Cat Footwarmer for foot of bed

Ode to Feral Cats

They came uninvited to our porch one cold morning;
An uglier momma cat, I've never seen;
But, close to her side, were two precious young ones,
And, not to love them would have been ever so mean!

The momma was trapped and put into dead sleep;
Of this, we had not even a clue;
But, morning after morning, the little ones mewed
At our doorstep;
Now, the kitties needed food that was due;

We named them Blondie and Frisky and begged them to stay
Close to home and not to wander away;
We had them 'fixed', got shots, and then got quite a shock,
When the vet said that Frisky should have been named Blondie, as a he, she was not!

Seventeen years we loved them quite dearly,
Their passing on came to us quite severely;
So this foot warmer* I've made in memory of our
so loved ones,
They still warm our feet and bring smiles to us clearly.

*Definition of a foot warmer: something that is spread across the foot of the bed to slip your feet under when taking a nap or for extra warmth at night.
Directions for foot warmer: 17"X 50" fabric needed about a yard of a pretty floral fabric and a yard for sashing and borders. I had bought a beautiful fabric, not knowing what in the world I was going to use it for, but to cut out a silhouette of kitties and fuse them to a 9 1/2" background block is pretty. Machine blanket stitch around each one with a contrasting color thread; add 2"sashing and 3 1/2" border; sandwich with polyester batting and a lining; and you have a delightful foot warmer for this cold winter. This will make an adorable Christmas gift for a cat lover, as well.

Baltimore Album Quilts

Wrote an article for the PVRecorder this week about Baltimore Album Quilts. I included a picture of my album quilt, but they had to print it black and white. Bah humbug..........but, I do understand, as color costs much more than black, but not ink for computers. How weird is that!
Thought you'd like to see my Texas Album Quilt......in color! ta dah!!!!!
It is all hand applique, and hand quilted. I did a lot of quilting on this quilt, as I love to quilt~ If you ever want to make one of these quilts, and insert your own things as much as possible, I do have patterns for most of these blocks. Just let me know which blocks you'd like to have, and I'll see if I have them...........
thimblena14@gmail.com
put Album quilt in the subject area.

Jelly Roll Quilts for Hospice patients

So many of you make lap quilts for Hospice patients that I thought I'd share a wonderful pattern for a quickee quilt for wheelchair patients, etc.
Jelly rolls come in several sizes. If you should happen to have one of the larger rolls, with as many as 40 strips(see NOTICE at bottom of this posting) of fabric, divide the strips in half and using only 20 of them. follow the directions below.
If you don't have a jelly roll, select 20 of your favorite pieces of fabric in your "collection" that have at least a piece large enough to cut a 2 1/2" X entire width of fabric usually 42" strip. Having 20 strips will be ample for making a small laptop quilt.
Sew the 20 strips together connecting all of them making one long long strip of fabric.
Once the strips are sewn together, take one end and chop off 18".
*Pick up one end of the strip and place it on the top end of the strip, placing them right sides together.
Sew the raw edges of the strips together making a strip 4 1/2" wide. When you get to the end of this, cut it into two pieces.*
Repeat the process above beginning with the * area. This will make a strip
8 1/2" wide.
Repeat * to * until you have sewn all together as wide as you wish it to be.
( 4 repeats will end up being 32 1/2" wide X 51"length. This a nice width and length for a lap quilt.
Press seams to one side in the same direction.
Borders may be added to attach to the stripped center. They may be as wide as you wish to have the desired length.
Make a sandwich of the stripped top, batting, and a backing.
Machine quilt as you wish. Add Binding as you wish.
NOTICE:The 40 strips will make 2 wheelchair lap quilts using other fabrics for borders. Follow the directions above, and when all strips are sewn as directed cut in half for two hospice size quilts.