Summer Blooms and Stitches

 Good Morning!

Summer has been blooming in my scrapatch.

I have been having some ups and downs, 

but life is good.

I have been doing a lot of sitting and crocheting.

I have been carrying my yarn bag and hooks wherever life takes me.

Last fall we had to cut back the big purple clematis

 because it had suffered a lot of winter kill last year. 

It is growing back green and beautiful. 

Life can be like that. 

Sometimes you need to regroup and carry on ...

... and bloom.

 The wall of rhododendrons in our driveway have also bloomed.

My kitties and I finished our Spring Crochet Along Blanket.

I added wide side borders of my own design to make it bed size.

Nutmeg loves this one. 

Then I added the lovely yellow shell edging from the crochet along. 

Cassian helped. 

 Our big boy stray cat has become quite domesticated

and loves this blanket, too.

This is the start of my new crochet along with 

Any Day Crochet on TikTok

More soon! 

I hope you are having and happy and healthy June!

I Like Thursday # 175 ~ Cassian ~ Thankful Thursday

 Good Thursday!

I am Cassian and I am thankful for me furrever home.

I have been living here in my forever home for a year now

 and had my annual check-up at the vet last night 

where I received my three year shot for rabies and distemper, 

so I am feeling a bit sore and sleepy today. 

This is what I looked like last November just before my humans let me in to stay.

I was not even a year old and all on my own on the streets and it was getting cold.

I was named for some handsome scruffy anti-hero, thief-in-the-night character

 in a TV show that my new mommy was watching.  

Something about my being able to "just walk in like you belong" 

and make myself at home and take all the good stuff. 

I think sometimes Mommy cat-napped me

 but she says she told me I was home forever when I walked in.

I am not sure I understood the part about never going out again.

Mommy says Marva is the first Star Wars character 

she can actually identify with,

or something like that.

I am pretty loveable when I curl up with mommy on the quilts.

I can even get close to Maestro, these days.

I know she likes me.

I have made some headway with this gorgeous feline,

who has been resisting my snuggles.

Mommy says she wants to boss me, but I am the boss of me.

I will win in the end.

I have made much better progress snuggling with this cute ginger blondie,

who is a great wrestler, by the way. 

When I think I've pinned her to the floor, she does this twist and jump move

 and she is gone in a flash of her tail.

So enchanting.

 I know she likes me. 

We both love the warm spots and the good things in life.

Nutmeg is a fierce guards at this door.

When she first saw me, she tried to scare me off 

by howling and throwing herself at the door.  

Mommy says I only made it in the door because I made friends with her first.

Maybe mommy does not really know she was secretly 

trying to break down the door so I could get in.  

Heh-heh-heh.

This is as close as I can get to spicy Katniss, the fluffy tailed one.

Mommy says she was once feral like me so we have a lot in common.

Even at 13 years old, she is free-wheeling and fiesty and fabulous.

I know I can get her to like me.

Who could resist me?

I guess I will stay. 

The food is good and plentiful 

and the quilts are comfy.

The girl cats are fun and entertaining.

Having a home is better than lost in space.

Mommy says I have to show her stitching progress now.

Maestro has the cave bed and Katniss wants it.

Not happening. 

Katniss shall have to settle for the other cat bed.

So this is the stitch stuff.

More pumpkins.

I like pumpkin pie, with whipped cream.

Mommy should give me pie. 

Please visit Mommy's  friends  @

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color 

and have a Happy Thursday! 

I Like Thursday #172 ~Stitching with the Kitties

A good day for more Stitching

 ... with the kitties, of course! 

Fall has arrived in my scrapatch and it has been alternately

 gray and windy and then sunny and bright.

Fall always makes me want to sit and stitch  

while sipping a warm cup of latte.

Three of my kitties, Nutmeg and Maestro and Cassian,

 like their own dish of foamy milk.

Yes, the kitty is on the table.

Yes, I wash the table afterwards.

The kitties also have beds on my cutting table when I sit there to stitch.

I like their company.

Katniss is snuggled down in that fluffy clamshell kitty bed.

Nutmeg is on the furry blanket in the corner.

Maestro, as usual, takes a more "paws on" approach to helping me.

Cassian, who has not yet taken an active approach to helping my stitching and sewing efforts, is nearby in a comfy chair where he was taking a nap.

Cassian says, "You go stitch; let me snooze."

The kitties and I are making slow and steady progress on my

My Stitch-Tober 2023 Project ~ Started Here

For more Stichtober past and present ideas check out this

FQS Flosstube Stitch-tober 2023

Time to stitch!

Even on sunny days with the house lights on, 

I still need my 

Halo Go Rechargeable Table Lamp

which I bought at Fat Quarter Shop many years ago. 

My newest invaluable stitching tool find is are these high magnification

Stitchy Readers from Riley Blake @ FQS

I have the 5.0 magnification.

There are other helpful notions for those of us who need help to see and stitch:

Click Here for more Stitchy Readers and Craft Lights @ FQS

Hope you find what works for you if you need helpful tools these days!.

May you have a happy day of sewing and stitching today! 

Please join my friends  @

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color 

and have a Happy Thursday! 

Scrappy Saturday Sewing with the Scrapatch Cats

 

The kitties and I have been busy sewing more scrappy blocks for our

Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt

Maestro prefers to help in my piecing and pressing area. 

Maestro has been sew helpful.

Here she is staring at me because I am not winding more bobbins.

Maestra loves winding bobbins and would carry them away 

to inspect them for quality issues, if permitted. 

Nutmeg prefers to help with on the cutting table and with block layout. 

Nutmeg gives the "tail of approval" to proceed with this block. 

Once in awhile, kitty needs her nap in my cutting table kitty bed. 

I make good use of this time.

I now have seven of the Block A units finished.

Six more to go! 

Happy Scrappy Saturday Sewing ! 

Scrappy Saturday ~ Yarn Scrap Style

 

Scrappy Saturday ~ Yarn Scrap Project

When I was quilting daily, I used to very often take a break on Saturdays and play with my fabric scraps for the day.  Since I have been sitting and stitching with my yarn instead of sewing at my machine, I am playing with my yarn scraps today. 

The yarn that is stitched in the bottom of the photo is from my current project.

The center of the scrap project is this sample swatch I made in the Honeycomb Tunisian Crochet stitch.  After making this I decided this color changing yarn was not well suited to this stitch and chose a different one for the shawl I am making for one of my friends.

I relegated a whole ball of this new yarn to the scrap pile after Nutmeg attacked it with her sharp teeth and claws as soon as I took it out of the plastic packaging

I have a video of this and Maestro also snagging my yarn at

The Scrapatch Cats on TikTok

where I have a very minimal presence,

just so I do not look like an anonymous lurker when I like and comment. 

Trying to gently pry the new ball of yarn away from the Nutmeg only made it worse.

My kitties say, "Not us!  See how angelic looking and helpful we are?"

Nutmeg loves to lay on lap on top of my current project. 

I started randomly adding borders to the sample swatch with the scrap ball of yarn and my regular crochet hook.

What am I making?

I am making a crocheted kitty blanket.

I surprised Maestro who was having a nap on the sofa near me 

and asked her to model it for size. 

I am hoping that if I make them blankets with my scrap yarn 

they may happily make these fuzzy while biscuit making 

instead of my larger crocheted blankets and shawls and scarves. 

So I am now adding more borders with the small gray and pink balls of yarn 

left from my ...

 Patchwork Crochet Sampler Throw

My kitties love scrappy projects as much as I do.

They are my purrrrfect scrapatch cats.

What are you working on today>?

Are you sewing and stitching scrappy?

I Like Thursday # 80 ~ Quilty Kitty Love

 

"Good Morning and Welcome to I Like Thursday.

Quilty Kitty Maestro here bringing you today's post."

"I am the computer kitty @ Life in the Scrapatch.

Here I am watching 

Kimberly @ Fat Quarter Shop Flosstube

yesterday with Mommy.

I like to chase Kimberly's lovely manicured nails.

Mommy says I make a better door than a window, 

but I have no idea what that means.

I am not moving, if that is what she means.

I like it when Mommy pets me while I do my computer work.

We kitties deserve love and appreciation."

"While I was on the computer, Mommy cross stitched.

Katniss was the designated cross stitch helper of the day."

" Katniss helped by chasing the needle and floss on the back of the cross stitch.

Good work, Katniss, keeping Mommy busy while I am on the computer."

"My little sister Nutmeg was on perimeter detail

and was keeping the birds and the squirrels away.

Nutmeg makes a lot of noise when there is an intruder alert at the back door.

Then Mommy and me and Katniss stop work to come to her aide.

I do not like this visitor, although Mommy says he is a very nice cat

and we should not hiss and growl at him.

Mommy says he is clearly well cared for and has a home and 

he will not be coming to live with us so we should not be jealous.

Really?  Jealous?  Us?  

Well, I never!"

"Extra kitty kisses to my baby sister kitty

for chasing off the intruder kitty and other critters."

"It was a busy day so we all snuggled in for a well deserved sleep. 

Mommy says it was cold and a 'Three Cat Night,'

whatever that means.

~

Before I sign off here, Mommy says I need to link up

 with all the other peeps and critters at the ...

I Like Thursday Bloggers @ Not Afraid of Color

and to have a Happy Thursday!" 

... from the Scrapatch Cats.