First Friday of 2022 | Kittens, Project Bags, and Quilts – Oh My!

Happy First Friday of 2022! It’s still dark as I type this, but I caught a glimpse of snow as I peeked through the porch light this morning. A snow day? I’ll take it.

If you can believe it, 4/5 of us still have some lingering symptoms of whatever that illness was from Christmas, myself included. With one thing after the other, it’s been a hard 3-4 weeks. But we’ll eventually get through this, one day at a time. I have some crafting projects to share, but much of my crafty time has been way-laid by a new obsession:

In early December I shared that a kitty started living in our shed. I kept feeding it, hoping it would eventually become less skittish. It kept approaching our back porch, eating the food and drinking the milk, but wasn’t becoming any less skittish than it had been. On New Year’s Eve, I decided to take drastic measures. We bought a Havahart trap because I was worried about it being out in winter temperatures in New Hampshire. The sweet little thing wasn’t even heavy enough to trip the trigger on it! So we rigged it up a little and were able to bring it inside. It got loose in the basement and we didn’t see it for about 24 hours, but it’s slowly getting acclimated to us. (I keep saying “it” because I haven’t been close enough to determine its sex. I’m trying not to push things.)

We have a cat flap built into our basement door because that’s where August comes/goes for his food, water, and litter box. This little kitten sits at the top of our basement steps, staring through the cat door, studying us. It will come out after the two youngest go to bed at night, which is when I snapped this photo. As I type this, I’m sitting in the basement and everyone else is in bed, and I can hear August and the kitten running back and forth through the house. I hope it will come/go more freely in the coming weeks! And yay! A new kitten!

(I hope it’s a girl. If it is, I’m naming her Agnes. I think that goes well with our other cat’s name, August.)

While the new kitten was loose but unseen in the basement on Friday night, I spent some time down down here so that it would get used to me being around. So I made a new project bag for Annie Bayliss! I’m hoping to always have a reproduction sampler going and thought this fabric was a lot of fun and honors vintage women. It’s a Cotton and Steele print from 2015. The yellow dot fabric on the back is a Dear Stella print. I used a flower print from Moda Fabrics (sorry, not sure which designer) for the lining.

I did something different for this one. While sewing the front and back pieces together, I used the zigzag stitch. There are fraying threads along the seams in my other project bags and I was hoping this would help. I’m not sure if I like it, to be honest. It turned out a bit wonky in some places, but I think it’s just because I need to practice using zigzag a little more? I was having a difficult time catching all four layers of fabric despite being sure I had trimmed it all down to the same size. (This was one of those moment when I wished I would have had a serger to neaten up my work. But those things are scary! and expensive.)

And after a long break from my Bloom quilt, I finally finished the twelfth block. I was definitely out of practice on a lot of the techniques, but got the job done. I hope to get the entire third row sewn onto the quilt before my next Friday catch up post. It’s been so much fun to watch this project grow (or bloom?)!

I’ve done a bit of cross stitching this week too, but I’ll save those updates for next week.

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This is going to be quite the weekend for television for me, especially given that there aren’t many shows that I watch regularly. The season finale of Dexter: New Blood is on Sunday and I’m on pins and needles waiting for the resolution. I’ve really enjoyed this season and am hoping it continues next year. Also on Sunday: the return of All Creatures Great and Small. You guys, I am STOKED. I’m trying to get a heel turned on a sock so that I’m ready to curl up with a cup of tea and some knitting and lose myself in British farmland. And Border Collies. And gorgeous knitted sweaters. I’ve been waiting for this season since they announced it in early 2021 and can’t believe the time has finally come! Also: I’ve gotten a lot of the threads and the linen for this year’s Sunday Stitch, so I’m hoping to get started on that.

I hope this weekend is exactly what you need. That it’s full of rest, fun, and plenty of warm drinks if you’re in a cooler climate (and cool drinks if it’s warm where you are!). Please stay safe and cozy!