I have made great progress on the red, white and blue Placid Curves and have cut most of the strip sets into stripey strips. The next step is to sew these into blocks. However, there is not much to show so I thought that while we are on the shark theme I would revisit a design I submitted to a sock contest. It may look familiar.

 And while we're looking back, here's an 8.5 X 11 fox quilt. I chose to look back at the fox because I saw one today running down the drive. Hopefully the rabbit that has been hanging out in my yard stayed well hidden. Looking at the quilt now, the fox looks a bit hunchback and appears to have a nasty welt on his head.

 

Back in 2011, Vicki W. sponsored a journal challenge and as part of that challenge I made this fused applique shark quilt (8.5 X 11 inches). Now if I'm interpreting a comment left on Saturday's post (showing the simple patchwork fish), I think the commenter wants me to make a pieced version of this shark design and use it to terrorize the simple fish.

And while we're having flashbacks, here's a picture of a small pelican quilt. This is in honor of Pelly, whose pelican adventures have been featured on the blog Free Motion on the River.

Now back to the present and the donation quilt I mentioned yesterday. I have completed six blocks of Placid Curves in red, white and blue along with almost all of the strip sets.

Last year I made a Placid Curves quilt based on a pattern in Amy Ellis' Modern Neutrals book for a Quilt of Valor. This year, our local quilt guild is having a silent auction to benefit a local nursing facility. I suspect that my personal color preferences aren't widely shared, and that another version of this quilt might be more popular. With that in mind, I have cut new fabrics. The assembly is slightly different from the scrappy version of Placid Curves in Amy's book.

I make two versions of the A strip set which in both sets includes a large white strip. The B strip sets have the largest strip in a color, red and blue.

Each of the strip sets are then cut into strips.

The new strips are then sewn together (A1-B1-A2-B2-A2-B2) to form a 12 inch block (when finished). Now I only have to make 41 more of these blocks.

Look what swam into my sewing room for the last Saturday of July, just in time to participate in the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. A couple of fish look a bit starry eyed.

And within some fish, you can sense there lurks an inner shark.

Meanwhile, others enjoy Saturday as a day to catch some extra shut-eye after a hearty breakfast

I'm reshowing my current progress on the Omigosh quilt because it uses Vicki W.'s hand-dyed fabric, some of which I won participating in this very HSTeria quilt along. Lately, instead of sewing, I have been shoveling out the sewing room in the hopes of locating horizontal surfaces. I may have found the cutting table, one sewing machine table and the floor.

I also thought I should show you more of the craziness out on my front porch. I have six hummingbird feeders, but males like to stake out a whole feeder for themselves. This feeder has apparently been designated for females and babies, and has to be refilled about 3 times a day.

I have spent way too much time on this thing. Many years ago I joined a local mystery quilt group but dropped out in the middle when I found myself constructing four patches from individually cut 2 in squares. Gazillions of them. So the fabric and patched bits were stored away. At times I took it out to use to learn techniques like the fractured quilt and a partial seam technique. Then I thought I would use the parts to build an improv quilt. Then I thought I could use it as a back to a more traditional construction.

This is truly awful. I was thinking Tommy could use it as a fur collection mat to give the Fractured Quilt a break. But then we'd have to look at it. Instead I am going to pack it all away again so I won't waste anymore time just trying to finish it. And what did I learn from all this?

Tommy is adorable when he is napping, despite the obviously diabolical plans he is hatching.

This little 8.5 by 11 quilt was made a few years ago. I ran across it recently and I had to laugh because I remember how mad the box turtle looked when I took its picture. That said, it wasn't nearly as angry as a snapping turtle I foolishly tried to help cross a road.


Meanwhile this treadle sewing machine mysteriously showed up in my living room. No one is admitting to how it got there. I did, however, order a belt for it.