Catssistants

Good morning, my friends. Well, lucky me! I had so much kitty help yesterday, you absolutely would not believe it. With their help, I was able to finish off the Color My World quilt.

Before we went to work on that, though, we had slow-stitching to do. I stitched up the third of five snowmen, and then I got a start on the fourth.

Here's how it's looking. I'm more than halfway finished now.

From there, I moved my hoop to the right. Later in the afternoon, I did a little more stitching on this. I should reach the fifth and final snowman during this morning's session.

While I was doing my slow-stitching, Smitty and Sadie were outside terrorizing the mammals smaller than they are. Sadie was on the hunt.

Smitty stood guard. Sadie likes to catch things, but then she gives her catch to Smitty. It's like most partnerships. Of course, there are plenty of men who plan the menus and do the cooking. For these two, it's the more traditional arrangement. She's the hunter gatherer. He's the lucky diner. He is an excellent purrtector, however. Also, he wants her to get plenty of hunting purractice. 

When we made our way to the sewing room, our first task was to square up the quilt for binding. Smitty walked all the way around measuring and making sure those corners were all cut to a 90° angle. 

Smitty has been a quilting helper for long enough that he's learned to keep a purrotractor in his pocket at all times.

When he was satisfied, he held the quilt down while I sewed the binding strips together. Happily, I had just the right amount of yellow fabric to finish it off.

With Smitty's help, I got the binding ready for hand-stitching.

Sadie gave it the all-important snuggleability test.

I purrnounce it acceptable. You may purceed with hand-stitching.

So I took up residence for most of the afternoon in our comfy recliner. Smitty took the first shift assisting me with the hand-sewing.

When his shift was complete, Sadie took over. And just FYI, this is why every household needs at least two cats. One cat cannot be expected to do all the work. Union rules, you know.

I didn't really expect to stitch around all four corners in a single afternoon, but how could I miss with so much help.

And then...my quilt was finished. That's five days from start to completion.

Here's how it looks from the back. I love that quilting design. So simple, and yet so pretty.

Okay, so it's a wet and chilly day out. There's nothing else on today's agenda until it's time to make dinner. Except for getting in a walk on the treadmill, it's going to be an NBS day. With the "Snow Happens" piece nearly finished, it seems like a good time to make up the next block for Grandpa's Bridges. Here are all the blocks I have for that quilt so far.

Also, as I work my way through my list of WIPs, I'm going to be starting a new Shop Hop quilt. This will be Shop Hop 4.0. As I've mentioned, this one will be make up of blocks that look like suitcases. This is a free pattern from PBS Fabrics.

For this one, I'll be embroidering the name and location of the shop below the suitcase. Yesterday, I selected the first two fabrics, and I've printed out the name and place. Before I reach the end of my WIPs list, I'll want to have the embroidery finished so that I can sew the quilt blocks together. It'll all make sense when I create the first two blocks. My plan is to make this quilt two blocks at a time.

And...I promise...no more delays. I'm going to get to work on the third block for the Merry, Merry Snowmen. 

They've been waiting patiently in the closet (which is hard when you're a snowman). Today is their day to shine.

So next up...Sunday morning pancakes. Then some slow-stitching. Then sewing, sewing, and more sewing. It's going to be a good day.