A Little Yarn On The Side

And with a little less help, I'd be making progress on the tumbling blocks quilt.  At least I know the quilt is snuggly, and perfect for naps. When I started quilting this, I actually hadn't decided exactly what I was going to do, but  I like how the three lines of stitching in variegated thread look, so that's what I'm doing.  It's so nice to have a plan............ We're still unpacking, and of course the sewing room is kind of the last priority, but we found a filing cabinet at a thrift store, so my sewing patterns finally have a home.  I'll admit, everything is taking longer than it needs to because I sorted through all the patterns to purge anything that I really am no longer interested in making, and while that still leaves me with a crazy number of patterns, I have fewer than I started with.  Another box of books has also gone to the donation bin, so there's quite a bit less stuff to deal with--no matter what it looks like. Ravel...

Thank you. everyone, for your kind words and understanding.  Milo was such a lovable little kitten--I'm not sure we'll ever stop missing him.  Needless to say, Christmas was rather subdued here.  It's hard to say who is missing Milo most, but   there are three strong contenders.  I'm hoping the amount of grooming I've been subjected to is more about her loneliness rather than a statement about my personal hygene. So, after much debate and soul-searching, meet Valentino, who clearly understands sewing.  He's a Maine Coon, and while we have generally been animal shelter supporters, FIP is found mostly in shelters and larger catteries and between having a senior kitty to protect from disease and still being heartsick over losing Milo, we happened to find a small, local breeder with one kitten left.  It took a surprisingly short time for the kitties to all get used to each other, and I have (mostly) been left to my own devices for bathing....

We hope we gave Milo one last weekend of love and cuddles, because he started going downhill fast on Monday, so on Tuesday we said goodbye to our sweet little Milo.  As much as we hated to lose him, we couldn't see him suffer.           We are simply heartbroken and not much in the mood for Christmas.  Venus has been very lonely without her buddy, but thankfully Theo had started playing with her more as Milo lost interest. Hope everyone else is having a happier Christmas.

Our little Milo is sick, and the vet says he's dying of a virus called FIP.  He's neither eating nor drinking on his own and I've been force-feeding him for a week now.  The problem is that there isn't a definitive test for FIP--it's more of a matter of elimination and I kind of feel like this vet is basing her diagnosis on something that might be unrelated.  We have him on an antibiotic for what the other vet in the practice thinks might be the problem and we're just keeping our fingers crosssed.  He's not showing any deterioration and aside from being lethargic and really hating the force feeding, he seems to be in decent spirits, and we're enjoying having some extra time with him if we are losing him.  The other kitten was very lonely when he first started feeling bad, but now Theo is playing more with her and we're spending more time playing and cuddling with her, so she's doing okay.  It's just been a very sad and emotional week.

Well--that was a fast month.  The new job is going well, though it was a rough start.  The company has so little turnover that there just isn't a training program, so the first weeks were overwhelming at times, but I'm getting the hang of things now.  My coworkers are so nice and help me all they can, so I'm enjoying it. There hasn't been much crafting time, though I did step off the fabric wagon for this: It's a laser-cut quilt kit, and is a perfect project for spare moments here and there after work. I'm going to hang it on the wall when it's done--which will hopefully be soon.  I've also done a little machine embroidery, but mostly crafting has screeched to a halt.  We've gotten more unpacking done, lots of fall yard cleanup, and have had a few friends over--something we haven't been able to do since March when we started the whole house journey.  We still have so much unpacking to do, but the new neighborhood is so lovely that it...

Okay--so it's time to admit that I'm NOT going to have all the boxes unpacked before going back to work, but that's okay.  I've made progress, though, and some of the time we can even find stuff.  It's worth it, though.  About 2 weeks ago there was a wreck at the intersection leading into our old subdivision because of the crazy school traffic, and the only surprise is that it didn't happen sooner.  And that's before the new subdivision of overcrowded homes has gone in.  Even if the F35s are sent elsewhere, it's great to be out of there.  I took yesterday off to sew AND get some pictures of my sewing progress.  I'm very proud of this: I have no idea what I intended to do with this fabric--especially since there wasn't enough of it to do most patterns--so since there was no emotional stake here, I convinced myself to embroider the bottom edges of the sleeves.  With embroidering, there's always a chance it won't work, and I didn...

And a LOT of unpacking.  We've made progress, and I've already emptied one more box this morning, but there are so MANY!!!   The sewing room is especially hard because I left behind all my wonderful shelving, so there is literally nowhere to put things as I unpack them.  I did run across my rope stash, so the first project in the new house was a large storage basket, and I could use a bunch more.  I'd saved a bunch of Andy's old jeans to make hanging storage for his old closet, and since I found that box, I've been cutting the denim into strips and I'm trying a new idea: twisting the denim strips into rope AS I sew.  The beginning was a bit rough and the bottom is puckering a bit, but as it's just for storage I don't really care.  I could be wrapping the denim around rope, but I was worried about how heavy that might be, and if this works, it's a great way to use up denim.  Besides, the rope stash has been commandeered: I also found my East...