Wonderful Woodland Quilt (aka the Canada Quilt) Progress

A year ago or so I bought the Wonderful Woodland BOM but had not had time to work on it.

I cut it out and have been taking it to me every time I travel.  

I thought that it would be a good one to work on while we wait for baby. 

 The first block is the moose with the Canadian leaves on it.  

Back story, my hubby goes FAR into northern Canada ( about 150 miles N of Soo Sault Marie, MI) to a cabin owned by his uncle. 

 It is very remote.  No electricity, running water or indoor plumbing.  

They have to take everything in and out when they go.

  They load everything into a boat, go across a lake, portage into the next lake and then motor across the lake to the cabin!!  I've gone there one time and that was plenty. 

 It is beautiful but I would rather stay home and sew!

He LOVES it up there so much.  He can fish and fish and fish! 

 So I decided that he needs a quilt for Canada.  

When I saw the Wonderful Woodland BOM I knew this would be the right quilt for him!  

I bought all the fabric and as I said, recently cut it all out.  

Yesterday and today I sewed on the Moose block. 

 I think I un-sewed almost as much as I sewed!  

Of COURSE I chose a directional background, 

so that made things even more challenging when I cut it out.

I got this far yesterday:

Of course I had loads of help <insert eye roll here>

Today I had a lot of sewing time!  I managed to get the whole block finished!!

Of course as soon as I put it on the table for a picture, my helper appeared!

At least you can see how BIG the block is with Finn in the photo.

Cole is doing better, thank you to all who have donated to his go fund me page. 

 I have his blood work scheduled on the 22 here in Chapel Hill.  

Thankfully I was able to find a vet that would work with us!  

I will likely have to order another  $1000 of medicine before we leave too.  GULP! 

 He takes the shots so well. 

 I am really proud of him (and his human, needle phobic helper).  

Please share the link for his page if you can or donate if you are able and want to.

No baby yet, but we are hopeful he will be here soon!  Stay tuned!

~XOP~

Sewing In The Camper

 As promised I took some pictures of my sewing space today, or rather I had Chris take some pictures.

We took the kitchen table and put it in the living room.  I use that as a cutting table and a pressing station.  I brought my wool mat and teeny iron and it works great as both!  Then Chris set up my sewing table where the kitchen table used to be and that's where I put my machine.  I use a Gidget table.  It works really well with my Bernina 170, which I am traveling with right now. 

Finn likes to jump from my sewing table to the sink island.

Cole just likes to lay next to my machine while I sew.

I have to keep moving these 2 knuckleheads to fight for my sewing space!

I got up to press something and when I cam back they were in my spot! 

 I either have to move them or quit for the time being.  I think this time I just stopped.

This is the way things ended up.  My pressing and cutting station under the supervision of Cole.

This was me sewing the last border for my Christmas Bear quilt top. 

 I finished the top today too.

It felt like a real retreat where I was racing to complete at least one thing for the week!

I thought that hanging it over the railing would make it easier to get a picture. 

 It is quite large for me to hold up on my own.

  I am just not tall enough.

~XOP~

Sewing With Cats (or in this case with Finn)

I was working on my MSU quilt for the camper this weekend.  Or trying to anyway.  

Finn decided that he wanted to be right next to me to "help".

I am making 9 patch blocks and then will applique a Spartan head

(It's really big, thanks to Carol D. for her pattern). 

 I am so close to having the patchwork sewn together.  It was tough with all my help. 

(That paw though).

I usually encourage the cats to lay on the rag quilt you see in the background.  

Finn was having NONE of that.  This is where he started out.

Then the bath took place and he stretched his paw, 

which you see I have actually pushed back at this point.

"This green is my favorite"

"Let me just roll around here and help you".

This concludes my weekend of "Sewing with Cats".

Next up actually getting something done!

(LOL)

~XOP~

Sewing With Cats

Before I talk about sewing with my cats I wanted to let you all know why 

I have not been responding to comments.  

I am reading them all but blogger is not sending me the comments. 

 I am working on resolving the issue but apparently I am not the only one experiencing this.  

I'm not sure why they changed this but it has been a pain.  I

 have tried all the suggested "fixes" but they have not fixed my issues, 

so just know that I am reading then and working on trying to fix this.

OK, on to sewing with cats.  

Over the weekend I was working on the pieces I wanted to make for the traveling quilt center.  

I have Paula's and her theme is "garden".  

I'll talk about that in another post.  

All of the pieces I wanted to make are paper pieced, 

so that requires a lot of concentration on my part.  

Cats on my sewing table, especially butted right up against my machine are not super helpful!

Cole usually behaves (when he isn't knocking things off the table) and lays on the "cat quilt". 

 I put this rag quilt on the table for Autumn and she would go and lay on it.  

Cole usually does the same.

Finny on the other hand can be seen helpfully holding down the flower I was trying to work on.  

Yes, Finny, we see you little catitude peeking through.

Then it begins.  Finn decides he wants to be by both me and Cole at the same time. 

 So he goes between Cole and my sewing machine.

After that the bathing/wrestling begins.

Finally everyone settles in.

Of course with Finn, it's in the most unhelpful position ever.  Can you see where my presser foot is?

You can see here that as I was feeding paper and fabric through my machine, 

it was hitting a "cat wall".  

Everything came out with cat hair on it.  Luckily it is easy enough to remove.

I think he got tired of me pushing him and he moved to another part of my sewing table.  

Of course right on the fabric I needed to make my fairy!

If you have a moment you may want to watch this video that shows 

my sewing situation of the weekend.  

I did manage to get a few pieces sewn.  

When hubby is home it's easier as Finn is usually with him wherever he is in the house.

How was your weekend?

Did you get any sewing done?

I have tons of yard work I really should be doing but, too much to sew!

~XOP~