11/5/24

One Day, One Block, Two Cats

Good morning, my friends. I'd say it was a slow day here yesterday, and maybe it was. I got everything finished I hoped I would, so it's all good. In the sewing room, I made November's cat for the Cats in Pajamas quilt. All the "filler" pieces were cut at the beginning, and so when I make one of these blocks, I'm cutting only pieces for the cat and the pajamas. They aren't hard to sew together, but it does take several hours...for me, at least. 

Smitty was my helper cat for the day.

What are we working on today?

When I told him we were making a cat, he surveyed all the pieces we'd be working with.

This meant a few warm-up exercises. You want to avoid injury at all cost while sewing.

Before we can purrceed, it's impurrtant to strrrrrreeeeeetch. 

Okay, and then we went to work building the cat. As I mentioned yesterday, I changed my mind about the pajamas. I remembered there was some Oregon State University fabric in my stash, and I wondered why I hadn't thought of it before. Behold November's Beaver Believer cat. The design was printed wonky on the fabric, and that made it hard to get my lines straight.

He'll fit right in with his brethren cats in pajamas. There's just one more cat to go before I can start sewing this into a finished quilt.

That was all the sewing I did yesterday, aside from slow-stitching, of course. I thought I might finish this piece I'm working on, but I didn't. There's still just a little bit left to do, and I should finish it this morning.

Today I'll start the process of making the "Mosaic" quilt from this photo.

I've spent some time paging through the book,

and now I'll use the book to guide me through the steps of turning this into a finished quilt. The author of this book also has a Facebook page I've been following. She does some pretty amazing quilts using this technique.

Probably, I'll be instituting the one-hour rule on this, as I usually do when I'm making an art quilt. I'll work on it for a minimum of one-hour. After that, I can decide to continue or stop. If I decide to stop, I'll start quilting the Beach Bums.

They've been waiting patiently on Eliza's work table while I waited for my wrist to feel better. Using the Bowflex yesterday flared it up a little. I iced it afterward, and it's no worse this morning. Any quilting will be time-limited, and I'll also use a splint. I'm hoping I can quilt without breaking myself.

We've already had our breakfast this morning, and so I'm going to get going on my slow-stitching. It's Election Day, my friends. If you haven't already voted, please do. And let's hope calm can rule the coming weeks between now and Inauguration Day in 2025.

2 comments:

Barbara said...

There was such a lack of modern, recognizable role models for a young girl in the 1950s. I mean, 'Leave It to Beaver' didn't speak to me. That's why I latched on to music. ~ Patti Scialfa

Kate said...

Love your Beaver Believer kitty. Very fun! We voted this morning, the lines were long when we got there. Enjoy your stitching time, you've got some fun projects in the works.