3/7/16

Catcalling

Yesterday morning I finished up the little bit of top-stitching I'd missed on Samson's quilt.


And then he was ready to take his place on the wall of the Cat Mewseum. It was a good thing because "Feed the Cat" was feeling a little lonely on that vast expanse of wall. If you've never heard of the Cat Mewseum, you can read about it right here.


It was a rainy day, and we had a wine shipment to pick up, and so we left about that time. The cats were in their usual places with Maggie stalking Smitty, and Smitty trying desperately to ignore her.


We were at the Domaine Drouhin winery yesterday. It's owned by a French family that has wineries in France and Oregon. It makes sense since Oregon's best wine is the pinot noir. We are at about the same latitude on the globe as the pinot noir region of France. We've met the family, and they are lovely people. They have a beautiful tasting room that you can see on their website right here. While Mike took care of collecting the wine, I gazed out their windows. It's easy to imagine standing in a French chateau while there. 


As we were driving away, I asked Mike to stop the car so I could take a picture of the surrounding vineyard-covered hillsides. It's a very pretty area even on a rainy day.


After that we had lunch, and continuing my quest to photograph every blooming thing, I stopped to photograph this parking lot shrub. I believe this is a photinia.


It was pretty much status quo when we arrived home. Maggie stalking Smitty, and Smitty trying desperately to ignore her. (See above.)


Moooommmmm! Maggie's bothering me again. She's staring at me. She's breathing on me!


Yell all you want, Big Boy. I'm not stopping.


I'll just look over here. If I can't see you, you don't exist.


In fact, maybe I'll just go over here. 

(You would not believe how carefully he tries to sneak away, each limb's movement almost imperceptibly slow.)


Slowly I turn...


step by step...


Inch by inch...


walking away passively.


You can run, but you can't hide.


Every move you make, every step you take, I'll be watching you.


Even though we had lunch early, we were still not hungry at dinner time. Mike spent another (yes, another) hour on the phone with DirecTV trying to get our GenieGo to work again. I decided it was as good a time as any to start the tedious process of stitching down the appliques on Maggie's Pawtrait.


It went surprisingly quickly, and I have just the top of the head and the ear on the right to finish this morning. I'm using a smoky monofilament thread and an 80/6 microtex needle to avoid making large holes in the appliques. Also, I've shortened my stitch to make it a little easier to get into all those little nooks and crannies.

Next, I'll be ready to add the stitched details of whiskers, eyebrows, and ear fur. And then it'll be time to shade and quilt it. I've been studying images of quilts made by a woman who creates pet portraits using just thread. She's essentially using free motion embroidery. Where I've used applique to create color, she's using thread. You can see her work in her Etsy shop. I'm hoping I can replicate what she does to add more shading to Maggie's fur.

So finally, I wanted to show you the tomatoes. They're getting tall enough now that I'm going to need to start propping them up with toothpicks and bamboo skewers. Their little stems are too fragile for much else. I've started turning a fan on them to make their stems work a little harder and toughen them up a little.


Remember my query the other day about the red Solo cups? Many thanks to my friend Sue who has cleared up the mystery of the jokes surrounding my use of these receptacles for starting tomato seeds. You can see for yourself by watching this video of Toby Keith. It's pretty darned funny, and I'll just say he forgot to mention what great seed pots they are. 

Warning: Irreverent humor and scantily-clad women, and so if you have tender sensibilities, you might want to skip watching it. Also, beware of impending ear worms. If you can't see the video, click right here.



So there you go. Now we're all in on the joke. This morning I have a little housework to do, and then I'm hoping I can get Maggie's Pawtrait finished today.

9 comments:

Lee said...

Love seeing Smitty & Maggie's interactions.
We had a photenia here. I had my hubs get rid of it. To me, the blossoms smell like urine - blech. You're making great pawgress on Maggies pawtrait!

Debbie said...

Thread painting details is basically fmq using either a straight stitch or a zig zag stitch. Your stitch length and width are determined by how fast you move the piece under the needle. To get a really nice blend I like to use the sig sag stitch and move side to side rather than back and forth as we usually sew. The stitches stack up with the side to side movement and overlap to blend. I also hoop my piece to reduce puckering that tends to occur.

WoolenSails said...

That is so funny, with mine Moki starts stalking Izzy and she backs into a corner and growls which makes him want to do it more. Love how the cat portrait came out, and fun to have a wall with kitty quilts.

Debbie

Vroomans' Quilts said...

That is just too funny! I can see the 'step by step'! Maggie's pawtrait is looking more and more like selfie. Hmmm., I should have a wall of shame - I mean, meow museum.

Michele said...

The pawtrait is coming along nicely. And I still think it is funny that Maggie isn't scared of Smitty any more.

Dana Gaffney said...

I'm so glad to see Samson done, he really shows how far you've come with these pawtraits. Funny how the slo mo works for Smitty, maybe he's learned that running turns him into prey.

Brown Family said...

My kitties do the slow motion walking. Sometimes it is Angel and sometime it is Max. It is do funny to watch those two interact, just like your two!

Kate said...

Congrats on finishing off Samson. Poor Smitty, he looks so put upon.

quiltzyx said...

Oh Maggie & Smitty are soooo funny! Love that sloooooow motion movement he was trying.
Whew! We had a gully washer of a rain cell pass over about 3 to 4-ish today!!! It really was a major downpour. But by the time I left Job #1, there was a bit of blues skies trying to break through & it had been windy, so the streets weren't too bad as I made my way to Job #2 today. (8am-8pm yesterday & today) Maybe some more of my irises will show up now. :)