6/14/16

A Miracle at the Three Cats Ranch

As I'm writing this, our newest family member Sadie has free roam of the house, and there have been only one  two hisses uttered. Given our previous experience trying to introduce a new kitty to the household, this seems to us to be a miracle in the making.

Miss Sadie is quite the love bug, and seems positively starved for affection. We got her from a shelter in McMinnville known as the Homeward Bound Shelter. She had a lot of kitty friends there, but I'm not sure how much human handling she was given. In any case, she wriggles and wiggles and drags herself across the carpet and nose bumps in her "pet me" insistence.


Pet me!!


Pet me!!!!!!!!!!!


She bumps her nose on the camera lens, which makes it pretty hard to get a good picture of her.


Speaking of noses, Smitty pretty well had his out of joint yesterday. 


Today, he's still not happy, but he seems to be taking it in stride. But...he said he has some things to say about this whole situation, so I'll let him tell you about it.

With a new kitty in the house, not much was accomplished on the sewing front. Since I've started on the last Gingerbread Square block, and since I've picked up yet another quilt-a-long project, I've kind of decided to put my big stitch hand quilting aside for a bit. I was getting kind of tired of working on it anyway. Besides, Smitty needed a good quilt to walk on. You can see how much I've stitched in the image below. That represents about ten days worth of stitching, and so it's moving along.


Before heading off to the shelter yesterday morning, I traced out the first block for the quilt-a-long. I'm considering what to name this quilt. It has several cats and a bee in every block. I'll think of something.


This morning I started stitching it.


Also yesterday, I made a second practice piece of the poppy petals...


And then committed the motif to my free motion sampler. I actually think I did a better job on the practice piece. Nevertheless, I'm not a slave to perfection, and so I'm calling this good enough.


I'd hoped to get started on quilting the Live, Love, Teach quilt. So far, I've only stitched a test piece to check my tension. The quilt top is white Kona solid and the back is red flannel. Unfortunately, the flannel is popping through to the top of the piece, like bearding from batting.


The line of stitching second from the top was the last line I did. Loosening the top tension helps, but if I loosen it to the point that the red stops showing, then it's all messed up on the back. I'm going with the second line and that will have to be good enough. To start, I'll stitch in the ditch around all the quilt blocks. When that is finished, the plan is to do straight line quilting in the sashings. At that point, I might switch to a red thread if I'm not happy with the stitching.

So that's the plan for today. I have just a little bit of housework to put into the mix. We continue to experience rain showers, and so Smitty hasn't been able to get out much.


He was out for a good hunting excursion yesterday afternoon. Right away, he spotted a squirrel, who kept him busy for a good 45 minutes.


Mercifully for the squirrel, I picked Smitty up and took him back inside shortly after this picture was taken. And that's only the beginning of Smitty's frustration of the past 24 hours. But I'll let him tell you his own tale.

15 comments:

NancyA said...

Congrats! Sadie is beautiful and looks much more sure of herself than Maggie did--sounds like she won't take any guff from Smitty.

Sarah said...

I think we are going to enjoy Sadie pictures - I *particularly* like the third one where she is upside down. LOL.

gpc said...

Good for Smitty. Somebody's gotta keep those squirrels in line. Otherwise they take advantage. I know, I have been taken advantage of.

DeeDee said...

Molly used to do the same thing. PET ME!! PET ME NOW!! Torties have so much personality. Love your stitching for the free motion sampler. The colors are fantastic.

crazy quilter said...

Great news on the kitty front ! Your practice Piece and the sampler looks very professional! Sorry about the red dots showing on the live love teach quilt. I don't know if it will matter but maybe a smaller needle would tame the dots? I don't know if they ever make smaller needles for your Elisa but it might be worth a try! Keep on Sewhooked my!

crazy quilter said...

I really do hate autocorrect that should say, keep on sewing.

Quilting Babcia said...

I love that poppy petal motif. Would a Schmetz Microtex 70/10 needle fit Eliza? I think a fine needle might solve your issues with that quilt.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I see QB already suggested the MIcrotex needle - give it a try. I think Sadie and Smitty will be close friends. She's young and he needs a furiend (don't let that fluff and bluff fool ya).

Anonymous said...

Miss Sadie has decided she will not be in 'protective custody'. This is her new house and her new people and eventually she will win over her new big brother. :)

What dramatic coloring - both fur and eyes. She will make a great Halloween model for your candy corn table runner and the HocusPocusville quilt when it's finished.

Congrats - hope she brings you all (you too, Smitty) lots of happiness.

Teresa F.

Jenny - the lilac cat said...

What a lucky cat Sadie is!! She's beautiful and quite the character. Smitty may have met his match but that long drawn out process on intros is clearly not needed. After the heartbreak if Maggie may you have a long and happy time together. Oh and just a request please I'm a fairly new 'follower' so a bit of background on the live, love teach quilt on the blog would be really helpful now it's coming closer to being finished.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

What quilt along are you doing with cats and bees?

Barbara said...

Jenny, you are no reply, but you can read the introductory post right here: http://catpatches.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-finish-and-start.html

You can see all of the blocks by going to my Facebook page (Barbara Stanbro), then click on "photos", then "albums" then Live, Love, Teach. It is a public album, and so you do not have to be on Facebook to see the album.

casecottage said...

Ditto! I love cats and bees; are we going to be able to "quilt along" with you?

Barbara said...

Case, you are no reply. I linked to the quilt along in an earlier post, but realize I should have done it here as well. Here is the link to the quilt along: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2016/06/bee-utiful-quilt-a-long-block-1-bee-curious.html

Kate said...

Your first block of the quilt along is looking great. I'm sure Sadie will eventually win over Smitty. But I do hope it goes smoother this time.