Zip It

Today I decided to add three zipper blocks to my collection. I have piles of fabric in pairs waiting to be cut in two inch strips. After I work through the pile, I will have enough blocks, plus or minus some number.

Meanwhile, I would like to introduce Buddy the Foster Puppy. He was being very mean to his sister Molly Kitten so she unadopted him. This puts him back to foster status. However, given foster kittens now have their own youtube channel, fancy digs, too many toys and endowments, Molly also demoted Buddy from cat to puppy. We're still negotiating what that means and are narrowing down the treatment to somewhere between "lots of beatings" and "same old, same old."

And yes, we had a memorial service for the bits of paper and ribbon formerly known as the "butterfly toy." Yes, the stand still works and there is a replacement butterfly, but I think we all need a bit of a time out. The butterfly needs the longest time out.

All In One

How is this for efficiency? A recent postage stamp block, a cat and an owl. One would be forgiven for forgetting that September is owl month or that there ever was a project called "Put a Bird On It." Also, one would be forgiven for not recognizing the mangled wad of felted wool as a carefully handcrafted owl...recrafted by Molly to resemble a well-loved cat toy (not available at Kitten Academy). I made two new postage stamp blocks and now realize this might be one that I have already shown. I think I'm about to receive a demerit.

What Next?

Hopefully this will go down in history as the longest time it ever takes to write a blog post. I think it started last week. My computer decided to shut down in protest over all of the divisiveness...not political...but between computer programs. I, of course, thought it was a virus. But apparently, my virus program was having an argument with my operating system, or maybe it was Adobe. 

With the help of Apple support, I am up again with a new operating system but every time I go to do something, the operating system decides to do something else. I wanted to pull up my photos, but instead my photo library had to be reinstalled...AND CURATED? 

Unfortunately this meant that Molly couldn't share her good news...I bought her a new heated bed because her brother Buddy keeps using hers. And she likes the box it came in very much.

When I first started having computer problems, I first went to Buddy to get his expertise. This was a mistake. 

And if you are a fan of Kitten Academy, you would be well aware that the latest toy sensation is the fluttering spinning butterfly. 

I would give the toy a highish rating for keeping them busy a long time. Buddy would take away a few stars because the butterfly was not at all tasty. I would give the butterfly an extra star because Buddy could not destroy it within five minutes.

Enough Postage?

 I finished three more postage stamp blocks and now I have enough for a 7 by 9 block quilt (roughly 56 inches by 72 inches). Or I could make nine more and make an 8 by 9 block quilt or seventeen more or...

I have been adding more light blocks and now think I need more dark blocks and orange. Also, looking at this on the computer I can see that the layout of the blocks needs some attention.

Meanwhile, those of you who visit Kitten Academy may be watching the new litter of kittens intently. The first born was all white, the second all black, another all gray like the mother and then one tuxedo and one gray and white. However, the all white kitten can't make up its mind and is now darkening its ears and tails. Another example of a colorpoint is Buddy, shown here at roughly three months.

Here is Buddy pretending to like subtle neutral tones favoring brown to gray. Buddy is also still pretending to be a kitten.

And here is a recent photo of Buddy, long after his warranty has expired.

Molly would like to clarify for the record that we adopted Buddy not for his looks but due to his defective personality coupled with ineffectual and incompetent fostering. 

Adjustments

Here are four zipper blocks made from some of the latest fabric from the Kaffe Collective. Wanda at Exuberant Color was showing hers off and she had no warning on her blog. Also, it seems that a pandemic, power outage and fire does not stop new fabric from seeping into my stash.

And speaking of seeping, this was my view from my front yard on Saturday. The new fabric was safely inside already. Happily, it has gotten colder and in the morning the ground is wet with dew. My usual air conditioning is an open window, so I am quite happy for the cool down.

And remembering how happy Molly was nestled in her heated bed...I turned it on hoping to lure her away from her addiction to open windows and back to her heated bed addiction.

But yes, sometimes the world is just turned upside down...

and it is always the kittens (and their staff) that suffer.

Holy Smokes!

And what a week this has been! Of course the most surprising event that none of us were prepared for was the birth of Tilbury's five kittens at Kitten Academy.  And in complete mockery of Oregon, the kittens chose colors ranging in various colors of smoke to serve as an air quality chart.

Happily, my power is restored, although I may not have fully recovered. I definitely was not prepared to be without power for four days. And this was not related to turning off power to protect against wildfires...just that I live in a bit of a housing maze that I suspect confounded the crews as they tried to locate the outages. Parts of the Portland metro region are set up in a strict grid while others are set up in confounding loopy mazes.

Even without power I was able to pull fabric for the September give away. One winner requested roses and I am sure she had this John Kaldor fabric from the 90s in mind at the time.

One of the winners was Joy who is a no-reply blogger so I have not been able to contact her to get her address. If she sees this, maybe she will email me. Next time I will be more careful with the selections because I inevitably discover that someone is a no-reply blogger only after I have composed the email and hit send.

And just to add to our confusion, with power restored, I found out I am in a level 1 evacuation order zone, the lowest level. While caution is always warranted in these situations, my area has a lot of the evacuation centers for the people truly at risk from the fires. So while at first, my area was being encouraged to "Get Set" and prepare in case of the need to evacuate, now we are instructed to just stay out of the way of the people who did have to leave their homes. 

I did take the precaution of getting a plus-size carrier for Buddy (but not a pony trailer). He is also supposed to pick one favorite toy. He keeps changing his mind between the laser mouse, Rosie Rat and his catnip banana. But today he favors his squeaky toy...Molly Kitten.

Addendum: Just to prove me wrong, we are now out of any level of evacuation zone. Now we are just in the same "don't breathe" zone as everyone else. But don't tell Buddy because he's still woefully unprepared for anything.

Powerless

 The power is out...too much hot wind blew through yesterday. Buddy asked to pick the winners of the giveaway and he picked his YEOW catnip banana. So I picked and the winners are Julierose, Joy, and Susan. I will get in touch with each of you by email after I get power back, but have already started to round up some fabric...a non-electrified activity. Oh...and we were supposed to get power back at about 11 pm last night, but the estimate for getting power back was revised to “invalid date.” 

(And I realize others are going or have just gone through much, much worse. And frankly, I almost giggle each time I realize I can still have water without electricity. And that’s been about ten times now.)

Fabric Giveaway Among Other Things

 I found my sewing machine and even remembered how to use it. It was quite a dangerous activity because I had to move Miss Molly Kitten from her sewing chair. 

And while I may not be sewing as much, I still have lots of fabric. And here it is the beginning of the month, a good time for a fabric giveaway. I'm no longer calling it the free table because well-intentioned people then feel inspired to send me free fabric. So we're changing the giveaway to "Make Room for Molly." It works exactly as before. For folks living within the bounds of the USPS (i.e. no international, sorry), I will send you a small box of scraps (about 3 yards) from my stash that meet the criteria that you give in a comment you leave below (along with email address if you are a noreply blogger). For example, the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge (RSC) has moved to the color red and just maybe you are short on red scraps. Or novelty. Or lights. Or darks. Or flamingos. Or roses. 

After the Monday Midnight deadline (Sept 7), Molly will randomly pick three winners. So if you are interested in trying to win a free package of quilting fabric/scraps, please leave a comment explaining what you would like. 

In the meantime, Molly would now like to address a very important concern she has about fake cats.

As you may already know, there are various individuals who are selling cat heads on the Internet (for example: wakuneco at https://www.waku-neco.com/order-english). How can you tell if what you are seeing is real or fake? Molly says its all in the eyes...

Fake or Real? 

Fake or real?

You guessed it! All fake. 

Blog Alert! Severe Demerit Shortage (SDS)

Molly questions whether this blog can go on because she is operating with a severe shortage of demerits. Buddy's very existence has emptied the reserve. For me, Molly has replaced the demerit system with sleep deprivation. And then a prize winner from last month had the nerve to SEND fabric here which would normally result in compounding demerits applied to her permanent record. However, Molly was completely out of demerits to give. 

The only other punishment Molly could think of was to package and send three zucchini instead. To keep the zucchini from bruising, Molly filled the box with packing tomatoes. It is a huge box. I think she is slightly mollified for now, so we will go ahead with another giveaway over Labor day weekend. The sign up will start on Friday with the winner picked on Tuesday.

And maybe between now and then, I might find my sewing machine and use it.

Meanwhile, we did look through the fabric that was sent to us and we each picked three of our favorites. Molly picked the top row with the hummingbird, the yarn, and the stunningly realistic imagery of her staff. Buddy chose the second row of squares because of the sophisticated artistry and not for any other reason such as his fond memories of eating a bat. The last row represents my favorites because I live in Oregon and have more squirrel fabric than beaver fabric which doesn't seem right somehow. The second square proves the point, and the third raises the question of why cardinals live in Virginia but not Oregon.

And for anyone wondering what happened to "Put a Bird On It" and Flamingo August, we have moved on to September Owls. Next question please.