Update on kitties

Remember, back in December 2016, Ron and I drove

to Paducah, Kentucky to meet up with our friends

Sandy and Steve to pick up 3 kittens. 

They are fitting into our lives very well.

Talk about changes and personalities.
These are the two sisters, Pepper and Cinnamon.
A lot of times they can be found curled up together somewhere.
This day happened to be on our bed.
They groom each other, and are great chasers of each other
at 2:00 in the morning.
Each has developed habits that are funny to us.
Pepper seems to like being by me.  She is not a cuddlier, but will
curl up in the crook of my legs while I am sleeping.
I can usually find her curled up within  three to four feet of me
when I am doing handwork in the evening.  She did jump into my lap one
day when I had a quilt on it and sleep when I was taking a cat nap.
At night it is an adventure to wake up to be box in by kitties. Cinnamon
loves to get under the covers and sleep curled up next to me.

Here is Princess.  She is the resident matriarch of our family.
She is Ron's kitty.  Princess adores Ron and gets jealous if he  pays
attention to any of the other kitties.  She is also my resident
quilt inspector.

Here is Dude!  He is the brother to the two girls.
Dude is very laid back and easy going.  He lets you pick him up
and cuddle.  He resides in our son Andrew's house with his buddy, Charlie.
Andrew tells us he can be a handful with his exploring and wanting attention
at 3:00 in the morning. He and Charlies like to curl up with Andrew
at night.

Here is Charlie, Andrew's first resident kitty.
Charlie is a cuddlier once he warms up to you. He enjoys sleeping
up by Andrew's head.  It has been seen that these two will curl up with
each other and do play together.

Here is Cinnamon.
She still has a screechy voice. You pick her up she screeches. If you
disturb her beauty sleep, she will screech.  Even when she purrs it is a different
sound.  She does not appreciate being picked up and thinks everything is hers.
For whatever reason, she brings us straight pins and needles from my pin cushions.
I now have to hide or put a pincushion in a plastic box. I can't keep any of them out, she
will find them.  The fact that she leaves them on our bed or the floor does not
matter to her at all.
 

Last but not least is Pepper.  She seems to have become my kitty.
Like I said before, she likes to sleep near me.  She follows me around. Pepper
will let me pick her up, but does not like to stay in my arms very long.
She will clean a dinner plate off if you put it before her. She is curious about
everything. She has to check every new smell, or object that comes into the house.

All the kitties are giving us much joy.
Andrew's, Charlie and Dude do come to visit now and then.  If Andrew
is away for a short time, we take care his kitties at their home. If he were going
for a longer, like a week or more, it is easier to have them with us.
So far, Andrew comes to our house to take care of Princess, Cinnamon
and Pepper. The kittens are now young adults and more set in their ways.
I am glad we have them all in our lives.
They do keep you smiling.

Have a great day.
Mary

Trying something new for me.

Pepper is just waiting for the shower stall to be clear.

Went to a banquet for Pride of the Prairie Quilt Guild.
Love these button trees we all got to take home.

Hancock's of Paducah.

Another state down.

Now how is that for the true Chocolate lover?


I am on my way to another quilt cruise.
  But first let me catch you up on a couple of things.

The kitties are now 6 months old, and absolutely adorable.
As I said before, we have never had kitten, so watching their antics is so
much fun.  We have the two "Spice Girls"  Pepper and Cinnamon.
They are water babies.  They sit outside our walk in shower in the evening,
while I take my shower.  As soon as I am out, they run in. They come to bed with wet paws
and fur, as they have been playing and drinking the shower water. Silly girls.


In January Pride of the Prairie had their Christmas party.
What a lovely time we had.  The food was delicious, and the games fun, and
I think everyone came away with a little gift bag of goodies, a door prize, and
one of the cutest button trees ever.  A great time was had by all.

I did manage to get 3 quilt backs ready for three quilt, Dah! that I sent
to be quilted!!  Yea for me.  Also got the blocks done for another quilt that
I can put together in March when I get home.
 
I also have been cleaning and clearing my sewing space.
It was time.  I have organized a lot of projects, and put them in their own
boxes. I made of list of UFO's I want to get finished.  Way too many in
progress.  Each time I go on a quilt retreat this year, a project is going with me that
needs to be worked on, with the hope that it will get done, or at least a lot of progress
is made.  Also, made up a basket of things that I can pick up and take with me
when I am on the road.  All handwork.  As I finish up some things, I will have others to add to
the basket.  It feels good to have gone through so many books, patterns, and stuff.
I am donating a lot of things to other quilters.
I can't possibly finish up everything that is in progress.  At least  now I can put
priorities on them.

On Tuesday I started my drive to Florida.  I had decided rather then fly to Ft.
Lauderdale to take the cruise, I would drive by myself and stop when I wanted, and visit
a couple of friends, and bird along the way.

Naturally my first stop, and stay the night was Paducah, Kentucky.
Had to visit Hancock's.  I had a list of things I wanted to pick up.
Needed thread, and new rotary cutter blades, and of course fabric.
Kona's color of the year is "Flamingo".  Now for someone that likes Flamingos as
much as I do, I needed to have some of that!  I found a beautiful, large gingham
that is the same shade as the Flamingo fabric, with white.  A new blouse just
may be in the works for me.  One of the classes I am taking on the cruise is
"Quilt of the Century" by Gyleen Fitzgerald.  I had what I believe is a Moda
layer cake from a long time ago. It was part of a kit that I took apart, but is in colors
that I don't usually work with. So, while at Hancock's I picked up a couple more fabrics,
that I think will work with it.  Little hard to get 2 squares 6 1/2 inch out of that layer cake.
Anyway, I found a couple I think will work.   Then didn't I find a couple cool
Flamingo fabrics that I just had to have.
I had a great room and a good nights sleep, ready for my second day.

I did stop in Manchester, Tennessee to check out the Russell Stover store,
How about those boxes of Chocolates.  Told my husband we will have to stop
on the way home, as they have sea salt carmels for Valentine's Day.
Hopefully there will still be some on sale after the big day!!
Next stop was Atlanta, Georgia.  Traffic and trucks was a bit busier going through
Tennessee.  I have my trusty Garmin, navigator, and she got me through
Nashville quite well.  I have to say, no snow or ice or even a hint of it.
But you could tell how bad winter had been so far.  There had been
several semi's still being worked on to get upright and off the interstate.
There was a lot of roadkill.  So sad to see all the different animals along the road.
Got to see a lot of Vulture's as well.  Saw several large flocks of Geese heading
north,and a flock of White Pelicans on a lake as I passed by.
What is really sad to see is all the garbage along the road way.  It is like how
did some of the strange things you see, get there.  I mean a loveseat, and a little farther
away a cushion.  Children's toys, pop bottles, and the usual suspects.  People must
think it is okay to throw trash out the window during the winter.  Someone else
will pick it up.  Sad.....

I did make it to Morrow, Georgia right on time.  Getting through Atlanta is always fun.
Ironically, I got through downtown in about 20 minutes.  What helps is that all the trucks are
diverted to a bypass.  No one was being unpolite.  I have to say there were a few crazies
that flew from one lane across several to get to an off ramp.  How can you not be aware of
where you are.  Entitlement.

Already had dinner, talked to my husband and wrote up this post, and getting ready for
bed.  Time to settle in for the night.  Tomorrow Florida.  I am going to check out a
couple bird sanctuaries and end up down by Sanibel Island.  I have a friend that
winter's there, and she is doing a craft show on Saturday.  Have not seen her
in a long time.  We will have some time to catch up.  Maybe I will get to
stick my toes in the water!  Who knows, I may come up with a couple new for me
life birds.   The cruise does not start until the 8th.  I will meet up with my friend Jan
on the 7th in Ft. Lauderdale.

Ron will be flying down after I get back from the cruise.  He would like to visit
with his Dad, then we will start the drive back to home.  I just may do the drive back too.
We will visit his brother and our friends that provided the kitties.  It will be nice to know then
that we will not have long before Spring does come.

Hope you are going to have a great February.

Mary

New additions

New additions to our family.

Last week Ron and I drove to Paducah, Ky. to pick up three sweet kittens.

Our friends Sandy and Steve from Atlanta, Ga. have been taking care of a litter of kittens.

A female kitty named Panda had trusted them to help take care of her kittens.

The children in there community loved all the little ones.  They came to see and name them. 

As a result two were given good homes.

Sandy had tried to find good home or a shelter to take care of the rest of them.

There was no one available I am sorry to say.

I spoke up and said if she could not find places for them I would take them.

We decide we would have a change off in Paducah.

It is about half way for each of us.

What a fun time we had.  Sandy had arranged for a two bedroom suite at a 

Residence Inn.  Perfect.  We arrived about 15 minutes after them.

The kittens were already inside. Talk about falling in love with three 

precious kittens.  

It was so great to see Steve and Sandy.  We had been neighbors when we lived

in Roselle.  Sandy had made reservations for dinner at Patti's in Grand River, Ky.

Who knew they had dressed up the grounds for Christmas.

Steve, Sandy and Ron

What a beautiful sunset that evening.

Merry Christmas

There is a harbor in the town, and even the boats were dressed up for the Holidays.
We had such a great time catching up and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.
To add to our visit we celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary.
What a lovely evening we had.

Getting back to the kitties.  Sandy had told me their names were, Tippy, Turtle, and Screamer.
They were cute names, and did fit them.
There is one tuxedo, who is a male, and two calico's that are female.
They were all good little travelers.  They did have a lot of fun in the
cage they came more in.  The cage was huge, and they had plenty of room
for their litter box and food and water, and a place to lay down.

This cutie was named Turtle, as she is the darker of the calico's and her furn
pattern is more like a tortoise.  She has a new name, Ron named her Pepper.

This was Screamer.  She got her original name because each time she is picked up she let out a wail.
She is the smallest and Ron named her Cinnamon.
Now he has the Spice Girls.
They have all found a place in our hearts, already.

Here they are the first night we saw them.  The one on the right is Tippy.
It looks like he may keep that name.  He has a little white tip on his nose.
While Andy and I were in Hawaii, Charlie, his kitty has been staying at our house.
Tippy is going to live at Andy's, and be company for Charlie.
I think they will get along just fine.
The two girls are going to stay with us.

Sandy was kind enough to make sure they were all in good health and good for travel.
I have now completed it and they have been spayed or neutered.
They are all inside kitties. Where we live, they don't allow outside cats.
They have been a riot to have in our home. They are now 5 months old.  We did have to close
off a couple of rooms as they love to explore.
 Tippy loves to be in our bedroom window.

Here is Cinnamon lounging on one of my quilts. (She was the former Screamer.)
She does not seem to mind being picked up now and only makes noises
once in a while.  They all know how to growl in their throats at the other kitties.
One of the things they like is water.  Drinking is good, but playing in it is
even more fun.  As soon as a faucet goes on, one or all is up on the counter
checking it out.

As you can see they found fabric boxes.
I have been cleaning and organizing my sewing space, and have boxes on
the dining room table. Tippy is in the one closest to the windows, and Cinnamon
and Pepper in the other.
Ron has taken to calling them the "ensemble".  I think of it more like a circus.
Having five cats in the house at once is quite the circus.
They are so much fun to watch and play with.
I am not sure of the girls will become sewing kitties. Princess our
adult is when it comes time to lay out a quilt on the floor.  She enjoys moving
all the blocks around for me.  Time will tell.

We all wish you a Happy New Year.
May it be a great year for sewing and embroidery.
I have so many UFO's I have come across that I want to finish in 2017.

I hope it will be a great year for all of us.
We need to bring happiness back into our lives.
Do what you love.

Mary

Gifts and Kitties

Kitties do like boxes. Princess decided to curl up in this box while we were cleaning it out of papers.
Ron had been using the box like a file try and putting papers in it for later sorting.
She was helping by keeping them from flying out of the box!

I received some lovely gifts at Christmas, that I did not share.
My friend, Sandy, in Atlanta sent me this cute, 10 minute table runner. Love the fabric. 

Joke, in Sweden sent me this cool tote bag and these beautiful trims.

My friend, Isabelle in France sent this beautiful door hanger stitchery, and these delicious chocolate twigs.
Those are so gone!  Delicious!

Barb, my secret Santa, from our quilt bee,  made me this beautiful needle book.  There are even tiny flamingo charms on it. I had to show it open, so you could see all the lovely stitching.

Isabelle, from France, sent this lovely table topper that, she hand quilted, and and these delicious cookies, for my birthday.  They taste so good with my morning coffee.

Jan, from our Thursday bee, made this table runner for Christmas.

This little doll quilt has been quilted with the "big stitch" technique that I learned while on the quilt cruise in February.
I had taken this little top, thinking it would be a great way to finish.  We used quilting stencils. You can't see the stitching very well. I used a thread that matched.  It was a fun way for finishing.
I also have finished two more pincushions.  Actually, I have 4 more that are done, but not filled. I ran out of the medium I have been using for filler.  Pincushions are great projects to work on in the evening. I love the hand stitching.

Charlie, not to be outdone had to show he can fit in that same file box that Princess had laid out in.

The other evening, I put fresh catnip in a small kitty quilt that she likes to lay on.  I put it in this other box they like to lay in.  See the edge of the bed next to the box, neither uses it. The box is their favorite place to take a snooze. Princess love catnip, Charlie not as much!

I was hoping I would be able to show you a picture of flower bulbs popping out of the ground, but not yet.  A lot of the snow has gone in the last few days.  It got up to 50 degrees yesterday and sunny.  Today it is raining  Lots of birds have been coming to the feeders.  I think we have rounded the bend on the winter weather.  I did overhear someone at the fabric shop on Monday, saying it would be fun to have a bit more snow to set some new records.  We are at the 3rd spot for the worst winter.
I think I have had enough snow.

Time to get back to some more sewing. Have been doing some spring cleaning, and sewing in my sewing room.  Have a great week.
Mary