Fat Cat in the Stash

There's a new fat cat in the stash...  and every time I see him I have to laugh.

I have never worked with pieces so small.  The piece with fussy cut eyes was less than 3/4" square.  I had no choice on the size as there were other eyes all around them that needed to be kept out of the finished block.  I kind of messed up the head.  You'll notice it's a little square rather than heart shaped.  But those eyes are fantastic.  I have been struggling with getting back to my Crumb-Along piecing, and this little block got me all motivated again.

It wasn't lack of enthusiasm for crumb blocks....  I'm supposed to be making words, but I'm not very good at it, and I don't have the book.  (I'm guessing that having some instruction might make the process more enjoyable.)  Making letters is really a long process for me, fraught with a lot of grunting, teeth clenching, head scratching and seam ripping (and quite a few bad words being spoken aloud).  As a result, I seem to have come up with every excuse in the world for not making them (including housework so that should tell you how hard it is for me).  I've decided to skip them, finish making enough crumb blocks to make this quilt project the right size and not worry about word blocks for now.  I do want to make letters and words - even have an all-word project in mind.  And I will learn how to do it (sez I, with determination).  I just need to get a copy of Tonya's book if I want to maintain what little bit of sanity I have.

And crumb blocks are going to be part of my regular routine from now on.  There are so many fantastic liberated piecing designs I've recently discovered and want to try out in the next crumb quilt.  There's a fantastic long list of tutorials linked here on Michele Bilyeu's blog With Heart and Hands.  I left the crumbs out for some more piecing tonight (with the baseball game on in the background, of course).

In addition to the new cat block, I finished making the next six blocks for the Shady Lanes project today.

And substituted half-square triangle trimming for my usual daily scrap trimming.  Another day of trimming these bonus HSTs from the Shady Lane sashing strips and I will be getting back to the pile or ironed scraps from the big scrap bin.

In recognition of the inspiration he provided, Lucas received 3 cat treat goodies, and nearly took off the end of my finger in his enthusiasm.  He's still out of sorts about the diet I've got him on, but has stopped making pitiful yowling noises around the empty food dish between meals.