not much - quick update

I haven't been sewing much these past few weeks.  I just haven't been inspired.

When I'm there, I've been mostly working on these:

Heating pad covers for the cat rescue.  This is a set that will cover each of the heating pads they have and once I have some feedback about the sizes (my first test was too small - I didn't realize how thick they were going to be!), I'll set about making a second set so they have one to use and one to wash.

I also got myself motivated to quilt the wedding quilt.

It was a windy day and probably not the best for longarming (power outages can be savage on something like this), but I was excited to do it and it didn't take long.  I realized their names (Anne and Ben) are quite easy to create in cursive, so the whole quilt (minus the white heart) says "anne and ben and anne and ben and anne and ben".  The heart has "love love love love" through/around it, as does the very bottom row of the quilt since I started with Anne and ended in the second to last pass with Ben, I thought it would be nice to end there.

Saturday I sat down and bound it, but don't have any photos yet.  The wedding is new year's eve, so I have a bit yet.  (Also it needs a label.)  But the hardest parts are done!

You may remember a while back I had a stash of kitty kicker toys that I was making for coworkers.  Those were given out this past Tuesday, but first I had to bundle them in groups of two and add the little tags.

Lily helped.  So did Salem and Freddie and Toby and Finn.  I just got a photo of Lily.  They were stealing them out of the box, grabbing them out of my hands and generally being crazy.  It's my own fault - these contain some potent home-grown (from a coworker) catnip and I did it out in the open instead of locking myself in a room.  The hubby tried to help with the laser mouse, but they were not fooled.  Not all of them at the same time at least!

The toys were well-received at work and the few that I sent to friends further from home also have sent videos and notes of thanks.  Now to start thinking of what to make for next year?!

This past week I made seven batches of peanut brittle, three batches of fudge (recipes here) and two batches of caramel corn (recipe from a book, so no link) to put into 36 tins for my hubby to give away to his employees, managers and whatnot at work.  Many of them have been there long enough to expect this and a few have even been so bold as to start asking.  I'm just glad to have my kitchen back.

Now for the calm before the storm of holiday celebrations.

And just in case I didn't have enough once all of that is done, I joined another quilt along.  The Tall Poppies quilt caught my attention from the start and I'm excited the designer is running a quilt along that starts after the first of the year.  I've got my pattern already, but need to decide on what fabrics/colors I'll be using.

The other quilt along, Bramble Blooms, is on hold for a bit, as the host of that project is dealing with a sick hubby.  I wish him the best, but this gives us all a bit of breathing room to get through the holidays without a project hanging over our heads.  I mean, we signed up for it, but still nice.

Happy quilting!

Katie