all sorts of projects

It seems with the finish of cat hammocks, my quilty sew-jo has also taken a bit of a leave.  I'm still plugging away at blocks, but the strong desire I've felt in the past is less now.

Not to worry, I'm sure it will come back.

And I'm still making blocks.  Just not frantically.

(And I'm told there is more hammock fabric, I just have to coordinate a meet-up to get it and drop off the last of those I've finished.)

Four more for the Seeing Stars quilt blocks this week:

Some look more washed out than in real life, but with varying amounts of sun and rain (lots of both this past weekend!), it's hard to get a consistent color.  Eventually it will be a top and then you'll see...hopefully I'll have good light to capture the colors properly.

Speaking of photos of tops...still none for the last two completed.  I keep forgetting, but with spring finally springing around here, I should have more good days.

In addition to these blocks, I hemmed a pair of jeans!  I'd bought them a while ago, used but barely worn, and planned to hem them.  I did all the research on how to keep that nice bottom hem, but stalled out because I knew the machine I had wouldn't handle it.  Then I bought the "heavy duty machine" and still wasn't satisfied.  Well.  The latest used-but-new machine is a trooper and sewed through all 43,000 layers of denim at the side seams with hardly a complaint.  (Mostly just it struggled to get over the hump!)  No photos, but they look good and I'm pleased.

And then my brother-in-law found out.  I told him NO four times before I walked away.  I am NOT going to hem pants for his daughter.  She will be 10 in a few weeks and I have no doubt they will be too short in a few months and then I'll be in trouble for making them too short.  NO.  Let someone else figure that out.

But I walked away kinda mad.  We quilters are often accused of not saying no often enough.  And here I was, firmly stating my answer, and was being ignored.  We are told to say no and then it isn't an acceptable answer?  Ugh.

Oh well.  I won simply by walking away.  And I will not hem her pants.  I'm sorry, but no.

Okay, back to happier things.

I also made a pincushion for needles.  I have a lot of slightly used, but not dead, sewing machine needles running around.  You know, a jeans needle, or a heavier needle or whatever?  I went through what I have and decided I would make a pincushion for those more likely to be used randomly instead of trying to figure out a way to mark them as used.  Or read the teensy numbers stamped on the top.

Some of the needles can go back into the package they came from and I know they've been used.  Because, for example, I have ONE ball point needle of each size.  So as long as it goes back where it came from, I'm all good.

These are just some scraps and I'm pretty pleased with it.  I debated embroidering the numbers and ended up just being lazy and marking it with a permanent marker.  In the long run, though, it will probably do better because the embroidery floss could snag.

I also made a test skillet pot holder.

A few weeks ago, we were at my sister-in-law's house and she made cookies in little cast iron skillets.  But had no hot pads for the handles.  I've decided to fix that.  So I used the tutorial here, and did a test run.  These aren't as fast to make as I hoped, but I had everything I needed.  (I need more pre-made bias tape, but had this brown on hand to test.  Yes, I could make it, but that takes up a big chunk of fabric to get an 18" piece and I'm just not interested in making my scraps worse that way.)  I'll make the real ones from something cuter.

The kitties were not left out of my crafty shenanigans this week either!

When cruising through Pinterest, killing time, I saw these and decided to give it a go.  I used the tutorial found here, but I made the squares 7", thinking to myself that though the photos with a cat on it made it look large enough, my boys are big.

What you can't see here is that this is about half a cat size.  Mostly because they aren't using it.  Yet.  I hope.

The boys were instead outside.  We got the new top mesh on the cat run (over the years, they nose around, trying to find escape routes, and eventually it just needs replaced), so they were playing outside a lot.  It rained a ton yesterday, but the boys are out this morning. It's none too warm, but they begged and looked cute and I caved.  Maybe you can see it, maybe not, but Toby is FILTHY.

When I first looked out, he was half buried in the wet, decomposing leaves over there by Freddie (the black cat), but he came up the post to see me when I came back with a camera.  He is definitely living his best life.

Finn was up helping me as I was trying to sew this week.  Before the cat run repair and between outside time.

Clearly all that fresh air wore him out.  And the best place to nap is mom's wool pressing mat.  Always.

And with that, I have a few errands to run before lunchtime and then I can maybe try my hand at a few more crafty adventures...some new, some needing supplies to be procured in my shopping.  (I already braved the grocery store, but when done early enough, the majority of the idiots are still sleeping.)

Happy quilting!

Katie