Sammy in the Beads

Sammy in My Knitting

This is where there can be real trouble because although he virtually ignores the yarn even when it is moving, he does have a penchant for chewing on knitting needles and since I love bamboo and wooden needles he can wreak real damage.

Introducing My Working Cats

I live with two kitties, Small and Sam. Small is my tiny, 6 pound older cat. I adopted her when I found her apparently homeless and hungry living under the grape arbor in my backyard, about 10 years ago. Sam or Sammy is my huge, about 15 pound bouncy baby, whom I selected with great care, and lots of help, at the humane society.

Initially, I tried to keep the beastly cats out of my work and supplies. Eventually, I gave up as I was constantly doing battle. And aside from spreading their fur almost everywhere they seem to do less damage when I leave them alone than when I try to extricate them.

Sam on the clothes horse, or quilt strip holder

For example every time I tried to remove Sam from his perch up there, I would have fabric all over. Yet, he could somehow get down on his own without dislodging any of the strips. And now that I ignore him, I am pleased to say he has virtually ceased climbing all over the strips.

Small has always been more of a lounge kitty, I think it comes of having a hard life out on the streets all on her own.

Here she is lounging about in the fabrics I was using to test some circular appliqué techniques -- none of which made me as happy as a clam.

Both of them often curl up close to where I am working whether it is on the computer or the sewing machine. Although they sometimes cause trouble I find their presence comforting. It is so nice to look up from whatever I am doing to see a sleeping cat.

More Thoughts on Finishing

Having spent the last week fiddling about it is obvious it is not only my craft projects that I have trouble finishing. I have finally finished painting the exterior windows, a task I tackled over the course of weeks – although what with the scraping, priming and finally painting, who could blame me for the procrastination. I also finally finished fencing in the strawberry patch, because, without going into disgusting details, the cats seemed to have found the nice loose soil irresistible. They have now been foiled.

My other, long term, and still unfinished project, is painting the bathroom. It began as a simple job, painting the new window frame, repairing some of the base board, and touching up the walls and ceiling, but due to a paint mixing mix up, the project became a large and mind boggling. I simply was not prepared to think creatively about changes to the decor. But now, finally, I am almost finished. I fixed the most damaged baseboard by cobbling together a bit of baseboard and a thin piece of wood (the original baseboard is not available locally), and I repaired the fishy shower curtain with some ironable plastic, a hole punch, and new metal eyelets. And I have begun to put stick-on-fish on to the walls, but finishing the big job has still escaped me. I bought some narrow wallpaper to put where two troublesome paint colors meet, but making this final commitment and applying the wallpaper is still beyond me.

I have made some progress finishing my needle point ornaments so I will have a few of them for the sale. I love the sense of progress and success I get from seeing a pile of them all finished in one place at one time.


So with a little luck, in a couple weeks, after this up coming sale I will bite the bullet, apply the wall paper and the rest of the sticky fish, and subsequently reap the rewards of having finished the bathroom.

Finishing: not so much fun

I am in the process of finishing up as many things as I can (small quilts and needlepoint pieces) before a couple of Holiday sales. Why, oh why, do I find the process of finishing and labeling, never mind pricing things so much more time consuming and depressing than the initial stages of planning, designing and investigating the possibilities. Sigh, I guess the question virtually answers itself. Nonetheless, I am sure the first portions of the work do actually take more time than the fiddly bits at the end, but they are ever so much more fun.

Why on earth do I find the process of tagging these pieces so much more complicated than making them? And lets not even talk about photographing them or editing the photographs.

There is always tomorrow, at least for a few more days.