Under the radar

Yes, I made all XXX of the four patches for the Bonnie Hunter Good Fortune Mystery. Of course, I used my usual outstanding accounting procedures. I counted them and found that I had (XXX - 1) of them. I had taken one out because it used the same fabric within the four patch...so I remade that four patch to reach XXX. Then I realized I had a handful laid out on the design wall. So the official count is >XXX and that's good enough for me given that my counting as an error margin of ten.

And yes, they are all twirled.

And yes, the Demented quilt (Garden Mosaic from Free Spirit) is getting some attention again.

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt Clue One

Based on the first clue for the Bonnie Hunter Good Fortune Mystery Quilt, this is my prediction of what the final quilt will look like. Admittedly, I have never made a prediction based on the first clue that was remotely close to the final quilt...but traditions are important.

Molly thinks I should show the other fabric that I expect to include in future parts of the mystery challenge. She also expects me to be voted off of the challenge by the second link-up if I don't find more cat fabric to include in the quilt. So far I have as many rabbit fabrics as cat fabrics, so she is probably right.

In case you missed the hyperlink to Bonnie's page in the first paragraph, here's your way home:
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/11/mystery-monday-link-up-and-cyber-monday.html

Bowties

Inspired by the Bow Tie Quilt in the Simple Shapes book by Kaffe Fasset, I started my own. We'll see how it goes. I tend toward high contrast, and the softer look calls for lower contrast.

And blogs don't usually have warnings, but I have to warn you that the next photo is not for the faint of heart...

...

Now aren't you ashamed of yourself for intruding?

Success!

When I moved twice last year, my bins of fabric became a jumbled mess. But the thought of pulling everything out and sorting by color seemed like too much. Until yesterday. And of course, fondling fabric is a lot of fun.  And zounds, once everything was sorted and put away, I had two empty bins. I don't have too much fabric after all.

And if you're wondering what Molly and Buddy were up to...Molly is using her favorite chair from my grandmother to spy on Buddy and plan her attack. Two minutes ago, Molly was in the closet, so Buddy doesn't know where she is. Will the wild cat attack the unsuspecting pony?

Nope. Buddy was raised with kittens so he knows their sneaky ways! He walked toward the hallway and then slipped behind the chair and surprised Molly. The pony wins!

Technical Difficulties

System Offline! Please try back later!

Thanksgiving

Molly would like to present her Thanksgiving Day turkey.

And here's my Thanksgiving Day owl. Because Molly likes wool so much, I made her a little felted owl to play with.  It's called a Woolbuddy. So I suppose you won't be surprised if it went missing. I looked all over because I wanted to take a picture of it before I gave it to Molly.

I found it sitting next to Buddy. It didn't look as good as it had so I made some repairs. I also made a little wool ball and called it a WoolMolly. Buddy stole that too. And that's how it became known as Thanks-stealing.

Scrap Star Top

The scrap star quilt top is finished! I have a lot more diamonds left, so I think I will make a scrappier version of this...instead of red and beige, I'll use dark and light scraps for the background.

Buddy continues to bring toys to bed. Most noticeably, he has brought wand toys that are very hard to sleep with. But it wasn't until this morning when I rolled over a chewed up mouse toy that I realized Buddy has been bringing me breakfast in bed. Very thoughtful.

I am also grateful that we no longer live in the woods of Virginia where all sorts of critters make their way into the house. I would not like to share a bed with them.

Scrappy Stars

I found the scrappy stars box...it had four completed blocks and a multitude of paper-pieced diamonds. Each block finished at roughly 20 inches...so I plan to make twelve in all for a 60 by 80 inch quilt.

And here is another handful of mid-size spools.

And Molly is pleased to announce that all of the kitten nonsense is behind us. Although she is spending a lot of time scanning "Staff-finder" looking for suitable matches. Also, Molly is sporting her new red crinkly mat. After using deli paper as foundation for some string piecing, it was obvious that it would make an excellent crinkly mat. I put a piece of deli paper on either side of a batting remnant and then encased that in fabric. I think I need to make a crinkle box for her next.

Seahorses and Nonsense

Well, finally! I started this quilt as part of Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 2016 (I think). In any case, the seahorses are assembled. I am still up in the air about the border. I think I will need to load this into Photoshop and play with it a bit. Meanwhile, you might want to go visit RSC 2018 to see what is coming together there.

And I know I brought it on myself, but today Buddy suggested that we consider this kitten Joaquin who is up for adoption. Of course, Molly and I immediately laughed it off because the last thing we want is another pony.

Molly found this kitten whose name is Filbert. She thinks he's a dead ringer for Buddy.

Of course, we couldn't miss this kitten. The shelter named her "Handful." Molly thinks she was probably named that for her petite stature.

Resolution

I was looking back in the photos for this blog to see what I was doing two years ago and discovered that two years ago I was laying out the seahorse quilt and making spools. Aagh! I did find this quilt. I think I stopped making this when I discovered I made a measurement error and that if I continued, a full quilt would cover a house. Now that I look at this I think I would be happy to sew it together and call it a day regardless of its size.

And last night, Molly relented and told me that I could adopt Possum if that was what I really wanted.

However, this morning I discovered an art installation that spanned the bedroom, down the hallway, a zig zag in the foyer and then on into the sewing room. What you see as fluff in the photo has been spun to a finest thread and as I was pulling it up, Molly was on the other end defending her art.  I did find the placard for this artwork and it was titled "Possum Vet Bill $4000."

During the look back to two years ago, I found this photo of Buddy in the middle of his dog phase.

And here's Buddy as he begins to transform into a pony.

Atonement

I may have gotten into a bit of trouble today. I was reading the local news online...and as you're probably well aware, sometimes news outlets do not provide news, but instead appeal to our darker nature. In this case, there was a story about a local cat shelter giving away kittens.

I was entranced by this cutey because as a kitten he had the good sense to keep his cap on straight and not put a bunch of eccentric, extraneous marks on his face...just like Tommy. Then all of a sudden, there was a Molly Cat sitting right between me and the computer and I was getting a lecture on neglect and staffing ratios.

So I have spent the day making amends for my indiscretions. In the few extra minutes I was allowed, I added the spacing strips for the seahorse backsides.

Piles

I created quite a mess as I made the last of the large spools. Given it is a charm quilt with no repeats, I dug through looking for new patterns that I wanted as spools...you know, like fabric with spools printed on it.

Now I am trying to get everything off the storage floor and back onto storage shelves. And as I'm folding and stacking, I'm saving out fabrics that want to be in Bonnie's mystery quilt...maybe.

I had also packed away Kaffe stripes that I bought back in the 90s. These are the thin stripes.

These are the medium stripes.

And these are varied stripes.

I also made a handful of spools. The spool bits have been sitting on the sewing table in a big pile just daring Molly and Buddy to knock them to the floor.

Scraps and Scrappy

Here is a my haul from yesterday's quilt guild meeting. The guild builds a pile of scraps on a free table for each meeting. I sorted these into colors and sizes and then tackled my own scrap bin and added those scraps to the piles. Buddy calls it his play area.

And for those of you who would like to see puppy pictures, this is Typhoon (now Buddy). When he was very young, he was a puppy trying to pass as a kitten.

This is Buddy a month later at four months old after he has learned to accept his dogginess. While the fostered kittens would climb all over me and play, the puppy kept his distance. 

Molly thought I should include a picture of her sister for those of you who are fond of kittens. This is Cyclone. She accepted me immediately because she loved to play. She was so sweet and adorable that she was the only member of team Storm that was successfully adopted (by someone else).

Seahorse and Sunset

The facing seahorses are lagged and sewn together. I will be inserting a strip spacer of background fabric. I am still puzzling how to add the border of seahorse tails. I only have enough of the background fabric for the spacers and a small strip around the entire quilt.

Meanwhile, we had a lovely sunset.

Molly reminded me that it was three years ago that she was trapped in a cardboard box with her three sisters and a puppy. Here she is a few days after I fostered her, her sister, and the puppy. At the time, her name was Hurricane. She was a free range kitten, so she had not had contact with people yet.

This is her a month later.

More spools and seahorses

In case you missed seeing spools. These are the mid-size spools with a finished size of 2.25 inches.
And today these spools were made in true leader and ender fashion as the seahorses were sewn together.

Here are the seahorses sewn into columns. I am experimenting with how far to drop down the left-facing seahorses. Currently, my plan is to sew columns of facing seahorses together, but add a narrow strip of blue between the seahorse backs.  I am also carefully watching the background fabric which is disappearing much faster than I would like it to.

Meanwhile Molly, following youthful trends, has taken up knitting. She likes knitting as a full body sport rather than the fussy old style way of using knitting needles.

Molly has also decided that for Christmas she would like a saddle to put on her pony. Buddy has decided he wants "not a saddle" for Christmas. We are very discouraged with Buddy's negative attitude.

Coming Together

Assuming I sew them together correctly, this is the final layout for the seahorses. I have the first eight columns sewn together. Five more to go.

I don't want you to think that I get lonely as I sew.

And here is Molly by the front door trying to convince me to let her go outside...into the cold, dark night.

Seahorses Finally!

My layout engineer specified a half-drop layout for the seahorses, so I had to make three more right-facing seahorses to make the layout look even, that is, odd. This time I followed the instructions in the tutorial and it worked out well. It kept me working in an orderly manner...not a usual process for me.

I also spent some time organizing the sewing room. I resorted the batiks and put them away by color. Molly insists she was helping me, but her ways are so mysterious I failed to appreciate her effort.

And Buddy is not angry in this photo. He's just squinting because of the camera sensor. Buddy moves from sleeping spot to sleeping spot. They are all ones that Molly claimed until he took them over.

And this is the view I see from the sewing room looking out the front window.