Wordless Wednesday - Crafty Cat

What's Been Up

Finally, I can dig my head out

and blog a little...

 Summer has been a great time for creatures.

Creatures in the house however have NOT been great.

This cat is on probation for Mousing!!!

(Trying to find a mouse under the sofa 

at one in the morning is not my idea of fun! 

Not finding it is even worse! 

Wondering for a few days if the half a mouse 

outside the back door was the same mouse is no good either LOL!)

*****

The school holidays are finally over and the little people

in the Kalico household are (mostly) back at school.

I didn't get much sewing done over the school holidays,

just a few dresses for Miss Kalico.

I cut a new dress pattern for her

and although it's a little on the large side,

she'll grow, and these dresses can be whipped up 

in a day...

Great for playing (and potty training!)

I made a reversible dress:

Roses on the one side... 

And baby cord with a pocket

on the other side...

*****

We had a week in South Wales: fabulous!

Family time is just so precious.

The other few weeks we were around and about locally... 

and just enjoyed the lovely weather...

A friend (and fellow blogger) 

and her family came to stay....

It was great having 'Southerners' to stay with us 'up North'

as we got to do some great walks and explore our local surrounds.

This is the walk from Clapham to Austwick 

and I had never done it before...

In Wales we'd done a 'herb walk' at the Botanical gardens

and I'd learnt that these were Burdock pods:

 Nice and sticky LOL.

We all walked through the tunnels to Clapham

 that were built by the local landowner many years ago 

so that he didn't have to watch his workers walk home...

Bit of a cheek, me thinks! But a nice walk.

*****

And now that the kids are out of the way ;o)

I have been able to quilt again

And why, yes, before you ask,

Miss Kalico does need another quilt :o) 

I cut the binding without measuring to check I had enough,

as I sewed the first side and a half on, I remembered I was going to measure...

But it fitted. Phew!

 With only a small piece left to spare!

*****

The next quilt is ironed and ready to be loaded.

Oh, I do love my Longarm machine!!

50 Blocks of Mystery

I've made 50 of the first block

of Bonnie's Celtic Solstice Mystery..

The good thing about being this behind on the mystery

is that I can make the parts as blocks and not just units :o)

 I find it's been coming together in fits and starts

as I don't always get time to sew...

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My furry friend likes to guard my quilts in progress...

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 This special baby quilt is only a few stitches away from being finished:

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My machine used for bag making

and was very poorly ;(

DH and I have learned so much from owning a longarm

and now repairing small sewing machines is a perk of the job ;o)

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My tree on a day that we had some sunshine.

In front of the tree you can see how wet the land is around here...

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 And Miss-Kalico with her plaster cast!

She fell of a chair and refused to walk on it

so we had to get her checked out .

Long story, but thankfully she's ok

and must have just sprained her ankle.

But when they couldn't find anything wrong they put a cast on.

24hours in a cast and she was desperate to walk lol

Like Sudoku, but not quite

Our sofa isn't normally so laden with quilts,

but I am sewing the binding down on a king size quilt

that got plopped on the sofa on top of another quilt for some reason....

 and when I came back to it,

a certain furry person had made herself very comfortable!

*****

Story Time Stars by Bonnie Hunter:

This is the top so far for my friend's first grandchild.

I'm loving the colours and the spots and stars.

The fact that putting it together was like playing Soduku

was not so easy for my little brain!

In the end I had to call in reinforcements.

There are 16 blocks. Each centre is repeated twice. 

There are 4 colours for the stars, 

but each block only uses a combination of 3 of the colours...

and that's where it all started getting confusing for me.

After about an hour and a half of shuffling blocks around we were happy

(a layout normally only takes me a few minutes!)

Now for the borders which are already cut

and thankfully require no more brain strain :o)

***

On another note,

I had to go around to a friend in the village

to borrow some pins to put this quilt together.

It was still early, but very dark

as our village has no street lights...

As I walked home just with my torch,

I thought to myself that I have probably watched

far too many of these murder stories 

set in quaint English villages for my liking!!!

What I sent - SSCS 2013

Of course the photos of what I sent Chookyblue

are on my dead laptop, but she kindly blogged about it here:

http://chookyblue.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/secret-santa-christmas-swap-2013-sent.html

So if you want to see what I sent click on the link.

I do love a good swap...

I even come out of hiding...

Have a good stretch....

and get sewing! :)

Sometimes I Wake Up Grumpy...

...Sometimes I let them sleep...

and sleep...

and sleep...

and sleep!

Wordless Wednesday - That Lazy Patchwork Cat

Wordless Wednesday - The Patchwork Cat

Wordless Wednesday - Cat & House

April Finishes or Cats and Quilts!

The Maple Leaf quilt is bound and finsihed!

I quilted it on the Longarm

with a panto called 'Tangles'.

Quite a fun panto,

and I think it goes well with the maple leaves

as it's quite an angular design,

yet sort of leafy :)

I hung the quilt over our garden gate

for a few quick snaps

of the front...

And the back...

Hopefully this photo shows

the pantograph a bit better...

*****

Our resident quilty cat thought

she had found the perfect place to hide

in one of my 'work' bags...

Even though, I didn't see her,

Miss-Kalico spotted her!!!

And laughed and laughed and laughed!

Abby just ignores her now :)

*****

I wanted to quilt my Simple Pleasure House block,

but still hadn't quilted the Christmas House Block

I made when Kate came to visit...

So to ease my guilt, I did

and now that's done, I can guiltlessly

quilt my 'new' house block LOL.

This Christmas one just needs binding.

*****

And my 'Jelly Beans' quilt is loaded up

on the longarm.

I'm still deciding on the pantograph,

as I want to try something new,

but I also like the feathers

which I have done already....