When I told you Dave’s grandma was home from the hospital, I was actually misinformed. They were running some more tests and discovered she has a couple leaky heart valves. It’s a situation that can be managed mostly with a better diet, but she had some pretty serious swelling in her legs. The doctors want to get the swelling down before they send her home.

We’ve been back to visit with her several times, and as a result…

The Laguna man socks are really moving along. I had a part ball of turquoise Alley Cat hanging around, and it matched pretty well, so I through it in for the heel. I’ll use it for the toes as well, when I get there. Which shouldn’t be too much longer!

Here we are, the beginning of February. I really should be focusing on Jenn’s birthday quilt, but I finally got those 10″ squares cut for the other birthday quilt… and though I don’t have to have that one finished until June, I couldn’t resist getting a start on it and making the first stars.

As I showed you before, I gathered five piles of nine 10″ squares. Each pile makes two blocks using nothing but HSTs. Now you know, I love HSTs – they are easy to make and sooo versatile. But by oh boy, do I hate trimming them to size. And it’s something you absolutely have to do, or your quilt turns out all wonky.

Now as I said, there’s nine 10″ squares, and each square (when paired with a plain white square), gives you eight HSTs…. are you doing the math…?

That’s 72 blocks that need to be trimmed square. SEVENTY-TWO!!! Ugh… but I sucked it up and got down to it.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally had them all done.

Perfect and square and ready to be sewn together! That didn’t take long at all. Certainly not as long as all that ironing and trimming.

And not long after that, there were two.

They are the exact same fabrics, just mixed up so it looks like a different block. Now according to the tutorial, they should have sashing between them. But I’m kind of liking the secondary patterns that are emerging with no sashing….

It’s looks like I’ll have a decision to make when they are all done (only seven more blocks… or 252 more HSTs to go….)

Relic says… “I have a birthday this year… do I get a quilt?”

I have been working on the poncho… and here’s the proof…

I’ve got it folded over on it’s self to get an idea of how much further I have to go… and as you can see… I’m getting there!

I don’t know how it’s been in your little corner of the world, but we are having one heck of a weird winter. Not only has the temperature been all over the place, we’ve barely had any snow.

It’s not unusual for us not to get much snow in November and December, but come January, we usually get a good dumping or two, and then the temps drop (hello polar vortex) and it sticks around until March.

But not this year. Oh we’ve had a couple decent storms, though they haven’t amounted to more than a five or so inches. And the snow rarely sticks around for longer than three or four days. And we’ve yet to see temps below minus 20 celcius, which is SUPER weird for this area. It’s not that I really want crazy cold days where you go outside and your nostrils stick together because it’s so cold… but it is what I’m used to at this time of year.

Most of our days have been just above or just below freezing. And what we have had a lot of is rain. I’m starting to feel like I’m living in Vancouver (without the cool Pacific views).  I’ve given up trying to keep the floors clean, because if Dave isn’t tracking in wet filth from the garage, Relic is tracking in mud from the backyard.

Anyway, the other day when I was taking picture of the Hamilton socks, I decided Burton could use a little fresh air. So I popped him in his harness and we joined Relic in the yard.

As you can imagine, he was thrilled to have his paws in the garden again. While he got a good sniff of everything, Relic and I checked on all of the flower beds.

Everything is looking pretty good – the roses and raspberries are nice and supple, and there’s a fair bit of green already showing around most of the other perennials (normal whenever we have a warm up – the next frost will kill it off, but it shows the roots are happy).

A few of the bulbs are starting to show signs of life, including this hyacinth, which looks like it’s multiplying nicely. I hope to have a good show of tulips and daffodils this year too, though I’m trying not to get too excited yet. The mild January probably just means we are going to have a rough February and March.

The winter has been so mild, that I had to move the bird feeder to the patio table. The hook it was hanging from just keeps leaning over because the ground is far too soft.

So of course, Mr Squirrel and friends have made a complete mess!!! They aren’t getting any more until they clean all of that up!

And one weird thing I discovered…. remember those cute little stepping stones I got at the dollar store…

I have no idea what they were made of (they felt like a cross between plaster and stone) but this is what they look like after a few months of winter…. WTF???? It’s going to be a fun clean up come spring. Note to self: Go to Home Depot for stepping stones come spring.

What’s winter been like where you are?

 

I would like to used this Friday Felines post to share some cat-related goings on:

Cat-thing the first:

17.25 years ago, when Dave and I first started dating, he assured me he was a cat person. And indeed, he had a cat – our dear departed Mopar.

But what he neglected to stress was that he meant it the singular sense… as in only having one cat at at time. Who does that?

Naturally, over time, I’ve brought him over (or worn him down) to the plural side (which was cemented the day he let Relic in the house when we already had three feline beasties under our roof.)

Now he’s a full-fledged cat Dad, with the mug to prove it!

Thanks Samantha and family!

Cat-thing the second:

A couple weeks ago, Dave and I were searching the house for the source of a weird smell (turns out it was something he was refinishing off-gassing a little). While searching, I came across a milk crate filled with.. well mostly a bunch of crap… little knickknacks and dooddads I’d collected as a child. Most of it got tossed, but one of the things in the crate was a definite keeper.

I made this clock in shop class in Grade 7 (approx 1991). While most of the kids in the class made a plain octagon/hexagon and stained theirs, I of course, had to go a different route. The teacher didn’t have any paint, so I brought it home. Dad dug through the garage and came up with several colours of Tremclad rust paint for me and I got to work, and well… those are the results!

Anyway, I pulled it out of the milk carton, popped in a battery and set it to the right time .And it still works!! He’s now hanging on the wall of my studio… keeping me on time with my work and stitching!

Cat thing the third:

No Friday Feline post would be complete with out an actual feline. So here’s Burton, doing what Burton does best

Being fluffy and cute!

Okay… so  I said I had to get back to the poncho, and I have… but I also needed a travel project on the needles.

When I visit Sam and family in the middle of the month, her husband remarked that the socks I had made him many, many moons ago (way back in 2016), had finally developed a hole.

I guess it’s time for a new pair.

Since spring is still ages away (as you can see by the hens and chicks in my poor little bird cage), I went with something bright and cheery to keep me excited. It’s a skein of Barn Cat in in “Laguna” – a wild swirl of aqua and green with pops of bright Mediterranean blue.

Nothing fancy in pattern – just a simple 3-1 rib. His birthday is at the end of March, so I’m hoping I can finish them before then. But…. poncho MUST come first! I want that bad boy off the needles by the end of February at the latest!

Now is the time of year when I really start longing for my gardens. The seed/bulb catalogues are arriving, but there’s nothing outside but cold and grey.

Since I’m trying to keep to my strict budget, I can’t buy anything new for the yard (not that there’s room…)

That means I’ve got nothing but my  crafts to get me through the rest of winter.

All the remaining pieces for the Spring Blossom quilt are cut and just waiting assembly. What better time than now to make things bloom?

So I did! I made three more blocks to go with the three already complete. There’s just six more to go, and this garden will be in full bloom!

 

Well of course, you all knew it would happen, but it always surprises and delights me a little…

… when I finish a deadline project with time to spare! Yep. Dave’s Valentine socks are done and dusted. They’ll stay on the blockers until a day or two before V-day, when I’ll wrap them up with some jujubes and jelly beans (Dave’s not a chocolate guy.)

And I am so pleased with the guy version of my Hamilton pattern. Mine are short and spunky, but done full length with a little more width, they have a stylish, classic look.

Mom cranks Dave socks for every birthday and Christmas, so he has lots of crazy striped and variegated pairs. It’s nice because it means I get to make some more solid, but patterned ones for him – leaving the vanillas to mom and her sock machine. One of these days I’m going to have to count his pairs… I bet he has more than me.

Anyway… with these off the needles, it’s time to get back to that gosh darn poncho…

Nothing cheers up a dreary January more than a bright quilt!

And even more so if it’s got lions (and zebras, hippos, giraffes, and gators).

This is such a simple pattern, but it has such a great result. And there’s so many options with it. It could be completely scrappy, or done in just two fabrics. Or, somewhere in between, like I’ve done.

And as I mentioned in my previous post, the clearance bin yielded up the cutest piece of flannel for the back.

Now if only I could sew my way to a real Kenyan safari…

I don’t know if I told you, but when Mom and Dad adopted Chevy, they did it knowing he’d most likely need to have an operation.

There was a partially torn ligament or something in his knee. His previous owner had been managing it with medications for a while, but it wasn’t getting any better. When Mom took him to the vet not long after bringing him home, and they confirmed it – surgery was the only option.

He went in on Monday morning. Everything went swimmingly, and he was home in the late afternoon. I saw him on Wednesday when I was up helping Mom with her computer.

Isn’t he just the biggest sad sack of a dog?

Just look at that poor face.

But don’t worry, he’s doing well. He’s putting weight on it, and he got up on that couch himself. But they do have to keep him calm and steady for at least 10 weeks – absolutely no running or horsing around with Jem.

They got an extra big crate so they can confine him when they aren’t home to keep an eye on him.

Though it looks like he might have to fight Winnie for it.