Here is the next of the patterns that I finished quite some time ago but never posted on the website: a Tuxedo Cat Pillow. If you have been following the Tuxedo Cats BOM, you will recognize this kitty from the first block that I published back in January. It is just a 12″ block instead of a 10″ one, and the Flying Geese border is 3″ instead of the 2.5″ from the quilt. I had planned to do a separate pillow pattern from the beginning. Not everyone is such a cat lover that they need a quilt with twelve different blocks, and this is also a great gift for the favourite cat lover in your life. I started selling the printed pattern at the Abbotsford show back in April, and it was a big hit, the patterns sold out right away. Over the summer I turned another block of the quilt into a pillow pattern, I am hoping to post this one next week, so stay tuned.

Click to purchase Tuxedo Cat Pillow pattern

Carla made this quilt top a very long time ago, she thinks probably 25 years. Her original plan was to add appliquéd hearts to the alternate blocks but life got in the way and she decided the quilt was just fine without the hearts. The quilting design is called “Azaleas” and fills the negative space nicely. I am experimenting with taking the pictures in a different spot, with the quilt draped on the frame but I am not sure yet if I like it. I was hoping to get the colours to look better but haven’t had much success. The pink fabric looks too much like bubble gum in the photos, it is a very nice and soft pink in reality. I’ll keep trying!

Arlene made this maritime quilt in blue and white from mostly half-square triangles. The pantograph we chose for quilting is called “Seaside Swirl” and was just perfect for this project. This is another great pattern for using up scraps, it can easily be adjusted to different sizes of half-square triangles and would look great in any colour.

For the first time ever, I am publishing a block early. I will be busy square dancing all weekend, and I don’t want to have to deal with it first thing next week, especially since the Christmas rush is picking up speed, so here is a nice little treat for Halloween. Well, maybe not… it still is October 31 here as I am writing this, and the trick or treating hasn’t even really started yet but for most of you it is already November. Can you believe there is only one block left? I am still undecided if I want to do another BOM next year. I have more ideas than I can ever handle, I just have to decide if I want to put that pressure on myself for another year. I will think about it this month, stay tuned. For November, we have a jumping kitty. Isn’t it amazing how high they can jump just like that? A very long time ago, when I was living in my first apartment back in Germany where we don’t usually have built in closets, I had a big wardrobe in a nook near the entrance door. When I moved out and we took it apart, I discovered paw prints in the dust on top of it. I still don’t know how my silly cat managed to jump up there, I would have sworn it was too high but still she did it. She also managed to fall behind a china cabinet once and get trapped there but that’s a story for another day 😀 The November block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the store section when the final block is published in December.

Click to download Tuxedo Cat #11 pattern (English/Imperial)

Tuxedo Cat #11 Download (Deutsch/Metrisch)

November is just around the corner, and this time I am going to publish the block EARLY. I won’t have time to do it on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and have decided to do it Thursday night instead. Since I am way behind timezone-wise, it will be November 1 for most of you anyway. But this also means that the October block will move to the store section early. If you haven’t downloaded it already, please do it now before I move it on Thursday night.

This is Ginger’s version of the popular Labyrinth Walk pattern. I have quilted one of these before, you can see it here. I decided on a different quilting design this time, it is called “Overlapping Crop Circles”. Isn’t that a great name for a quilting design? It spoke to me right away, and it was perfect for Ginger’s quilt. The curves complement the strict geometric lines, the circles/spirals have something of a labyrinth, and they also went really well with the circular pattern of the black fabric that Ginger used in her quilt top. I love how this one turned out. But why I didn’t realize that the quilt is upside down in the picture I took will forever remain a mystery 😉

Nancy purchased the kit for this “Stars for a Cure” quilt a very long time ago. I was curious and did some research… the pattern was published in 1997! Wow, what a blast from the past! Nancy was motivated to finish it for this year’s quilt show. I quilted it a while back, she had the top done with lots of time to spare. The pattern we chose is called “Lapis”.

As promised in my previous post, I am working on adding my new patterns to the website. Today I am starting with the newest, a Halloween pattern that I just finished writing, it isn’t available in a printed version yet. We did a mug rug swap at our guild meeting this month, and although a Halloween design wasn’t required, this is what I came up with. These little guys make me laugh, aren’t they super cute? They don’t take long to make, you can still finish them in time for Halloween.

Dieses Muster ist auch auf Deutsch/metrisch verfügbar. Ich weiß, ich weiß, ich hatte gesagt, ich veröffentliche keine deutschen Muster mehr, aber dann setzte plötzlich ein Run auf die Ginger & Fred Mug Rugs ein, also habe ich probeweise doch wieder eine deutsche Anleitung geschrieben.

Click to purchase Boo! pattern (English/Imperial)

(Kauf)Anleitung Boo! (Deutsch/Metrisch)

I was busy all day with my booth but I went in early on Saturday morning to take a quick look at the show that I had helped set up. Quite a few quilts in the show had been quilted by me, and I tried to take pictures of the others, so I would have something to show that you haven’t seen here before. It was a great show, lots of amazing quilts. The only big quilt I had in the show was the finished sample of the Tuxedo Cats. Two blocks haven’t been published yet but here is a preview of what the finished quilt looks like.

My booth was right next to the entrance, and everybody had to pass me on their way to the hall with the big quilts. It started a little slow but around lunch time on Saturday things got very busy and stayed that way almost until the end of the show. Looking at the pictures of my booth, I realized that I have several patterns that I have been selling at shows but never uploaded to the website or even mentioned here on my blog. I will start working on that… we’ll see how that goes with the Christmas rush coming up. One gentleman was in awe of my Pansies pattern, he loved the colours and how realistic the flowers look, and after he had seen the show he came back to my booth because he wanted to vote for my Pansies as Best in Show 🙂 He was very disappointed when I told him he had to find another favourite quilt since my sample was not part of the actual show.

Encounters like this one make up for the negative parts. Somebody actually stole from me this time. Three patterns went missing and haven’t turned up. I also stopped someone trying to walk away with another three and made them pay for what they picked. It might have been an honest mistake but judging by their behaviour (which had made me watch them in the first place) I don’t think so. I usually just have one bin of patterns out for people to dig through, and that makes it easy to watch and pay attention to where the patterns go. This time I had three, apparently that was too much for the busy time. Next time I will be prepared and go back to just one bin.

But enough ranting, it was a great show, we had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed those two days very much. Here are a few impressions of the show, I hope you enjoy them as well.

I should have posted this yesterday but didn’t have time at all, sorry about that. I helped with the set up and hanging in the morning and then set up my booth. By the time I got home, I was ready for bed, and that’s where I went after having some food. We have a great show at the Alliance Church, if you are in the area please come and visit today. The weather isn’t going to be great, so being inside looking at beautiful quilts is a great way to spend your Saturday. Come and say hi, you can’t miss me, everybody has to pass my booth on their way to the main hall. 

Sandra made this quilt based on a Missouri Star Quilt Co. pattern for Jelly Rolls. You have probably seen the original pattern, I have quilted at least two of them, you can see them here and here. But Sandra decided to go down a different route and didn’t arrange the blocks to form a star pattern. Instead she laid them out diagonally and added solid squares in between to give the quilt a more modern look. She wanted the background filled with just one pattern, and we chose these spirals, a pattern called “Overlapping Crop Circles. I just quilted in the ditch around the arrows to make them stand out more against the background.

It’s almost mid-October, and Christmas will be here in no time. Carol at Just Let Me Quilt is hosting her Virtual Cookie Exchange and Blog Hop again this year, and I couldn’t help but sign up. Mark your calendars and make sure you don’t miss the fun. I already have a recipe in mind that I am going to share, and depending on time and inspiration I might come up with more fun stuff. Yes, I know… I always complain about how busy I am but you have probably realized by now that I just can’t not be busy. And it’s quilty stuff which means it is mostly fun. Carol hosts awesome blog hops, I wish I could join more of them. Right now the Halloween Witchy Stitchy Hop is going on, check it out if you haven’t already done so.