Crazy For Cats (Corpus Christi, TX)

We moved to Corpus Christi NAS last week.  We have a nice view of the bay, but the weather has not been the best for scenic photos or even to see from our site.  We thought we would start seeing more sunshine, but the cold front followed us, so we have been staying snug and dry while wind and rain whipped around our motorhome.

Here are a few photos from Medina Lake...

Hmm, I wonder how high I can climb this strange looking tree

We miss all the entertainment the deer were giving us.  This one was enjoying the extra attention of me taking her pictures.

That looks like a camera.  How do I look?

I should do the wind-blown look...

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!

We took our friend to Bandera a.k.a the Cowboy Capital of the World while she was visiting us at Medina Lake campground.  We did not spend too much walking around since we arrived late and it was getting dark, but I did get some photos of this beautiful building.  While we were taking photos, Dan noticed the Nativity scene had a Texas theme.

This manger scene included a longhorn, a sheep, a pig, a stag, a cactus, three cowboys, and an armadillo.  I love it!

a view of the clock tower

We also had a crazy Cardinal attacking his image on our windows almost every morning.  One time, he went totally beserk on our car's mirror.  I'm surprised he did not damage his beak as hard as he was hitting it.
I tried several times to get the Cardinal's photo with the cats, but either the Cardinal or one of the cats would not cooperate by waiting for me to pull out my camera.

Max  waiting for the Cardinal

Finally, I got smart and left my camera sitting on the bed.  I really wanted a photo of one of the cats being nose-to-beak with the bird.  This one of Hitch came out the best.

hello pretty bird

On our last day, a Roadrunner showed up in the field across from our site.  I could not get too close since he was hunting between two occupied sites.

 It is considered rude to walk into someone's site without asking permission, so I took these with my 500mm lens from the road and did a lot of cropping for close-ups.

On The Cutting Board

There is no denying my love for cats.  Actually, I love all animals, but cats are my favorite...if you haven't figured that out yet.  So, this is a perfect name for this quilt:  Crazy For Cats.  

I wasn't happy with how small this one came out and I wanted to add length.  I started out by adding just a pink panel at the bottom with plans to applique more cats, but for some reason that did not look good.  I thought about trimming the bottom border and adding it to the top with more cats.  I decided against that because the cats on the top would take away from the main cat in the center.  No matter how I positioned the cats, it looked like an afterthought.  Time to do some ripping!

Squirrel's trying to sleep while I work on the quilt

I finally decided to continue the block pattern into the panel and added only two of the three cats on the bottom. Once I framed it with a solid black border, the quilt seemed to come together.  I'm a lot happier with the results.
Oh! and I had another good idea...I finally got smart and bought some clothesline for hanging up my quilts for photos.  Of course, that only works on calm days...or when I have two places to tie the line up high enough for a quilt.  Anyway, I'm hoping this will make it easier to take photos of a quilt.  I should have thought of doing this a long time ago.

Having finished the Crazy For Cats top, I decided to pull out a UFO.  I started this quilt quite awhile ago.  I don't know why I stopped working on this one since I love the way it looks and feels.  I think I stowed it one time during our travels and forgot all about it.  At last, I have pulled  it out again and I have added cats to this top as well. 

Hopefully, I will be able to finish both quilts within the next couple of months.

In the meantime, I have several quilt kits calling my name and I would like to get them sewn into tops soon.

Happy Quilting!