True to my word, I spent the weekend working on the last round of the Round Robin quilt. When last you saw it, I had made my pinwheels, and one square-in-a-square block. So Saturday, while the boys kept watch over the rest of the quilt…

I got to making seven more square-in-a-square block. It’s actually somewhat of a time-consuming block. Especially since I as actually doing square-in-a-square-in-a-square-in-a-square!

But, it was worth the effort.

It’s such a great looking block. And one I was happy to have more practice on. With them done, it was time to put them all together with the pinwheels into the last round

Once it was on, I decided I wanted another small plain border around it all. I can’t wait to get this one quilted so I can photograph it properly. It’s a touch too big to get a decent picture on top of my bed. It really looks so much better in person.

The SSSS aren’t just on the corners, but in the centre of each row as well.

I haven’t decided on binding yet (I’ve got a couple options) but I have this lovely blue piece for the back. I ordered it from Connecting Threads during my January spend-a-thon.

If all goes as planned, I’ll have this one quilted on the weekend, and ready to show next week!

“Not if I have anything to say about it…”

I’m happy to report, everyone’s favourite ginger kitten is now cone free, and has been for a full day without issue. And let me tell you, he’s happy too!

But, before his little day at the vet last week… he had a couple of… incidents…

“Who??? Me???”

Yeah… you.

It started on one of the super warm days we had back at the end of February. I went out to the catio yard to check on the cats (and enjoy a little sun myself) and there was no sign of Lemmy. I called and called, and nothing. And if you know anything about Lemmy, he’s a talker…. ALL the time. He would answer me if I called.

I left the catio and walked around the rest of yard (front and back), shaking a bag of treats and calling him…. still no sign. When I got back to the catio yard, I noticed Rupert was under the bbq, and staring at the bottom of the outside of the sunporch. I moved the bbq to get a closer look… and sure enough there, between the slats was Lemmy staring back at me. A couple of the boards were rotted on the bottom, and it was just enough for the little turkey to squeeze under.

But of course, not enough for me get my hands under and pull him back out. I tried to entice him out with some treats… but he’d found somewhere new to explore and was being stubborn.

So I went to the garage for a pry bar, because if he wasn’t going to come out on his own, there was only one way to get him out.

Thankfully – by the time I got back with the pry bar, he’d come out on his own. No porch demolition was needed. I blocked up the rotted boards with some bricks and thought that was that.

But then, one day, just a couple weeks ago, Dave and I came home from a lunch outing. Lemmy came out to greet us as he normally does. I noticed he was somewhat wet and muddy. It was after one of our bouts of snow, and I thought maybe he’d been wrestling with one of the other cats in the catio yard. The mess wasn’t bad enough to require a bath, so I left him to take care of it himself and went back to my office to work.

When I came down again around 5, I noticed he still looked wet. I picked him up for a closer inspection and realized it wasn’t water in his fur, but some sort of oil. It had almost a motor oil smell, but not quite. Dave and I search the house high and low for anything oily he could have gotten into, and came up empty.

There was no choice but to give him another bath. But the mystery remained**

Then last Sunday morning, I woke up a couple hours after Dave (as normal), and the his first words to me that morning were “I came down, looked out the studio door, and Lemmy was sitting on the steps.”

Those steps are well outside the fence catio yard!!!! Happily, Dave was able to grab Lemmy quickly and easily, and get him back inside. By the time I got up, he’d already inspected the catio fence, located where he thought the little bum wiggled out (a small space between the house and a downspout, where I was unable to secure the fence – only a few inches wide.) He blocked it up, and we thought that was that!

And we were wrong!!!!

Tuesday morning, I was working away in my office, Dave was in his music studio downstairs, when all of a sudden he yelled up to me…

“Lemmy is out of the catio again!!! He’s stalking a squirrel!”

I ran downstairs, got my boots on, and located the furry jerkface at the fence between the front and back yards. Having been through this with Dave only two days before, he was wise to the game and didn’t want to let me catch him. Eventually, I got him cornered, got him inside, and locked up access to the catio for all cats until I could figure out how he got out!!!

Happily there was snow on the ground, so I just had to follow the foot prints.

The catio fence is mostly a large-grid plastic mesh, with the bottom two-feet overlapped with a more rigid metal grid fencing on the bottom two feet. The company that sells it calls is a “chew guard”. And it’s like that all the way around… with the exception of the catio gate. The gate is an open metal frame covered in the plastic mesh. It’s perfectly secure…. unless that plastic mesh is broken in a couple spots…. which it was!

Now I don’t know if Lemmy actually chewed it, or it broke on its own, or some other reason (an outside animal chewing on it?)…. but whatever the reason, I had to fix it.

Happily, I still have lots of both kinds of fencing. I got the side cutters and cut a piece of the chew guard fencing that would cover the bottom of the gate. A few zip ties secured it, and the catio was open for business again.

You can kind of see where it overlaps the plastic mesh. Lemmy certainly can, and he’s not too thrilled about losing his access to the wider world. Hopefully that’s the last of his escape attempts.

“Don’t look at me. I didn’t bring him home”

** We still haven’t located anything in the house/catio that could have contributed to his oily state. My best guess is that it was his first escape, and he maybe got under Dave’s car, before coming back into the catio before we got home.

Mother Nature is a cruel, cruel mistress.

She gives me sun and warmth… followed by a dumping of snow. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

They say there’s some nonsense about a Polar Vortex and El Nino that means we can expect several more snow dumpings all the way in April.

No early spring for me.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not preparing…

These bulbs came home with me the other day. We had 30 minutes to kill waiting for our Chinese Food order, and Dave suggested we stop in to Peavymart (farm supply/hardware store). My lilly show wasn’t great last year thanks to Asian Lily Beetles, but I’ve got a plan to stay on top of them. It’s going to be lily-mania this year!

This beautiful fairy came from the same store, a few weeks prior. I’d seen her online elsewhere for a ridiculous price, so I was pleasantly surprised to find her for a much more reasonable price in store.

And then I found two more in a similar style on Amazon! There are a couple more in the line, and I’d love to have them all… but we’ll have to see. I can’t go too crazy (though it may already be too late.)

I found this sweet, rustic bird house at a different farm-supply store last week. It was in one of the little towns not too far from us, and we stopped in to get some sidewalk salt on the way home from appointments. If I have to buy winter supplies still, I’m going to console myself with spring decorations!

I’ve wanted an oriole feeder for AGES!!!! And now I finally have one. I bought this back in January, because every year I think about getting one, and then I forget and the oriole migration period is almost over.

But this year I’m prepared! I already have some grape jelly, and I’m going to pick up oranges next week. With any luck, I’ll have oriole pictures for you before April is out!

And these toadstools… are literally stools!!!!! These I found at Canadian Tire when Dave wanted to go get some car stuff. They will go in the woodland garden (when the fence is moved, and it’s all planted up), and provide a nice little place to stop and rest for a while.

Now… I just need Mother Nature to get her sh!t together!!!!!

Lemmy thanks you for your well-wishes for his little… operation.

Everything went well and he was home by afternoon. But, he’s not happy with me…

Not only does he have to get horrible tasting meds for four days. He HAS to wear the cone of shame!!!!! I tried letting him go coneless, but he would NOT STOP LICKING!!!! So cone it is

It also means I had to change my weekend plans. I was already a little worried about Dave’s ability to give Lemmy the meds while I was gone. But Wednesday night, I went outside to take out the garbage, and came back into Lemmy with the cone half off, and stuck in his mouth, and both Dave and Lemmy having a meltdown.

I figured it was just easier to stay home. I’ll try to get to Mom’s next weekend. By then, the meds will be done, and Lemmy will be healed up enough to go coneless.

At least I’ll get some good sewing time in this weekend!

This time last week, we got another walloping of snow. And they say March is going to have at least a couple more storms like it under her belt.

So as much as I want to get out in my garden, it’s just not going to happen. I have to be content with my indoor flowers.

I have several African violets, but I bought this one not long after Christmas because it was a colour I didn’t have. It has NOT stopped blooming since! I don’t think I’ve ever had one bloom this long. All my others are taking a rest now, but they will probably start blooming as soon as they move out into the catio.

I bought this Anthurium before Christmas. It was a clearance plant and in really rough shape. It’s looking wonderful now and has one big, bold bloom. Anthuriums always intrigue me – that flower just looks so fake! I have a white one and a pink one (both are resting now too) so this red completes my collection

I bought this beautiful Heather plant at the grocery store when I got the African violet. I plan to put it in the garden as soon as it’s warm enough outside. I’ve tried twice to grow Heather (at the townhouse), and both times it died off. I think the soil was too heavy there so I’m hoping the magic soil here will be the difference

As you can see, it’s already sprouting new little leaves, and it’s still in the pot! I think this one is going to be a winner!

And my Hairy Rhipsalis has been blooming on and off since I last showed you. I absolutely adore these little flowers.

I’ve got two orchids with buds. But they are taking forever to actually bloom! The one on the left looks like it’s going to pop any day now though.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed one of the small succulents in my studio was sending up a tall bloom spike. It grew, and grew and grew… and now has these neat long, bell shaped flowers.

It’s a type of aloe, though I’m not 100% on which one (I think Aloe Albifloa). You would not believe how many types of Aloe there are out there!!! Regardless, I didn’t know that ANY of them flowered. So this was a nice surprise!

And though I won’t see tulips in my garden for at least another month, I can still bring them home from the grocery store to enjoy!

We’re asking for your well-wishes and happy thoughts today, it’s finally time

Today is the day!

Wee Lemmy Purrmister loses his naughty bits!!!

“Say what now????”

Despite the adventures during the day, weekend evenings were reserved for stitching with friends…

And as a result, I almost finished the word “Fresh”

I also got smart, trimmed up the four separate pieces of the pattern and taped them together. It’s much easier to follow now.

Since I’m headed to Mom’s this coming weekend, you probably won’t see much on it for a couple weeks. But there will be several finished quilts to admire in the mean time!

… almost.

The last two round prompts for the quilt along have been revealled and like all previous rounds, I decided to combine them

My plan was to get it all done by the end of the weekend. But it’s something that would require at least two days of sewing. And of course, Dave changed my plans for Saturday, so that left me only Sunday to sew.

One of the prompts was pinwheels, and since that was the easiest for me, I tackled them first. I needed 16 to do the design I had in mind. With the fabrics I had left, I decided to do two different versions.

There are many different style of pinwheels, but I think this one is my favourite. Especially when you have contrasting fabrics that really pop with each other.

Next up was square-in-a-square. This one gave me a chance to use a ruler Mom gave me for Christmas. It’s designed to help you make perfect square in a square.

I had to improvise a little because not only was I making square, in a square, in a square, in a square… but the ruler only goes up to 6 inches, and my blocks are 8 inches.

But I managed one. I still need seven more, but I ran out of time. The rest of the blocks, and then border assembly will have to wait for another day.

And that day may be a while… as I’m planning to head off to Mom’s this weekend, and I probably won’t get much of a chance to sew before then.

“You’re going where?!?!?!?”

We were off on another quest yesterday.

Dave wanted me to drive him to Woodstock to meet with a guy and get some old bumpers for the Charger. I told him if he’s making me drive to Woodstock (just over an hour away), we were going to hit up that big antique market again

I didn’t really have anything on my “have to have” list. I’m keeping my eye out for some Merry Mushroom canisters… but they are very popular and tough to find this side of the border. (American have these in almost every household it seems, if one of my Facebook groups is to be believed!).

But the place is huge, you never know what you’re going to find. And with three levels, it’s a good afternoon of exercise.

I ended up coming home with a potato bin…

I’ve got to do something about that “Tatters”. It should be “Taters”. Or even “tatties” as Dave’s grandma would have said it (pronounced “totties” in her thick Scottish brogue)

I found these two diecast piggy banks for Dad. I’ll put them away for Father’s Day.

And I found this wee little spinning wheel for Mom. I was hoping they’d have a sewing machine too, but no such luck!

And that was it for the antique market.

But around the corner at Lens (Of course I made him go to Lens too!!)

I found some big damn ants!!! I think these guys are going to look great in the garden!!

And last – this little reversible plushie… one side happy, one side grumpy

Or as I said to Dave… one side Lemmy! One side Rupert!

My comic book boards arrived, so I carved out an afternoon to pull all the yardage out of the drawers, and start wrapping.

For those that aren’t familiar, comic book boards are small, light pieces of cardboard, the stores and collectors place in behind their books to help keep them stiff for display and storage.

But quilters and crafters have caught on, and use them for storing fabric!

I ordered a stack of 200 and they came with a pile of little plastic clips to help keep the fabric secure. It’s a pretty simple process.

Lay your fabric out flat and place the board at the bottom:

fold in both sides

Then wrap the fabric until there’s no more to wrap and secure with the clip. (If you don’t have clips, bobby pins would work too)

The result is a nice, neat, stiff piece of fabric that’s perfect for organization and storage. What I like too is you can keep any scrap pieces wrapped up secure with them too, simply by tucking them in behind the cardboard before wrapping.

With the first one done, I set about doing the rest. It took much longer than I expected… alllllll afternoon AND most of the evening, with only a short break to grab a quick dinner.

It was a such a long project that all four of the snoopervisors took it in shifts.

But eventually, it was all wrapped and the only thing left to do was get it all in the file cupboard.

I am absolutely THRILLED with how it turned out, with the exception of one thing…

Notice how the bottom row looks a bit… squished??? Well it turns out that the bottom row is about 3/8″ shorter than the top row!!! Why??? I have no idea. So the cardboards are just a touch too tall. I got them all in… but…

Mom had a good idea… they boards can all be cut a little shorter… but that means unwrapping and re-wrapping all those bottom ones. So instead… I will trim the boards down as I use them.

And with all that fabric up here, I can not only see and use my yardage more easily, it freed up three of the drawers for other things. I ended up filling them full of backing yardage that was just piled up beside the dressers. It’s not all my backing yardage, as there’s still some in a bin, and a little on top of the bin. But I don’t have piles that fall over all over the place if you breath on them wrong!

Burton thinks it’s a job well done! And so do I!