Cushions and the Cat

 

A few weeks ago I showed a piece of 1950s curtain fabric, which I has bought from Penny Baker Vintage in Tavistock market to make some cushions. Finally the cushions are made, and these are just two of the four cushions. I love them. Although genuine old fabric, I don't think that they were ever hung as curtains, as there was no fading on it at all.

 

The backs were made from some linen material bought from Soft Touch Needlecraft. I liked this colour, and wanted to make as many cushions as I could from the 1950s fabric.

 

But although I had intended these cushions to be for the kitchen, I haven't quite brought myself to put them out yet. Mainly because of my cat, who is a little old lady now. Despite having two lovely soft baskets, she likes to hang out in the kitchen, and will sit on anything soft. I keep finding her having made herself all comfy on the oven glove. And although I think she is fairly healthy, and still brings us home the gift of the odd mouse, she is occasionally sick. Although I am not overly house proud, I just can't bear the thought of the cushions having to go through the wash straight away. So for the moment they are still by the sewing machine. But last winter there was a point when she decided to spend most of her time in the airing cupboard. So that may be when the cushions come out. Am I turning into the sort of person who keeps plastic covers on their sofa? Possibly.

 

 

 

 

Having A Snooze

Found my little old lady cat having a nap on the wool for my next project.

Pet Portraits

I don't usually post my daughter's drawing. She is doing GCSE Art, so there is quite a lot of drawing and painting going on. But these ones are a bit personal, as she did them for the family. They are charcoal drawings of our pets. The first one was done about a year ago, and has been up on the wall, so I have been pestering for a picture of the cats to go along side it. I was really pleased when she did one of the cats last week. Although they are mother and daughter, they don't like each other very much, so it would be very unusual to get them sitting this close. I do think she has captured their characters - particular Noodle, who is often a bit of a grump.

Just a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for June is now running. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

Chilling in the Garden

This is my grumpy old-lady cat enjoying the back garden. Even though she was loving the sun, you can tell by the look in her eye that I was really annoying her just by being there. Please appreciate I had to lie on my stomach to get these shots! Perhaps it may be time to get out the lawnmower,

Wedding Photography

   
I made these little wedding dolls for my niece, and her now husband. I was going to scrap these photos, but then I decided I quite like how the dolls look a bit scared of the looming cat. 

Having removed the cat, reassured the bride and groom, here are the official photos. It must be my imagination, but they definitely look happier.
 

House Guests

Since just before Christmas we have had two house guests. Here they are: Sugar and Dave. They are mother and son, and have been staying with us as my sister has been moving house. They will be off to their new home soon, and we will miss them.

Sugar has been queen of the house. She is a lap cat and has a very soft, thick coat, and is the main reason we have been covered in cat hairs for the last few months. Aren't her eyes pretty.
 

I put this picture on my facebook page, which is her transfixed by birds on the telly. Whenever a wildlife programme comes on she is glued to the screen. Did you know you can find short films of birds on Youtube, for if your cat just can't get enough on regular TV? This is Sugar at the computer. She even got excited when we were watching the animated film Rio.
 

Despite her obsession Sugar has not yet caught any wildlife, partly I think because she is so visable, and also because she makes a funny noise in her throat due to excitement whenever she sees a bird, so they realize she is there.
 

Dave, who is the most lovely natured cat, doesn't have this problem, and frequently brings us little presents in from the garden!

Up The Apple Tree

One of my cats, Flash, was spying on me from up the apple tree.

It took me several attempts to get a shot that was focused on her and not the numerous branches.

Little Brown Bird

I so admire some of the wildlife photos that are posted, and it is a bit of a joke in my family that I don't have the patience or zoom to get any decent shots of wildlife.

So this morning when hubby woke me up saying that Noodle, one of our cats, had brought in a baby bird, I thought I had better grab my camera. He had managed to get the bird out of her jaws, and put it in a little box in the bottom of our lizard tank (lizard has recently deceased). So I was expecting I would probably come down to a dead bird, but was delighted that he seemed to have recovered, didn't look injured, and was a bit indignant about being in a lizard tank.

So a few hasty shots (I know they are still not good), but I wanted to get him out the tank before he injured himself against the glass. But how to get him out? I decided to open up our patio doors, and then open up the tank, and hope he would flutter out himself. He did flutter out the tank, but unfortunately I didn't actually see him fly out of the doors. I have spent the last hour searching every corner of the living room, and am pretty sure he has gone, but it would be nice to have seen him fly out .... Noodle has been banished to the kitchen in disgrace!

LITTLE BROWN BIRD UPDATE!

So several hours later, when I had totally given up hunting for the little brown bird, and let Noodle back into the living room, she suddenly bristled all over and went into hunter mode. I whisked her out the room again, and there in the tiniest of corners behind some DVDs was the little brown bird. This time I was determined to get him out to the garden, so scooped him up in a towel.

He hopped off from the towel, and has taken cover under a bush. I am still a bit worried, as I would have liked to see him fly off, but I guess he might still be in shook, and at least out of the house he stands more chance of recovery. Noodle is once again locked in the kitchen. Will update if I have more news of the birdie!

SATURDAY UPDATE

Searched round the garden and no sign of little brown today, which I hope means he has gone on his way. Little One has decided to call him Simon. I just thought I would add a photo of the shame faced cat.

Leafy Cowl

Just a short post. We've had visitors, so I've been a bit preoccupied. This is the adult version of my leafy cowl. I thought I would try some autumnal colours, even though we are still hoping for Spring here. The pattern will go on ravelry, but I need to take some photos on a model first. I had my friend's daughter Hattie lined up for this weekend, but when I went round she was laid up with a cold, so we had to postpone our photo shoot.. 

In the background is Noodle, my very, very needy cat. If there is a lap available then Noodle will almost immediately find it. She does not discriminate in any way.

A Very Very Big Bag

I've been trying to limit the knitting, and do a bit of sewing. As well as my pile of wool, I also have an enormous stash of material, which really needs to be made into something.

My sister gave me (at my request) this book of bag patterns:

At the back is a wallet containing all the patterns. So I thought I would have a first go with what looked like one of the simpler bags: the Reversible Shopper. 

And here is the final product.

The material was a lovely Liberty print, which I bought years ago thinking I might make cushions from it.  I would say that the hardest part seemed to be the cutting out - being reversible there really were a lot of pieces, and they all needed interfacing. I have a little stock of interfacing, but that all got very quickly used up, and I had to go and buy some more. After this the actual sewing of the bag was a bit of breeze.  I did make the mistake of putting both my pockets on the outside, when in fact one is made to be on the inside, so the bag is truly reversible. 

My only problem is I'm not quite sure what to do with my bag now. It really seems too nice to use as a grocery shopping bag. 

I had envisaged keeping my current knitting projects in it. At the moment I keep my knitting in a rather scruffy paper bag. But as all my projects are quite small I think they would be a bit lost in this big bag. It is really really big.

I may have a go making a scaled down version of this for a knitting bag. I am toying with the idea of keeping my stash of wool in it, but at present I have my wool in shallow baskets, which I really like, as it is really easy to find a particular ball without rummaging and unwinding them ...... 

But I guess you could keep anything (or anyone) in a really big bag like this.

I may post some more of my attempts to make bags  .... 

Also "hi" to everyone at Handmade Harbour's Handmade Monday. Have to say you are one of the friendliest link groups I have come across.

Fair Isle Mice

At last I am reconnected. It has been so frustrating having no internet all weekend. Apart from one rather grumpy boy, I also found it a bit annoying.  How dependent we have become on computers. 

These cute little Fair Isle mice were from a pattern on Yellow Pink and Sparkly. You can connect to it through my favourite blogs list, and it is also a free download on ravelry. I had a great time knitting them, and as you can see my two cats had a great time too.

"Aha! A group of mice"

"I'll pretend I'm just not interested"

"Give me some Fair Isle mice, or else"

Finally, in for the kill