What are you working on?

Working toward a finish

2011-11-14T10:13:00.000-08:00

Back again.

With the help of friends the old couch was taken to the curb and the new rug was rolled and loaded into the van. Phone calls were made.

Mirror over the fireplace. Among the things I had packed up when I closed my mother's apartment was a big plate glass mirror. It has rested in it's packing case against the wall in my bedroom since those movers brought it here. Thursday, I called the local mirror and glass place and not only were they able to send out a man to unpack the mirror and make an estimate but when I accepted their price they immediately sent a man to install it. Lucky us. We had agreed that the mirror could be cut down to fit if necessary and that we planned to leave in in the house when we moved out. The mirror is 60 inches wide. The wall above the fireplace is 62 inches wide. It is a lovely fit. We will add a white enamel 6 inch board below the mirror for a bit of extra support and are still "discussing" using a matching piece above.

Friday I delivered the rug to the cleaners.

We designated Sunday as the day Dear Husband would help me get the stair wall painted. Working together that job took an amazingly short time. His extra 4 inches of height made all the difference and no scaffolding was needed. I spent the rest of the day taking down the screen and front doors and getting them taped and sanded. I was able to prime the front door and with the help of my wonderful work light I was able to get a coat of enamel on the outside. A door with 15 windows must have been designed for skills acquisition. All those small parts. The color turns out to be passable but is not at all what I hoped it would be, much more a deep deep coral or perhaps if being negative brick, instead of a clear jewel toned burgundy. Rats. But FINISHED IS A CATEGORY.

Monday, I put away all of the painting gear, and spent a happy glad hour tearing up the last of the blue tape. IF this good weather holds I may get some paint onto the screen door before the end of the week. Any other painting jobs can wait till after the holidays. Sweeping, vacuuming and furniture arrangement will start any minute now.

2011-11-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

Clean up day. Take up the tarps, pull up all of the paper and blue tape. Admire the paint job. The old woodwork was either dark brown or cocoa colored. Now it is all shiny white enamel. The walls are this soft changeable yellow green color. The floor still needs a lot of work. No decision on the wall above the fireplace but it is clean and freshly painted and no one knows we are working out a decision as it just looks like a wall. The accent color on the steps looks very nice.

The next executive decision. We will do a second coat of paint. But not this month. There is just not enough energy or mind left. The stair wall is still left to do, but it is all high edges and odd angles and is going to take some planning to do well and a day when Dear Husband is here to work with me.

Furniture pick up day. Once the van seats are out we are off to the shop to make our pick up. And there it was the rug, the Rose Damask Couch and the little Victorian side chair. We also picked up the rocker for our daughter's impending one.

Now the cleaning phase begins. When we selected the rug there was a dining room set arranged on it. The first time we will see the entire thing is when we unroll it in our living room. Vacuum the room. Unroll the rug, not bad, it will need to be professionally cleaned but doesn't have other than real life experience to it. Vacuum the rug, a lot, turn the rug over and vacuum the back side, a lot. Turn the rug right side up and vacuum again. Yup,this will work but I would like to get it cleaned, a cream colored background does show it's long life. Bring in the little Victorian side chair and the rocker. Nice. Now, here it comes, the Rose Damask Couch. Sitting right there in our living room.

None of us are sure of anything right now. So unexpected, so lovely, so different than things were. All I was planning to do was get a coat of paint on the walls to deal with the spots that grew after the hurricane. Now what I have is an entirely new room. The Rose Damask Couch sits there, covered in dust from it's previous home but basically spotless, hump backed, tufted, so different from our previous style. Tomorrow, I promise, tomorrow I'll clean you up and we'll get to know each other.

And today, I did.

2011-11-07T09:49:00.001-08:00

She's a tricky one, my friend. She said, let's go and see if we can find a nicer looking, newer couch for you. What she seems to have been seeing inside her head was an entirely new room. How amazing that all of this came to pass just as we were doing all of this painting. My daughter confirms that they did discuss this months ago. We are just plain flabbergasted.

I met her at the shop and we had a good long look around. She had several couches to point out to me. There were some nice pieces there in a range of styles and types. Dear Husband was able to come down and help make the final decision. And we selected The Rose Damask Couch. He headed back to work and she follows up with, "Now let's look for a rug and some side chairs."

?? ??? ??? Yikes. She said couch, singular, one couch. Nope she was planning on a whole room. Haunting the used furniture shops and designing whole rooms is her new hobby. It seems it is now our turn.

And thus the final collection included the Rose Damask Couch and a thick oriental style rug, a rocker for our mother-to-be and a lovely small Victorian side chair. And the discussion of where I was going to draw the line. I'll use or select my own art and we have definite ideas about what kind of chair to look for for Dear Husband. I will also retain the end tables we purchased with wedding present money and the floor lamps I inherited from my Mom. The whole scheme is going to be much more grown up/formal and lighter in color. But we'll have no real idea until we get the things into the house.

It's still amazing. She said couch. We said we'd go look. It felt a little like facing a juggernaut.

2011-11-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

It is very hard to believe that all of that, turns out to be merely prelude.

The color was on the walls and I was looking forward to starting to work with the shiny white enamel. My friend drops in. We have know each other a long time. Our children are a married couple. We are co-in-laws and I regret that our language has no real label for our relationship. On this day she is here to drop off presents for the baby shower for our first grandchild together. She lives very far away and travels a great deal. She will not be able to attend the shower in few weeks. But she says, she has had a desire and wants to talk it over to me. She and her husband have a pied-a-terre in a near by town. They are in our area now, every couple months. She has used her amazing shopping skills to decorate their little place, then went on to help her daughter-in-law decorate her place. Now she would like to use her skills and her amazing find of the mother lode of quality consignment furniture to give me a couch.

She said couch, singular, one couch. She agrees that was what she said. Little did I know.

That day I got out the accent color and painted the decorative panels on the stairs and did the cutting in on the stair wall.

The next day my friend came over and helped me paint the enamels. It was a lovely long busy day. I enjoyed her company very much and we got the enamel work in the entire room finished while chatting merrily about our kids and how much fun it will be to have a grand child and solving all of the other problems of the world.

The following day, we went shopping.

2011-11-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Start the cutting in for the paint color. Repeat the entire climb, paint, climb, move process, again and again until we have an entirely painted room. Except for that mirrored wall over the fire place. The plan was to replace the molding around the wall of mirror tiles. Sunday, Dear Husband is home and he is spotting for me as I climb the scaffold with the pry bar. Glory hallelujah, while easing the old molding away from the ceiling, one of the mirror tiles pops off the wall. Those nasty things were only up there with double sided sticky tape. If I had know that, I'd have had them down years ago. Each one popped right off and got packed into a box to be sent off to the recycle or dump, whatever, as long as it left my house. Under the mirror tiles, - real paper wallpaper. Wait a moment while the memory files cycle. A wet sponge, bring me a wet sponge and the wide scraper. And with careful and frequent applications of both, working as a team, we returned that wall to it's original state. Clean, flat, smooth. Now, there are possibilities, things to check out, there is that big plate glass mirror in storage, or that big print and the question of whether to permanently remove or replace the electric candle sconces. But that can wait for later. Wait a day for all that sponging to dry, cut in, prime, cut in and a final coat of paint. Unity at last. Imagine the room giving a comfortable sigh.

Now starts the saga of the Rose Damask Couch itself.

2011-11-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

Prime the walls. Prime the woodwork. Open the paint can, stir the paint. What a lovely contemplative action that is. Arrange the painting tools, hmmmm. .. . love love love my toys.

Up the ladder onto the scaffold. Prime 6 feet of cutting in ceiling edges or window trim or whatever. Down the ladder. Move the scaffold. Prime 6 feet of floor level cutting in and baseboards. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Observe how big a room becomes when all of the furniture has been removed. Finally, get out the paint pan and the roller with the long handle and fill in the primer on the walls. Whoa, it already looks like an entirely different room. Can't resist, must open the colored paint can and fill in that small patch over the door. It has been so much work, I am eager to see what it will look like. Just like a little taste of the pleasure to come. Dear husband has made the mental adjustment and agrees that this change will be all right.

There have been rest days in this process or days allotted to shop for supplies. Thank goodness. Regularly scheduled social activities have continued but I have invoked the one activity per weekend rule. I am so tired.

2011-11-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

Another day. Get out the bucket and sponge and wipe the plaster work smooth. Get out the electric mouse sander and the paint scrapers and start prepping all of the woodwork. All of the woodwork. The tall baseboards and the wide window and door trim. Paint chips start accumulating by the cup full. Paint is popping off down to what looks like the original first application. All of the woodwork. Every bit of it. Wonder if that funny buzzing fizzy feeling will ever leave my hand. Lucky, lucky me. Dear husband comes home from work each evening and does the final sweeping and runs the vacuum. Bless the man, he is also excellent at administering Ibuprofen and cooking comfort food. Finally, went over all the sanded paintwork with a wet sponge and the prep phase was finished. Celebrate small accomplishments.

We have made an executive decision. This is a walls and woodwork project only. We are not going to risk touching the ceiling as they are fragile enough in this house and we are now old enough to resist learning yet another obscure skill.

2011-11-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

[irritating tense and personal voice change - so I'm not an English major]

Next came the mess and distress. Find places for all of the extra furniture and things that had moved into the living room. Move the upholstered furniture into the the dining room, roll up the rug and find a place for it, move the big table into the living room to serve as my work table. Spread the floor tarps. Hang a big plastic tarp over the archway between the living room and the dining room. Such total disorder,/ What happened to our comfy home?

Then came the demolition stage. Check each wall to see how many of the cracks in that old old plaster needed the full clean out and re-plaster treatment and which could get by with a simple top coat. Dig and scrape and clean up the mess. Make the first layer of the patch. Wait a day. Make the next layer of the patch, set up the scaffold and start the spot patching. Wait a day. Clean up the plaster work mess and start the prep for the primer paint. Spend a day laying blue tape around the edge of the floor, follow with the protective paper, top with the tarps and invoke the friendly house spirits to guard the hardwood floors.

2011-11-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

This year we had the rainy season to beat all, topped off with a hurricane dumping many inches of water onto our already saturated ground. This house was built in the 1930's and a foundation can only take so much hydraulic pressure over time. By the time the rains had stopped the humidity was over 70% on the main floor of the house and there were scary grey spots on my living room walls. I had contractors to visit with no clear diagnosis and a couple estimates equivalent to the price of a semester at the local state college. Lots to think about. We put a dehumidifier in the basement and that helped a lot. No new spots and the humidity in the house came down and stayed down.

Next step, convince the Man of the House that I would have to deal with the mess. Poor fellow really doesn't like change. Really doesn't like change at all. I began the "we're going to need to paint" discussion. OK got that far, on to choosing a color. Pale yellow he says, soft sage green I counter. And on to stand in front a what felt like an entire wall of paint chips. I could see the area I wanted to select from but let him choose first. He pulled his choice and I was able to counter with my range. And he liked the one I was hoping to use. The color has some spiffy name and number in the manufacturers list but we have agreed that what it looks like is a Key Lime Pie made from the bottled key lime juice. It is indeed pale yellow, but it has a soft green shade to it. As the light changes the color varies and we are both pleased.

2011-11-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

We've lived here for more than a decade. We bought "real" upholstered new furniture, for the first time in our marriage, for this house. That couch and coordinating squashy arm chair, got my kids through high school and college, in this house with no separate space for recreation. If it happened, it happened in this one living room and dining room. I guess a decade or more IS a long time for soft squashy furniture even if it was from a good manufacturer.

The Rose Damask Couch

2011-11-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

The Rose Damask Couch. There it sits, totally unexpected, not quite settled in, like a well dressed woman in an unfamiliar setting. We don't really know each other yet. We expect to become friends, good friends, but right now we know nothing about each other, not where it has been, not how I usually behave. Someone gave The Great Wheel of Chance a spin and what started as a hurricane cleanup turned into a full scale redecoration.

Some thoughts on Icicles

2010-02-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking and I just felt like writing today.

My topic is icicles.

We had an almost blizzard here this week. 20 inches of snow piled on top of the 20 inches we got the week before. Now that much snow is not usual for South Eastern Pennsylvania. And one thing that much snow almost guarantees is icicles.

Icicles are just fascinating. Just what is it about dripping water and cold weather that produces these sparkling tapered objects. And as a responsible adult, should I be worried about the heat loss through my roof supposedly making all that snow melt? Why do the icicles to the left of my window hang straight down and the ones to the right twist and follow the slope of the roof? And what effect is all this ice going to have on the paint job on the eves of my house?

The sky was cloud covered, the snow was coming down about 1 inch an hour and still there was dripping water and icicles forming. Blowing snow was building up on the windy side but the icicle was still dripping and getting longer and longer.

Icicles are clear. The light shines through them. And when the sunlight hits them directly the edges just seem to light up. REAL icicles are big, a lot bigger than the plastic and glass ones we hang on the Christmas tree. They have a rippled texture that seems to collect light inside and just hold it there. You just don't expect to be able to see through something in nature other than flowing water. And that's just it. Icicles are flowing water that stopped. They are in essence still, but when you watch one you can see the water flowing down the outside and dripping from the tip.

Icicles grow! Hour by hour as I move around the house I can keep check on my favorites. I want some kind of measuring device out there. I want to be able to call out, "18 inches and growing!" Can you have a favorite icicle. You bet. Some hang straight as a ruler. Others seem to have a collective outlook with a number of stems joined together. Now and then some variation in the wind or temperature leads one to add a branch or little nub near the tip. And each one keeps changing. Long and slender, thick and bold, slight ripples or lots of texture.

I watched one icicle develop over a whole day. It was grand. It was thick, with multiple joined stems. And it made me wonder about the whole stalactite and stalagmite thing. This thing was huge and it kept growing. By bed time it was as thick as my forearm and reached from the eve just above the window down about 5 feet almost to snow on the roof of the extension one floor below. The following morning it had touched the snow. (More worries about how much heat leaks through my roof, how can an icicle grow during the night?) Just as you think you have a real champion of icicles something else changes. My giant icicle just loosened from the gutter and toppled over onto the roof. I can still see it laying there. Time to go look for a new favorite.

CHEERFUL PROJECT BAG

2009-03-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

What every knitter needs is a CHEERFUL PROJECT BAG. Every knitter needs to have one project available at all times just because it makes them feel good. Something in a bright cheerful color or something so silly it just makes them smile to be working on it.

I've had that for the last six weeks. I gave myself the assignment
and the permission to design and make toys for an upcoming class.
And having both the need to do the job and the permission to go where
I wanted to with it has been a wonderful experience. If I had an idea
I could feel free to follow it to some kind of conclusion. Some became
full fledged toys and others ended up in my body parts box. But in
reality, every stitch I took, even the ones I ripped out lead somewhere.

It has been a month and a half of knit and rip for me. I was talking to DH this morning. We were discussing how much time I have spent on this knitting project and comparing it to last year.

Last year, February was a hard month for me. I had a lot of days where the depression had the upper hand and I slept a lot.
I was very eager for spring to get here and READY to get out
into the garden as soon as the weather was above 40*.
I NEEDED to get out in the sun.

This year I have been busy and happily occupied all of February
and had no incidences of real depression.
Something to think about there.

Of course, who has any time to be depressed when you are working on a cheerful little duckling like this little girl I named Princess Pink. I keep thinking she needs a pink cape and a crown, or maybe what I need to do is to make another duckling in some bright pink yarn I have.

Or her big brother, whose name is Qwock because that is what
my son called ducklings when he was very small . . .

Yup, from now on I will try to have a CHEERFUL PROJECT bag
to hold something in a bright color or in a silly theme just to make me and the folks around me smile when I work on it.

So what's the tally?

We have Bunnies, Babies and Blankies for the first class.

Rolly Polly Baby bunny based on Jean Greenhowe's Rainbow babies (Click here to download the Rainbow Babies free pattern) as an example of how to adapt a pattern.
Rabbit inspired by Basil Staghare in the Redwall books
Bunny Baby Doll - she needs a name
Set of underwear for the bunny doll
Dress for the bunny doll
The Gumball Bunny Family, Pappa, Momma and kids
Laying down bunny egg cozy
Sitting up bunny egg cozy
Round Easter Basket Blanket based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's (Pi Shawl)
Square Easter Basket Blanket

And we have the Chicks, Eggs, Carrots and a Sheep class.

Qwock a duckling.
Princess Pink another duckling
Large felted carrot "box"
Carrot Racer
Chick in a nest egg cozy
Chicken egg cozy
Elegant Eggs ( from Knitty Keen Elegant Eggs)
Sleepy sheep egg cozy
Sheep toy

I finished my last piece on Friday and delivered the whole
set of toys to the A.C. Moore store in Downingtown PA,
on Saturday morning. I can't say thank you enough
to the Knitters in my local SnB, my non-knitting
friends and the new friends I have made through
Ravelry during this process.

Folks who see them seem to like what they see.
Now I wait to find out if anyone signs up to take the class.

I have learned:

That I really like to work things out on the needles.

That I shouldn't write down a line in a pattern until I am sure it's the way I want it or I should wait to write the pattern until the toy is finished. Writing as I go leads to a lot of crossing things out as I change things again and again and again, until I get the shape I want.

That I love to knit very small toys, but that slightly larger ones are easier and will meet the child safety rules better.

That I will use short rows for shaping often, unless I am reminded that other folks may not enjoy them.

That I can make an attempt at just about anything and it's OK if I don't get "there."

That I have a part to play in each community I choose to associate with.

And that as the FlyLady says, Housework done incorrectly still blesses my family."

Knitting can be so much fun. My plans for this class are that is should not be pattern driven. I would very much like to run the class in a way that encourages the student to discover their own creativity. Ideally, I'd start with something along the lines of "We're all going to knit a bunny right now. Everybody cast on a few stitches, how many, if you want really big bunny do a lot, if you want a little bunny like this one not so many. Knit around to make the first leg. How many rounds, how long do you want the leg to be. Yes we will get to stuff with patterns but right now it's time for you to make a bunny. Do you want a sitting down or a standing up bunny? And so forth.

EASTER BASKET TOYS - the first batch

2009-02-24T07:31:00.000-08:00

Now you can see some of what all that yarn abuse was about. I'm a needles in hands kind of designer so far. I think a part should be bigger I add some stitches, if I want it round I add them evenly, if I want it to have a shape, I only add them where I want them. And I rip it back out fairly often. The bunnies, the duckling, the carrot which will get wheels and become a race car are all my original stuff.

Here are the photos of the first batch of my OWN and ORIGINAL designs. These are some of the Easter Basket Toys I will be teaching in March 2009.

The blanket is my idea of a substitute for cellophane Easter grass and is a small Pi shawl from EZ. The eggs are from two patterns on Ravelry.

The yarn may disagree.

2009-02-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

First, let me state that there are NO yarn police.

But. . .

If there were they would be on their way to my house with sirens screaming. The charge?

Abuse of yarn. Poor defenseless yarn ends up in my knitting bag. I knit it up, and, what I have done doesn't quite please me. I rip back a few rows. I knit it up, and it's still not EXACTLY what I was planning. I rip back those same few rows. I knit it up and decide that I have been working the entire thing on too many stitches and it has to go. I rip it back and start over.

Poor defenseless yarn. But I can hear those sirens and they're on the way to my house. I have become a yarn abuser.

Working on my own designs has been so much fun for me, but I think the yarn may disagree.

Some Problems With Knitting In Public

2009-02-08T06:18:00.000-08:00

Hello Again,

I have discovered the very great pleasure of meeting in public with a group of knitters. What fun! The group is ChesCoSnB and evenings we gather at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, but daytimes we are likely to show up, believe it or not at a local grocers. This place has a living room area with enough seating that 4 or 5 knitters can settle in for a couple hours nice chat and knitting.

The problem with knitting in public. . .
well, as a knitter, we are often quite happy to start and work our way through a project. Knitting in public lets us bring that project out to be seen by "the ones who understand" this is great fun. . .
until . ..
well, until you see that they have discreetly set aside, their own very advanced level of the same type of project on which you were satisfied with your progress and skill development. I had taken my second felted tote bag to show. IT did look nice. The fabric had felted down nice and thick there were no krinkles or odd folds from it's trip through the washing machine and the colors muted just the way we all thought they would, it will suit my husband very well. Then as she was leaving another knitter picked up her felted, fair isle ! !!, multi color, multi textured purse. Wow! !! I didn't know you could do stuff like that! Can't decide whether to feel like an underachiever or to move into high energy, "Now I've seen that I know what I want to try next! !! Insane Creative mode."

The other problem with Knitting in Public. . .
drop ins. . .
you go out with your work bag and it's a plain and simple invitation for every sticky fingered kid in the neighborhood to stop by and see what you are doing (note to self, might be time to knit up some little give away bears again). . . and it's an invitation to folks who haven't been brave enough to try this yet (one of our group tries to carry extra learner yarn and needles). . . and then you get the lovely senior citizen who identifies the fiber you are using and offers to GIVE you her entire stash of mohair as she is no longer knitting . . . and you get folks who like to talk and need somebody to listen.

It was a great day. And I am very glad that I had no pressing need to rush home and could spend the time to share my work with others and to receive from them the encouragement and pleasure we all get from working with our hands.

Got the knitting Brain Fever

2009-02-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I'm back again.

I've been having so much fun with the knitting and the new knitting communities I've found through Ravelry and the local Knitters Stitch and Bitch that I didn't get back to the blog till now. My mouth did it again! I checked in with the ACMoore and managed not only to schedule my Seamless Slipper class but the Events Lady is allowing me to offer my Intro to Sock Knitting Class too! Then I heard myself saying, "Would you like me to work up an Easter Basket Toy class?" What was I thinking? I checked their shelves and right now the store isn't offering any books OR pamphlets with knitted toy patterns. Sheesh! !! That means I have to design for "other people" or modify existing patterns to make them mine, or write the polite letter of inquiry to designers asking for permission to use a pattern they created.

Note to self. Either spend more time designing n general (of course this would be easier if I had grandchildren to inspire me! !!) or do not offer classes you have not prepared IN ADVANCE.

So. .. I've been a true Sherlock Holmes style brain fever of trying to design my own toys. I used to make them for my kids but then I was just knitting along trying to reach the goal of the day. Mommy I want a fish can be easy and fun. Design a pattern other people can use is a bit intimidating.

And I just love my rabbit. I have a little sheep too that is enough different from the two others of the type I found out there to count as not the same, I hope. I'll do some modifications on the generic garter stitch teddy pattern to make a bunny of my own. Then I start on the duckies and chicks. I love to do things in the round but I keep wondering if I make it too hard for other people. DH swears he hears me muttering, "I'm sure I can make this harder." Why didn't I look to see if they had a book first?

Ah well, time to get back to real life.

More later,

Lynne

I thought I had started a blog

2009-01-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hello Again,

I just KNEW I had made a previous attempt at starting a blog. And now that I have gone out and looked, there it was just waiting for me. Thus we know that I am not much of a diary keeper and never was.

Now it is January 2009.

Lots of project ideas since I signed up for Ravelry. What fun!

The Christmas Knitting was well received. IN fact, DH liked the felted tote bag I made for DD so much that he asked me to make one for him. I have stated it and I do enjoy working with this yarn.

Today I simply must get some housekeeping done. Time to get the Holiday decorations packed away. Just the tree and the Fontanini this year but I still have to pack it up so DH can carry the boxes up to the attic. Then maybe I can get the furniture reorganized in the living room and get back to comfortable normal. This house has been disrupted for way too long.

DH finished laying the new floor in the kitchen yesterday. It looks just grand. Now maybe we can get that remodel finished. I am the QUEEN of the hot plate, but I do so want to have my own kitchen back again.

Back Again and Still Learning

2009-01-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

I thought I had tried to start a blog a while back.

This morning I found it again and posted a note.

But it doesn't show up anywhere I can see.

So much more to learn.

Mon, Jan.

First Attempt

2008-03-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 28.

It's time to try a blog.

I've been working on a quilt top and it is taking over my life. So I thought I'd find out if there is anyone else who has this happen.

I've done a couple quilt tops before. I've been sewing since I was a school girl but sewing for quilt tops is fairly new to me. I have 5 tops from a class series I took and one finished quilt off to it's new life as a gift. But this is the first quilt that is MINE ALL MINE from idea to completion.

I want this to be a silly, warm and cozy quilt to curl up with on the couch. And since I keep trying to convince myself that "there are no quilt police" I am plunging in without concern about if I am breaking any rules. I am calling this my Cat Nap Couch Quilt.

I have gathered as many paper pieced cat patterns as I could find for free on the net or in books either purchased or borrowed from the library and perhaps redacted from images on the net but not purchased by me. I have decided that since this is a quilt for curling up with that the cats will be arranged in concentric bands. That way it will have no top or bottom and I will always be able to see some cats right side up.

Our personal history with cats includes 6 years when we were "on a list" and kept cats with Feline Leukemia. We lost 11 cats in 6 years. Now we have two merry healthy felines to share our lives. After finding a pattern for cats with angel wings I decided that I will make one angel for each cat we have lived with. They will be the center of my quilt. It never crossed my mind to use fabrics with cat patterns on them. I have been selecting colors for the angel cats to represent each of our past and present friends and have had lots of long angonizing hours trying to take a moderate paper pieced pattern and increase its complexity to add more color or weight to some cats. You know what, it is kind of hard to find fabrics to make basic brown tabby cats. I may use traditional blocks like Puss in the Corner to space them out a bit. Then a row of ~3" blocks of small paper pieced seated cats in lots of great colors and not the least realistic, and some little kitten faces with appliqued paws about the same size also in silly colors. Then a row of the Fancy Dressed Cats from Bella On Line. I have two sets of 12 done from that set of patterns. 12 silly blocky yellow cats dressed in all manor of bright clothes and 12 grey ones. I plan to use Mobirds Sleeping Cat from Paper Panache for the outside row maybe 8 of them with other blocks paper pieced cats and traditional blocks with cat like names. I have 4 of them done too. Lots of color, lots of silliness. I am using several blue cloud fabrics for the backgrounds for most of them. I expect I'll want to use some kind of spacing between the rows and DH has suggested I put each cat into some kind of frame. Currently I am planning to use Attic Windows in deep blues and greens around them.

The problem is that my quilt is all I want to work on. I would gladly slip into the "quilt eat sleep" lifestyle if I could. But real life intervenes and I have spent days house cleaning and prepping because all of the kids are coming home with their spouses and pets for a family reunion and Memorial Service. I've been good, really I have but I'd rather be up in the sewing room Playing with my quilt.