On my way to Mom’s, I made a slight detour to a large garden centre near her house.

I needed a couple replacement cacti for my gothic plant house I keep on the kitchen counter.

It perfectly holds six little pots, each with a cacti or succulent. But two had grown too large and had to be moved on, so I needed two more to replace them. This particular garden centre always has a good selection of cacti in tiny pots.

It didn’t take too long to pick out two perfect little babies to join the family. But then… something else caught my eye…

See those little purple bits??? Those are FLOWERS!!! One was actually in full bloom when I bought it, but sadly, I forgot to take a picture right away and it faded before I got the chance. I’ve never had a cactus in bloom before! I can’t wait for the others to open!

And last, I came across something I have been looking for quite a while…

It’s a Boobie Cactus!!! Ok… well actually, it’s scientific name is Myrtillocactus geometrizans Fukurokuryuzinboku…. but plant people just call it the Boobie Cactus. Don’t believe me???

It was on the label!!!!

Now I just need to find a penis cactus…

Yup… Mom’s cat Winnifred is still beautiful.

And she still hates me.

The last quilt in the quilt parade is that adorable little dragon quilt…

It’s now been packed up and sent off to the Grandma-To-Be to gift to her daughter next month. This one was a lot of fun to make. There are a lot of pieces. You have to be organized and take your time, but there was nothing terribly difficult about it.

The pattern calls for applique for the eye, but I opted to use my new-found embroidery skills instead. And don’t you just love that little dragon print? I’m so glad I got a chance to use it.

The back is a fun dragon flannel (because I love flannel on the back of a quilt – especially a baby quilt!) I have just enough of it left to make another dragon quilt for the shop. But first I want to move the Blockhead quilt out of the queue! Hoping I can make some good progress on that this weekend!

The next quilt in the parade is the Batik log cabin quilt

(We’ve got so much snow, I had to take pictures of the quilt on the horizontal – otherwise it dragged in the snow)

I started this quilt about this time last year, so it’s nice to have it finished. I love how the grey makes the pastels of the batiks pop, but is soft enough that effect isn’t over powering.

This quilt was made mostly from one jelly roll. Near the end, I had to add in a few strips from the wider batik stash. The blue doors were leftover from the snowflake quilts I made in 2023. And the grey solid it from one of the solid Kona bolts I keep in stash. (I have several neutrals that I keep in stock for backgrounds)

I don’t often do a batik back, because it can be quite expensive, but this one was picked up on sale ages ago. And the binding was a leftover batik from a quilt I made back in 2020! It was nice to do this one all from the stash.

This is the only quilt of this round that ended up in the shop. And it’s on sale!

From now until the end of the month, we’re doing a “Baby, it’s cold outside!” sale! 25% off!!!

(With apologies to our American friends – there is no way around pre-paying those tariffs so we still can’t ship to our southern friends)

Next up in the finished quilt parade is Kittens in Cups!

I made this one to showcase the fabulous fabric – Tabby Road from Tula pink! Several of the prints were large – so I needed something big to show them off. The pattern from Sew Fresh quilts was perfect!

But the really special part of this quilt is the back…

It’s Minky! And it’s sooooooo soft! Mom had apprehensions about backing with Minky (there are some real horror stories out there on the internet). But I made sure I used lots of basting glue and took my time putting it together. Her long arm had no problems quilting it.

The only (small issue) was that the nap of the minky, and weight of the quilt, did make sewing the binding on a little slower. And it you had to be careful handsewing it down on the back – it was very easy to slide across it and not get the needle in.

But other than that – no issues! I even have a chunk left – enough to use for the back of baby blanket… or maybe something for his Lordship?

I’m happy to say, I made it to Mom’s on the weekend as planned! So I have a parade of finished quilts to share with you this week.

First up is the quilt of all those embroidered blocks I finished last year.

Last September, I left it with Mom to do some precise ruler quilting on it. And as expected, she did and amazing job.

Simple, but perfect straight lines to highlight all those pretty floral blocks.

And of course, since he helped me not only in the garden, but in makin most of the blocks in this quilt…

we made a little label to put on the back. A fitting tribute to my never-forgotten garden friend.

More of my favourite bird pictures taken over the last month

…or cat house.

Like many of you, we are in the middle of a deep freeze. Just as the temps started to drop, Louis left his little cubby and dissapeared. He hasn’t been back to the porch for food or a nap. A neighbour informed us that he’s likely under the house of another neighbour up the street. He feeds the strays an apparently under his house is where quite a few take shelter. It’s probably how Louis has survived all his previous winters.

But still, Dave was upset. He was convinced Louis left because his house wasn’t warm enough. Dave didn’t like that the wind could still blow in the front.

So last weekend, when he made me stop at the hardware store it was to get materials to make Louis a better house.

While I was making Chocolate Chip Cookies, he was sawing and screwing. In the end, it’s the same idea as the first one with insulation and straw..

But it’s double the size, with two rooms (like Furby’s fancy one) so Louis can get tucked away from the wind better. The top also comes off so we can periodically clean out the old straw.

“Mom….. he’s on my side of the bed again….”

A few of you have asked how well Furby is getting along with the rest of the crew. And the truth is… with mixed results. At first, there really were no issues – a little hissing, and then they mostly ignored each other. And we wondered if the stories of him getting kicked out for being mean to his old housemates was even true.

But then… Sir Furbs got… comfortable… and things changed.

It appears he has a bit of a high prey drive. That means, when one of the other cats runs by him, his instincts kick in and he gives chase. With Rupert, this isn’t an issue. Rupert loves to be chased. And Rupert is fast, so he can usually get under something before Furby can catch him.

With Lemmy and Burton, it’s more of an issue. They seem to take offense to it and it’s turned into a few pretty good dust ups. The result is that those two are not terribly fond of Furbycand even some direct eye contact for a second too long can start a scrap.

The fact that it’s cold and snowy also means none of the boys are going out and getting their ya-yas out in the yard (catio for Burton and Lemmy or wider world for Furby), which seems to have made things worse.

It, unfortunately, has also lead to some indoor spraying. We already had a problem with Lemmy, though I had it mostly under control. But now we’ve caught Furby, and surprisingly Burton (who has NEVER sprayed in the house) doing it too.

Last week, I got them all a pheromone collar. It looks like a flea collar but apparently has pheromones that make them calmer and less stressed. Incidents (spraying and fighting) have decreased but not stopped completely.

I’m hoping with a little more time, they all learn to love each other. Or at least… tolerate each other more. Because there are absolutely moments where they do…

The Shrug has not seen as much love as I would like, but there is progress

I have finished the back and joined up for the second sleeve… see…?

In truth, it’s a bit of a pain to work on now because it’s so long, it gets tangled in itself as you go round and round. But I will perervere. Every five rounds it gets a little faster, as I am decreasing.

I’m headed to Mom’s for the weekend (weather permitting) and I was hoping to finish it before then so she could help me take modelled photos, but it’s not to be. I would like it done soon though..

I got these two balls of sock yarn at the thrift store for $2 each! I’m itching to cast one one!