still not much quilting

It hasn't been a very quilty week around here.  I worked more shifts than I wanted last week and made a lot of fudge and peanut brittle and then there was shopping that needed to be finished...  And then I tripped over a toolbox at work and fell smack on my hip.  Thankfully nothing was broken (not even the phone that was in my pocket and I landed on!), but I was quite sore for a few days and preferred to get comfy and just stay there!

But while I was waiting for the pain to subside, I got notice that the cat toys arrived!  With photos!

First up was Isabella, who was had her catnip radar going and was onto me before the box was even opened...

Samantha is reported to have brought the two toys with her and claimed the box...

But both were super happy with their gifts!

(And you may remember these two, as they were featured on Becky's quilt a few months back.)

And then there was Ivan...

(who has had a rough month with bladder issues and is currently testing out new foods to thwart those troubles)

...and sister Cleo...

...who both slobbered the toys into oblivion, as per reports from cat-mom.

The third friend also has two kitties, but she only let me know the package arrived and thanked me.  No photos, but her kitties are equally cute and beautiful and cuddly.

I still have a few left (trying to figure out how to surprise a former coworker with some of them, but don't have her mailing address...), but the holiday is not over yet!  (I AM however, currently out of catnip!)

Not to worry.  I made sure the kitties living here had ample fun.

Wednesday, after falling, I knew continuing to move was the best choice.  Even standing still to run the cash register allowed things to start freezing up.  So I kept busy at work (the clothing department is an awful mess, so with the blessing of my manager, I spent hours tidying and organizing...of course, it looks like crap again because no one puts anything back where they found it and wads it up in a ball before leaving it somewhere random - store looks a mess?  thank your fellow shoppers! - but it IS a little better than before I started) and then decided to keep going when I got home.  I first cleaned the bathroom and then decided I would do the dreaded task of running the vacuum once the bathroom task was completed with minimal trouble.

But first I have to pick up a number of things.  Stray cat toys, boxes (also known as cat toys) and the Christmas tree is little, so move that.  Hmmm...I've inserted it into the cat tree before...

It took a bit before they came back out of hiding from the scary monster, but this was a novel idea and they took to it quickly.  Of course, they were already chewing on branches and generally getting into mischief before it was in the cat tree, but it's not plugged in and it is what it is.

(There were no pain meds in my system to make me loopy.  This is just how I work.)

I left it there overnight and the next morning, had this:

I don't know about you, but where Finn is sitting does not look very comfy.  (I, on the other hand, was comfy as could be, snuggled under a quilt in my reclining sofa with my achy hip just right.)  But they were still having fun, so I let it roll.

The next morning...

...well...

This morning (day 4), it looked the same and I decided it was time for a reset.  It is back upright in the cat tree.  The skirt that goes under it is folded up with the pile of quilts.  And presents don't get wrapped until the last minute because *someone* will unwrap them.  (And by *someone* I mean all of them.)  So it's not like our tree functions like what you see on holiday cards...

I DID manage to get some sewing in.  And then some unsewing because in my excitement to have time to sew, I managed to not notice there were sashings between rows...

But!  I finished the Christmas-ish quilt I started just a few weeks ago!  I think it was Love that teased I would have it done by the holiday and I laughed.  I never expected I WOULD!  I mean, it's not a quilt-quilt yet, but here you go:

Apparently I'm a little crooked today, but in my defence, I was out there without a coat and it was spitting sleety snow at me.  So I was trying to hurry.

And now it goes to the Rack of Shame.

Speaking of the Rack of Shame...  I had an idea to keep me motivated with new projects each month for 2021.  Sort of keep me on track and not just starting new stuff willy-nilly.  And I bought some craft supplies.  (I was out shopping for other, actually needed items, and these just fell into my cart as I...um...detoured over in that direction...)

And then today, since the year is so close to being done, I needed to get rolling on that actual project, so...

I'm not entirely happy with how poorly that paint is covering the wood, but I'll be heading back to do a second coat soon - first coat is drying while I blog.

Toby helped, but I was too busy shooing him away to get any photos.  (He is definitely trying to fill those big Emma-No shoes lately!)

The plan is to have projects, sorted by colors, on the sticks and each month I choose one stick of each color for my goals.  I made four categories: new quilt, leftovers, new technique and longarm.

New quilt are things like "from a pattern I own" or "using acrylic templates" - basically working from what I already have as far as patterns and ideas.  They may or may not be finished within the month, but that's okay.  Maybe 2022 will be the year of the UFO?

Leftovers refer to things like strings and bonus half square triangles.  The plan here is to figure out how to use some of them.  Or decide to pass them along to someone who will use them.

New technique doesn't necessarily refer to quilting, but more things like learn to use that sock loom or watercolor pencils.  Again, things I have at least some of the supplies to do, but just never got there.  This is kinda like giving myself permission to NOT make a quilt for a bit!

And finally the longarm section is just that.  Trying to reduce the Rack of Shame.  Not that the first category isn't going to increase it, but hey, I gotta start somewhere, right?  (And I gotta make room for the new quilts, too...)

I may kick myself for this by March.  But I also know if I have a specific goal in mind, whether it be a deadline for a birth or an online challenge or whatever, I flounder less and put down the phone more readily and get to work.  So we'll see how it goes!  I promise to blog about it at least every so often!

And lastly, while plopped on the couch (that gets less comfy with each passing day, but that might just be me getting antsy?), I took my Pinterest uploads and did some fun data analysis with them (using free apps, of course) and found my top nine posts of the year:

(Funny that this year and last, my top posts were from quilt-alongs!)

As well as what is called the "year of color":

The color one was difficult for me - there are dozens of different combinations of layouts and number of dots and all sorts of things, so it made Science Katie feel a bit like she was skewing the data in her favor...  But I decided to just play around until I found something that looked pleasing and rolled with it...statistically accurate or not.

Remember, these are Pinterest, which only covers a small number of the photos I share here.  I don't know if there is an app to look at blog post colors, but this is always fun to see.  Even if I seem to have a fairly large number of more blah colors in there.

But my hip is feeling much better (pretty much normal today), so I have few excuses to not go do something productive today.  (The excuse I DO have is that I have slept poorly the last two nights and kinda want a nap...)  I will go add a second coat of paint to the sticks and then see where the wind blows me.  (See what I mean?  No deadline, no project in the works and suddenly I'm adrift!)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, or whatever other holiday you celebrate.  I hope you and your loved ones all stay healthy.  And I'll be back for one more post before the new year!

Happy quilting,

Katie