Tommy has a new girlfriend so he made a valentine pillow for her from the pink postage patchwork. It's filled with catnip to convey his amorous intentions (although he doesn't really know what that means).

 Today, I (Tommy, your guest blogger) am going to explain how I made this crane without measurements. That's right. No ruler. Only a rotary cutter! And in five easy steps!

First, I cut the triangle for the crane's hind end, then added the dark background fabric on two sides. Next, I cut away the excess. Second, I took another fabric and cut a triangle, added more fabric to that and cut away the excess to make a square. Then I did that again. Then I trimmed the squares to be the same size. Third, I made another triangle and added a strip to that and cut away the excess. Then I cut a strip and added more background fabric and cut away the excess. Oops! Call staff to sew a y-seam. Fourth, I took more background fabric and added it all around and cut away the excess. Finally, I called staff to clean up the mess and give me a massage. Using my technique, you will need roughly one yard each of three or four fabrics.

You're welcome! Tommy

I couldn't resist some pink postage.

Tommy supervised the fussy cut cats. He was very fussy.

Spring is on the horizon because two more pink cranes flew in today. During the redesign to omit the seam in the neck, I didn't realize I made an extra long neck. I was supposed to trim it down, but forgot. But I like it better this way.

Keeping up with the rainbow scrappy challenge as the end of February nears, I thought I should make some pink cranes. However, I have not been happy with their construction because I have a seam cutting across their neck (see the one at the bottom). This is needlessly gory and it makes it harder to sew neatly. So the crane at the top features the new construction and how I intend to proceed...

Here are the results of the second round of snow dyeing. I thought I should try and take pictures of the fabric on the snow while we still have it. The temperature was in the mid 60s (F) today.

 

It was also quite breezy.

 And the sky was so blue it made the snow dyed fabric look pale in comparison! The day after our snow event, my measure showed about 13.5 inches of snow. This morning the same ruler showed 4 inches of snow remaining, but by the end of this afternoon the yardstick was laying flat on the ground.

The latest snow dyes fabrics are not ready yet--they are in the middle of their twelve hour soak. So here's a kaleidoscope pattern using a slice of the spiral snow dye fabric I showed a couple of days earlier. And yes, I revised and subdued the coloring a bit.