For the kitties

I spent last Saturday morning doing some community-project sewing with my ASG group. We made over 100 pads for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley to use in their cat cages. Woohoo! I bought some animal-themed fleece from Joanns to contribute to the project. The pads required two 21x26 inch pieces of flannel, fleece, or cotton. Two and a half yards of fleece was enough for four pads. A piece of batting was added, but if the fleece was thick, as mine was, we omitted the batting. The edges were just serged and ties were sewn on so the pads can be secured to the cages. Here is a picture of one of my pads in-progress:

I thought my own kitties might like a couple of these in the same fabric to lounge on, so on the way home from ASG I stopped at Joann's to buy some more fleece. Joann's on a Saturday afternoon can be a bit crazy. Here's my tale of woe: it was a different Joann's than the one I bought the original fabric for and while they did have a bolt of it, the bolt was located way up on a shelf. So first I had to wait in line just to ask the clerk to get it down - fortunately the line was short at that time. Then I had to wait in a very long line to get it cut. Two clerks were cutting but one disappeared to fetch something for the customer and the other clerk's customer was unsure how much fabric she wanted and of course waited until she was at the counter to decide and get the clerk's opinion (I think the clerk had none). Then the clerk misplaced the empty cardboard from the now-finished bolts and it out took a while for her to sort things out. By now the first clerk was back with a monstrous home-dec roll of batting but I thought I'd be in line all day waiting for the customers to calculate how much they wanted and decide if they wanted to spend that much. They had a bolt of muslin in their hands so I suspect they were maybe recovering a piece of furniture or making a headboad they saw on an HGTV design show. Anyhoooo, I finally made it to the cutting table and got my yard and a quarter cut. Afterward I should have just walked straight to the checkout but nooooooo, I did a lap around the store to see if there was anything else I wanted (non-fabric, because that would require cutting). Mistake. By the time I got back to the checkout the line with just my fleece because there wasn't anything else I wanted, the line had stretched to 10-12 people. All this to make two cat beds and it's not like I don't have fleece at home...I just didn't have cute red fleece with black paw prints on it. But my kitties are worth it, as are the shelter kitties who now have 100 new colorful, warm, and comfy mats to sleep on.

I'm pleased to say that when I got home I didn't just toss the fabric on the bed in the guest room and let it be buried under the other fabric that I haven't gotten around to sewing. No! I cut out the mats and serged them right up. The mats were met with approval and have now been adorned with cat hair.