Green pinwheels

Here are four green pinwheels. I started the pinwheel garden last year, but only made about half of blocks I needed. To see other green patchwork of this last day of March, hop on over to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Happily, I finished cutting the fabric for the borders for the i-spy quilt. These still need to be cut into wedges though.

Every morning, Molly and Buddy run out to the sewing room for a game of laser mouse. Throughout the day, Buddy comes hoping to see the little red dot. That's what he's doing here as I'm taking photos.

And here is a camellia from my neighbor's bush. It's peeking through the fence.

Molly Revisited

I don't have much to show because I'm still cutting blenders for the I-spy quilt and the pinwheel garden. Along the way, I'm also cutting more spools too.

Molly thinks I should still post something, and if I want to post something new, I should post a picture of her when she was new...in this case, six months old. In this picture she is trying to appear sophisticated and mature, except she is still leaking massive amounts of kitten.

Two for One

I have not forgotten the pinwheel garden quilt that I started last year as part of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. At the end of the year, I had only made about half the number of blocks I needed. For this, I'm primarily using single hue fabrics or blenders. As I have been making other quilts or rummaging through my stash, I spot a fabric that I think would be good for this quilt and I set it aside.

But a higher priority quilt, is the I-spy quilt for my grand nephew who asked for a quilt like his brother's quilt--except with his name. And it serves me right that I made the original i-spy quilt two-sided with I-spy images on both sides. I do have the required 299 i-spy images, but that doesn't stop me from cutting more.

The more daunting part of this project is that each image has borders to tilt the image. These wedges are  cut from 3 by 5.5 inch rectangles. Each image requires two rectangles. Happily, it also helps if these wedges are primarily cut from blender fabrics. Which means that most of the fabric set aside for the pinwheel quilts will work well for this quilt.

These are the fabrics that are all laid out on the cutting table waiting for me.

And here is the neglected kitten who probably has other plans for me. Yesterday she pawed at me, and without thinking I just bent over and she hopped on my back.  I realized that I had been well-trained, and my life is no longer my own.

Spool Update

As I work on various projects like the Speedy Chicken quilt, I cut 1.5 inch hunks...just enough for these spools. These are 3.5 inches unfinished, 3 inches finished. I cut two 3.5 inch lengths of background fabrics. And I cut one 3.5 inch length and four 1.5 inch squares for each spool. Then as I sew on other projects, I slip these in. I'm not methodical enough to call them leaders and enders...they are more like...oh yeah these, let's make a pile.

I have tried to stay away from bright colors for the spools, but that gets a bit hard given most of the quilts I work on are quite bright. Happily, my quilt guild has a free fabric table at each meeting. I try to bring more fabric than I take...but this is where I find quiet scrap bits. In the photo above, ten of the spools came from the free scraps.

Speedy Chicken Quilt Top

The speedy chickens with coop is now a quilt top. The rainbow chicken wire fabric looks more subtle than I was expecting, but now I like it better. It gives the chickens room to breathe.

Here's a closer look at the border. It isn't laying very flat on the design wall but the border is straight. I cut the borders freehand to keep the chicken wires aligned.

And just in case you thought that Buddy was getting too much attention...

Yesterday, I showed a photo of Buddy looking at the camera. This was his pose right before I caught his attention to look at me. Because of the weird angle of the shot and copious amounts of Photoshop, he almost appears to have feline attributes.

Cutting the Border

I decided to cut the chicken wire border edge to edge...or almost edge to edge. I want the wire bits to match up around the border.  Buddy, however, thinks I should have cut the border along the diagonal.

Then Buddy tried to convince me by using his best cat imitation. I had quite a laugh.

Speedy Chicken Top

The speedy chickens are all assembled into a quilt top...without the border though. I don't know about you, but it looks as though something is missing.

Okay, that looks a lot better.

For those of you who like a detail shot, here you go.

The cutting table was so full of supervisors, I didn't even bother to try cutting the borders.

And now the cutting table is being used as a conference table.

Strips, chickens and cats

I'm still working on the dementor/tormentor quilt. I have a large stack of strips that have to be trimmed into two inch sections. Happily, I can nestle two strips on top of each other to cut two at a time.

And I'm still putting together the chickens with horizontal sashing.

And then I'm going to surround them with rainbow chicken wire.

And yes, I like fabric, but not as much as Buddy likes playing laser mouse. Molly likes to set up strategic pounces, while Buddy prefers pure frenzy.

Fish Review

There was absolutely no sewing today. However, this weekend I helped at a local quilt show. And this is the quilt I submitted.

This was not in the show because its still a quilt top.

These were not in the show because they are quilt blocks. And so ends this episode of quilt guilt.

And now I have to go attend to yeowing cat guilt.

Green Kittens

Here is a litter of green kittens. If you would like to see more green, visit the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

And if you want the attention-seeking type...here you go.

Owl Quilt Basting

A little bit of progress each day and I finally have the owl quilt laid out on the cutting table for layering. Of course, Buddy has been jumping up on the table, feels the pins stick him, and then he pulls at them in retaliation. And, of course, I wouldn't have gotten this far if Molly wasn't off in another room taking a nap.

Blog Review

Today I pressed all of the demented/tormented strips and began slicing them. I also cut 2.5 yard strips for the speedy chicken sashing rows. Molly and Buddy tried to help me cut the long sashing strips if help means "annoyed me to exasperation." Now Molly is giving you her review of my blog post and more generally, my life.

Chickens again! And demented.

I finally got all the chickens sewn into rows. And at this point I'm wondering if I should abandon the plan to put sashing between the rows. However, if I don't, I will forever feel silly that I sewed small sashing bits between each chicken. In any case, I feel a quilt top may be in my future.

And as I was sewing together the chickens, I also finished sewing all the strips for the demented/tormented quilt.

Last week I showed this picture to show my process for making this quilt. So far, I have finished sewing all the strips piled on the left side. Then I will finish pressing them and then cut them into two inch rectangles.

Molly is so sorry that you had to see those chickens again and pictures of strip sets. As a reward she would like you to see something interesting...

This is the fascinating squirrel that climbs up on the feeder...

And then enjoys a little snack. Molly says, "You're welcome!"

Green Postage and Coins

Here is my green postage panel. Finishing this block always feels wonderful. Making it is a bit like getting old though. You start off making two patches and that process feels like it takes for ever. Then come the four patches that come quicker and are nice cause they nestle together. Then by the time I'm to the sixteen patches, my errors are compounding and things don't fit as well as I'd like. But progress speeds up. Then at that point everything goes at lightening speed, except for needing to use the seam ripper a couple of times. And then its done.

And here are the green and white rectangles. These are a lot of fun too, and I look forward to putting these all together. So far I have made six panels each month so hopefully I won't have to play catch-up at the end of the year.

For other lovely green scrappy wonders, please venture over to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Bits and pieces

During a moment of peace and quiet, I quickly layered the eagle. For the backing and binding, I'm using some star fabric that I used in the eagle's wing.

And I have the top three rows of chickens assembled.

Along the way, I am making spools. A lot of these spools are made from chicken feathers, that is, from the same fabric as chicken wings and bodies.

To see more piece-making progress, visit Sew Stitch Snap SHARE at kokaquilts.

And here is an illustration of the phrase "thick as thieves."

Eagle and clean up

Our local guild has a quilt show coming up in May and they have a booth for selling small work. For my contribution, I thought I would finish up this eagle I made (how many years ago?). I thought it would be easy until I tried to find the fabric that I used as the background. It was a bit heavier than typical quilting cotton and is a bit boring, so I suspect it didn't make the move across the country. So I had to search for a substitute. This made a bigger mess than I wanted it to. But the outer border helped a lot.

I also want to layer a couple of quilts and just need to get all of the ongoing projects sorted and out of the way. The photo shows the pile for the Tormented quilt (or Demented or Garden Mosaic). As you can see it starts with 2 inch and 3 inch strips in both light and dark. Then there are strip sets. Then there are trimmed strip sets. And then there are triangles. And then there are four patch blocks and then there are 16 patches. For now this is all jammed in a box. The next layer is chicken feathers, butterfly bits, spools, and I-spy blocks.

Beginnings of Partially Tormented

Last week I was visiting participants of Oh Scrap! and followed Gayle's (Mangofeet) link to her new inspiration of Garden Mosaic or Totally Demented. I too was inspired but I have used up my life time limit of HSTs (half square triangles) and am not allowed to make any more. Then I realized that the blocks could be made with mountain shapes or squares with bat wings.  I explain this in more detail here.

The four patches are 3 inches finished and are combined into 16 patch units that are 6 inches square.

In any case, I am calling my version Partially Tormented because this is much easier to make than I first thought. Also, I'm taking a column and row out of each of the sixteen sections so I will have a quilt that is roughly 84 inches square instead of 96 inches square.

Green Squirrel

I was so busy congratulating myself on piecing a flawless squirrel that I missed seeing that this squirrel is suffering from square jaw.

He is already getting taunted by his peers. So while green squirrel goes back under the knife, I mean, seam ripper, I suggest you visit the green piece supporters over at the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Meanwhile, I have changed my mind about what to use for the backing of the owl quilt. I think the backing on the right captures more of the craziness of the quilt top.