Halloween Humbug

Molly is getting very good at selfies...I expect her to turn professional any day now. However, she is still not a fan of Halloween because staff puts on a scary cat mask that neither Molly nor Buddy find amusing. It doesn't look scary in a Halloween sense...more that the eyes are on a spring and who in their right mind would wear such a thing-type scary.

I did manage to finish up the last two Tiny Tuesday blocks and one of these days I will try to account for all of them and figure out what I might do with them. These last two blocks were presented by Angela of SoScrappy and the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge fame.

I also pulled some fabrics that I thought might meet the Frolic mystery quilt color scheme. Frolic is this year's mystery challenge presented by Bonnie Hunter.  I usually do a different color way by taking a turn along the color wheel...but this year Bonnie is warning to maintain contrasting colors/values. So I will probably switch the colors up but these can hang out until I come up with another plan.

The first set of instructions are provided the day after Thanksgiving.

I also wanted to show the two objects I picked up at the estate sale. I usually avoid such things because Molly does not allow me to have nice things...well, anything really. She does love her gravity demonstrations. So anything I do get has to be put behind glass doors...well away from Molly's experiment laboratory.

Scrappy stars and more fabric

This afternoon (with sun streaking in through the front window), I laid out the blue scrappy stars in preparation for sewing them together. Buddy immediately attacked one of the scrappy stars and beat it into submission.

Buddy was so boisterous I did not realize he was diverting attention from the kitten spy (upper left corner in the previous photo).

And here are nine of the furoshiki from the estate sale. Most of them feature rabbits. And strangely the lower right rabbits are sitting next to a pile of eggs. And all of the bunnies in the orange panel say their name is Gayle. The upper left furoshiki features a cat.

Here's the cat up close. This is not a clandestine cat.

There were a few half yard cuts hiding in with the one yard cuts of the African print fabric. And along with the furoshiki was a narrow panel of pink cotton fabric featuring...you guessed it...more bunnies.

Bullseye and Trips

Let's start with a finished quilt top...where I rearranged the mismatched grab bag of trip around the world blocks and laid them out, took a picture, said eek, then rearranged them some more. Then to add a certain random factor, have Molly run up the design wall a couple of times, have Buddy mix up some blocks and let me mix up some blocks...and voila.

And to add to the confusion, here is the Bullseye Tiny Tuesday block that Angela at SoScrappy presented on Saturday. While I was capturing the link, I noticed that she added another Tiny Tuesday block today, so yes, I'm behind again.

And here is another sample of the one-yard cuts of African print fabric I bought at an estate sale. And buried in the box with these fabrics was the invoice that showed that they were purchased at FabricWholesaleDirect for about $5 per yard last February. That made me a tad nervous, but I washed  a few panels and they kept their bright color with a small amount of shrinkage...but basically holding up very well.

But I should warn you that the fabric is so bright and happy that if it is dropped on the floor, it will begin to dance on its own.

Oh...never mind.

New fabrics

Here are about one third of the African print fabrics (Dutch wax) that I purchased at the estate sale. Each piece is a one yard cut. There are some repeat patterns in different color ways. I must admit that these hunks intimidate me because the patterns and colors are so grand they defy cutting...except that I also have a huge bag of scraps...squares and strips that are truly amazing.

The panels are also the perfect size of hiding a cat...

or a "kitten."

Meanwhile this was happening outside...

Design Wall

Zounds. This looks quite a bit different online than it does in real life. In real life, it looks a lot mushier, but that could be my eyes. In any case, I think I will be moving around a few blocks. 

I pulled these trip around the world blocks out of the closet. I made these many years ago using Bonnie Hunter's free pattern on the blog. And there are many ways to configure them and I seem to have chosen all the various ways in all the various colors. These blocks are predominantly cool. I think I can make another quilt from the warm colors and a baby quilt out of the "very baby blocks."

Meanwhile, I made a terrible mistake. I decided to clean up my studio and put all the fabric away. I then had large expanses of carpet and twiddling thumbs...and in that state of mind I went to a quilter's estate sale. I thought I had pulled out some quilt fabric from Japan, but instead they are furoshiki--cloth for wrapping gifts. And most of them have a bunny theme. (This is one of nineteen...) I will save the 39 yard pieces of African print fabric for when the design wall is free.

We're Baa...Baa...Baack.

If you pretend this is last Saturday, this would be my contribution to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. Please do not adjust your monitor colors. Although this sheep is lime green, she is Polly from Portland and may look a bit gray because it is that time of year...

Here is Polly from Portland with her friend Pauli from California.

I should also apologize for my long absence from this blog. I have been in staff meetings all week. Molly would like me to explain that a staff meeting is me hiding under covers reading. I have to hide under the covers to keep Molly from swiping at the screen to change the view from text to birds on YouTube.

Meanwhile Buddy has been busy designing the perfect layout for the pinwheel blocks. He obviously thought my layout lacked balance and creativity. He has also brought his best friends Possum and Feather Toy to help him. These are two toys that he likes to carry around the house. The feather toy was on a wand, and one night he planted it in the doorway to the bedroom. I tripped on it and broke it...but I was happy it didn't break me. In any case, it is much easier for him to drag around the house now.

And here is Molly's new self portrait.

Justice

First, she called me a cat. Then she said, "Oh excuse me, very stodgy kitten." Now she wonders why she can't access her devices and her passwords aren't recognized.

Respectfully,

Molly Kitten

Pinwheels Spinning and Tiny Thursday

Here is my Tiny Tuesday block for this week...a fun block featuring partial seams again. This block was presented by Angela at SoScrappy who hosts Tiny Tuesday and the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.
If you would like to see an inspirational assembly of the Tiny Tuesday blocks, check out Little Penguins' progress so far.  Do not look too far into her blog though, because you may see pictures from Oregon where she shows off going to wonderful places that I haven't seen yet.

Molly reminds me that she is the true wonder of Oregon. And yes, now I'm hiding all internet-linked devices from her because I definitely do not need her to find places I have not gone to on the internet. Also, this morning she showed me that she taught herself to open bi-fold doors.

The Remainder

At some point, I laid out all of the pinwheel blocks and figured out what colors I needed to balance out the quilt. I cut the hunks I would need and threw them in the project box. And now those hunks are cut and sewn into blocks. As you can see, I didn't need anymore green blocks.

My next step will be to lay out all of the blocks on the design floor and let the cats give their artistic input.

And yes, I love calling this design Chantal's Pinwheels...I have seen the pattern elsewhere, but it was Chantal's version for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge that was so inspirational. And it takes a lot to get me to make half-square triangles.

Pretend It's Saturday

This post makes a lot more sense if you think its Saturday and I am showing my Pinwheel blocks focusing on dark fabrics...the "color" of the month for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. Or you can pretend I'm one of those "finish quilts" type of people, because along the way I cut the remaining triangles that I will need for the rest of this quilt. Yikes, I even have all the triangles sewn into half square triangles. Could this possibly mean that things are getting back to normal...

No...

I made a serious error in judgment. I showed Molly some bird videos on youtube. They are really quite wonderful...a camera is set up right in front of seeds left out on a tree stump or a rock. And birds and rodents scurry into view, twitch and jump, then scurry off. The video captures both the movement and the sound. And within about five minutes, Molly was hooked. And she does not distinguish among screens...phone, computer, tv. Also, she soon starts pawing at the screen.

Buddy, with limited vision and more common sense, hears the video sound of birds and runs to look out of the window.

As you might expect, it didn't take long for Molly to transition from viewer to critic. So, yes, now Bonnie Hunter is being supervised, but happily she doesn't know it.

Dark side Tiny Tuesday

For the month of October, the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge is moving to the dark side, and so is Tiny Tuesday. And here is the block for this week, with many thanks to Angela at So Scrappy.

And yes here is another snack pack of microspools. These finish at 1.5 inches and I am trying to have no duplicates. And to confuse myself, I keep thinking I need to make 3,600 of them, until I come to my senses and realize that I will want 40 by 40 blocks...so I only need 1,600. Without duplicates, of course.

Regardless of the miscounting, I feel as if I'm in a productive slump. I was reading Wanda's (Exuberant Color) productivity tips and wondered why it was missing the most obvious of all productivity challenges: living with cats. Recently, my pet therapist announced that I am dwelling in a psychic abyss, so Molly is spending most of the day sitting on me. Sometimes Buddy joins in and I get stuck under a weighted blanket.

I also have to confess that I sometimes think others are conspiring against me...

and that evil lurks just outside...and seriously...why does this cat come and hang out at my house? He/she just glares at me as I pull the car out of the driveway.