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