I finally found some time to finish up the last few Pinkerville blocks. I only had three left, and they go pretty quick, but carving out time for them has been a challenge.

While I was working on them, I had the previously completed blocks laid out on the bed, awaiting final layout.

Big mistake…

And it didn’t matter how many times I shooed them off. They just kept coming back

Especially this one…

And I mean, I feel bad disturbing him when he’s obviously so comfortable… but a girl’s got a quilt to work on, you know!?!

Eventually, I found a cat-free moment to get everything set in a layout I can live with.

I’ve decided that this layout (blocks butting up against each other), with these prints is just a touch too busy for my taste. The starts get lost a little in all the other things going on. So, I’m going to add sashing and cornerstones. It’s already a good size, and that will make it just a little bit bigger. I’ve got lots of backing fabric though so that’s just fine with me.

I’m definitely on track to complete this top by the end of the month. (Quilting is another matter).

Okay – I’ve been neglecting the poncho a little to work on these…

… But aren’t they just the cutest????

Yep. That’s the first Skullduggery sock complete. As you can see, I reversed the colours so they are matchy, but not too matchy with Dave’s pair. We’ve never been matchy-matchy people, so I’m doing a bit of a gamble here… but I think he’ll like it.

They are also anklets, because that’s just how I prefer my socks. And, well, also because the black wasn’t a full ball, so it’s probably all I have enough for. I’m probably playing a serious game of yarn chicken, to be honest.

I’ve already got a good start on the second one. I’m hoping to release the pattern at the same time I do an FO post, so keep your eyes peeled!

The other day, I noticed a trend where me (and others) seemed to be having a particularly hard time with things the last few weeks. And it got me wondering…. is Mercury in Retrograde again? Whenever Mercury goes into Retrograde, I’ve had some truly spectacular problems (mostly involving cars, but not always.) And sure enough… that rat-bastard has been retro since October 31 and will squat there like a toad until November 20th.

He’s mostly caused minor, but frustration miscommunications with work (and of course, my iPhone going down), but had thankfully left my crafting alone. That is until the other day.

The Milky Way blocks have been fun to put together, especially as I have all the pieces cut and I can whip out a pair in about an hour.

The original quilt was made with non-directional fabrics. Sadly, mine are mostly directions, but when putting the kitty prints together, it didn’t really bother me if they went all willy-nilly.

But when I got to the diagonal stripe fabric…. well having it go different directions just drove me nuts. I took a little more care in layout, but I was able to get it all going the same way….

Except for…. well you can see it. Somehow, I don’t know how… I started piecing and completely missed that this one block was backwards! There was no leaving it like that. But there was one big problem. The pieces for these blocks are cut in such a way that it uses almost all of the fat quarter. I had scraps big enough for the green paw star points… but the stripes. Nope.

I was so frustrated, so I set it aside for a few days. Finally it came to me. The FQ pack came with 18 fabrics, but I’m only using 16 of them for the quilt. One of the leftovers was a stripe VERY similar to this one. The only difference? It had a grey stripe instead of a yellow… but how noticable would it be??

A lot less noticeable than a stripe going the wrong way.  And I’m betting, once the whole quilt is together, it’s not going to be noticeable at all.

I have one more block to make that has striped fabric…. but I think I’m going to wait until AFTER the 20th to do it.

In the meantime, here’s where all my other projects are at:

• Meow-lky Way – As you see above. Six blocks down, 10 to go!
• Pinkerville quilt – I haven’t touched this one in a bit… I’m going to try to finish the top by the end of the month
• Royal Stars – Buildings stars, two at a time
• Pins and Paws – Kitty by kitty, this one is growing
• Leader and Ender quilt – Stacking up those geese like there’s no tomorrow!

It’s official, gardening season is DONE!

As I mentioned yesterday, we got walloped with snow on Monday. This amount of snow isn’t unusual (it is Canada after all), but getting this much, this early, is.  Usually November is all cold and grey, with a few dustings of snow, but nothing that amounts to anything.  We don’t usually  see any sort of accumulation until mid-December or even January (it’s about a 50/50 chance of having a green Christmas here).

As you can see, there’s still leaves on the lilacs and raspberries. There’s even an iris in bloom under all that snow! (Also, I need to refill the bird feeder!) This dumping has definitely killed off the last blooms that were hanging on.

So, I have to turn my attention to my indoor gardens…

You’ve seen a few of these before. They are the containers left from my favourite candles. I said I wasn’t going to buy any more, but then they came out with that darn Llama (and my favourite vanilla scent). I just had to have her.

After the candle was burned down, I found the prettiest little variegated Jade plant (with touches of pink!) for her. Can you believe I found it at my local grocery store? It came out of the grocery budget (what’s one less box of crackers?) so I don’t feel bad.

Now the company has come out with a Polar Bear candle. Polar Bears are my second favorite-most animal… maybe I’ll see if Dave wants to get it for me for my birthday….

In other indoor gardening news… the East Cactus has fully bloomed. You can see just how different the flowers are, compared to the Christmas Cactus below it. It was such a lucky find all those years ago.

And my pink Christmas Cactus is really going all out. She may have enough steam to flower right up to Christmas – wouldn’t that be nice?

And remember the flowering spider plant I showed you? Well the flowers are gone and in their place…

A pile of spider babies!!!! I usually snip them off, and root them in their own pot (I have several spider plants throughout the house), but I’ve never had so many babies at once! I don’t know what to do with them all.

And before I leave you, have I ever shown you my baby Groot?

I got him last year (or maybe the year before). I’ve tried a few plants in him (a crispy wave fern, a spider baby….) but quickly determined he doesn’t hold water and needed something that was really low-maintenance. I got him this cute little succulent on my shopping trip with Rowan this summer. It’s been just perfect. And doesn’t he look so happy about it?

 

A day in the life of Relic:

“Hey Lady! Open the door and let me out!!!! I NEED TO GO OUT!!!!

“Wait… I changed my mind. It’s not that fun out here…”

Repeat every 10-15 minutes.

Of course… we also got hammered with snow earlier this week, so now it’s even worse….

If you’ve been keeping track, you’ll know that I still had one of my five project boxes left empty. Of course that just won’t do, so I went stash diving again.

And while I already have one cat-themed project on the go, I just couldn’t resist one more.

Mom bought me a pack of 10″ squares in this fabulous collection a while ago. And I had just the purrfect pattern for it to:

Pins and Paws.

The blocks are super easy and go together so quick. I’m going to have this one done in no time!

And I just have to point out one of the pieces in this collection. See all these cute kitties watching an apparently scary movie…

Did you notice that one of them is knitting????

Too cute!

Before starting my skull socks, I took a little time to whip up a little accessorial Christmas gift.

The pattern is  Scrunch me up, and it popped up on Ravelry the other week. As soon as I saw it,  I knew I had to make it. Rowan is a HUGE fan of scrunchies. Mom and I taught her how to sew some on her sewing machine. But, how cool is a knit scrunchie??? Especially one that matches your socks! I had to rework the pattern a bit to get it to stripe the right way. (It’s easy, it’s just a rectangle), and I think I made it too wide, but it works.

I gave it a road test to see how it would look…

Oh this takes me back to my youth when the height of fashion was to have your oversized sweater, super slouchy socks, AND scrunchie all coordinate! Ah, the early ’90s….