Beauty and a little cuteness!

In the summer of 2014 I signed up for the Primitive Gatherings summer block of the week.  Yes...block of the WEEK!  It's hard enough to keep up with a block of the month, but receiving a new block each week is a whole different challenge.  I will say that Lisa Bongean (the designer of this amazing quilt) gave me some advice at the beginning of this program, and that was to, at the very least, prep the block each week.  Even if you don't get them stitched - get them prepped.  I took that advice, and it was probably the only reason this quilt ever got finished.  Each week, if I didn't have my block prepped by Sunday, I just made myself take the time to do it.  I didn't completely keep up on the stitching, but I did work on it. I worked on the pieced blocks as I went too.  I had some of the rows sewn together, and then needed to work on a design of my own, so this got put on the back burner.  My friend Nancy and I get together a lot of Sundays and sew by Skype (it's the best!), and we decided that we were going to work on this quilt.  I'm so, so happy to have it finished - I love everything about it!  My quilter just delivered it to me on Wednesday and I can't wait to get the binding sewn on and hang it up.  There are lots of pictures for you to see all of the beautiful quilting that Kym Ward did on this.  I'm still discovering all of the extra things that she added.  Kym knew that I was just in awe of how Linda Hrcka quilted Lisa's quilt, and she did a lot of the same things on mine.  I could not be happier with it.  This is the "beauty" part of the post!

 Love the straight lines around the outer edge

 Look at all of that texture.  I have always loved curved cross hatching and was pleasantly surprised that Kym included some here!

 Love the extra little leaves that she quilted in

 Look at the dragonfly block!

 And the quilting on the bird nest!  The little baby birds also have quilting on them

 LOVE!

Isn't it just amazing?  I feel like I can't take much credit for this - Lisa did such a beautiful job on the design and on the fabric and wools that were part of the block of the week.  And Kym's quilting just blows me away - I don't even have the words to convey how much I love it!

Ok, now on to the cuteness!

By now you know that we love animals and have a lot of pets.  Well, last Saturday, I was in my sewing room and my husband came in, holding a little kitten!  He found it in the yard!  Upon closer inspection, this kitten was a mess.  He is missing a good share of fur, his ears were just caked with dirt, he was filthy, many of his whiskers are broken off, he was skinny - just a mess!  So we fed him and Greg made him a little bed.  Our thought was to feed him for a few days and see if we could get him a little bit healthier and then go from there.  He is super friendly and really sweet - not at all afraid of us or of the dogs, has a nice loud purr (I like a good purr!), but he does have a little cough, which I was worried about.  The worst thing about having a grubby little stray show up is not having a clue what might be wrong with him, and not wanting to put all of our other pets in harms way.  We waited a few days, then gave him a bath - he took it like a champ!  He didn't LOVE it, but he sat there and let us do it.  He still had a little cough so I decided to take him to the vet yesterday and get him checked out. Well, as you might expect, he had ear mites, and fleas, etc.  The grossest thing is that they think he has bad ringworm, which would cause the fur loss and skin condition, and according to the vet, could also be causing the cough.  He didn't have a temperature, so that was good.  He got some shots, and was treated for fleas and we have medicine to give him for the ringworm.  So here's a picture of him, on the way to the vet.  Oh...I've been calling him Mr. Grubby, or Grubbers - not sure if that name will stick or not.  The girls at the vet's office thought we should keep that name for him!

What fur he does have is gray, and his feet are kind of a light brown - we thought they were white and were just dirty, but it didn't wash off!  He was so good in the car - I didn't hear a peep out of him.  Another thing that we noticed is that he doesn't play.  Kind of sad!  We have tried to get him to chase a string, but he's just not interested.  And he doesn't like either bed we made for him.  Hubby just put a towel in a basket for him.  He pooped on the towel, and laid on a hard surface! He likes to lay out in the sun, but always lays on a rock, or something hard.  I haven't checked on him yet today, but I'm hoping that his skin and fur will start improving soon.

Hope you enjoyed the beauty and the cute little beast! - I'm linking up to Sarah's Blog for feline Friday!

Have a great weekend!