Kitten Mini Quilt Swap 2016

I participated in this amazing swap.  

When you joined you were assigned a secret partner to make a mini quilt and 

one other handmade item for.  

I knew immediately what I wanted to do for my partner.

  Although she has 7 cats so that made things challenging. 

 I decided to use the cat pattern my friend Kim and I are working on.  

She drafted the pattern from an antique quilt and I designed the quilt around that.  

Enough chit chat, want to see it?

I love how this turned out.  I made one cat that looks like each of her cats!

Her all orange cat (like my Jack)

 Her black and white  (like my Mosen)

Loved those mice on his bow

Her orange and white (like my Aiden)

Her Calico (like Autumn and Hallie)

 Her all black

Her all gray

Her gray and white.

I made a template for the cat face quilting which turned out excellent!

I used the Cotton and Steel cats for the back.

We had to send another hand made item and I made this pouch, using the Bee In My Bonnet tutorial.

I received a FANTASTIC mini quilt from my partner.  

Found out she lives in the same city as my daughter in NC!!  Small world.  

It's my JACK!!!!  Speaking of which, a pale orange tabby showed up in my driveway yesterday afternoon, just like Jack did.  

Not sure if he is a stray or a neighbor cat.

I also received all these goodies!  

Look at that Raccoon pouch!!  I love me some Tula.  And that FQ of aqua cat fabric?  Fantastic!!!

All in all this was a GREAT swap experience!!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts finish it up Friday.

~XOP~

We Have A Winner and Kitty Mini Quilt Swap Loot

I would like to take a minute to thank everyone that entered the giveaway and who liked Rustic Rooster on Face Book!  Our winner is number 17, Diana who wrote:

"I love the colors of fall, and that it was my dad's favorite season...reminds me of him :) "

I have emailed Diana and hope to hear from her soon to get her goodies out to her!

In other news, my Kitty Mini Quilt from my swap partner has arrived.  

My partner was Tammy from Texas.  

She knew I had four cats and put all of them in the mini quilt.

She also sent a lot of little goodies.  Some jingle balls for the cats (but the dog likes them more), an adorable tea towel, a tissue holder, some coffee, a mini charm pack and a small pattern.

Here you can see it hanging in my quilting room next to the other mini I have.  

I actually think I have a few others and may need to dig them out now!

I like to participate in swaps and hope there is a round 2 to this one. 

 Making cat themed quilts is right up my alley!

~XOP~

Doctor Who?

Yes, that's right, Doctor Who!  My son was wanting a Tardis quilt.  I had no clue.  A what? 

 He showed me exactly what he wanted and then I had to hunt for a pattern.  

"Dear God, please let there be a Tardis pattern so I don't have to design one.  

Thanks in advance. " ~Pam

As proof that He does answer your prayers I was able to find a great one on Craftsy!

Relatively Dimensional by Hunter's Studio.

This pattern was easy to follow and easy to make!

Sam (the designer) designed the words into a FQ on Spoonflower.

Far be it from me to do more work then necessary!!

I bought the panel. 

Actually I bought a yard's worth. 

One would have thought that they would print 4 on a yard.

NOPE

They printed 1 in the middle of the yard of fabric  *sigh*

Epic fail.

So I live chatted them up and guess what?  

They reprinted it with 4 on a yard AND let me keep the original one.

Gotta love Spoonflower!

I ordered my background fabric from them for this.

It was a Dr Who Gallifreyan print and you can find it here.

Now I will show you what I did with this pattern and how things came out so far.

On Friday I got the lantern done.  

Saturday I began working on adding to things and by lunch time had this done.

I did have a few interruptions though.

"No mom, pay attention to meeeee"

I pushed on and got the entire top finished!

I added another 10 inches to the width to make the finished quilt size 60" x 80"

Sunday was on to the back.  

Some IG friends had given or sold me some left overs of their Spoonflower Dr. Who prints 

so I decided to incorporate them into the back.  

This pieced back took me all day!!!  

Now it is ready to go off to the quilter.  

I have some ideas of how I want it quilted so will be chatting with Kathy about that soon!

Close up of the bottom row

And the top row

My goal for September is to get this quilted and bound so it is ready to gift to my son.

I am linking up to ALYOF over at Fiber of All Sorts to help with this goal.

Next up is working on my Secret Stalker swap project for the A2MQG.

What are you working on?

~XOP~

WIP Wednesday

I decided that I wanted to work on my Kitty Mini quilt over the weekend. 

 I made significant progress.  

I thought I would share that with you.  

I just need to hand turn the binding and label it and it will be ready to send to my swap partner.  

I sure hope she loves it too!!

I had LOTS of help!

I spent  part of one day doing the quilting. 

 I opted for straight lines at varying distances.  

I used masking tape to guide me with the lines.  

Then I did a free motion heart around the heart in the center. 

 I had to cover up the names of my partner and her cat (that's what the white bits are in the cats)

I used a Cotton and Steel tiger print for the back.  

The quilting shows up much better in this photo.

I just have the binding and labeling left to go now and this one will be ready to go!

This swap was a lot of fun and I hope we can do another one down the road.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

~XOP~

The End Of the Weekend

Sunday was our last day at the lake.  

Oh but don't you worry, we packed some fun into this day too!

First up was a trip to a wonderful breakfast place called Toast and Jams.  

YUM!  

They even had homemade strawberry jam for your toast!    

Aren't these lights fun?  

I had the seafood scrambler and it was awesome!

Then we drove back to the cottage. 

 Every time we were there we saw deer at some point too.  

On Friday morning this was in the front yard.  

There was a mom and dad and 2 babies.

After we got home I started stitching.  

I really wanted to finish this part so I could begin the actual making of the mini quilt.  

Pardon the wrinkles. 

 It is now pressed and I will show you that tomorrow.

I had to cover up the names to protect the innocent 

(or at least to keep my secret partner a secret!)

My friend, Anne Neville challenged me to do the Ice Bucket Challenge. 

 So I put on my swim suit and Ann and I headed to the beach.  

She gleefully (maybe a little too gleefully) filled the bucket up with ALL THE ICE in her freezer and then volunteered to go into the lake and fill it up with water for me too!!  

Gee thanks.  

As you can see the ice all over the sand I did indeed take the challenge. 

 I challenged three other people too.  

My Friends, Cori Jones, Jacquie Gering and Windy Sibberson.  

If you want to see the actual pouring of cold water all over myself you can view it on my FB page.

I then took the opportunity to go swimming in Lake Michigan.  

After all this excitement, we packed up and headed out.  

The drive should have taken us just under 3 hours and it took over 6!!!  

Thank you bridge construction at Lowell. 

 It took us over an hour to drive less than 6 miles. 

 I can honestly say I was happy to be home after that long, long car ride!

Thanks to Ann for a GREAT weekend!!!  I hope we get to do it again sometime.

~XOP~

Progress Is Being Made

I promise you I am making progress on all the things!  

I have the second set of Polaroid picture blocks ready to send when the next round is ready to go. 

 I have all my Halloween 5" charms cut and posted!  

I traced 2 Hocuspocusville (HPV, not the virus) blocks and sent one to a friend.  

(Oh yes I did Dianne!!!)

I then turned to the last obligation I have before I begin the next round of making all the things.

I am doing a personal swap with a person I met on Flickr.  

He makes the most amazing Donkey blocks and they are so cute!  

He needed/wanted butterfly blocks in any colors, any size, but all solids.  

I chose a pattern from a previous bee that I had been in.   

Here is what they looked like in process.

After a little sewing they turned into these!

Quite pretty I think!  

I still need to put a white border around them and trim them but I am pretty happy with them.  

I hope he will like them too!

My plan for the evening was to cut out the Tardis quilt but I think it has changed.  

I am doing the kitty mini quilt swap and 

have been struggling to figure out what I want to do for my partner.  

Her favorite fabric is not mine but at least a color palette I can work with. 

 I have toyed with several ideas.  

I think I am going to use this pattern and change some of the words to work with her and her cat. 

 I am planning to do it in redwork.  

I have already made alterations to the pattern (which since this is a secret I can't show you). 

 I will frame it in with pieced work in her color choice.  

If you were receiving this would it make you happy?  

So tonight I will trace this onto fabric and begin stitching.  

I could not be more excited to do this for my partner.  

I hope you like this partner!

THEN, I will begin cutting out the Tardis quilt.  

Also, hubby bought the mother load of corn so apparently there will be canning in my weekend too.  DD2 is coming home from her up north camping trip to celebrate her birthday on Sat 

so it should be a jam packed weekend.

What are you up to tonight?  

~XOP~