Pairs

And now I have pairs. Next step is to sew the pairs together. At that point I will iron them carefully and lay them out on the design floor so Buddy can help with the artistic decisions. He will probably bring along his Yeow catnip banana so he has something to bounce ideas off of.

Keeping Time with Hourglass Blocks

Today I made hourglass blocks from pairs of four patches I made for Project Quilt. I made the matching pairs four patches before I decided to make hourglass blocks that had four different colors in each block. I found this project when I was cleaning up the sewing room. The unfinished blocks are 3.75 inches. For comparison, I left one of the bow-ties...it is 2.5 inches unfinished. I forgot to mention I added this smaller version of bow-ties to the mix.

This is a reminder that I sew the hourglasses around the periphery and then cutting along the diagonals. The big drawback of this method if picking little triangle bits from the corners and cutting dog ears.

And here is the new sewing machine cover...it covers the cone of thread, the thread holder and the sewing machine. I continue with my my campaign to prevent Molly Kitten from chewing on the thread as it goes from cone to machine. 

Here is the unrepentant Buddy who continues to swallow crunchies instead of chewing them slowly (like his sister who didn't need to have a dental cleaning this year). Buddy thinks she didn't have to go because she uses the sewing machine thread as dental floss.

 

Blue Bow-Ties

 Here are some blue bow-ties. I began making them as part of this year's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. However, this year I seem to be blogging in an alternate time universe, so the timing is a bit off. 

Also, if there are issues with text size and wrapping, all I can do is refer you to Molly who changed settings with a walk across the keyboard. I am going to have to wait for her to hold a seminar in Blogger before I can get things back to normal.

I took a Zoom seminar with Kerr Grabowski on Deconstructed Screenprinting.  Her method uses dyes and to have the dyes set properly requires temperatures above 70 degrees. And yes, this has not been happening here. This makes the artichokes quite happy, however.

I am letting them flower because they are more fun to look at than eat. 

And poor Molly had a terrible day last week. On Friday, she didn't get breakfast until after 7AM in the morning. And it was disrupted by Buddy getting locked in a carrier and taken away. When staff came back (without Buddy), Molly ran to hide. However, staff didn't chase her and instead did activities that had nothing to do with Molly. Molly put a stop to that! Later, Buddy came back smelling worse than Buddy. After Buddy came out of hiding, Molly hissed at him several times to convince him to go back into hiding. And now, Buddy is getting his teeth brushed daily which means he is using more staff time than allowed. 

Time to Hide

My personal preference was to follow Buddy into hiding when the crew showed up to install the heat pump. 

Instead, I witnessed Molly supervise the process, and yes, by the end of the day I saw her rub the team leader's leg...although she now denies it.

I seem to be surrounded by show-offs (except for Buddy). The artichoke is getting ready to bloom before it swallows the house whole. (I did eat one of the artichokes, so it may be feeling somewhat vengeful.

And back when I had a shade garden full of trees, I didn't know that this rose was lurking behind the azaleas waiting for its time in the sun. And yes, it towers above me.

Here is another rose in the backyard thriving on neglect (plus a cool spring with lots of rain).

And apparently peonies like sun as well, because this one has also come out of the shadows.

And no, I did not order another cat so I would be very happy if it would stop visiting us everyday...especially with such a judgmental glare.

Alternate Reality

The air conditioning installation begins on Monday, and my sewing room is prepared. (My sewing room is what a realtor might refer to as a living room.) The cutting table has not been cleared in a long time...and it is also clear underneath too,

The fabric is hiding behind fabric. I also moved a shelving unit of fabric into the bedroom where it is also hiding under fabric.

And I found a table living under piles of projects. I have a plastic cover for the thread and a bucket to prevent thread mayhem from a creature that is either desperate for attention or a trip to the vet.

Thread creature.

Buddy is enjoying the extra floor space because he doesn't realize that all of his toys are going to be put away and he will spend the day in hiding. (Thread creature (Molly) will spend the day trying to sneak into the crawl space if given an opening...)