And she's buying a stairway to....

"Cat" Heaven

(I'm posting for and linking to Quiltstory's, Fabric Tuesday...button on my sidebar!)

Finally, I can post this finish. Intended as a Christmas present for my middle son, Erik and his honey Leslie, I didn't get it sent until a week or so after the new year.  So what happens when your Christmas present is 2 weeks late? It becomes an early Valentine's Day gift.  <3 

When I saw this pattern, I knew it was perfect for Erik & Leslie and their little mini zoo!  Their cats, Butch and Bruce share their home with an assortment of reptiles...at the moment Steve, the snake and (oops, I can't remember the name) a cute little gecko.  Erik loves his kitties and well, Leslie is working on her Wildlife Biology degree at Oregeon State University (go beavers!!).  A former pet shop employee, she had the tendency to bring work home with her.   ; )

Anyway, the pattern is by McCalls and is called Stairway to Cat Heaven.  The cats are hand appliqued and the moon is machine appliqued.  (Machine applique was way too stressful for me so I am sticking with the hand sewing.)

Here's the blocks in the stairway showing those things cats love....

Yarn, or any kind of stringy toy...

Gold fish for toying with...and what's left of dinner fish....

And in their world...geckos....

 And of course leaving their love prints all over everything!

Anyway, they love the quilt and are supposed to be sending me pics of them with it....and the whole brood....we'll see!!  In the meantime, here's a few more shots.  Too bad you can't see all the colors in person.  I was SO pleased with how it turned out!!

The backing fabric is cat paw prints...

And the binding is made from the starry night sky fabric.

I had a great time choosing the fabric and putting it all together. A fun project that I'm very proud of!

Hope you are having a FANTASTIC  fabric tuesday!

SAFU: Sunday Afternoon Follow Up

Wow, that Friday Night Sew In really got things jump-started again for me with my main quilting project.  Saturday, I spent the day Christmas shopping with a really good friend...oh my gosh, I haven't laughed like that in such a long time! 

We braved the crowds and forged ahead and got SO much accomplished too!!  Then I spent that night celebrating my mom's birthday so again the sewing was on hold. BUT...

That left me with ALL DAY SUNDAY to get back to my quilting.  On my earlier post, I showed off the moon I machine appliqued and said I was ready to do the same with the cats. 

Well, easier said than done.  The dark fabric against dark fabric made it SO hard to keep the stitching in the right place, not to mention all the difficult turns there are on the cats.  

So, instead of continuing with the machine applique, I decided to switch over to hand applique.  What a difference.  Finally I could relax and it turned out better than I imagened! (This is my first hand applique as well!)

Too bad I ran out of embroidery floss so I had to put off the final one and a half cats til MONDAY.  Fingers are a bit sore anyhow! 

Hope your weekend was productive too.

Friday Night Sew In

Well, I had a nice lunch with my friend Tabatha yesterday, did a little shopping and then made it home to sew.  This morning I'm sharing for Friday Night Sew In. 

I'm still working on the quilt I can't show since it's a gift and I don't want to spoil the surprise.  But I've been giving sneak peeks along the way.  Last night I got brave and machine appliqued for the first time!

Of course, I practiced on scraps first, just to get a feel for the fabric and motion of the machine and especially to get the edge of the stitch aligned with the edge of the appliqued piece.  But it still stressed me out a little...I was so afraid of making a huge mistake and regretting my decision....but I moved along anyway.

So in the above pic there's more sneak peek off to the right.

Not too bad around the edges huh?

Shaping up fairly nice.

And there you have it.  My first machine applique ever!

Alright, I'll leave you with one more peek. 

This is what I get to applique next....Yikes!

Anyway, I was glad to accomplish what I did and now I feel much more comfortable so the next few should (hopefully) be less stressful. 

Now I'm off to brave the shopping crowds...my mom's birthday today...she had to work...thank goodness I get an extra day to get her gifts.   Hope you all had a productive Friday and have a nice weekend.

Busy Weekend - Sneak Peek

Seems a bit quiet out in blogland tonight.  A calm end to a busy holiday!  I was so pleased to make progress on my number 1 project and here is another sneak peek...

It is coming together nicely. I'm doing fusible applique (a first for me), machine finishing the edges.  I'm excited to be nearing completion on this one.  Can't wait to bind and gift it!!

Now back to grading tests...oh joy...work tomorrow.     : /

P.S.  Also had a great time this afternoon watching my tennis champ, Roger Federer defeat his nemesis, Rafael Nadal in the final tournament of the year.  Go Rog!