Safari-patterned cosmetics bags

My dear sister's been invited to go on safari with a friend and wanted to give her an appropriate little thank you gift. We spotted this animal-print linen fabric in a quilting store we visited and presto!  It's two little bags.
I've photographed both sides, because all the sides have different animals on them.

I've already bought zippers to make a few more from different fabrics in my stash. They are easy, and go together so quickly. Much faster than a quilt!

Brooklyn Guild Challenge: Flight

I just put the finishing touches on the binding on a quilt for my quilt guild's fall quilt challenge: flight. I had a great time quilting it by machine, trying to make the quilting represent the wind. I don't know if the photo shows it, but the quilting really improved this rather basic simple pattern.

Anyway, the deadline is coming up for entries and it's always so much fun to be part of the group that steps up for the challenge. The quilts will go up on display at one of the local branch libraries to start, but afterwards they sometimes travel (as a group) for other exhibitions within parks or even the library's main branch.

I love my guild.  I feel lucky to be part of such a talented group!

Triangles for August

I made 9 blocks this month for the Block Lotto drawing, and I've got my fingers crossed. I love these blocks!

In fact I love them so much I started another project using some batik fabric I had in my stash. But after I laid out a few of the blocks it felt like it wasn't working the way I'd hoped, and I abandoned it. That's how it goes sometimes. I just threw the pieces into my scrap bags for future use.

Baby Quilt

I just finished the binding on this baby quilt, which I made for a close friend who needs a gift to give a dear friend hers who's expecting a baby girl this month. I'd already finished the top, and had it sitting on a shelf, when she mentioned she was looking for a gift for a new baby girl. I'd made the top from parts of 2 packs of 2.5-inch strips--one white, and the other pinks--earlier in the year, just to see what I could make from the strips. I thought the result was pretty cute.

Here's a view of the back. I added the pink pieces to make it more interesting, and because the backing fabric wasn't large enough by itself. The binding is pink, and the machine quilting was done by Wilma at Christian Lane Quiters in Connecticut. 

Bonnie Huner Mystery quilt

This quilt's been finished for a couple of months, but I've been waiting to take a photo of it. I finally found the right day and the right location!

While I was at it I couldn't resist taking a photo of Tye, who's pictured at the top of the page in his younger days. He's now going on 10, and he's getting pretty grey.

A snake and a story

Here's a fabric version I made of a snake my family once owned as an entry for the July Block Lotto where the category was "pets." The snake was an 8-ft-long corn snake that we kept for  about 4 years. We thought of him as a pet, so I'm throwing him into the mix.

There's a funny story associated with the snake. It had been owned by my brother Lawrence, who's a naturalist, and when I flew out to St. Louis some years ago to visit him and his family with my 3 sons, one of them really fell in love with the snake. So my brother gave it to him, and when we left, packed him in a plastic box with air holes in it. We packed it in one of our suitcases and checked it. Quietly.

When we got to NYC we were picked up at the baggage area by a prearranged cab driver. My boys were so excited to see if the snake had lived through the trip they got the suitcase off the carousel and opened it up to see the snake. The driver got so upset that he didn't want to take us home, but we put him back and closed it up and eventually we convinced him.

We kept the snake for a few years. He was very tame at the beginning, but grew more wild over time. Maybe because my two cats would sit outside his cage and watch him. Anyway, after he bit me for the 3rd time while I was trying to feed him (thawed frozen mice) I decided to get rid of him.

My brother said he would take the snake back, so I packed it in the original box, put lots of padding around it and shipped it by UPS as "fragile artwork." He arrived save and sound. 

Since the snake was so big, and very handsome, my brother donated it as a door prize at an reptile convention and someone took it home. And that's the story!

My pet cat

Actually, I have two cats, and this one doesn't look like either one, but I guess it's close enough. For Block lotto this month we're making blocks with animals on them that could be pets. I used a technique I remember learning during an earlier block lotto project to make the tail.
Maybe I'll make a snake next? For years my kids had a giant corn snake. We'll see.....