Once upon a time there was a cat named Mars. She is a little orange ginger cat who is definitely the queen of our house. We love her dearly and, are entertained frequently, by her antics. Mars is not quite as lively as she once was, when she was a kitten,(she soon will be 14 years old). However, she is not immune to adventures both quilty and non- quilty.. This spring she decided to check out the world outside for a couple of days. She is an indoor cat so we spent a couple of days being frantic for her safety. When she returned, she just sauntered up to our back door, oblivious to all the mayhem she had caused. As you can see, she is the queen of all she surveys...Why would you lay on one quilt when you can lay on four or five.. By the way, her favorite quilt is the leaf quilt..
Sometimes Mars likes to come and help me cut- you can see she was a terrific assistant while I was using my cutting board. Occasionally, she likes to sew too (unfortunately I can not locate the photo of her checking out my sewing machine while I was piecing).
A number of years ago I created this cat wall hanging as a gift for these dear friends. It is a pattern from a book called Rotary Magic by Nancy Szeboro Johnson. There are 10 cats included because it was a gift for their 10th wedding anniversary.
I used a number of different notions to add details to the individual cats- there are buttons, lace, beads and embroidery flossed used to add detail. They are supposed to be looking out the window- something that Mars loves to do..
Sometimes Mars likes to sleep on the end of our bed- This star quilt was made for the International Year of Astronomy as a gift for my husband.
Often Mars turns herself into a doughnut shape on my quilts. This quilt is an anniversary wallhanging made for my in laws. Mars always was found laying on the photo of our family.
Can cats discriminate pictures? I don't know, but I do know, that she never chose to lay extended on it, nor did she lay on my husband's sister's family who are in the right bottom corner of the hanging.
Mars loves to lay on the top of the loveseat or back of the sofa.. Perhaps its the vantage point, or maybe its because she usually finds a quilt to lay on in those places. Mars also likes to crawl under the quilts when I have them laid out on the love seat. We only know that she is present, because we will see the tip of her tail or the tell tale bulge in the quilt, as she runs underneath the quilt. She test drives all of my quilts - this one lives with my uncle and aunt. It is called Twisted Strips and is a pattern freely available from Bonnie K Hunter's quiltville website Quilts and quips.
You know the expression" let sleeping dogs lie"?- Well, I think it should read Cat is sleeping do not dare to disturb!! Here she is laying in her favorite doughnut pose. The quilt is made from 2 batik layer cakes and the pattern is a 10 minute block. It was a very fun quilt to make..
When our son moved to Charlottetown area last summer,we had a number of large boxes in our living room. At the time, I was working on this Music of my heart wedding quilt( pattern from one of Kaffe Fassett's books). Mars didn't let the height of the boxes deter her from her typical daily laying around.
Mars can often be found laying in boxes, bags or baskets.. She likes to lay with my fabric and will choose the piles of fabric in my sewing room or my cut strips like these bits in this basket. Mars doesn't care whether the basket is big enough or not- she will just make her body conform to the size of the container. Like all of us, this was once an easier thing for her to do, when she young and more agile...
Well here she is - The Princess and the pea has got nothing on Mars- The top wall hanging is a Chantelle flower based on a Ricky Timms technique. As long there are a pile of quilts or fabric, Mars is guaranteed to find it. It will be her chosen place to have her daily 20 hours of napping.. A girl has to do what she can to maintain her beauty sleep!!!
"Mars and our quilts" is my contribution to the Pets on Quilts blog hop. I am including a couple of photos of our schnoodle dog, Dusty, just so you know that we are sort of an equal opportunity family- both cats and dogs have our hearts. Dusty is laying on some cat mats I made for our son's cat tree.The quilt behind her is a coin quilt that I made for Bruce. |
Dusty has her own idiosyncrasies - unfortunately for her she is terrified of thunderstorms. This summer we have had a number of them . Here, she is hiding behind the sofa nestled up against the pillow and quilt. We have yet to find another way to help her feel safe during a storm. |
Dusty and Mars are tolerant of each other's existence. Our Venus dog and Mars were great buddies - Mars and Dusty- not so much. This photo says it all!
Notice how they face opposite directions from one another even when they nap.
" Click on the icon here or on the top right corner of my blog for a link to the schedule for the pets on quilts blog hop.
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There are two other blog hops going on right now- they are of a different nature- They focus on Christmas kinds of blocks. You may want to check out
http://lesleythecuddlequilter.blogspot.ca/2012/07/think-christmas-blog-hop-schedule.html- It is partially over but there are some great blocks to be seen and some giveaway prizes chances available too.
The other one you may want to visit is
http://henryglassfabrics.blogspot.ca/ where a number of designers are sharing some Christmasy ideas too. I think there are some prizes for this blog hop as well. One of the things I love best about blog hopping is that I get introduced to some new ideas and new to me bloggers.
I am working on a couple of new quilts- This weekend I am attending a workshop where I am going to try out my new to me featherweight- It will be fun to piece on a machine that is even older than me.. LOL
I was planning to write about our recent trip to the mountains where we checked out some stores in the Canadian Rockies - more about that next time...
Until then- stay cool, or warm- if you are in the southern Hemisphere. Thanks for dropping by- I hope you will come and visit again soon.
Warmest regards,
Anna
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