Make

Good Monday Morning everybody! How was the weekend? Turns out here, we weren't panic stricken, which was a surprise. I'm sure this week I'll get that crazy feeling again,but this weekend felt kind of relaxed almost. Can't last, right?


I know in my interview with Tina, I said I wasn't making anything for Christmas gifts, but things come up and sometimes a cute handmade gift can come in handy. I used Elizabeth's free pattern for the tea towel, you can find it on her side bar, just scroll a bit till you see the pears tea towel button. I didn't add any applique, although some strawberries might have been cute. I used what I had on hand, plenty of PKM fabric. I added extra ruffles, all finished the same way you finish one ruffle, I like the nice finished edges.

Then I made a towel and pot holder set. You know you can get the pot holder instructions on my sidebar right? Very easy, I mean look, even I managed to get it mostly round. No one beats Elizabeth though when it comes to nice round pot holders.

I think Santa will be dropping this gift off with a bag of Holiday Peet's Coffee. But shhh, don't tell.

By the way! Check this out!

Chilly

That whooshing sound we just heard was our week flying past! How can it be Friday already? I don't know about you guys but the panic is setting in. I'm working on a Christmas project, didn't get the great idea till the last minute. Probably not a genius move on my part. But isn't that how these things go?


It was in the thirties again over night! Aren't I clever putting my cup of coffee on the birdbath? (roll your eyes, it's ok) It sure needs a good scrubbing, so I'll add that to the list. First thing in the morning I empty it and put in fresh water, and refill the dog bowl that's frozen. My nutty little girl dog Peep only will drink from the water outside, so I keep that full and fresh for her. Can't have her getting her tongue stuck!

That's the kind of mundane thing going on here. That and my secret Christmas project. What about there?

Day Trippin'

Tuesday I had a chance to head down to the Monterey Bay area for the day. The weather was absolutely perfect, like it usually is this time of year. Cool, but sunny and clear.

I did all the stuff we normally do, head over to the cemetery to see the deer.. they were pretty lazy this time, normally they walk right up to your car.

Then I headed to a little turn out spot along the scenic drive to see if I could see any good wildlife. There were a ton of otters, the most I've seen in years. I wish I had my binoculars. Seeing them dive in flipping their tails was so fun.

The flock of Cormorants were pretty noisy, for several minutes it was all about them shrieking. WOW. Like angry toddlers.

Most amazing stop of the day was at the Monarch Sanctuary. I got there around 1pm and it was just getting warm enough for them to start moving about. At first you don't notice them, it just looks like tons of dry leaves.. but as they begin to warm up, they start fluttering about, breathtaking.

Down in a sunny patch, there were a bunch just flying about, landing, then flying off. It was completely magical.

Maybe next year.

After yesterday's shocking revelation about the proximity of Christmas, I promptly drank my coffee and got busy online ordering stuff. What about you? That managed to quell the inner panic and I felt like I deserved a bit of a reward. I mean it sounds perfectly reasonable, right?

The kite ruler I had ordered had been sitting around for a while and I figured I'd better try out a block. I have a bad habit to committing to something before I know the pitfalls, like why would I 'waste' good fabric testing a block. I'm not very mature sometimes.

Good thing because you can see my piecing is a bit off. Those mismatched edges are just the kind of thing that drives me nuts. The ruler comes with a nice set of instructions for cutting and piecing, but I would have liked a little blow up of the matching points, you know? Triangles can be such a mystery. (triangles are cut using the Kaleido-ruler) OHMYGOSH I AM SUCH A DORK. I just looked at that template again and there are holes at the match points so you can mark them. Honestly. I totally know about those kinds of things, why didn't I pay more attention? See this is why you test stuff out.

Another thing I wanted to try is a kaleidoscope block that didn't use triangles to make the corners. Slightly better luck there. If you want to see a lovely kaleidoscope quilt check out Jennifer's quilt here. She uses a different method and ruler. You can see her instructions here and here. If you don't know Jennifer she's very talented and has a lovely style.


Of course the real reason I acquired this ruler is to totally copy Mary. You can see how far I have gotten with that. Insert my maniacal laughter here.

Have a good day peoples!

Panic

Good morning my friends! How are you? Was the weekend good? I'll tell you what got me in a panic on Saturday, Twitter Santa tweeted there were only 2 more weekends till Christmas and I lost it. Did you catch up with me on Saturday over at Tina's place? There's still time to leave a comment for a chance to win a little stash off PKM goodness. Did you leave a comment over at the Strawberry Patches blog? I made a little video yesterday picking the winner. Check it out. I'm a nut.

Anyway, I'm going to give in and get in a panic later today about Christmas. But for now I'm just going to enjoy my coffee. You should too. Plenty of time for panic later. xo

Here and There

This morning you can find my regular mug of coffee over at Tina's place! Tina is interviewing creative people this month in her Knitting Contrissmas Series. Twenty five days of creativity and I'm thrilled to be a part of the series.

Today is Sarah's day here at PKM. Her morning cup looks lovely doesn't it? I think this photograph captures what I love about Sarah's quilts, they're rich with color, they feature modern and traditional styles and there's always a little something unexpected.

Sarah's newest book, Quilting From Little Things is making it's US debut now. Like others on the tour have mentioned, it introduces you to a technique with a small piece, then you can move on to a larger quilt using those skills. I really like the opportunity to explore something without commitment.

Of course it's not just about techniques and sewing, it's about exploring your style, discovering new ideas and techniques, and about buying and hoarding fabric. "I don't ever feel bad about how much fabric I have - the fabric is as essential to my inspiration as the actual construction of the quilts." Those words alone can set you free people.

I have made one of the small projects from Sarah's book, Rebel with a Rotary. It is a very fast and easy project. I like that the book includes templates, but also instructs you in using your regular everyday ruler as well as specialty rulers. The instructions are clear, the diagrams charming and informative and the photography is breathtaking.

My friend Roseann told me once that traditional quilters (like me) often buy modern fabric but use it in ways they understand. Sarah's quilts show me how to use fabric in new ways within my traditional style, and how traditional style can be transformed into something fresh and new.

Want to see more of Sarah's book, be sure and visit the other blogs on the tour.
Fat Quarterly
Amy Ellis
Thomas Knauer
Camp Follower Bags
Ryan Walsh Quilts
The Happy Zombie
Moda Lissa
Mrs Schmenkman Quilts
True Up
Pink Chalk Fabrics
Pam Kitty Morning You're here!
Coming up tomorrow
Sew, Mama, Sew!
Pat Sloan

Looking to purchase a copy of Sarah's book? Martha Pullen is offering blog tour readers a discount of $5. Use promo code QUILTLITTLE to get your savings before the blog tour promotion expires (7/31/12).

Lastly, I want to say thank you to Sarah, for not only including me in her blog tour, but for including me in her list of Inspirational Blogs in the Resources section of her book. I would have never imagined that I could be included in a list of blogs that I admire so much and am inspired by on a regular basis.

The luckiest of ducks.

It was a cold wind blowing through our neighborhood. Alice-Jane's shrubs are yellow with my leaves. I'll be out there as soon as it dies down.

I had a leisure filled day yesterday, Frankie and I went over to Niles for some antique shopping and then had some tasty Chinese noodle soup. We might have watched some crime fighting tv.

The end of the day brought a polka-package from my friend Sharon. Could this bag be any cuter? I don't think so. Neither could Sharon. Or her Hunka.

And as if that wasn't enough, my sweet friend Kelly posted an interview with me over at her blog. Kelly is a fabric designer with a new line coming out with Andover. Thanks Kelly!

Speaking of darling young friends, do you read Delish Magazine? It's a free online publication. My friend Amanda has a recipe in there, and believe me, if Amanda's making it, it's, well... delish!

Of course don't forget, Suzanne is having a give away over at the Strawberry Patches ! Did you go leave a comment for a chance to win? You're always a winner visiting the Patch though, their tutorials are great!

So it was a pretty darn good day, even if I didn't sew a stitch! Hope you had a great day peeps! xo

Worst Neighbors Ever

Ha! You probably thought this was going to be about some bad neighbors, but no! It's US!!! We're the bad neighbors. We have a large fruitless mulberry tree in our front yard. It's huge and covered in leaves that take MONTHS TO FALL. We're really bad about keeping up with the leaves too. Anyway, yesterday I went out to rake up the front yard, mostly cleaning up the sidewalk, street and Alice-Jane's yard. She's sweet and doesn't complain but a good portion of our leaves end up caught up in her shrubs out front.

I raked up the street, AJ's yard and part of mine, all into neat little piles, and the proceeded to fill the green can to the top. With a fraction of the leaves.

I don't want to complain too much though, it was shirt sleeves weather out.

So what did you do?

p.s. Strawberry Patches is having a PKM giveaway, head over there and check it out!

Blah blah blah

Luckily Monday is Law and Order Criminal Intent all day. Sewing and crime fighting just go together here. I got my block done, did you? Each one is interesting and I enjoy trying out other people's block construction techniques. Here's my block for this month. It's straight in spite of what this photo indicates.

Sunday night we went over to Danville for dinner. When I saw these leaves I could not stop taking photos ( but lucky for you I have some control in displaying them) thinking how fun it would be to find fabrics in these colors.

When we finished dinner it was dark, and the trees looked illuminated, almost like they were one fire. It made me wish I was an art quilter, to capture that with fabric and thread would be wonderful. Indian Orange Peel quilt in batiks?



Anyway, back to reality. Or at least my version of it!

Protective Bubble

Good morning peoples! How was the weekend? I'm dying to know if you went out and what you did. I stayed home, didn't leave the house at all, I mean even step foot out back till Sunday.Weird, right?

Anyway, I got some awesome mail from my friend Melissa. She made me this darling pincushion. It started out in May when she made a pillow from Jennifer's book Girl's World. I fell in love. Then she had to kick it up a notch and make a darling pincushion, using the same technique as the pillow.

OH! You want to see it without it's protective bubble? I love how she's used the darling little stripe off the Pam Kitty panel around the center of the pincushion.

I just love it.It's almost too cute to stick pins in right?

Ok, later this week, sewing progress! You won't believe it!

The morning after

How was it? We had a nice day here, hope you did too! What's on today's agenda? I cut a bunch of fabric Wednesday afternoon instead of cleaning up, so I'd have something to sew on during the day Thursday but never ended up having a chance. I plan on starting a new project today and maybe there will be some good crime tv to go with it if I'm lucky.

Hope you guys have an awesome weekend. Can't wait to hear all about it. xo

P.S. Today is Stephanie's day for the Blogger's Block of the Month. I'm going to make mine this weekend, what about you? It's free, and we're only on month 3 so still plenty of time to start!

The Last Minute

I know you guys never do this, but ugh, I've left a lot of stuff for the last minute around here. What was I thinking? One thing? You probably thought I forgot all about that pillow drawing.

The winner is Pam from Chico! Pam, you need to email me your mailing info. I'll get that fabric and magazine in the mail to you Friday. Speaking of Friday, will you guys be shopping? Holy cow can the open hours get any crazier?

Holly let me know that the project page for PamKittyMorning is up! You can get to the very cute free pattern by clicking here! It's a darling pattern designed by Holly.

So peoples I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I better go get that table cleared off so there's room to sit down and eat!

Today's the day!

If ever there was a time to keep calm, the week of Thanksgiving is it, right? My big goal for last weekend was getting a big fatty Butterball Turkey and cramming into the fridge to thaw. As we say around here, no fresh turkeys for us, we like ours crammed with chemical goodness. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it.

Today I urge you to head over to the Jolly Jabber, today they're featuring my Designer Select Bundle and offering you a chance to win!!! You should totally do it! IT'S EXCITING RIGHT? (let's show them PKM readers know how to have fun!)

Posting might be thin around here this week, hope this week kicks off a stress free holiday season for you! xop

TGIF

Yeah, definitely TGIF! Today I'm picking Bret up from the airport, he's back from two weeks away again. This may be the last trip of the year for work I hope! While he's been gone I have done a lot of sewing and computering and dinking around the house. And don't forget my plumbing experience! Not that I want to assume all plumbing duties from now own, but I like knowing I can help myself if necessary.

I have my blocks done, I'm making a little Criss Cross quilt as a backup boy baby quilt. I reduced the size of the block to 6 inches and I think the blocks look pretty cute. I will sew those together while I wait to leave for the airport.

Quick gardening question to anyone who might know. I notice my Iceberg roses are all a pale pink now. Is that because of the colder weather? This happens each year before I cut them back, then come spring, all white again. Maybe Ferne will know. Hope she drops by and sees my question.

Ok peeps, I hope you have a great weekend. Next week starts the holiday season right? Big plans?

The Blues

Good morning everybody! How are you today? I don't know how the week has gotten away from me, but I sure felt busy. This morning I'm working on a little blue project. Hopefully will have more to share tomorrow.

I'm having a hard time picking which project to work on next. What are you working on? I think I have spent too much time on Pinterest to commit to any one thing. Ok, better get to work! See you later peeps. xo

NEWS FLASH

Good Morning! It's a big day here at PamKittyville, Jackie's podcast with me is up! We met up at quilt market and had a chat, and you can listen in! Just click on Jackie's link here and it will take you direct to her podcast page.

And like that's not enough, Generation Q magazine has a snippety interview with me that you can read about here!

Criss Cross

Hi there! So what's going on at your end? I finished sewing my rows together yesterday and now Criss Cross is ready for the quilters. I like how it turned out, although design wise, it would have been better to have that red on white dot or a yellow with less white, which would have made the chain crisper. But I like it, that alphabet is so darn cute.

Here's a close up of the quilt and blocks. It is so easy to make. I think it's a pretty cute quilt for 5 prints. I hope if you make something out of PKM fabric you'll email the pictures or send me links so I can Pin them in my PamKittyMorning Fabric pinboard!

So that's about it for me. Anything exciting on your end?

Hi there!

Good morning, welcome to a new week fresh and full of promise! We had a bit of sunshine yesterday and it's got me in a good mood! Did you have a good weekend? I managed to get a lot done. I have more than half my blocks sewn into rows on my Criss Cross Quilt, I finished up my pillow and managed to get some stuff done around the house. It's amazing what a little sunshine will do!

We're in the hard to get a good photo part of the year. Not enough sun, too much sun. The house is like a cave, so inside there is nothing but poorly lit photos. Oh well, it's not like you don't get the idea!

Turned out pretty cute I think? Would you like to win a little pile of fabric to make your own little flower block quilt or pillow? I'll include a copy of the magazine and the fabrics I showed here. You know the drill, leave a comment and later this week I'll pull a name out of the hat.

As for last weeks magazine winner, it's Shirley who said "Your block is sweet- and well, YOU ARE KIND OF LIKE A MOVIESTAR!" Thanks Shirley! Now email me your address and we'll get that magazine on the way!

Excuses Excuses

Oh yeah, you never thought you'd see this on my blog, right? I know I didn't. But when my sink backed up and there was no one around to fix it for me I decided instead of whine and wait around, I'd just take care of it myself. I've booked a lot of hours with Mike Holmes, so why not?

I worked on it in the evening with the tools at hand, but the clog was beyond the reach of anything laying around. Trip to the hardware store later and I had a $15.08 snake for my drain. Of course the sense of accomplishment when the water whooshed down that drain, well that my friends was priceless.

I had a quick trip over to my dentist and saw these GIGANTIC windmills on the ride out Vasco Road. Holy cow they're big. You can see the towers of the old windmills and believe me, these new windmills DWARF the old ones. Kind of spooky almost to see them looming up over the road. (Sorry, was at a standstill for some roadwork for about a half an hour. I have probably 40 pictures of them, so consider yourselves lucky I'm not parading them all out here.)

ANYWAY... needless to say the week got away from me. But I will have something fun done by next Monday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Big plans? I'm going to want to know all about it come Monday. See you then. xo

OMG x 100

Good morning!!! Today's coffee is extra delicious because it's in a Quiltmaker 100 Blocks Volume 4 mug!

I'm very exited that my block, Round Rosie, was included in this collection of wonderful blocks. It's a simple old fashioned block, and I think would make a nice alternate to a chain block.

You can imagine my delight when I saw the cover of the magazine! I feel like a movie star. Thanks to Carolyn, Diane and June for that! Click on the photo to see what I'm talking about!

This latest Volume of Quiltmaker's 100 blocks is excellent, and will make a nice addition to your library. I hope you head over to the Quilty Pleasures blog to see who else is featured today. But before you go, leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the magazine! I'll announce the winner on Monday!