The Rest of the Garden Patch Cats (so far!)

Sue sent me kits for blocks 1-6 and 8 in July, in time for me to take them on my retreat.  Later, some time in August, she sent me kits for block 7 and blocks 9-23.  I got all the tracing and fusing done at my September retreat, and started the zigzag stitching around them.  I was "batching" colors, so I didn't have to change threads so often.  So instead of stitching all of one block and then moving on to the next, I did all the (for example) dark green on any blocks that needed it, then moved on to all the (again, as an example) dark brown, and so on.  I left the black for last, since it was just the pupil in each kitty's eye.  So when I got to the black, I knew I was on the home stretch!  I left retreat with one block all stitched except for the black, and bits of a number of the other blocks stitched.  Then I kept trying to find the time and space to work on them, but it wasn't working out too well.  Finally, last weekend I got them finished, and sent off to Sue.  She let me know that they've arrived, and that she thinks they're pretty cute.  I'm glad she's happy with them.  I've had fun working on them, and look forward to doing the others that will be coming out.  Enough of that, here are the pictures of the rest of the blocks I did!

Block Seven is Caulipuss:


Block Nine is Gourdo Gato:


Block Ten is Eggplant Purr-mesan (I love these block names!):


Block Eleven is Yammy Cat:


Block Twelve is Mushkit:


Block Thirteen is Broc-Kitty:


Block Fourteen is Catus Romanus:

I think this might be my favorite block so far -- it's one of my favorites, for sure!

Block Fifteen is Pickle Puss:

I'm not so crazy about this block, but maybe that's just me...

Block Sixteen is Pepper Puss:

This background is probably a bit too dark and busy, but I can work with it.  If I make the block again, I'll put it on a somewhat lighter fabric, though.

Block Seventeen is Purr-simmon:


Block Eighteen is Brussels Cat:


Block Nineteen is Banana Cat:

The background for this block may be a little too light, but I think I can make it work in a finished project.

Block Twenty is Cobby Cat:


Block Twenty-One is Concord Kitties:

Purple is so hard to photograph accurately!  The background here is a sage green, IRL.

Block Twenty Two in Le Arti-Chat:


Aaaaaaand,
Block Twenty Three, and the last one I've done, is Tater Puss:


There's at least one more pattern that's been released, and there are supposed to be more to come, so I'll share the rest as I do them ;-)

Thanks for coming by to play!  Come back again soon.

Garden Patch Cats Blocks

So, yesterday I told you the story about how I came to be making the Garden Patch Cats blocks.  Today, I'll share the blocks with you.  Just know that, when one or more of them seems to be missing an eye, it's going to get stitched in, in embroidery.  That particular eye is closed -- some of the kitties have both eyes closed, and some have one eye closed and one open, and most of them have both eyes open.

It's been interesting doing this project with Sue, because her fabric choices are just slightly different than the kinds of fabrics I have in my stash.  It's been fun to work with someone else's choices, and with fabrics that I don't already own.  Okay, so I'll try to put these here in order:

First up is Avocato:

The color is really washed out in this picture!  When I put it into a finished item, I'll try to get a better picture of it, truer to the real colors.

Second block is Boscat:

In this picture the color is slightly off, but it's not as bad as the first one.  Sorry!

The third block is Kitt'ney Bean:


The fourth block is Walla Walla Kitty:

This block is just a little bit brighter and richer in color IRL.

The fifth pattern is Pumpkat:

The oranges seem to have completely messed with the color of the block background, which as I recall was a mottled mossy green.

The sixth pattern is Stalker:


The eighth pattern, but the next one I did, is Podcats:

These guys are quite washed out, too.  The outer pod is really a light sage-y green.

Those were the seven blocks I had kits for at my July retreat, and I got them done while I was there.  I also made a small quilt top (about 33" square) that week, from a bunch of squares left from cutting a FQ project:


I think I worked on one or two other things that week, but I don't remember what, and I know that I didn't get anything else finished, nor any other quilt tops finished.  Tomorrow I'll show the blocks I worked on at the September retreat, and since.

Thanks for coming by to play.  Come back again soon!

I'm sorry I've been MIA for so long!

Well, way back in mid-August I promised pictures of some of the quilty stuff I'd been doing.  Not to make excuses, but one thing and another conspired to keep that from happening.  I was sick, then I was out of town, then I was sick again, then DH (my quilt and quilt-top holder) was out of town, and well, then I just got crazy busy with life stuff.

I'm not sure if I can put a picture in this post, I'll have to see if putting the URL from a Flickr image will work.  My photos are on an external hard drive, which is where I'm not.  So if pictures have to wait, then it'll be tomorrow or later this week for that.

So, what have I been doing?  Well, I'm glad you asked!  I've been on three quilting retreats this year, in May, July, and September.  I was supposed to go on one in February, but between moving and my mother's death, I decided to miss that one.  I can't even remember what I worked on in May, which is why I should really post here more regularly.  In July, and again in September, I was working on a fun collection of blocks.  More on them in my next post, because that's a bit of a long story and will be picture-heavy.  For now, if it works, here's a picture of the bed I almost always end up with at the place I go on retreat:



Hey, it worked!  Isn't that a nice thing, to come to a quilting retreat, and sleep in a bed with a quilt on it?  And made by the mother of the owner of the place, no less.  She sometimes will come over for a while after dinner and sew with us, though the last time she didn't.

So, the project that I've been working on at the last two retreats has been really fun.  Have you seen the Garden Patch Cats patterns by Helene Knott?  Well, a woman I "know" from Ravelry, Sue Hauser, owns an online quilt shop called Alderwood Quilts.  She's been wanting to offer these blocks as a block-of-the-month program.  The problem is, she's much more of a dog person, and while she could see that the blocks were fun and whimsical and kinda cute, she really didn't want to make them.  Well, we got into a bit of a conversation on other matters (and she already knew I was also a quilter), and she had the idea to ask me if I'd like to make the sample blocks for her.  She cut and sent me kits with the patterns, I fused the appliques down and did a tiny zigzag stitch around them (I would normally do a blanket stitch, but that seemed more "primitive" than these blocks are, to me), and sent them back to her.  She's going to do the embroidery embellishment, and attach the crystal or pearl for the "sparkle" in the eye, and take her photos.  Then I'll make them up into finished items, and send her photos of those so she can share them with her customers.  It's win-win for us -- she didn't have to make the blocks, and I didn't have to buy the patterns ;-)  I think I've done 23 blocks, and there are more coming out, I know.  So this will be a bit of an ongoing project, too.

Tomorrow, I'll show you the pictures of the blocks as they were when I finished my part.  For now, I have to run some errands, and get back to my sewing.

Thanks for stopping by to play.  Come back again soon, and I'll promise to be here with new stuff to share.