies on my Christmas Wish List so the rest of the family can get in on the surprise. I don't see that this is going to completely change my life with regard to cutting fabrics for quilts, and unlike many bloggers I've seen Go! crazy over the past months I can't see that my scrap pile will magically turn into a half-dozen quilts.

BUT

What I do see is the ability to use it for some non-standard shapes that are more challenging to rotary cut or hand-cut accurately. Like 5- and 6-pointed stars, Drunkard's Path components, various flower or feather shapes. There's a bunch to chose from! This could be the gift that keeps on giving, since it's probable they'll come out with new dies each year that I'll want to add to my collection!

In October (really, I am that far behind in posts) I gave a class at the shop for a quilt I 'designed' based upon a project I saw on the Accuquilt (Go!) website. We named it Leaf Toss and all of the pieces for the quilt were cut on the big cutter at the shop.

Including time spent pointing and laughing at my disorganization, it took about 2½ hours for a roomful of 11 quilters to make the wallhanging/tabletopper. Most people fused a few of the leaves on in class to learn the technique and then took the rest home (it was after 9pm!) to finish up in the morning.

Technical shorthand: 2-5" strips, 5-5" strips, 3 (or 4?) 1½" strips, Maple Leaves, Oak Leaves, Acorns, Stitch Witchery. Finishes approximately 33" square.

We liked it so much and got so many suggestions from the quilters that I've started doing seasonal quilts and classes using the same concept. Tomorrow evening's class is "Gingerbread Toss" with (of course) gingerbread men. We'll do a "Valentine Toss" in February, "Flower Toss" in the spring... well, you get the idea.

And maybe you'll even get to see a picture of Gingerbread Toss before it's time for Valentine Toss.

Labels: blogging, quilting

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