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

Show and Tell from the Sewing Room by Cici

 I was afraid I was going to disappoint everyone by not getting to post on the blog today.  My human went off this morning and for some reason closed the laptop.  Now, I can use my paws to press on the keys to make words, but I could not figure out how to open the laptop by myself.  I nudged it, walked on it, nibbled around the edges, NOTHING WORKED!  Fortunately she came home and opened it.  

Now for some show and tell about what we have been working on in the sewing room the last several weeks.  These were some leftover pieces we uncovered from a 4-H project Sarah did several years ago.  The plan had been to make a pillow from them, which I thought sounded like a nice, soft, comfy idea, but no.  That's not what happened.

It became a tote bag!  

Now who really wants an astronaut tote bag?  She gave it to one of her piano students who needed a bigger bag for his piano books.  He's also really into science stuff.  And since Kody is always nice to me, I guess this was a good choice.  He really seemed to like it.

She even put pockets in it and she quilted it on that big new machine.

And since I have mentioned Lucey 2, which she refers to as the long arm (I can't see that Lucey 2 has ANY arms, but whatever), here are a couple of quilts she quilted.  This first one she called Flock Together and we did it as part of a quilt-along with Sew Sweet Quilt Shop.  Purrsonally, I have never been to the shop, but I do watch their weekly facebook posts with my human.  This one is made from all Batik fabrics and she says it makes her think of Hannah.  Apurrently, we think about certain people while we use Lucey 2.

When she finished piecing this Morewood Mystery top, she really didn't like it.  But after she spent some time with it on the Lucey 2, she says she really likes it now. 

Appurently it made her think of Mackenzie.  When I shot her a rather puzzled look, she explained that some of the colors reminded her of the water in a swimming pool and the concrete around the pool.  And the diagonal design made her think of swimming lanes.  

Speaking of sports and swimming (ok, no swimming for me purrsonally), I can't wait for the Olympics.  You may recall how much I enjoy watching sporting events on television.

She also got us a new book of table runners to make.  I think table runners are the purrfect thing to put on the table.  It makes a really nice cushy place to take a nap.  This was the first pattern in the book.  We have actually made this pattern twice and she has them both totally finished.  I couldn't find any more photos of them to share with you though.  Maybe I'll knock them off the pile and it will remind her to take some pictures.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed today's blog post.  AND there were NO PHOTOS of THE CANINE CATASTROPHE!  

It was pretty funny last night when the Canine Catastrophe was inside and the humans told the Google Home to make dogs sounds.............the Canine Catastrophe was so perplexed trying to find that barking dog that she totally forgot to chase me!

More from the sewing room tomorrow!

Cici the Cat

I'm taking over the blog! by Cici

 I have been waiting and waiting for my human to get back to this blog and sharing beautiful pictures of me and the things we make in the sewing room, but she never gets it done, so I'm taking over the blog.  I don't understand why she can't get the blog done, but I suspect it has something to do with this thing.............

I know the humans call her Willow, but let's be real.  Her name is definitely The Canine Catastrophe.  So, there is good news and bad news on The Canine Catastrophe.  One day, they took her away to the vet and she was gone ALL DAY!  That's the good news.  The bad news, they brought her back!  The good news was they had fixed it so there wouldn't be any more little Canine Catastrophes running around.  The bad news........she had to stay in the house with ME for several days.  The good news - they took her back to the vet because she was licking her belly.  The bad news - they brought her back home...........and she gained even more of their attention and sympathy.

Okay, it was somewhat entertaining watching her try to go through the dog door on the shed.

And she could no longer fit her head through the chair legs to reach me!

I think she was milking it a little bit...........

At least I am still Queen of the table.............

Especially since she has taken over my window seat.

At least they don't let her in when it rains..........

The Canine Catastrophe...............need I say more?

Cici

p.s.  unless she catches me using the computer, I'll be back to blog tomorrow about some of our sewing projects.

Out of Sorts!

 Someone has been "out of sorts" lately.  Her PURRFECTLY ordered world has been turned upside down.  We have just finished an upgrade to our main bathroom which meant we were using the small bathroom where Cici's food and water dishes are as our sole bathroom for about a week.  And then, WE WENT OUT IN THE EVENING!  Yes, we went to the Marshall High School play, Deadly Deal, because one of my piano students was in the cast.  Andi did a wonderful job and it was really fun to go out and do something like that.  The cast was small, the crowd (can hardly call it a crowd) was small and it was fun.  We also realized we hadn't been in the high school since Sarah graduated almost 5 years ago.  There were new doors at the entrance (making it look like a prison in my opinion), new doors to the gymnasium (looked great!), and new seats and flooring in the little theatre - very nice!  After the performance, we lingered in the commons just looking around.  Sarah's picture and plaque are still hanging there for having over a 30 ACT score and/or over a 4.0 GPA.  She had both.  I noticed they have not added any of these to the wall since she graduated.  So, in the midst of all this reminiscing, we somehow forgot (gasp!) to put more food in Cici's dish before we went to bed that night.  To make her displeasure at this situation very apparent, she got up on the kitchen island in the night and tipped over a vase of flowers.  When I found the mess in the morning, there was no water on the floor.............because I had left a pile of piano student checks, receipts, and my notepad with my To Do list on the counter which had sopped up all of the water.

I managed to peel the checks and receipts apart and hang them on the oven doors to dry out.  The flowers hit the trash can as did the notepad with the To Do list.  So, in making Lemonade out of the Lemons, I told the hubster I guessed that meant I could just do whatever I wanted for the day!

Even Willow has been trying to make Cici feel better!

You can imagine how well that is going over!

And the new bathroom..........

New tub, tile, fixtures.............

Same countertop, but new cabinet.  The new cabinet has been in place for a couple of months, but then this project stalled due to the tile work.  I finally suggested to my "do-it-yourself-husband" that we could hire the tiling done and he jumped at it!  He really doesn't like tile work.

New light fixture over the counter..........unfortunately the hubster broke the mirror (7 years!) so we are headed to Sedalia this evening to return extra tile and other stuff and pick up a mirror.

Lest you think that the sewing room has been abandoned (it almost has), there is one finish to share.......

For you Star Wars fans, this is Sarah's BB-8 quilt that she designed and helped piece last summer.  She asked Mary Durham to quilt it and purchased the backing, a gray snuggle fabric that was NOT fun to hand stitch the binding down on, but it's FINISHED!

Well, maybe I'm off to the sewing room today to play with the long arm........we'll see!

Christi

Another Quilt Shop Adventure

 We went to visit Sarah a week ago.  We hadn't seen her since she went back to St. Louis at the beginning of January.  We took our time getting there, stopping at 3 quilt shops along the way.  The first was All N Stitches in New Florence.

I enjoyed this shop and visiting with the owner.  There were lots of displays that I liked and I did spend a little money here.  She had a nice display of Glide thread for longarming.

I really liked this Christmas panel..........

But the cutest thing of all was this 3 month old Australian Shepherd-Corgi mix puppy named Moose!  Moose was out for a potty break when we arrived, so we got to pet him and get our hands and faces washed........I'm really sure it was COVID-safe!

Our nest stop was the Gypsy Moth Quilt Shop in Warrenton.

It was a really cute LITTLE shop...........I mean it was probably only 12x12 including the bathroom.  Everything was beautifully displayed though.  There were lots of Elizabeth Hartman patterns and lots of bunny fabrics.  And this working gumball machine by the door with bobbins in it was adorable.

And David's favorite part was that this place was right next door...........newly reopened after being closed for the pandemic.  We enjoyed our lunch there.

We also stopped at Susie Q Quilting in Wentzville.  It was just a little larger than the Gypsy Moth, but crowded with lots of bright fabrics.

My only purchase was this yard of fabric for a quilting friend who is a Cardinal's fan.

We enjoyed spending time with Sarah.  We ate at Zia's on The Hill on Friday evening.  We saw an Imax movie and the mummy exhibit at the Science Center on Saturday.  We ate at her favorite place, Kingside Diner for lunch and then toured the Chess Museum across the street.  We headed for home early Sunday morning. 

It was obvious that Willow missed me and was depressed that I was leaving again.  I headed to Des Moines (with an overnight in Bethany) for 2 days of classes for my longarm.  

I took lots of notes and took all of these photos to help me remember........something!  I haven't had the chance to even touch my machine since I've been back.  

My first step will be to clean it properly.............if I remember it all!

I returned home late Tuesday, gave piano lessons and caught up on laundry all day Wednesday, and worked on Thursday and Friday to make up for being gone Monday and Tuesday (and gave more lessons on Thursday evening and caught up the church bookwork).  

Friday afternoon I received an email from nephew Jackson with a paper to proof read.  He had interviewed my dad about losing his hand in a farming accident.  The paper also included photos for illustration.  Friday evening, I got a call from my sister saying Jackson needed a photo of dad before the accident for the paper and they were on their way to Cedar Falls to spend the weekend at Carter's conference track meet and could I send some photos????

So, I dug out the scrapbooks and found some photos of when I was little..........

This is my little brother on a colt named Ginger.

That red blazer was around for a long time...........

Obviously, Dad was concerned about whether my little brother was behaving!

I have no idea what was freaking me out in this photo!

And here is a last photo that I spied and sent to my sister just to make her day...........

Yes, that's me, giving the world the finger at a very young age!

Christi