Miranda and Kittens

A couple weeks ago Angie's daughter, Miranda, came over for a sew day while her mother had a photo shoot. We had started a purse for Miranda from fabrics she picked out herself.  She came back to finish it - or rather play with the kittens while I finished it.  The kittens were still in the sewing room so it was interesting navigating around them.  Miranda loved having them there.

She kept adding to her collection.

This is her finished purse.  I think she did an exceptional job picking the fabrics.  It was beautiful.  The first day, I asked if she wanted to do a line of quilting down each seam line, but she wanted some fancy embroidery stitch instead.  I had this part done before she came the second day.

The inside has lots of pockets for all her valuable stuff.  I had everything we needed to make the purse except a large button for the loop to go over to close the top.

After the purse was finished, we had some time till her mom came, so she wanted a book cover for her paperbacks.  She picked out some orange fall fabrics.  Miranda wanted the same embroidery stitches down the seams of the strips of her book cover.  I suggested she do it herself and she eagerly did a fantastic job. 

She had help, too.  Ebony jumped up when she started and made herself comfortable on the chair.  She stayed there about an hour.

Miranda was worried Ebony would get cold, so she covered her up with the fabric for the book cover.  The pillow is a padded piece I have next to my machine for my scissors, ripper, etc. to lay on. 

Lucy had to get in the room, too, to play.  Rover was happy to oblige.  All the cats and kittens love Lucy and she loves them back.

Rover found a great bed on top of some batting.  Isn't he adorable. And so sweet, too.  He's going to make someone the best cat, ever.  And you can see, he's dog friendly.

Toula All Grown Up

If you remember from past posts about the little kitten brought in to Petsmart by a construction worker, this is her.  I took her home because I had two nursing moms. She was originally named Colby when I thought she was a he.  Then she became Casey.  When Donna and Dave adopted her, she became Toula.  Donna sends me pictures and keeps me updated about how well Toula has fit in with their family.

This is Toula today napping in a favorite chair.  Doesn't her new pink collar look so chic on her?

Toula's found a great new sister in Lexi. Isn't that just the sweetest thing?  Adopters are always asking if the cat or kitten they adopt will be lonesome leaving their friends and litter mates at my house.  Many don't believe me when I say they'll be just fine and will become close to the new animals and humans.  See????

This is Toula's new brother, Woody.  They're best buds like she and Lexi are.

Thank you, Donna, for sharing your wonderful pictures with me.  I'm glad Toula won't become a spoiled little girl at your house.  Right.

Stashbusting Pillowcases and Cute Kittens

I have got to use up some of my fabric.  I swear it mates at night and multiplies.  Having sewn for 45 years doesn't help, either.  My friend, Darlene, joined an online group where members keep track of the yards of fabric that come into the house, the yards used, and year-to-date totals of each. Also projects they want to complete in the year.  Everyone reports their weekly figures on Sunday nights. Great!  This is the incentive for me.  Except you can only join on Jan 1 of each year.  Not wanting to wait seven more months to get with the program, I decided I didn't need anybody's website or chart.  I made my own and started three weeks ago.  So far, I've used 21 yards of fabric, 3.5 yds more than I bought.  (On my way to KC this month, my car just took the exit in Columbia that went to Satin Stitches, and I had a 17.5 yard relapse.)   Eli's baby quilt is counted, a very cool tote bag that I'll write about when I get it unloaded and take some pictures, and 11 pillowcases at a yard each.  Several of these have a mate.

Pretty cool, huh?  I've made many pillowcases for gifts, and made us some, too, but I needed to replace all the 15 and 20 year old ones that weren't smelling too good anymore.  Unfortunately, I got in too big of a hurry and didn't wash the fabric first.  Some of the older fabric, especially the Jinny Beyer's, really shrunk - a lot - when I washed and dried them all yesterday.  I should have known better, but, hey, they're pillowcases.

I cut extra pieces, but may not use them, now.  If I had a yard of fabric, I could get a case and a cuff from it.

Standing on a chair to take the pictures, I saw Ebony creeping into the previous picture right before I took it.  Cropped her out, but she looked so cute sitting there, took another and have to include it.

My sewing room was the one non-cat room in my house - until last week.  Two of the three adults in the crew of nine from Truxton had bad head colds, but three different antibiotics didn't help.  I needed to separate the six kittens from them, but had nowhere to go with them except my sewing room.  I knew it was probably too late for quarantine procedures, but it couldn't hurt.  I did a quick kitten-proofing of cords and pins and moved them in.  In about 3 seconds they were exploring and getting into everything.  And loving every minute.

A better picture of Ebony.  She's so sweet.  The whole group is sweet.  You wouldn't expect it from barn kittens, but this is my third litter of them, and I've been delighted with all three.  The adult female, Velvet, that is mom to two of the six kittens is a little shy, but still friendly enough that I can pick her up.

Ranger making himself at home on one of my suitcases I haven't put away, yet.

This is Mittens, the polydactyl kitten.  He has an extra toe on each paw, like Ernest Hemingway's cats in Key West, FL.  And don't think for a minute that he doesn't know he's cuter and more special than the others.  He's even showing you first his left paw, then his right paw. The back feet each have an extra toe, too.  He's going to be a hard one to give up.

The other black and white kitten, Rover, and the black and tan tortie, Patches, playing under my chair legs.  I moved the chair over by my fabric cabinets so the kittens couldn't use it as a step to my sewing table.  As you can tell by Ebony on the pillowcases, it didn't work very well.  These guys are very active and are excellent jumpers.




Ranger resting on my floor fan base.

This is all six kittens before I moved them to the sewing room.  The adult at the top is Prince, likely father of some.  From the top down is Rover, Patches (dark tortie), Teddy, Ebony, Mittens, and Ranger.  The other male, Smokey, is the other paternal candidate.  This whole story is a regular Peyton Place.  As I understand from the property owner, Tracie, there were two males and two females.  Each female had a litter two days apart.  The black female, Velvet, had two kittens and the calico female had four.  Velvet took the other mom's four kittens, put them in her nest, and raised all six.  The calico mom disappeared.  So, it's unknown who fathered who, but they're all so adorable and friendly.......I can't keep them all, I can't keep them all....

Feeding time at Barb's Bar and Grill.  Prince (off-white) and Velvet (black) are at the top. Then clockwise are Rover, Smokey, Teddy, Mittens, Ebony, Patches, and Ranger.

Velvet, Ebony and Patches are the only girls.

Smokey and Prince didn't get neutered in time and Velvet is pregnant, again.  More kittens in about 3-4 weeks.

 Smokey with Rover on top and Teddy.  Prince and Smokey are both wonderful dads and cuddle with all the kittens.  I bet the kittens really miss their dads.  Hopefully, everyone will be reunited when we get this head cold cleared up.

It's very difficult to take a picture of a cat and have their eyes not glow like something from a Stephen King movie.

Mama Velvet.  She's about a year old, just a big kitten, really, and on the petite side.   All the Heartland cat foster moms are overflowing with cats and kittens and people aren't adopting right now due to various reasons, mainly the economy.  If you're thinking about adopting a cat or kitten, we have a wonderful assortment from which to choose.

Visit to KC

 I was in north Kansas City for two days last week and did a trunk show program for the Northland Quilt Guild.  My hostess was Nicole, and I was so lucky to be able to stay with her - their cat, Gracie, slept with me most of the night.  Besides that, Nicole was the perfect hostess, had the perfect house, perfect children (her husband was out of town, but he's probably perfect too), but I liked her anyway.  She's used many of her quilts to decorate the walls and has a huge stack of them in the family room.  Although she's only been quilting a few years, you'd never know it by the quilts I saw.  They were beautiful and extremely well done.  There was a large north woods type rustic wallhanging in the family room that I wanted to stuff in my suitcase, but the suitcase was too small and the empty space on the wall would have been too big and noticeable.  Nothing in my house is rustic, plaid, or moosey, but I really liked it.

This is Nicole and her daughter, Kiera, and Kiera's pet miniature hamster, Rosie. Kiera was so cool, I tried to get her to come back with me for the summer and be my feline assistant.  She loves animals, and you should have seen her eyes when I said I had 19 kittens at my house.  Told her she would have to sleep with six kittens since all the bedrooms were full.  That was fine with her.  I don't know why her mom had a problem sending her only daughter across the entire state with someone she just met the day before.  Go figure.   I do hope they come and visit me as soon as I get an open bedroom.  Thank you both for making my trip to KC so wonderful.  I hope to see you both in the future.

Kiera and Rosie.

Eli's Baby Quilt

My niece, Cheryl, and her husband, Adam, had their first baby in December. I'm embarrassed that it's taken me this long to get Eli's baby quilt finished. For some reason, being a foster mom has eaten into my sewing time quite a bit. I'll be mailing it off Thursday. One of my quilt guild meetings is Wed, and I want to take it for Show & Tell.

I only had a daughter and have every shade of pink and purple fabric ever printed. Making boy quilts is not my forte. I sure hope she likes it.

Emma and the kittens

Never say never. Just when I said I wouldn't post any more of the oldest kittens, I remembered that I never posted a video of my little neighbor, Emma, who comes over several times a week to play with the kittens. She's become an excellent helper. She scruffs and holds the kittens while I trim their nails. I think scooping is next.

Madeline's Kittens

I know, not more pictures of Jack and Jill!  However, Jill is now Ben, and this is for Madeline, their soon-to-be mom.  It's so hard NOT to take pictures of them when they're so darn cute and photogenic.  I promise, this will be the last pictures of them until their adoption-day picture with Madeline.

Jack and Ben are on the ladder cat tree the scout troop made.  It's become a favorite with everybody.

John took ten pictures, but I controlled myself and only used four.  Ben was ready for his photo shoot. 

Well, maybe not all that ready.  Must be nap time.

How's this for a Kodak moment?  Jack is not a lot bigger than Ben.  It just looks that way with him being slightly closer to the camera and in front of Ben.  The boys will be going home this coming weekend.

The Tree is Gone

The tree that split apart is just a memory, now.  Monday morning John was talking to a friend about John taking over their club's website because the person currently doing it is having health problems.  John said sure, and by the way, do you know anybody who does tree removals?  Jim said his wife's son did.  The son and a friend came out two hours later.  They had the tree cut in pieces in 7 minutes - I timed it.  An hour later, they had drug the sections to the street, cut them up more, threw them in the back of the truck, cleaned up all the debris, and loaded all their equipment.  Absolutely amazing.  They'll come back when the ground and wood dry out and take the stump out. John had gotten a replacement fence section that morning, and we replaced it in 5 minutes.  After all that work, I had to be taken out to dinner with our friends, Hank and Darlene.

Amy's Baby Quilt

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This is a quilt I made for my hairdresser, Amy, who had a beautiful baby girl, Harper, the first part of May.  One of my quilt guilds had a retreat in February, and this pattern was the project.  Because she knew it was a girl, I used medium pinks, blues, greens, and purples, heavy on the pink, with burgundy for the small squares.

The pattern is from the book, Slice 'Em and Dice 'Em Quilts, by Nancy Brennan Daniel.  Large nine-patches are made, are sliced in half vertically and horizontally,  then the four quarters are resewn to another fabric.....anyway, you get rather odd, but unique blocks that make unique quilts.

Sonny's Adoption

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Sonny got his forever home today. His new mom, Pat, has been waiting for several weeks for him to get old enough for his neuter package.  She came out today, signed the papers, and took him home.  She's going to have so much fun with him.  Her biggest problem will be not stepping on him.  He'll probably follow her around like a little puppy.  

Earlier, I was missing the kittens and found them in the doorway to their room - asleep.  John's made me three of these door stops to keep the doors from opening too far and allowing Lucy into the rooms to eat the cat food.
 
Many people have asked me how I can let the kittens go after I've taken care of them for weeks or months.  My answer is always the same.  I knew going in that I was only the temporary caregiver.  It's not easy, but it's easier when you're losing one of 20 cats and not one of two or three cats.  Plus, I have 12 to 15 kittens that I know of waiting for space at my house.  When every litter needs to be isolated until they're tested, I only have so many rooms available.  Kitten season is in full swing. 

Jack, Jill & Sonny

Light, Medium and Dark are now Sonny, Jack, and Jill.  They get their package (testing, shots, microchip and spay/neuter) on Tuesday.  Being the oldest of the foster kittens, they've been allowed out of their room the last few days, and have loved every minute of their freedom.  All three found John a very comfortable place to take an evening nap.  When I reached for the camera, Sonny woke up and changed positions, but Jack, in front, was zonked out.  They'd all been running around for several hours.

Earlier, I found Jack snuggled next to a foster, Trevor, in one of the cat beds.  Before you think that my poor cats have to sleep in itty bitty beds, they have a couple dozen places to lay in the family room alone, but Trevor chose the little kitten bed.  I can't imagine that's a comfortable sleeping position, but he doesn't seem to mind.  Jack is cleaning his paw.

Sonny was waiting for Lucy to come in from outside.  Lucy can get out, but we can't because of the downed tree.  The ground is so soggy, we can't get out there to cut anything up, so we have no reason to go outside, anyway.  Makes for an interesting view, though, to see the door full of green.

The "Light" Kitten

Light's future mom hasn't come up with a name for him, so he's still Light.  I let the three kittens out tonight for a while and Light made his way downstairs to the family room where John, Lucy and I were watching TV.  He can jump up on the sofa with no trouble and wasn't afraid of Lucy at all.  As you can see, quite the opposite.  All kittens (and cats eventually) love Lucy, and she loves them back. She's the perfect dog for a cat foster home.

"Are you my mama?"











"You ARE my mama!"