Dilly of a Day

Look at me posting at any random time.  Seems weird, I always thought if I didn't get that post out there first thing in the morning, my day would be ruined. But now, well, any old time is fine.  I do miss the old blog days, road trips, projects, shopping, all the ridiculous lunch pictures!  Yak yak yak.  I guess really we're doing the micro version of that on IG but somehow following the thread of people's lives  is harder. 

 

ANYWAY! Last week I had sew day with the Debbies!  I had a great time, always so lucky to be included.  Debbie hosted and Deb came up from San Louis Obsipo and we had a lovely time.  Debbie always makes a good lunch and we bring snacks and make a day of it.  I brought my dilly flowers to hand stitch.  I had one ready to sew together and 2 other sets of fabrics prepped.  I stitched together the pink one that I had ready left over from another sew day and then with their encouragement I managed to get two more complete!  SO SHOCKING.

 

I mean I get it, slow progress and a poor showing for real EPP people but for me it's huge, I generally don't have the attention span to keep at it.  I can't believe I have 6.  I really enjoyed it and felt like oh, maybe I could make something with them! #someday

In the mean time I'll hang them on my chunk of old fence that after years  I finally hung up.  It looked so moody on the last dark and stormy day I snapped a photo.  I don't know how many years I moved that fence around the house waiting to hang it up.

 

Everyone had one way back when I finally found my piece, but somehow I just couldn't find the perfect spot. Now when I walk down the hall I can see it out the corner of my eye and it always makes me happy. 

 

Hope all is well with you friends!

Treating myself to something fun

Morning friends!  How are you?  It's been chilly here in PamKittyVille and if you follow me on Instagram you saw that the surrounding foothills had snow!  Ok sure, for you people who get legit snow it's kid stuff but exciting for us here in the bay area.  Snow to 500 feet??? I'll take it!  

 

Anyway the chillier wet weather we've been having has me at the sewing machine.  I treated myself to a 12 inch  rotating Olfa mat,  and a BlueBirds on Roses charm pack, designed by the ever adorable Elea Lutz for Penny Rose Fabrics. 

 

I had a cute vintage bluebirds runner and I wanted to use it with this fabric but truth be told, the scale was a bit off for the small sweet designs and I couldn't bear to cut it up. 

 

But my idea to use this fabric with  embroidery  was firmly planted in my head, so I decided to see what kind of vintage embroidery designs I could find from Aunt Martha.  I'm not much of an embroiderer,  so I was looking for something cute and small in scale, and I came across these kittens.  I loved that little group of 3 faces there and the scale was perfect.

 

 

I wanted to make a  table runner/dresser scarf sized project with a curved edge so with the charm pack and  1/4 yard of a white solid this is what I came up with. I loved using my rotating mat to cut my charm pack pieces.  I look forward to using it with more projects. 

 

When I was stitching the kittens I thought about how when using a vintage piece, there might not be two  matching pieces, so I did some simple applique on the other end. If you didn't feel like embroidery you could  have applique on both ends, or just use the blocks. Those rail fence blocks are pretty fun to make.  (3inch finished)

 

 

The kittens are sweet and seeing them makes me tempted to stitch more of them. But also, unlikely to happen.  

 

So that's one of the things I've been up to.  It turned out just  as I imagined it.  Elea's collections is super cute, so I'm glad I picked up a couple of pieces of yardage.  I used the white focal print for the binding, I love how old fashioned it looks on that plain white.  (it's not actually white white, it's Riley Blake Confetti Cottons Off White)

 

That's the fun I've been having, what's up with you?

Olfa Quilt Along

Hi there friends!  You've probably heard the news by now, Olfa is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Rotary Cutter.  To celebrate they've introduced a Ruby Red Rotary Cutter and you know how much I love red!!!  Do I use it? Do I hoard it???? ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!

 

Olfa is also celebrating with a Quilt Along! You can read all about it over on the Olfa Blog, and today marks the start with a block by Beth Helfter.

 

 

My friend Roseann designed this quilt with all the blocks contributed and it was quilted by Marilyn Kidd. It turned out great.  I love how all those Splash colors pop against the snow in this photo. 

 

I hope you'll check it out, and quilt along with us!!!  Be sure and click over to the Olfa blog post to read all about it.  You can follow along over on the Olfa Instagram page and/or the Facebook page! 

 

 You can also see more by following these hashtags:

#olfa40

#olfacreates 

#olfaquiltalong

#olfaruby

 

Hope all is well with you friends!! xo