Category Archives: needlework

Something to Stitch, Something to Unstitch

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Remember this, the Ferris Wheel quilt? That’s the project that involved unstitching. I had quilted about a third of it by machine and then decided I wanted to quilt this one by hand. So I’ve spent a number of hours over the past couple of weeks taking out the machine quilting. Now I’m trying to decide how I want to quilt it.

For a change of pace, I’ve started stitching a cross-stitch project. It’s almost a quarter done already. This one is going to be a small Christmas biscornu.

Baxter did very well and we picked him up at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I had to laugh at the post-surgery instructions. They stated we should keep him as quiet as possible. A rambunctious kitten who’s only 6 months old and showed absolutely no signs of being groggy from the anaesthetic we’re supposed to keep quiet? Within minutes of getting home, after sniffing around to make sure things were where he thought they should be, he was bounding around, getting toys out of the toy basket, jumping up on the windowsill to watch the leaves and that went on all afternoon and evening. We’re thrilled he came through the surgery so well and showed no after-effects. Here you can almost see the spot that was shaved for the IV on one front leg.

Quaker Patchwork Sampler, Part 3

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A little more was done on the sampler.  I seem to be getting into a bit of a routine of stitching this, picking it up once a week to add a few more stitches.  I’ll certainly not win any speed records getting this done, but am enjoying every minute I do spend on it.  I still look at each motif and see a quilt block.  I was contemplating duplicating some of the motifs using 1/2″ squares for each stitch.  I don’t know if I’ll do that, but the idea rather intrigues me.

Another mild day Wednesday.  And our forecast is looking better and better as far as nice mild temperatures go, although rainy.  This has to be the warmest it has ever been this early in March.

I got my hair cut again on Wednesday and this time had a temporary rinse put in.  I had wanted to tone down the silvery white a bit and when my hairdresser said this rinse will just fade/wash out over the next 6 to 8 weeks, I figured it was worth a try.  The rinse is a sort of light beige blonde that is going to take me a bit to get used to.  Probably by the time I grow accustomed to it, it will be fading completely.  At least this way I get to try it out without worrying about upkeep or touch-ups and, if I decide I really don’t like it, it will be gone in less than two months

Lester had another busy day on the windowsill and was in need of some rest Wednesday evening.

While Smudge was wide awake and alert:

Quaker Patchwork Sampler, Part 2

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Although it has been a couple of months since I picked this up, it was easy to continue on from where I had left off.  The motifs in this sampler are giving me quilt ideas and most of them do have a patchwork block look to them, which is probably what makes it easy to pick up no matter where I’ve left off.   It’s a rather large sampler and I’m only about a tenth of the way through, if that.

It still feels like spring to me.  I’m convinced the leaf buds on the tree limbs are starting to swell a tiny bit.  Overly optimistic?  Possibly.  But maybe, just maybe, after last year which was the year of no summer and this year which has been the year of almost no winter, we’re going to have a true spring, which would be a novelty.  Normally we go from having the heat on to having to turn on the air conditioning.  It would be wonderful to have a month or two of not having to turn on either.

Both cats have been exhibiting a bit of spring fever.  Lester has been extremely busy playing with toys which he has fished out of the basket.

Smudge has been playing more than normal as well.  Here he’s guarding two toys.  We didn’t pose this picture at all.  Somehow or other he managed to get the toys sitting on his paws like this.