That's What Friends Are For

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It's Good To Have Friends

There's nothing better than blogging to keep one from a hated task like grocery shopping.  So thank you, thank you, thank you, for being my best demotivating friends . . . . not that I was ever motivated, you understand.  Clearly, I have my priorities, and showing you what George and I have been up to is high on the list.  Grocery shopping? Not so high on the list.  I will have to go, but you understand my wanting to put it off as long as possible, don't you?

First, I have to show you what came in the mail yesterday.  Ms. Katy who blogs over at Plethora of Pinatas, sent me these sweet little mini quilts honoring the current cat residents here at the Three Cats Ranch.  Aren't these adorable?

And they came with this card explaining her choices of fabrics and embellishments.  Too cute!

Thank you, Katy.  Hugs back!  They are very special to me.  It was so kind and generous of you to make them for me.

These are definitely going into the Cat Wall of Fame that hangs in my two stairwells.  I've blogged before about the two stairwells in my house.  They are dark narrow hallways that happen to be stairways.  I decided long ago that I wanted to cover all four walls with nothing but cat quilts.  I'm off to a good start.  Whenever I mention this, people want to see the cat walls.  Because the stairways are narrow, I can't really back up to get a good picture of them, but I'll endeavor to give you a little peek, poor photograph though it is.  From the top looking down . . . 

And from the bottom looking up . . . 

That was the stairway that leads from the main floor to the downstairs (where my sewing room is).  The stairs that lead from the main floor up have just this one quilt hanging.  I've shown it to you before, but just to complete the thought about the Cat Wall of Fame, I'll show it to you again.  

When I finish the Mr. Bear quilt I have a new embroidered cat quilt I'm going to start on, but I'll save that for another post.

Friends Make Surprises Fun

So, because I'm excellent at keeping secrets (not), I'm going to reveal the mystery project that I managed to keep secret for all of a day or two.  When I posted the picture of the backing fabric as a hint, my friend Lisa (who happens to be a teacher) knew right away that it was for her.

That must be why she's a teacher . . . because she's so smart.  So then I made a half-hearted attempt to give only sneak peeks at the project.  And then, because Lisa whined, begged, and pleaded with me I'm terrible at keeping secrets, I asked her if she wanted to see it.  It's a good thing she said yes because otherwise I would have been the one doing the whining, begging, and pleading.  And I hate that, don't you?  So, because my fingers can barely type in anticipation of revealing the so-called secret, here it is:

Lisa teaches 4th grade at the Idyllwild school and their mascot is the "Mountain Lions".  The name above the door and the banner behind the airplane will be hand embroidered with those words.  When it's all quilted, I'm going to add some yo-yo flowers around the fence and grass.  I might add some other button embellishments too, but I haven't decided on those yet.  There will also be a button for the doorknob.  I'm going to quilt it rather simply, some stippling in the grass, long rays for the sun, pebbling in the sidewalk, and some lines for the boards in the school house.  Oh yes, and the black checked fabric will go all the way around for the binding.  Cute huh?  When I saw this pattern, I knew I had to make it for Lisa.

Some of My Friends are Cats

George had a positively terrible day yesterday.  He had to go to the V-E-T.  He doesn't like that at all.  His appointment wasn't until later in the afternoon, and so we went outside in the morning.  We would have walked in the woods, but our neighbor was banging around on his property, and that was offensive to George's tender ears.  We decided to stay up near the house.

Poor George has an autoimmune disorder called pemphigus.  It's a horrible skin disease, and it has plagued George for most of his life.  It took a long time to get a correct diagnosis, and now we give him steroids to control it.  Sadly, we seem to have to give him the steroids more and more frequently to keep it controlled.  He has had a really persistent lesion since before Thanksgiving.  The vet has looked at it before, but didn't really have anything new to add.  She said to check back if it didn't get better.  Now a couple of months have gone by.  Every time we think it's getting better, it starts looking worse again, so yesterday we had her take another look at it.  I've been photoshopping this out of the images I've posted of George, but here's a little look see so you can see what I'm talking about.

Can you see that large bald patch on his back?  It extends from shoulder to shoulder and it's about two inches wide and scabbed over.  Poor guy.

I know.  It burns your eyes to look at it, doesn't it.  Here's some salve to get that image out of your eyes.

Well, George was pretty put out about being loaded into a cage and driven down the hill, and he spent the rest of the afternoon hiding out under the table, refusing to even look in my direction.

The vet gave us some oral antibiotics that contain a steroid to give in addition to his other medicine.  She also gave us some ointment to rub on it.  We don't know if that will help, but it's worth a try.  He's forgiven us today, but he still seems a little lethargic and hung over after such a humiliating ordeal.

Some Things that are Totally Non-Friend Related

I finished up the fourth block for the Promises & Borders BOM.  It still needs borders.

And the black floss I was waiting for came yesterday, so I was able to finish up the 2nd block for the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machines BOM.  This one also needs borders.

And Sometimes Even Friends Can't Postpone the Inevitable

Darn.  Grocery store, here I come.  As soon as I do something else first.