Tag Archives: cats

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.

It’s Way Too Cold!

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Nothing much quilt-related to show.  My wrists have really flared up.  The swelling is noticeable at this point and the pain is getting rather tiresome.  However, I’m playing with an idea for a baby quilt, thinking of making a 12″ version of this block using some bright prints.  If I decide to do this, I think it will only take 6 blocks and a small border so could be made relatively quickly.  I’d love to be able to pull the fabrics I want to use, but that’s going to have to wait till this flare-up has ended.  At least I can plan.

Wind chill temperatures of -20C are just too cold for me, particularly when the wind is gusting between 40 and 60 kilometres per hour!  And we have to go to the vet this afternoon.  I’m going to put a fleecy towel in the carrier.  Thankfully, Mr. Q.O. can pull up right to the door and I can jump out with the carrier.  Because it’s so bitterly cold, Mr. Q.O. is going to stay in the car and keep it running so that Smudge goes right into a nice warm car after seeing the vet.  At least we’ve not had any snow other than a light dusting.

Once again, I’ve fallen way behind on responding to comments.  Until the inflammation in my wrists subsides, I’m trying to avoid the keyboard as much as possible.

The cats know how to deal with this weather.  They curl up and have a snooze.  First Smudge was on the couch, curled up with a teddy bear.

Then Lester.

Seven Stormy Seas Blocks

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The first seven blocks are done and the eighth is close to being finished.  The circular effect that these blocks give is something I absolutely love.  I can’t wait till they’re all done and I can lay them out and decide on placement.

I got all the remaining fabrics printed.  In just slightly over 2 hours I had all the fabrics ironed to freezer paper, printed and cut out.  Then I started sorting them into glassine envelopes in sets for each block.  This box has all the pieces for each of 17 or 18 blocks, ready to stitch.

This box has the remaining pieces, all sorted in envelopes by fabric, ready to be pulled and put into block envelopes to join those in the first box.  I love having lots ready to stitch like this.

I wanted to get all the Storm at Sea shapes printed on the fabrics and ready to stitch before I somehow or another “borrowed” one of those fabrics for use in something else.  Two of the fabrics I’ve picked for this are batiks with a slight dusting of a gold metallic that I think are going to look rather like light reflecting on the water.  The best part of this is I know I won’t get bored making the blocks as each one will be slightly different.  There will be 41 blocks to go once I get the current one finished.

We’ve yet to do any decorating for Christmas.  But our door decoration is up.  A few years ago we decided to find something that was a bit different than a formal wreath.  I think we managed to definitely find that something different.

The weekend was relatively mild, but we’ve had a real drop in temperatures that started overnight.  While there was a lot of snow around us, the city once again didn’t seem to get any.  I have a feeling the roads and sidewalks are slippery, though, as it rained on and off throughout Sunday and then the temperature dropped suddenly.

Smudge definitely seems on the mend.  Trying to figure out what he’ll eat on his own is becoming an adventure.  What he likes today, he won’t like tomorrow.  We’re fortunate in that he is still being quite cooperative with the syringe feeding.  I can’t wait until tomorrow when we take him in to the vet.  We can’t see any signs of jaundice now and I think he may have put on another pound.  He was very lively on the weekend and even had one of his play fights with Lester.   He also found a few spots to sprawl out and snooze.

Lester was also in snooze mode a lot of the weekend.

Arcs for the Pickled Ladies

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One of the things I’ve been working on is stitching the arcs for the Pickled Lady blocks.  I’m trying to get lots and lots of them ready as stitching the arcs to the clamshell body takes next to no time.  Unfortunately, my wrists are still not cooperating so pressing the arcs wasn’t possible before the picture was taken.   All the black triangles are cut for at least another 40 arcs while the white pieces are being cut as I need them.

It was bitterly cold here on Wednesday.  So cold that the first cold weather alert of the season was issued by the city.  It seems awfully early for this horribly cold weather and makes me wonder what January and February are going to be like. When it’s bitterly cold, I resort to my mice slippers.  They are toasty warm and I really don’t care how ridiculous they look.  My mother bought these slippers for me well over 15 years ago and I treasure them.  They only come out in the winter so they’ve stood up quite well.   Watching the cats’ reactions to the oversized mice on my feet makes me laugh.  The sight of them makes Mr. Q.O. laugh.

Smudge greeted me Wednesday morning by chirping for his breakfast and doing figure eights around my legs.  Huge improvement.  Getting him to eat on his own has been a challenge, so hearing him ask for breakfast felt like a huge achievement.

Both of the kitties were spending time either in the cat beds or on the couch, staying warm.  Lester looked at the windowsill ever so briefly on Wednesday afternoon but I think he could sense it was chilly and decided to head for the couch.

Planning A Christmas Quilt

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A Christmas quilt is on my list to make one for next year using these fabrics.  I know that an Inklingo Feathered Star collection will be coming out sometime in the near future and have decided that will be the design I’ll use for a Christmas quilt with these fabrics.  A Feathered Star has been on my want-to-make list for years, so I’m really excited about the thought of making one.  These fabrics have been tucked away for ages, waiting for the right idea for a Christmas quilt.  I’ll get them washed and pressed in the next few days so that I’m ready to start.

I have been working on blocks for two quilts but, as my wrists are too sore to handle pressing at the moment, nothing is pressed so no photos to show quite yet.

Once again, thank you to everyone — all the good wishes and thoughts for Smudge meant a lot!  We had Smudge to the vet again on Tuesday and he has put on a pound.  We’re thrilled.  Our vet’s  happy.  Smudge seems livelier and more engaged. That is the best Christmas present we could have asked for.  We’re still syringe feeding and will be for a few weeks yet to ensure his weight gets back up to his normal 18+ pounds.  Along with syringe feeding the food, we’re giving him a bit of yogourt every night now as he was given an injectable antibiotic yesterday.  While he has always loved having a bit of yogourt, since he got sick he hasn’t wanted any of it so we’re giving that by syringe as well.

This photo was taken on Tuesday night.  It’s hard to tell from the photo, but he’s more interested in what’s going on around him than he has been the past week or so.  He’s still a bit jaundiced, but not as much as he was.  A visit to the vet is scheduled for next Tuesday for another weigh-in and colour check.

Lester has continued to keep his eye on Smudge.  He’s intrigued by the syringe feeding to the point that last night when we were giving Smudge some food, Lester decided he had to sniff the syringe.

Hopefully I’ll start replying to comments, visiting and commenting on blogs a bit more now.

Little Stars

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While we’re continuing to deal with a kitty who’s not well, I have been doing a bit of stitching in between syringe feeding and the like (if you’re looking for an update on Smudge, scroll down a bit).  Putting the LeMoyne Star blocks together has been a lovely distraction when I’ve had a few minutes to stitch.

Even pressing the blocks feels like fun at the moment.  I think getting them pressed just perfectly gives me a feeling that I’ve got some control over something.

As the sun was going down one day this week, and I can’t even remember which day at this point, it cast a wonderful pink light on the office towers in the area. The one that’s on the other side of the roof garden looked, I think, quite pretty — although I’d rather it was summer and the leaves were out on the trees and I wouldn’t be able to see it.

A couple of the buildings across the street also were turning quite pink.

And here’s Smudge, resting in a kitty bed in between feedings.

Thank you to everyone for your wishes and thoughts for Smudge’s recovery.  We’re by no means out of the woods yet and his appetite is — well, beyond finicky.   He’s finicky at the best of times, let alone when not well.  The cupboard shelf with kitty food has so many different varieties and flavours that we’ve bought in the hopes of finding one that he’ll actually eat on his own that I think we could open a small shop!  He’s on an appetite stimulant and, while he is eating a little bit on his own, I really don’t think it has had the effect the vet was hoping for.  I know there are other appetite stimulants for cats and will bring that up in today’s conversation with the vet.

In the meantime, our goal is to get 250 calories per day into him.  I had never noticed it before, but cat food labels do not show the calorie count.  Thankfully, our vet had the calorie count for some foods and a non-blogging friend found and forwarded to me a chart with all sorts of cat foods and their calorie counts listed.  In order to get enough calories into him, we’re making a slurry out of a tin of food and syringe feeding him in 1 to 1.5 ounce increments throughout the day.

An ounce or ounce and a half may not sound like a lot, but it takes some time.  I am extremely grateful Smudge has the typical Maine Coon temperament.  He lets me give him  his pills, syringe feed him and generally be a pest (which must be what I appear to be from his point of view) without protest or struggle.  I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult this could be with many cats!

He has us waiting on him hand and foot.  He likes baked chicken, but only when it’s just out of the oven warm.  Not warmed up the next day after it’s cooked, mind you. Only out of the oven warm.  So chicken is cooking here at various odd hours of the day and night.

Lester has been enjoying the variety of foods that are suddenly appearing.  He seems to know that Smudge isn’t well and has been periodically going over to wherever Smudge is to check on him.

I’m still basically taking a brief blog break, but thought that I’d pop in with a post — mostly to say thank you to you all.  Although I haven’t responded to comments, I can’t begin to say how much I’ve appreciated each and every one.  Hopefully, I’ll be back with a report sometime next week that Smudge is improving and can then start to visit and comment on blogs too but, for the time being, Smudge’s needs absolutely have to come first.

Pickled Ladies Again

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While I have been working on the pink and cream quilt and playing with the irresistible Storm at Sea blocks, I’ve not been ignoring the Pickled Ladies.  Four more ladies were completed Thursday night and I have a stack of pieces cut and waiting to be stitched for another 15 or 20 of the pieced arcs.

Making the Storm at Sea blocks has taught me something — that I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to stitching those blocks!  Once I had printed the shapes on the third fabric, I just had to make some of the blocks with that fabric.  So now I’m thinking that printing the shapes on the next fabric is something that I will only do when I’ve finished off the pink and cream top and at least another 8 or 10 of the Pickled Ladies.  Otherwise, I just know that I’ll want to drop everything and make a few blocks with that fourth fabric.

At the same time, I’m trying not to start another Winding Ways quilt.  I’ve wanted to make another since I made this wallhanging back in February and have ideas on my “want to make” list.  But lately, Wanda at Exuberant Color has been showing the Winding Ways quilts she has been making and it’s very, very hard to resist!

Lester was lounging on the loveseat Thursday night.

While Smudge was snoozing on the couch.

A Few More Klosjes

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When I started to write this blog post I was thinking, “Just a few more of these tiny blocks and I’ll have 125 or so of them and I’ll be done.”  Then I had a good look at the picture and realized just how much I really do like these little blocks.  So now I’m thinking that perhaps I should print some more shapes on another couple of charm packs.  I hadn’t stitched any klosjes for a few months, but when I was sorting out projects I realized how few I had left ready to stitch and thought it was time to decide whether I’ll make more or make a small doll or teddy bear quilt.

I’ve been working on the cream and pink quilt but, as my hands have been acting up again, I may not get the top finished as quickly as I had hoped.  Blog posts may be rather sparse with more pictures than words over the balance of the week as I want to try to limit the amount of time I spend using the keyboard.

Smudge was curled up on the couch Tuesday evening having a snooze.

Lester looking like he had just woken up.

Fussy Cutting/Printing – Lots of Photos

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There have been a few questions about how I fussy cut and print the florals for the Pickled Lady blocks so I thought a short tutorial might be the best way to describe the method I use.   Lester is watching rather intently.

When I decided to make the Pickled Lady blocks, the first thing I did was print one of the clam shapes on a piece of plain paper which I had cut to the size I would be using.  Once that was done, the interior of the shape was cut out along the stitching line and I had my window template.

I identified a few flowers on this piece of fabric that were going to be perfect for fussy cutting.  Once that’s done, I start looking for one of the flowers that’s near the edge of the fabric.

This is where the window template comes into play.  Once I’ve found a flower that I want to fussy cut, I place the window template over it and move it around until the flower is in the centre of the clamshell.

If you look closely at this shot, you’ll see that I’ve got the quarter-inch line on the ruler placed on the printed ruler line on the paper.  When I cut out my window template, I cut off about an eighth of an inch along two of the edges of the paper so that I could use the printed ruler line on the paper to line up with rather than trying to line up the edge of the ruler with the edge of the paper.

Here I’ve cut along two sides of the fabric, once again using the quarter-inch line on the ruler lined up on the printed line on the fabric.  The printed line is directly above the cutting line of the shape and that gives me the perfect placement when it comes to ironing the fabric on to freezer paper and getting it ready to print.

The selvedge is still attached.  I leave it on when I’m fussy cutting as sometimes there will be a flower at an edge that I want to use and I will need a sliver of it to have a large enough piece to iron on to the freezer paper.  I know it will be cut away once the shape is printed, so I don’t worry about it.  In this case, the majority of the selvedge will be cut away even before pressing it to the freezer paper.

Once I’ve cut the top and right side, I remove the window template and cut the bottom and left side of the fabric piece.  At that point, all I need to know is the size of freezer paper I’m using to cut the fabric to the right shape.  Then it’s simply a matter of pressing it on to the freezer paper and printing my shape.  Here you can see that while the selvedge was still attached, once I cut out my shape there will be none of it left.

Once that’s done, it takes only a minute to cut the shape out and then start stitching.  Smudge hopes you found this as relaxing as he did.  In fact, he was unimpressed when the printer started as I think it woke him up.

A bit of stitching and a  few minutes later, I had a Pickled Lady block finished to add to the stack.

The back.

Scrap Bin

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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at these scraps of Oriental fabrics and trying to figure out what I can make with them.  The first picture shows a variety of sizes, ranging from 3 x 5 to 2.75 x 6 and 5″ squares.  The second picture is nothing but 3 x 5 rectangles.  Lots of them.  The 5″ squares I’ve got an idea for but the rectangles?  The ideas for those seem to be far and few between so far.  Any suggestions?

About two more hours of stitching and the last of the pink big and cream stars will be finished.  Then it’s a matter of stitching the smaller setting blocks and putting the top together, which I anticipate won’t take long.  The third Stormy Seas block was completed as well.   Shapes for at least a dozen of the arcs for the Pickled Ladies were cut out and are ready to stitch.  November really has been a prep month for me, it seems.

The rain began, but the migraine lingers.  While I was able to take Tuesday off, today I’ve got to manage to get through some work.  Once again, I’m way behind on responding to comments and visiting blogs.

Smudge was lounging on the couch.

While Lester was stretched out on the floor.