Orange coins and sixteen patches

 

Here are the long bitcoin and the short bitcoin. 

And here are the sixteen patches in orange. If you would like to see more orange before it runs out at the end of the month, run, don't walk to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. 

Updates and Upgrades

 We are enjoying a fabulous upgrade in our lifestyle, but before we flaunt our good fortune, let's get through all the boring quilting stuff. Since I can never remember the name of the blocks and quilt that Alison Glass designed, I am going to refer to these as Glass chips from now on. In any case, I made more to fill out a section, and almost had enough for another column. Let's see if I can resist making it bigger.

I also made 102 more microspools and am showing you just a sample of them.  But the big news is that Molly's princess bed/tent arrived!

As you know, Molly and I watch the Kitten Academy shopping channel and saw the bed someone sent for the kitten "Princess Paisley." Of course, her mother Loom used it the most using it as her launching pad for attacks on toys and kittens (lovingly, but exuberant).  Given Molly's favorite kitten toy was a tulle bag, I knew she would enjoy this tent. (Unfortunately, the tulle bag shrunk drastically over time...)

This bed/playroom is perfect for the kitten that likes to hide yet stay the center of attention at all time. That said, this clearly did not meet any safety standards for children's stuffed animals. It comes wadded in a bag with six pointy plastic sticks, four corner protectors and four connectors and no instructions. However, what made it quite difficult to put together was that Molly insisted on being inside as I tried to put it together.

And best of all, the princess bed/tent is quite small which precludes its use by random dogs or ponies that might wander by.

Meanwhile, here are the shelves for cat food at my local grocery store. But of course, there is no reason to worry about us because we have a massive hoard of cat food stored away.

Our cat food reserve is so large and massive we've named it Buddy.

Chipper

Here are this month's chips in orange for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge...and yes, a day late and a dollar short.  And in case we've forgotten, these blocks are the building blocks for a quilt designed by Alison Glass for Andover fabrics called Sun Print 2016 Quilt. This free pattern can be downloaded from the Andoverfabrics website.

And with a spurt of energy, I sewed the blocks into pairs and then groups of four. This is also where I parted company with the layout from the Alison Glass pattern where the blocks are sewn in columns. While the chips zig and zag, they don't also bounce up and down. And who doesn't want more chaos?

Now that I have this tentatively laid out, I decided on a final size and will need to make 20 more blocks.

I also made 69 more microspools and am showing a selection of those here. These finish to a size of 1.5 inches square.

Last but not least, I had a troll in the comments of my last post. Molly and Buddy's aunt objected to my pointing out that she had won two first place ribbons at the Oregon State Fair compared to my measly second place. My sister commented that needlework doesn't count as much as quilting. But then when we went and picked up the quilts and needlework, it turned out that the quilt she had submitted in the art category had also garnered a first place ribbon. So let me make a factual correction to the last post and point out that my sister received THREE first place ribbons while Molly and Buddy received none.

We also received comments from the judges on our quilts...my sister only had lots of effusive praise about all aspects of her quilt (which it deserves). In fact, the comments were so nice, the paper they were on felt sticky to the touch. The owl quilt, however, needed better workmanship on the binding. While the piecing was judged excellent, the appliqué needed work...which I am taking as a compliment because the entire quilt is pieced.

 

September?

 A couple of hours ago...a few days ago...last month I mentioned that I was going to restart the Stonefields quilt (designed by Susan Smith). Here are the next four blocks.

And yes, I am now working with Affinity Plus Photo instead of Photoshop but haven't yet sat down and properly figured things out. So the lighting on some of these photos are horrible. What I think looks okay in the program comes out bleached. Many of the controls are slightly different, but close enough that I just kind of mess about. (But on a positive note, I no longer wait through the endless fights between my operating system and Adobe watching the spinning ball of doom.)

Buddy thought my color choices were subtle and sophisticated and would get along with any other blocks that didn't try and bite him.

And here is a selection from the most recent 114 microspools I have made.

Meanwhile, Parliament, the owl quilt, did win 2nd place at the Oregon State Fair for whatever category it was in (traditional, domestic machine quilt). Of course, now that I am now living closer to family, I am required by Sibling Law 405.1 to mention that my sister won TWO first place ribbons for her needlework entries.