Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Velvet's tent

I am a quilter. I am a quilter. I am a quilter.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that the sewing room upstairs is not just a storage area. It is the place I sew. Sometimes. Recently it is cold and my sewing room has no heat so it is a struggle to go up there and sew. And then I remind myself that Velvet lives there and would like company and HEAT. I bought Vel a little seat warmer (made for pets! How cool is that!) and have set up his own warm tent.

In Japan, cats (and people) like to sit in the kotatsu, a low table with a heating element in it and heavy quilts over it all. It is a wonderful appliance (if you can get down on your knees) and it is amazing how warm the whole body stays if just your lower body is heated. Unfortunately the quilts all over the floor take up space so right now Tetsu and I aren't using kotatsu though we had two for the kids when they were into their heavy studying days and had to hibernate upstairs.

ANYWAYS... I have made Velvet a sort of cat kotatsu (they sell those too for about $80 apiece!) and put a fleece blanket under my ironing table, the seat warmer, and covered the whole thing with one of the kids old quilts. It makes for a good cat hiding place and hopefully Velvet stays warm when I'm not around.

BUT, I did do a bit of sewing on my Mexican Star Batik quilt (remember that? Yeah, quite awhile ago... It is still waiting to be quilted.) I decided to put in pebbles and have been working on different sizes. I can't really tell how this is working out but the pebbles give it all a lot of texture. Just a bit more to go!





Mrs. Nakazawa called me this morning with news of her kitty Mick. Mick lived a great life of 18 years and Mrs. Nakazawa has been completely devoted. I hope other kitties will get a chance to live with Mrs. Nakazawa in the future. I know Mick would approve. Thank you for thinking of them.

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