Although it feels like I haven’t been sewing as much as I would like, I’ve still managed to blast through the scraps I had set aside for my Leader & Ender quilt.

In fact, the basket of HSTs was starting to overflow.

So I decided to lay them out and see how big it would be, so I could get an idea of how many more to make.

I got 100 of the laid out, got tired of it, and decided just to count the rest. I have 180!!! I’m not sure how many more I’ll do. 196 will give me a nice lap-sized quilt, but I may keep going.

And remember these blocks?

Well I almost forgot about them. But they popped into my brain the other day, and I decided I better get back to them. Everything is cut, so they go together pretty fast. I banged out six of them in a short window between work meetings the other day.

Now I have 10 in total

I cut enough for 25 blocks total, which will, again, make a nice lap sized quilt once there’s some sashing and borders added.

Here’s where all my other quilts are at:

• Cluckin’ Eh! – Eight more hens to go
• Shave and a Haircut – Sewing strips, making blocks
• Homecoming quilt – Third round done -waiting for round 4!
• Black and White and Green All Over – More details coming soon!
• Spinwheel – As you see above
• L&E quilt – As you see above

I know it’s been a while since I posted about Squirrelington’s, but don’t worry. It’s been a going concern all winter. I also added another feeder or two to the yard, so now my feathered and furry friends are treated to a buffet of peanuts, walnuts, black oil sunflower seeds, regular bird mix (no corn), and nyjer seed on a daily basis.

We have sparrows, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, house finches, mourning doves, chickadees, red-breasted nut hatches, downy woodpeckers, and of course, our beloved squirrels.

While the squirrels get regular feedings of peanuts in the shell, along with “treats” of walnuts in the shell, I’ve really wanted to get them some almonds in the shell. Mom always used to get them for us at Christmas time, (along with other in-shell nuts) and we’d all sit around cracking nuts, and making a great mess. (Now I understand why I love the squirrels so much – we are kindred spirits!). But Christmas came and went, and the grocery store never got any in-shell almonds in.

But last grocery day, they did have shelled almonds on sale in the bulk aisle. I’ll admit, I wasn’t thinking about the squirrels when I bought them. Both Dave and I have made a commitment to better our diet, and I figured they’d be good to sub in for chips when we got the after dinner munchies!

But the other day, I decided to throw a pile on the table outside to see what happened.

They’d already had their peanut breakfast when I put this out, so I wasn’t sure if they’d be back right away. Some days, they spend all day in the yard (regardless if Squirrelington’s is serving or not), and other days I don’t see them past noon.

But it didn’t take long…

After this picture, I decided I better clean the glass on the sliding door… but I just love the look on her face, and those nuts sticking out!!! The almonds are MUCH easier to carry multiples than the peanuts.

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Soon enough, other’s took notice and things got quite busy. Even the jays stopped in for a bite.

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They really seemed to like the almonds, because they could get four or five at at time before flying off.

They weren’t quite as thrilled about the other patrons, but that’s what you deal with when a place gets popular!

I still want to see how they do with in-shell almonds though, so I’ll keep searching!

A few weeks back, a friend on Facebook sent me this picture.

Cats? Plants? You know I just HAD to have it. I immediately started scouring the interwebs to find where I could buy them. Good ol’ Amazon came to the rescue.

They arrived the other day in the most hilarious box.

(Don’t tell kitty he’s in the slightly less mysterious and less passionate Canada). I decided they looked better without the scarves (which are removable), and I didn’t have any cool tail-like cacti to plant in them, but I did have some Sansevieria Cylindrica (Cylindrical Snake plant) that would work just as well.

Ahahahah – they crack me up every time I look at them.

“Mom…. Dad stole my nap spot. Make him get out of the bed. I don’t want to share!!!”

Here’s the back story. I’ve mentioned before that Rupert is a cat of routine. And he doesn’t like his routine broken. A general day goes like this:

While he always sleeps with us, around sunrise he abandons the bed to watch the birds until Dave gets up to feed the other cats. He doesn’t always eat, but he makes sure to get in the way of feeding as much as possible. Then he runs to the couch, and rolls and flops while Dave has his coffee and pets him.

After his petting session, he comes back upstairs where I am usually still sleeping (I am not an early riser). He usually sits on the end of the bed and waits for me to get up, so he can steal the warm spot. If I’m not out of bed by 9:30, he’ll start pacing and yelling at me to get up – he wants that warm spot! On occasion, he’ll give up and snuggle up on me (almost as good as the warm spot, but he’d rather not share).

Once I’m out of bed, and he’s curled up in the warm spot, he doesn’t budge. He’ll spend the ENTIRE day in bed. Sometimes he’ll come down around dinner time, but most times we don’t see him until after 9 p.m. Then we have to have cat nip, play with the laser light, harass Relic, and just generally be a pain until it’s time for Dave and I to go to bed. Then the whole thing starts all over again.

So it’s very rare to see Rupert in daylight… except when Dave decides to take an afternoon nap. Then I’m subjected to looks from Rupert, as above.

Because apparently a 6lb kitty can’t share a queen-sized bed….

This weeks prompt for the Round Robin quilt was geese, and unlike last week, I had no trouble with it. The hardest part was determining direction I wanted my geese to go.

It also gave me a chance to try the no-waste geese method.

I do need a little more practice with it, but it was a pretty efficient way to make the geese. It’s ideal when you need a lot of geese.

Once my geese were made, it was just a matter of sewing them together and sewing them onto the quilt… easy peasy!

Because I used a pattern fabric for the background of my geese, they don’t pop as much as they could… but I kind of like the more subtle look for this border.

And those corners….

Aren’t quite the same fabric. I ran out of the same stuff, and didn’t have enough for the corners. But that’s the neat thing about this bundle… several of the floral patterns are VERY close…. from a few feet back, they are almost interchangeable.

And now we wait for prompt four! This is so much fun!

Since Saturday was taken up with the owl quilt Sunday was reserved for the chickens! I added five more ladies to my little brood.

That gives me eight total so far.

I’ve got enough cut for 16 blocks, so I’m halfway to a full coop.

I just love these chicks! I’m not sure someone else is as delighted as I am with them ,though…

The last week at work has had me insanly busy, so other than putting the “plus” border on my Round Robin quilt, I did’t have time to sew a stitch.

By the time Saturday came, I was ready to sew, sew, sew. As I mentioned yesterday, we got lots of cold and snow now, so I needed something cheerful. My baby owl quilt was just the thing. Everything was cut, so it didn’t take very long to finish up the remaining pinwheel flowers.

They got sewn around the owl, and a border added… and boom…

And adorable, colourful quilt top ready for quilting.

As alway, I have the perfect chunk of flannel for the back…

And the purple plaid leftover from Queen of the Crossroads will make excellent binding. If the weather isn’t too bad this weekend (there’s a possibility of a snowstorm), I’ll get it quilted and ready for the shop.

“This owl is NOT cuter than me…. right????”

I’ve been a good girl and worked steady and faithfully on Dave’s Valentine socks and as a result…

The first one is finished. Though Relic isn’t too sure about his new career as a footwear model.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to, but I ended up carrying the pattern right down the foot

The cable is only worked on every other column, and only on every seventh row, so it didn’t slow me up too much and kept the knitting interesting. Part of me wished I’d chosen a more cheerful yarn though… we got a dumping of snow, and the temps have dropped so my world is rather cold and grey right now.

Oh well – 12 more days to finish this – then I can cast on for something more cheerful!