Green Flash

It was a decent day in weather yesterday. Did I get out for a walk? Of course not. There was sewing to be done, and I do have my priorities. How many times do we have to go over this? My slow-stitching consisted of hand-sewing the binding for the Alley Cats Quilt Guild, and that little quilt is my 6th finish for the month of January.

Here's how it looks from the back.

While I was sewing, the kitties were exploring the great outdoors. Sadie always has to check the rain gutters off our deck for any birds that might be perched there. One never knows.

C'mon, Sadie...we've got bigger mousies to fry.

Ordinarily, Smitty is the top shelf cat, but sometimes Sadie asserts her dominance.

Sadie, I'm going to cut you some slack and ignore your impurrtinence.

After writing yesterday's post, it occurred to me that quite a few cat quilts have been added to the Mewseum, and I should give you an updated tour. You can see the first quilts added at this old blog post right here. But let me call in the Mewseum purrator to take us on a tour.

Purrmit me...

This first quilt was a make and take project from a class I took with June Jaeger several years ago. June's cat is named Samson. This was the project that helped me get on my way making pawtraits, although mine are quite different from the ones June makes.

The first one I made after taking the class was this one of Gracie. There are some things I'd do differently if I did it again, but it wasn't a bad first try. We miss our Gracie.

Right away, I made another one of Smitty. He was just about a year old when I made this one, and his face has filled out quite a bit since then. If I were to make another one of him, I think it would look a lot different.

Here's pretty Maggie. We didn't have her for very long, and she was such a sweet kitty. Sniff.

And then there's Sadie. Hers was the most difficult of the pawtraits I've done because of the variation in her colors. My friend Sally from Objects of Design was kind enough to send me some great batiks to use. I doubt I could have done this one without Sally's input of fabric.

This one is called "Sew Helpful." I made it when Smitty was a kitten and chose those spotted fabrics especially for him. Let's just say he was a very active kitten.

This one is called "Feed the Cat." It's practically our motto here at the Three Cats Ranch.

This next one is called "Mom Cats." Their aprons are made from my grandmother's vintage handkerchiefs.

I have an idea to make some more quilts from my grandmother's dresser scarves and some embroidered tea towels, but I haven't even started on that yet. I have tons of her stuff in my mother's cedar chest, and it hasn't seen the light of day in decades. Time to bring it out and do something with it.

As for yesterday's sewing, I don't know about you, but I can't sew properly until I get out ALL of my rulers.

So I made the second block of the Moda Countdown to Christmas blocks. This one was pretty fiddly, with Y-seams, and not particularly helpful instructions. I got 'er done without too much cussing.

Here are the two blocks for January.

After that, I pulled some fabrics for my green squirrel project. I wasn't sure what I'd want to use.

It didn't take long before I had the quilt as you go portion done.

After that, I fused the shamrocks into place. I wish there was a little more contrast, but oh well. They'll be top-stitched with off white thread. I might do a double blanket stitch to make them stand out a little more.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Smitty tested it for comfort.

I'll do the top-stitching this afternoon. That's about as far as I can take that until the green jumbo rickrack arrives. When that gets here, I'll stitch it into place and then add that green stripe in the image above for the binding. If I can get it finished in January, that will make 7 finishes for the month! No flies on me.

Sue and I are walking at the bottom of our hill this morning, and it looks like the weather will be dry. Always a good thing. After that, I'll get back to my sewing. Today's plan is to start on Cricket's pawtrait.