random cat picture day

Yes, another one, already.

I was going to title this "Mystery Picture" or some hopefully witty version of that, but then I spotted Tabitha keeping cool from the January sun in the shade of the dwarf bamboo.

For the curious gardening and tree-loving people out there in cyberland, the bamboo is beside a hazelnut tree (male, sadly, so no fruit), which just sprouted there of its own accord (which explains their too-close proximity). On the far right of the picture are the leaves of a flowering cherry tree.

Anyway, the mystery of the picture is that I don't know what exactly this wooden item is. I found it at a garage sale last summer. There's a homemade-looking stand thing, with notches at the top, as if waiting for a skinny dowel to sit in it. It came with the quilting hoop. It's a good quality hoop, so I was pleased to get them both for just $5. I'm unsure whether the hoop goes with the stand, but the lady selling it thought her mum used them together. There's a part missing, obviously, but she couldn't find it, so the mystery remains with me.

Random Cat Picture Day

I've decided that every so often it's going to be Random Cat Picture Day. Not necessarily on a Thursday, like today, because I know that if I say that, it'll only last for one week. (Nah, I don't bother with New Year's resolutions either.)

So, thinking I was being clever, but then realising this is a world of six billion people, I thought I'd better Google it. Make sure no one else had beat me to it. Incredibly, with that exact phrase, I only got three results. Now I don't know if it's just timing or locality or  something else entirely, but I'm guessing if somebody in, say, Kazakhstan did a Google search tomorrow, they should get the same results*. Is that how Google works? That's how I think it works, anyway.

Tabitha is sitting on a pile of batting which I'd cut for a QAYG quilt. I'm happy to report that that quilt is actually finished, and is on my bed right now. Photo taken last August; quilt was finished in time for christmas, which was good, because it is a christmas quilt, started the previous year. Not too bad, for me!

I've done some sewing today:
I mended my daughter's jacket;
I nearly finished a block (one seam to go, out of about 30);
I did some piecing on two others;
And I cut out for one row of a row quilt.

Actually it doesn't look like much, written out like that, but I feel I achieved something - especially because I didn't do any sewing yesterday, as I had my machine threaded up for the jacket fixing - which of course led to a whole day of procrastination. Sigh, what a waste of yesterday.

But today was good.

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* Actually, they should get four, this post having that exact phrase as well! Yeeha!

A Little Night Music

I seem to be continually beginning new things but rarely finishing them. I take comfort in the fact that I am not the only one in the world who does this.

So today, I will post about my second (and final) Project Quilting quilt.

Let's see, I'll cast my mind back...

The inspiration was Music. You had to choose a song title for your inspiration. I chose Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. This translates in English to be "A Little Night Music", which I interpreted as follows...

Navy background, creamy coloured moon in the centre, with randomly placed colourful "music" spots dancing around it.

No?

No. So I rearranged the spots, into what I found to be their natural order. (What can I say, I love rainbows!)

Yes. So I pinned them all. I should add that this is sandwiched all ready for quilting - backing, batting, top, held together with my wonderful friend, Quilt Basting Spray. Yay for the Spray.

I free-motion quilted the spots down, with matching thread for each colour. The central area needed something too, so I did some squiggly "rays" emitting from the moon. Yay for the moon rays.

That was the funnest part, as it was totally unplanned. I didn't know what I was going to do with each quilting line until I was actually doing it. What freedom to be creative!

The finished quilt, 24" x 24"

The back was made in a free manner as well. The central square is sewn from four new fabrics; the rest are repurposed pajamas.

The front's navy background and the moon are flannel as well; the small circles are all cotton. The binding was the lining of a favourite handbag. It had many compartments and pockets, so there was quite a bit of lining to be had.

But why mainly flannel? Because it was originally intended as a quilt for my cat Missy. But after I pinned it to the wall to get a good photo, I liked it being there, so it's staying up until I've got something to replace it with.

Besides, Missy is a long-haired puss, so just imagine all the shedding it would receive...

Hanging on the wall in the living room. Sorry Missy, you miss out. For now.

Cat quilt and a bag

My cat, like many others, likes to sit/lay/sleep on quilts. Which can be inconvenient, if you're in the middle of working on the quilt. So I decided to make my cat her very own quilt. It's not going to be very big - about 24" square - which will be about the right size for her to stretch out on if it's laid on the floor, or to fold/bend so she can hide under it.

So far, it's more or less just a prototype, so not made out of any fancy fabric. In fact, I've gone green and recycled, using old flannelette pajama fabric for most of it, in pinks and blues:

I've used 12 different prints/plains for the 3" squares. The border is 3" navy flannel.

The other side is going to be a bit more colourful. I'm still cutting patches out for that, so there's no pic yet.


Another project I'm working on is a quilting bag. It's supposed to be big enough to fit a quilt into, which is just what I need for an upcoming guild meeting this week. I'm going to take a quilt along for show-and-tell. Which will be fun to show it off, but at the same time not fun because I don't like public speaking. But I'll just have to get over myself and do it.

Anyway, the bag isn't finished yet, but the front and back stitching and quilting are done, so I took some progress pics:

Central panels, Chinese Coins-style, pieced from my scrap tubs. I designed this side myself.

Some of the blocks I designed myself; the others are from the original pattern, which is entitled "Patti's Quilting Bag" by Louise Audet, from Handmade magazine, vol. 26 no. 7.

One thing I've learned from this (and it's an important one) is:

Measure and mark quilting lines! Don't just trust yourself to eyeball it correctly. The bottom photo shows my wonky hand-quilting; the one above it has far more consistency in the spacing of the stitching lines. (Not necessarily the quilting stitches - I still have a long way to go, I know!)

A no-sew day

I haven't done any sewing today.
I've thought about it, though.
I've gone down to my sewing room and looked around, thinking...
But no actual sewing.

It's now after 10 pm, and I am tired, so I'll just leave you with a pic of Tabitha, for the following reasons:

1. It's a cute pic.
2. I have nothing new.
3. I have some older pics, of quilty things, but those will require an explanation, and, quite frankly, I've left it too late in the day to write anything intelligent.
4. It feels like ages since I've shared a cat pic.

My current wallpaper

What I've learned today:
I really really need to tidy my sewing room!

Tail droop and petrol prices

You know how when a cat is so pleased to see you, it sticks its tail straight up in the air? Well, my beautiful Tabitha doesn't just do that; she has a SuperTail, which bends right back, over her back, so that the tip of it can touch her on the head. Other times, when she does stick it straight up, the end curls over, so it looks like a furry candy cane. So cute!

But alas, it didn't do that this morning. I thought at first that it was because I was telling her off for waking me up during the night to watch her play chase-and-pounce. (It was only a lighthearted telling-off. I can never be mad at Tabitha for long!) But no, her tail just drooped during breakfast, and the end of it dragged on the floor when she walked.

And so I did what you do in these situations, and consulted an expert.

Google informed me of the various things it could be, and advised a visit to the vet. Long story short, she's now on Metacam; one dose a day for the next seven days. This afternoon her tail started to get some life back in it.


In Trivial News, today I filled the car up with petrol for the first time in a long time. Hubby recommended it, as he reckons fuel prices will skyrocket soon. As opposed to the slow but steady rise in price we've been seeing over the last few months. Today it costs $1 and 99.99 cents per litre. I don't know what that compares to for overseas prices; it would be interesting to see. (That is NZ$, in case you're wondering - which is currently worth, I think, about 75 US cents.)

Luckily for me, I had a voucher to get 10c off per litre. So I saved me a few dollars, and paid what I would've at full price several weeks ago.


Today I learned that bumblebees are attracted to the light. Turn it on, it will buzz on up to the ceiling, in an attempt to get up to the mini-sun. Turn it off, and it will immediately fall and land on whatever is below it.

This I discovered at 5 a.m. Guess how.

Butterflies and leaves

I know, it's been a while since my last post. The old pc was outta action for a while. Hubby spent the last few days of his summer holiday fixing and upgrading things. Hopefully all is well now.

The most recent border on my Patchwork Posse round robin quilt took rather longer than expected. I did enjoy doing it, however. There's something quite relaxing about hand-stitching, even if some days only saw me manage to get one leaf finished.

Holding down the quilt so it won't blow away
during the photo shoot.
Isn't she helpful?

In cat news, Tabitha has caught many more bumblebees. My bed is still the Chosen Place to bring them and play. But she has now discovered butterflies. I wasn't overly concerned when I first noticed her noticing the lovely flittering movement of a cabbage white. But a couple of days ago she brought inside a monarch butterfly. It managed to escape when she opened her mouth and let it out. Luckily I soon caught it, and let it out the window. Now I feel guilty for having swan plants, as they are a major attractant for the monarchs.


What I've learned from all this:

1. Don't let the kids use my pc. They click on things they shouldn't. Grrr.
2. Don't blame the kids for everything! It's not all their fault. Relax!
3. Make more time for myself.
4. Distract the cat.
5. Relax.

Bumblebees and bunting

For my latest effort in the Patchwork Posse round robin, I decided to challenge myself.

Bunting? No, just chain-piecing...

Apparently it wasn't enough of a challenge to sew 12 pinwheel blocks - a pattern which I'd not done before (hey, I'm still quite new at this, okay?). Instead of following the instructions and making each opposing arm of the pinwheel out of the same fabric, I decided to use a different fabric for each piece. That's 48 different fabrics. All out of colours that would tie in with the quilt's colour scheme, which is (I hope) country-ish. But all that wasn't so hard.

The tricky part was trying to match up each block to be colour-coordinated - because my orderly mind had decided that would be better than having a random scrappy look. Methinks my orderly mind needs to take a holiday once in a while, and let my lazy/creative mind take over, and things will get done a lot faster!

But not to worry; I'm happy with the end product. And my 11 y.o. enjoyed helping out by positioning the blocks for me. She has a good intuitive sense of colour.

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Hubby decided to "help" too. Thank goodness I'd finished all the cutting by then, though!

... finished pinwheels, pre-trimming...

Perpetually fascinated by my rotary cutter, he decided (upon my mentioning that it was getting quite blunt) to sharpen it for me.
So he got out the knife-sharpening steel from the cutlery drawer.
He tried.
It looked sharp.
He cut paper with it.
He was pleased with himself.
I tried it on fabric. Just lightly, as I remembered how sharp it was when new. No good. Pressing harder, still no good. Firmer still, like when I last used it this afternoon.
"It's blunter than it was before!"
He was somewhat surprised. But not ready to be defeated, he got out his other blade sharpening thingy.
With the same result. But I was quick to reassure him:
"Don't worry, I'll buy a new blade tomorrow when I'm in town."
"Hmph. How much are they?"
"Ummm... aroud ten dollars I think."
"What?!"
...

... and blocks attached.

A bit later I came back into the room to find darling hubby with his knife sharpening stone. He must've gone hunting through the garage, because I don't remember having seen him use it lately.
And so he put the rotary cutter back together - which didn't take very long as he was getting pretty good at it by now - and tried it out on some more paper.
It's a good paper cutter.
But sadly, hopeless at cutting fabric.

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In other news, my 11-month-old cat loves to chase bugs, flies and bees. Okay, she started out like a normal cat, by liking the look of birds. But she soon discovered that she couldn't catch them. She has much better luck with smaller critters. Like beetles, and moths. She just loves it if I have the porch light on at night; it's a veritable moth fest!

But Tabitha's favourite at the moment would have to be bumblebees. And as it's the height of summer here right now, there are a lot of bumblebees around. I can actually understand why she likes them. They have a cool deep buzzy noise, so she can hear them coming from a mile away; they sit and do their bumbly business in flowers which are usually around cat-height; and best of all, they buzz around s-l-o-w-l-y. Which gives poor Tabsy a very good chance of catching one.

Today, she caught one. She brought it inside, so she could have a proper play with it. She let it go just inside the door, but managed to re-catch it. Not willing to take the chance of losing it again, she trotted through the lounge, down the hallway, into my room and jumped up on the bed before opening her mouth and letting it out. I managed to catch it in a cup and take it outside; one whiff of the fresh air and it was off.

Within an hour, Tabitha was inside again with another victim in her mouth. Not wholly in her mouth; half of it was sticking out. Which is a really funny thing to see. A true Kodak moment. Now I had just been photographing my quilt-in-progress, so the camera was out; but by the time I'd turned it on and it was ready, she'd dropped the bee, which was now crawling around on the floor.

Long story short: it was soon safely out the door. And the cat had to find something else to do. Luckily for her, she hadn't had her fill of sleep for the day yet.

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What I learned today was an efficient way to catch bumblebees. Get two cups/glasses/plastic containers, preferably see-through. Coax bee into one cup, using other cup to gently nudge it if necessary. When bee is safely ensconced in cup, put other cup over top, trapping bee, until you can safely give it its freedom in the open air.

Breakfast

I made hot cross buns for breakfast this morning. Yes, I know, there's no cross on top. I don't bother with that anymore. The recipe calls for the iced crosses to be piped on. I used to do that. But there'd always be loads of icing left over, so I'd end up decorating around the crosses, making spiderwebs and suchlike. Then one day I was feeling extra lazy, so I just added a glob of icing mix to each bun top. No more RSI from holding the piping tool too long, yay.
And the good thing about having hot cross buns for breakfast is that the girls actually ate some. They almost always skip breakfast, preferring not to eat first thing in the morning. But the aroma of baking buns was too much for them today; they just had to succumb.


Here's some sewing I did yesterday. It's for the round robin I'm doing. There's still some cutting and patching to do with these pieces.

(In case you're wondering, the zebra print fabric is my ironing board cover.)

Because nearly every crafty blog seems to have a feline mascot, I think it's time I introduced Tabitha.
She's feeling rather pleased with herself here, having found a dog to sleep on. The dog in question is actually a pencil case. The pencil case belongs to my 9-year-old, who at the time of receiving it collected dogs. She called it Pencil Dog. Nowadays he's just called Pencil, and his chief task is to transport the coloured pencils to and from school. He's very good at his job, and gets to rest every so often. But he looks rather surprised to have a cat plonk herself down on top of him!

And because I had to wait so long for my pics to load (Blogger is being somewhat temperamental today), I went down to my sewing room and chose some fabric for my next little project.

(Yes that is a xmas tree in the background. No, it's not too early. The stores are selling them, so we bought one. And used it straight away. I'd much rather have a real tree with that real-tree-smell, but hubby is tired of the hassle. And I'm tired of finding pine needles in the carpet for months afterward.)


Today I learned that cutting out fabric takes a LOT longer than you originally think it will.
Estimate a time. Double it. Then double it again.
And add five minutes on, just to be on the safe side.

Pointy Kitty

A while ago, when I was researching on the internet for a free cat pattern, I stumbled across directions for Pointy Kitty. I was smitten. I made this as a present for my daughter's 9th birthday. Her (ever-growing) collection of toy cats are named after characters in the Warrior Cats series, so this one has been renamed.

Her body and head are unbleached calico and the stripey bits are some cotton fabric scraps. The body is embroidered with lazy daisies. The eyes and nose are cut from felt. Instead of stitching the whiskers on, I used fishing line, which is knotted inside the head part. I'm not saying that we've ever had a cat with nylon whiskers, but I do think it makes for a more realistic look (which Miss 9 appreciates).

If the fabric and colours look familiar, it's because this kitty helped inspire my mini block quilt.

What I learned from this (my first foray into toy-making) is that even when you think you have enough stuffing, you oughta add some more anyway. This poor puss doesn't stand too well, due to her legs being a bit too bendable. By the time I realised this, I'd sewn the head on, and really didn't want to redo any tricky stitching.

Big thanks to Hillary Lang from Wee Wonderfuls for the pattern.