Cat Tower Rescue

  

We have a Cat, His name is Spike. 

He is a Siberian Forest/Chinchilla mix.

   

We adopted him as a very frightened 13 month old from the RSPCA so he is Indoors Only and Loved to bits by all who meet him.

He has a scratch tower that he has also Loved to bits.  And needed to be re-upholstered.

Sadly I didn't get a photo of it before I dismantled it - but the photo  shows the state of the Carpet cover.

It was a bit of a mess to say the least.

Removing the cover was easy for the round section as it was cardboard.

The flat section (and favourite scratching post) was timber and the Industrial Strength Hot Glue that was used was a bit harder to remove.

A remnant of Carpet that had been laying around for a while was just the right size.

The board was shaped and I also discovered that the carpet (a loop pile) also has a Nap so I had to make sure it was facing the right way down.

Six sticks of Hot Glue later and the Pieces were ready to screw back into place.

(I think I may need a bigger Hot Glue Gun if I am going to do this again.)

The restoration was fairly easy to do, took a couple of hours (including a Coffee Break) and cost nothing as I already had everything I needed.

We saved $$$ by not having to buy a new one AND kept what was actually a perfectly good Cat Scratcher out of Landfill!

Job well done!

Finding Enough Fabric

And I thought I had seen the last of Teal for a while ...
Just as well I like the colour!

The Quilt is showing just how mild our Winter was last year with 66 days in the 11-15℃ High temperature range as well as 51 in the low meaning lots more teal needed to be cut.

We had 92 days where the minimum temperature was between 6-8℃ so lots of Dark Blue and also Green 16-20℃

So all my temperature pieces are now cut and ready to blitz the rest of the quilt

Time to focus on the "Atmospheric" component pieces.
I knew I had enough fabric for my Rainy Days which was good because, being a directional fabric I have a lot of left overs all  going the wrong way -

Unfortunately I can't say the same for my Dry Day Fabric.

If I keep going the way I have been I will only be able to cut 91 pieces from my fabric and although I did find a scrap square I am still going to be 3 days short.

Fortunately I haven't cut the strips for these pieces so I created a pattern and marked up a cutting plan.

If I cut the strips 6" instead of 3" I can cut 97 pieces from the fabric and the 4 from the scrap piece I have the 101 that I need.

WHEW!

Linking to:cleverchameleon

Quilt Binding Trick....

I am not going to lay claim to this little trick, that I found on line this week - but I thought it was worth writing up - Just in case you haven't come across it before.  And a good tip is always worth passing on.

After cutting miles of binding for that quilt - in my case it was over 10 meters by the time I had sewn it all together - you are then facing the task of ironing it in half!
"There's a tool for that job now!" I hear you say.....Yes there is.  BUT this little trick is possibly quicker, takes up less room and is definitely cheaper!

First find a long pin - (actually I think I may have found a new use for my Hat pins). Then pin it into your Ironing Board so that you can just slip the edge of the roughly folded Binding underneath.


I found it was also a good idea to put an old  practice quilt sandwich on the board too.

Then pull the binding gently through the guide you have just made and when you have enough to press.... Just keep gently pulling the binding through the pin guide and under your iron.

You can now see why I have used the extra padding under the iron - just to keep my board from scorching, as you are moving the fabric - not the iron.

So there you have it 10 meters of binding all pressed in less than 10 minutes!

Paper Piecing using Freezer Paper

Recently, I was asked how Paper Piecing using Freezer Paper was done and I thought instead of replying to just one person I would attempt a tutorial...

so here goes!

To make it easier, I am going to be using the same pattern as my Friend. 

It is Carol Doak's Belize Star - you can find the pattern here: www.caroldoak.com/pdfs/BelizeDirections.pdf

Trace or copy your pattern onto the matt side of the Freezer Paper. Then FOLD or SCORE along the lines of your pattern to make folding easier.

If you feel adventurous, just draw ONE copy of the pattern and stack 4 squares of freezer Paper on top of each other (secure with a couple of staples so they don't move) and machine sew along the lines with an un-threaded needle. 

Choose your Fabric (Finally I have a project for those Fat Quarters I got with the Magazine Subscription)

Place your first fabric onto the shiny side of the Freezer Paper (wrong side to glossy side) and lightly iron in place. 

 Sharply crease along the drawn line and fold back.

Place your ruler along the creased edge and cut off the excess - leaving a 1/4" seam.

Fold the pattern back along the crease or perforation and position the second piece of fabric on top of the first fabric - right sides together.

Stitch along the crease line – do not stitch the paper.  You now have a beautiful neat 1/4" seam.

Continue with Fold, Trim, Sew, Press until you come to the end of the seams. 

Every scored (or perforated) line is a seam line.

Press the fabric flat onto the Freezer Paper each time you add a piece to the block. 

This will keep the block flat and when you are done.....

 .....– simply peel off the freezer paper!   No paper to pull your stitches or bits to get stuck in your seams!

AND... It makes it very easy to UN-sew should you make a mistake.

And here it is... 

One Finished (rather neat - if I do say so myself) Belize Star Block..... 

Now, what should I do with it???

Well...Look at me now .

Yesterday I posted that I had "acquired"  my Grand father's tea service for the party.
It was certainly a sad sight when Mum pulled it out of a box - (I think it was headed for the Op-Shop).

Well 20 minutes is all it took to go from Glum to Glam.

I tried the hint that Esther made in the comments and IT WORKED. - In fact it worked so well that I kept the Tea Pot and Creamer until Mum came 'round. so I could show her how easy it was.
The tarnish just fell off before our eyes.

Only ONE drawback.........I now have MORE silver to clean.

This week WOW = "Worn Out Wendy"

Hello all WOW participants.....

I am taking a brief break in the hectic timetable that is preparing for a 21st Birthday Party to see what you all are doing.

Esther has posted a photo of her Daphne in flower - mine has been out for a few weeks now, and for me it is the first sign that the garden is waking up from winter.  It is SUCH a pity that we cannot share the glorious delicate  fragrance that these little flowers impart.


On MY list today, I have to finish THE CAKE.  It should have been done by now but my loving family ALL got the flu and have been home to share it with ME. (Thanks for that - just what I needed.)

The Boys had a quiet family dinner just us and their Grandparents on Monday to mark their birthday and Saturday is the time to "kick up their heels" with friends.

It is going to be a themed party and I have 'snaffled' my Grandfathers Silver Tea Service from  my Mum.  Now all I have to do is...........

Clean it.

Fussy Cutting - Can You see the Join?

My DD is just learning to quilt - a necessary distraction from her day job....

She has just completed her 3rd quilt top but came up against the issue of not having enough width in the fabric to cut her borders from.  The fabric she was using would have just shrieked a join so....

The solution....FUSSY CUT IT.

Can you see the join?

Maybe this will help..........

All up, I am hard pressed to find the join even when I am deliberately looking for it.

It took a little extra time and fabric.  We found a suitable repeat in the fabric, cut along it allowing for a turnover (seam) and then appliquéd the pieces together with small hand stitches.

WOW - Helping a Friend out with Y Seams

I opened my Emails this morning and was greeted with "......I'm new to quilting and I can't get the "Y seams set in ....any suggestions?"
So today I spent the morning making  the next block in my work in progress. My Women of the Bible Quilt, and I felt the easiest way to explain how to set in a "Y seam" is to show how!

I hadn't made this weeks block yet - so here goes.......

I decided to Foundation Piece this block, for 2 reasons -
Firstly my friend had foundation pieced her block and I wanted to do the same (for consistency).
Secondly - I found this "You 'Beaut" way of doing foundation piecing this week and had to try it out.
I did my square in a square foundation and sewed 2 x 1 1/4" strips together.

I then created my outside border pieces using the Freezer Paper Technique.  The beaut part about this method is that you fold the seam lines out of the way, sew along them and then press the fabric to the Freezer Paper and when you are done - it just peels off - BRILLIANT.
No itty bitty annoying pieces of paper to pick out from between your stitches.

Sew the 1st  border piece to the square in square block.

Make sure you DO NOT stitch into the seam allowance

Continue around the centre block until all border pieces are on - Yes it is a bit 'flappy' at this point.

Now comes the fun part.....

Fold the block DIAGONALLY forming a triangle.

You should now be able to see why it was important not to stitch into the seam allowance.

You can now sew the corner pieces together,
finishing the seam at the corner.

(Sorry the pics are a bit dark - my work light is elsewhere!)

Remove all the remaining papers - you have probably taken bits off as you have been sewing.

Tidy it all up
Give it a press.
And trim to size.

And there you have it.

1 x 6 1/2" Open Window Block representing Michal.

This quilt is part of a weekly on-line Bible Study each week we study one of the Women from the Bible and make a quilt block to represent that Woman.

The block "OPEN WINDOW" represents Michal.  (You can read about her in  I Samuel 18-19, 25, II Samuel 3, 6, and I Chronicles 15.)