Sheepish Hummingbird

Here is a hummingbird made from sheep blocks. Right after I took this picture, Buddy took a running dive and demolished this hummingbird. And this is why I feed hummingbirds outside rather than inviting them in for a snack.

And here are the sheep as they are slowly coming together. They have been up on the design wall for ages waiting for sashing. They were starting to look like wet rags dangling from their pins as Molly ran up the wall trying to shake them loose.

And I have to confess that I haven't been sewing much lately. I call it "reading" but Buddy calls it "Being a Buddy Bed."

Acceptance

There are times for resistance, but sometimes you have to settle into the rhythm of acceptance. For example, right now I am accepting that I am going to be typing this post with Molly cradled in my left arm. It is important to treasure this moment of togetherness. Rinse and repeat for the other 23 hours. And yes, when I go outside I am carefully monitored from the window (whichever one is closest).

And I have pulled out the spools and have begun to sew again. There has been a lot of cutting before this. My goal is to have 1600 of these spools...each from a different fabric. I have a lot of spools with a dark value, and now I am trying to fill in with lighter spools. You may have remembered my buying a tub of scraps at a "downsizing" estate sale. These have all been cut down and ready to be sewn.

Today was supposed to be the day for setup of our quilt show. It feels like it was cancelled a month ago, but it was just last week. When I found out we weren't having a show, I ordered online from some of our vendors. These come from Island Quilter, located on Vashon Island in Washington.

After spending a month with penguins, I can't resist them in fabric form. I hope you have seen the video of the penguins wandering around the deserted aquarium.

Last, and certainly least, is a pesto hummingbird with radish garnish.

Team Hummingbird

I have heard many inspiring stories recently of people having to home school their own children only to discover how hard it is. Some are gratefully taking advantage of a daily online doodling class from Mo Willems. So today, I decided to leave it to Molly and Buddy to make the hummingbird.  Molly developed the conceptual framework.

Then Molly and Buddy worked as a team to make the hummingbird. Please pardon the blur. It is an action shot after all.

Buddy added some flourishing touches.

Here is the finished hummingbird. Made from Churu.

Here is a close-up. And after their successful collaboration, Molly and Buddy enjoyed a delicious snack.

Buddy Hummingbird

Here is Buddy's version of the hummingbird. Hummingbird Deconstructed or some such.

As revenge, I made a hummingbird out of cat toys. Buddy gets upset when I dig through his cat toys. He whines in a high pitch.

Meanwhile, I wonder if I'm the only one who finds social isolation a bit crowded? The "sanitation engineers" keep showing up saying I need a thorough cleaning, a stern lecture, and/or weighted blanket treatment...where the weighted blanket is a sanitation engineer.

Scrap Hummingbird

Time to sort out the scraps.

Buddy loves a scrap pile. He runs up to it, attacks, then runs away. He likes it even more when laser mouse is hiding in the scraps. I usually sort the scraps by color and put them in their respective bins.

But today I sorted by "Hummingbird" and "Not Hummingbird."

Pieced hummingbird

Here is a pieced hummingbird. It finishes roughly 8 inches by 8 inches, larger than a real hummingbird. A new version of this hummingbird would use a lighter sky and a darker green for the body. When you have both black, white and medium values in a figure, it gets hard to find the right background.

The background was not a problem for this "Dear Jane Alternative Universe" hummingbird. This is one of the blocks that Dear Jane made but did not include in her famous quilt. I have been making these blocks using a common background...the chalk spot by Kaffe. This hummingbird's problem is a lack of an eye so he keeps flying into things and ramming things with his beak.

And now for the serious part of this post. There seem to be very serious misconceptions about hygiene that need to be debunked:

1. Cat tongues are NOT sanitizer wipes.

2. Cat fur is not an air filter...regardless of whether said cat is a "kitten" or a fat cat.

3. Yes, it is true that I have the luxury of working from home, but this is not a perk when my superiors impose ridiculous hygiene policies that I am subjected to 24/7.

Snow Hummingbird

Meet Mr. Snow Hummingbird. I was very surprised by his visit this morning.

I did see snow in the forecast, but where I live it rarely sticks...you usually have to live up on a hill in Portland, Wisconsin to get any measurable snow. Okay...this isn't really measurable. But certainly its worth rushing to Costco and buying out all the white bread and milk (and yes, all the white paper products and soap are long gone...).

And Portland, Oregon is not in low supply of slackers. This one is willfully violating all of the social distancing protocols. Just to "stick it to the man," my cats spent a long time this morning licking each other's faces.

Book Disease

I have to confess that there is really just too much going on right now to continue with the whole "Put a Bird On It" 365 day challenge. You already know that my house is infested with cats, but now I seem to have something doing something to my books. Surely this can't be the work of a bookworm?

Postal hummingbird, new version

Okay, I might have lost a day somewhere behind me. I know where I lost it...I was working on this block and time got past me. I found myself pulling an all nighter...and it was quite counterproductive. At one point, I noticed that I had the same red fabric next to each other. So I got out my seam ripper, went to work and thought, wow, that was easier than I thought it would be. I looked at the work with great admiration until I realized that I had removed one red square and then immediately replaced the same square. Rinse repeat.

You may also notice that there is a mean green hornet attacking the side of this unfortunate hummingbird. So this is my hummingbird for yesterday.

Here is my hummingbird contribution for today. This hummingbird does not have a hornet on its side, and it has enjoyed a nice meal that filled its belly. (For those of you thinking that this must break some kind of 365 day challenge rules, I can assure you that I spoke to the crazy person who runs it and she said it was okay...pathetic, but okay.

Sock Drawer Hummingbird

Of course, social distancing is important for slowing the spread of a virus and hopefully preventing a spike that overwhelms our health delivery system. That said, it is also an excellent opportunity to tackle the sock drawer.

Lego hummingbird, my version

Here is my version of a lego hummingbird...it does remind me a bit of postage stamp hummingbird.

Bulletin Board Hummingbird

Just like you, everything feels so hectic...almost like the holiday season except now all the presents are hand sanitizers and wipes. So I am back to the bulletin board to make a list to help track the most important task of the day.

Lego Hummingbird

Here's Molly in her cabinet. This is where she goes when she wants attention. This is not the same as the hall closet that she climbs around in after I go to bed. When she is in this cabinet, we play peek-a-boo and catch the toy and make general Molly adoration noises. Other places she goes for attention are her cat tree, the keyboard, the sewing machine, on top of the entrance to the crawl space, the front door, and the design wall. And let's not forget jumping on my back or shoulders.

And this is an official lego hummingbird built from a kit. It does not have a single regular lego brick. I find it hard to get my head around keeping track of all of the parts and their possibilities. But then I guess a quilter from the early 70s would have the same feeling if dropped into a current day quilt store. Needless to say, I think I will be trying my hand at making a clunky lego brick version later in the month.

Postage Stamp Hummingbird

It's a pixelated hummingbird...that is, postage stamp hummer.  Molly is sharpening her claws because she prefers her hummingbirds deconstructed...that is, back to scraps.

Molly Interrupted

Today is Molly Day. She received a toy that is already a favorite...the ripple rug. She loves to scratch on rugs and she loves to hide. The ripple rug is two layers, one plain and the second has different size holes and velcro, so it can have different configurations. She had lots of fun playing with it. She also enjoyed running out of it to surprise Buddy. He jumped about 4 ft high. His new name is Rocket.

This evening, I was making a felt hummingbird. I borrowed Molly's felted bed and was using it for a felting mat (an area that can take the felting needle). Molly came to rip open bags of roving, attack the roving and generate mayhem. Then she settled down for a nap on my lap. I was only able to put one wing on the hummingbird.  Happily, Molly was so tuckered out that she made a wonderful hummingbird backdrop.

Hummingbirds Don't Wear Wool

Here are some daffodils blooming in my backyard.  Flowering trees are putting on nice displays and it is obvious that spring is right around the corner. So hopefully this puts in a good mood so you will forgive me for today's hummingbird.

This is a wool cat toy using the same silhouette as the March 1 hummingbird. I was going to appliqué color patches on it to give it more character and then I thought how about embroidery. Buddy liked the idea of embroidery, but only because he would grab the balls of thread and run off with them. Yes, faster than a hummingbird. So the embroidery doesn't show up well, and the hummingbird is mad that I gave him a goose nose. He also says the wool slows him down.

Here's Molly pretending to enjoy the toy. Last night after I went to bed, Molly went exploring in the hall closet and managed to get stuck up on the highest shelf. She enjoyed it very much when I came and rescued her, so she is just trying to return the favor.

Perler Hummingbird

I spent most of the day machine quilting the spiderweb quilt. I was happy to pull out the perler beads and make a hummingbird. This month it isn't so much the colors that define the bird, it's the shape.

And Molly didn't enjoy the hummingbird youtube videos. The camera was set up to capture a lot of hummingbirds swarming a feeder. She recognized the sounds, but not the activity. So the poor dear had to suffer along with watching hummingbirds in real life. One at a time.

Cat Toy Hummingbird

Let's start off Hummingbird Month with a cat toy refashioned into the silhouette of a hummingbird. Okay, we really started out hummingbird month with a hummingbird scolding me for taking too long to replace the feeder. Yes, next to being supervised by a hummingbird, cats are quite chill.

There are lots of videos on youtube featuring birds for cats to watch. They usually have a camera set in front of the food source and there is a lot of bird chirping and wing fluttering. Molly sits very politely watching and purring until she can't keep it in any longer and then she attacks the device. I have a feeling I will be looking for a special hummingbird video for her tonight.

And Buddy wants to know why I would ruin one of his good toys instead of play with him.