Raining cats and dogs? No - just cats!!

I just received an email from my brother that brought tears to my eyes. There is a man down in Florida, Craig Grant whom has built a 25 acre cat sanctuary for abandoned and abused cats! It is amazing, he has built houses for them and just last year built a fence to keep the coyotes out so the cats can roam the 250 miles of tree forest in safety.
Anyone interested in the story or wanting to donate to help purchase things such as cat food and litter, you can find everything here. They are a non for profit cat sanctuary. Anyone living down there can volunteer to help out or you can simply go for a visit and pet all the cats.
It always brings me joy to see humans helping animals. I wish there were more people like Craig Grant!

Awesome quilt along!

I just found this gold nugget! I quilt along that focuses not on the tops, but on the actual quilting. According to the blogs write up, you can do these fancy quilting stitches on a regular machine! This should be great as I have not been successful at this yet. Hopefully there will be some discussion on how to get regular machines to not knot up on the underside like mine does.

If you want to quilt along or to take a look at the discussion, simply click on the button on the right hand side labelled Free Motion Quilt Along! Or click here.
Oh and did I mention there is a giveaway for this!! WELL THERE IS, go check it out!!
Yippee!

Entry for SewCalGal Pets on Quilt Show

As you can see from the button on the right hand side, there is an awesome competition for Pets on Quilts from SewCalGal!

I am submitting my pet quilt!     If you like my quilt please vote for me! I am in two categories, Best Cat on Quilt and Best Dog on Quilt! Click here to vote. Scroll down to the bottom and then click on the Post a Comment. In your comment, type which quilts you wish to win in each category. If you want to vote for me, then please vote if you want veggie hunter to win best cat, best dog or both! If you vote as anonymous, make sure you leave your email as you too can win a prize just for voting!!!

Thank you so much for looking.

           

This quilt is of my babies. The three of them had to learn to live together and after much training and patience, they are family. They all love to play outside so this is my design of them in the backyard. 

For more info on this contest, please check out SewCalGal's blog here.

When the dog, Lucky, was introduced to the family, my large white cat, Tika (he is 32 inches long from nose to tip of tail) launched himself on top his back from across the hall. Then the little grey cat, Jada, tried to "save" Lucky - and all hell broke loose! My husband tried to introduce without me and lets just say it did not go well. 2 1/2 years later and now they are buddies! Well, as close as cats can get to a hyper Jack Russel Terrier!!

The large panel.

 

Detail picture of Lucky the Jack Russel Terrier

Quilt was hand quilted on a loom and I made a stencil of the three pets to do the edges.

Here Jada is admiring herself in stitch.

Edmonton has a Modern Quilt Guild?

Who knew!
I think I want to do this: 

 http://themodernquiltguild.com/2010/08/16/project-modern/


There is going to be 4 projects over a 1 year span. I do not know if I would actually submit anything I make, but I love the idea of some guidelines and some deadlines. Sometimes it is just the push you need to get your but in gear!

I love Kijiji!

Thanks to the power of Kijiji, I am going on a quilting retreat! That is right, 1 month from now yours truly will be stitching my little pink heart out at a women's only quilting workshop in Seba Beach, Alberta. I have never been nor have I heard of Seba Beach, but I am looking forward to every moment of this getaway! 

It is being led by a professional quilter by the name of Jan Fowler. I have not met her yet, but I can tell from her emails that she is awesome! We both are not into children, think our hubbies can be babies and love to work with fabric! This is going to be the best weekend ever!!

Fabric Giveaway!

There is a fabulous fabric giveaway being offered from one of my favorite online fabric stores, Fat Quarter Shop, via Jaybird Quilts blog. It is for a fat quarter bundle of the entire collection of Pure by Sweetwater. To get into the free draw, check out the site.
Good Luck!

Evicted again!

 Once again, I have lost my sewing room. But this time, I have been forced to just pack up rather than move to another room. At least it is for family! My sister came up and we were able to enjoy folk festival together which was fantastic! 
 My mother is now up for a week so I cannot move my sewing table and machine back in there yet, but soon - so very soon. 
 I finally as well took my pet quilt off the hand quilting loom and folded it up to be kept in the closet. Unfinished - boo! As soon as this bathroom is finished, I should be able to dive back into the happiness of fabric. I have so many lovely fabrics that I ordered in, I cannot wait to come up with something to make them into! I was thinking of doing your standard piece work quilts, but not ready to conform to "boring" I was hoping to feel inspired again to create another original piece. Something even better than the pet quilt and the bird on a wire quilt. 
 Inspiration has been found! I got myself a subscription to Quilting Arts. This is the coolest quilting mag I have found yet. I am very intrigued on this idea of art quilts - but the practical side of me tells me that I has to still function as a quilt! Wall hangings are fabulous, and there are some amazing quilts people hang. Still, being a painter first - I will save my walls for paintings and decorate the beds and couches with quilts! I am sure I will come up with some ideas soon.