Cat Hammock

Cat Hammock

I have volunteered at the Tri-Lakes Humane Society in Reeds Spring for the last 2 years.  I take pictures of the animals and run their website and facebook page.  I volunteered there for about 6 weeks before I adopted Nick and Nora.  I was pretty impressed that I held out that long.   

They were just 4 months old when I got them and they have my heart. They have made the quarantine so much better.

When I was at the shelter earlier this week, Ashlyn, the cat house manager, asked me if I could get some of my sewing friends to make some cat hammocks. They use them in the cages to give the cats a soft place to lounge that is off the cage floor. The cats love them and they add another level to the cat cage.
Ashlyn gave me an example so I could write up some instructions. This hammock has grommets in all 4 corners which they use to hook the hammock to the cage. As you can see below, These grommets can pull out even if you add some extra fabric to reinforce them.

 

You don't need grommets to make these hammocks and this tutorial is for a hammock where we make our own tabs so you can use what you have on hand. That is one of the great things about this project, just use what you've got around. Cats don't really care if the fabric is cute or if it matches, they just want a comfy place to lounge. This size works for the cages we use, but you could use these directions for other sizes.

 

Materials List:

• 2 Main Hammock - 21" X 29" fabric (at least one piece should be a woven to keep the hammock from stretching too much. 1 layer of fleece or flannel or some other soft fabric would be nice but not required.)
• 4 Tabs - 4" X 1 3/4" fabric
• 4 Tabs- 4" X 3/8" interfacing (the stronger the better, I used Peltex) OR 4" X 1 3/4" for thinner interfacing

The tab is the secret to this project. It is the failure point on the hammock so the sturdier you can make it the better.

If you are using thinner interfacing iron it to the tab fabric now. Take your Tab fabric to the ironing board and fold it in half lengthwise. Iron it.

 

Now fold the long edges into the middle and iron them.

 

Put one of the interfacing pieces inside one of the sides. (skip this step if you ironed thinner interfacing to fabric previously)

 

Fold it up and topstitch it down the long side.

 

Fold down the tab in half and sew it down to the corner. I stitched it several times. Remember cats don't care if it is pretty they just want functional.

Now sandwich your large pieces of fabric, right sides together. Make sure the tabs are between the two layers. Sew around all 4 sides using a half inch seam allowance, I found it was easier to sew each side separately rather than turning at the corners. I did stitch over each tab leg a couple of times. Leave a 3 inch opening to turn it right side out.

Next, turn it right side out and pull the tabs so they are out as far as possible. Iron the edges and the opening. Top stitch all around.

Voila, you are done.

Bus Trip 2017 Day 3

After another awesome night's sleep, it is amazing how tired you get trying to entertain 48 women, we left the hotel at 8:15.  But I did get to enjoy this amazing sunrise first.

 
The first shop we went to was the Fabric Cobbler and the owner popped on the bus to let us know how young she is and how hard she works and the special package they put together to sell us.  She was just a ball of fire and might have been a bit much for those ladies who aren't morning people.  However, a lot of people seemed to be spending a lot of money.  I scored some awesome Doctor Who fabric and kitties in Halloween costumes.  Such fun.  I take my hat off to this young woman.  She had a smart computer system that can check you out at the cutting table which saved a ton of time.  The shop was a bit crowded for 50 people but OMG did she have wonderful fabric. 

The second shop of the day was Peace & Applique in Rochester.  I love the old building that houses this cool store.  Check out the coolest chair ever.

I am constantly amazed at the creativity I see in so many quilt shops.  How cute is this cat chair!?!?

I was a little disappointed in this store.  They knew for months that we were coming but they hadn't figured out the discount they were giving us.  Huh?  Anyway, I found a couple of cute patterns.  

But as far as I'm concerned the best part of that stop was the lunch.  Razzo's opened for us and made a great lunch.  There were a couple kinds of pasta, salad, delicious bread sticks, and cannolies.  So good.  

Then we were off to Staunton to Itchin to be Stitchin and another store right down the block Mini Mall Quilt Shop.  I headed to Itchin to be Stitchin first.  It is in an old bank building and they use the vault to display the sewing machines they have on sale.  Gotta love it.  It is a bright cheery store with some very unique patterns.  I bought a cute little pattern and headed down the block.

Jodi from the Mini Mall Quilt Shop left a message on my voice mail earlier in the week that she was going to discount regular priced fabric by $2 per yard.  Score.  I found some black backing fabric and a couple of Christmas fabrics on the sale table.  There were a bunch of treats provided which looked delicious.  Helen wasn't too pleased with me when I told her she had 15 minutes left and she hadn't even made it to the other shop.  Sorry!!!!!

Keeping on schedule we departed for our last shop of the trip, Jackman's.  The St. Louis traffic was bad so we were a few minutes late getting to the store.  Have to say my shopping was done.  I think this was the only store I didn't buy anything but many of the other women were still enthusiastically spending money.  We did our part for the economy of all the little towns we visited.    Jackman's is a wonderful store with tons of samples, great lighting and plenty of help.  They got us in and out very quickly.

Most of the ladies, finished shopping about 15 minutes early and we had a long drive ahead of us so I asked Juanita to finish up.  I know she wasn't too happy about it but we still had a dinner stop and a 4 hour drive home so I was anxious to get on the road.  

We stopped at a strip mall with a couple of dining options for a quick 45 minute dinner break and then we were on the road home.  We arrived back in Branson West about 11:15 p.m. exhausted but happy.  I think the trip went off pretty much without a hitch.  Since this is the last bus trip mom and I are planning, I think it was a nice swan song.  I hope all the ladies who joined us agree.    

Bus Trip 2017 Day 2

All the ladies did a great job of staying on time so we were off to Peace to Piece by 7:45 a.m.  I totally understand there are women who aren't at their best that early in the morning so I always appreciate them getting there on time.  It makes my job as bus mom so much easier. 

Mom and I went on a scouting trip last fall to check out the shops for this trip but we didn't get a chance to visit Peace to Piece but we heard such nice things about the shop we decided to include it in the trip.  So glad we did.  It was a wonderful shop and come to find out it was featured in Quilt Sampler this year.  The shop gave us a wonderful demonstration on a book called Sizzlin' Sixties by Heather Mulder Peterson on how to use jelly rolls.  The demo was great and I picked up the book.  They also made us some amazing bread pudding for which I'm hoping to get the recipe.

The store was bright and sunny and there were so many cute samples I almost didn't know where to look.

I had to herd a few people out of the shop as they kept seeing stuff they wanted to buy.  But we got out of there just a few minutes late and we were off to Havana IL to Ma's Got a Notion.  This store specializes in backing fabric with over 900 bolts.  It was very tight with 49 women in the shop but there were some very pretty things.  They had a nice selection of wool and some patterns and fabric I'd never seen before.  Of course it seemed like every store we visited had some pattern or fabric we had never seen. 

The store owner was pretty smart as she had precut almost all of the bolts of backing fabric.  I grabbed some pretty red backing, paid and was the second one out of the store.

 We had box lunches delivered to the store so I grabbed my egg salad and took a seat on a planter on the street.  The egg salad was some of the best I've eaten, messy but delicious.  It didn't take long for Twyla and I to be joined by a bunch of other ladies eating our delicious lunch.

I guess I forgot to take pictures at the next two stores cuz I sure can't find them on the camera.  The next stop was Peddler's Way in Washington.  I really like this store.  It has such a variety and the staff is very very helpful.  They were having a sale on Anita Goodesign so I picked up a machine embroidery pattern for cute Halloween faces to embroider on a towel.  I also picked up a pattern or two.  I already have enough patterns to last two life times but I just can't seem to say no to a cute pattern.  This store is down a very small alley so we had to walk about a block to get to the store.  I think this was the farthest we parked from any store.  Trevor rocks!!!!!

The last shop of the day was The Quilt Corner in Morton IL.  Another very nice shop and one of my mom's favorites.  There were some really beautiful patterns and samples galore.  Ginny saw a really cute sample quilt and asked about the fabric to be told that they were all out.  She then convinced them to sell her the sample.  How cool is that.  Go Ginny!!!!  Mom bought this beautiful dragon fly kit.  She just loves dragonflies.  I bought some pink cork.

We stayed on schedule all day but I did have to deny the request to stop at Starbucks so our pizza wouldn't be cold by the time we arrived at the hotel.  Check in at the hotel went very smoothly and pizza arrived right on time.  Love it when a plan comes together. 

After we devoured the delicious Tobin's pizza we had show and tell of one or two of our favorite purchases.  We always laugh so much when we have this time together as a group. 

It was another great day with wonderful women, great shopping and beautiful fabric.