a few (non-quilty) finishes

Following on my work last week, I have some finishes!

The catnip birds are all packed up!

It's hard to see here, as my camera focused on...ummm...something?...but the bags have kitties and doggies wearing Santa hats printed on them.

There may be 23 here.  There may be 21.  I thought I had 22.  I printed 24 labels and have one left.  I bought three packs of 8 bags, but have three left.

Oh well.  It's enough.

Bird catnip toys are done.  Now on to the distribution phase.

And then I went on with the pillowcases.

Pardon the shadows here.  It makes taking photos hard, but I am NOT complaining about sunshine in December!

I ended up picking up a fabric to replace the horses, as I was out and about.  But it may get used after all, as the niece who was to get that different print brought her boyfriend to Thanksgiving.  He was also at her high school graduation in May.  So I think maybe he has earned himself a Christmas pillowcase, too.  I mean, he braved my crazy family for Thanksgiving!

And more pillowcases!

These were made from fabrics donated for cat hammocks.  I decided they would make better pillowcases...to be used at adoption events as a free-for-donation item.  Each has a little card inside indicating what the print is (because those top four may not be obvious to most that they are the Avengers superhero logos), but if the volunteers don't like that, they can easily come out.  We opted for bagging them to keep their donation area tidier.

Here are a couple of them opened up.  I had a VERY hard time sewing that one on the right, being a Spartan and all, but some fool will get this and think they have a treasure.  (I'm loyal to my school, but this is also a good one, I'm just not as willing to admit it.)

Now that these are finished, I've started back on hammocks.  And I'll get back into a routine that includes tiger sewing as well, but with Christmas coming, my sewing room has been taken over with gifts, which limit my space.  We'll see where my motivation leads me - I can do a lot in a small space, or I might try stacking them higher...

Happy quilting!

Katie

something different?

As I went to take a photo of tiger parts I've made this week, I realized I had not sewn any!

THAT is how my week has gone.

I did squeeze in some time to finish the last batch of birds.

(The birds are blurry, but that's okay because Toby is in focus and SO handsome!)

As I mentioned before, I hope this is my last batch, but I'm not sure.  I found some cute little cellophane bags at the dollar store, and now my to-do list has packaging these up on it.  (Among about 40,000 other things.)

Freddie also helped finish them.

(My phone did some wacky crap with this photo, so he looks kinda fake, but I assure you, he is real.  And he wanted ALL the catnip you see behind him.  Badly.)

I've worked three shifts since I last posted - the day our "Black Friday" sale started (Tuesday) as well as the actual day Friday and following day Saturday.  Tuesday wasn't as busy as we anticipated.  Friday and Saturday were about as expected - started off slow, but by about 11am we were pretty steady.  No craziness any day really, just steady, though I miss my regular shoppers who know where things are, know what they want, and are patient.  Holiday once-a-year shoppers...ugh!

Anyways, besides all that, there were two family Thanksgiving celebrations, the associated baking required of me, chores, a little shopping with the hubby and not enough sleep.  Or enough time doing creative things!

Such is the holiday season.

But I did manage to squeeze in some time, once the birds were done (priority there, as they'll be for Christmas), to get into the cat hammock fabric.  Actually, I started with the fabrics I'd set aside that I thought would be good for pillowcases.  Since I'll also be making Christmas pillowcases for the nieces, I thought an assembly line system would be a good idea.

So I started pressing, folding and cutting...

If I counted correctly, there are 13 here.  I'm still raiding the stash for cuffs for some of the cat hammock donation fabrics, but I'm nearly there.

Maybe today I will get to sew some of these?  Most of my (today) chore list has been done and I have a few hours before the hubby gets home...

The tiger has been put on the back burner for a bit, to make room to work on these.  I'll get back to it.  (I actually want to push ahead with it, just to get at least the parts all done, but I'm feeling a crunch of other things.)

Time to go get the apple pie out of the oven and have some lunch.  (No, I'm not eating apple pie for lunch, but that DOES sound pretty good!)

Happy quilting!

Katie

tiger parts only

And this week, we're down to just photos of tiger parts.

A few days I did more than my desired two, but other days I had other obligations, so I did none.

In all, it probably worked out to about two per day.

I pushed yesterday to get all the whiskers done.  They are a pain being so long and skinny, but I made it through.

Next up is the upper part of his face!

(But I'm excited that this section actually has enough parts to look like something, even if a few seem off-center just now.)

But this week is going to be crazy.  I work three days, have two Thanksgivings to attend and that leaves me just Wednesday home to do whatever I want.  (After today.)  As if.  I'll be baking and cleaning and trying to get all the things done I don't have time for the other days!

Oh well.  I have family to visit, funds to bake goodies to share and a job to go to.  Things could be a whole lot worse.  (I just wish winter hadn't made such a sudden appearance, though we got about two feet (yes, you read that right) less snow here than my parents, just an hour west of us!)

Catnip birds are coming along, but no photos.

Off to prepare some goodies for our "Black Friday" sale that starts on Tuesday work potluck.  I'm taking baked beans - they need time in the crock pot, so I'm doing them today for a reheat tomorrow.  Beans are okay because I work with boys and they will probably be excited if they turn musical.  (And they work well with the pulled pork a coworker is bringing.)

Happy quilting!

Katie

just more birds and tiger parts

More of the same this week on the sewing front...

On the tiger quilt front, I started using three more of the fabrics.  No, four?  Whatever.  This is the side of his face and a bit of his chin.  (Please pardon the old stained carpet.)

On the bird front, I finished the Christmas print birds and cut these out.  I think this might be my last set, but I have to do some math before I decide if I'm done-done.

Last week was busy with other things, including two oil changes on the hubby's vehicles.  Since the place we go is no longer open weekends or evenings, this falls to me to take care of completely now.  No big deal.  But on the way home, the truck gave me this message...

This screen is fairly large.  Normally this is the radio and temperature display.  It decided, after allowing me to use the back-up camera to get out of the parking spot (thank goodness for that - this full-size truck is HUGE compared to my little car!), it popped up this message.  I didn't notice it for about a quarter of a mile and had only 2 miles to home, but I was NOT looking at the screen once I shifted into drive.  It caught my attention at a stop light.  I thought it might go away by itself.  Nope.  It was still there when I got home.  I put the car in park, thinking THEN it would clear.  Nope.  So I took a photo.

Read this, but pay attention to the road.

This truck also did not reset itself with the time change.  So, as a passenger a few days ago, my hubby asked me to fix it.  Okay.  4 screens and a half a dozen buttons later, I had it fixed.  When I went to click the "okay I'm done" button, it told me I could not do this while the vehicle was in gear.  WHAT THE?????  If I was gonna crash, it would have happened by NOW.  Hitting the okay/clear button was probably not going to ruin me.  I mean, maybe, but really?

Anyways.  Not much else to report and the list of chores is still long for this morning, so off I go to get some cookies in the oven and then clean up the humidifier (that I promised myself I would do in the spring so it would be ready for me in the fall...that I did not clean in the spring or the summer or the early fall and now that I need it...ugh...) and wash dishes and laundry and ugh.

Happy quilting,

Katie

PS I promise sewing is in my future today, too.  Just gotta get all the adulting out of the way first.