Orange Spools

I kept it simple today and made a handful of orange spools. To get your last blast of orange for the month, please visit the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Piglet Mayhem

It turns out that Portland likes piglets, because Pigs in a Blanket won a third place ribbon (in the category of intermediate size traditional quilts). As part of the prize I received a laminated-badge type thing that had a detail of the quilt with the prize label on top. As I looked at it, my eyes began to cross...

For the first time, I noticed the poor confused brown polka dot piglet. To be fair, the piglet isn't confused, but the person who made it was. I mixed up which fabric was for the body with the fabric for the details. And today was the first day I noticed that poor messed up piglet. Now I am certain the judge is going to have a few incendiary comments for me...and rightly so!

To cheer you up, let's end this post with a close-up of one of Laura Heine's quilts. She is an instructor for the Portland Quilt Expo this year. I would have given her a prize for best use of Tula Pink's tuna cans and cat novelty fabric. I think it takes the cake!

Design Wall Tryouts

I have two sets of vintage butterfly blocks...a soft set shown here. I also have a much brighter set. I could mix them up, but I liked the idea of having one quilt toned down to a 9.

Of course, Molly thought she would lend a paw. She ran up the design wall. Then I had to pick up blocks and pin them to the wall. As I pinned them, she batted at them from the other side.

But life behind the design wall has gotten interesting now that Buddy has figured out how to get to the top shelf.

He even allowed me to take some closeups.

Molly isn't too sure that she wants to share her sanctuary although sometimes she enjoys the company.

Dandy Lion Backing

Here's the fabric that I'm going to use for the lion quilt backing. Thanks to Gayle at Mangofeet, I'm going to name the quilt Dandy Lions.

And Molly made sure I went to the post office today to mail off all of the fat quarters for the September giveaway. She likes having the highest spot in a room for napping and supervising.

You may think that this is Molly posing for the camera, but really she is waiting for me to put down the camera so she can jump on my shoulders to get down from her loft. You can see she is losing her patience and is willing me to put the camera down and move closer.

Postal Lions

I still have to set up an arrangement for machine quilting, and this will be my test specimen. I still haven't quite figured out the lighting yet. In Virginia, I had installed large workshop lights in the sewing room and they lit up the whole space both during the day and at night. Here, the light is fine during the day, but quite limited otherwise.

And for all of you prize winners, Molly would like to apologize to you because she has such unproductive staff. She promises to push me out the door and to the post office first thing in the morning, even if this means she has to play duck and hide and pounce by herself.

Falling for Orange

A little late in the day...but I feel back in the RSC saddle. And this month, the saddle color is orange.

Earlier in the week I made these two orange sheep.

Speedy chicken suggests you hurry over to the RSC blog so you can fall into some more orange.

Another orange sheep

Another orange sheep. And this may go well with the warning "Please Don't Eat the Daisies."

Here are the two sheep together.

And oops...someone's asleep on the job.

Orange Sheep

Yes, I will admit it. After visiting Gayle at Mangofeet, I had an extreme case of orange sheep envy. I even heard my orange fabric bleeting at me. I cut fabric for two orange sheep, but was only able to finish one. First, I still have a lot of trouble with this pattern...but in silly ways, like I'll make the nose out of background fabric or use dark fabric where light fabric should be.

I may also be suffering from too much help.

Design Wall Installed

Here is my collection of speedy chickens. And yes, that is the new design wall. The flannel sheet I had wrapped around the PVC frame was not sticky enough, so I bought a few yards of wide white felt, and this is working much better. And while I was attaching the felt, Molly helped identify areas where annoying kittens could get trapped between the two layers.

I also finished the last six wedges for the Pickledish quilt.

Today the workmen only came for a few hours. Molly decided to hide in the sewing room which meant that I had to seal off the front of the house and have the workers come in through the sliding glass door. But Molly was very nervous and stressed.

But then Molly's puppy Buddy came to the rescue. In the middle of the hubbub, Buddy came looking for Molly. He was crouching so low he almost looked like a cat. Molly followed him back to hide under the bed. After it was safe to come out, Buddy demonstrated his expertise with the three-tier roller ball toy. Molly demonstrated her expertise at biting Buddy and stealing his fur ball toy.

Sewing Room Safety Review

Here's Molly settling in to her morning beauty nap. I was sorry to have to tell her that the workmen were returning and that she and Buddy would be hiding under the bed instead.

Happily, I didn't have to hide with Molly and Buddy and was able to get some sewing done. I now have a full setup with sewing machine, cutting table and ironing board. I'm still experimenting with arrangements. And here are the last six wedges needed for the pickle dish quilt.

After the workmen left for the day, Molly made up for lost time. She thought I had forgotten the most important part of the sewing room...the design wall.

Molly showed me that just leaving the design wall leaning against the wall is not safe for kittens or gaudy chandeliers.

Molly also doesn't approve of my using safety pins to attach blocks. Tomorrow's task list includes finishing the wedges AND attaching the design wall.

Staff ID

Today Molly insisted that staff obtain a photo id as added security. Both Buddy and Molly spent the day hiding because the house was overrun by workmen.

Molly was not amused.

Sheep!

Today was my day to make an orange sheep, maybe two. But I can't find the pattern! Okay, this is not a big deal because I do have the tutorials posted. And I do have seven patterns staring at me.

Next weekend is the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.  The sheep hope I have the flock filled out by then.

I'm hoping Molly tells me where the pattern is soon. I look forward to finding out where she hid it.

Addendum:  So Molly had me retrieve her blue fur toy from under a table...and there sat a bag with various paperwork including the pattern specs for the sheep. Molly was quite pleased with herself.

Poodle and Batik winners

Today I made a poodle using the tutorial...and oops, some of the measurements are off.  This quilt is going to have turquoise, pink and black poodles on white and black background fabric.

Meanwhile, Molly has decided that there is still too much fabric. So today there are going to be TWO winners.

The winners of the batik fat quarters are:

QuiltE and

Tu-Na Quilts  (Buddy would like to eat a tuna quilt!)

Pickles and winner

Here are some pickle wedges. This means I got everything together for paper piecing. And I only accidentally ironed some template plastic once. (I use the small piece of template plastic to fold back the paper before trimming.)

And now its time for the party fabric giveaway.

And the winner of the giveaway of fat quarters:  GranChris.

Chickens, puppies and winner

I followed my advice from yesterday, and decided to start sewing although I don't have everything unpacked or set up in some semblance of efficiency. I have never been efficient, so why start now?

And this was not Molly's advice from yesterday. I misunderstood her. She wanted me to spend more time playing with her and cuddling. So we did.

Meanwhile, Buddy the puppy is trying to act like a cat...the social pressures in this house are so fierce. Luckily, the windows here have ledges that are wide enough to accommodate a small pony.

And here is the selection of fabrics for the September 5 giveaway.

The winner of this set of fat quarters is:  works4me

Fabric Giveaway 4 with circles

A small amount of progress filling up the shelves with flat folds.

Here Molly is explaining that she thinks I'm just spinning in circles and should just jump in a start sewing already. Everything's a mess, but she reminds me that its always a mess anyway.

Meanwhile, Molly would like you to know that the fabric giveaway has gone to the dogs...

QuiltSwissy that is.  Buddy is quite pleased and thinks dogs can be winners too.

Third Fabric Giveaway and Reorganization

I realized last night that my plan for the sewing room wasn't working out. So I reorganized the storage units. Molly supervised.

Molly likes the new arrangement much better.

Buddy is happy to see more floor space.

Buddy would also like to announce that the winner of the September 3 fabric giveaway is:

Janice Holton!