Thursday Thoughts on Friday - sewing with Cats

We have one cat - Pippin. He's a fairly laid back cat, so much so that we can have other cats come and live with us and whilst he isn't enamoured with them, he tolerates them. He's an indoor outdoor cat so when it all gets too much for him inside he can go outside and get some relief. He's needed it this last week



About 4 weeks ago my friend Maree went overseas and her cat Mr Tibbs came to stay with us. He could have stayed at his house, which is only about 10 houses away from us, and we could have gone over and fed him there but by coming here he got some company and I didn't have to go visit him twice a day. Mr Tibbs is an indoor only cat

Then last week our daughter, Fangirl went away for work for 4 days and she dropped her 2 cats over here as well... so we had 4 of them here Tuesday till Friday night. Eevee and Skimbles are both indoor only cats too.

So..there were cats everywhere. The funny thing was that whilst Pippin tolerated this invasion of his territory it was Mr Tibbs who was put out by the young 'uns coming in
.

Pippin is used to me sewing and doesn't seem to be all that interested in it anymore. He tends to leave me alone whilst I sew. The other cats though were far more fascinated by the whole process..

Wip Wednesday

I've had a very busy week working on lots of different projects

I have finished off both the top and backing for Scraptitude - Scrap in a Box. I ended up adding an extra border to the top to make it big enough for a single bed. Then I pieced the backing using up  as many of the excess triangles I had accidentally cut for the top. I used up as many of the excess bits as I could. I had a lot of fun doing it and took far more time than I should have but ... well it was fun and the end result was pretty pleasing too.

Yeah a crap photo.. but I no longer have an outside line that I can hang things off so it has to get pinned to my design board. Yes... should close cupboard doors and use a camera not my phone

Our Patchwork group has decided to do a block swap - raggy hearts. It was my suggestion as I had missed out on doing it this swap at our retreat. The swap won't be till September but I decided to get a start on and have made over 60 of them already.

The mystery quilt from the Retreat weekend has also been under the needle. I made some more of the half circle units and extended the circle motif into the border. Its now 66" square. I didn't end up using the half square triangle units that were left over from the half square triangle units in top. The top is still on my design wall and I think its done... but we all know what happened to Scrapitude-Scrap in a Box.

I've started working on putting together some blocks at our Patchwork Group rooms. At the end of last year we did a black and white and red block. We only got 9 blocks and one of those was wrong but by putting the wrong one in the centre it becomes a feature. I have a heap of left over half square triangle blocks from Sunburnt Zebras - 80 of them. We also have a few small half square triangle blocks from the big blocks in the quilt. My friend Lindy and I are working on coming up with a design for the borders. It will be our project that we work on up at the rooms. After we do it there is a pink and white one we have to finish off too.

At Patchwork today one of our members guided me through cheneleing process. I'd bought a cutter and a brush several years ago but had never got around to using them. I made used a panel with daisies on it for the top and several pieces of old sheeting for the under layers. It worked well although when I brushed it up it worked too well... have heaps of threads and they are still coming off. I am not worried if I have totally wrecked because it was all old fabric I have had for ages. I am thinking of making it into a cushion if it works ok.

This is just a small bundle of what I brushed up

My last sewing efforts for this week has been to finish off a project for my daughter Fangirl. She is in a swap to do with super villains and she had designed and cross stitched a piece that she wanted me to make into a wall hanging. I framed it with a lovely blue and gold fabric and then did a very simple quilting design on it - just stitched in the ditch around the design and the a simple swirl on the border. If you are interested in the design then check out her Etsy shop... links in my sidebar

     

Sunday Stash Report

Didn't get around to doing a stash report last week as I was away from home and didn't have my laptop with me so didn't have my excel spreadsheet with me with my stats on it. I haven't finished anything or bought anything in the meantime so it will be the same anyway

The only finishes that I had in the last fortnight have been 6 little zipper pouches that I made for the Handmade With Love stall that we had last Saturday. I haven't heard how we went. Actually I made 5 for the stall and one I took as a gift for my hostess last weekend. Her cat had gone missing and I made her a little bag with cat fabric on it. The good news is that whilst I was there Patrick was caught in a cat trap not far from where he had escaped and was returned to her in remarkably good nick for an entirely indoors cat who had to make do in the wild for 12 days.  Fabric used 1.44m

Suzy's bag. See the rest of the pouches I made here

I did finish a quilt for patchwork group that I forgot to count in my stash usage. I couldn't count the whole amount for the quilt as many of the blocks were made by others and I had already counted the blocks that I contributed earlier. However I contributed the backing fabric and also the blue grey background fabric on the front (the proper name for this has slipped my mind. Hopefully I will recall it before I publish this) Fabric used 3.91m

I have finished this quilt but can't find a photo of it. This quilt won 1st place at our local agricultural show in the group effort quilt. I was pleased with my work as I had designed it and put it together from the contributed blocks

I haven't had any finishes to speak of but have had a few splurges that have bumped up my figures for the period... oops.

I had to go to Spotlight on my way to the quilting retreat I was going to. One of the things I needed to get was press studs. I bought all manner of other stuff but forgot about the press studs. Oh dear. 

Amongst some other quilting supplies like basting spray, thread, iron on stiffening and batting, I bought 2 bundles of batik fat quarters... 5 pieces in each bundle. One was the most gorgeous bluey/greens and the other lovely orange. I am looking forward to making something really special with them. Fabric acquired 2.57 m

My other fabric came via silent auction wins. In the most case I was just bidding on different lots to make sure every one got a bid and some of them got a bit more than what others had put on them. Often there was a pile of stuff in the lot that I didn't necessarily take any notice of. There was 2.5m  of green linen like fabric and 2.25m of a pale purple in the same fabric. I am using both of these in a backing for a quilt. I have used up most of the green and a good bit of the purple as well. There was also 2.28m of a white fabric which I am planning on using to make banners for church. (if you add up the figures down below this will come out slightly differently because of the input formulas used in excel) I did't take photos of this... its all cut up now and really... a lump of white fabric looks like white fabric

Oh just remembered there was also 25m of fabric in my prize for winning the game of bingo we had at our retreat dinner. I also won the Anzac quiz but donated that gift to the person who came 2nd (who was my neighbour and I had helped with her answers as well) 

There were a couple of other lots of fabric but I am putting them straight into the box of stuff to go to Lifeline as I won't use it so I didn't count it in or out.

I have finished the top for my Scrapitude quilt and have been working on the backing. I have gone to way more trouble than I needed to on the backing, piecing blocks for it but I have been having fun trying to use up all the excess triangles I accidentally cut for it as well as the rest of the fabric left over from the borders I made. I am planning on sending Scrapitude off to be long arm quilted. I had planned to do it myself but that was before I added the extra borders and it became a little large for me to handle.

So the figures for this fortnight

So my stats for this month (end of week 24)

Fabric Used                                5.34

Fabric Added                            10.30

Year to Date

Fabric Used                               68.98

Fabric Added                             33.01

Net Fabric used                        35.97m

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

WIP Wednesday

Having trouble getting my photos off my phone. Not sure why I can't but once my daughter gets home she might be able to help me.

Anyway quick update with only a few  photos

Scrapitude
Have worked on this and over the last few days I have got the blocks together with the lattice like sashing. I think it looks great. Next I am going to add some other borders but haven't worked it out yet

Its the season for mystery quilts I was on a weekend retreat - 4 days worth and we had a mystery quilt there too. We had clues Friday Saturday and Sunday. I managed to get all my blocks made before The retreat ended Monday. Since getting home I've managed to get the blocks together. Now to work out borders for it too. I would like to continue the circles into the border - finish them off. I also have some hst fro the flying geese units I could incorporate some how too. Working on this one too

Linking up with

 

Thursday Thoughts

Today was a tough day It was the funeral for our friend Steve. He was only 50, husband of my dear friend A, father of 4 adult children, grandfather to 2 munchkins. He was a much loved son, brother, brother-law, uncle, friend and work colleague

It was a long service because there were 6 eulogies/tributes. They were all well done, a mixture of humour, pathos coming from family - daughter, brother, sister and sister-in-law, an old school friend and a work mate. It was great to get such an all round picture of this bloke who was universally loved and respected.

At the moment our congregation is without a minister and my husband was asked to take care of getting the church ready for the funeral. This was a pretty mammoth undertaking as it was expected to be a huge funeral (and it lived up to expectations) We borrowed chairs from the catholic church and also from the Neighbourhood Centre. These had to be picked up and set out... as well as every chair and pew in the church and manse. FG also had to work on the speaker system. We had to set these up so the people outside could here what was going on inside. We were up at the church not long after 9 getting things organised. The service wasn't till 11 and then it went for almost an hour and a half. Afterwards we didn't get to the grave as we had to pack up the church - just getting it to a lock up stage meant that we were going to be too late for the grave side service which made me rather sad. We did go to the gathering afterwards and that was a chance to talk to various old friends and family.

It was 3 by the time I got home and FG wasn't home till after 4.30 as he and a friend returned the chairs to where they had been borrowed from. 

I didn't make the day any easier for myself by staying up very late last night finishing a project (that I kept stuffing up because it was late and I was tired. Then I stayed up even later to write my blog post. Yeah so I started a really hard day on limited sleep.

Now I am trying to get organised to go away for the weekend. I have managed to lose all my enthusiasm. I am not as organised as I would like to be... I got the mystery quilt prep done and I have other projects paced up to take... but I haven't made the blocks for the swaps or exchanges that I would have liked to have done and I don't have an outfit for our special themed dinner. To be honest I can't even remember what the theme for the dinner is. I know that part of the theme for the weekend is the Centenary of Anzac. We have incorporated the Make do and Mend theme of the war in as well...  I have found something for the gift exchange. I just got swamped at the end.

Anyway - I will report back on my progress after the weekend

And cause I don't have a photo for this here are my bougainvilleas. I have never had them put on a display like this

And then we need a couple of cat pictures just because.

FG lay down for an afternoon snooze. I joined him and then the 2 cats moved in as well. Tibbs (B&W cat) is giving Pippin the evil eye. Pippin is studiously ignoring him

and in case you missed it, here it is again.

I reckon Mr Tibbs looks like he went on a Buck's night and someone shaved off half his moustache

WIP Wednesday - Preparations and Pouches

I am off on a 4 day retreat on Friday. I will be staying with my good friend Suzy in Yeppoon whilst attending a retreat. Usually I live in but since my friend moved to the area in January I am going to be able to combine visiting her and participating in the retreat. It should be a great time.

I have a few projects up my sleeve to do over the weekend. There is going to be a mystery quilt being run over the weekend. I have got the preparations all done so that is step one.

I also have the last step of Scrapitude to complete. I need to find fabric for the sashing and borders for that...must look up the instructions and make sure I have stuff organised for that.

I'd also like to work on some more blocks in the Amy Gibson BOM craftsy class done. I have them down loaded to my computer.

I have been busy with some small project this week.

I got stuck into my paper piecing and caught up the 5 blocks I was behind - the last one was a double block so really I was only 4 weeks behind but 5 blocks.

I got some zipper pouches made last night and today to go on the Hand Made With Love stall this weekend. I got 6 made but one of them will be for my friend that I am staying with this weekend. I also need a donation for a silent auction at the retreat so one might go to that as well.

 

    

Monday Musing - Setting June Goals

The first day of the month - almost half way through the year - wow.

Time to think through what my goals for June will be

Complete POD Blocks for the month and do the last one for this month ie blocks 21 22 23 24 25. I have already started on block 21. If I'd pushed it I might have got it done last night but was feeling a bit tired so NOT the time to tackle a double paper pieced block... which has all sorts of extra bits cause there are 3 different ways of doing it. I did something I NEVER do... cut up all the sheets into bits... and yeah now I am confused by what goes where. Might have to reprint some pages to get myself sorted out.

Complete Scrapitude quilt. The clue has been up for a couple of weeks now. This will be a project on my quilting retreat

Complete Mystery Quilt top at Patch n Peace. I am prepped and ready for this. I was supposed to be leaving Thursday midday to drive down to Yeppoon for it but now I have a funeral to go to and so won't leave till Friday morning.

Complete 2 Amy Gibson blocks. If I can I would love to do a few more but we shall see. I will print off patterns and take them with me this weekend

Make zipper pouches for Handmade Love stall. This is on the coming weekend but when I am being realistic - I don't know when I will get anything made. I guess I will just try to make some over the month to go into the stall.

Start beanies for The Beast, Kombi Boy and Boyo. To do this I am going to have to go buy some wool. I'll have to go to Spotlight whilst I am in Rockhampton over the weekend.

These are my goals. Other things may well crop up over the month - they usually do. I might slip an extra one in

Work on putting blocks together for another community quilt. There are 2 more sets of blocks to get made into blocks. Then we might start another BOM. This is something I can do up at the patchwork rooms at our gatherings on Wednesday. I won't get to it this week though because its our local Agricultural show and our show holiday. 

This is also my post for A Lovely Year of Finishes. My goal for June, my finish for this term will be to finish off my Scrapitude quilt