Molly's Adventure

If anyone received a mocking comment from Molly (for example, Rocky McPhotoshopface, winner of the rigged contest Pets on Quilts 2016), this might be your revenge blog post. Molly took a trip to the vet this morning. I asked them to turn down her naughty. No one in the office believed that she had ever been naughty and assured me she was a perfect patient. It also says on her medical chart that she has the softest fur on the planet, and this was again confirmed. She came out of her carrier voluntarily, although reluctantly.

Buddy on the other hand was unwilling to come out of his carrier even when turned upside down. He thought he was competing in a Guinness book of records for longest hand stand by a cat in a vets' office.

Pickled Molly

I switched to finger pressing and trimming at the machine. It is much more efficient, but not as much fun. Each time I got up to press and trim, I risked being sidetracked and going off and doing something else. These distractions were almost always more fun than paper piecing.

Sometimes Molly leaves comments on other blogs that I consider less than helpful. She often gets replies "thanking her" for her "help." I explained the concept of sarcasm to her and, as you can tell, she wasn't too pleased. I think she may take it out on Buddy with some biting sarcasm.

Pickles and Plaid

Yes, I'm still on a steady diet of pickles. And, in case, you haven't made a pickle dish quilt yet, there are two sets of bands. Those with the dark fabrics on the ends and those that end with light fabrics.

To make it easier to continue to make progress with the pickle dishes, I have set up a pickle palatte on my sewing table. Of course, it is paper piecing and if I really wanted to make fast progress, I should probably set up a press and trim station next to the sewing machine.

And I'm also hand quilting the plaid bunny quilt. It is made from a wide variety of plaids from homespun to old shirts and I don't want to risk using a marker on these fabrics. So I am using a fabric template to sew around each bunny.

Peek-a-boo!

Bunnies and piglets and treats

The great bunny experiment was a big success. I left the bunnies as a pile on the floor and a week later I have 14 more bunnies to make a total of 48 bunnies. Okay, the red bunny in the third row is a bit confused. If you would like to see more progress and less confusion, head on over to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge for this last week in November.

And okay, I'm now on board with the piglets. Hopefully you witnessed the spark of genius by Gayle at mangofeet where with a tilted block she sent her piglets running up and down hills.

Meanwhile, I hope you survived Entitlement Day. Molly did order a large bag of mice with rattles. They are Buddy's favorite toy. I thought that was the extent of their celebrations until I found this bag in the sewing room. This had been on the counter in the kitchen and apparently Molly has conquered that as her domain. (Buddy doesn't jump that high). And in the spirit of Entitlement Day, Buddy and Molly showed no guilt when confronted with the evidence of their crime. Buddy even thought it meant that he was about to get more treats.

Bunny and Turtle Race

If I counted correctly, this is the last of the standing bunnies I need to finish the rainbow bunny quilt. Tomorrow I will try and lay them out again on the design wall...Molly willing. And lately Molly prefers being a lap cat to a design wall runner. In either case, I don't get much sewing done.

 And here is a turtle pattern I am experimenting with.

And I hope you haven't missed the amazing spool quilts lately. Kathy at Kathy's Quilts (also known for Slow Stitching Sundays) is assembling her beautiful rainbow spools. She definitely weakened my resolve. And then Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilts put me over the edge with her amazing quilt top. So although my name is not K(C)-athy, I did make a couple of spools. The red spool uses an inch grid and finishes at 3 inches square. The spotted spool is based on a 3/4 inch grid and finishes at 2.25 inches. I can't yet commit to either size yet and may make both sizes for a while and see if I develop a preference.

Bunnies for Thanksgiving

Here are some yellow bunnies.

And some green bunnies (and yes a brown and pink mutant bunny).

 And here are a couple more pickle dishes.

And here's Molly as I'm explaining Thanksgiving to her. She thinks that's something dogs would like. She wants to know when Entitlement Day is. Of course, I explained to her that cats should feel entitled everyday and should not reserve those feelings for just one day. That said, I explained that tomorrow is the official entitlement day when cats take over the computers and order obscene numbers of cat toys, treats, heated beds and electronic devices.

Which reminds me that I accidentally used the word "Treat" in a sentence and Buddy started chasing around making high squeaky noises. So excited! Much like a dog when one accidentally says "Walk." I, of course, stopped what I was doing and gave him a treat.

A few new blocks

Five new bunnies arrived to help fill out the rainbow bunny quilt. And just one word of warning. The green bunny at the end of the line prefers to be called an illusionist...so don't make some cute joke about pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

And just a single pickle dish.

And here is Molly "admiring" the new blocks up on the design wall.

The Chaotic Sewing Room

This may be a bunny sewing party where they are making the new bunnies. Alternatively, this may be Molly's choice of a layout.

This red bunny is the only bunny remaining on the design wall.

Here are some of the pickle dishes that...oh, never mind. This is now a photo of Molly.

So let's go to a neutral cat palate.

And last but not least, here are some of my latest thrift store finds.

Rainbow Bunnies

We are coming to the end of the year for the 2016 Rainbow Scrappy Challenge so I had the bunnies parade for me so I could review them.  You may notice a striking lack of yellow and green bunnies. A few more turquoise bunnies would also be nice. I gave them marching orders...make more bunnies!

To see other rainbow projects come together, hop on over to So Scrappy's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

And here are a couple of pickle dish wedges so you can see I haven't given up yet.

Chevron Wedge Quilt Top

Here is the chevron wedge baby quilt squared off. When I first started to trim, Molly joined in and started to burrow under the quilt to make sure I cut straight on the backside too. At that point I went to get the camera so I could document her contribution. But when I left the room, she lost interest and scaled the design wall to take up her roosting spot.

As I pinned the baby quilt to the design wall, Molly couldn't resist taking a peak. And then in a complete overdose of adorability, Buddy stuck his head out two shelves lower. Unfortunately, when I aimed the camera at him, he ran out of the room.

Molly took pity on me and allowed me to take a few posed pictures.

Fast Stitching, Slow Progress

The progress on this next baby quilt has been painfully slow. I got the design and tutorial from Kitchen Table Quilting. It's simple and straightforward to make. I just haven't had much time for sewing. Today I had a dental cleaning and a viewing. Viewings require me to pick up cat toys. I also have to straighten the sewing room enough that it isn't a death trap.

I am also chairing Molly's dissertation on climbing high. As chair, I'm responsible for cleaning up the pile of debri left in her wake. Yesterday, she got up to where I store finished quilts but in the climb several fell and started an avalanche with everything below.

The next step is squaring up the quilt.

And here's a closeup of the fabric selection.

And just to show that I haven't forgotten, here are two more pickledish wedges.

And just like you, Buddy is feeling frazzled. He does not like the visitors that come to view his house, and he doesn't like the chaos from Molly's "climbing high" dissertation and he certainly doesn't like the trip to the vet that will come next week, that he doesn't know about yet.

Pickledish and the Supermoon

I thought the pickledish might benefit from a lighter background. But now I don't think so.

I wasn't able to take pictures of the rising of the supermoon because of cloud cover. However, here it is setting over the blue ridge. There was some remnant of cloud cover. I did drive off to see if I could find a better view. There is a winery on a ridge nearby and I went there to get a better shot.

But then when I got home again, I found the best shot of the morning. Again, the supermoon setting over Pasture Mountain.

New pursuits

Yes, pickles are my new Dear Jane. I didn't realize how much structure Dear Jane had provided over the past year. Each day that I went into the sewing room, if I wasn't up for anything else, I could always just settle into a Dear Jane block. So that is what I'm doing with the pickle dish quilt. I'm just trying for two arcs a day.

Molly has decided to go back to a school as an adult. She is expanding her horizons by trying to scale to higher perches. This sometimes means launching herself onto a shelf and then desperately attempting to stick the landing. Alternatively, she is suicidal and is trying to work through all of her remaining lives as quickly as she can.

She did manage to get up on some shelving where I keep the laser toy. It has a chain on it. The cats come running whenever they hear that chain rattle. So when Molly pawed at the laser toy, Buddy came streaking into the room looking wildly around. Molly made several notations in her notebook.

Molly did stop her new educational pursuits long enough to come help me cut strips for a new baby quilt. One has to hold the ruler down quite firmly when there is a cat burrowing into the yardage you are attempting to cut.  Half of the quilt will be the light fabric with the gray and red star design.

And this evening I went out to scout out locations for full moon viewing. Last night I discovered that by the time it was dark, the moon was quite high in the sky.

Seahorse layout

I'm back to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge! And today's task seemed easy enough. I figured I would lay the seahorses out on the design wall and see if I had enough of each color or if a color was missing. I think it would be nice to have some true blue seahorses and maybe some of the fuschia or magenta variety. I also experimented with layout. In this case, seahorses touching noses are directly above seahorses that are back to back.

Here's a revised layout where seahorses in each column are facing in the same direction.

And here's Molly's suggestion for a layout.

I also realized that I have to remake some of the seahorses. I revised the pattern midstream, so the earlier seahorses have square tail tips and bulbous noses. If you want to see what others are pulling together, visit the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

I also made a couple more arches for the pickle dish quilt. And yes, these are paper pieced.

I am using the pattern out of Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance. I trace the arc onto deli wrap paper. In some cases, Molly takes the arc and runs off with it. I then get it back before (or after) she tears a hole in it. Then I sew small strips of fabric across the arc, trimming away as usual for paper piecing.

Milestones

Here are Buddy and Molly giving their last critique of the Dear Jane quilt. And while they turned one year old in August, its been a year since I brought Team Storm home to foster. Unsuccessfully. Only one member found gainful employment while the other two languished behind and became total slackers.

Okay, with hindsight, the limited potential is glaring.

And that mouse toy between Molly's paws is still a favorite. Except now it no longer has any stuffing and the coloring is more a cross between brown and cat spit.

And it was more than a year ago that I began making the Dear Jane quilt. I still need to add the infamous triangle border...except in my case the triangles will not be pieced.

Here is a closer view.

And yes, the turquoise baby quilt is finished.

So it's obviously time to start a new quilt. How about Pickle Dish?

And because this blog post went on so long, I think we should end it with a sunset.