Happy Thanksgiving!

This is our cat, Charlie, reminding you to be thankful in all things!

Charlie came to us the night we moved into our house, a very skinny burr infested stray. Our two other cats were not excited to see him but he made his way into our lives and into our hearts. Although he feels he should get more attention and definitely more tuna, if cats can be thankful I'm sure he is!

The "Be Thankful" quilt is a Pat Sloan design (maybe) from way back when. Because I didn't think my cutting and piecing skills were very accurate, I decided to try making folk art type quilts which I thought would be more forgiving. Instead, I made a lot of mistakes on it and had a terrible time trying not to match things up! I was, indeed, very thankful when this quilt was finished. It usually hangs on our living room wall during this season but this year, it became a couch quilt and we like it there!

I haven't blogged much lately simply because I'm working on some larger projects and not getting anywhere fast. Remember my clamshell quilt? I've been working on it off and on for over a year now but I'm determined to get the top done by the end of the year! I've finished all 13 of the clamshell diamonds and am now hand piecing the side half diamonds.

Last week, a local quilt shop was having a storewide 25% off sale so after doing numerous calculations and rounding up for a little extra just in case, I purchased fabric for the borders and sashing. I hope I purchased enough fabric!

For those of you in the United States, I wish you all a very meaningful and happy Thanksgiving! We are sharing our Thanksgiving dinner with two other families. I'm in charge of making the pies which I enjoy making. I'm planning to make Pumpkin, Pecan and Apple pies and maybe a pumpkin roll. What I'm not planning to do is step on our scale for a few days!

Ta-Da!

Here it is, finally finished!

"The Parlour's Tin Ceiling Quilt",
my version of Jacquie's Tin Ceiling Quilt!
You can get the tutorial and see her quilt here and here.

The quilting design is by Angela Walters. I liked it so much that I asked my machine quilter, Jan, to do something similiar on my version of the quilt. Yes, it does remind me of the tin ceiling in my parents' farmhouse! However, we certainly weren't fancy enough to have a "parlour" so that's a reference to the spiderweb. Perhaps you remember a poem about a spider and a fly, "Will you walk into my parlour, said the Spider to the Fly."

Thank you to everyone who sent me selvages! Some responded from a request on this blog and others heard about it at quilt guild. Even after making the border, which I thought would use almost all of the selvages, I still have some left. Looks like there may be another selvage project for me but definitely not one this large! It began as a throw and ended up Queen sized.

The pictures have been brightened up a little to show the quilting but the quilt is still a little on the bright side. You may have to put on your sunglasses to look at the back! Can you guess that I really like bright pink?