Friendship Star Variation Quilt Top

Ahem. This is the final result of Buddy's audit. Molly suggested that if I didn't want my blocks tossed around I should put them up on the design wall or sew them together.

So I sewed the blocks together and now have a baby quilt top instead of 36 cat toys.

Quilt Bureaucracy

I made more stars and laid them out on the design floor.  Molly did not appreciate disparaging comments about her accounting, so she has delegated this quilt to Buddy.

This task may be beyond his skill set. And yes, when he took the feline IQ (FIQ) test, he scored in the dog range. That said, he does understand three words in English:  treat, snack and toy (admittedly favorite dog words).

Pink Pinwheels

Here are four pink pinwheel blocks, my last pink contribution to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. I thought I would jump ahead and lay out all the pinwheel blocks I've made so far...usually an activity for November.

Molly intervened and said no. There are no more blocks on the design wall, but Molly has a nice new nest.

Disappearing Stars

I originally fell in love with this pattern after seeing it on Cathy's blog Crazy by Design. She calls it Friendship Star Variation, but I am renaming it Disappearing Star. I cut 36 sets of star blocks to make a 36 inch square quilt using 6X6 star blocks. I have finished sewing them all and I am missing nine blocks!

Okay, we know that three went astray into a different pattern, but this means 6 must have exploded and disappeared into the night.

Here are the star parts to finally finish those last nine exploded stars.

Meanwhile, if you are following the traveling adventures of Barbara of Cat Patches, you may have seen her deny that cats are an invasive species. Despite her denial, I can assure you they are. This afternoon, Molly got up on the kitchen counter to invade the kitchen cupboard. She got into the cupboard and knocked her cat treats to the floor, where her dog Buddy promptly ripped open the bag and chowed down. (I caught Buddy the dog in action, but the invasive cat was nonchalantly sitting on a window ledge in the sewing room.)

Small Quilt Progress

Here are the small quilts ready to be layered and quilted. This is my first time sharing on sew stitch snap SHARE. I noticed that this is where all the cool quilters link up and I thought I would sneak in. I hope no one notices how tipsy the quilt tops are on the design wall.

Sometimes there are forces in the sewing room that are beyond my control.

 Oh dear, the spiral log cabin did not pass inspection. Please ignore.

Here are the Friendship Star Variation blocks that I've made so far. I'm planning on 36 inches square or 6X6 blocks.

Squares

I showed a small doll quilt yesterday made from the remnants from this quilt. However, this quilt was also made from remnants...in the sense that I started making blocks for a quilt that didn't work out as I planned, so like a squirrel, I buried the blocks for years. One day I uncovered them and made this quilt.

Which reminds me, a squirrel stopped by today and mentioned that it is the dog that had a short attention span, especially with a squirrel in view. He mentioned that squirrels are very industrious and have incredible focus. Molly was up napping on top of the fabric shelving, yelled SQUIRREL! and ran to the window.

Later, Molly helped me take a picture of the quilt top. This design wall has many layers so she got stuck between the flannel and the felt. On a second attempt, she ran up behind the quilt top and here she is assessing her performance.

Squirrel Challenge

I am joining in with Gayle of Mangofeet's Squirrel-a-long. These are bunnies, not squirrels. However, these bunnies want to be a charity quilt for my quilt guild. These eight bunnies will make one small quilt.

And I found extra I-spy blocks and parts for another.

And these extra pieces are now put together with a border. Layering and quilting is the next step for this one.

And I am continuing to make the Friendship star variation. Except...

If you aren't careful, the friendship star variation varies and becomes a spinner, or maybe a fidgety quilter spinner. But in true squirrel fashion, I'm thinking that I should at least make four to see how well they play together.

Pink Cow

Here's a pink cow. She's a bit of a messy eater. She looks a bit crooked too, but that's the felt on the design wall behind her. It's getting a bit droopy. However, no one is droopy over at the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge where pink is the new fall color. Go see!

Please don't disturb the sleeping...I mean, peeking Molly.

Baby quilt finished

I finally finished the binding to this baby quilt. I find it very hard to sew binding WHILE being a cat couch.

Here it is with the backing.

Meanwhile, I continue to find more parts that I can make into a doll or baby quilt. These are parts from a spiral log cabin I made a while back.

This is the full quilt top that the parts came from. I should probably finish this.

I also spent some time sorting fabric in the bins. Molly envisions a day when all the fabric is gone and replaced with cat toys.

Remnant blocks

Today I rummaged through the remnant basket. My local quilt guild is collecting small doll quilts for the fire department. These are given to children along with a stuffed animal. Remnant blocks should give me a bit of a head start on a finished small quilt.

Some are single blocks that were the end of the line for a pattern, while others are extras that didn't make it into a quilt top. I gave up on this dog because he was too much of a blockhead, and the mouth was too fussy.

This was my start on the Gwennie-inspired Medallion challenge. I only completed the center. I used two kittens and I built a basket around them.

These are extra blocks left over from a quilt top.

I think this block was one of Angela's sampler blocks for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. It's a card trick block surrounded by a star.

Friendship Star Variation

Now that I am finally binding that other baby quilt, I feel I can now start the quilt I had intended to make originally, the Friendship Star Variation. I loved these blocks when I saw them on Cathy's Crazy by Design blog. I tried to make them but got it all wrong and made the other quilt instead. So now I'm calling a do-over.

I may be using a different construction technique, however. First, I always prefer to make flip triangles (squares in the corners that are ironed over) instead of half-square triangles (HSTs). Also, this lets me use partial seams which makes me happy for reasons that make no more sense than my preference for flip triangles.

In any case, I cut four 2.5 by 4.5 rectangles of light fabric, and nine 2.5 inch squares of green. I sew two flip triangles on each of the light rectangles. Then I sew a partial seam as shown in the diagram. The partial seam allows me to take the next rectangle and sew a straight seam all the way across. Same for the next rectangle and the one after that. Then, last but not least, I finish sewing the partial seam. What fun!

Only 32 more blocks to go because the block finishes at six inches and the final baby quilt will be 36 inches square.

Busy Day

I finished machine quilting the baby quilt. This is the back.

The strips down the middle will be the binding.

And I did find more of the Manhattan Modern fabric by Bernartex. These were companion fabrics to the main line which were large asterisk-like flowers.

And yes, I get to have all the fun, while Molly takes on the hardest task--washing the dog.

Two pink sheep

If "you are what you eat," pink hydrangeas are not a bad choice. Especially if you are celebrating pink with the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

If you love pink, grab a friend and enjoy the pink RSC festivities. But please don't eat the patchwork.

Baby Quilt Layers

Time to finally layer and quilt this small baby quilt. And since I just layered a larger quilt, I used the batting scraps to layer this quilt. Plus, I just bought the special batting tape that lets you fuse the batting scraps together. (It's essentially one-sided fusible sold like a roll of ribbon). Unfortunately, I couldn't find it.

Molly said she filed it under "Not a Cat Toy." Buddy suggested it would be easier to just use a needle and thread. Thread is filed under "Cat Toy" so Molly came to "help."

Eventually the layers came together anyway.

Machine Quilting Setup

I finished layering the lion quilt and so it was finally time to set up the space for machine quilting. For that I put a table behind the sewing table to hold the quilt up and prevent pulling on the stitching.

This is the general setup for the sewing room. For piecing, I am now facing the design wall. My favorite part is when cat ears poke over the top of the design wall to assess what I'm up to.

Sometimes its Buddy, because Buddy has now moved his napping spot from the bedroom to behind the design wall...on the top shelf with Molly.

Molly moves from the napping spot to the ironing board to the cutting table depending on where her supervision is required.

Quilt layering continued

I want to shift the lion quilt so I can start pinning a new section. Molly thinks it needs further feline processing.

Oh my! Something is moving underneath the quilt. It had better not be staff's finger!

Sometimes even the best inspectors can get distracted if someone starts fiddling in the fabric bins.

Batting woes

Don't you hate it when you're layering a quilt, and you can't get the batting to lay flat no matter what you do. This batting is too defective to use, but I don't know if I should try and return it to the store or the manufacturer.

Oh. Nevermind.