Sept '04  Quilting Kitty

Buffy, our new kitty, was a quilter in her past life, I just know it.  It took me awhile to catch on, but now I’m pretty sure.  She just loves to help me in my sewing room.  The minute the ironing board comes out and the Bernina light goes on she’s right there.  She helps me pick out the fabrics for my projects and insists on holding the ruler down when I cut.  At the sewing machine she helps guide the fabric to make sure I get that precise quarter-inch seam allowance.  She's a bit over-bearing though when it comes to pinning and sewing.  See, I’ve never been much of a pinner, I’d rather take my chances and un-sew if I need to.  Buffy on the other hand, steals the pins from my pincushion the minute I turn my back.  She quietly reaches up, gently pulls the pins from the cushion with her mouth, and tries to sneak into the other room.  (I don’t think she wants me to see what she’s working on.)  A couple of days ago I was struggling with a layout for some blocks I had put together, and had them all strewn on the floor.  I tried a bunch of different ways, but it just wasn’t speaking to me.  I decided to just leave them on the floor for awhile and walk into the room a couple dozen times to see what the effect would be.  Buffy took one look and walked right to the center of the quilt.  “Here’s the problem, this block should go over there.”  She did this little plop down and stretch, pushed some blocks around and, by george, it did look a little better!  That’s when I knew for sure.  She does get pretty annoying sometimes though, always butting in with her opinion even when it’s not asked for, so now I try to wait until she’s napping before I get started.  She’s kind of a light sleeper and it’s not long before she’s in my room again.  Maybe I should teach her some new techniques.  I wonder if she could learn how to write patterns and manage a web site…