I've been thinking about things I accomplished last year and what I want to do this year. Last year my New Year's resolution was to finish projects and not to start new ones. LOL I know lots of folks had the same one. So here are a few pictures of stuff I did finish.
This was started summer of 1990 something. The guild I belonged to had an all night quilt session. This is the mystery quilt that I made that evening. They sent out directions for the fabrics but being somewhat nervous about outcome, I went to Walmart to buy the fabric. Oh horror of horrors! I hate Walmart!
Everybody who knows me, knows that I am a fabric snob. I am a perfectionist at heart and want to use the best fabrics I can find. I was very apprehensive about making a mystery quilt and did not want to use "my good fabric".
Anyway, by nights end, I was very pleased. I wanted to make it bigger and wished I had bought more of the light purple fabric. I put this top away hoping to find more but several searches proved fruitless. In my travels, whenever I came across a Walmart, I'd go in hoping to find this fabric but there was no more to be found. So I finally finished it. It looks good on my purple sofa.
This blue quilt is a fine example of what happens when your fabrics match too much. These are Kitty Cucumber prints. They are very cute and I loved the 9-patches when I was making them but the end result is boring. The back is much more interesting. It's a beautiful blue floral print with big cabbage roses.
My younger sister lost her beloved Biscuit this past year, so I gave her this quilt. Biscuit looks a lot like my Simba.
Biscuit was a shy kitty. One day I went to my sister's house to visit. Biscuit came over and I was petting him and he was purring. Then my sister came down the steps and Biscuit looked at her and looked a me and ran away. My sister thought it odd that Biscuit would let me pet him. I think it was a case of mistaken identity.
I bought my first jelly roll and went nuts. I loved having most of the cutting done. The white is a white on white print. I almost never use solids because they show mistakes and I'm always spilling something. This quilt is about 90*90. I sent it to my daughter. She says it's her favorite quilt. I'll have to show you the quilt I gave for her 21st birthday. Have you ever seen a quilt that was loved to death. And she wants me to resurrect it! I'm not the miracle worker.
This last quilt was a gift to one of my dearest quilty friends. 
She turned 50 a couple years ago. We had people at her birthday party make blocks for her. It was so much fun. Our quilty group worked on putting this quilt together. I worked on the center block.
Her husband had t-shirts made for the occasion so of course it's in the center. The sashing and binding are all hand dyed fabrics. We presented the quilt last year. Our friend was so happy. It made us happy, too.
I've been quilting with these ladies since 1990. I remember when my friend was pregnant and when she brought her son as a toddler to a quilt show in his stroller and now he is off to college. Time sure flies.
What is it about quilters and cats. Seems we all have them. Someone posted about de-clawing cats. Years ago, I had a little kitty named KiKi. Kiki was a gift from the x 20+years ago. I wanted a dog. I was not a cat person. Someone he knew found Kiki and gave her to the x to give to me since I wanted a pet. Anyone who knows anything, knows that a cat is not a dog...duh... That should have been a clue. Anyway, Kiki was so tiny and needed a home. I took her in and the x went on travel. (That was a very familiar theme but I digress.) She stayed next to me when I slept. Whenever I opened my eyes, she would be looking at me. She stayed on my lap during the day and would nap. I became a cat person.
As Kiki got older, she would run up the drapes and hang on the cornice and then howl. I would have to get the ladder to get her down. I couldn't stand it and had her de-clawed. I didn't think much of it until I brought her home a few days later. She was so upset. Every day when I came home from work, she'd sit up with her paws up in the air and I'd pick her up and hold her the rest of the evening. It was so sad. Later I realized that, they did not remove her claws, they removed the first joints. I was stunned.
When I went to the podiatrist to have an hangnail removed, they cut it out and put some stuff on the nail to keep it from growing back. For some reason, I thought they would do the same thing for cats.
Kiki recovered and went back to being a feisty little kitty. Unlike the x, she would come when I called. I even taught her to fetch. That was a big accomplishment. LOL She lived to be an old lady of 17. I think she'd still be alive if not for contaminated cat food, but that's another story.
Well no post would be complete without a kitty picture. So here is Simba again. He likes to help me work in my office.
He even likes to help me with the sewing machine.
Doesn't he do a good job?
ttfn :) Yuki
Here is a close up of my giveaway. A larger picture of the pattern is shown in an earlier post. The pattern is for a Mariners Compass block. It is a paper pieced pattern and includes enough fabric of the 4 colors shown to make a 12 inch block. The beige fabric is for the background. The fabrics are from Jinny Beyer's line.
