Friday, July 28, 2006

Cats Who Quilt



I don't know how folks who do not have cats are able to get any quilting done, really I don't! This morning I set aside a couple of hours to work on the handstitching of the binding down on Libertyville. I got about a half a side done when Natasha decided I needed her supervision. Couldn't possibly get it right without her intervention. A few weeks ago I captured this photo op of Rocky closely inspecting some fabrics I had pulled out of the stash--he is quite particular about which fabrics I use together!!! I am really anxious to get Libertyville into the Done Done pile as it is taking up room that could be used for more projects LOL. Yesterday I had mentioned my guild's Sewing Bee was starting a group of stash-busting projects. The first one is from the book Fat Quarter Five by Peterson. I still need to find the book (hmmm...a trip to a quilt shop this afternoon?). Our first one is called 4 Patch Flip and can be made scrappy or coordinated. While it calls for 17 FQs, most of the gals were cutting the strips across the width of their fabric yardages to make for faster strip piecing. I'll show a photo as soon as I can locate the book. It had some other quicky, scrappy, cute quilts. KC is hovering around 90 degrees right now. DH and I always like to eat a late lunch out on Fridays. He still works (has a small business) but tries to stop early on Friday. I am craving a Southwestern Wrap from a local restaurant called Houlihans. I really wish I could break the Blogger code of where photos are going to land!!! They preview one way and publish another way. Aaargh.

14 comments:

Linda C said...

Oh I love your kitty helpers---Rocky DOES look a lot like my Pippi except she has a lot of orange and buff on her. Natasha, more like the neighborhood prowler kitty.

Re: the pics. I use Picassa which makes it a little easier, Vera because they as least load in the order you want from the hold tray. PLUS and this is a big one, they load far more reliably than the blogger link. As far as rearranging them to where you want-you can drag and drop the images to a degree. Drag Rocky's down and Natasha's up? From your dashboard page, edit post. BUT one the edit HTML page, I have found that if it says Float in the url you can over ride that and type center or right. If the text is too close to the image you might have to justify it to the left hand margin again.

I am probably not explaining this all correctly---maybe if I show you what my recent edit tab looked like for my post today? This is what I normally do on my posts and I have been having better luck with the images land.

Darlene said...

OH, it's so nice to see you posting again. I've missed you! :-) It's amazing how the cats love to help! We don't have any pets at this time in our lives but at one time had two very active cats.

Unknown said...

Gorgeous Cats - we'd love one but sadly that sort of decision has to be unanimous in a house and currently we have a 4-1 split ith Daddy being the one and I wouldn't go against that authority in front of the kids on such a permanent decision - I know he's part right - they are a tie and can be expensive - maybe I don't want one quite enough to nag him into it - love admiring everyone elses though - yours are gorgeous Don't think there is a real solution to the photos issue - I'm sure its just Blogger playing games with us all

Quilts And Pieces said...

It is hot and humid here in Chicagoland also - I hate it!

I see you have a lot of help. I'm getting a lot of help from Chloe now also! She sits on my feet and keeps me from sewing too fast! :)

Oh having your libertyville quilt done, done, done will be sooo nice!

Nancy said...

You know I have that same kind of "help" all the time. They especially like to help hold down fabric stacks. The sharper contrast with the color of their fur is usually their prefered stack. And them Sam is my number one quality control tester for finished quilts. As soon as I lay one out to admire he's curled right up on top of it giving it the nap test.

The Calico Cat said...

I have two kitty helpers too... My boy really likes to sit on the quilt whne it is on the floor when I am trying to sew on a border!

Pink and Barbara said...

Thank you for sharing..that is exactly what my cat does. My kitty has the same colours too!

Paula, the quilter said...

Re: pics. I usually upload them using blogger and let them land where they may. From the my DASHBOARD I edit the html.

Sidenote: A photo's code in blogger looks something like this: [a onbxxx="try.... and ends with [/a (I have left off a lot of the code and changed the openings because I don't want blogger to read it and think that something is missing and really get confused.)

Anyway. Back to the photo code. No matter where I put my cursor in COMPOSE MODE the photo always ends up at the beginning. So. Highlight the photo code in EDIT HTML mode and use the keyboard shortcut CNTL X (cut) to cut the code. Place your cursor in the text where you want the photo to be and press CNTL V (paste).

After 28 years in the high tech industry, I did learn something! HTH. /paula

Judy said...

Yes, whenever you lay anything down they always end up on TOP of it! They do like to "help" quite a lot.

Vera, I move around my pics in my post by clicking on the pic until it has the little black box around it. Then I put the mouse on it and hold down the left button and drag it right to where I want it to go. If you have to move it farther down than you can see, you just keep moving a bit at a time. Move the pic down, then move the screen down, pic, then screen. Like Linda, I can show you some screen captures (pictures) of what happens during the movements if you need help.

just jenn said...

I have my own little canine helper. He is a chihuahua and loves to lay in my quilts and fabric as I am working on them.

Mary Johnson said...

I'm always looking for books with scrappy patterns - share a picture when you find the book please.

Jeanne said...

Meeooowww -- such cuties!

Looking forward to more about the 4-p Flip!

Jeanne :)

ForestJane said...

I just cut paste the entire photo info that blogger puts in your message where I want it. :o)

So I upload the pix first, then start writing text below the pix info, then cut and paste the pic where I want it to be in the text.

Maureen and P.D. the Pet Dog said...

Love your cats! Snuggly! I edit my blog/photos the way Paula describes, I find it easy to do it that way.