New additions to the family

So, a funny thing happened on Christmas Eve...

 I mentioned in my “some Christmas makes” post that the Hubs helped me out by shopping for walnut shells and some Velcro so I could continue working on the Sit & Sew arm caddy and pin cushions. 

I had placed an order for pickup at JoAnn’s for the Velcro. While he was sitting in their parking lot waiting for the curbside delivery, he called me and said, “I need you to meet me in the parking lot at home. I’ve done something stupid.” He wouldn’t tell me what he had done...

A few minutes later he texts me from the parking lot at home:

I walked out to the parking lot to find him schlepping a bunch of stuff and a little cardboard box that he was gingerly holding in his right hand underneath all of the other stuff. Meet Melikaliki Maka, or Meli B for short.

I do not know what possessed the man to do it. 

On December 26, we determined that Meli B needed a companion. Meet Lā Mokomoko, or Moko for short.

(Where Meli goes, Moko goes behind him.)

We’ve already upgraded to a bigger cage, toys and a water fountain/bird bath, special-order bird food that has to be cooked, and a special light to make sure they get enough Vitamin D. 🙄

And, of course, no ordinary bird cage cover would do.

They share our home office/living room with me. Their cage is less than a foot away from where I sit. Whenever I’m in a virtual meeting (several times a day), they must chime in. I don’t know how long my co-workers will think it’s funny, and that’s why the cage is on a mobile cart...and another reason for a custom cage cover.

I went into the real office one afternoon and realized it was the first time since they arrived that we’ve left them alone for more than an hour. I found a 12-hour long YouTube video of parakeets to keep them company. The TV apparently decided that it needed to time out and when I returned home, they were snuggled up together at the bottom of their cage. I have turned on music for them each time since.

So when we purchased the bigger cage, I set to work on making a cover for it. Nothing complex (which means I kept most of my ideas to myself instead of asking the Hubs to chime in with his thoughts) because I wanted it DONE. I had some fabric I purchased years ago from which I made a toiletry bag (a post in the future) and thought it was enough. I was wrong, and you can’t find that fabric anywhere. I purchased 4 yards of Kona black to line it (knowing I would have some left over), and decided that it would be fine for two sides of the cover. 

This project started out being an opportunity to quilt the pieces using machine embroidery. Nothing fancy; I picked out a simple wavy grid. I never could line up the design properly and I’m sure it is all due to operator error. I will try it again on something else. Instead, I used chalk to draw a grid on the front and side panels and quilted the wavy grid using Stitch #1326 on The Beast. Quick and easy. 

I did embroider something on The Beaut to add to the cover to personalize it for the boys:

Also, this was my first time to use zippers by the yard. I’m learning lots about zippers. I cut these longer than necessary because I didn’t have any zipper stops (thanks to our weeklong 2021 Snowmageddon) and decided I could complete the rest of it and finish the zipper stuff later.

Snowmageddon 2021 - 13" of snow...

This was a fun project—a good exercise for the brain because I made changes along the way. All self-drafted other than the embroidery design, and all of it constructed on The Beast except the embroidery.

And I’m so excited to call it Fun and DONE! 

There will be more projects like this in the future. I don’t know yet what they are, but you can count on it!

Coming soon: quilted portraits and more.

Go make!