New Alternate Dear Jane Block

 I have not used my sewing machine in a long time and was happy to see it spring to life. And despite how simple this block was to make, I did have to get the seam ripper out and fix it. As I worked on the block I reflected on all the life skills we learn in kindergarten that improve life...except for napping in class.

Quilt Archeology

 

Here are the Alternate Universe Dear Jane blocks. They include a set of owls...offspring of the Alternate Universe. These will be a separate quilt or should we say these will be stored separately and fantasized as a separate project. I eliminated some pieced blocks that didn't add much, and I can see a few that may disappear in the future. 

In the same shoe-box sized bin were these blocks from the 2019 Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. It looks like I didn't make all of the blocks but added some others. 

And yes there were three more projects in the same bin...a restart of a kitten quilt plus a start of mini kittens. Plus there was the beginning of a Patience Corner quilt inspired by Lynn Dykstra at Klein Meisje Quilts.

I also went through a larger bin that was a start to another seahorse quilt...a smaller size with a redesign. This bin was mostly batik scraps and hunks so those can go back to the fabric mother ship and the quilt project can be moved to smaller accommodations.

And for those of you wondering about freeloading entities assigned to aggravate me, here is the Princess Puppy Buddy. He is also a Support Puppy who helps me with my psychological angst. He sits on me and I tell him that I feel the weight of the world on me, but I don't think he takes the hint.

Portland Protest Frog in Alternate Dear Jane Universe

Long, long time ago in a different state, I made the Dear Jane (top, no borders) quilt. I made it using Kaffe Fassett fabric. And along the way I discovered that Dear Jane had an alternate universe set of blocks on the back that were never published. As I put away the Stonefield OOSOOMUFO (Out of Sight, Out of Mind UFO), I pulled out the Alternate Universe Dear Jane quilt blocks. They also finish at 4.5 inches and I have used mostly Kaffe Fassett fabric for these too. 

Looking at the images I still have ahead of me, I was very shocked to see a Portland Protest  Frog (an inflatable costume that creates its own alternate universe). And now, living across  the country in Oregon instead of Virginia, I knew what this image meant, so I made the block.

Here is the Portland Protest Frog with some of the other blocks from the Alternate Dear Jane Universe. I think I may have to move this to LSWHWILTOITMOE UFO (Let's See What Happens When I Leave This Out In The Middle Of Everything UFO) status.

Stonefield Block Party

 I started the Stonefield Quilt by Susan Smith by making the blocks month by month. About half way through I found myself moving ahead and making the blocks I could sew by machine or simpler appliqué blocks. This, of course, left me with piles of little bits at the end. This star within a wreath was the last block I needed to finish Month Whatever It Was.

Here is that block hanging out with all of its friends from the same month.

And here are the remainders from another month. The original flowers are supposed to be layers of wavy edged ovals laid on top of each other. Taking some "artistic" license, I made them cat fabric flowers instead. 

These are the blocks for that month, whatever that was. One might expect me to take all the Stonefield blocks and put them up as a sort of Stonefield "all the blocks finished" photo, but instead I celebrated by stuffing them all in a box (still by month) and felt the sweet relief of a SAOWAMUFO (Spread All Over, What a Mess UFO) turning into a OOSOOMUFO (Out of Sight, Out of Mind UFO). 

Month Nine

 One more simple flower. This time I basted each petal around the plastic template, cinched it and ironed it. This was much easier than needle turn appliqué despite the extra step.

And these are all twelve blocks for the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith...Month Nine. For the last three months of this block of the month quilt, I stopped going in order so I'm gathering the blocks back together. This is for accounting...not for how the quilt would go together...which we only have currently as a theoretical construct.

I did notice that over at Kathy's Quilt blog for her Slow Stitch Sunday, there were a few participants working on the Stonefield quilt. And if you would like some nutritious blogging content, check out this post by Rebecca Grace Quilting.

P.S. Any extra characters or symbols in this post are a secret communication from my supervisor.

One more block

 

Here's the block that I finished today. The instructions to the Stonefield quilt calls for two of these blocks. Then there are four more blocks and I will be finished with the blocks for the quilt. The quilt instructions call for a flying geese border and hexagons to complete the quilt, but I am not going there. I am thinking I will finish it like making a fine wine...store away the blocks for a while and let them age (but not ferment, hopefully).

Block progress and Cats

I found myself slowing down considerably working on the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith and decided I needed to add more fun and cats.

I needed a second version of the same block. This is where I learned that I have a lot more "random design" fabric than symmetric design. I am especially low on symmetric cat designs.

You may remember progress shots of the block on the right. I became stalled at the thought of sewing 24 small circles but once I got going I discovered that thinking about them was worse than actually sewing them. 

I was supposed to make three blocks with simple flowers with a small circle center but those evolved into cat heads.

Meanwhile, in the universe of real cats, Molly has added supervision of a neighbor cat to her supervisory duties. 

Meanwhile, Buddy is working on acquiring his license to be a princess. Thankfully, Molly has a second princess tent so we didn't have to enact The Princess Wars...certain to be an upcoming Disney movie.

Improved Attitude

After I wrote the last cranky post, I remembered that making quilts is supposed to be fun, even tedious appliqué.  I also remembered that although the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith is softer and sweeter than most things I make, it can be funny. I liked the quilt because of the happy bunny block and have seen a version with the bunny driving a race car. So I took a bit of departure and put a simple flower block on a darker cat pattern.  While I was striving for funny, I may have hit ominous instead.

A Slow Crawl with a Bad Attitude

Here is the next block I'm working on for the Stonefield quilt. I need to cut 14 more circles and 4 leaf forms, appliqué those elements and then embroider stems. Many people follow the instructions for block order when making a Block of the Month Quilt. Those individuals do not find themselves with 14 blocks remaining that all require boat loads of intricate appliqué. Those individuals also don't contemplate substituting easier blocks just to get the quilt done. Nor do they chant to themselves "Process, Not Outcome," "Process, Not Outcome while they wander off to do something else. 

Molly says there are First World problems and then there are problems that are not really problems but just a bit of idiocy leaking out of communication channels. 

Return of Murderbot

Here is a revised rendition of the Murderbot quilt, influenced by a recent series on AppleTV (also a series of books). The series is a comedy where, for the most part, lives are endangered because the "robot" is too engrossed in watching his space soap operas. In the first season, the "robot" has a helmet that has the company logo laid over the face plate. In the first version of this design, I was a bit literal so I cut down that first design and appliquéd it to Karen Nyberg's (astronaut turned quilter) black space fabric. Next come the purple/pink borders representing the favorite soap opera "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon."

Two More Blocks

 If I remember correctly, these are the last of the pieced blocks that I need to complete for the Stonefield quilt. Fifteen more to go. And the last set of blocks were lacking flash, so the goal today was to put some Tula Pink into one of the blocks. 

I should also mention that Buddy had a rebuttal to my blog post yesterday, but instead of posting his protest, he chose to litter the bedroom floor with mouse toys. He also woke me up in the middle of the night by bringing one into the bed and gnawing on it next to my head. Mysteriously, that mouse toy went flying across the room. And yes, I have had the joy of gifts of real mice, so I am counting myself lucky.

Burgeoning Bureaucracy

 This is my month's progress on the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith. I chose blocks with lots of circles...which I find the easiest to appliqué (using the Buckley circles, of course). 

My lack of progress is not at all my fault and stems completely from being held down by forces beyond my control. While I have learned to cope with living with Molly as a lap cat, I am now completely overwhelmed by Buddy becoming a lap dog. 

And to make matters worse, while Molly continues as my supervisor, Buddy has anointed himself the inspector. As I sew, Buddy inspects all the items at hand for "toy status." He grabs these items and runs off with them. Favorites are bobbins of appliqué thread, Buckley circles, and paper. He also likes straight pins but they are never left out.

Here is Molly showing me as much sympathy as she can muster. She is also coating fabric in cat hair...in this case Karen Nyberg fabric for the Murderbot quilt.

This is what neglected roses in Portland look like. I didn't cut them back this year so they all tower over me. I did notice these roses as I was picking blackberries, another indomitable force. Apparently thorns attract thorns. (I'm not complaining).

Mollybot's Rebuttal

 I regret that I must apologize for staff's unauthorized post to this blog yesterday. I will now try and dispel some of staff's ridiculous nonsense. First, for context, please realize that staff considers Murderbot (both the books and AppleTV+ series) instructions for interactions with humans. However, given Murderbot's extensive training on soap operas, his skills with human interaction surpasses anything our staff could muster. We prefer staff to maintain her focus on cats and to stop wiggling so much during nap time.

In yesterday's blog, staff referred to "Sanctuary Moon" fabric, but was really referring to this fabric from Cotton + Steel. Admittedly, this does capture the landscape of the Sanctuary Moon love scene as well as featuring cats.

Jumped on the Bandwagon

Okay, so I'm joining everyone else and making the Murderbot Baby Quilt. I'm going with the traditional color way. In the AppleTV+ version of the Murderbot series, there is logo for the Corporation that shows up most notably on uniforms (and elsewhere), but it wasn't until I was working on the center panel for the quilt that I realized that the Murderbot helmet is just an enlarged section of the Corporate logo. Fascinating. A logo for a face. No spoilers, so enough said...except...I found that I don't have enough of the Sanctuary Moon border fabric. I ordered some more but who knows how long it will take to get here and by what system of transport.

And tangentially to transport, there is the postage stamp quilt. I have gotten all the bits up to the 8 by 8 block size and these two piles will determine the final quilt size. There are advanced quilt making strategies for counting the number of blocks, setting a layout and determining the size of the quilt. But that would be time taken from reading Murderbot novellas...

Buddy would like me to go away and take my nonsense with me.

More postage

This feels like progress. I have sewn all of the postage bits into 4 by 8 blocks. For a little bit of history, it was when I had reached the 4 by 4 block stage that I decided to make a larger quilt...so I stepped back and made more colorful and neutral pairs, then 2 X 2, the 2 X 4, then 4 X 4 to reach this 4 X 8 step. 

Admittedly, some might want to count these blocks and get an idea of the eventual size of the quilt, but planning is more appropriate for those who like "productivity" and "finishing quilts." 

As Molly says, I have put myself in a Quilting Quagmire...lots of fussy quilts with tiny bits and/or hand work.  I would think this is an invitation to start a new quilt except for the way Molly is glaring at me.

Lollipop

I found the next steps in the Stonefield quilt and the blocks all required lots of appliqué of small pieces. Turns out I had already finished making the easiest blocks for the month. So I looked at this Lollipop block...it looked like a circle with two strips of rick rack sewn across it. Then I realized that it wasn't rick rack, but fabric that had been cut like rick rack. Then I remembered that I live at a time when there are gazillions of print fabrics many of which can pass for a lollipop. 

Then I interviewed Molly for my new podcast Diatribe. She has become quite a chatterbox. Here she is hanging out in the empty shelves over the refrigerator. 

And everyday I convert some 4X4 postage blocks into 4X8...and I don't forget to twirl the seams.

Molly's Rebuttal

 I was saddened by the ridiculous and false claim in yesterday's post where staff claimed to doom scroll as though she spends any time in civic minded pursuits. Unfortunately, I can attest that she, like many others, are trapped in the underbelly of the darker parts of the web: cats.

A scientific random sample of screen shots from my staff's web browsing demonstrates the frailty of the human condition. What is even slightly interesting about a mother and father raising their kittens? 

I do salute the organization Tiny Kittens for the work they do, especially with free range cats who have had no previous experience supervising human activities.

If you are currently not employed by a cat or kitten, you may go to YouTube to watch this family's livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAtMeQyhMW4.

Unbroken

 Here is Molly providing an historical reenactment of me on break from the blog. The only detail I would quibble with is the omission of doom scrolling on a device. 

And even I am stunned at how little progress I can show...this has two more circles appliquéd. For a while I was sewing one wedge a day.

And here are three blocks appliquéd for the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith. These were the last blocks needed to finish one of the monthly booklets. The next step is to figure out what my next step is.

Meanwhile, I found these blocks in a box...minus about six blocks. So I made some more and now this is ready to be put together.

Clark County Quilt Show

The Clark County Quilter's show was two weeks ago, and this was my favorite. It was made by Lynn Czaban. I looked up her previous work and found that Lynn is quite well known for her realistic quilts and you can see her interviewed about the quilt that won AQS in 2015 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko7Q4upaESc. So yeah, this is Lynn just trying improv out. Sigh.

And while we are discussing expertise, here is Buddy eating from his new dinner bowl. I call it his candy dish. On occasion, he gets a tablespoon of Molly's regular food which he would otherwise inhale.

Really Slow Stitching

This quilt was originally inspired by the Jen Kingwell Pick a Petal Quilt but I went a bit off course. One of her blocks was a glorified nine patch and I made about a quilt and a half of uneven nine patches. I was next going to appliqué the wedges but didn't like how much that would have hidden the background. So I played around with paper cutouts of curves and came up with the quarter circle arcs. The appliqué is a bit slow going because I am slow going. 

I am still making blocks for the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith. I really like the block on top but think it may be too bright for the quilt. But I will wait and see when I put all the blocks together. This was an incredibly easy block to make...given I changed the block from having mitered corners to partial seams. 

And here are some cross blocks for the Stonefield quilt.

This morning as I was heading out on a morning walk, I noticed a nosy neighbor right on the property line daring me to say something. I didn't.