The Results

Well, sports are officially over until football in the fall.  Jackson finished 4th in the hurdles and the shuttle hurdle relay finished 4th with a personal best time and a new school record - 2 state medals!

Now, I don't know if you have noticed all the rain we have been getting, but I'm enjoying it!  Why?  well, for one thing, I'm an inside cat. Secondly, the Canine Catastrophe has been so wet, muddy, and dirty, that she hasn't been allowed INSIDE!

Of course, then, the poor farmer who doesn't have all of his beans planted needed something to do, so he made this.............

 A way to get the Canine Catastrophe CLEAN!  

Of course, it doesn't last long.  As soon as she jumps out, she goes and plays in the mud so she can get in the cleaning tank again.  She thinks it's a game.

When my human came home from St. Louis, she brought 24 quarts of strawberries from an Amish Auction.  It gave the farmer something to do.  He even made his own strawberry pie!

My human has also given a couple of quilts away as graduation gifts to 2 of her piano students.

Kelsey got the Blue Radiance quilt and Nikki got the Modern Rainbow.

My human has finished another quilt, but she must be waiting for a sunny day to take photos.  Guess we'll be waiting awhile.

Lest we forget the most important things............here is a photo to wish you a wonderful day!

Cici

p.s.  for those of you saddened by the complete lack of sports to report on, I've heard the Olympics are starting in July!

One Day More by Cici

 One Day More of Track and Field!  High School junior Jackson is running 2 events at the state track finals in Des Moines today, and then track will be over.  We've spent a lot of time staring at the computer screen watching live feeds and results come in.............. here's the recap!

A week ago Thursday, Jackson qualified for state in 4 events.........110 high hurdles, shuttle hurdle relay, 400 low hurdles, and the 4x400 relay.  Today, he is competing in the finals of the 110 high hurdles and the shuttle hurdle relay.

Then, a week ago Friday, college freshman, Carter, was participating in the Missouri Valley Conference track meet in Illinois for the University of Northern Iowa.  His main thing was the decathlon (10 events in 2 days), but he also competed individually in high jump, long jump, and javelin to try to help the team score more points.  The men did repeat as conference champs, so guess it worked.  

Carter was leading after the first day of the decathlon and finished in 2nd overall.  UNI went 1,2,3,4 in the decathlon, so they were pretty excited.  That's Carter on the right.

Here is Jackson's shuttle hurdle relay team.  He's on the left.  We're hoping they do well this morning.

In other news, the reason for the delay in my blogging is that my human went to St. Louis for a couple of days and took the laptop with her!  She went to stay with Sarah after she had her second Covid shot in case she didn't feel well.  Apparently she didn't feel well.

I don't know why my human had to go when Sarah obviously had her favorite quilt and cat to offer their healing powers.

My human took some small sewing projects to work on.

Of course, I was on hand to help her prep some small projects to take.  I supervised the fabric selection for the mystery quilt from laundry basket quilts she is working on.

When she got back home, I was surprised at how little she had accomplished.

These are 12" table toppers.  Apparently she sewed several things incorrectly and had to do some ripping.  What do you expect when you try to sew without the supervision of your best sewing cat!

Stay tuned for track meet results tomorrow!

Cici

Better Times by Cici

Well, things are looking up after working on that hideous Christmas quilt last weekend.  I supervised the fabric selections for another Christmas wall hanging.  She got it all sewed together and just took it off Lucey 2 this afternoon.  

And I've been helping her keep up with the new Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery Quilt.  It started on Monday and there is a new clue every day.  

 She's just using scraps from her blue and neutral tubs.  Every morning we stir them up and see what floats to the top!

Frankly, I'm embarrassed by these tubs.  She started in on an organizing task a couple of weeks ago and folded all the larger pieces.

Then she started working through the scrap bins.  She got green, black, and gray done.  Obviously she hasn't touched the blue tub yet!

There's actually room for me to take a nap in this tub now!

Actually, I've been hanging out in Sarah's room in my tower.  Well, it was mine to start with and then it got moved in to this room for Dory, but now it's mine again!  The room is dark and quiet, but close enough to the sewing room that I can keep an eye on things.

Also part of the organizing fever was to get the TBQ (to be quilted) closet cleaned up.  All of these tops have batting and backing cut and are ready to quilt.  There are 10 in the picture, but I can report that some quilting has been happening, because now, there are only seven things hanging there.

And, she picked up all the batting pieces, and stacked the empty project tubs!

She says she is just "in love" with this quilt pattern called Gingersnap.  Is it because it's named after a food?  This is Grandma's quilt that she left to be quilted.

She pulled this project out for us to work on.

There were some gaps in her plan, but we got that solved and she has it sewn together now.  Apparently we're going to add some pieced borders..............yeah!  More time at the cutting table!

And, the Canine Catastrophe is, unfortunately, still with us despite trying to eat her own water dish.

Why we have so many pictures of her is beyond me.

Cici

Horrible Weekend by Cici

It was one of those "bury your face and don't come out" weekends.  

 I tried to express my displeasure about the weekend sewing room project by not looking directly at it at any time.  At least she got it totally finished and has folded it up to put away for Christmas.  (Maybe she won't be able to find it!)

When I ventured into the sewing room to see this on Lucey 2, it was all I could do not to hack up a hairball right then and there.  And she (my human) was so excited to be quilting her new snowflake pattern!  

She's calling it "Willow's First Christmas".  Yeah right, the Canine Catastrophe was already way bigger than that last Christmas.  By Christmas 2021, she'll be a full-size horse.  At least there is only 1 of her and not 6 like in this quilt.  She put a hanging sleeve on it so she can hang it in the bedroom.  Guess I won't be going in there during the Christmas season.

Speaking of the bedroom, the humans have been doing some spring cleaning.  One morning last week, they actually moved the bed and vacuumed under it and dusted behind it.  Under the bed is the best place to escape the Canine Catastrophe.  I don't recall them ever doing this type of cleaning before.  I heard them saying something about "every 10 years", so if that's the case, I haven't been here that long.  The next morning they moved the piano to do the same thing.  Now, I had been waiting for this.............. do you know how many catnip mice and sparkly balls we found back there?  No wonder the piano was sounding funny.  Of course, the piano tuner's visit that day probably helped.  It was nice to have so many toys back in play.  Now if they'd only move the refrigerator.

Since my beautiful face wasn't available for photos this weekend, I thought you might enjoy these............

Spot........

Oreo...........

And Twinkie!

Twinkie appears to be chubby enough that one should be careful squeezing lest the cream filling come out...........just sayin'.

And here are the 2 quilts that she hadn't photographed after they were finished.

She thinks this pattern is "Arkansas Crossroads", but she's calling it "Anything Goes".  She used her new "Whisper" quilting pattern on it.

And this is the Quilty Stars all finished.  I think the blues sparkle like my eyes.

Well, sorry for the lapse in blogging; I just couldn't face a quilt with little canine catastrophes on it.

Cici

How it all gets started by Cici

Today I thought I might show you how it all gets started in the sewing room.  First, she picks a pattern and then brings over tubs of fabrics and makes piles on the cutting table.  I sniff through the piles and push the things I like to the top.  Here we were focusing on blue and brown scraps.

Then she gets out the rulers and cutter and I start keeping track of my tail while she works.

Sometimes, she'll go to the sewing machine to try out a block and sometimes she just cuts everything before sewing.  I watch the machine to make sure the needle is going up and down correctly.

This was a recent quilt-along called Quilty Stars with Sew Sweet Quilt Shop.  She wasn't really following the pattern, so made a few more blocks before deciding on a plan.

 She decided on this layout because it would be the right size for a lap quilt for the guild charity project.  It's all quilted and finished now, but I didn't find a photo on the computer.  It's probably still on her phone and I can't plug it in to transfer it over..........Thumbs, if only!

That's not how it works every time, but it's close.  Sometimes she cuts a whole bunch of stuff and then decides she doesn't like it.  Like this mess.  We were doing Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek mystery, and when she saw the reveal, she didn't like it.  I had been enjoying this one because of all the purretty fabrics that matched my golden fur.  

She took those parts and pieces and made these 2 tops also for the charity project.  They aren't quilted yet.  I really like the golden zig zag in the border of the top one.  

And, she brought home a Tuit from the last guild meeting, so had the challenge of getting around TO IT.  She picked her Arkansas Crossroads quilt which had the center mostly done, but still needed a little work and borders.  She's working on the binding now, hoping to have it completely finished by the meeting on Tuesday.

Woops!  Let me find a better picture.........

Much better.......a straight on shot without that big lump of lint sitting on it.  For those who are into numbers, there are 1,280 2.5" squares in this.  And it yielded just over 300 bonus half square triangles.  (yes, I serve as the sewing room abacus) There might have been a few more, but after she pried some out of the Canine Catastrophe's mouth, she put them in the trash can.

Hope you have enjoyed these Tails from the Sewing Room.

Cici