Anvils and cats

Today I have spent making Oriental Anvils. Boring, boring, boring. I had this bright idea last year about joining a swap with an on-line friendship group of mine. I don't do swaps. Why did I do this one? Hmmmm, maybe it was because I thought it would be a nice way to start using some of the Japanese fabrics I started collecting (while in Japan) in 1998. Maybe I was just crazy. Well, of course, hubby would say the latter, rather than the former. So. I've been sewing anvils. Oh, I guess I already said that. Guess what I've been doing for the last two days when I've had time? Sewing anvils. Is this boring yet? You should try sewing anvils. I'm not really complaining....it is nice to see some of these pretty fabrics again, AND I am sewing! But still, it's boring.



So after I had nine of them on the design wall, I decided to take the picture of them and import it into Photoshop to play around with them. You know - to break up the monotony. Maybe these blocks would more exciting, eh?

How about twirling anvils? Sounds sort of dangerous, I suppose.



Or what about liquid anvils? I don't know how effective liquid anvils would be if you needed an anvil. But I do like the look of the liquid colors.



What would you say to polar coordinates. Too much math? Maybe I just need to finish sewing the regular blocks.



And lest you think I am just too, too, too, traditional, here's my first maverick little quilt. I actually made a lot of these when I got going. I think I made about 3 of the cats, or at least until I ran out of the cat fabric. Then I moved on to wacky looking "popsicle" characters from the first Michael Miller fabric I remember. Everyone we knew who was having a baby got one of these wacky character quilts.



close-up of the little fish that was quilted, and the fading.



Now that mine is all faded from numerous washings with my own grandchildren, Clyde has adopted it as his own. A wacky cat for a wacky quilt.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering how big Clyde is, do this math problem. If a cat is lying on a quilt where the blocks are 7" square and the sashings are 2" finished, how many more anvil blocks need to be made. I mean, how big is this big lunker of a cat?