Charmed, I'm Sure

If the third time's a charm, then I'm here to charm you because this is my third finished quilt this month. Granted, two of them were small, but they still count, right? This morning I got to work early quilting the "Sew Helpful" quilt. It took me practically no time at all, and it was finished. 

I used a design I had pinned on Pinterest. It's just a series of loops that start small and get larger. For my design, I tried doing a ascending series of six before going back to small. It was easy to do, and fairly easy to change direction, although I had to sort of turn my brain around whenever I tried. You know what I mean? 

Interestingly, this design is for sale in a pantograph form on a website that shall remain nameless. Really? I've been using this design for decades whenever I want to get the ink started in a ball point pen. So, really? It's actually for sale? It's reminds me of the time I got on a rant about a fabric company copyrighting polka dots. Really? (You can read my rant right here, if you like.)

Anyway...I used this variegated thread color. The gray batik was used on a larger quilt, and so I'm using scraps. I used this thread once before on the same fabric, and I liked the looks of it. And, honestly, who am I to tamper with success?

And once I had it quilted, I sewed on the binding, and Voila! Three finished quilts for March.

Here's how it looks from the back. I simply outlined the center applique.

This was my January Let's Book It Project. The pattern was called "Quilter's Helper" and it appears on the cover of this book by Carol Armstrong:

I did mine in Smitty colors.

While I was sewing on the binding, I was trying to decide whether I was going to make a label for it. When I uploaded my pictures, I discovered one I'd already made one day when I was apparently in a labeling mood. 

Now that's printed off and so I just need to fuse it to the back. This one is destined for the Wall of Cats in my stairwell.

Speaking of cats, Bob the Bobcat made his first appearance of the season the other day. He just strolled through the lower edge of the field out front, big as you please. He was hunting for little furry mammals, much like someone else I know...only bigger.

I figure with that bobbed tail of his, he's pretty envious of Smitty's longish one. You know how male cats are about the length of their...er, never mind.

We were hand-holding the camera from quite a distance away, and so the pictures aren't as sharp as they might be. Mike managed to sneak outside and used the digital zoom for these. They aren't bad.

Now that we've seen him, it's tempting to mount my SLR camera with a telephoto lens and leave it set up on a tripod. It makes me nervous, however, with the catdemonium we often have going on around here. 

It's supposed to reach 74°F here today, but at nearly 1:00 p.m., we're still at 58°. The day is going to have to go some to reach that lofty temperature. We'll see. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful day of sunshine, and I'm going to get out and enjoy it while it lasts.