Adjustments

Everything gets a bit harder to navigate when a sinkhole unexpectedly forms in the middle of one's life.

Molly and I are learning that every family benefits from having at least one adult in the family. And I think Molly is slowly coming to the realization that it won't be me stepping up to the plate to fill Buddy's boots. 

I did finally finish sewing the Portland frog. It took so long I had to make him a donut to sustain him. The black fabric will become an outline and then I will put him in an urban environment. I think that's why he looks a bit horrified. (The frog is 5 feet tall).

Buddy

 Buddy (originally Typhoon):  August ?, 2015 to February 4, 2026.

Buddy gave more heart than he had available. He developed a fluid build up around his heart and in his abdomen. Given a poor prognosis, he chose more time at home being coddled instead of further diagnostics. Even Molly was nice to him.

I always thought I was taking care of two cats, but I have since learned that Buddy and I were sharing the responsibility of caring for Molly. 

He was a good boy.

Downey Woodpecker

 Here is the bird block for the week...the downey woodpecker. I always thought these woodpeckers were adorable until I moved here where every fall they come a knocking on the side of my house. As you can see, my main strategy for this block was to use the Kaffe swirl fabric.

Here are all of the blocks so far. And the next bird block is parakeet. Okay, I admit that I first picked dove, but the paper fell out of my hand so fast I was compelled to make another pick. Molly says the dove went extinct quite a while ago, and I take her at her meow.

Give a Hoot

Hootie the Owl talked me into making the wing larger, thinking we will take him more seriously.

And here is our progress so far.

Oopsie the Owl

 Meet Oopsie the Owl. As you can see, I didn't center the owl very well on the background.  When I sew the blocks together (as if), the seam line will come much to close to the top of Oopsie's head. I asked him to move down a bit, but he couldn't because I had sewn a curlew wing to his body...obviously not enough wingspan for moving. And yeah, I hadn't given him feet yet. Happily I also hadn't given him a beak so I didn't have to listen to all that owl cursing.

I did make an owl size wing, but could see that there wasn't enough contrast between the wing and the body. So apparently when I went to make a new wing, I grabbed the curlew wing pattern piece instead. And you're right to wonder how this could have happened given all the cat supervisors roaming around. 

The next bird is the downey woodpecker.

Owl Accomplishments

Here are my accomplishments and progress so far on completing the owl block for this week. First, I drew an owl design. Drawing it on a post-it note was not well conceived or intentional. But so it goes. 

Next, I drew a square the size of the block, fiddled with some Kay Buckley template plastic circles to determine the owl eye size. Then I redrew the owl to its final size. Then I traced it and cleaned up the drawing. 

By having the drawing on tracing paper, I can have either a front or reversed version. (If I make freezer paper templates, I will trace the pattern from the reverse of the tracing paper, and then iron the freezer paper pattern to the back of the fabric...to get the original version.) I have also found the fabric to use for the eyes, the wing and the body.

The bird a week project is just something I'm doing to prod myself into designing on a regular schedule and at least post to this blog once a week. 

Curlew

The bird for this week is curlew. The bird for next week is owl.

Here are the bird blocks so far. I wonder if these are supposed to be in the same quilt and if anyone is taking that into consideration.