Eagle 1.0

Vicki W., who usually gives excellent advice, suggested that an eagle might be able to solve my problem with the owls and their endless knock knock jokes. So far he hasn't shown any interest. He does keep asking where I keep the salmon...the WILD salmon...he wants nothing to do with the nasty farmed stuff.

Goldfinch 1.0

Here's my addition of yellow to my bird collection for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge (not to be confused with the bug-eyed owl collection). This goldfinch now joins the blue jay and pink flamingo.

Although I've already shown these finished quilts on this blog, I thought I would round them up in this post because they are the fruits, I mean fish, of last year's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. And now I'm thinking that fruit itself could make a rainbow quilt. And I should also mention that these are the fastest swimming fish that were able to escape last year's onslaught of kittens and cats.

 And here are the surviving swans or origami cranes from last year's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. It's nice to be reminded, here in March and heading into April, that there's a full rainbow waiting for us at the end of the year.

It's official. The origami crane quilt is finished. And right now its hanging up in a local quilt show along with the rainbow fish quilt. I think I'll slip back into the sewing room while the owls are asleep and try and figure out my next endeavor.

Rainbow fish quilt

I've been away on a trip to Panic-ville. To get there you have to spend a lot of time on Procrastination Island. Which I did. So here is the Rainbow Fish quilt, finally bound. Next it needs a label and sleeve and it will be ready to be part of a quilt show this weekend. Next up is finishing the crane quilt.

Yellow owl

Here's a yellow owl who is quite excited to join the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

I thought the owls might help with the over population of bunnies, but instead they just sit there and tell endless knock knock jokes. Before I go completely crazy, I have to go find out what animals eat owls.

UOO: Unidentified Orbital Object

While digging around in my fabric stash, I found this. I'm not sure when I made it. But I suspect it was very long ago.

And how about a multiple choice test to identify what this is?

A. A quilt top.

B. A very large fabric bowl.

C. A collection of feline DNA...in particular...a quite excellent collection of fur from both Tommy and Jimmy...possibly enough for a clone or two.

Tommy flashback

I don't have much to share about quilting, fabric and the like. I did, however, run across an adorable picture of Tommy. This goes back to his youthful "live in the present" days, although even back then he was working on his doomed "staff training and improvement" project.

Fun New Project!

Here's the fabric I pulled for my new project: clearing out my stash. When I came home from Lancaster, the fabric I bought there started to cry, yell and protest. It had a dream of going home with a quilter who would love it and use it, and not just smash it in with piles and piles of other fabric.  In the past I bought fabric in much larger hunks and I rarely use that much of any one fabric anymore. So my plan is to cut off a half yard or a yard, and let the rest go to someone in my quilt guild who can love it, use it or smash it to the bottom of their hoard.

Red Fox 1.0

The mysteries in my sewing room continue...including my finding this red fox on my return from AQS week in Lancaster, PA. Mr. Rabbit and all the bunnies are in hiding (or eaten) so I can't get any information from them. At first I thought that maybe Mr. Fox never left the house after stealing the loaf of bread from the kitchen and chowing down on it in the dining room. However, this morning Mr. Fox left his calling card on my front porch stairs which suggests he did find his way back outside.

Yellow Fish

March is the month for yellow at the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. And  here are some yellow fish. At one point I was going to give the fish eyes, but this way the fish can switch direction without swimming upside down...the sad fate of living in a 2D world.

Foxy Friday

Today I planned to show you my newly pieced fox block. But instead you get to see my deformed fused applique fox quilt I made back in 2011. Yikes! It looks like Mr. Fox is peeking out of an ostrich egg. Plus, I don't know who planted that paw print on his face.

Meanwhile a lot of weird things have been happening to me lately, like when blogospheres collided yesterday. Vicki W. (and her mother!) kidnapped me and drove me to one quilt shop after another, forcing me to buy fabric I don't need. Then they dropped me off in the middle of a city miles from home. I would have written it off as a crazy dream except for all the new fabric and batting for the origami cranes quilt.

Quilt backings

I forgot to show the backing to the fish quilt. This backing fabric took a very long hot bath following Vicki W.'s tips for bleeding fabric.

And I thought the origami cranes might like to have cranes on the back. That backing had TWO long hot baths because it bled so much. When I layered the crane quilt, I thought I would be frugal and use an old polyester batting that I have had for ages. However, that batting has been fighting me every step of the way so I think I will be better off going back and using a new, thin cotton batting.

Rainbow Binding

Here's the rainbow binding attached to the fish quilt. And I was quite surprised by how much fun it was to assemble. I thought that setting up the rainbow progressions on each side and then sewing the blocks together would send me over the deep end. But instead, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Now I'm wondering if another fiddly project should be in my future.

Cabbage 1.0 tutorial

Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting blog suggested I fatten up the bunnies on cabbage before Mr. Fox eats them. A simple snowball block on top of a strip of dirt-like fabric might be suggestive enough for cabbage. However, shown above is a four leaf cabbage. Probably it would be best to try making both and see which ones the bunnies prefer.

The head of cabbage measures 5.5 X 7.5 inches unfinished (without background sashing). The center leaf is cut 3.5 X 4.5 inches, the side leaves are 2.5 X 4.5 inches and the top leaf is 1.5 inches by 7.5 inches. Plus you will need six 1.5 inch squares to make flip triangles. Cut four out of the fabric for the top leaf, and one each out of the fabric for the side leaves.

The center leaf gets four flip triangles on each corner...these are made by sewing the squares on the diagonal and then ironing the flap back. Each of the side leaves gets one flip triangle of the top leaf fabric. And now to give the cabbage some contour, we need two 2.5 inch squares of the background fabric.

This shows the flip triangles of the background fabric sewn to the bottom of the cabbage. The next step will be to sew the long strip of the top leaf of cabbage to the top and then sew two more 2.5 inch squares of background fabric to the top corners.

I added background sashing to the sides and top, and a strip of dirt at the bottom. But if you were going to plant a whole row of cabbages, you would probably wait until the whole row was assembled before adding the strip of dirt.

Fish quilt progress

I've finished quilting the inside of the fish quilt. I went with simple lines along the sashing. I didn't want to machine quilt lines across the fish because they might think it was netting. Then they might get scared and start swimming every which way. And I definitely didn't want the fish to get out of order.

Meanwhile I've decided that I want to add a rainbow binding. Of course, it would have been lovely if I had thought about this when I was making the fish blocks. Instead, I am deep sea diving into my stash to find the original prints.

Yellow bunnies

We're getting ready for spring with yellow bunnies. Hope they are faster than the red fox. To see more yellow...the color for March at the Rainbow Scrappy challenge...hop along to the Superscrappy blog.

Preparing the cranes

I'm still machine quilting the fish quilt, but I thought I would get the origami cranes ready as well. Both of the quilts are going into a local quilt show at the end of the month. Yes, procrastination is my middle name.

Spinning

Here are some more vintage spin blocks. I finally had a day where I spent more time sewing than I did shoveling snow or chipping ice or discovering a fox had gotten into the house for a light snack.

Today was a snow day. Yesterday was a warm day followed by rain, so the ground this morning was finally showing out in the woods.

And here are the woods after about five inches of snow.

Fish quilt returns

The fish quilt is layered and pinned and ready for quilting. The hardest part about getting this quilt ready was clearing the table. I pin baste on my cutting table which had disappeared from view. The second hardest part will be clearing away the area around the sewing machine so I can quilt it. Sigh.