Behold!

The Super-Floofs!

I have to say – I’m quite enjoying these cold, grey weekends. I’m sure by January I’ll be desperately missing my gardens… but right now it is nice to be back in the studio sewing.

I was a bit under the weather this weekend…. not totally sick, just moving slower than usual. So it took me a few extra hours than expected. But eventually Burton, Lemmy and I banged out one kitten…

And then a second

Giving us two more fine additions to our quilt.

That brings out total kitten count to four!

These kitten blocks are big… 20″ finished. So, after consulting Burton of course, we decided that we will make two more. That means, without sashing, the quilt would be about 40″ x 60″. And with some sashing… well it would be just the perfect size!

So I guess I better go find and cut some more fabric!

While the weekend wasn’t exactly mild, the weather wasn’t too bad (for the end of November). I figured I wasn’t going to get a better chance to get my Christmas stuff up outside.

Our Christmas display isn’t nearly as extensive as our Halloween get-up. But I like it. It’s nice and simple and I can get it all up in under two hours (and that’s taking my time).

There’s not a lot new this year.

The arbour got some new garland courtesy of the dollar store.

The reindeer got three small trees added to their forest glade. The trees twinkle too – which was a nice surprise.

The gnome I painted last year finally made it to the porch (though honestly, I don’t think he ever got his clear-coat like we planned)

And Susannah and Gertie got some festive bows. I STILL haven’t made any outfits for poor Gertie! And as you can see – come spring, their poor beaks will be getting a repaint. We found some exterior orange paint on clearance just for them!

There’s lot of little sparkly details wherever you look! But the main question is… how does it look at night?

Pretty darn nice if I do say so myself!

Now… I guess I better get to decorating the inside of the house!

With the help of the long and short gingers…

More excellent progress was made on the second witch over the weekend.

Her arm is complete if a little disembodied at the moment. Next weekend I’ll link it up to her torso.

And you may have noticed a new needle minder has joined the crew…

I have quite a collection of needle minders, so it’s not like a needed one… but he was too cute to resist.

With the Deathflake hats done, I’m working on one last Christmas project. Last year, I made Dave’s Mom a nice, warm, chunky hat.

I still had over a ball and a half of the yarn left, so I decided this year to make a scarf to go with it.

The pattern is Wingspan. It’s one I’ve made twice before, but this time I modified it to work well with the chunky yarn. The cast-on, and thus pattern repeats are shorter, so it’s moving super quick. I’m still on the part ball, so I think I’m going to be able to give this some really good length before I have to cast off.

My orchids aren’t the only thing in bloom. I was opening my bedroom curtains on Friday and I looked down in the garden and saw a burst of pink at the edge of the yard. I had to go out to check…

Man those roses are tough! That’s Prairie Princess adn there were actually 3 blooms on it (though this was the best).

But Bolero, Navy Lady and New Dawn all have viable buds still. This is definitely the latest I’ve ever had roses!

There were even a few Johnny Jump Ups hugging close to the ground by the front porch.

But at this time of the year, most of the colour in the yard comes from berries. The holly are the obvious show stopper.

But the Burning Bush has some nice little ones too.

Out back, hiding among the willow we have some Pokeberries. They are poisonous to mammals, but the birds can eat them. When we moved here, there was quite a bit of Pokeberry in the yard. I pulled up most of it, but it still shows up in the corners now and again.

And these guys think that just grand!

The wild winds are blowing cold and frosty outside…

But it’s positively tropical inside! This orchid is so bright and cheerful – and it blooms for such a long time when it’s happy.

You will recall that two summers ago, I put most of my orchids outside in too much of a sunny spot. They are still recuperating from that (orchids grow slow!). But they are all putting on new roots and leaves.

And one has even put up a bloom stem. As I said, these guys grow slow (at least in my experience), so could be months before we see actual flowers. Which drives me nuts… because I don’t remember what colours any of my orchids are! I really should label them when they bloom!

Lord Burton would like to remind you, that while the newcomer
might be quite floofy and handsome… there is only ONE Lord here.

Sunday was studio day. First, I took a look at possibilities for the log cabin quilt. To make the patterns whole, I would need 11 more blocks. I had enough pastel batiks I could pull from…

What I didn’t have was enough of the dark blue I used for the doors at the centre of each block. I would need eleven 2.5 inch squares, but I only had enough for eight. So that put paid to the idea of enlarging it. Instead, I’ll have to rearrange the blocks I have.

But that’s for another day, as I have to be in the right state of mind for top assembly. Instead, I turned to another WIP. Back in May, I made a block for a quilt just for me. I decided to pull it out again, and make another.

The pattern is Kitten in Cups by Sew Fresh Quilts. Her patterns are always fun to make… but they do have a lot of pieces!

In fact, the cutting is the most time consuming part. You do have to pay attention, but the block goes together surprisingly quick.

So now we have two kitties!

Once the second block was together, I decided I had enough time to cut all the pieces for two more. That way, when I have time to sew, I can just go straight to it instead of spending all that time cutting.

So the top two boxes have the pieces for one block each – the bottom box had all the extra fabrics (in case I mess up and have to cut more.

The boys are ready to add more kitties to this kaboodle!

Saturday , while babysitting Sad Sack Furby…

I finished up the second Deathflake Hat.

No fancy photoshoot for this one. It’s also harder to see the colourshift in this picture… but it moves from a dark purple to a navy blue. And you’ll notice that nice big puffy pompom. I finally got one full enough.

I re-did the one on the black hat too. Now both can be tucked away until I’m ready to do some wrapping… which should be pretty soon!