what day is it?

It's been an odd week here.  With the holiday comes oddball schedules, which leads me me not knowing what day it is...oh well, any day that I don't have to go to work is a good one and so long as I keep track enough to make sure to show up when I'm supposed to, I guess all is well!

I last left you with my sticks painting project...that was finished later in the day (the other colors covered better with just one coat) and I now have this:

Each stick has a project on it.  I will pull one color of each stick each month and those are my assignments.  I can, of course, work on anything else I choose (this is MY challenge to myself, after all!), but this will give me direction.  Which is good because right now, with no real project and no deadlines, I'm floundering a bit.

What I HAVE been doing is making tiny stars!

I hadn't even gotten these on the floor yet and Gabby was flopped in their place.  Apparently she wants you all to know she can do an awkward wink, too.

After finishing up the last set of these last night (a set of 9 takes about 2 hours, start to finish), I bagged up 100 more.  So that brings me to 850 bagged and a few more.  That means I need about 200 more.  I think I have about half that still in the box that I cut from my mom's stash, but time will tell!  She has plenty more, just in case I need it!

I'm going to run out of this grey-black background, despite thinking I had enough.  I will probably raid the stash and see what else I can come up with.  Earlier stars had some variety and I probably need to make sure to carry that through so it doesn't look too goofy.

But it feels like the end is in sight!

In other news, I tried to come home from work one day last week, only to find a sign saying "one lane road ahead" and another saying "be prepared to stop."

My commute is a whopping mile, and the arrow points to where you can kinda see my house, 4 houses up from where I was stopped dead.  In what is obviously NOT a single lane road.  I sat there for 15 minutes before detouring around.  Make no mistake, I have zero problem with temporary road closures.  But call it what it is.

I was angry when I got home, so I decided to angry-clean.  Boy does my shower look naked now that I finally found something that takes the rust stains out AND scrubbed it till they were almost all gone!  (My arm was starting to protest at the end...)

The last of the kitty toys have been distributed.  I got this photo from my niece:

Momo approves.  (I just love that silly moustache he has!)

What about the other cats that live with me?

Well, Finn and Freddie helped me put flannel sheets on my bed.  I bought these stairs for Skitter a few years back when I realized she was having trouble getting into bed with me.  While she is no longer with us, the stairs stayed.  But they are so close to the bed, they need to be moved while changing sheets...

While he may, at first, look to be standing, look more closely.  He is lounging, just with his right-side legs hanging down.  He is the master of oddball poses and cannot sit on anything without at least one paw hanging off.  (Obviously he is unaware of the monster that lives under the bed that will chew that limb off if you aren't careful...)

My mom got me a wool pressing mat for Christmas and all the boy cats promptly helped me tear the plastic wrapping off and then try to kill it.  I have no idea what their problem is, but I suppose if I ever invest in any wool sweaters, I should be careful?

He was being good at this moment, but there are spots that have been clawed a bit and have a tiny bump.  I've learned (quickly) that this will need to be put up when not in use.

But a tiny review: I'm not as impressed as I expected to be.  Single half-square triangles are pressing up tidily.  The tiny stars?  They do just as well with a steamy iron on the regular ironing board with the cover I have.  I tried adding steam, but no change.  So I guess this is good for single-layer pressing, not so much for multiple crazy-pants layers making tiny little things. But I do like it.  And it has a little smell to it when warmed (I was warned) that reminds me of the hot autoclave in the lab.  Very odd, but I'm sure there's a connection somehow!

Once Freddie was done inspecting the mat and learned I was not going to let him wrestle it into a ball of nothing, he took up a new post.

He stayed there the whole time I pressed and trimmed a batch of star parts and I wondered how it would go if I tried to sew and feed things off the back of the machine onto him.  But he moved right as I was finishing trimming.  Of course, his change was into my sewing chair, but we are pretty good about sharing.  (And by sharing, I mean I balance on the very edge of the chair while he gives me the stink eye for being there at all.)

Toby is still learning about quilting, but for the most part doesn't join me much in the sewing room.  However, yesterday he slowed me down with THREE naps on top of me.  Every time I sat down on the couch downstairs, he wanted to be a part of that.  He is learning about snuggling under quilts.  And on quilts, but he likes under them better.

He wedged himself between me and the back of the couch.  I was laying on it sideways, reading, and looked down to see this.  He stayed this way for at least an hour, but thankfully I could still read while he was there.  Unlike some cats that need to sleep on your face and the book with a claw in your eyeball...

I was going to do a year-in-review post today about my quilts from the last year, but this has gotten long, so I'm thinking probably Wednesday I will tackle that?  I try not to blog too often (there really isn't that much to share!), but reviewing my year is fun for me, so we'll see how the week shakes out!

Happy quilting!

Katie