Talk to the paw… ’cause the cat’s not listening…

… unless you have treats!

I’ve mentioned before, when start making a quilt, I have a tendency to fly by the seat of my pants. Sometimes I have a vague idea of the whole, but usually I’m just focused on the individual block.

That was the case with the star blocks for my latest nautical quilt.

I knew I wanted them to be similar to Kitten Cove (but with a slight twist). So I went ahead and cut everything for the blocks. Then I set them aside. When I got back to making them, I forgot that I had planned to make four-at-a-time HSTs, and ended up doing eight-at-a-time. This resulted in smaller blocks, but it also meant I would have enough for double the blocks.

No biggie I thought. Until I got them all done and started playing with layout. With four blocks, I would have had a 2×2 layout. But with eight, my only option was 2×4. It was too narrow, and too long.

Now I could have put vertical sashing and no horizontal sashing to widen it without adding length (like I did with Space Friends) but I just didn’t think it would look as good with this block. I started playing with other options, though they were limited, because I had a piece of fabric set aside for the backing – but I only had two yards of it. That meant I was limited on how wide I could go.

In the end, the best I could come up with was this:

But it still needed something for the centre.

Something that was NOT Burton!!!!

I toyed with a couple of ideas, and ended up using a little fabric from that backing piece (but not enough that I would not have enough for the back), and some navy stars I had set aside because I thought they’d work well as a border or binding.

As an afterthought, and so that the one different centre block wouldn’t look totally out of place, I went back and strategically snowballed some corners on the original blocks. That way when they came together at the corner stones, they’d create a little secondary pattern.

And I love the result!

Now it looks like it was all planned out that way from the very beginning! And nothing could be further from the truth!

Here’s a closer look at that backing fabric.

Little subtle grey whales! And there is enough of the navy stars for binding! I do so love it when a quilt comes together like this!

It’s Wednesday, so just in case you need a mid-week pick-me-up…

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I give you a little Relly-Belly!!!!

Hard not to smile looking at that!

The days are noticeably shorter, so our outside knitting time has been limited. We’re back to mostly knitting inside again.

Rupert doesn’t care where we are, as long as he gets my lap.

With his help, eight more logs have been added. I’m now on the second skein of the light purple. If I follow the pattern, I have 16 more logs to add. I’m not sure if I’m going to make it quite that long. I’ll decide after I complete the next eight.

At the beginning of October, I have a dentist appointment. It’s in the area we used to live – finding new doctors and dentists is on the to-do list.. it’s just not very high on the to-do list yet.

But instead of getting up super early, and driving two hours the morning of, I’m going to head to Mom’s and stay there for the weekend preceding. Then I can just get up that morning, head to the dentist, get my face drilled off, and then head home, easy peasy.

And of course, while I’m at Mom’s, I can do some quilting!!! I’ve already got two tops there, ready to quilt, but my pinwheel top was so close to being finished, I thought why not get it out of the way too. Especially as I really have to get moving on my Christmas sewing!

So… I got to it.

As I mentioned several posts back, I didn’t quite have room for a design wall, so I’m still using my design bed.

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Apparently Burton was using it too, but I managed to work around him and get it done.

These blocks were an exercise in combining colours for me, and I think it went very well. I was a little stumped on what to use for the sashing, but in the end, the green was really the only thing in the stash that I had enough of, that wasn’t too busy for the blocks (it’s hard to see here, but it has a nice simple cross-hatched print). As soon as I got it on, I knew I wanted something simple, with a white background for the final border.

This big polka dot print was leftover from the back of the parrot quilt, and it couldn’t be more perfect if I tried!

The top finished up at about 60″ square, and I’m hoping I have enough of this fun floral print for the back.

I think it’s going to be close but I’m going to give it a try. And I’ll be using more of that green for the binding. It will be few more weeks until you see this finished, but rest assured, as soon as I get to Mom’s I’m going to be a quilting fiend!

The other day, Dave was off visiting his Grandma (she’s back home from the hospital now), so I went on a little adventure of my own.

As usual… it was Facebook’s fault. It wasn’t Marketplace this time, but a sponsored ad. A lady in a town about 30 minutes north of us has a little backyard plant nursery. This particular ad mentioned pussywillows. You might remember my weeping pussywillow. I had it for a couple of years, but sadly, it died one winter (I kept it in a pot, hoping to one day move with it)

I’d honestly forgotten all about it, until I saw her ad. So I emailed her to see if she had any pussywillows in stock, and perchance a weeping pussywillow.

She emailed back – she didn’t have any weeping ones, but she had one white one left… as well as a few black or pink pussywillows. Black or pink??? I didn’t even know there was such a thing!!!

I told her I would love one of each, and would be there the day after payday.

Three happy healthy willows for just $20? Can you believe it? I seemed to have moved to a gardeners heaven. Come spring, we should see something like these…

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I’m so excited. I’m going to have my own little pussy willow grove!

After picking them up, I went on a little side quest. Back when Dave and I were picking up that mitre saw, we came across a house with a table out front selling the cutest little wooden bird houses for just $5. I really wanted one. But it was self-serve (no people with change) and neither of us had $5 in cash. I told Dave the next time we were headed out that way, I was going to make sure I had $5 on me.

Well, when I looked up where the nursery was, I realized it was no more than a 10-minute drive from that birdhouse table. I raided Dave’s change jar before I left, and made sure I had enough coin on me.

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I got my birdhouse! It looks like the man who makes them is using up scrap/recycled material. The roof is made from vinyl plank flooring! I plan to either paint or stain it to make it a little more weather-proof.

I really love living here – there’s so much to discover!

I know… I know… you’re dying to see more of these guys!!!

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I’m afraid our time with the is almost up. On the 15th, they go for their shots. After that they will start going to their individual homes. Can you believe it?

They are all getting so big. They’ve just about doubled in size since the girls sent me pictures from their visit.

Mom sent me this chart – she’s been keeping track of their progress. Yes, they all have names already, and the colours on the chart match up with their collars…because face it, with few exceptions, they are pretty hard to tell apart. Obviously, they are even bigger than this because now we are two weeks on from those numbers.

They are inside the house at night, but during the day, they are out in the garage in their “playpen”

And of course, they get plenty of supervised time in the yard with the big dogs.

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It’s probably a good thing I’m living so far away. If I’d spent more time with them, I don’t think I’d be able to say goodbye!

Lord Burton rules the catio!

Because the weather has been so nice, a lot of our knitting time has moved to the fresh air.

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Whether on the porch out right out in the catio, we’ve been getting our stitches in!

I caught up on the two missing logs AND completed all eight logs for this week. I’m back on track and feeling good! And with the evenings cooling off, this is a nice bit of wool to have in the lap.

While my garden plants are starting to come back, I am definitely missing my roses. You might not think it, but September is generally a great time for roses. After the heat and the humidity of the summer, they love the warm days, but cool nights of early fall, and they always put on a good show.

But not this year of course. While they all have new leaves, I really don’t expect to see blooms on them this season. Which makes me very sad.

So I might have been especially vulnerable when I went grocery shopping and they had a display of mini-roses out front.

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I’ve never actually had much luck with mini-roses, to be honest. But when I was a teen, the grandmother of my boyfriend at the time had a garden full of them. She told me never leave them in the pot, they do much better planted in the ground. So I’m giving it a try.

As you can see, I chose a nice pale yellow. I adore yellow roses. If this one winters well, there will be more next spring.

I can’t quite explain what made me add this big yellow mum to the cart though…

Other than its absolutely fabulous, and obviously, I LOVE yellow. Like the other mums I bought, these have been planted in the ground.

This is not where they will stay, but its good enough for now. The bushes of green on either side of the gate are also mums – my pair from the townhouse – one white, one burgundy. They are covered in buds and should start opening soon. It’s going to be quite the show then!