Finishes to Share!

I've got two finishes to share today.  (Mostly because I forgot to show the table runner -- it's been done since early January!)

First up is this table runner.  If you remember it was an easy mystery that Sharon shared with my local guild.  Super fun and most people got it done pretty quickly.  A few of us had to finish it at home, which I did, eventually.  You can see more about it here.  I was really pleased with the quilting design I put on each of the stars which you can see somewhat on the finished table runner. I used a blue butterfly fabric on the back thinking I might be able to use that side every once and a while.  But, honestly, it just isn't all that exciting.

I also finished the Cuddly Creatures Challenge quilt.  Faithful Circle Quilters had been given a lot of fabric that was divided  up in paper bags.  Participants were able to pick one bagful of fabric (sight unseen) to make a quilt that is going be donated to Project Linus. Hum, my "cuddly creatures" were hummingbirds, in three or four different color ways. And, strawberries in a couple of different color ways, and flowers.  Definitely not my idea of Cuddly Creatures.  Not even my idea of great kid fabric.   You've seen the quilt several times over the last month or two.  I added some extra fabric from my stash and a whole lot of Kona cotton in a neutral color.  I am tickled with the end result.  I pieced the back with the leftover fat quarters.  Voila! The finished quilt. I bought a new edge to edge pattern called Feather Boa. I used a tan So Fine thread.  You should be able to click on any of these pictures to enlarge them.

I've been trying to get more things done on my to-do list this week with some success despite being in Maryland for most of the week. I am hoping to get my February OMG quilt on the frame to quilt over the weekend. 

I'm linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday hosted by Sunlight in Winter Quilts, Fabric Frenzy at Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Can I just add I LOVE the orange fabrics being shown at Fort Worth Fabric Studio!  But I'm not buying any -- I need to use fabric, rather than buy fabric!

I spent from Sunday to Thursday with Jenny and the grands.  Jenny was suppose to work on President's Day but the University was closed because of snow.  Her hubby's on a long work trip.  She had a lot of important meetings this week and didn't want to have to cancel them for sick children.  Grammy to the rescue!  Here's Sophie being led astray by Grammy.  Did you know Goldfish crackers fit in the mouth of a triceratops perfectly?  

Happy Quilting All!  

ZOO Time

And I don't mean it's a zoo around here.  While Sophia and Natalie were here this weekend we went to the Richmond Zoo.  I was afraid it wouldn't stand up to the National Zoo they visit in DC but I was definitely wrong. When we paid for our admission we also bought a cup of food and a food stick for each girl.  Boy, was that the right thing to do! 

We arrived right after it opened and the animals were awake and hungry for the most part.  And NOISY! This guy reminded me so much of the king in Madagascar.  Those artists really must have studied ringtail lemurs to get the movements and postures correct. 

This monkey, I don't remember looking at the tag so he might have been something like a monkey but not really a monkey.  There were a lot of gibbons at the zoo so he might have been a gibbon! Yea, he probably was a gibbon.

It really looks like the girls were in with the gibbon but there was a glass between them.  This cute guy was hooting and hollering the whole time we were with him.  He sounded surprisingly like a some little girls I know.  He had a small ledge that he sat on while he watched the kids as the kids watched him. 

We saw a lot of other animals before we came to the big attraction of the Richmond Zoo -- the giraffes. Who wouldn't want to try to feed a giraffe? As we walked over to the giraffe enclosure we had giraffes on both side of us and we were actually looking at some right in the face!  It turns out that part of their enclosure is much lower so we could get a view of their faces up close and personal.

Yep, we could feed the giraffes but um, that was a long, wet, black tongue that came out to eat the pellets. Yuck! 

The girls weren't too sure about feeding this guy. Although eventually Sophie did but Natalie was all for dropping the pellets close by. 

Pat got to pet this one.  He was a younger giraffe with nice smooth antlers? Tops?  The older giraffe's tops? antlers? had lots of nobs on them. 

Next up was a little petting section.  Of course the animals were much more interested in the food the girls were holding. 

And then there was the sneaky camel.  He was happy to eat the food you gave him but when you started paying attention to the goats in the same enclosure he started eating your jacket or purse or a baby's outfit.  He didn't care what he tried to get! 

Near all the enclosures that allowed us to feed the animals there was hand sanitizer stations of which we made liberal use.

The Budgie enclosure was really cool except Natalie really didn't like lots of birds hanging around her.  The stick food was to feed these birds. 

These birds were swarming whoever had a stick.  Some were pretty aggressive keeping others from getting to "their" food.  This was a great way to see canaries and budgies up close and personal...whether you wanted to or not!  Natalie was all about not.

We took a train ride to see some of the animals in a more natural habitat.  Pat and Sophie got a cute selfie. 

After a couple of hours the girls were getting tired and hungry.  We decided to leave the other section of the zoo for another day.  Yep, I'd say the girls really enjoyed the Richmond Zoo and will probably want to go see the animals they missed next time they come down.  Hopefully it won't be dead of summer.  By the time we were leaving the animals were quiet.  All but one of the prairie dogs was sleeping. The gibbon wasn't howling.  It was time to let the animals take a mid-afternoon siesta.  We could use a nap too.  

It's time for me to get back to quilting.  I have one more customer quilt to get done this week.  And, then there are Christmas presents waiting to be done.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Tuesday -- A Day Late and a Dollar Short...

Whatever!  Here it is Tuesday and I'm doing my normal Monday post.  I think I would be better off if I actually wrote my Monday post on Sunday.  Maybe then I would get back on track! What's been happening this past week... 

I stitched out a few edge to edge designs on Ruthie.  I figure it is nice to be able to show someone what a design actually looks like on fabric. This is called Chamomile, designed by Denise Schillinger.  I bought it at DigitechPatterns.com.   

My order came in from Connecting Threads.  Oooh boy!  What was I thinking?  I sure bought a lot of fabrics.  One thing I was thinking was these prices were too good to pass up. I ended up with over 12 yards of fabric.  Mostly in fat quarters so I got a good variety.  

I spent some time drawing a little 9 patch quilt in EQ.  I don't use EQ as much as I should but I was super tickled I was able to draw what I really want to make with those cute little 9 patches I showed you in my last post.  When I get the ok from my customer I'll get going on this little one. 

I thought I hadn't done well on my goals this week but when I looked at them, I realized I actually had done ok.  I'm making forward progress. 

Week of November 2, 2015

Quilt samples of various different quilt designs√

Quilt one charity quilt √

Cross Stitch – FINISH it NOW! √ all stitched now to make them up!

Easy Street – make setting triangles -- 2 done, 10 to go

Add border to Zig Zag quilt nope!  

Here's this week's goals... 

Week of November 9, 2015

Quilt donation quilts (acually 2)

Finish setting triangles for Easy Street

Make up cross stitch ornaments

Finish another pair of mittens
Add border to Zig Zag quilt

Here's a picture of Sophie reading a book given to Ellie for her birthday.  Sophie loves books! She's sitting in a little recliner we gave Ellie for Christmas last year.  It gets used a lot! 

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Love Laugh Quilt, Freemotion by the River and Blossom Heart Quilts.  Take a look at what's going on in studios across the internet. 

Happy Quilting!