Cats, Confusion, and Chaos

(Awesome alliteration.) Some might say "cats, confusion, and chaos" are synonyms, but what do they know? As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was close to filling my slow-stitching hoop. When I finished up with my stitching yesterday, I'd stitched the whole of the right side of the block.

Now I've moved my hoop to the left side, and I stitched in the flag before I stopped for the day.

When I moved into the sewing room, I started a new project...this one...

I wanted to make the "tall cat" in the upper left-hand corner. These blocks are mostly pieced in the way Pam Bono created her patterns...with strips of different sizes, lengths, shapes, etc. In the end, it all works out, but it can be tedious to do the cutting. Also, the blocks are larger than I expected, and so when the instructions say to use fat quarters, they aren't just kidding around. I started with a large scrap for a background piece, but still ended up supplementing with a few closely color-matched scraps.

The first section was to make the cat's head. That was easy enough. The triangular nose is folded so that it is three-dimensional. I'm going to tack it down with a single stitch when I'm finished with the whole block.

Here's where it got confusing. The collar pieces are also three dimensional. The instructions were very confusing, and the accompanying diagrams were less-than-helpful. It was the sort of thing you needed to understand three steps down the road for the current step to make sense. And so I sewed it together wrong at first, but then it all became clear. When I make the rest of the blocks, I'll understand how to do this without the need to do it wrong first.

When Sadie saw how much trouble this was giving me, she decided to lend her paw and her expurrt guidance.

And she is the best little trooper...working, working, working to make my sewing life easier.

Honestly, I was overwhelmed.

It was almost too much.

When I could see she was getting tired, I encouraged her to nap in her little kitty bed, which she did. Thankfully. Then, I could finish up the rest. The tie section is paper-pieced, but it's not too hateful.

The only thing left to do at that point was to add the eyes. I'm choosing colors consistent with those shown on the pattern cover.

Now it's waiting for me downstairs. I still need to hand embroider the mouth and the whiskers. I tried doing it by machine, but it didn't work very well. It'll be faster and better-defined if I do it by hand. When that's finished, I believe I'll cut the squares for the sashing and add them around each block as I go. It will save me from having to cut zillions of them when I'm ready to finish the quilt.

As for today's activities, we have some sunshine this morning. It might be a good day to get out and pick another bucket of weeds. Our weather has been so crappy, I haven't set foot outside since the last bucket I picked. Today I must make at least a short trip to the grocery store. There's a story behind this decision, but it would take too long to tell. All you need to know is that I haven't done up a menu or a list, and so I'm just getting a few things we need to get by until I make up a more complete list. And that brings me to this meme I found on my Facebook memories this morning. I posted this six years ago...little did I know how pertinent it would seem for the times. It describes how I feel about the grocery store both then and now.

Mike has been sick since we returned home from our trip...12 days now. His symptoms are mild...a low-grade fever, dry cough, and fatigue. It seems likely he has COVID-19. On the other hand, neither Matthew nor I have any symptoms at all. I know it's possible for people to have the virus and be asymptomatic, but for both of us to be asymptomatic seems unlikely. So that makes me think Mike doesn't have the virus, but I don't know what else would hang on for so long with the symptoms he has. Anyway...he scheduled a teleconference with his doctor for this morning. I doubt his condition warrants testing, since tests are scarce right now. It's just one more thing to add to the anxiety that goes with these weird times.

Okay, so I wrote that last paragraph without really intending to, but there it is. It's hard to know how to behave under the conditions, but life goes on. We need groceries, and so I must go. Someone suggested asking neighbors to do my shopping, but all of my neighbors are even older than we are, and so I don't feel right about that. Someone else suggested our church, but we don't attend church. Someone else suggested the police. Really??? No, I'll do the shopping, and I'll maintain social distance. It seems the best solution for our household.

So with that I'll sign off in the usual way...stay well...be safe. Most of all, stay sane.