The Tenth Cat

So on and on I go with my cats. It looks as if I've committed to finishing all twelve before I rest.

Yesterday I made the background for Cat #10.

I wanted to show you what I did here because the instructions would have had me fuse that entire piece of purple fabric. That would have made the quilt too stiff for my taste, but this block has quite a bit of machine embroidery. It seemed advisable to have something that would stabilize the fabric. 

I ended up fusing just the pickets at the top of the fence and about an inch below. For the rest, I used an iron-on stabilizer. Then, I fused the fence piece to the orange background piece. I left enough at the top of the orange to trim the block to the right size once I had the different fabrics pieced together. Once it was trimmed, I had my background piece. That's where I left off yesterday.

When I came downstairs this morning, I noticed right away that Smitty had some ideas about alternative layouts for the blocks. He's been so helpful with this particular quilt.

I'd blame him for this mess, but I'm afraid that's all mine. I had to clean-up some before I could continue. There comes a time in every quilter's life when she must admit the mess has defeated her.

So once I had given myself some room to work, I continued on getting all the pieces fused down. This poor little cat...such dull colors I gave him.

I decided to do the machine embroidery first, and so I drew in all the lines I needed to follow.

The stabilizer worked great and my fence stayed nice and flat. Once the machine embroidery was finished I got most of the top-stitching done as well. I still need to finish up the appliques on the cat's face. Then I'll add his eyes. The bird has an eye too.

Tomorrow I'll finish up the top-stitching, and then I'll add a checkerboard sashing to each side. All of the mini quilt block cornerstones are finished now, so the sashings should go a little faster. Once that's done, I'll be ready to move on to Cat #11.

You might think I'm only working on cats, but I'm making my way across the Vintage Tin stitchery as well. I'm almost halfway now. Slow but sure.

I needed to go to the grocery store this afternoon. There are many Christmas tree farms at the top of our hill, and the harvest is on.

This farm is down the road a ways, but there is another farm about 50 yards away, as the bird flies. When that farm changed ownership, the trees had grown too large to be domestic Christmas trees. Now they are only harvesting the boughs each year. They do it by helicopter, and that means that I have a helicopter hovering overhead for about a solid week around Thanksgiving each year. It's annoying, but fortunately, it's only for a few days. 

And that's what's going on here at the Three Cats Ranch. The ice is clearing little by little, and it was slightly warmer today than it has been. Still, I need some fresh sage from my culinary herb garden for dinner, and there is a sheet of ice between my feet and the sage. I'll have to send Mike out there to risk breaking his neck when he gets home this evening. Actually, he has the benefit of yaktracks on his feet. Mine may have come today, but the two packages that were delivered are addressed to Mike. I'll have to wait until he gets home to open them. 

And that's my day. Tomorrow I have a day at home. Thursday I'm going to the Knit, Stitch, Sew...or maybe it's Quilt, Knit, Stitch...or maybe it's Stitch, Quilt, Knit. Whatever. I wish they'd give it an easier name. Anyway...Thursday. I even have some money in my pocket. That should be fun. Tomorrow, it'll be me and the cats...both fur and fabric.