My baby is home!

I've been sick now for what feels like forever. The flu kicked me into bed weeks ago and not until today I've been feeling well enough to do anything at all other then what's absolutely necessary.
So no sewing in ages. I'm behind on the Splendid Sampler, my Finish Along 2016 goal number 2 is just lying there on a chair, mocking me... And my newest pattern in the works, which I'm super excited about - is no where near finished.

But on the major upside, Diana is home! My heart, my baby, my lovely Norwegian Forestcat is finally back with me after a 1,5 year long battle! She's unfortunately very overweight, her diabetes has been very poorly cared for which has stressed her system, her back and hips are causing her a lot of pain when she walks due to her weight poor baby. However, she's home now and getting proper care, medication and weight management so hopefully she will be improving slowly, slowly as she looses weight. <3

I've today slowly been starting to organise my fabrics and sewing things as we bought a new wardrobe (Pax from Ikea) for the living room for me to keep my sewing stuff in, as I'd outgrown the available storage options. So today I've been making solid rainbows <3

Pets on Quilts Show!

This is such a fun show hosted by Sew Cal Gal and I just had to take part seeing as I constantly have a "cat on my quilt" situation which prevents me from continuing my work until her highness has moved her pretty tushie. =)

There's still a day left to enter, hurry over there now if you have the same situation at home that I do! =)

For some reason, when you get a new catnip toy, you have to drag it up on a quilt so that all the drool ends up a quilt and not some easy to clean surface - like the floor =) So this little series of pictures clearly shows that quilts aren't just for sleeping, they're for playing too!

Just so you understand my drool comment ^^

And on the playing with quilts theme, here we're playing "hide the mouse" in my Summer Squares quilt, hence her silly facial expression: "Where is it!? Can't find it mom!"

Here's Diana on my Companion Cube Quilt, the fact that I was trying to quilt it was nothing she considered very important when she had feet's to wash and naps to take ^^

My blog header has to be mentioned here of course being a cat on quilt picture that I just love, it pictures Edward, the love of my life who passed away much to soon in November last year on my Crazy Rainforest Quilt.  I still dream of him almost every night and I will never forget him. I know this isn't exactly the happy spirit post one would expect from a contest post but I just can't have a cats on quilts post without mentioning Edward, so one more picture of him and then I'll wrap up ok?

This photo is of Edward and his very own convergence quilt, I made it for him when he was sick the first time and he loved it. This was his "hospital bed" with his pet dragon and very own much to small for him tent he got in a show. This time he recovered miraculously after months of illness and around the clock care.

Diana has since then inherited it and loves it as much as Edward did =)

I have a ton of more pictures of cats on quilts but I feel I have to wrap it up somewhere and I thought this would be good time because otherwise I'll continue forever =)

So to sum up: I love cats and I love quilts, the combination of the two being the most awesome combination in the world!

If you like my submission, I'd be really happy if you'd vote for me when the voting starts <3

I have such excellent company and help with my night time sewing

I just felt I had to show you what excellent company I have just this second as I've started playing with my Hoffman Bali Pop Grasshopper. It's a lovely combination of colors (the dark green don't stand out like that IRL, it's the night time photo that's to blame) and Diana obviously thought so too as she immediately settled on my finished strips as I'd laid them out =)

Earlier she's been "holding" the lower end of my measuring tape for me as I've measured my strips ^^ Such a helpful little lady my Diana.

This quilt is going to become my own version of a quilt I've seen both online (where I can't remember for the life of me right now) and then later on the quilting retreat. This one is made by the talented Anna at the retreat:

However, as the technique makes me think of chameleons rather then regular lizards, I think I'm going to make a play on that for my version ^^

I have a "design wall"

Or maybe more correctly, I have a very temporary but oh so useful piece of batting pinned to my wall ;)

I figured it would solve the problem of getting cat hair on all my fabric pieces while I was arranging them, so I bend down to pick up the camera and voila, there's cat hair getting on my fabric anyway since I looked away ^^

So without further ado, my not so fancy design wall and Diana, who's very, very quick:

Sometimes living in Malta isn't very fun...

There's one, ONE person on the island that repairs sewing machines, and when we finally got there when he felt like being in the store (took 3 tries) he told me he couldn't fix anything electrical should that be the problem and that "I was lucky to have such an amazing quality machine". No offense little Emerald but you and I both know you really aren't THAT high quality even though I love you.

He would give Emerald some TLC and see if he could fix the issue with the thread tension. No promises made through.
I naturally asked, "How much will this cost me"?
He replied "Not very much".
* facepalm*
So I ask again, "How much will this cost"?
And he replies he can't really tell as he doesn't know what's wrong...

I tell him I at least want an approx price or I can't really leave the machine with him and he finally says that it'll cost about €40. "About €40", no telling for sure. I sighed and told him I can't pay much more then that as it would be more economical for me to buy a new machine if it gets more expensive, the guy just shrugs and walks away! Customer service, not his strong suit that's for sure...

He also said it'd be done in the beginning of next week, hopefully, no promises there either. So I'm more then a little upset at this point as I'll be without a sewing machine for so long, and not knowing if it will be repaired or not. :( All in all, I've not been a very happy quilter lately.

Since I don't have anything else fun to share with you today I thought I could show you my trusty quilting helpers, Edward and Diana, here at work with my Crazy Rainforest quilt:

Edward says he knows he's not allowed on this particular table, but what if he only walks on the very edge?

Diana is very happy with the layout and has decided to lie on it so I can't change it around again. =)

Welcome to my new blog!

I've now moved my old blog into this new flashy one that more reflects what my blogging will be about as my interests have switched a bit since I first started. "Not Only Quilts" will mainly revolve around quilting, but there will be room for some of my other interests too such as the Sami Jewelery, my beloved cats, and some other bits and pieces from my life and hobbies.

The header is a photo of my enormous Norwegian Forest Cat boy Edward cuddling up on my Crazy Rainforest quilt in our spare bedroom. He loves quilts and he loves rolling around on my fabric pieces, batting at strips and just generally being "helpful" when I sew.

I thought I'd show you his very own little convergence quilt which I made for him a couple of years ago at my very first quilt retreat. He loves it and it's been washed many, many times =)

So most welcome and I hope you'll enjoy this blog just as much as I do =)