Taking the bull by the horns . . .

Or rather the scroll frame by the knobs.

I have had Sheila Hudson's Stunning Irises as a WIP for a while now. It's on the left-hand side of the screen right now. I had shame because I hadn't worked on it in forever. And why you may ask?

At CATS, I bought a fantastic scroll frame. It's great for working on dark fabrics because it sits at a slant, so the light passes through. It's light-weight, so I can flip it over. Wonderful.

Felix Anne found it. Felix is my lovely little cat. He was not meant to be your average cat. He almost died when he was 4 years old, and I've had him since then. He's tiny, so of course everyone treats him like a toy. Including Chancey when she was young, but that's another story, and he doesn't let her do that anymore. He's adorable,and, like most adorable men, he gets away with whatever he wants to do. And you can't get mad at him because, well, he almost died. He's delicate, except of course when he is bellowing out his dismay at something he feels you have done wrong. Yesterday, he started talking to me when I was coming up out of the basement. He looked so angry, I asked if he absolutely knew for certain what he was complaining about was true. He replied in a manner that clearly indicated, "No." I advised him that if he couldn't verify it, he shouldn't ought to be passing rumors like that. It made sense. Anyway, you always know where the most comfortable place in the house is because he is in it. And don't try to move him; he will talk smack about your mama.

So, after a few days of leaving my Stunning Irises on the scroll frame, I noticed it had a lot more cat hair on it than normal. We've pretty much given up fighting pet hair in my house. With three to four cats in it, plus the border mix, and two Schipperkes, AND my brother and I, both who have long hair, that is a fight we won't win, but I mean, this was a lot. One of my major quirks with black fabric is NO HAIR on it. They stand out more on black than any other color. So I was diligently brushing. I mean, I should have taken it off the scroll frame, but who does that every night.

And then I figured out what happened. Or who happened. Felix Anne (I gave him a middle name after my mother; it annoys her but it works surprisingly well as a name) has decided my scroll frame makes an EXCEPTIONAL kitty hammock.

ACCCCK.

I caught the little bugger in there just reclining and shedding all over it. Just a looking at me like, "What. I'm sleeping here," head on one of the rods and his bulk on my WIP.

ACCCCCK.

When I got him off of it, it was coated in cat hair (I must have done something really bad for him to shed like that). There is nothing more depressing than a cat-hair covered WIP on scroll bars. So I put it away for a while. And cursed Felix.

But the other day I posted a pic of Chance posing next to it the night we got back from CATS (pre-hammock) and someone said how pretty it was. The picture is pretty; Sheila Hudson was having a good day that day when she was picking colors. And last night I decided that I would work on it. After I cleaned it.

Felix must have rutched (Pennsylvania Dutch word for wiggled) all over that piece, because that hair was ground in. It took me probably 30 minutes to get it to a level I can work with, just running tape over it. But I did managed to get it fixed and started working on it again. We were watching, "You've got mail," which I didn't like, so I made some good progress. I will get this finished--I want it off those scroll rods and finished. This is supposed to be a fair entry, so this is what I needed to get it done, I guess.