Of mice and cats

Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been? Abducted by aliens, decked out in green.

Ooops, too much time spent watching X-Files reruns. I never saw it when it originally played on TV, but my (retired) partner subscribes to a channel that plays old movies and TV series. And he loves it.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been sewing. I made Rusty and Ginger their first prototype catnip mouse last week – without the catnip. I made it from some scraps of canvas because Ginger has eaten every single cloth toy I’ve given her. And I stuffed it with a wad of flannelette, just in case they were able to chew it open and get at the stuffing. For the tail, I used a piece of cotton butcher’s cord. Well, the first ear was gone within a minute and became an accessory toy. And Rusty had eaten the tail within five minutes (and passed it intact the following day). But they still love their stuffed-canvas-with-one-ear toy. It still flies across the kitchen floor just fine!

I also finished the paper-pieced mariner’s star that has been sitting around for many months. Advice around blogland is that you don’t put unfinished projects away, because out of sight is out of mind. Eventually someone in the house will get so tired of looking at them that you’ll either finish them or you’ll throw them out the door.

I didn’t have any idea of what to do with the centre, so I tried out some different fabric. Hard to choose because I don’t really know what I eventually want to do with this, if anything. If you look at it closely, you’ll see that I won’t be getting all of my points if/when I sew a background to it. The pattern is beautiful; I should have been more careful. The paper-pieced pattern is called Mariner’s Watch by Nancy Rink and I found the star pattern in the April/May 2011 issue of Quilt.

I had to applique the circle in the centre, so I placed some different fabric underneath to see the effect before I actually sewed it on. Even after I cut out the fabric I’d chosen, I had second thoughts. But it’s done now.

I’m working on some Halloweeny stuff at the moment, which you’ll see later.

We’ll have a New Moon tomorrow (Monday) at 22 Libra. That’s more exciting for me, personally, that usual because it’s happening less than a degree away from my Sun’s natal placement (natal meaning “at birth”). The New Moon is exact just after 5 am Pacific Daylight Time. For the next month you may find that your best intentions to get your work done is a bit “loosey-goosey” as Jupiter squares Venus – a lovely aspect for starting all sorts of new projects and finishing none, which Jupiter trining the New Moon (Sun conjunct Moon) means that won’t really bother you because you’ll be enjoying whatever you do. Mars trine Uranus at the same time gives energy to some unusual projects.

Until next time,