Tags
cats, embroidery, Make-A-List Monday, Othello, Pasco, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Wade Park, Washington

Nature Refuge in Othello, WA
Make-A-List Monday is an idea that I borrowed from Sarah Craig over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and I thank her for inspiring me to try it!
A little late, but still in there swingin’!
Let’s see how I did on my list from 3/15:
- Top priority: make my sister’s birthday present.
Done! Took about forever, but look how cute these cat coasters turned out!
Somebody posted the link for these on one of my Facebook sewing groups a while ago and I just KNEW I had to make them for my sister. She just got new furniture for her living room, so I made them in coordinating colors. The fabric is hand-dyed wool felt from the stash, and the picture doesn’t do it justice–it is gorgeous stuff.
Lots of TINY bits of felt here; I used Tacky Glue to hold things in place, then used a blanket stitch on the larger pieces, running stitch on the tiny ones (the instructions just say to “stitch” without specifying how).
- Make the Kaffee Fassett dress.
Almost done–just need to attach the bodice to the skirt, sew hems, and do buttons and buttonholes. And I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. Might have been better if I’d used the collar?? Hmmm . . . .
- Do a Make-a-List Monday post, hopefully on Monday.
Well, I got to it eventually.
- Stretch goal: do last few bits of spiffing up in my sewing room and take some pictures.
Nope. I usually clean up the sewing room after I finish a project, and I’m still in the middle of working on that dress, so it’s a bit scary in here right now.
Goals for this week are mostly to tidy up unfinished business as the quarter is ending and I’ll need to link up my finishes.
- Finish the dress.
- Do a post about it.
- Do a post about the cycling jacket (still don’t have pics!)
- Work on some more Splendid Sampler blocks. I’m really longing to get to some of the blocks that have applique and embroidery!
- Test at least one of the circle skirt tutorials I’ve found online in preparation for next month’s class at SCRAP.
In the meantime, here a little bit of what’s been happening here:
New fabric! I did some house-sitting for my mother and sister while they were in Oregon last week, and they brought back this Kaffe Fassett jelly roll for me. According to my sister, she had to talk my mother out of getting the pastel cabbage rose fabric–TOTALLY dodged a bullet there.
I also got this lightweight border print (well, it’s actually embroidered, but you know what I mean) denim at SCRAP the other day. I saw this post and knew this fabric would be perfect for that pattern. It’s a little wrinkly in this pic, but not bad considering this is after two days sitting in the dryer (hey, I’ve been busy).
I went to the Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello the other day, thinking I might learn something about the local birds. What I actually learned: birders are very nice people, but I will never, ever be excited enough about which sparrow is which to be one of them. Also, you get some pretty premium swag when you go to the Sandhill Crane Festival.
And spring is here! With the accompanying allergies and gale-force winds! Here are some tiny flowers I found in Wade Park, next to the walking path.
Have a great week, everybody, and I hope you’re getting some spring wherever you are.
STH
What a sunny, uplifting post. Great coasters!!
I hope she likes them.
I am glad to hear you dodged the cabbage rose bullet. 🙂
So many interesting and charming projects…
I have been meaning to join the field naturalists club here and even have my binoculars…I wonder if I will have the same reaction. A colleague of mine is an avid birder who lights up when I ask him bird questions. That said, he is such an internal sort of person that I know nothing else abut him after ten years. There’s a quirky Canadian movie featuring William Hurt about the odd nature of bird watching ( Rare Birds). It’s quite entertaining to a point and then it gets a bit ridiculous.
Have fun with that lovely fabric and good luck with the dress. I am still eager to see the cycling jacket.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!
It would probably be more interesting to go out with a group and learn from them; then you’d have a feeling for what the birds are that you’re actually likely to see from day to day where you live. The problem that I had is that there are zillions of birds that migrate through here on their way up north, and the Fish and Wildlife Service woman was going through all her slides of them at a breakneck pace, and it just turned into a huge, indigestible mass of information. 😛 But if you actually go out and look for birds, what you’ll mostly see are the ones that live there year-round, with maybe a few others that you can look up. That, I think, is a much better way to learn, and would probably be really fun!
I love getting people to talk about their passions–like you say, they just light up and it’s always fun and interesting. 🙂
LikeLike
Oooo! I love everything! I love the first picture. The coasters are adorable. The embroidered denim is lovely. Cute kitty, and I love tiny spring wildflowers. I’m not sure but those look like some we have around here that are my favorites.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Do you happen to know the name of the flower you have in mind? I am completely hopeless when it comes to local flora and fauna and I’d like to learn a bit more. I don’t think your climate is all that different from ours–probably a bit wetter, but these flowers were close to the river and it’s wetter over there.
I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy that denim since I first saw it at SCRAP months ago! There’s five yards (60″ wide), so I may have enough for a dress and a short-sleeved shirt; it’s very drapey and lightweight, so would work for a shirt.
LikeLike
Your coasters are adorable! Lucky sister. You’ve posted some grand pics here, love the nosy kitties, the embroidered fabric (what will it be?), and those sweet little purple flowers. Isn’t spring a marvelous time?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, “marvelous” is exactly the right word! I hope it hangs around a while longer, though–temps here are supposed to be near 80F tomorrow!
The cats do love to photobomb, and that’s just fine with me; they always make my pictures better. I think Shelby the Magpie was actually testing to see if she could lift that jelly roll and carry it off when I took the picture–she can be a bit of a handful, that one. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! It’s safe to say I presume, that Shelby did not make off with that roll! Our spring is just toying with us….warm one day and chilly the next. We are predicted to have snow tomorrow!!
LikeLiked by 1 person