Priorities

 Occasionally I lose my way...a few days ago I thought it would be fun to make a quilt from gray plaids and call it Portland Sky. I had cut about 50 squares until I realized that I was well on my way to making a sad, dull, waste of time. Instead I finished layering the seahorse quilt and have finally begun quilting it. 

And here is the exact opposite of sad, dull and a waste of time. Also not plaid.

Inspiration for Project Quilting

 Life has its dilemmas. Here I accidentally woke Buddy up when I took his picture because he was so cute while he was sleeping. I also took a photo of my inspiration for this week's Project Quilting challenge: make a quilt featuring the sky without including more than 10% sky blue. So I am going to make a quilt that features the Portland, OR sky...and here it is...

This was taken today...with the daytime temperature in the 40s and no frozen precipitation. I have already pulled the fabric for the quilt and now its time to start cutting...

Log Cabin Quilt Top

 Putting this quilt top together is all I have to show for the recent ice storm. Ice storms are fickle and our neighborhood did not have enough rain and low temperatures at the same time to accrue much ice. We also didn't have a power outage. Nor did we have photo worthy winter wonderland views.  So please accept this photo of the quilt top as your consolation prize.

As a reminder, this is a photo from an estate sale ad and was the inspiration for my version.

Ice Storm Prep

Our area has a ice storm warning that admittedly makes me a tad anxious. My neighborhood is prone to power outages and a few years back all the trees in my back yard decided to hug the house. And there are lots of predictions and suggestions for how best to prepare. Oddly, I have not seen anyone prepare as thoroughly as Molly. Here she is sticking one leg out of her heated bed to gradually become acclimated to suboptimal sleeping temperatures.

Hummingbirds with Hexies

When I lived in Virginia I fed ruby-throated hummingbirds or what I would call normal hummingbirds that migrate so you don't have to feed them all year or worry about them during cold snaps. Here in Oregon, our cold snaps are few and the Anna hummingbirds are slackers that hang around all year. Plus they don't share.

These are the ruby-throated hummingbirds from Virginia. So yesterday we had weather dip into the teens. This of course freezes the sugar solution. I tried a heater attachment, stronger concentrations but settled on a strategy of just changing the feeder a lot. The male hummingbird settled on a strategy of working very hard to keep the female from feeding. Molly offered to take care of the situation for me, but I declined her offer.

Between swapping hummingbird feeders, I made more animal hexies. Each side of the hexie is one inch. And I am pulling these from my stash (that includes a lot of novelty prints). The cat in the second row from the bottom (sticking its head out of a red zero) is millennial/year 2K fabric from Nancy Crow.

Before I edited this post, I was calling the ruby-throated hummingbird "rufous" for no apparent reason until a very gentle correction in the comments.

Hexies

After a day of running around in circles, it's nice to settle down to prepare some hexies and end the evening feeling like I have accomplished something...keeping Molly from eating thread and Buddy from stealing sharp objects.

Change of Scenery

 I finally got the seahorses ironed and on the table for layering. I did have to take clamps from the design wall and clamp the seahorses to the table. Apparently draping fabric and batting over a table attracts a nefarious cat to hide under the table while an equally nefarious cat attacks from the outside. This is not conducive for lump-free layering.

Meanwhile, in yesterday's comments Wanda from Exuberant Color suggested I swap the red and purple corners of the log cabin quilt. Of course, typically I would do whatever Wanda says. Unfortunately the block switch of red and purple does not work with this configuration because the red block's outer edge is black while the outer edge of the purple block is white. If reversed, they would line up with similarly configured blocks. This happens because the quilt is 8 blocks across and 7 blocks down (like the original). 

Molly rates the above paragraph with five Zs!

Final Layout?

 I'll leave it to you to figure out if this is a new post or not. I did move around some blocks. When I began, I was paying more attention to the estate sale version of this quilt which had lots of whitish centers. I suspect that some centers had been colorful but faded over time. 

As I went along I changed some of the lighter centers for more medium/light. And today, because I didn't want to make a new block, I pulled out a center and put in a new one...a little more complicated with a log cabin block than just a set-in square.

All the Blocks

 All the blocks are assembled...but maybe not in their final position. I'll spend some time looking and shifting.

And this morning I went over to Project Quilting and saw the first theme was bird houses. I had three ideas...two of which did not thrill me. But the third idea made me quite happy...and that was to skip this  challenge. All of a sudden, I had a lot more time added to my week. I finished cutting fabric for the fabric giveaway. I finished the log cabin blocks. And this evening I'll have time to read. But still not enough time for Molly.

Winning!

 

Here is the latest version of the log cabin. I made three new blocks...one was orange and replaced a block that I didn't like very much. I also made a blue and yellow block, reducing the empty areas to four.

Meanwhile, Beth S. won the January fabric giveaway. I don't really trust Molly with a rotary cutter or anything else, I will be making the selection for Beth. She has asked for dark blue, neutrals (i.e. white) and pink. Gayle thought I had sent her all of my blues for the November giveaway, but she was off by a few tons. 

Expect the next giveaway drawing to begin Feb 1. And don't forget that Project Quilting starts this Sunday.

Anticipation

Is Buddy waiting in anticipation for the announcement of the winner of the Fabric Giveaway to be announced in the next post? Or did I have a day without sewing and have nothing to show for it except pulling out a photo of Buddy from two years ago? 

Turn Down the Volume

 It may have been Molly's persuasion, but there are a lot of requests for low volume fabric for the fabric giveaway (see January 1 post). And I've got a lot of lights, neutrals and low volume fabric, but if the winner asks for low volume I will to know that we are talking about the same thing. And of course, "low volume" or "neutral" is quite relative to the quilt that is being made.

First, I will want to know the range of hue...for example, Bonnie Hunter calls a fabric neutral if its range is anywhere from white to brown paper bag. And if the quilt is super scrappy, that can work. But throwing a beige in a mass of white is going to look downright dirty.  In the range shown above, the white on white fabric is the fourth from the left. The fabrics on the right head toward brown and the fabrics to the left of it head toward gray. So the question I will ask is how far gray,  how far tan or just white.

The next question is how busy. The fabric on the far left is a white on white fabric. I tend to make blocks with small pieces and would favor the fabrics that are fourth and fifth from the left. If you have large pieces, the second from the left might work as low volume. And off course the choice also depends on what they will contrast with.

The black and white fabrics in this log cabin are one inch strips (finishing at 1/2 inch). For the most part, these are strictly white on white fabric, and black with dark gray. And thank you for noticing that I finished two more blocks today (a blue and a red).

Four More Blocks

 I finished four blocks today: three yellow and one blue. Now I have eight more to go. With Molly's help at the sewing machine, I estimate,this will take me four days.

Here is the blue block that I finished today. A blue cat with teal measles.

Fabric Giveaway: Curated Edition

Molly is quite delighted to start the New Year with the first giveaway in her Curated Collection Series. As in past giveaways, if you are interested in having a chance to win, leave a comment specifying what color/theme of quilting fabric strikes your fancy. Perhaps whites or low volume? Here Molly is laying her high volume on low volume fabrics.

Or maybe you would like solid scraps?

And don't forget bright multicolor fabrics. 

On January 4, at 11:59pm  Pacific Standard Time, Molly will use her super secret random number selection algorithm to pick the winner. The winner will be notified by email (but at a reasonable hour for staff and not at a crazy cat hour.)

Also, if you are anonymous or no reply, please leave an email in the comment so we can reach you if you win. If you win, we will email you for your address and get more clarification on how best to curate your winning Curated Collection.

Molly is an expert at packing a lot in the USPS mailers, but unfortunately we are not mailing out of the country...so USA only.