11/22/14

Another Cat Down, One More to Go

This morning I finished top-stitching Cat No. 11. Cat 11 has another whirligig associated with it. It was to be placed on the sashing below, and so I started there. The sashing below is already attached to the block I made way back in November of 2012...back when I still had hope of doing one block per month. It doesn't take a math genius to divide 25 months (the number of months I've been working on this) by 11 (the number of completed blocks) and realize that doesn't add up to one per month.

Anyway, here is November's "turkey" cat, now complete with whirligig above his halo. I believe this cat is named Smitty. You can probably guess why.


So then I went ahead top-stitched the rest of the block. I was all set to sew it to its neighbor to the left when I realized that I'd forgotten to machine embroider the whiskers.


So I did that. I'm using the "triple stitch," which is stitch #6 on my Bernina 750. It takes two stitches forward and one stitch back, which makes a nice heavy outline stitch that works especially well for straight lines. It can be used on curved lines too, but it's a little more tedious when done on a curve.


I've had such a hard time remembering to put the whiskers on these cats that I went back and looked at the rest of the completed blocks. Sure enough, I'd forgotten the whiskers on Cats 3 and 4, so I gave them some whiskers too.


What self-respecting cat would walk around whiskerless? Sheesh.


And when I'd given everybody their fair share of whiskers, I sewed the newest block to its neighbor on the left, and then snapped a picture of the whole thing.


Well...not the *whole* thing. There's a pretty big gap there, but I'm hopeful I'll be filling that last one in tomorrow or the next day.

Also today, I reached the end of the second sheet of Sticky Fabri-Solvy on the Vintage Tin stitchery. 


I'm not quite halfway across now. It's slow stitching, for sure.

Mike and I are just getting ready to take off and run some errands. We need to pick up a wine shipment at a local winery, do some recycling, and pick up a couple of things. There probably won't be any more time for sewing today, but it seems a good time to stop for now anyway. The sun has come out, and it's a good time to get out and enjoy the scenery. Sunshine is always short-lived this time of the year.

11 comments:

gpc said...

Sure, you blame the sunshine, I would blame the wine. For sure no ore stitching once that comes home. The cats are fantastic. This is going to be yet another fabulous quilt. :)

Dana Gaffney said...

I saw the mouse and immediately thought "that's Smitty", now which one is Gracie? The laying down pirate one?

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Glad you went back and checked for whiskers! This is just the cutest quilt and though it has taken a long time to work on - I am sure there will be a bit of a twinge when it is completed.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

The sun??? We are still stuck under an inversion...but good thing is I'm going to make my nov. ALYofF goal as I sewed in my jammies all day! Love that you have a wine order to pick up!! :) :)

Kate said...

Your cats are adorable! You've really made some progress.

Lee said...

Oh my gosh, your title gave me a start! One cat down translated, in my brain, to one of your REAL kitties, well, having met their demise. I'm SO happy THAT was not the case and that Smitty got a block named after him....nice mousie ;) Maybe I'm not getting enough sleep, seems a lot of things are messing with my brain lately, lol.

quiltzyx said...

Ah, now these 11 cats are safe to walk about now that they all have their "side-feelers"! And me three- I thought of the mouser being Smitty as well!
I worked today at the colleges from 9am - 1pm...but didn't leave until 4 because Brittney brought Otis in with her! He is such a doggy-sweety - I took some pics of him, so he'll be on F'book soon.

Michele said...

Of course the kitties need to have whiskers. Smitty and Gracie would never let you hear the end of it.

Carol Swift said...

I've used that stitch on my Bernina, too, when I need a heavy stitch...it looks great as whiskers on that adorable cat!

Teresa in Music City said...

Your cats are SO fun Barbara!!! Love all your little embellishments :)

Brown Family said...

Details are easy to miss! I hope you had lots of sunshine!