Mel, I think your idea of putting some sashing between those blocks is spot on! It would hold them all together without letting them blend into one another, while giving the whole wall-hanging a bit of cohesion. I'd go with a solid blue, maybe a navy or a tad darker. Or possibly a forest green would work too. Good luck!

Thanks, Dan! I think the blue would be great. I'll take a few blocks with me when I do my fabric picking, since I don't have any blue in my stash either. Actually...my stash has gotten really small. I don't do much fabric shopping, just get what I need, when I need it. Guess I need to start building that up, huh? :)

yepper, blue would be good! YOu'll have to post a pic when it's finished.

Jeff and I are going on vacation. We're leaving tomorrow and we'll be back next Friday. I won't be online but if you see me posting zombie lane, it's Jeff. I just want to unplug and just "BE"..know what I mean? I'll see you all when we get back..try to behave?.."raising eyebrow"

Melissa, I agree with Dan's suggestions. That is going to be such a special quilt.

Have fun Linda...I'm just concerned about who is going to keep Dan in control while you are gone?????Obviously Melissa can't chase after him in her condition. LOL

"handing you switch"..looks like it's up to you Bev!!!

well, it's seems we're both sick with a viral infection. Guess we'll be leaving Saturday instead..."coughing, sniffling and climbing back into bed"

Good news! I've been accepted into the Master Gardening Program! Can we have a WOOHOO???

Bigtime WooHoo!!! You'll enjoy this so much. I took the class in 2006 and am active in our group. It is such a nice source for free plants! We had our picnic last night and I got a Liguardia and 2 strawberry plants, which I really wanted. When does the class start?

the class starts on Oct 3rd and runs till March with a break over the Holidays. Then I have to do 50 hours of volunteer work before I'm certified. This is definately something that was on my bucket list!

Lurking over here this morning and just wanted to give Linda a HUGE WOOHOO!
Congratulations, that is so great!
Also hope you and hubby are feeling better!
Shirley!

"blushing"..thanks guys!

I am sad! (pardon me if I vent, but I know y'all will understand!) I just did a walk-through inventory of my flowers & plants....to see what made it through the floods this spring & the 120 degree drought this summer. And I'm down to some sedum, 4 rose bushes, my rose of sharon, and just a few daylilies & iris. What isn't fried to a crisp was washed away. I do have weeds, though. Plenty of those. Yay! *sigh* My yard looks so bad, I've been avoiding taking a good look. Now I"m just depressed. I know there'll be some daylilies & maybe a few other things pop back up next summer, but I can't even find roots for most of them. And the iris I had moved to another bed got completely washed away.
Anyway....OK. I'm finished venting my tiny little sob story! I'm going to go start stitching together some kitties. :)

***giving Melissa some hugs*** Melissa, what did you lose?
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I haven't been in my garden for almost two weeks now, but what I see when I look into it is a lot of tall weeds and grass, all growing where I don't want them! I'm almost afraid to go out there now, but this weekend I'm going to if the weather cooperates.

Hi everybody,
No! I'm not home yet. We are in Colorado Springs with out Son and kids. We'll be here until Monday or Tuesday, then head back to Michigan. I'm tired!!! I thought vacations were for relaxing? We have seen so much and such beauty! It is going to be hard going home.
I will have to pass on the swap for October. I'll be back for November.
Have a great day!
Sharon

Well...most of everything, Dan! The sedum loved the heat, so it did really well this year. A few of my roses bounced back & are blooming right now. I think I'll just have to be patient & see what comes back next spring.
I lost all of the plants in my memorial garden, and all the herbs- except mint. I think that stuff could survive an atomic bomb! :P Also lost some coneflowers, miniature roses, liatris, impatients...so many, I can't remember what I had!
But it's OK. I've been neglecting them this past year anyway. That's my payback, I suppose! :) It won't take but a few years to build my garden back, so maybe I'll take better care of everything this time around.

Meliss, sorry to hear of your loss. Do you wintersow? You can have a whole garden in no time if you have the energy to plant everything and not leave them in the milk cartons like I do. LOL

Bev, you're absolutely right about the wintersowing! Mel, look through your seeds if you want to wintersow, and then if there's something you'd like to replace/try out, but don't have the seeds, let us know! Y'know we've got baggies with seeds in them, and we're all jonesing to "enable" someone...lol!

Y'know, speaking of that, let's all go through our seeds and make a list of what we've got for trading, and another list of stuff we'd like to try out. We can do some trading this month too!
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Tomorrow is the last day for sign-ups! I'll be banging the gavel around midnight, and will get those partner lists out on Sunday. Be patient with me on Sunday, will you? I'm hoping the cats will let me sleep in, at least until 7 or 8am!
-Dan

Did you mention that to the cats???

I've tried, but they refuse to acknowledge me when I do. Go figure.

List of players and how many blocks we're sending out...

Dan - 3
Melissa - 3
Linda - 3
Bev - 3

I'm telling ya, I'm going to be up all night figuring out partners...lol!
Dan

ROTF! Yes, I can see that!

okay, let's post partners, shall we?

Dan sends to Bev, Linda, and Melissa
Bev sends to Linda, Melissa, and Dan
Linda sends to Melissa, Dan, and Bev
Melissa sends to Dan, Bev, and Linda

Anyone need any addresses? Or are we good here?

Yay, partners! And I finally found some black fabric today, too! :)

I'm not sure I want to admit this....but...I don't have any seeds! I just don't trade them much, because I don't have alot of luck with them. I think I have some annual herbs, and maybe a pack of columbine. The only packs I have are ones that I received in this swap awhile back.
Some gardener I am, huh? lol!

Do what you can Melissa, just do what you can, and don't worry about it...we'll be fine.

OOOOH..I couldn't wait to see who my partners would be. LOL Melissa, don't worry about the seeds. I have boxes full and hope not to grow so much next year. Have you tried wintersowing? If you have any interest, I would be happy to offer advice.

I got my fabric the other day, so I'm all ready to start. However, we may be going away this week for a few days, so I'll try to get them done today and tomorrow.

It appears we had a very light frost last night. I'm still busy moving plants around hoping to improve the design, something I struggle with. Frost for you last night, Dan?

I have everyone's addresses, probably memorized by this time!..LOL! I really don't need any seeds either if it's a problem.

Also, I have an idea for the November swap and I've been working out the kinks with Dan. I'll post more about it in a few days.."whistling and looking up at the ceiling"

Perhaps we should just cancel the seeds then? Or make them optional? Let's do that, shall we?
This morning I went pumpkin hunting, and had a blast! We went to a local pumpkin farm last year, so I went back there today and wound up spending $40, can you believe it? I bought a huge white one, which I'll be definitely saving seeds from! Then there was the mid-sized one covered with green warts which made it look like a tiny gnome or ogre should be living in it. I'm thinking that one is going to get a door and some windows carved into it, if I can find some figurines to put in/around it. Then there was the "Cinderella" pumpkin, which I'm not quite sure how I'll be carving, but I'm leaning towards carving the bottom of it into a face, but we'll see what happens with that one. Next I bought one with a huge stem which kind of reminded me of an elephants' trunk. And, lest we forget, I bought 3 stackable punkins to make a "snow man" out of. It was a lot of fun to do, and the lady that runs the farm said she remembered me as a "pumpkin conniseur"...lol!
This evening I canned 3 quarts of honey crisp apples, and 7 pints of apple sauce. I'm glad that's done now, but I'll be enjoying the apple sauce later this winter!
Tomorrow is a roadtrip down to Saginaw (2 hours away), and some new fabric stores!
Tuesday we're planning on decorating the yard for halloween, which will be a lot of fun!

Since Linda mentioned the November swap, I'll go ahead and let y'all know about the one for December. In December, we'll be having ourselves a "secret santa" swap. In that one, we'll each be given one partner to send a box to, no larger than a medium priority box or the equivalent, and putting small, inexpensive gifts in it. Charms, blocks, candy, sewing supplies, whatever you want. So, be thinking of what you'd like put into a package for Christmas, and don't worry about being on a naughty or nice list, okay? Lol!
Enjoy!

I have my blocks finished & ready go. I'll just have to make a trip out to the PO to get some stamps, and then they'll be on their way. :)

Looking forward to the next few swaps, this is my favorite time of the year!

Ok, blocks are in the mail. I hope y'all like them. I made each one with different fabric & had a really hard time choosing which to send to who. Heck, I had a really hard time typing that right now! LoL!

Okay, I'm back from the field trip to Saginaw, and found a lot of great fabric at the hobby lobby there that my local joann's doesn't have. Today I took care of some errands, and then we decorated the yard for halloween. And now? Well, now I have to go get all that fabric out of the dryer, fold it, and think about what projects I'll be able to do now...***grin***!
Take care everyone!
Melissa, congrats on having your blocks out first! Wahoo! Now you get to just sit back, relax, and wait for 3 more to come to you!
Anyone have any ideas on what they'll do with their blocks?
Dan

Yay for new fabric! :o) I found a few bargains at Joann's last week, when I picked up my black fabric. They had the stash builder FQ collections on clearance- 15 FQ's for $9. I wanted to pick some up so badly, but all I could get that day was my 1 FQ. :( Somebody sure got a great deal, though! :o)

Well....I have a quilt top sitting around that I made a few years back. It's just a small lap quilt, in children's prints. Cats & paw prints on a black background. I'm thinking that I may use my blocks in the backing for this one....kind of a 2-sided quilt.
Then again....I've been thinking that the cat blocks were really fun to put together, and an entire quilt would be really cute (not to mention a great christmas gift for my 8 yr old daughter, who LOVES cats!).

Decisions...decisions....

so many project ideas, so little time, eh Mel? lol! I'm in the same boat! and of course, once I got my new fabric laundered and in my stack of fabric, it's begun to speak to me of new projects! silly fabric!

I was treated today by Melissa!! Woo-Hoo!!! What a way to wind up my work week! Melissa sent a beautiful and elegant black and white cat block. Thank you Melissa!!!

I'm hoping to get my blocks sewn sometime in the next two days. Thankfully Monday is another one of those government holidays, so I get two, count'em!, two days off this weekend!

Melissa, thanks again!!!
Dan

I also received a beautiful block from Melissa. Thanks! Hopefully I will get motivated today or tomorrow to get sewing.

I loved your block Melissa!! Thank you so much..((HUG))
I'm working on mine today..got everything washed up and ready to go!

I mailed out my blocks today, and I'm anxious to see what you all think! Hopefully they'll reach you by the weekend.
Dan

Warning....warning...mine won't go out until next week. Company coming Friday night for dinner and I must clean and I must garden before the weather gets cold and wet. However, Sunday is a good day to sew, so who knows???

I decided to sitch part of my blocks by hand..it's taking a bit longer than I thought...I'm hoping to get them finished over the weekend.

Dan, I received your block and thought it was awesome! Where do you come up with these ideas??

Well, there's a little story behind that Linda. Originally I was just wanting to put a cat in the attic window, so I printed off the instructions for the attic window block and pinned them to the wall above my sewing desk. When I cut the two rectangles out though, I cut them 2.5"x8.5", instead of the 4.5"x4.5" I needed. I didn't want to waste the fabric, so I cut the corner square down to size and sewed it together. I needed to make the block bigger to be the 12.5"x12.5" that's our standard, so I used a couple more rectangles of the second blue to form the "wall"...(grin). After that it was a simple matter of cutting out the black cats, sewing them into the window, and wallah! Four black cats sitting in four attic windows!
I'm glad you liked it! I was rather proud of myself and wanted to post a picture on facebook, but I didn't want you three to see your new blocks before you received them. Next time I applique some cats, I think I'm going to make their tales fuller so they'll look like maine coons. What do you think?

Received a block from Dan yesterday! Wow! I love it, Dan! Thank you! :o) I'm thinking this will make a great throw pillow....I may do that with all my cat blocks!

okay, I don't like how my blocks turned out so I'm redoing them this weekend. I'm so sorry I'm late but I jusr can't send these.."making face"

Sorry I've been away. Dan, I did receive your beautiful quilt square last week. I showed it to me daughter and she loved it. I made my blocks today, so they will go out tomorrow.

my blocks are going out tomorrow..with a note fo apology!

Yayyy!!! I received blocks from Bev and Linda today! Thank you both! And Linda, I enjoyed the poems, they're great!

I received blocks from Linda & Bev today. Thank you, Ladies! Love them both & they look great with Dan's! :)

Once Bev and Linda have posted that they've received blocks from each other, we can close out this swap.

Gonna be carving pumpkins most of today, what's everyone else up to?

"waving" I received Bev's lovely block yesterday..I just loved everyone's block this mmonth!

We just got back from Springfield (had a lovely time) and Linda's square was in the mail. It's beautiful, Linda, thanks! I visited two quilt stores and bought some fabric at both. Also got my Insulbright. I know I spent a little more to buy it there, but I like to support the small business owner whenever possible.

***banging the gavel***

Thanks for a great swap ladies!