cats | Quilt Obsession

Work is most definitely getting in the way of quilting! I’ll be lucky to do much of anything for about two weeks as we have hit the “It’s almost summer. Got to get this done before holidays start!” hysteria that seems to happen every year. Am a bit surprised this didn’t occur earlier this year, given how incredibly warm it has been here all month. However, it will be two weeks of insanity followed by about two months of very little.

I’ve been playing with another design using the Inklingo 1 and 2-inch hexagons and the star point on Collection 1. Think this one will be a large lap quilt. It goes together incredibly quickly and is a lot of fun.

This is about to get basted and go in the hoop. It’s one of the Pacific Rim 2-fabric appliques and was great fun to work on. The 2-fabric applique patterns all seem so enticing.

This is Smudge, Lester’s half-brother. He is an imp. One of his favourite tricks is to bat at the thread as I’m trying to get it in the needle. Sometimes it’s very frustrating. He has some very odd habits such as meowing incredibly loudly in the middle of the night as he sits on the bedroom windowsill looking out on the roof garden. He’s a definite lap kitty and would, if we would sit still that long, stay on a lap for 2 or 3 hours at a time.

Work is definitely getting in the way of my quilting plans. I would much rather be stitching than working! Still working on the ’30s hexagon, half hexagon surprise and hope to have it finished by the end of this week. This is it so far:

As I work on that, I’m pondering a setting for all these little 6-point stars from the first Inklingo swap. Do I wait and make more from the next swap and end up with a bed-sized quilt, hopefully in some sort of colour graduation, or figure out a setting and use these ones for a totally scrappy lap quilt? I’m leaning towards saving them and using them with those from the next swap.

And then there are the batiks for the oval applique quilt I’m planning. As I use the backbasting applique technique, this is the perfect outdoor stitching project this summer. I won’t have to worry about pieces flying off if it’s breezy.

Lester and Smudge share lap time when I’m stitching in the evenings, although sometimes they get a little too intent on catching the thread as I pull it through. This is our wonderful golden Maine Coon boy, Lester.

He had a small stroke caused by a heart condition about 2 months ago and is on heart meds now, so we’re hoping that the meds will keep his heart condition under control and that he’ll be with us for a very long time. He is a big lovey of a cat — absolutely adores attention and draping himself over my lap in the evenings. In the winter it’s great, but during a heatwave?? That’s when we need to turn up the a/c!