Cwtch growing up

My little found kitten is growing!

Big round eyes!

He is entertained by watching videos for cats on the computer screen.

Cwtch is as big as Roscoe now, although still weighs less.  He goes on walks with us all the way to the river which is half a mile.  He gets a little scared crossing the field, and won't go past the cows if they are too close.  But he especially loves walking through the woods and climbing trees, pouncing on leaves.  He has an appointment with the vet on Saturday to get neutered which I hate to do but it must be done.  He is so much fun!  I hope the neutering doesn't change his personality.

Meet Cwtch

While walking in my back field about a month ago I heard some meowing.  I followed the sound and soon discovered a little gray kitten hiding in the grass in the now dry creek bed.  I'd guess he was only 8 weeks old.  I had some dog kibble in my pocket and tossed him some and he dove on it and ate it right up.  Decided to take the dogs home and came back with more food and water for the little guy.  He was still there and came right out to eat some more and let me pick him up.  He wasn't feral, that's for sure!  What could I do but bring him home?  I'd said I didn't want to look for another cat after my Charlie died back in March.  But the universe sent me this one so now I have a cat again.

He was totally unafraid of the dogs, seemed very socialized and calm.  I have no idea where he came from but people often drop their unwanted pets off out here, that is all I can guess.  He has a home now!  We named him Cwtch, (rhymes with Butch) you can read about the name here if you'd like.  Here is a quick definition of this Welsh word:  ‘…Cwtch, which has long been a familiar word in the Welsh language, was given two definitions: noun (Welsh) 1. a cupboard or cubbyhole. 2. a cuddle or hug.’ 
Also means a safe place, which he certainly found here.

So of course I had to paint him.

As you can see if the video comes through, Cwtch isn't afraid of the dogs!  He loves Roscoe and is constantly pouncing on him and chasing him.  Roscoe is slightly baffled by this, he is usually the one bugging the other animals!

l

This one is my favorite:

 

The little guy is growing fast!  He already seems a teenager, complete with some bratty behavior.  But he is a joy and so much fun to watch him race around and play.  I am grateful he came into our lives.

 

Latest quilt

Finished another quilt last week.  This one is from the Stack the Deck book and is titled Razzle Dazzle.  It measures about 58"X70". 

I've started cutting another one out but today the sun showed its face so have been outside doing things.  I'll get back to work on it once the rain returns.
Gifted the Laurel Burch crazy quilt to Gwen.

Gifted the Asian style quilt to Tess.

Hung the red and blue batik quilt on my wall, I might keep this one, I love it.  See the little knot bag I made just below it?

Here is a close up.

I had to make it because I enjoyed doing the kantha stitching on this scarf so much:

and now I have begun a lap quilt in kantha stitch.  That will take me awhile to finish. 

On a sad note, my kitty Charlie was struck down by a paralysis and had to be put down.  He is badly missed.  He was my last cat and I loved him a lot.  Bye Charlie Bone♥ 

Sun is still shining, I better get out for a walk with the dogs.  Hope you all get some sun too!
Be well.

Better

I like this quilt much better now that I have added these changes.

 I purchased a Laurel Burch Embracing Horses panel from ebay.  They are out of print but still plenty for sale in various color ways.  I'm glad I chose this one, I think it is perfect.

This is what it used to look like before I added the panel right over the top.

 I did a little stitching over the horses to the background panel.  This shows the reverse side.

 Then I fussy cut some swirly shapes from another fabric and used misty fuse to attach them before free motion stitching them down.  Finally I stitched it all down carefully over the already finished quilt.

I had pieced together some soft rayon fabric for the back of the quilt.  I think it will make a nice gift, now.  I appreciate all the advice my good blog readers gave me, advice that I used to good effect.  What do you think?  Better??

Now I need to get back to the batik quilt, it is patiently waiting to be quilted. I will leave you with a picture of my cat Charlie, sitting on my painting table.

Within the Stream

The Seasons--The Rain  2002

 

Look at me!  Blogging twice in one month!  I thought I'd show you something I have been working on over the past year.  A friend had requested a wall quilt from me.  Years ago she had commissioned the one above (sorry for the lousy photo, it is the only one I have, taken before I went digital)  She wanted another one, the same size, but depicting more of a wintery feel.

beginnings

 

 She indicated the colors she wanted with little colorful folded papers and knitted swatches shown above, and described the feeling she hoped I could portray.  She wrote: "The idea of light /darkness continues to be important to me.  With this theme, 'Within the Stream of Providence'.  A feeling of a spiral, with a simplicity of form and color with a sense of movement.  Deeper tonalities for winter."

choices

Armed with her thoughts on theme, and her colored papers for reference, I began pulling fabrics.  I used only my own hand dyed stash, they seemed perfect for my needs.

helper


Charlie supervised the process and generously held down my cut fabric wedges.  I freely cut similarly shaped, varying sized fabric pieces and laid them down, over lapping their raw edges, on top of a layer of batting topped with a layer of fusible interfacing.  It almost fit on top of my tall library table, but I needed my ironing board space also.  This was supposed to end up as a 36"X68" size wall quilt, so of course it had to be made larger, leaving room to cut off and even up the edges.

I spent many hours choosing fabrics and arranging them in a flowing colorway.  The top was the darker area and I tried to meld the colors towards lighter, sun splashed area as I reached the lower zones.

I was imagining an ocean flow, caught during the change from stormy to the return of sun splashed calm, with one rolling wave that was my interpretation of her theme of spiraling.

With the fusible interfacing underneath, I was able to fuse my raw edged fabrics down when I was happy with the flow, and move the piece to my design wall so I could get a different view.   There are bits of other works that can be seen around the edges, try to ignore those.  You can see the ribbon I pinned down to show me the area where I wanted to enhance the spiraling wave flow.

Within the Stream  2012

I worked on this off and on for a year, although there was a lot of off time.  This past week I finally made time to make a label for it, and mailed it off to my friend.

close up showing the dense free motion stitching using variegated thread I used to hold all the raw edge fabrics down.

I used a pillowcase style  backing application using an old sheet that I dyed to match with the front colors.  My friend called me soon after she received it and said, "It is fine!"  She loved it.  I had not shared any photos of work in progress with her so she didn't know what to expect.  She pointed out how different my style was in this one compared to the earlier one.  She thought it had a more collaged look to it, almost like it was made of paper.  Which is funny, seeing as I now work mainly with mixed media, collage and paper.

I'm glad to have that piece out of the studio but now am wondering what I shall do next.  This is normally my most productive studio time, in the winter.  I shall ponder the next big thing.  In the meantime, I am working in my journals and making little books.    I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my work process.  Till next time, 

Be well.

Winners!

Thank you to all who entered my giveaway.  I with I could gift each and every one of you with a beaded heart.   Your reasons for wanting this heart were varied and sometimes amusing but always gratifying.  I couldn't decide so I resorted to asking Chainsaw Man to pick a number and he chose 17 which means Susan of  Art of Mine is the winner.  Then, to make up for my changing of the rules, I decided to give a second heart away and again, had Chainsaw Man pick another number, which was 13 and so the second heart goes to Gabie of http://perlenkatzes-schmuckblog.blogspot.com/.  I didn't count the comments from people who have already received hearts from me.  I will gift these hearts and then I will begin making some for sale since I have had a few requests.  I'll let you know when that happens.  I shall let Susan choose to have a special heart made just for her in her choice of colors and charms.

I am quite honored that you all were so eager to receive one of my pieces of art.  Thanks for playing along.

On a different subject, and in order to have a couple photos, here is where the situation with Charlie and my new dog Sadie stands.  Charlie is adjusting.  He didn't flee growling when Sadie laid down this close.  Progress!!

Cute Charlie paws.

Be well. 

Autumn Joy

Here is my little buddy Charlie. He is such a help in the studio.

This is what he was helping me with. It is about 12"x12". I used fabric paper for the background, some dyed lace and paper beads. No birds were harmed in the collecting of the feathers, I found them loose on the ground. This one is titled Autumn Joy.

Be well.