Chickens: Molly's version

Here is Molly's recommendation for the chicken layout. She didn't understand the suggestion to add a rooster who would only eat all the chicken feed, make too much noise and fuss, and never produce a single egg.

This is what the quilt layout looks like with a useless rooster.

And here is Molly and her pony looking out for the new year.

Speedy Chicken Layout Choices

Here are all the speedy chickens laid out on the design floor. At first, I had them laid out racing in alternate rows. It looked way too chaotic. I tried to calm the design down but decided instead to go back to the face off design. If I go with this design, I will want to make seven more right facing chickens so the chickens on the right side will have partners.

Here is the "pick sides" layout. This is better than the raceway layout (not shown), but its my second choice. Another excellent choice would be to race over to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge and see the last of what 2017 has to offer.

The spiderweb quilt top is finished. It covers the entire design wall and drapes a bit on the floor. And yes, Molly is hiding behind the top.

I had to apologize to Molly because it turns out she was right. Last night, she discovered that I had laid the blocks out where the same fabric came together in one spot. She wadded up that section to prevent me from making a terrible mistake. She knew that if I found those two sections coming together with the same fabric, I would have to throw the quilt away.

Right racing chickens

Here are the chickens racing to the right. I have sewn on rear guards for protection before putting them in the chicken coop.

Meanwhile, I needed to clear off the design floor so I can lay out the spiderweb quilt. I have eight 2 by 4 panels and eight blocks. I am hoping this will give me enough leeway to plan the rest of the block placement. As you can see, a difference of opinion is brewing.

For now, I am going to pretend to compromise.

But eventually, we will just have to agree to disagree.

Left racing chickens

Here are all the chickens racing to the left. They each got beak guards. It will be very dangerous when all of these speedy chickens are forced into their coop, I mean quilt, with limited sprinting room.

Buddy continues to practice his sprinting.  Sometimes he pretends that he is a greyhound and Molly is his rabbit.

Ringo and the Chicken Coop

Here are the new geese for Part 5 of Bonnie Hunter's Ringo Lake Mystery quilt.

Here are the last seven chickens for my chicken coop.

This chicken apparently escaped from a circus.

Today Molly used hidden surveillance cameras to supervise my work.

Coming Home to Roost

Here is the last group of right facing speedy chickens. My chicken coop will be complete once the seven left facing chickens hatch. While we wait, you may want to see the end of year activities at the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

And given its the eve of Christmas eve, maybe we should discuss naughty and nice before Santa arrives. Molly demonstrates the fine gradations between naughty and nice. Here is naughty in its brewing stage as she stares at the speedy chickens up on the design wall. She is considering what is the best way to bring them sailing to the floor.

In theory, this could be considered "nice" Molly who has decided not to climb the design wall. But is this being nice or lazy? Actually, Molly seems to have the typical expression of a criminal who finally spots the surveillance camera. 

Digging Deep

So now I have double the fun...two sets of bins sorted. But that's it for the bins. And I still have light neutrals and multi-color scraps without a home.

I worked on the spiderweb quilt again today but Molly says I can't show it again until its finished. And since she's sitting on it, I'm not sure when that will be.

And I know that a lot of quilters are concerned about their UFOs...although quilters rarely mention their LOSRs...yes, Lost in the Sewing Room. Well, here's one I found and pieced today...the vintage butterfly.  It was nestled under the chickens which were hiding under Ringo Lake. 

Spiderweb and Scrap Patrol

The march of the spiderwebs continue. I thoroughly enjoyed making the spiderweb blocks because I got to play with weird combinations and funny i-spy pieces. This fun continues as I put the blocks together. I am watching to prevent areas of too much light or dark, but mostly I turn the webs until I get odd combinations of scraps or combinations of animals to play together.

And a lot of my day was spent with this. I moved old finished project remnants into a central parts department and moved unsewn bits to a centralized scrap heap. I also have bins from various attempts at methods like Bonnie Hunter's strip system that were resorted. And then there was a lot of added chaos from a couple of moves this year.

In general, I have settled on keeping fabric as whole as possible for as long as possible...keeping those larger hunks in Elfa racks. For example, to make a chicken, I need a 6 by 9 inch rectangle of light fabric and a 4.5 by 5.5 rectangle of wing fabric, plus neutral background strips. This leaves each larger fabric hunk looking partially devoured by locust, but it keeps the scraps down.

But now that I'm making a thimble quilt and have plans for a postage stamp rainbow quilt, I thought it was time to get this stuff sorted consistently.

Buddy and Molly prefer the piles of scraps on the floor method...ideal for sneak attacks and hiding toys and general mayhem.

Spiderwebs and Chicken Prep

Today I continued to sew together the spiderweb quilt top.

I did take some time out to count my chickens before they hatch.

Ringo and Spider

Here are the Part Four units for Bonnie Hunter's Ringo Lake mystery quilt.

Here is a layout using all of the unit types we've made so far. In a nod to the name, Ringo Lake, there are vast empty areas.

Meanwhile, I am putting the spider web quilt together. I haven't laid out all of the blocks, but am instead putting together four compatible blocks. Then I put those together into eight block units. After I have made those, I will lay them out and figure out the final arrangement...that is, I'll let Molly and Buddy give their input.

More chickens

In my last chicken accounting I was planning on making 81 chickens for a 9 by 9 chicken coop. I have come to my senses and am going for a free range coop of 7 by 7 chickens. So happily, with these five new chickens, I only have nine more to make.

To witness accounting transform into quilts, visit the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

I had a problem with a jammed sewing machine this morning. After its service by "It's In the Bag" the needle jammed up in a massive thread knot somewhere above the bobbin. According to the technician, the sewing machine had been under a lot of tension and needed a massage. And yes, that's just technical jargon for pulling the sewing thread away from the machine and covering it with cat spit.

Dandy Lion quilt progress

The Dandy Lion quilt binding is finished. The quilt still needs more quilting in the middle section.

For the border, machine quilting emphasizes the rays that extend out from the lion's mane.

And I'll leave it to you to decide what is on the top of the list of Molly's woes.

Next Step Ringo Lake

Here are my units from the third step of the Ringo Lake Mystery with Bonnie Hunter.

I am surprised that this mystery was so easy to guess. We're only at the third step, and its quite obvious that we're making flying nine-patch houses.

This is the Suburbs Version.

Quirky

Here is the latest doll quilt machine quilted and bound. I was very happy how the diamond fabric made a wonderful binding. Shall we call it quirky?

And speaking of quirky, here's Molly taking a sunbath in the sewing room. Unfortunately, my fabric stash also gets a sun bath, so some reorganization may be necessary.

Pink Postage Finish

Here is the pink postage doll quilt...finished! It's quilted and bound. And if you're wondering about its size...it just covers Molly except for her tail. And yes, after she knocked it to the floor, I looked up (I mean down) from what I was doing, and saw the quilt on the floor. It was a bit lumpy with Molly's tail sticking out from under it.

I do like this a lot and think that this will be one of my patterns for next RSC challenge. This came together quickly because I already had lots of pink postage stamp blocks...but I think this will be fun to put together throughout the year.

And here in Portland, OR, you can sleep in late on Sunday and still catch the sunrise. If I go over to the newer part of the neighborhood...the area with McMansions, there is a view of Mt. Hood.

Chicken Progress

Given this is the holiday season, this speedy chicken suggests that deviled eggs and limeade are excellent contributions to a potluck.

Here are the three chickens that I made today. I am hoping to make 81 chickens.

This is the chicken spreadsheet (not the layout). The columns are the colors. Now I just need to make nine in each color. So obviously, I need to stop making deviled eggs and let more of the eggs hatch. In the meantime, I recommend a trip to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge to see more quilt progress.

More speedy chickens

Here's another foxy chicken. I have made enough of these now to have developed a rhythm to make them. Although I'm sure many of you would not like to have chicken combs and beaks piled up next to your sewing machine.

And here are the four chickens I made today. I also made some IKEA furniture. As expected, Molly was there to carefully supervise. In particular, she likes to demonstrate the reasons that bags and stray bits have large warning signs on them. Sometimes she even runs off with things to show her brother.

More speedy chickens

Maybe I've been making too many speedy chickens, but this one seems a bit squirrelly to me.

And this is chicken two ways...

And so is this...except all those cats in the wings make me nervous.

And here are the six new chickens. I hope they don't fly the coop and race over to visit Cathy's (Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilts) roosters.  Then again, they may be heading off to check out all the projects shared at Sew Stitch Snap Share.

Chicken and Pinwheel

I am following Cathy from Sane Crazy Crumby Quilts to visit Love Laugh Quilt's Monday Makers.  It was just the incentive I needed to finish up some blocks piled up at the sewing machine.

It seems that all of my projects are turning into leaders and enders. That's a polite way to describe my jumble. A mess that can spread patchwork contagion. I'm sure you noticed that the chicken pecked at the pinwheel too long and now she has spotted beak.