Finished Cat and Mouse Quilt!

 The cat and mouse was put on the frame mid March 2020. It was not making progress.... so February 2024 I basted it on the frame and took it off for hand quilting in the hoop. The hand quilting was finished on October 30th. I made the binding on Halloween and finished hand stitching it down yesterday afternoon. It is currently 59x69 but needs a gentle washing so it will get a little smaller and snuggly. I think I might have made the cat blocks back in 2014? Then did the mice a few years later. I think it got to the top stage in 2019 or 2020.  It is nice to cross this one off the list.

The whole quilt in the sun.

A better shot of the quilting. The triangle of cheese for the mice is in the light teal border and the butterfly's for the cats are in the dark teal border. Those butterfly's were so fun to stitch. 

The backing.

With the clocks going back an hour last night, the dog did not get that memo! The cats were content to sleep in, but someone thought he needed a walk... at 6AM (new time!). Turns out.... F1 Qualifying was happening in the rain in Brazil, so I got up but watched that fiasco with Aidan and put the doggie off for a bit. He did get a nice long walk and then helped me with photo's out back after feeding the chickens some seed treats. I need to hack another pumpkin open for them and pop it into their run. I might have forgotten to carve Halloween pumpkins this year..... oh well, the girls will eat them!

Greg and I did head to The Villages new High School yesterday afternoon to watch Emily and her bandmates compete at their MPA for marching band. They did well and got straight Superior's across the board! That is the best ranking against the rubric, so they get another metal pin this year at end of year awards. She was a 11PM pick up at school last night so we enjoyed that extra sleep time. 

My handwork will switch to the QAYG hexagons today, I think. I need to do my one blue from yesterday and today to finish this set of 4.

Then I'll work on stitching the singles into twosomes, then everyone into sets of 4. I need 12 sets of 4 to make a long column to attach to the existing quilt to make it wider. I think I need at least 4 columns.  I've been doing pretty good at doing one each day on my lunch break. It is time to prep a few more - it looks like I need red, green, purple and dark blue to add to the mix. Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

The happy doggie Bear after his walk with lots of sniffing of wild turkeys! We saw a set of 14 along the way a few times. He is so much better walking on a leash from when we first got him in April 2022. He is a very strong 85 pound boy. Don't mind the slobber... lots of sniffing today. Got to love that doggie smile.

Weekend

 I'll be spending time today with jack the ripper. On Friday, I made 5 more potato chip blocks and added them to the top I had made since it wanted to be bigger. I hear I need to make another 17 blocks for it to be happy! Somehow I flipped the way it was oriented, so the middles look the same rather than staggered for this row. Oops! It will get unpicked while watching the F1 race this morning.

Then I'll be adding some stitches to outline this mouse. Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Saturday was a busy day. After walking the dog, and watching a bit of the F1 Qualifying we headed to the barn. There are two new barn cats that have yet to be named. The orange tabby is very friendly and fluffy. The grey one did let me pet him and pick him up!

Boomer wanted attention and some scratches, so Emily made him happy.

She rode Doc again yesterday and did a good job with him. The pink around the eye is some ointment to keep the fly's away. The fly's were horrible there yesterday. She had just finished a good canter and was waiting for her riding buddy to do her workout.

After having a lunch of the brisket that took forever to finish cooking - note to self a 16 pound brisket takes forever to get up to temp! I pulled it out of the oven Saturday morning at 7! It went in yesterday at 1 after being on the grill to smoke for 4 hours. It was yummy and I have a lot to seal a meal into packages for the freezer.

Greg and I headed to the hospital to see his Dad. He had a procedure Friday and is having another this morning at 8AM. Not a very good 89th birthday present for him. He is extremely weak and tired with no energy. We will head over this afternoon and see how he is after he is back up to his room. Quite a different plan to what we were hoping to do this weekend!

Thursday already?

 Well, I of course did not listen to Diann when she said to rest my back. So, it still hurts a bit. I did not walk the dog Monday and Tuesday, and that helped but he really needed the exercise, so I walked him yesterday and this morning. Other than the initial pull from being excited for his walk, he has been good. I did call off horses this week and probably next as well to see if I can get it back to normal. 

Not much stitching has happened, I've been doing nice hot bubble baths at night instead! 

Meals (that ever troubling 'What's for dinner?')

I pulled out some pork chops from the freezer on Monday and had Greg bake those with roasted potato and green beans (rosemary herb on the chops, Montreal steak seasoning on the beans and salt and pepper and a drizzle of oil on the red potato's). I was picking up Emily from symphony band practice. His back is hurting after putting up the car canopy Sunday (aren't we a pair!), and his reasoning skills are off, so dinner was a little late. He read my instructions wrong. It was good when it was ready though! I had it all prepped on 2 sheet pans with notes written for times and what goes in when. 

The kids didn't want the Gordon's fish filets for dinner, so they got fresh salmon and Greg and I had the frozen fish. Spoiled kids. I emptied a couple of bags from the freezer with a little sweet potato fries and tater tots with veggies. 

Wednesday - I made a Mongolian beef and broccoli in the quick cooker served over rice. The kids finished their salmon (it was a Sam's club filet!) and then ate some of what I cooked. I was a little surprised there was only rice leftover! I guess they liked it. 

Today was going to be nachos and taco meat for taco's or salads... but then I remembered the chicken empanada's in the freezer and gave the kids the choice. Empanada's it is! Leftover rice and probably a salad for some veggies.

I did work on finishing the thread basting on the cat and mouse quilt and just took it off the frame! Lots of pins to remove it from both edges of the leaders. Now to decide where to place the hoop to continue hand quilting it!

A couple of the cat tears on the bottom edge of the quilt. I should be able to repair them up as they are small. I'll pin the back to the front, so the batting doesn't get torn while I am quilting it. I have the butterfly and cheese templates and my quilting thread and hoop. It's good to go!

Time to check the fryer - and get those empanada's cooking!

Wednesday.... shot day.....

It took a few months to get the pain doctor appt for my hubby, then insurance denied the shot last month. The doctor reapplied and this time they approved it. Today is the day! Lets hope that it helps relieve the pain.

I have the 3rd scrappy Endless Diamond block prepped for waiting time. I will start out with finishing off the second block either in the waiting room or the car. Unsure of that waiting space for me right now. 

Block 2

Block 3

I did get a little hand stitching added to the cat and mouse quilt yesterday. I should be able to roll the quilt later today or tomorrow! Sew exciting to see process finally on this. I think this 30 minutes a day will work out well! I figure I get 45 minutes with one NCIS episode on Netflix. 

Dinner is in the crock pot. I pulled 2 of the 2 pound bork butts from the freezer and will be making carnitas today! Yes, I have one small packet in the freezer from last time. I found a big package of pulled pork in the freezer too.. and since the kids had pulled pork at Grandma's on Sunday..... I went with Carnitas. Guess I am in a mexican mood! The recipe I am using is here. The kids gave it a thumbs up the last time I made it...and that was before I broiled it. They were just eating it off the shedding sheet pan!

I did have to make a quick stop at the store last night after delivering the rest of the troop cookie rewards. I figure I added at least 40 miles to the car delivering to 3 houses. I did find out that our Neighborhood Walmart was nearly empty of people around 8:30 at night - so I got the coffee filters that I was out of and some OJ for the carnitas. They had a little bit of school supplies so I picked up a thing of pencils already sharpened for the kids and a notebook and glue sticks for me. I use notebooks for work to jot down notes, etc as I am programming and testing things. Em asked for glue - I think she is making something with it today. I'll wait on other school supplies until we get the supply lists from each of their teachers... although it is probably safe to grab notebooks, pens and pencils. Their backpacks are still working fine for when/if they go back to in person school. 

The kids are starting school virtually for the first quarter and possibly semester. We got a call from Aidan's Robotics teacher yesterday afternoon. He is offering the virtual kids an opportunity to stay in robotics with a before school - zero period - option M,W,F to do the team class. The computers are spaced 6 feet apart and would be groups of 3-4  working on the robots and masks are to be worn in class. This would avoid the changing classes with lots of kids and be a limited number of kids in class....and first thing so if this virus hangs around in the air it would have been done from the previous days classes. He see's swapping it to a first period class once things settle down and they can be in class safely.  That would allow the 20 minute drive time to get home for his rest of the school day. We think it is a 'low risk'... and accepted it since he would have missed a whole year of Robotics if we didn't. The teacher understands... his son is doing virtual the first quarter as well and it sounds like his older child has had the virus. He knows of a few people who have had it - his son was just a few days feeling blah but the other person was very sick with it for a while. You just don't know which category you will fall into 'when/if' you get it. 

Off to shower and prep my 'waiting' bag! Throwing in the above 2 blocks, a book, water, snacks, knitting... just a little of everything. I never know what I will feel like working on.....

August OMG.....

Such a difficult decision this month. I 'should' actually plan to machine quilt and bind at least one of my tops this month as the pile is getting bigger. Which quilt will it be? The RSC 2018 sampler or the VQF booth hop?

This quilt is a booth hop from The Vermont Quilt Festival... I want to say 2009 or 2010. I can't remember if I got a day away from one baby or two! 

This quilt is a sampler from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018 I believe called Squared Away. 

Coin flip......... and the winner was.........

I think my August goal will be to get the Squared Away quilt - machine quilted and bound this month!

I 'should' plan to work a little each day adding hand quilting stitches to the cat and mouse quilt on the frame.  I think I will have a goal of 30 minutes of hand quilting on this one each night for the month of August and see how much progress I can make. I have only done some butterfly's on the bottom blue border so far. 

Well, I guess that is technically two goals, but since there are 31 days in August I think I will be good!

If I get the Squared Away finished I will be a happy camper.

Linking up with the August OMG.

Stencils.....

Since I have successfully loaded the cat and mouse to the frame (ok, I need to baste the bottom edge but close enough!), it is time to think about quilting designs.

I saw a post last week in Celebrate Hand Quilting of some butterfly's being quilted. Cats like to chase butterfly's and they are cuter than the little gecko's the kids suggested... yes, my cats love to play with them on the screened in porch when they manage to get in! Time to check out my limited supply of stencils.

Hmmmm. I have a little bit of template plastic left, lets search quilting books and coloring pages for butterfly photos.

I like the shape of this one...

all traced. Just need to cut it out with scissors. Place on that teal and trace around and add a little dotted line to connect them I think. Yup, that will work. This afternoon's plans are set..... if the kids let me! The girl is being dropped off by Grandma around 1PM. I think I'll pull out the power washer and see if I can con the kids into cleaning a bit of the back steps and start on the concrete driveway and walkway. I need to remind them the pool needs to be cleaned of the oak leaves in the bottom too....

This is my companion, Ollie today while I work. His brother who is normally in his bed by my laptop must be with Greg or Aidan.