2014

Well looks like we're at the end of 2014!  This year really flew by for me, what about for you?  It's hard to believe tomorrow we'll welcome 2015. Thanks for sharing this past year with me! I appreciate your friendship and your support!

 

These little narcissus and China lilies are casualties of yesterday's wind!  Holy cow it was chaos out back, we had giant palm fronds flying all over, crashing onto the roof, onto the patio. The upside is, our palm tree doesn't need to be cleaned up this year!  Finger's crossed it's not so windy today.

 

Ok friends, Happy New Year!  Here's to 2015!!! xo

Tuesday

Yes, you better take a seat!  The baby quilt is actually done! I know it's shocking and I'm not surprised it caught you off guard.  You're not used to this kind of productivity around here.  Ha! Me neither!  

Ok, it's not actually done done.. like quilted done, but I plan on doing that maybe today.  I need to go get some 505 for spray basting.  Apparently I was storing a near empty can.  I'm whimsical like that.

 

Also whimsical.. the angle I took this photo.  I guess it's not true that bead board makes the perfect backdrop.  Perfect if you stand at the right angle.  All other angles.. not so much.

 

I love how this quilt turned out!   Very patriotic!  Also perfect for a sweet baby boy! I guess I better get quilting on it before it's too small!  So.. time to decide what's next! Hope you have a great day! xo

Monday

Good morning!  How was your Christmas?  I hope it was wonderful. Bret is back to work today, and I'm back to the sewing machine and maybe some clean up.  Maybe. 

 

Isn't this the cutest little pincushion and tea towel?  It's from Elizabeth of course, you can recognize her style form a mile away, right?  I love all those sweet embroidered covered buttons, but that's not all that's inside that cute jar, there's vintage trim and millenary and some vintage plastic buttons that are wonderful.  The towel is also trimmed with some pretty cotton crochet lace! I don't even know where you find such pretty lace anymore. 

 

One of the highlights of last week was meeting my little grand nephew Zachary.  He's 3 months old now and couldn't be cuter.  I haven't seen my niece in quite a few years so it was wonderful to see her, meet her husband and smooch on her little baby!  Of course I was inspired to make a quilt for him, so I started a small Criss Cross on Saturday.  My blocks are done, just need to stitch them all together.   It felt good to be back at the machine. 

 

Are you cleaning up the aftermath today? Or are you already done? Tell me everything!

Christmas!

Good morning! 

 

Merry Christmas Friends! 

 I hope you have a wonderful day! xop

And done!

Good morning!  So it's probably a surprise to you, but I finished that bag yesterday!  It went together better than any of these bags I have made in the past, like I said, the buckram and the fusible fleece were so cooperative.   I almost wanted to dig in and make myself a new bag, but then I figured why jump into anything. Plenty of time.

 

Fusible fleece though, I jinxed myself a little talking about it in yesterday's post, today when I was pressing the lining after I turned it and stuffed it into the bag and I noticed that orange peel look on the front.  NOT COOL. Fortunately I was able to press it out.. but after that I was pretty careful.  

 

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve can you believe it?  This year has flown by.  Just in case we don't talk again before Christmas HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY!!! xoxo

Monday

Oh. My. Gosh! It's the Monday before Christmas!   Did you do anything fun and Christmasy last weekend?  Bret took me out to see the Christmas lights on Saturday night.  Normally it's so busy during the holiday's I only get out to see them on Christmas eve, that' s our little family tradition. It was nice to just drive around town to places not on our regular route to see what was going on.

 

I started working on a  bag this weekend. This whole past year my hair stylist has asked me for a Mickey Mouse purse.  She wanted it exactly like mine, except Mickey Mouse.  I kept looking around for Mickey fabric that looked like it would make a grown up looking purse and finally saw Gayle making these bags on Instagram and I loved the fabric.  So far it's turning out super cute, and I'll get a picture of the finished bag later today, tomorrow is my hair appointment!   It's going so well I don't know why I put it off for so long. The fusible fleece and the buckram were so easy this time. 

 

Ok, are you in control of Christmas? I hope so ! Happy Monday!  xo

 

 

Friday

Hello Friday.   Have you had one of those days?  Yesterday started out cozy and then turned into a bit of a mess. Including the big glass cover over my entry light fixture fell  10 feet to CRASH onto smithereens all over the entryway, living room and into the family room.  And when I say smithereens I am not even exaggerating. Anyway, thank goodness Peep wasn't sitting right at the edge of the entry like she normally does, waiting for Bret. 

 

I also did some sewing.  Not much luck on that front either.  I was putting some blocks together into rows and every block I stitched for the first row was facing the wrong direction.  Stitch one block to another, pick it out. Repeat.  Finally I finished the whole row breathed a sigh of relief and gave it at good pressing. And that's when my iron turned against me and dripped icky brown  water all over the white setting block.  JINXED. 

 

I'm not even going to talk about the dog.

 

So it's Friday! Yay!  We're closing in on Christmas week now!  Are you ready?  I hope you all have a good weekend! xo 

Snapshos Quilt Along

Good morning!  Today its time to talk about the Snapshots Quilt Along with Fat Quarter Shop. I'm excited to be a part of this great project benefiting the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.   Every month on the 15th, beginning in January, you can download a cute block to make.  The blocks are free, but we're encouraging you to donate $5 towards  St. Jude's for each download. 

 

Additionally on the 15th of each month, Fat Quarter Shop will be  releasing a new video tutorial on each of the blocks.   And check out this great introductory video with Bonnie and Camille !  It has all the details.

 

You can order your kit from Fat Quarter Shop here.  I'll be sewing along with my Pam Kitty Garden fabric.  (Shh,, I've already got a couple of blocks done and it's turning out so cute! ) 

 

You can read all the details here, and see who else will be sewing along with us!  I hope you'll join in the fun! 

 

Tuesday

Hi there! Did you make any bear paw blocks?  I almost wrote bear "claw" .. yikes, my pastry problem outs itself! It was a cozy rainy day here yesterday so I got to work on my meow quilt.

 

It's cave dweller time here, dark and gloomy, so the picture color isn't great, but you can see how totally cute those Sunrise Studio scallops look with my Pam Kitty Garden fabric. Hopefully today I'll finish this up and figure out if I'll try and quilt it myself or have it quilted. 

 

Are you sewing? Have your shopping done? I'm totally in denial about Christmas.  And it's the 16th. Crazy.  Tell me about what you're up to.. if you have the time.  By the looks of Instagram and Facebook, everyone is busy busy!  I'm loving all the Christmas decorations and all the fun sewing projects. My friend Suzanne from Strawberry Patches in Bakersfield spent the weekend making some cute things from Pam Kitty Garden, check her Facebook page here.

 

Ok, I'll be back here later this week! Hopefully with that quilt finished! Have a good day!  xo

Classic and Vintage: Bear Paw!

Good morning! Today we're stitching  along with Fat Quarter Shop's BRAND NEW Classic and Vintage Block, The Bear Paw.  Classic and Vintage is the perfect series for me, because I love making the old blocks new again with fresh fabrics and colors. 

Fat Quarter Shop's instructions for this block can be found here, and as you've come to expect, they're clear and concise, and you can whip up a block in no time! The generous size of 14 inches makes any project go fast. Just get your Alphabitties at the ready, download your pattern and get started.  In no time at all you'll have a nice crisp Bear Paw Block ready to be called to action!

 

Fat Quarter Shop also has a new video showing you how to make the Bear Paw Block.  Kimberly demonstrates  how to use Triangle paper in it.   You'll have a nice neat Bear Paw Block in no time.

I totally got carried away and made a small block too. 

 

The Fat Quarter Shop has a free download for the Bear Paw Block.  They also have a perfectly priced pattern for a table runner, crib, twin or king sized quilt, you can order that here.   Now I hope you'll head over to the Jolly Jabber and see who else is making Bear Paw blocks!

Thursday

Hi there! We're anticipating "the storm of the decade" so we're all settled in here at Pam Kitty Central. Yikes.  Crossing my fingers that we maintain power but for sure I'm getting my electronics charged! 

 

I finished up my hexagon potholders yesterday afternoon.  I feel pretty pleased with them, even the binding turned out, sometimes I find those angles challenging!

I wouldn't have had such a nice result without the great tutorial from Freshly Pieced. Lee's method keeps your angles in check, something just chopping off the end of the logs doesn't do.

 

These two are getting popped in the mail.  Maybe after the storm though.  California is getting at on of precipitation, so I'm grateful for that, hope the winds don't  wreak havoc.  

 

Just in case I don't get back here, have a great weekend! xop

Vintage Vibe

Good morning!  Today we're blog hopping on the Vintage Vibe blog tour!  I was luck to meet Amber Johnson at Quilt Market  in Houston and she asked if I'd like to participate. Luckily I was already in love with the book and said YES!

 

book photos courtesy of Martingale, photographer Brent Kane

 

 

There are 14 great projects in this book.  Amber includes little tidbits about her inspiration for the quilts and helpful hints along the way. The instructions are clear and concise and of course there are excellent illustrations.   Even though I've been quilting for a long time, I find it's good revisit those  instructions from time to time.

 

 

 

My favorite project in the book is Sugar, pictured above. It combines a couple of my favorite things, tulips and Flower Sugar fabric!  Amber has designed a dainty version as well, Sugar Sweet,  as these are sister quilts, reminiscent of her childhood sharing a room with her sisters! 

 

I couldn't resist making a large Sugar block in Pam Kitty Garden! 

 

Vintage.. well that's all relative right? Amber's grandmother taught her how to quilt and  in the Scrap Jars quilt pictured below, she contributed  three pieces of vintage fabric for the project.  Amber invites us to figure out which are the vintage pieces.

Holy cow. I'M VINTAGE!  I made a quilt with two out of three of those pieces! 

 

It was easy to fall in love with this book.  Lots of great projects.  If this is your first stop on this blog hop, I encourage you to  head over to Amber's blog for the schedule so you can catch up!  The list of bloggers and the schedule is here. 

 

You can order a book from Amber here, or from Amazon here.

 

Thank you Amber for inviting me to hop along and sending me a copy of your book! Congratulations!

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

Hi there! How are you?  Did you have a nice weekend?  We had one of those busy bee weekends, lots to do, nothing all that big, just stuff.  I did manage to get  some sewing done on my Cheerio blocks, they're turning out cute.

 

Speaking of cute, how cute is this mug?  Frankie picked it up for me last week.  I love it!  (For those of you that might want to find one, it's a Hallmark mug, she found it at Walgreens.) It was cozy stitching away and drinking coffee yesterday! 

 

Ok big plans this week?  It's been extra cozy here with rain and then fog! Perfect stay in and sew days! Have a good week!

Friday

So we've managed to get through another week. I finished my hexagon log cabin blocks. Love them. I plan on prepping them for quilting later today, then when I have a few minutes I can get busy.

 

I finally figured out what I wanted to work on next.  When I saw Camille's Cherrio quilt in Love Patchwork and Quilting, I fell in love with it.   The magazine included the pattern for the mini as well, so that's what I'm making.  I photoshopped a mini version to try out my fabrics and then got busy cutting it out.  Still have the background pieces to cut. In PamKitty style I'm using a print. I love how it looks

 

If you can't find the magazine anymore, the pattern for the full sized Cherrio is available over here at Camille's online store.

 

What are your big plans for the weekend?  For sure I'll be looking at Christmas lights around town, it's my favorite thing!  Happy weekending people!

Sewing Fun

Hi there!  How's it going?  I see lots of Christmas trees popping up all over, are you ready? I haven't done a thing, except enjoy everyone elses decorations!  There's still time though! 

 

I have a couple of in progress projects you know, but right now I'm waiting on fabric.  In the mean time I'm trying to get motivated to start another project, but I'm not sure what I  want to work on.  I'm trying hard to find things to take pictures and blog about besides my view of the tv for Law and Order time, or the vacuum or the grocers parking lot.  So I got a brilliant idea that I'd make some potholders.  Last summer I made a potholder using Amy's great tutorial and I was pretty pleased how it turned out.  

 

 

 

Being overly confident I forged ahead to make another.  However, I didn't really read past the dimensions and that was the first of many horrible mistakes.  So bad, that the resulting potholder is barely fit for human use, let along viewing.  Kind of like in the horror movies when something goes terribly wrong with a cloning experiment and there's just a blob laying there.  Lets just hush up that experiment.  

 

Enter Lee's great hexagon log cabin block tutorial.  I used my tablet to go to and from the cutting table when working on this project, as I'm a little challenged visually when it comes to the angles and keeping things even. I started with a smaller center hexagon, I used my Go! Baby to cut my hexes.

 

I stopped and grabbed a photo while there was still some light.  I'll finish this one up and try for another.  Then I'll have a pair.  It's super fun.

 

Ok, that's what I worked on yesterday.  After my trip to Target in the pouring rain.  But OMG RAIN.  Couldn't  be better.

December

Good morning!  It's December, can you believe it?  I hardly can. but my phone says it's December first so it must be true.   Anyway, how was your Thanksgiving? I hope it went well. Ours was not without a couple of challenges, the biggest being the death of our cooktop. Thankfully the only uncooked item was gravy. Later, of course, I realized I could have gotten out my electric fry pan and finished that up, but I was caught off guard.  Only I eat gravy anyway, so no big deal.

 

Not the best time to be shopping for a cooktop with all the crowds.  Did you do any shopping this weekend?  Bret and I went out. He had this great idea to go to Best Buy.  I tried not to roll my eyes at his naiveté.. shopping at Best Buy on a Black Friday.  Poor fellow.  He said lets give it a try, so  I packed my book and off we went.  Imagine my surprise when he got a parking place in the first row outside of the store and was out in less than 15 minutes.  With his purchase I might add!  Well some people have all the luck.

 

It rained on and off all weekend and it looks like it will continue into this week.  Thank goodness.  What's up in your neck of the woods?