Cat with the Batt

This cat loves batt!  She got a sealed bag of craft size out of the closet, dragged it from the studio to the kitchen and this is what we found the next morning:

The package after she was done with it:

The other day I left a twin size batt on the studio table--forgot to put it high up in the closet and secure the closet door.  Shortly before heading to bed that night I heard an odd sound, and found her dragging the large package by her teeth through the living, headed toward the kitchen.  The package was twice her size but she was determined, little devil! 

Patches, being almost still, 10 months old

Think I'll keep my battings behind closed doors from now on?  YES!

Let's quilt!

Barbara

My Sweet Stitches--the Cat

Today we had to have Stitches, our 8 month old kitty, put to sleep--we are so very sad but know it had to be done.

Here is his story:

This is the photo on the Friends of Rescue website that made me go "Awwwwwwwwww" and knew he would be ours.  His name was Shipley then and we got him mid-July when he was about 12 weeks old.  His foster family said he was a great kitten and he was.  He rarely spoke, unless you tried to clip his nails, but you could hear him purr from across the room.  He was friendly, affectionate, and active, always on the go chasing his "sister"--Patches, the other cat we got the same day so they would have company.

Little did we know he brought Coccidios with him--a nasty parasite that required treatment a few days after we got him.  After 14 days, he was better and Patches had it.  We made it through all that mess and they turned into very fun playmates, often doing the 10 PM Tussle--chasing each other wildly all around the house, roughhousing and just being wild and FUN TO WATCH! 

Stitches had a great personality and loved to pose for photos and belly rubs.  He could chase a toy mouse around the house for an hour and was always the victor. 

The day he jumped onto the kitchen counter, then the refrigerator, then the top of the cabinets, my husband named him "Sir Edmund Hillary".  His inquisitiveness knew no bounds.  And the spray water bottle only amused him.  If we pointed it at him telling him "no!" and "get down", he just opened his mouth and I swear he was smiling--go ahead, squirt me! We could only laugh.

When he wasn't running, he was sleeping, preferably on a lap.  Here is a favorite pose, rub my belly!

Patches & Stitches bonded pretty quickly and seemed to like each other.  Their "fights" were mostly tussles and no one got hurt.  Until a week ago.

Friday night we knew Stitches didn't feel well but couldn't determine why.  That morning I found a piece of Christmas Cactus on the floor and thought he had ingested some.  Saturday morning he was clearly sick so off to the vet we went.  They kept him, gave antibiotics and sent him home.  By Monday morning he was seriously ill and we went back to the vet.  Upon close inspection, a 2" laceration under the tail was discovered and it looked pretty bad.  More meds, some ointment and he came home.  By Thursday his spirits were better and we thought the abscess had ruptured so we went back to the vet.  Later that day we got the news, things had spread very badly all over his hind end and it looked very, very bad.  Saturday the news was worse and my husband went to see him.  His one word that was so accurate:  "horrific".  My husband took me to see him and I knew, right then, this would not heal.  The vet agreed that was most likely the case but gave us time to think about it.  Only numerous surgeries and many months of rehab might save him. 

We could not put our beloved Stitches through that trauma so we let him go.  So very sad. 

Patches is lost.  Here she is grooming him, as she often did.  All weekend she has been crying, she's the vocal one.  She looks all over and has been bringing me Stitches' collar, crying:

We are undecided about getting another kitten right now.  I am about to start full time work again and won't be home much until after April 15.  What if she hurts the next kitty?  We know it was a playful accident, surely, but I worry about the next fur baby fitting in. 

We didn't have him very long, in time, but Stitches had our hearts.  Here is the last photo I took of him, right before he got hurt:

Goodbye, sweet baby.  We'll miss you.

Barbara

Finally Finished Four-Patch

After quite some time, I am finished with this leader/ender project:

It is based on a quilt in the book Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms.  I made 4 patches from 1.5" squares over a couple of years, then they became groups of four four-patches, then larger groups of four sets, all with 1" sashing between the units.   There are many of my favorite fabrics in here and all are from projects I've made in the past 10 years.  It's like a reunion looking at them as the quilt top was completed.

As I'm a number person it seemed reasonable to count the squares when the top was done.  Not including the two outer borders, there are 1957 squares and rectangles in the body of the quilt.  It is a gift for my sister who was born, wait for it... in 1957!  Weird, right?  She had fussed at me some time ago that I never made a quilt for her so I've been working on this for a while.  I told her I'd make her a quilt for her 60th birthday so at this point I'm more than 3 years early.   Now it's on to the longarm quilter and eventually to my sister--sometime in this next year I guess.  No problem, she does not read my blog so she won't know.

This was the perfect leader/ender project.  By that I mean, I keep a container of light 1.5" squares and dark 1.5" squares right beside my machine.  As I start or end a row of stitching on every seam I sew, I grab 2 squares, one light one dark, and join them--then they get joined into a four patch and set aside until I need four-patches.  It's a way to create pieced units as you work on a project.  If I had decided to just make this quilt, all at once, I'd have gone crazy--there's just too much piecing and it's all squares and rectangles. 

Every quilter who has a cat knows that as soon as you spread out a quilt, anywhere, the cat will immediately appear out of nowhere and jump on it.  Patches did just that.  Sadly, her "brother" Stitches, is quite ill and will go back to the vet tomorrow.  We think he ate Christmas cactus.  It's touch and go today so I hope to have better news next report.

Check out Judy L's blog to see what others are up to.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Post-Festival Busy Time

Last week I got home from 15 days in Houston--13 days of work at International Quilt Market and Festival, and 2 days of fun and sightseeing on the Post-show tour--this year we went to San Antonio.  It is so  good to see something of Texas besides the Houston airport to the GRB convention center and back again. 

I've been going to Houston since 1996 and absolutely love my time there.  Market is exciting--let's see what's new and upcoming--and Festival is vibrant with over 60,000 visitors from all over the world.  My schedule keeps me on the 3rd floor most of the time, in the Education office, but every chance I get, I head downstairs to see the quilts and visit the vendors.  My job is to handle faculty check-in and manage all the freight they ship in--lots of fun getting to know more than 120 teachers, again from all over the world. 

In January I will be giving a Power Point lecture to my guild:  An Inside Look at International Quilt Market and Festival.  So this year I had to remember to take my camera every time I left the office.  While I could talk for hours about "Houston" as quilters know it, a Power Point lecture needs images.   Here are a few:

One of the TWO Founders Awards--by Janet Stone

A photo exhibit I call "If Quilters Ruled the World"  quilts on the SF Bay Bridge and US Capitol
 

Honu Harmony by my long-time friend, Eileen Williams--spectacular!

Two of my teacher buddies, Charlotte Angotti and Debbie Caffrey

There is always so much to do after being gone from home this long--laundry, mail, newspapers, etc.  Today I hope to unpack my goodies and cram them into the closet along with all their friends I brought home in the past years. 

 

 I also have to get a few samples finished for upcoming classes, like this:

 



Two applique' blocks from Mrs. Lincoln's Sampler, by From My Heart to Your Hands, Lori Smith

Enjoying my crazy kitties too--yes, they've grown while I was gone and Stitches, the male, is now able to get on top of everything--including the refrigerator and then the cabinet tops.  When we point the spray bottle at him, he just smiles.  Patches, good little girl, jumps down. 

 

 Stitches



Patches

I'd better get to it if I hope to get much done today--Let's Quilt!

 

Barbara



 

Kittens

It's been about 2 months since we got our kittens--they were about 10 weeks then.  They are healthy now and fun, fun, fun--when they are not getting into trouble--just like little kids!

It's hard to get photos of them, since they are in constant motion or asleep.  Here are a few shots:

Stitches, in his usual pose

  

Patches, on the dining room table--that's trouble!  She knows the water bottle is coming...

Stitches with the hubby

On her favorite chair--mine.  If I get up for a second she is there.

Patches, the torti girl, is sweet and lovable and loves to cuddle in my lap, especially when I'm quilting.  She was about 2 lbs when we got her and is about 3.5 lbs now.  She is so soft and purrs whenever she's still.  She can keep up with her "brother" when the 10 pm cat tussle time starts.  She can also fly--last night she leapt from the arm of my chair to land on Stitches, a good 7 feet away.  She is very talkative, and can tell time--6 am each morning she's knocking on our bedroom door to announce their bowls are empty and it's time for breakfast.

Stitches, that big boy, is very curious and can climb on top of things--it won't be long before he gets on the kitchen counters, that will mean trouble.  He loves to have his belly rubbed and cuddles in my lap just as soon as I sit down.  His purr is loud--but that's all the sound he makes.  We've only heard him "speak" twice, the first time the vet clipped his claws, he really hollered with each snip, and once when I stepped on him as I was getting their dinner and he was under foot.  He was about 2 lbs and has now grown to 5.5 lbs.  Long and lean. 

About 10 pm each night it's "cat tussle" time.  They go wild, flying from one chair to the sofa to the next chair to attack each other.  That's when my husband gets the laser light and drives them crazy, going around and around, trying to catch that red dot.  Patches gets dizzy when she stops--that's mean!  Stitches chases his tail, and catches it too.  They go crazy for about 15 minutes then they're all worn out.  Fun times.

Cat Tussle



OK, that's all the cat news for now.  Back to quilting.

Barbara

Over One Hundred!

I just noticed this is my 102nd blog post.  That slipped right by me.  I enjoy sharing my quilt life with you.  If you like what you see, please spread the word to your friends--I'd love to have over 100 followers too.

Here's what I've been working on this week:

These blocks are part of an X-block Swap Group I put together in my quilt guild.  There were 6 of us who made 12 blocks for each of the six.  Finally got around to trimming them to 8" and putting them on the wall.  Now to add the black sash with cheddar cornerstones--maybe later today after my outside chores are done.  I'm not sure if any of the others have played with their blocks yet.  Mine are done in 1800s reproduction fabrics--everyone chose what they wanted and it was fun to work on.  Here is the blog post I did earlier showing the other colors:  X Block Swap.

I decided to get on this for two reasons--the design wall was empty so it was easy to get started and I plan to hand quilt this and that will take some time.  Our guild quilt show is October 2013 so those entries are already a done deal.  The next show will be in 2015, most likely, and I'll be ready for that one.

While working on this one, I came up with another quilt that needs to get made--a Christmas gift for a young woman.  I spent some time yesterday looking at photos of Modern Quilts, on flickr.com and Pinterest.  I am eager to get started on that one--just as soon as this quilt is sashed and off the design wall. 

Here are my helpers:  Stitches and Patches.  Most of the day they sleep but at 10 pm the Kitty tussle begins--they are wild for about 30 minutes--then they crash!

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Call Me Crazy--Kitten Time!

After 10 years without a cat, I caved and went to a kitten adoption fair last Saturday.  My husband insisted we "needed" two so they could have a friend so we selected 2 sweet fur babies.  They came home yesterday, about 11 weeks old and so sweet. 

Here's Patches: 

She's still shy and a little skittish--I never know where she is hiding.  And she is not making friends very well yet.  But she purrs when she lets me hold her and she seems to be getting the lay of the land.

 

Here's Stitches:

 

Isn't he sweet?  He loves to pose for the camera so I have lots of shots of him.  He is very playful and you can hear him purring from across the room.  He thinks Patches wants to play--so why is she hissing at him all the time? 

Even though we prepared by buying all the stuff you need for cats, within minutes of being home I realized they needed collars with bells on them--so I can find them.  They are fast little kitties and I have to be careful I don't get tripped up. 

Today they'll be introduced to the studio as I have to get a small quilt done today--guild meeting tonight.  We're keeping some doors shut so we can keep an eye on them and they won't ever be left alone in the studio--there are just too many attractive dangers in there for them. 

Let's quilt--assuming the fur  babies will let me!

Barbara