It's Been a While....

My husband has been on vacation the last two weeks and we've been busy.  We went to a Cider Mill, walking, Quilt Shows, Flea Markets and watched our 2 granddaughters for a week.
Oh yeah and my leg healed up and I was able to walk in the 2 mile "Step Out for Diabetes" at the Detroit Zoo.

First the Cider Mill....guess what?  I didn't get a picture of the mill, but took some pictures of the river and a butterfly.

The path is along an old railroad bed.  It went for about a mile.  It was very relaxing listening to the sound of the river rolling along.

Here is the butterfly, although it looked more like a moth.  The body was very thick and if you look closely you can see it's antennae.

This is what greeted us as we walked to the Quilt Show at Wolcott Mills Metro Park.  It was such a beautiful Autumn day.

I loved the hand quilting and the ribbon border on this quilt.

Don't you just love Halloween Quilts?

The Quilt Show took place in the historic Mill building.  It was small, but I really enjoyed it.  This was my first quilt show since I moved back down from Up North.

We found another small quilt show in Hadley, Michigan.

The machine quilting is so fantastic on this quilt.

This was a favorite of my Husband's.  Since he is such a Civil War buff he loves anything
with reproduction CW fabrics.

My sewing machine has been acting up lately.  I was checking out new machines on Amazon and saw a Brother Sewing Machine I was interested in.  I went to my local Brother dealer and found a machine that had some features I was looking for.  Needle down position, quilting stitch, a blanket stitch that is easy to adjust in many different sizes, and I can run it without using the foot pedal.

 Here she is.  It is a Project Runway, Novis 4o.  I love it.  Since I spent last week at my daughter's watching the girls I didn't have much time to play.  I'm making up for it this week.  I also go a wonderful surprise from a friend.  My husband's friend's daughter gave me a featherweight sewing machine.  It was her grandmother's and she doesn't use it.  She knows I sew so she gave it to me.  Now my featherweights number 4.  I think I need to sell one.  lol

 I did get a couple of projects finished.

You know when you make a square in a square block?  Well this little quilt

was made from trimmings.  It will probably be a AAQI quilt.

It is approx. 8"x11".

This is the quilt I made for the Quilts, books and Binding group I belong to.  We read

a book and then we were to make a quilt that represents something

from the book.  The book takes place in the fall in a town in New York that is

on the banks of the Hudson river.  This is the spot that Nell  was re-proposed to

and where she went to think.  I call it "Nell's side of the River". 

It will also be an AAQI quilt. 

This has been a lengthy post but I hope you enjoyed it.

Later this week I hope to share some news with you....

and I'm hoping to have a giveaway...

So stay tuned.

Wishing you a quilty day!

Hugs, Cathy

I've been lurking lately...

I haven't been doing to much lately, just lurking, reading a few blogs.

I have worked on some applique and hand quilting.  Nothing really ready to show you yet. 

I've had an infection in my leg and am on antibiotics and have had to keep off my feet.  Normally that wouldn't bother me but I can't sit at my sewing machine.

I'm all set to start a year long Bee at 15 minutes play.  And we have been asked to say what has inspired us to quilt.

My inspiration comes from new family members, nature, photos, books, Alzheimer's,  holidays, friendship and fabric.

Here are some of my original works from my inspirations.  I hope you enjoy.

What inspires you?

Hugs, Cathy

So Much Done....

First of all a question.  What do you think of my new header picture?  It reminds me of the end of summer.
I've been busy this last week.

This is September's EQ7 BOM.  It was a difficult block that I made easier by dividing up the block into squares and triangles. 

Here is the nine blocks all together.  It is going to be a nice wall hanging when its done.

I got behind on my Barbara Brackman CW Blocks.  Now I'm up to date. 

I really love the 15 minutes play BOM.  I ran out of cheddar and bought some new fabric.  It is slightly different but I think it will work.  This is the Anvil block.  Victoria posted a tutorial for the block on the 15 minutes play blog.  The link is on my side bar.

Here is Cowen's quilt.  I just finished sewing down the binding this morning and had to hang it up to get a picture.  I love how it turned out.  I machine quilted in the ditch on the pieced blocks and had quilted either a heart or star in the plain blocks.  I backed it with some flannel fabric.  Now we await the arrival of Cowen.

I've mentioned before that I belong to a group called "Quilters, Books and Bindings".  We are all reading the same book and then we are making a quilt from some aspect of the book.  The book is The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue.  It takes place in a town on the shores of the Hudson River.  In the book there is a scene along the river where the main character in the book is re-proposed to .  This is what my quilt is based on.  I made it small so I can kill two birds with one quilt.  When I'm done it will be my September AAQI quilt.

And finally.....

I'm changing out my quilts again.  I love this Log Cabin quilt.  I was given a ton of strips from a quilting friend.  At the time my daughter, Kim, was just starting to sew so I offered them to her.  She declined by saying you can't make anything from them.  Well I just had to prove her wrong.  This is what I came up with.  You know my scraps are getting bigger so I think it is time to make another Log Cabin quilt. 

I hope you have had a nice time visiting with me today.  I've enjoyed sharing. 

Wishing you a quilty weekend.

Hugs, Cathy