Progress report and mini bee

It's going to be simply wonderful to finally, after almost four years of study, have some more time for quilting. Here's what I've been working on during my bits of quilting time lately.

First, there are the Lady of the Lake blocks I got out when I went to visit my father a few weeks ago. After that weekend, I put in a little more time and got twenty more blocks finished. I sewed the last seams on these last evening and pressed them this evening. I now have a total of 104 blocks and need only 4 more to make the quilt I have in mind. Here they are, waiting for a chance to jump onto my design wall:

And, like so many other quilters, I have a Dear Jane quilt in (extremely slow) progress. I started working on my DJ almost exactly five years ago and have so far made 52 blocks. I'm stitching these by hand, mostly as my portable project. I'm a very slow and meticulous hand stitcher, so each block takes ages to finish. I am aware I could let go of my perfectionism a little and stitch faster, but I don't want to - this is how I like to do these blocks!

When I visited my mother and my step dad, I had brought a little block to sew. I actually finished it during the Easter weekend:

I think it turned out really well!

Yesterday evening my dear friend Merel joined me for a bee. We've been having our little two person bee at irregular times due to our busy schedules. We're both looking forward to getting together more frequently. We had a wonderful time catching up and Merel even brought me some lovely presents to celebrate Benny's adoption:

I just don't know which of these I like best: the beautiful calendar with oh so gorgeous quilts, the sweet pink fabric with the cutest little cat foot prints, or the pattern for a little cat quilt. Merel made this quilt too and I think it's adorable. You can see it here. And Benny really enjoys these cat treats, which makes me happy in turn! Thank you Merel, you're a wonderful and generous friend!

Please meet my new quilting buddy: Benny!

Wow, the past couple of weeks have just flown by. I won't bother you with all the details, but I've been so busy with work, family matters and other 'stuff', that quilting and blogging time was scarce. However, there's good news too: meet Benny!

I adopted Benny from the shelter last Friday. He was very shy in the shelter as he was bullied by a female cat. However, he obviously enjoyed me stroking him and according to the lady at the shelter Benny has a very friendly disposition. I liked him immediately too, so I invited him to come and live with me. He is still getting used to his new surroudings (including me, of course) but he is starting to relax. He follows me around wherever I go and loves to cuddle. I think we'll get along just fine! It will be fun to see what he makes of my sewing and if he will try to 'help'.

Here's Benny on his pillow, getting used to my sewing room. That's where he is right now, within two feet from where I'm sitting and typing this blog entry.

So there it is, I've joined the hordes of quilting cat personnel!