Cat-tastrophe

We had quite a wind storm here yesterday. It blew a big branch off one of the trees out front. I swiped this image off my Facebook feed...I guess I didn't really "swipe" it, but that explains the "Saturday in Newberg" at the bottom. Facebook kindly turned some of my images and videos into a little slideshow. Anyway...you can see where that big branch broke off.

That tree often loses branches in a storm. The branches almost seem to be attached to the tree with a "ball and socket" kind of joint. A big wind pops the branch "ball" right out of the tree "socket". It smashed some stuff below, but no real harm done. The tree is fairly close to the house, and we're seriously considering taking it out.

The good news is that the power stayed on all day, which is more than I can say for my other Portland neighbors. One estimate I read was 40,000 people without power. I guess we got off lightly this time around. So with electricity at my beck and call, I continued on quilting the Cats of a Different Color.

Things were moving along fine when...

Whatcha doin? Quilting? I almost hate to mention it, but my treat bowl is empty.

Hey, wait...what's going on here?

Has a cat been walking on your quilt? Wait just a minute here...these feet are too big to be Sadie's feet. Is there another cat around here somewhere? Did Uno sneak in while I wasn't watching?

This cat has toe jam, and this is all wrong anyway. Let a purrfessional show you how this is done.

Furst of all, cats don't just have paws. They have claws. That is the most impurrtant part of a cat's toes.

Wait just a minute. Do you smell that? 

Is that Uno hanging around here somewhere?

Oh wait. Ha ha! This is rather empurrassing. Just give me a minute to clean this up here.

Okay, let me call in my trusty assistant. She's a cat-in-training when it comes to quilt inspection, but I want her to see this. SAAAAAAAIIIIDDDEEEEEE! SERIOUS CAT BUSINESS IN HERE!

Oh wow, Smitty. I didn't know there was a quilt on the floor. What's going on?

Well, Sadie, we need to purrnt out to our mom all the purroblems with these kitty feet.

Okay, well, I need to see the other side.

Let's just flip this over here...

Do you see what I'm talking about, Sadie? This is all wrong. All paws. No claws.

Oh, yeah...I see what you mean, Smitty.

I agree...it's kind of a strrrrrrreeeeeeeetch to call these paws.

Okay, then it's settled, Sadie. Mom's gonna head on back there to the sewing machine and add claws to every paw. 

Carry on!

Okay, well, I wasn't really expecting a full inspection at this point in time, but here's what I have so far. The quilting is half finished.

My new goal on the Cats is to quilt a cat per day, and then work on something else with whatever time I have left. And since yesterday was rainy and windy (and I had electricity all day!), I decided it was time to start sewing the Gingerbread Square quilt into a flimsy. Here's the image from the pattern cover.

The fabrics for this top were already in my stash before I even started on it, which is always nice. Those are nine patches set on point, and I needed 20 of the red strips and 16 of the white ones.

Also, I needed 176 3-inch squares, which will be cut once on the diagonal. Those will be sewn to the four sides of the finished nine-patch so they can be set on point. The embroidered blocks are set straight...or whatever you call it when something isn't set on point.

Big Bertha was already set up with white thread, and so I took that as a sign that I was working on the right project.

To start, I had 12 strip sets to sew together, and off I went.

When I finished for the day, I was ready to sew the third strip to each strip set.

We're planning to make a trip to a Salem vineyard today to pick up some wine. Originally, we were going yesterday, but then played it safe with the weather reports being so scary. Today, we'll head on down there. Hopefully, it won't take the whole day, but these little outings have a way of spiraling out into parts unknown.