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May
3
That was way fun!
Filed Under Blog hops, Kittens Off Topic, Prizes | 5 Comments
Thank you so much to all 268 readers who entered the 100 Blocks drawing! That was a party!
I appreciate all the nice words about my cat-in-basket block, even from self-proclaimed non-cat people. Guess what? I’m really a dog person myself! However, we have the most incredible young cat right now that we are over the moon about.
Our cat Max, eight months old, giving a bath to foster kitten Priscilla, two months old.
The winner of a copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 5, is #106, Jocelyn. The reader who won a copy of my book Growing Hearts to Appliqué is #52, Cecilia. Congratulations to the both of you!
The contests are still going on, through the end of the week. Hurry on over to Quiltmaker for all the details.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Jan
6
The book goes to… and, what I got for Christmas
Filed Under Fabrics, Kittens Off Topic, Prizes | 13 Comments
Heather came up the winner in the draw for Pennies From Heaven. Congratulations Heather! She says she is particularly attracted to the valance since she has been toying with the idea of making one. Enjoy the book!
Every year the DH Dana puts some fat quarters in my stocking. (Yes, he’s a very good quilt husband.) This year, as I mentioned, he was in Oslo on a business trip in mid-December, so what should I pull out of my stocking but these beautiful things!
The apple fabric turned out to be an Alexander Henry, which he was bitterly disappointed to learn is a California fabric company LOL! I didn’t care, I love it!
He did better on the other two. I consulted Dr. Google and found that the Tilda fabric is designed by adorable Oslo native Tone Finnanger. Isn’t it gorgeous? Tone has a whole line of things that she has designed and it’s all to drool over.
Dana didn’t remember the name of the shop where he found the fabric, describing it as “sort of a craft store.” Luckily the label on the fabric enabled me to track it down to being Panduro Hobby in downtown Oslo.
And here’s what else I got for Christmas. You remember the Cavalcade of Kittens? And how I said there was a followup? You remember the very last batch, the ones with the sneezy noses?
A few days before Christmas I started getting a queasy feeling… queasy because I was terrified by it but still it was there… of thinking that maybe Max would stay. (He’s the one in the middle with the smush-face.) I brought it up with Dana and he was delighted! He was all for it, but understood my fear of commitment. After losing Willie and before that, three aged cats one by one, I felt like a widow enjoying the dating scene but not ready for a long-term relationship.
But truly, Max had all the qualities we would want in a cat, so I kept thinking about it. On Christmas Eve we turned out the lights at about 11:30 p.m. and Max came and draped himself purring over my neck and laid his face on my cheek for a pillow, and suddenly my heart opened up and the fear washed away, and I knew that he was a keeper. It had to be about midnight on Christmas morning.
Dana named him for his favorite childhood TV character Maxwell Smart. Max is a velvety soft, squishy, floppy five-month-old who loves to be picked up, held, hugged, kissed, turned upside down, draped over the shoulder, etc., purring all the while. He’s ours now, all officially adopted through the shelter, and fits in here like peas and carrots.
This cat knows how to relax.
Did I mention that he's floppy?
Under my ironing board.
Willie used to sleep at the base of my stash.
Max has chosen his spot, about four feet higher.
Face plant in the batiks.
To quote Dr. Seuss (and Anne Sutton, who recently told us the heartwarming story of Bitsy Button Sutton), “It came without ribbons.” I didn’t want a kitty for Christmas, but it’s the very best present I got.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
P.S. BTW the other two kitties recovered well from their colds and I took them back to the shelter. Within 10 minutes of getting them set up and settled in the adoptable area, one of them was already requested for a meet-and-greet. Out the door he went with his new family. About 45 minutes later, the other one went! That’s gotta be a new world’s record, even for the Kitten Flipper (as they call me at the shelter)!
Dec
25
Cavalcade of Kittens
Filed Under Kittens Off Topic | 16 Comments
Merry Christmas!!
Disclaimer: What you are about to see contains images of cute fluffy kitties. It has nothing to do with appliqué, so be warned if you must. Welcome to the Second Annual Cavalcade of Kittens!
In May, the Mackenzie Finishing School for Felines opened its doors for the season. Through mid-December, Dana and I took care of seven consecutive groups of underage foster kittens for the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, 19 little balls of fur all told.
The kitties we take in are big enough to eat on their own, generally five to six weeks old, and we keep them until they’re at least eight weeks, two pounds, and in good body condition. It’s so much fun, and so rewarding to watch them grow from teensy little klutzes to sturdy healthy pre-teens who run thumping and banging around the house.
I’ll let you know right now, so that you don’t wonder or worry, that each and every one of the kittens you are about to see has gone back to the shelter, been found by someone who fell in love with them, and adopted into a forever home.
Our first batch of the year. Three black ones just like the first group last year. They were pretty scrappy looking the day they arrived.
Velvet, Cricket, and Bennett. They got along fine with Willie, in fact they even invaded his crate.
Cricket was an especially friendly and snuggly kitty. She liked Willie.
She even helped me sew.
The second group were Bailey, Kelly, and Sweet Pea.
Willie tried to give them lessons on back-of-the-sofa protocol, but Bailey wasn’t paying attention in class that day.
Watching them play and fight is hilarious, and the poses we find them in make us laugh. Had the baby kitty wars actually done Bailey in? Kelly says, ‘I didn’t do it.’
Sweet Pea loves her DirecTV.
And now, gentle readers, it is with great sadness that I must tell you that it was at this point that our darling Willie, aged 16 years and 10 months, left us to go to doggie heaven. Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know that he was my heart. Despite all this kitten business, I’m really a dog person and it was Willie who made me that way. Dana too. He enriched our lives for many long years and never had a bad mood in his life. We loved him more than words can say.
Bertram Wilberforce Woofster Mackenzie, 1994 - 2011
It actually helped having kittens around, because the house was not completely empty. If you’d like to learn more about our Willie and his long and wonderful life, please visit his dogblog to read all of his stories.
We called our next group of little cats “The Hooligans” due to their spectacular brash athleticism and fondness for body climbing.
Grady, Teddy and Finley. Sure, they look all sweet now LOL!
Grady was the Head Hooligan.
Finley was Grady’s little Mini Me.
Teddy was much more of a sweetie pie. Here he is whispering kitty nothings into Dana’s ear.
Again with the comical poses. You just never know what you’re going to find.
The Cat On The Hat.
Head plant!
The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee.
Next came two single kittens who were put together for foster. Mookie was an absolute love, a calm, pure, sweet old soul in a little body with big ears.
Buff Daddy (that name courtesy of Dana).
This little buff tiger was not at all certain that he was pleased to be put with another kitten. Mookie was very patient with him, and within a couple days Daddy had forgotten all about it, and it was as if they had known each other all their lives.
The next batch was a litter of four fuzzballs. Two looked like seal-point Himalayan mixes and the other two were long-haired brown tigers.
The Himmies are Cuddles and Petunia, the tigers Button and Rupert. There was never a dull moment with this crew around.
Button and Petunia liked to help me in my studio Here’s Button pointing out a needed edit in my Scrap-Appliqué Playground page proofs, while Petunia prepares for a rear attack.
Petunia and Cuddles both have those gorgeous blue Himalayan eyes.
After the Fab Four came the S’s: Shelby, Spike, and Spencer.
Spencer and Spike were tuxedo cats, Shelby a lynx-point Siamese mix. They were all wonderfully nice little guys… sweet, affectionate, and so happy to be at our home.
By this time, kitten season was starting to wind down, but there were still a couple of singles who could go to foster together. First we got Sassy. She hopped out of the carrier and hopped around the living room like she didn’t have a care in the world. A super confident, friendly, and exceedingly cute little girl full of “tortietude.”
Making sure Dana stays in his chair and does his work.
One informal measure of how big our fosters are getting is whether they can squeeze under the dresser. Sassy still fits!
The next day I picked up Jamie, a black/brown smoke kitty who was full of purrs for people, but unsure of the big wide world. You can see it in his face.
The first time he saw Sassy, you should have seen the stank face! Spit, hiss, oh what a pill he was being! Sweet Sassy kept working on him little by little, and by the time three days had gone by he had totally thawed out, and they were chasing, playing, and hanging out together with ease.
This is the first time Jamie came to settle down by Sassy.
They helped us put up our Christmas tree.
By the time they went back to the shelter, Jamie had blossomed into a playful, friendly, very good-natured little man. He had an instant-on purr motor upon being petted, and this also turned him into a talky cat! He did great at the shelter meeting lots of new friends. Just shows you what foster care can do.
I packed up all the kitten gear and put it away for the season. Sad face. It’ll be a long time until May. But then… what should I discover during my regular shift at the shelter last week, but… three kittens in the hospital ward with sneezy noses! The shelter staff gladly sent them home with me to complete their recuperation from their kitty colds.
I’m back in business! I’m so glad, because otherwise it would have been the first Christmas in 23 years without any animals in the house.
Meet Max, Wylie, and Cullen, our current crew. I don’t know if you can tell, but Wylie is about half the size of the other two. Nobody knows quite why. These guys were dumped off in boxes at a pet store. We don’t know if they’re from the same litter, but it matters not, because they all love each other, everyone, and everything. They’re about the nicest cats EVER.
Little Wylie and big Cullen.
The biggest, Max, with his giant white paws.
These guys are still with us now, helping us open our presents. Thank you so much for putting up with my catblogging. I vow to keep it to once a year! Happiest of holidays to you and yours.
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Dec
25
Kittens
Filed Under Kittens Off Topic | 8 Comments
Warning, this is totally off-topic. It has nothing to do with appliqué, and if you read this you will be subject to photos of fluffy little kitties.
I may have mentioned before that In May I started fostering kittens for the animal shelter. These are kitties that come into the shelter too young to be adopted out, who need some time being reared in a home until they’re ready. Over the summer and fall we had five different batches.
The first three were all black. They look alike in this picture but actually there were subtle differences in their coat color and texture, so we could mostly tell them apart. Starbuck (because he drank my coffee) and Thing 1 and Thing 2 (thanks Dana).
BTW in the last post, somebody thought Dana was my son. No, he’s my husband with the Look of Eternal Youth.
You gonna finish that?
Willie was very gentlemanly with all of the little ones.
Earmuffs!
Batch 2, Riley and Tiger, came in shy and would run and play the livelong day, but as soon as any human moved, bam! they ducked for cover.
Sofas are good.
They gradually got over that. I’ll never forget the first time that Tiger nerved himself to lie down with 30% of him touching my leg. By the time they were ready to go back to the shelter he was crawling into my lap.
Batch 3 came to us with a case of URI (upper respiratory infection, like a cold for kitties).
We don't feel that gud.
Bunny is the tiny tortie, who weighed a pound and looked like and felt like a dust bunny, which is why I named her that. The orange boys Buzz and Rufus were much more sturdy.
Buzz was a champion snuggler and would come plop into my lap and purr like a buzzsaw.
Rufus was more shy, but eventually he came around too.
Nobody here but us tomatoes.
Bunny was our great success story and probably the one closest to our hearts. She really had us worried there for a few weeks, so tiny and frail, but she ate everything that wasn’t nailed down and finally one day she turned the corner and started to play and grow. She was adopted by a friend, and just look at her now!!!
She is one gorgeous creature, with soft rabbit fur and a fluffy tail.
Batch 4 was one spotted tabby, Charlotte, and two tuxedo boys, Milo and Bentley.
Charlotte was the boss.
Bentley and Milo were always dressed and ready for an elegant party. Milo was the runt of the litter but by the time they were all about 8 weeks he had just about caught up.
Pearl Grey came to us as a single kitty. She has a set of lungs on her like you wouldn’t believe, and a bit too much “catitude.” Here she is in typical fashion, spouting off about something or other.
Pearl Grey
Dewey was sent home with us a week later to keep her company and teach her some kitty manners. He’s a buff tiger boy with a heart of gold.
Dewey
It worked beautifully. At first she was a beast to him but after three days they were BFF, joined at the hip, where one went the other went too. Dewey calmed her down beautifully.
That’s the roundup! All have been adopted, and kitten season is over for now. Thank you for allowing me to show you my fosters. I loved having them. I leave you with a couple of amusing videos of Pearl Grey and the Tail of Dewey.
Happy holidays to you and yours,
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
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