Spotted Eagle Ray

added to the undersea menagerie...

A Chilly Morning

Finds these two looking for a comfortable  warm spot.



They know the sunbeams will cover that chaise in just a few minutes



And the last bit of tweaking to the large angelfish...



Now I have a pair of polka dot fishees for my Queen!

More of the Queen's Fishes

I love it  when that blank piece of white cloth starts to look like the vision in my head :)







Getting close now!

 

 

 

Cuteness

I had to share this face



 

 

 

 

 

Kitties and Progress

WOW! It's been weeks since I posted anything....Life sometimes gets in the way of  things.  Hopefully I'm back into a regular pattern now.

First up, a little painting on the "Queen"...getting close to finishing all the fishes.





Once the fish are done, the final step will be to add depth and painted textures to the background...then it'll be time to quilt!

The rest of the post is about Chloe and Bouree....Bouree has really gotten so big!  He now is as tall as Chloe and a little bit longer than she is.  He still has some growing to do to catch up to her in" heft" though :)  And his color is starting to come in more now too.

Enough talk...here are the latest pictures of them!









 

 

Applique Prep

This morning I Misty-fused fabrics and cut out my kitties and the tree.  For the leaves and birdies though, I used a die cutter. Just like cutting pieced blocks yesterday with my Accu Quilt Go cutter, today I used my Sizzix Big Kick to cut the leaf and bird appliques.

I have been using my Sizzix to cut applique shapes for a couple of years now and I love that it works so well for that.  I first posted about it here in March of 2009. Now of course many have discovered how wonderful it is for this, including Patsy Thompson. In fact, she has even designed  dies for the Big Kick now.

Anyway, while I generally use Misty Fuse, when cutting fused fabric with either the "big kick" or the "go' cutter, it works better to use a paper backed fusible for cutting multiple layers.  Without the paper, the glue sticks all the layers together as they get pressed going through the machine and they are nearly impossible to get apart again.  So for that, I use wonder-under.  I can easily cut 8 layers of fused cotton with the paper on.

Just like I do when cutting blocks, I pre-cut strips...there is less waste this way.





then I pile a stack of 8 on the die over the shape I want to cut



Put the cutting pads over the fabric and under the die and run it through the cutter



and viola! leaves!



For the leaves I used



and the birdies I cut from wool and used



Easy peasy and fast!  Now, you might think my cutting pads look pretty worn, but I've been using them for over 2 years and I'm still getting nice clean cuts...even with 8 layers of paper backed fabric!  When cutting wool, I usually do 3 layers.



Oh, and I save the cut outs too....often I use then in my postcard designs.

.

A Change of Background Design

I decided to do a pieced background for " Polka Dot Purr Pots".  I thought 60 degree diamonds would be nice.  So I gathered 1 yard of Vicki's "Envy"; starched and pressed it in prep for cutting.  Then cut it into 4 1/4" strips.



Then got out my "GO" diamond die



And cut those strips into diamonds in a flash!



Well, that's not going to be enough. But I have another 1/2 yard of "envy", so I cut that into diamonds.  Still not enough!  So I added a 1/2 yard of Meadow Sunrise.



Still not enough!  But luckily Vicki had more in stock in her shop so I ordered another 1/2 yard of Meadow Sunrise.... AND  a 1/2 yard of Blue Sky.



That will do it! Changing the plan in the middle of the process sometimes makes you say "what if?"  That can be fun and sometimes creates a better design.

While I wait for the extra fabrics to arrive, I'll prepare my appliques.  There will be 4 cats: all based on photos of mine...1 of Chloe and 3 of Bouree (I know, but he's always doing such stinking cute poses!)  Want a sample? OK, here is a photo of Bouree I used.



And here is a screen capture of my simplified drawing in Pre Design Studio 3

 

 



So the kitty fabrics I chose are



There is a tree in the design and it's fabric is this



and the leaves will be from these



So I'm off to prep those appliques!

Am I Dreaming...

Or has Fall really come to New Orleans?



 

I sure hope it lasts!