Kitty Pillow 2.0

I don't know who made it, but I have a cat-shaped pillow that was given to me when I was a baby. We've always called it "kitty pillow" and I still use it all the time
After a recent trip to visit friends, I decided to make one for Carmella. She's 8 and loves cats so it seemed like a good, easy gift. Amy Butler has a pattern called "Cozy Kitty" which is like kitty pillow but kind of Japanese looking.
I made the mistake of picking two busy fabrics for the body and face. They both also have circular patterns, so the eyes sort of blended into the face. I tried to accent them with embroidery. I'm not sure it was fully-successful.
Carmella is also becoming interested in sewing, so maybe she'll be able to perfect the pattern :)

Spring Planting

I'm currently under the illusion that I can successfully grow plants. A few weeks ago I started seeds for basil and cherry tomato plants. Brian was skeptical and said that it was too early to grow plants in Maryland. He also said it was wiser to buy established plants from a garden center instead of starting from seeds. He was wrong about the first part because my seeds are sprouting and we've had warm Spring weather already. I'm trying to prove him wrong on the second point, but that will take months of paying attention to these little guys. I'll keep you posted.

More Baby Stuff

Another changing pad for another baby. This one is for my cousin Heather who I think is due in May. I also made a couple of more taggy blankets and am officially out of ribbon, so no more babies until I can stock up again!


I also made this hooded towel for Sarah and Danny because I'd love to fill the diaper bag that I made for them with goodies. The pattern was from the PurlBee but they used a bias tape method and I just sewed right sides together, turned inside-out, and topostitched.

San Francisco Quilt Show

The San Francisco Quilt Guild held its bi-annual show this past weekend. This is the first time I've participated in the show as a member. It was fun, and exhausting (even though I only had to do two easy shifts taking money at the door)! The picture above is my Wednesday sewing circle, which is just a small group of guild members who get together every other week to work on projects together. We made this group quilt by cutting up a picture and each making a quilt to represent one "slice" of the image. Then they were hung up sie-by-side to re-create the picture. Each of us used whatever techniques we wanted to, so each panel is different. It was great fun to put together and seemed to generate a lot of interest at the show. Every time I tried to take a picture of it, it had a group of people standing in front of it. Late on the last day of the show, we all got together for this picture. The members are Priscilla, Dani, Melissa, Dorte, me, and Janelle. Missing is Carol, who is in Australia and mailed us her finished panel from there! The project was Carol's suggestion as we were debating what kind of group quilt we could make for the show.

The only other quilt I entered was this small (24" square) challenge quilt. The challenge topic was "How Green is your Quilt?". I wanted to try this paper-piecing pattern that I found in a magazine, so I made it to represent green trees and used it for the challenge quilt. There were ~20 quilts in the challenge exhibit, with many different interpretations of "green".

There were so many beautiful quilts, of all kinds, in the show that I couldn't take pictures of all of them. This one is one of my favorites, made by the featured quilt artist, Judi Mathieson. I think I'll try to make one like it with some of my Asian fabrics.
These quilt shows are so inspiring - I'll undoubtedly be trying to do more quilting in the days ahead. Maybe by the next show in 2011 I'll be ready to enter a quilt for judging!