Another Saturday Sketch Card Challenge

Gosh, it's been a long time since i posted last! I've been working on a "tastes of summer" post and keep adding things to it...think i just need to post it and get it done! Also need to put up some recent kitty pics for fans of "the guys."

In the meantime, there's another Saturday Sketch challenge from the folks at Stamping 411. I missed the deadline for the one last week. Here's this week's sketch:


I needed two cards this week: a birthday card for my friend Effie (whose birthday was actually on the 20th) and a thank you card for the generous friends who hosted the congregation's summer party at their house this past weekend. The sketch was a perfect jumping off point!





Both cards use my favorite "Here Kitty, Kitty" stamp set and variations on the same colorway, including the new Mambo Mango, old Kiwi Kiss, Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, and i think that's Raspberry Fizz design series paper.


I also made a couple of other cards. My brother-in-law is retiring from the government this week...he just turned 55 and i think he's worked for them for 30+ years. The red white and blue seemed appropriate. I used a similar color scheme for the son of friends of mine who graduated from high school and is heading off to college. When i last saw him, he was about two years old, so it's stunning to me how time has flown!

"Quilting Past and Present" at Sky Meadows State Park

It was hot on Saturday. And humid. But i had agreed on behalf of my quilt group that we would do a presentation about quilting at the historic Mount Bleak House, built in the 1840s, which is on the grounds of Sky Meadows State Park. The parks department likes to have events that reflect life at the time the house was lived in...crafts, music, history, etc. We would do a talk about quilts from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then demonstrate quilting from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

I recruited my friend Diane to do the presentation because she's very knowledgeable, has a lot of experience making quilts including some out of reproduction Civil War era fabrics, and is very confident in a group situation. I brought a bag full of quilting books and several quilts, Diane brought two baskets full of quilts, April brought a quilt rack and several quilts, and we set up on the lawn behind the house. And waited. And waited. We thought things would be slow, but had no idea that only a handful of people would come for the program.

I thought we'd be standing up in front of a crowd, talking, showing quilts, refolding them, answering questions...instead, we sat on the rocking chairs and had a fabulous day getting some quilting done. Diane had fun reading my books! April worked on a coiled rope basket bag, i did hand quilting on my fortune cookie quilt and on the bunny quilt for my sister, when Dee arrived she sewed the binding onto a Christmas kitty quilt, and when Jeanne arrived, she had a binding to put on a Christmas quilt as well.

Diane, April, my rocking chair, Dee

Jeanne

Afterwards the ranger/volunteer coordinator said that next time they would make the program shorter--the afternoon only, when people are more likely to have finished a day hike or to be in the park for a picnic. I don't think any of us felt the day was wasted...it was amazingly peaceful sitting under the huge hickory tree, looking out across a misty valley that didn't look much different than it would have looked 100 or even 200 years ago.

This week's Saturday Sketch Challenge

The sketch was pretty straightforward...just what i needed for a baby naming card! So here it is:

(I see that my friend and upline Robin used the same baby stroller stamp...great minds and all that!) I wasn't able to go to the babynaming ceremony because i had to attend an event with my quilt group (more about that soon), but i am sending this card and a copy of Patricia Polacco's The Keeping Quilt, one of my all-time favorite books.

While i was in the "stamping studio" (my mother's old kitchen table and my workbench piled high with stamping supplies in my basement) i also made a sympathy card for dear friends whose baby died at birth. I was reminded of this stamp (and similar color combination) by the pretty little boxes on Takatou's site.There's really not much a person can say at a dreadful time like this but i thought the card would help tell them i'm holding them in my thoughts and prayers.

I also started a series of cards "just because." The new Stampin' Up! lattice die for the Big Shot really intrigues me. I cut out five lattices from different c0lors of card stock (5 of the 6 new In colors) and then mixed and matched the little pieces that are punched out, to make what are essentially paper quilts. This is the first one that i completed.

Sylvie's Turn

Sylvie is a very opinionated and feisty little girl cat. Unfortunately, since Gingy came to live with us, she hasn't been able to spend as much time with me as she used to, because if Gingy is nearby, Sylvie gives her a wide berth or growls and hisses at her. Sylvie now cautiously checks to make sure Gingy's not around or asleep before she starts cruisin' the house, and if she hears Gingy's bell (i generally don't like bells on cats, but Gingy came with one on her collar and it seemed like a fair warning to the other cats to keep it), she dashes for the kitchen chair that's her sanctuary.

Here Sylvie's sitting on the file box they all like to sit on before hopping up onto my lap...looking very sweet but actually she sank her claws into my thigh moments later "just stretching!"

Nightcap

When i get into bed at night, if Fuzzy's not already sleeping on my pillow he comes into the bedroom, hops up on the bed, walks up on the pillow behind my head and settles in, kneading my hair and purring in my ear. (Eventually he moves over to the other pillow to sleep, often with his backside parked on my shoulder.) It was a bit tricky pointing the camera at ourselves in the dark and getting a decent picture, but i got a few fairly good ones.

Louie always sleeps between my knees...here he is with his head pillowed on my right knee....awake because somebody's taking pictures!

Historical Cat Photo

Yes, it's a pretty ginger girl kitty and a cute tuxie boy on the bed together...that's not news anymore, as Gingy has been sleeping on the bed with the boy cats and me since late winter. What's new is this is the first time (that i've seen anyhow) that Gingy was sleeping on the bed other than on the cat towel at the foot of the bed! I guess she suddenly realized that not only was it o.k. for her to be on the bed, she could be anywhere on the bed that she wanted to be!

That picture was taken this past weekend. Last night when i went to bed, Gingy was sound asleep on her back in the middle of the bed! She sleepily moved to the cat towel when Fuzzy leaped into bed. I'm not sure why it's taken her 4 years to come to this realization, but i think it's nice. Now if only she and Sylvie could learn to get along....

View Profile

A lot of blogger blogs have a place that says "View My Complete Profile," so Louie thought it only right that you should be able to admire his complete profile. He's even displaying a bit of frootbat effect, difficult for a tuxedo with black ear fur to achieve...and then i had to turn the flash off on my camera to keep it from washing out the light shining through his ear.

Some new cards

The first card follows a sketch (like a recipe, to be modified by the user) on the Stamping 411 site. Here's the sketch.


And here's my card. I used only Stampin' Up! tools and materials for all three cards shown here. For this card, i pretty much used the suggested layout, although the center is cut out with the new Bigz Lattice die in the Big Shot, layered over a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock that i ran through texturz plates on the Big Shot. The lattice, background, and belly band are all from the Tea Party Designer Series Papers. At the center is a square icy blue rhinestone brad. This is a get well card for my friend Violet, who tripped on her front steps and fractured her foot in two places this weekend!

Next i needed to make a congratulations card for my friend Janet, who is retiring on Friday. I had so much fun using the Bigz Lattice die for the previous card, i used it on this card as well, cutting the center from a piece of lilac Designer Series Paper. Different patterns of the same paper form the background and the oval that the sentiment is printed on. The sentiment is mounted on a scalloped oval of the same Tea Party Designer Series Paper as the layer under the lattice. That scalloped oval punch is one of my favorites! The ribbon is the brand new Crushed Curry polka dot grosgrain ribbon...yummy. This card also has a square rhinestone brad in the center, too...this one lilac rather than blue.

This third card i just made because i love how it looks...i saw this design or something very like it somewhere, but i don't remember where now...whether it was wandering on the internet or in a magazine. It uses all new "toys" from my most recent Stampin' Up! order...the card is on Crushed Curry card stock (gasp, so different than my traditional Whisper White card bases), the stamp is from the new Razzle Dazzle set. I stamped the whole design in Soft Suede, then cleaned the stamp off and colored in the flowers with Stampin' Write markers, stamped them on a scrap of Whisper White, cut them out, and mounted them with mini glue dots on top of the Soft Suede version. I double-matted the white layer on top of Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo cardstock. The ribbon is Rich Razzleberry polka dot grosgrain ribbon, the sentiment is stamped in Crushed Curry and mounted on Melon Mambo cut out with my pal, the scallop oval punch.

The Mom Meme

I've been tagged to take part in a meme by Jan, Milo and Alfie's wonderful mom. I love reading about Milo and Alfie's great adventures (and they are beautiful kitties) and Jan's answers to this meme are so interesting http://milocat.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/the-mom-meme/#comment-4868 that when she tagged to me to join this meme, i couldn't resist.

The rules are simple: Either 1) post 7 facts about yourself AND photos OR 2) post 10 facts about yourself with no photos, OR 3) post a childhood picture of yourself.

First, the picture:

This was my freshman year in college 1) at Oberlin College. (Can you see the teddy bear on the bed? He's the same one i posted about in November! http://quiltcatmews.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-teddy-bear.html)

2) This was my first cat. Her name was Franki. Actually, i think it was "Franki Farren Puppy" or something like that...she wasn't really my cat...she supposedly was my roommate Patty's cat, but i "somehow" became her main person. She was one of the kittens born outside in the cold Ohio winter to a college cat who was probably abandoned once her owners discovered she was pregnant. We weren't supposed to have cats in the dorm but i'm so glad that we took Franki in. She was a great kitten! At the end of the school year, i wasn't allowed to bring her home and Patty wasn't allowed to bring her home, so my boyfriend (at left in picture) took her home. He wasn't allowed to keep her past the summer, either...so she went to live with his cousins on Cape Cod and i think (fervently hope) that she had a very happy life as a companion to their black Lab who totally adored her from the first day.

3) On the bed is an afghan that i crocheted during one of my classes (education testing and measurement, i think). I learned how to crochet from a book. Then i had one of the girls in my dorm teach my how to knit because i wanted a ski cap with ribbing, and couldn't figure out how to do it from a book *g*. It turns out the style she taught me was "Russian," so i've always had to adapt directions to get the right gauge.

4) I was an archaeology major and went on a dig in New Jersey the summer before i started college (we camped out in tents all summer on the banks of the Delaware River; we excavated one of the first known Native American house sites in New Jersey) and in North Carolina the summer before my senior year in college (we lived in some cabins near the old dairy farm on the grounds of the John C Campbell Folk School; in cooperation with the Eastern Cherokee tribe, we excavated a contact period Cherokee village).

5) I discovered a newborn calf while taking a walk looking for wild blackberries on one of my days off on the dig. Its mother had left it safely curled up in the tall grass, just like does do with their fawns. A few days later, i helped a calf get born...the cow was having trouble pushing out the calf so the farmer attached chains to the calf's feet. As the cow pushed, we gently pulled...and soon *pop* out came the calf.

6) My advisor at Oberlin suggested that i really should consider majoring in social-cultural anthropology instead, because i didn't have the hard science background archaeologists need to succeed these days. He left Oberlin for another school and there were no anthropologists left there. I really wanted to drop out of college...Oberlin was starting to feel way too small (it's in the middle of Ohio farm country and in the interests of fostering community, no one was allowed to have a car on campus, so there was no way to leave other than getting on my bicycle and pedalling to nowhere a few miles out of town), the Vietnam war was on, and i questioned what possible good i could do for the world. My parents were extremely unhappy that i wanted to drop out of school, so we reached a compromise...i transferred to another college.

7) I transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, a school about 7 times larger than Oberlin, in the middle of urban Philadelphia. Of course i missed Oberlin-type people! But academically it was a very good decision.

whew...that's enough about me and my ancient past! I hesitate to tag anyone in case you're too busy...but would love to have my regular commenters (and any visitors, too) do this meme, too!

Now a Few Words From the Cats

The poor little guys feel that i haven't posted enough pictures of them lately...bad enough that i went off to Rhode Island and Vermont, but then i posted all those quilting pictures...

First off, though, a bit of a rainbow seen on my return trip from Vermont. I had stopped at the New Baltimore, New York, rest stop on the NY Thruway. It had been raining off and on since i left Burlington, and had just finished pouring...and there was this beautiful rainbow in the east across the highway.

When i came home the boys showed me how cute they are...looks like they were practicing synchronized snoozing!

Fuzzy wanted to show me that he fit quite well in my suitcase.

Back to telecommuting Fridays, Louie tries to get my attention by hopping up on the box next to me and tapping at my leg.
Gingy taking a rest on the desk.

Fuzzy "supporting" me (or at least my notepad) while i work.

Me trying to conduct a teleconference while Fuzzy is on my lap, giving me kitty kisses.

Another snoozing Gingy shot.

This morning, Fuzzy hopped up on the bed, walked over to where Louie was snoozing, plopped down next to him, and started patting at his tail and feet.

The next thing you know, it's a wrestling match between two 16-pound kittens!


I'm off to New Jersey for the weekend, for the unveiling of my mother's gravestone...back Sunday night!

Vermont Quilt Festival (part three)

One of my favorite parts of going to VQF, other than seeing the magnificent quilts that are hung with care in the show, is visiting all the vendors and making some careful purchases of fabric, thread, patterns, embellishments, jewelry....the temptations are huge! And seriously, when the vendors bring their best and newest goods with them, it's a joy to see what they've got.

One of my favorite vendors is Usha at Handloom Batik. She has family in India who hand block print and batik most of the fabric that she sells. She had these two cool patterns "Quilting Bee" and "Laundry Day" by Bunny Leighton, made up in a rainbow of ethnic fabrics. Here's a close-up of the Quilting Bee pattern.

I just had to buy the patterns, as well as some of Usha's Indian cottons to use in this or some other project. (Gingy was snoozing on the ironing board and didn't mind modeling all of the fabrics and goodies.)

Here are some batiks that i got with the Quilting Bee project in mind from Batiks Etcetera, all the way from North Dakota....well, the vendor came from North Dakota, the fabric came from Indonesia!

Some yummy sparkly fabrics that i got from the guys at Woodstock Quilt Supply.

This is a lovely calligraphy and quilt design transferred to fabric by my friend Kathi Giberman of Nova Scotia. She has a great selection of lovely sayings like this set in quilt blocks, as well as many Celtic designs, Nova Scotia scenery, animals, and geometric designs. Her calligraphy and ink work are quite outstanding. I think last year was the first time she brought her designs transferred to fabric...i had to buy several with the idea of making up little wall hangings for some special friends.

Speaking of special friends, my friend Betsy and i always give each other some cat/quilt/book related gifts...in addition to being a very talented quilter in her own right, Betsy is also a cat mom, a professional librarian, and an author. We met years ago at a B&B in Northfield, Vermont, when the Vermont Quilt Festival was still held there and now every year we look forward to sharing a suite at VQF. Here's some really cute ceramic "buttons" that can also be used as stamps.

Unique handprinted cat designs on hand dyed fabric from Marit Lee Kucera of Artspoken Yardage.

Really cute ceramic cat buttons.

A cute pincushion from her local quilt show...picked out especially for me because of the cat fabrics on it.

Last but not least, a kitty cookie cutter Betsy picked up at the King Arthur Flour store on her way up to the quilt festival.

Vermont Quilt Festival (part two)

On Saturday, June 18, i took the "Wee Willow" class with Jane Sassaman. "Wee Willow" is one of four small seasonal quilts that Jane designed. "Wee Willow" is the summer quilt, and it's a much much smaller version of Jane's famous "Willow" quilt, which was named one of the Best 100 Quilts of the 20th Century (she made it in 1996 for her daughter, who was 12 at the time).

Jane Sassaman is well known for her use of forms derived from nature...lots of curves and squiggles, lots of flowers, leaves, thorns, etc...in her own inimitable graphic style. Her technique involves cutting the basic design out of a piece of fabric that has been backed with lightweight nonwoven fusible interfacing and then layering on other pieces that are backed with a fusible (except for the pieces that overlap a dark/light intersection where you don't want the color to show through, and those pieces are backed with the nonwoven fusible interfacing as well). The advantage of having the whole quilt backed with nonwoven interfacing is that she heavily machine embroiders her quilt tops and the interfacing stabilizes it without having to use tearaway stabilizer.

Here's all i accomplished in a 6-hour class...it's the foundation on which the rest of the quilt will be assembled (this is a small piece, about 18" square. (The white piece is also backed with nonwoven fusible interfacing and is set in behind the black, which is all one piece.) Here's the pattern envelope, and some of my many little pieces of flowers, all traced, fused, and ready to go. There's a lot of work left after they get fused to the background: Jane edges each piece with a straight stitch, with a medium zig zag stitch, and then many get some sort of fancy edge stitch. The quilting should be fun...she uses a thick (12-weight) topstitching thread with fairly long stitches, so it almost looks like hand quilting.

Jane brought a whole pile of her quilts to class which were great fun to look through. This is the class sample for her other class at the Vermont Quilt Festival that i didn't get into, called The Personality of a Leaf. Students made a sampler with multiples of pretty much the same leaf and stem, but they're all embellished with different stitches, which changes their appearance a lot. Here's a close up. What fun! I think the cute moth is from one of her fabrics.

And here's a huge moth quilt...the quilt is big (maybe 50 inches square) and moths are big, too! I read somewhere that she made this quilt when she and her family moved from the city to the country and exchanged the wild city life for the wildlife and clear night skies of the country.