September Bee Block Swap

Yesterday my mailbox revealed the swap block from my swap partner in Michigan.  What fun to open it and find this postcard from her home state!  One of the things I love about quilting/blogging/swapping is being in touch with people from all over the country, and indeed, the world!  So . . . want to see the block she sent?  I asked for "anything cat".  (Because, honestly, what else would I ask for?)

Is this cute or what?  It's 12-1/2 inches square, and the appliques are hand-sewn . . . something I'm thinking about trying one of these days.  She sent some bright green fabric to finish off the eyes on the cat's face, and suggested that might best happen after it's quilted.  Since this is the first time I've participated in this swap, I don't have any sort of project started.  This is so cute, I'm considering just quilting it and binding it as is, and making a little mini-quilt out of it.  And won't it be fun to see the cat blocks different people come up with month after month?  Hmmmm.  Me thinks a new collection is beginning to gel.

So my September UFO (the sleeping cats) is all finished and I still have nearly a week left in the month.  The mind reels with possibilities.  For one thing, I'm taking a three-week class in hand quilting through Quilt University.  The class started yesterday.  We won't start doing the actual quilting until next week's lesson, but for now, I have the design reproduced on paper.

I haven't settled on a fabric yet, but I think I might just go with white, and maybe use a variegated thread for the quilting.  In any case, a trip to JoAnn's is in order so I can pick up some supplies I'll need.  And this morning, I started on the first design for the

You can see Sew Happy Me's blog post about it here.  The first design was posted on Friday, and it will be available for two weeks.  After that, the designs will be posted for one week only.  These are very quick stitcheries, easily done in one sitting if you're energetic that way.

I've been doing so much sewing over the past couple of weeks that things have sort of fallen behind.  I'm thinking of trying a recipe for baked oatmeal I found.  But for the most part, today will probably be spent doing some dreaded housework.  All volunteers welcome.