Wednesday 28 May 2014

Sewing busybee

I think we've skipped summer and fast forwarded to autumn, it's been a wet and miserable cold day. I've gone back to knee length socks and a fleece in the house, and got my old warm jacket out for dog walking. The council in their wisdom sent the grass cutters out to mow the village communal grass areas and verges, you should see what a mess they have made of it. The machines are far too heavy and sink into the sodden ground leaving our lovely village green like a herd of cattle have trampled through it. Mud bath describes it at the moment, with ten days to go to our fete. I can't see it recovering by then unless we get several days of sunshine to dry it out. 
Another day of sewing, and another project finished. I started this ages ago, and put it down to make a bigger cat mat. That one went to the rescue pens, this smaller one I am keeping. 
The fleece offctuts are hand stitched onto a piece of tatty stained bed sheet which I was using as a table cloth. The underneath is very wrinkled, which has pulled the whole thing out of shape. It doesn't matter though, the cats will never notice that it's a bit wonky.

I chose a piece of pink floral cotton for the backing, and a piece of old flannelette sheet for the sandwich bit in the middle. Lay the backing face down....

and fold it over at the front, pin in place to make a border, and run the machine round.

All done. I have run the machine all over it in a zigzag stitch, for the quilty bit. None of it is straight, all higgledypiggledy. 


I've got more fleece offcuts to play with but will move onto something else now. I don't like to do too much of the same thing. Variety is what I like.

I've brought my salad leaf bowl into the kitchen now, out of the way of the slugs and rain. All growing nicely so handy to pick a few leaves when I need them.

Dinner tonight was cold pasta. I made lots yesterday, enough for lunch and dinner today. I like it cold as well as hot. I mixed in some tartar sauce, one year out of date, hence the price of 30p. Also green pesto, grated carrot, and salad leaves, one tomato and two boiled eggs. Made a lovely meal. Quick and easy to do.

It's still raining, going to do some more sewing to keep me busy. Toodle pip.

16 comments:

  1. Very clever of you to turn the backing fabric to the front to make the border = I think I will have to try that. Natalie

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  2. Love the cat mat Xx Laura

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  3. Bet the cats will love it, I know my whiskas would. Thanks for sending your address, I shall post you the beads etc tomorrow hun.

    X x

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  4. What a colorful and pretty cat mat! Hope summer returns for you; I wish I could send you some of our hot weather.

    Your pasta looks delicious! You are braver than I am though, don't think I would have added the year out of date tartar sauce.

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  5. What a lovely colourful cat mat.
    Rosezeeta.

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  6. Lovely cat mat looks very comfy and soft. I used that same method of backing and boarder/edge for some place mats I made a while ago. I didn't want to faff about doing a proper edge.
    Carolx

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  7. It looks like a stained glass window Ilona. Like you, I love strong colours.
    Arilx

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  8. I love this - it's so cheerful! Lucky cats!

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  9. Mary in Perth Australia29 May 2014 at 11:12

    Very snuggly looking. I love it.

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  10. Love the luxury cat blanket! Perfect for this Autumnal May! It's raining here too and I went for a bike ride this morning. Surprisingly invigorating - definitely not as bad as walking in the rain!

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  11. We mow the council grass ourselves to avoid mess, the chap whose job it is never complains about less work.. Maybe the village need to do this in future, for the fete. love the cat mat.

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  12. I like your food styling - the way you arranged the tomato wedges around the plate and put the eggy eyeballs together in the middle over a colorful bed of pasta and vegs. You always make your dishes so appealing and appetizing.

    Oh, and the cat quilt is also very stylish. I'm not sure I would have patience to cut up and sew back together all the little pieces. It must be that arranging the colors would be the fun part. The result is fantastic.
    Anne in Pennsylvania

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  13. Our local council have brought their grass cutting activities down to only twice a year due to cost cutting. I seriously fear they will need a combine harvester when they try and cut the already thigh-high grass come September. I never realised how much we relied on the council grass cutting teams before, the whole area has taken on a down-at-heel, raggedy appearance since the grass has grown so high and unsightly. Elizabeth.

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  14. your cat mat is a delight!

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  15. I love the hicklety-pickelty look of that cat mat.
    Dinner looks great!

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  16. What a lovely stained glass looking crazy quilt! What happened to mowing with the old-fashioned rotary lawnmowers? Or letting sheep graze on the grass? We own nearly two lots behind our cottage and we have seriously thought about finding one of those rotary lawnmowers because of the high cost of gasoline, but don't know if they manufacture them anymore. We could stand to have a little bit of exercise behind one of them. Farm animals on the other hand are not allowed within city limits any longer, so that's out! We have a disabled neighbor behind us that will mow our grass for us on his riding lawnmower just for something to do to get out of the house, but it's not fair for us to rely on his generosity all summer. And our city also passed a law a few summers ago that require lawns to be mowed before they get six inches tall or they will cite you with a ticket!

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