Caution Wet Cat!

This is my favorite Halloween fabric find this year.  This is "sebastian ghastly"  from the Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection.  Natalie had this fabric in Beyond the Reef at PIQF and I just had to have some.  I'm glad I did because we sold out in no time.  She also had it with orange background, and yep that sold out too.  Not sure what I'm going to do with it, maybe a quilt, maybe pajama bottoms.

It supposed to be scary but even the sweetest cat looks a bit irritated when he is wet.

The truth is my WillieNo! loves the water as long as its his idea.  He goes into the shower every morning after I'm done and does his bath sitting in the wet shower pan. Then proceeds to track his wet butt and tail all over the house.  If I'm taking a bath he lays on the edge and tries to grab my toes in the water.  Its great fun!

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween everyone!

Love Aunti Nicole

Shoo Fly... Don't Bother Me

Its finally finished!  I started this quilt, wow almost 2 years ago for my dear friend Gina in New Mexico.  I decided to hand quilt it so it had to wait its turn.  I started the hand quilting around the beginning of this year and just finished it.  Now its bound and ready to go.  

Shoe-Fly is a traditional pattern, a simple block with sashing and corner stones.  This was done scrappy and the only fabric I bought was the background.  I love how the colors fade in and out.   I used what we call Uglies mixed with bright pretty fabrics.  Uglies give your quilt character and interest.  Scrappy is fun because you can take fabrics that normally don't go together and they look great together. 

So don't throw out those fabrics you think don't go with anything, cuz I'm here to tell you...they will find a place if you do scrappy.  I mean look at the picture below, would you ever think to put those together in a quilt, no not while they are on the shelves.  But thats the fun of scrappy.

The hand quilting was done with a variegated thread.  I heart variegated thread for hand quilting because it gives your eyes something new to look at every 30 secs or so.  

  

The paisley border was a little out of the theme, so I used a woven check for the binding cut on the bias to bring that country look back into the quilt.

This is my favorite hand quilting find.  Clover's Dome quilted needle case allows me to load 10 needles in one shot.  I load 10 quilting betweens on a needle threader, pull the thread from the spool through the needle threader loop.  Then pull one off at a time, cut it and put it in the dome.  Then the next and so on.  Finally you twist the case and the thread gets tucked in the bottom.  It has a little plastic cover to make it kitty proof.  

I can't tell you how many times my WillieNo! ran off with my pin cushion loaded with needles and I had to find needles in cream carpet.  Assuming I remembered how many I had in the pin cushion.   lol...NOT!

Thanks for stopping by and Gina, I Love You Sister, and I'll have this to you in time for your Anni....Birfday.....Ok, Christmas!  Eh-Wheh-Chu!  Squeeze Jade and Pablo for me.  Squeeze em hard.

Love Aunti Nicole

Two Fun Giveaways!

A couple of my favorite bloggers are hosting giveaways.  How very generous of them.

Thru this friday (Happy Birthday Sarah!) - Confessions of a Fabric Addict, some lovely charm pack give aways, how did she put it Moda Sweetness.
http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2010/10/make-list-monday-18-join-giveaway-too.html

Thru Nov. 5th - Visit Irish Muses for another Go Cutter Giveaway!
 http://thedote.blogspot.com/2010/10/its-time-for-accuquilt-go-giveaway.html

I hope you all win!
Love
Aunti

Tic-Tac...Oh!

I can hardly believe its only been a month since Natalie saw my Bee blocks for September and suggested it would make a great pattern.  I wrote up the pattern, came up with some creative ways of cutting multiple blocks this way.  Grabbed some fabric and got started.  

I wanted to get the pattern done by PIQF so I passed it to my stunt quilter and Mom extraordinaire to do for me.  She did a lovely job, don't you think?.  Thank you Rose of RavenSpeak for the picture! 

Natalie allowed me to set my pattern up in her Beyond the Reef booth at PIQF in Santa Clara.  The quilt never did find a home in the booth and we just kept moving it from here to there right in the big middle.  

We were please to find that the patterns made their way to the cashier all weekend long at PIQF!  

Thanks Natalie and mom for your support as I venture into this new world!

So later when trying to take a good picture of the quilt, WillieNo! went for Pete's jugular.  Pete is just ignoring Willie and me and looking around him to see the TV, lol.  But does't the quilt look warm and yummy.

I just love this Moda line.  I used a jelly roll from the Basicgrey/Origins line, Graph Paper Vanilla for the background and Aromatherapy Brown Sugar for the border. 

So after all that, here is the pattern!  and my new Store :]

Just back from PQIF!

Wow so much to share, I might have to post again tomorrow.  The show was fantastic and I met lots of great  people.  I hung with friends Natalie and Lisa of Beyond the Reef, Rose Hughes of Raven Speak and my favorite quilter Mom.   Lots of Food, Fun and Fabric!  Oh and feet ;] Thanks Natalie for the pedi party.  A great time was had by all, as is customary at Beyond the Reef!

Here's Mom and I was not the good little shutter bug.  Hoping some of my fellow BTR peoples were better at getting pictures of the booth.

Some exciting news!  Natalie allowed me to have my Tic-Tac...Oh! pattern in the booth and we sold a bunch.  It turned out great and I'll post it soon by itself.  There is a sneaky peek in the picture above ;]

Not sure about the rules, on pictures of the quilts at the show, but since it was my favorite and I'm giving her credit I hope its ok.  There were lots of beautiful quilts, but this is the one that stood out to me as a beautiful mix of traditional and modern creativity.  I just love it.

Thank you Terri McNeill & Rebecca Todd of Ireland

******

So why did it take me so long to post?  No I didn't get lost, but had little 3 day job adventure in Bakersfield after PQIF.  Where I met two great quilters by sheer coincidence!  I'm telling you we are everywhere!
I was minding my own business training some engineers how to use AutoCAD Electrical in Bakersfield, when I mentioned to one of the engineers that I had just come from a big quilt show in Santa Clara.  He said, "Your kidding, my wife Ann is a quilter and oh..our administrative assistant Urlene is also a quilter".  So the gals came and met me on my last training day and had lunch and ...show and tell of course.

Ann brought in a few of her beautiful quilts and gave me some yummy looking jelly's that her daughter made for the fair.  My Mom is visiting this weekend and we will have to open it and do the taste test.  Red Hot Pomegranate, Wow.  I can only image at this point.

What great people quilters are!

I hope you all will be there in Santa Clara next year!

Love Aunti Nicole

Won't chu take me to... Wonky Town!

This month's Bee Splendid challenge is for Sue and she has chosen Wonky Town!   This is a fun block and you can experiment with non-symetrical, unstraight and just plain silly architecture.

So here is my interpretation of my townhouse that is the end unit on a building.  But since I cut out the other 3 units that normally ajoined, WillieNo! had to investigate.

Here is a close up of  Wonky Cat.

 For my second block I chose my Mom and Dad's A-frame house that is set out in the middle of the countryside, with a beautiful view of Mt.Shasta  and a pasture across a stream.  Of course you can't see all that, but you can just imagine.

To the see the rest of the blocks made for Sue, check out the Bee Splendid badge over on the side.


3 more days to PIQF! or Piqueef as my husband Pete calls it.

Have a great Sunday!

Love
Aunti

Reverse Appliqué Class

November is coming up soon!  I am so pleased to announced that I will be teaching two classes in November at Orange Quilt Bee in Orange, California.  The people there are so warm and wonderful and shop is just gorgeous.

The first class will be on Reverse Applique and I am looking forward to it.  If you are in the So Cal. area, I would love to have you in the class.


I created this pattern with the class in mind.  I hand quilted because I felt the need to have more to do, lol.  The pattern will be included with the class and is small enough to finish in time for Christmas or at least get you into the spirit of the holidays.  If you have a pattern that you want to use for the class bring it with you, you'll be able to follow along with your pattern as well.

Class Date:  November 14th, 2010
Sign up at http://www.orangequiltbee.com/

Christmas Ornies

Hope to see you there!

Aunti Nicole

PIQF 2010 Santa Clara is Coming!

October 14-16 is Mancuso's Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara.  For the last 3 years, I would up and mom would drive down to meet in the middle in Santa Clara.  We hang out with Natalie and visit the show.  Usually I am only there for the weekend, but this year I am taking some extra time and will be there all four days!

This pic is from last year PIQF 2009, Julie, Natalie, me (short stuff!) and Mom (Jane).  

We had a great time last year and made a new quilting friend Julie Herman of jaybird quilts, she is so animated its like watching cartoons all day.  

I'm bringing a couple of my patterns, one of which my mom is stunt quilting for me.  I will be hanging out doing some Kindle Cover/book cover and reverse appliqué demos.

If you are going to be at the show this year, stop by Beyond the Reef,   Natalie has a great selection of Hawaiin, Beachy (not bitchy) and modern fabrics.  Her booth is always a treat at the show.  Be sure to introduce yourself.

We hope to see you there!

Aunti Nicole