Monthly Archives: December 2010

December Clamshell Club Report

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The months are flying by — I cannot believe it’s already time for another Clamshell Club report!  The Pickled Ladies had a few new additions in December, but nowhere near as many as I had hoped.  The count is now up to 56 Pickled Ladies made.  I’m going to keep going until I hit around 110 and then lay them out and decide how much, if at all, bigger I want to make it.  It’s hard to think of not making them as they are so much fun!  I’m clearly out of design floor room to lay these out now, so next month will probably only show the new additions.  Once the numbers are up to 110, I will then start working on fussy cutting and printing the setting pieces made up of vertical half and horizontal half clamshells.

To see what other members of the Clamshell Club have reported for this month, go to Cybele’s Patch blog post here.  I’m looking forward to seeing what the others have done.

It’s hard to believe that this is my last post for 2010.  The year seems to have flown by.  Thank you to all who have shared my quilting obsession this year and I hope to share more with you in 2011.  I wish you all a safe and healthy and Happy New Year.

Lester is going to ring out the old year in typical laid-back Lester fashion; having a snooze.

While Smudge is going to treat us to one more of his classic almost headless cat poses for 2010.

Progress on Baby Quilt

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It’s growing but not quite as quickly as I was thinking it would.  I’m still hoping to have the piecing finished by the time the weekend is over and, with any luck, have it ready to quilt by mid-week next week.  I got distracted from stitching as we were watching the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland last night. Normally, I watch/listen and stitch with no problems but that was so well done that there was much less stitching done than normal.

Smudge did eat a bit on his own on Wednesday, but not enough.  So the syringe feeding continues.  We are more and more convinced he has decided he likes being fed and have jokingly renamed him Pasha Puss. He doesn’t mind the syringe feeding at all, puts up no fuss about it and basically just lies or sits there while he’s being fed.  Next we think he’ll be expecting us to peel him grapes!  I’m not altogether sure what this look is saying other than perhaps, “I’m very comfortable here, so please bring my food in liquid form and feed me!”

Lester is quite interested in the syringe feeding and usually is right there supervising.

Five Pickled Ladies

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These are probably the last of the Pickled Ladies I’ll get done this year, as I’m trying to limit myself to working only on the baby quilt until it’s done.  But I couldn’t resist making a few more of these blocks.  I have another 15 or so of the arcs ready to stitch to clamshells as soon as the baby quilt is finished.

The baby quilt is growing rapidly.  I didn’t quite meet my goal of finishing the piecing on Tuesday as I spent some time starting to sort out the pieces I’ll use for the edges.

The vet called us on Tuesday and is pleased with Smudge’s progress, as are we. We’re to try not syringe feeding him in the morning today and see if he eats enough on his own.  Once he’s eating enough on his own, our big hurdle is going to be getting him back on better food than the Kitty McDonald’s. We’re convinced he’s decided that syringe feeding is quite all right and would probably be content were we to continue doing that indefinitely.  Here he is resting after one of his feedings.

Lester was curled up in a kitty bed.

Reading and More Reading

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One of my favourite things to do is read.  Over the past year or so, I’ve found it more and more difficult to hold books of any size let alone huge ones like Ken Follett’s World Without End.  I finished Pillars of the Earth and wanted to read World Without End but the weight of it caused my wrists to start aching within minutes.  The one gift I really was hoping for this year was an eReader so I was thrilled to open the Kobo eReader.  The first book I got was the new Follett, Fall of Giants.

After about the first 10 pages, I was used to the page turning speed and wasn’t finding it a deterrent at all.  I’d read quite a few reviews and that seemed to be the biggest drawback but the new wireless Kobo is quick enough for me.  As it means I can read as much as I want without wrist pain I’m hoping that translates into fewer issues with my wrists.

Quite a bit more got added to the baby quilt Monday night and I’m on schedule to get the piecing finished by week’s end.  I may even have it finished other than the outer pieces by the time today is over.

Do you make a list of quilt goals for the new year?  I thought about doing that but realized, for me, it’s destined to be unsuccessful.  What I am going to try to do is set aside some small items that I make throughout the year into what I’m thinking of as the Christmas box and have them all done by the end of the summer.  This year I got nothing done for Christmas that I had hoped to do because, as usual, I had left everything to the end of the year.

Smudge was curled up with some friends on the couch.

Lester was caught relaxing on the couch.

Baby Quilt, Take 2

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I had already made a quilt for my cousin’s new addition to the family due in February, but realized it’s really too large for a newborn and is more of a lap quilt size.  I was playing with some ideas for another baby quilt, when I remembered this was partially done.  So on Boxing Day I got this out of the UFO pile and started adding to it.  It’s quick to stitch, so I’m hoping to have the top finished by the end of the week other than the final setting pieces around the edges. I have lots of diamonds and triangles of the right size already printed on ’30s prints, so will be able to use them for the edge pieces.

I’m very grateful I had started this and had put everything for it away together.  It was nice to be able to just pull out the box and have everything in one spot.  Within minutes of pulling the box out, I was stitching.  As much as I enjoyed making the blocks, I think because I didn’t have a recipient for it in mind it lost some of its appeal.  Now that I have a goal in mind, I’m excited about stitching it again.

Smudge continues to improve.  He’s starting to treat us to some of his crazy poses, like this one.

Lester is being a bit more dignified.

Feathered Star

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The block was finished Tuesday evening and I’m thrilled with it.  Now to decide if I try to rush and make it into a table topper for this year or make this the first of 9 blocks and a start on a Christmas quilt for us.  I’m leaning towards taking my time, making the remaining blocks and having a Christmas quilt.

Heirloom cotton thread is one of my favourites for hand piecing.  When putting the arcs together for the Pickled Ladies, I use black thread.  The black heirloom thread seems to break much more easily than any other colour, which leads me to wonder if the black dye somehow weakens the thread.  Have you ever run into a particular thread colour that tends to break more easily than others?

I’ve done no baking yet for Christmas.  Usually I make butter tarts and a lot of different cookies as they’re great gifts to give to neighbours and friends.  I don’t think anything will get made this year but the butter tarts.  They’re fast and easy and everyone loves them so a few dozen of those will be made over the next day or two.

We got an early Christmas present on Tuesday when we took Smudge to the vet.  The jaundice is barely evident now and he has put on more weight.  He’s now up to 16.8 pounds, so only a few more to go until he’s back at his normal weight.  They gave him another antibiotic shot and he’s still on the syringe feeding, but he’s definitely on the mend.  He was relaxing Tuesday night.

Lester was napping.

Feathered Star for Christmas

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This is what I worked on over the weekend.  For me it’s an enormous block as it will finish at 20″.  Feathered Star is a pattern I’ve been fascinated by and, over the years, I’ve thought about making one but the idea of the acrylic or mylar templates, specialty rulers, tracing and on and on made it less appealing.

On Friday night, three Inklingo collections for a 15″, 20″ and 30″ Feathered Star were released along with an absolutely fantastic Design Book.  Because the centres of these feathered stars are 4.5″, 6″ and 9″ respectively, one could use any number of blocks in the centre rather than the octagon.  Saturday morning, I had this stack of shapes printed and cut out, ready to make my first block.

The instructions in the Design Book are for both hand and machine piecing.  I read through the machine piecing section and felt like I could make one of these by machine.  That said, all the continuous stitching that putting the feathers together offers was irresistible to me and hand piecing was my choice.  Putting the HSTs together by machine would be so easy the Inklingo way; just stitch on the line and cut.  No paper to remove, no bias to handle.   The Design Book is free to download for a limited time.  If you’ve ever thought about making a Feathered Star, this is definitely a book you want to add to your library.

This could be the beginning of a Christmas quilt for next year or perhaps I’ll finish off this one block, add a border, quilt it and use it as a table topper this Christmas.  That may be a bit too optimistic to think I’ll finish it by Saturday, but I’m tempted to try.   I’m amazed at just how quickly it goes together.  It won’t take long now to finish the star and then add the setting squares and triangles.

Smudge is on a tablet that helps the liver.  He has a habit of spitting the pill out when I turn my back.  Saturday morning, he did that very thing and I didn’t notice it until we took this picture.  If you look closely, you can see the little pink pill on the towel.  He seems to be doing better.  Tomorrow we take him in for another antibiotic shot and his weigh-in and colour check.

Lester has been enjoying the variety of foods that have been showing up as we try to get Smudge to eat more on his own.

Stormy Seas Block 8

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The eighth block is finished.  It didn’t take long, as I had already put the units together and really had only 2 long seams to stitch.  My wrist felt much better on Wednesday, although I am going to try to not push it for another couple of days. While I’m dying to haul out the bin with the brights and other appropriate prints for the baby quilt idea I have, I’m resisting it as I don’t think it’s going to take much to set this off again.

All the pieces for the remaining Stormy Seas blocks are sorted and in individual glassine envelopes.  Something tells me I need to find a larger box for them or get half a dozen of these blocks made up rather quickly.  The box seems as though it’s rather overflowing at the moment.

I was looking for a two-fabric applique pattern last night that I’ve had tucked away for a while.  When I started reorganizing a few months ago, I put it and the other applique patterns like it somewhere.  But where that somewhere might be has become a puzzle.  I searched and searched and couldn’t find it.  I remember putting them all in one spot … somewhere.  It looks as though I’ll be through with work sometime early next week for the balance of the year.  Perhaps I’d better have another go at reorganizing, and when I put things in “safe spots” I’m thinking I need to keep a list in a notebook of just where those safe spots might be!

Smudge is much more active, playing with toys and having the odd mock battle with Lester.  And treating us to poses like this, showing off his paws.

Lester was also showing off his huge paws while he relaxed on the couch.

Cats & Christmas Trees

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A non-blogging friend sent me a link to this little animation yesterday and it made me laugh.  Many years ago, the night I decorated the Christmas tree I was woken by an enormous crash.  When I ran into the living room, I found the tree on its side, numerous broken ornaments and a huge mess.  The cat I had then had crawled up inside the tree and had managed to pull it over.  I’ve never had a large tree since. Small trees that can be put on a table or the piano, out of kitty reach, seem like a much safer alternative.  That said, we haven’t even got close to putting up a tree yet.  Maybe this weekend.

No stitching happened on Tuesday.   My wrist is feeling marginally better, so I’m sort of hoping that I can maybe take a stitch or two this evening.   I’ve got to be careful though, and may just have to accept that I can’t do too much for another few days.

Smudge is less jaundiced and has put on another third of a pound.  It’s pretty clear now that we’ll be syringe feeding him for the next couple of months.  The vet was pleased with his progress, and we go back again next Tuesday for another antibiotic shot, weigh-in and so that they can check his colour.  He was relaxing Tuesday night, in true Smudge fashion.

Lester has been staying cozy and warm in a kitty bed.