Ferns and more Possum

 

Evelyn made this quilt for a grandchild's wedding present and managed to get it finished only a few months after the actual wedding.  She said she chose the border fabric because it looked like ferns, so I chose to quilt it with ferns rather than feathers. 

In my last post I showed a picture of a possum that visits my yard from time to time.  Leeanne from New Zealand commented on how different the possum in New Zealand look so I looked for pictures on the internet and she is right!  I think her possum are much cuter - ours look more like big old rats.  Look at that bushy tail!

Raining Cats and Dogs and Opossum

 

 

 

This is a cute Bunny Hill design called Raining Cats and Dogs made by Mary from Charlotte's Sew Natural in Newton. She did a beautiful job on the applique and I guess there is more embroidery and embellishments to come now that the quilting is finished.

I used Invisifil thread which is 100 wt. polyester and wonderful for stitch in the ditch.  I had a little problem with thread breakage which usually doesn't happen for me with this thread - I guess it's just a bad thread karma kind of day.

 

 

Nice to have wool batting to really make the quilting stand out.

 

 

 

 

I put food out for a few of the many feral cats in my neighborhood and try to do it in small amounts so I don't attract starlings and other unwanted wildlife.  This little guy found a few stray crunchies.  He looks like a funny little old man. 

 

 

 

And now for 2013

And now for 2013. I never could have imagined a year ago that I would be facing it without Peter. 

The quilt above is for the MQS Charity Quilt booth.  My friend Tricia is in charge and she decided to use this quilt, which is much more ambitious than most of the quilts that are donated, as a raffle quilt.  She asked our longarm group for a volunteer to quilt it and  no one volunteered -  we were all facing a busy holiday season and no one had time.  Plus, Tricia wanted it custom quilted and not everyone does that.  Later, when I heard that the organizations to benefit from the Charity Booth were Harry Hynes Hospice and Victory in the Valley (an organization that supports cancer patients) I knew that I had to quilt it.  Both groups were so wonderful and helpful to Peter and to me.

This is a Thimbleberries pattern and I know I have quilted a couple of these - I wasn't sure how successful custom quilting would be on it since it's pretty busy.  I struggled to come up with ideas for it and ended up doing something kind of whimsical, with words quilted on the blocks: Home Tweet Home, Birds of a Feather Flock Together and so on. 

I quilted it with the new Superior Magnifico thread which I wasn't as thrilled with as I am with their other threads.  It doesn't seem to show up as shiny and impressively as Glide thread but had some of the same problems.  It's also more expensive.  Has anyone else had the same reaction to it?


Today I drove to Manhattan with Tammy and Nancy to have our quilts appraised by AQS Certified Appraiser Carol Elmore.  I forgot to take pictures until the last one, Nancy's wallhanging.

Last weekend I visited Material Girls quilt shop in Wichita to meet my friend Siriporn and here is one of the shop samples she quilted - didn't she do an amazing job on it? 

Here is Cathy working at the shop - I wonder what that customer was saying to give her that expression!

And to finish up - some cat pictures:

Lily helping me read the newspaper.

One of my favorite Christmas gifts from my sister, a wind-up inch worm. 

 

Elsie wasn't so sure about it at first...

 Then it was love.