2015: Year in Review

It's been a busy sewing year, here at the Three Cats Ranch. It seems a good time to check in and see if we accomplished anything. Counting them up, I discovered that I'd completed thirty quilts this year. To be fair, many of them are downright tiny, but we're going with Horton the Elephant's philosophy here: Like a person, a quilt's a quilt, no matter how small. Some of my oldest UFO's came to a close, and that's always a good feeling. Nevertheless, there is still much to do. I imagine I'll be sewing a binding on a quilt when I draw my last breath...it wouldn't be such a bad way to go.

My quilting journey didn't start until late in life, after so many other life goals. When I retired in 2004, it took me quite a while to figure out who I was going to be for the rest of my life. The deal was sealed when I took my first quilting class at our local community college.

My first teacher was a woman named Lorraine Gard. She did me a tremendous favor when she started the class teaching us to cut strips with a rotary cutter...a tool new to me, since my previous sewing life had taken place during the 14th Century. While my classmates and I cut strips for our first quilt, a nine patch and rail, she read aloud an essay that would change my sewing life...and it didn't hurt to follow the philosophy in the rest of my life either. You can read it right here if you're interested.

Here's a list of my imperfect quilts for 2015, and I sure have had a lot of fun making them. You'll find the quilt description below the image.

Sew Powerful
22 x 30 inches
"Never Underestimate" pattern by Bobbie G. Designs
 an embroidered wall-hanging
started 9/29/14 and finished 1/5/15
~~~

A Walk in the Woods

16 x 16 inches

a doll quilt for my partner in the doll quilt swap

swap theme was "A Good Book", and this one was 

made for Bill Bryson's book of the same name

Also used as my challenge quilt for the "Trees" theme of

Project Quilting, Season 6

started 1/4/15 and finished 1/7/15

~~~

This Little Piggy

9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches

a mug rug for a friend

pattern by 2strings

started and finished on 1/7/15

~~~

Sunrise, Sunset

17 x 19.5 inches

made for the "Sunrise, Sunset" theme

Project Quilting 6 Challenge #2

pattern adapted from Lise Merchant and Brenda Brayfield's original

quilt in their book "Stained Glass Applique"

started and finished Jan. 18-21, 2015

~~~

Shoot for the Moon

(if you miss you'll land among the stars)

started 4/16/13 and completed 1/27/15

an online block of the month, Hello Moon, by April Mae Designs.

38.5 x 30 inches

~~~

Fractured Flower Garden

21 x 44 inches

made for the "Orphan Blocks and UFO's" theme

Project Quilting 6 Challenge #3

my own design made from cut-up blocks made

in a curved-piecing class.

started and finished Feb. 1-4, 2015

~~~

Eyes on the Prize

5 x 8 inches

made for my daughter-in-law Valerie's birthday

mug rug designed by patchsmith

fusible applique and machine quilted

started and finished Feb. 7, 2015

~~~

Colorful Colorado

a wall hanging, 18 x 33 inches 

from the book "Portraits from Nature" by Jean Wells 

started 6/19/14 and finished 2/11/15 

a gift for a friend from high school 

~~~

Psycatdelic

started 10/27/12 and completed 3/20/15

"Folk Art Cats" pattern by John Simpkins

65 x 81 inches

~~~

Stitching for Spring

started 3/22/15 and completed 3/23/15

free motion embroidery

from the book Coloring with Thread by Ann Fahl

made for Another Little Quilt Swap 9 and Let's Book It Challenge

12.5 x 12.5 inches

~~~

Sew Helpful

pattern by Carol Armstrong from her book, Kitty Capers

fusible applique 

started 12/22/14 and finished 3/26/15

18 x 18 inches

~~~

Aged to Purrfection

pattern by Sher Hastings

fusible applique and machine quilted

given as a giveaway prize to celebrate Smitty's 3rd birthday

7 x 10 inches

started and finished 4/5/15

~~~

Rubber Duckies

started 3/1/15 and finished 4/17/15

a gift for some friends' first grandchild

from the "Turn Around Baby" pattern by Queen Bee Designs

41 x 50 inches

~~~

I Love Lulu

started and finished 4/18/15

a birthday present for a good friend

from the Vintage Sewing Machine mug rug pattern by Sher Hastings Designs

6.5 x 10 inches

~~~

Mae's Garden

started and finished 4/22/15

a birthday present for my daughter-in-law

adapted from the original design by Anita Peluso

8 x 10 inches

~~~

Bumblebee Playground

tablerunner designed by Patrick Lose

started 4/21/15 and completed 5/16/15

12 x 32 inches

~~~

Block Party

started 4/1/15 and finished 5/17/15

for a guild challenge Neutrals + 1 Color + a Zinger

from the Third Street Neighborhood pattern by Debbie Grifka

35 x 35 inches

~~~

Over the Moon

Tablerunner pattern by Dawn White

started 6/20/15 and finished 7/14/15

16 x 57 inches

first project using inset circles

~~~

To the Rescue

a baby quilt for the first grandchild of a friend

pattern from The Virginia Quilter

started 6/29/15 and finished 8/12/15

45 x 54 inches

~~~

Four Fabric Forest

from a class taught by Lisa Crnich

based on the technique of Ruth McDowell

started 8/1/15 and completed 9/2/15

wall hanging 13.5 x 23 inches

~~~

Vintage Tin

started 7/15/13 and finished 9/29/15

pattern by Crabapple Hill Studios

 for my son Erik's 36th birthday

64 x 70 inches

~~~

Gracie

a portrait quilt of my kitty

started 10/1/15 and finished 10/5/15

using the techniques learned from June Jaeger

fusible applique, free motion embroidery, and free motion quilting

8 x 11 inches

~~~

Dream Machines 

made for the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

started 1/3/14 and finished 10/18/15 

pattern by Barbara Weiland Talbert 

62 x 72 inches

~~~

Farmily Jewels

a thank you gift for my CSA farmers

fusible applique and free motion quilted on my domestic machine

adapted from a tutorial by Purl Soho

started and completed 10/17-22/15

32 x 21 inches

~~~

Blushing Aspens

pattern by Frieda Anderson

started 8/20/15 and finished 10/31/15

a tablerunner with inset leaves

18 x 55 inches

~~~

Smitty

a portrait quilt of my kitty

started 10/30/15 and finished 11/1/15

using the techniques learned from June Jaeger

fusible applique, free motion embroidery, and free motion quilting

8 x 11 inches

~~~

Feed the Cat

pattern by Waltzing with Bears

 started 8/14/15 and finished 11/28/15 

a wallhanging 20 x 30 inches 

hand embroidery, fusible machine applique, and free motion quilting

 ~~~

The Doors of Ireland
started July 20, 2012 and finished December 7, 2015
each block a representation of a door I saw in Ireland
an original design
fusible applique and free motion quilted 76 x 76 inches
 ~~~

Whose Woods are These?

started 12/16/15 and finished 12/25/15

traditional piecing and free motion quilted

25.5 inches square

free pattern from Patchalot Patterns

~~~

Icy Blues

a free pattern from All People Quilt

a winter table runner

started 12/8/15 and finished 12/31/15

~~~

Zero Cat Thirty

Well it's been quite an afternoon, night, and morning here at the Three Cats Ranch where only two cats live. As mentioned in my quickie Blogger app post from yesterday, we introduced the kitties to one another face-to-face. Smitty is not at all happy about this interloper in his house. For a while, she hid under our couch while he sat staring next to our pantry door. He turned on his lasers just to look more menacing. Note how his tail is curled around his feet, which is a cat's way of extending one's pinky.

They couldn't be left alone at all at the risk of Smitty becoming aggressive and scary. She's a tiny little thing. Smitty isn't a big cat either, but he is at least twice her size. He's a year older than she is, but still...she's two years old, and so fully grown. After a couple of hours of watching them, I needed to make dinner, and so we decided to separate them, as the shelter suggested. This morning Mike found an excellent article from the Humane Society about introducing a new kitty into the house. We've never actually brought in an adult cat to live with another adult cat. We've always adopted kittens in the past. For now, we'll go much more slowly with the face-to-face contact. She's now living in Mike's office with her own litter box, bed, food, water, and toys, and we're checking in with her regularly for snuggles and attention. She's very affectionate and sweet. Overnight, we noted that she'd eaten some of her food and used her potty box, so everything is going well in there.

As for Smitty, he parked himself outside the French doors that separate Mike's office from the pantry. He could see her, and she could see him. Her litter box was just on the other side of the door, and we were a little concerned he might scare her away from that.

When we went to bed, we took him out of the pantry and shut the door. He stayed next to the door for a while, but came and got in bed with me around midnight. Just FYI, in that first image above, he's sitting next to the door that leads from the pantry into the rest of the house...so there are two doors into and out of the pantry. (Mike's office is a converted garage, and the pantry is a converted tiny bedroom...what can I say? Sometimes ya gotta go with the rooms and the support beams you have.)

I've been trying to get a better picture of her, but it's hard. Here, I caught her lying under the couch early on. When you use flash to take a picture of an animal, you end up with laser eyes. I wish someone would invent a photo editing tool for this. Red-eye adjustments won't work on pet eyes.

This morning I tried taking her picture without flash, and I ended up with dozens of pictures that look like this one:

Trying my best to hold the camera still in the dim light of the room, this was the best I could do.

Finally, I got a death grip on her and tried this sort-of-a-selfie while we sat inside the pantry. 

So...those are my best shots of her so far, but I'll keep trying. Also, I need to figure out how to adjust the ISO on my new camera. I higher ISO might help with the blur. Oh yes, and I had to come back here and edit this post to say that we've changed her name to Maggie. She didn't answer to Noel anyway, and besides, Noel sounds too much like "No". So how do you discipline your cat without giving her a complete complex? Anyway...Maggie it is. It rolls off the tongue easily, which is why we chose it.

Despite all the excitement I finished the binding on the Icy Blues table runner this morning. It's my 30th finish for 2015, and I made it by the skin of my teeth...or by the whisker of my cat...or by the swish of my tail...or something. Anyway, here it is. It finished up at 21.5 x 43.5 inches. This is a free pattern designed by Jocelyn Ueng and available for download right here.

And now it's fulfilling the job it was born to do...a winter table runner on my dining room table.

Today I positively must get at the housework I've been putting off all week. Also, I'm fresh out of handwork, and so I want to trace out the next set of embroidery blocks for the Written in Thread quilt. If I have time, I'm hoping to get the Quilting Snowladies sandwiched today. Gotta get going on them while the free motion snowflakes are still fresh in my hands' memory.

Enjoy your New Year's Eve celebration, whatever that may be. We'll probably be sleeping when the ball drops.