A Day's Worth of Stitching

Good morning, my friends. There were a few things on yesterday's agenda, but nothing more important than ensuring the kitties were warm and toasty. It's important to cover your cats this time of year to protect them from frost.

However, it is purrmissible to bring them out for sewing assistance as long as the room is kept furrly warm.

Sadie broke cover long enough to help me finish up the top-stitching on Blocks 15 and 16 for the Whimsical Garden. Block 15 had just three colors.

Block 16 had the same three plus three more.

It took the whole of my sewing day to finish that off, and then I laid all the blocks out together. Here are the 16 blocks I have for this quilt so far. I need four more before I can sew it into a finished quilt top.

Recall that Block 15 was set to the right a little bit to accommodate the applique from the block to its left. You can see it in the third row above on the right-hand side.

Here's an update on the rehoming of the Waste Not Whatnots quilt. This quilt was delivered to Sue when we had breakfast last week. It was made from cut-off bits and orphan blocks, and then I used it to practice free motion quilting.

Yesterday, Sue sent me a picture of this young man, Fitz, celebrating his second birthday.

I love the added touch of the blue dinosaur.

And here's another update. Remember this sticker picture from yesterday's post?

Well, my sharp-eyed friend, Dorothy, sent me this picture she found on the internet of five cats napping in one of the original Starlink dishes. They are kept warm to prevent snow from accumulating in the dish and interfering with the satellite signal. Show me a warm spot, and I'll show you at least one cat.

Well, I shared this with Mike, and the story of this image gets even more interesting. As it turns out, Starlink user Aaron Taylor posted this image to social media back in December 2021. 

Mike tells me that the ethernet cable used to connect Starlink to our house is a "Cat 5" cable, and given that name partly because of this image. As technology advances, so does cable technology. There are both lower and higher numbered "cat"egories of cable, but ours is of the Cat 5 variety. As amusing as all of this is, I find myself a little sad that there are not three cats in the picture. Then, the legendary Three Cats Ranch could be in sync with itself. But then, you know...cats. Uncooperative as always.

Okay, so today, I'll start doing a little work on my next art quilt. You know...the one I showed you yesterday. Since you couldn't figure it out from the peek I gave you then, I'm giving you another one today. Any guesses?

Here's a little hint. I had to order some fabric for this project. There are some scraps in my scrap bins left over from when I made And On That Farm. 

As it turns out, one of those fabrics will be perfect for my project. Even though the fabrics and the quilt were produced years ago, I was still able to find the one I'm interested in online. So, I've ordered a yard of that, and I can't really get much of a start on my project until it arrives. And here's another little hint: Today I'm going to root around in my bin of landscape fabrics because I think I'll find more I can use in there. Also, I can spend some time creating a pattern. 

When I've finished with that, I'll get a start quilting the Ties & Tails quilt. It's been lounging over Eliza and my sewing chair to relax out its wrinkles. Today I'll start thinking about how to quilt this.

It's a very large quilt, and I'll admit that I dread even starting it. Still, a journey of a zillion stitches begins with a single stitch. Maybe I'll get it going today. For now, it's still in the circling and thinking stage. And all of that to say that today's sewing is going to involve a lot of thinking about sewing. I should probably put on my thinking cat. Everyone needs one of these.

All right. Maybe I should stop with the jokes while I'm ahead. At least, I'm assuming I'm ahead. Maybe it was a joke too far. Breakfast is next, and then some slow-stitching. It's pouring rain where I live. Stay warm and dry today, my friends. I'll try not to burn the house down with all the thinking I have on my agenda.