Seahorse Surgery

These seahorses, participants in RSC 2016, are in the surgery recovery room.

These seahorses were an early version of the pattern and had a square tail. So I pulled out the square tail (1.25 inch square), added a flip triangle and now they all have pointy tails.

This took quite a bit of fiddling and hopefully you will find more exciting developments as RSC 2017 quilts come together.

And while my original Bernina 1630 is acting up, I have a stand-in so the show can go on.

And typically, I use my first sewing machine (from when I first started quilting in the early 80s) for machine quilting.

While I prefer an older sewing machine, I want my ironing surface to be state of the art.

And finally, if you have questions that have gone unanswered...consider whether you might have a "No-reply" status. Bonnie Hunter gives a nice tutorial for this for Google accounts.

Postpone-itis

It's that time of year when we are supposed to pull together our RSC challenge quilt tops. For me, that usually also means looking a couple years back and see what's been left by the wayside. And a year ago, I pulled out these seahorses, worked out a layout and then filed them away under "Move to Portland." Now that I'm here, I guess I should probably coral (corral?) them.

And it was over a month ago that I layered the DandyLion quilt. My accomplishment for today was to prepare the machine I use for machine quilting...yes, I changed the thread. And then Molly started tunneling under it with Buddy pouncing on her. And then there was probably a squirrel, but not of the quilting variety...

Vintage Butterfly...Still

Here is one vintage butterfly block. At the beginning of the month, I thought I would be showing a finished vintage butterfly block. But instead, reality delivered one block. And my sewing machine was so disappointed in me, she developed a neurological disorder. Her needle starts off to the left instead of in the center. At first, she let me correct it, but now she is resisting me. I can't really complain because she has computerized parts from the 90s.

Here is the block with some of its new friends. If you would like to make butterfly or kaleidoscope friends, flutter over to Kaleidoscope of Butterflies monthly link-up.

Friendship Star Variation Quilt Top

Ahem. This is the final result of Buddy's audit. Molly suggested that if I didn't want my blocks tossed around I should put them up on the design wall or sew them together.

So I sewed the blocks together and now have a baby quilt top instead of 36 cat toys.

Quilt Bureaucracy

I made more stars and laid them out on the design floor.  Molly did not appreciate disparaging comments about her accounting, so she has delegated this quilt to Buddy.

This task may be beyond his skill set. And yes, when he took the feline IQ (FIQ) test, he scored in the dog range. That said, he does understand three words in English:  treat, snack and toy (admittedly favorite dog words).

Pink Pinwheels

Here are four pink pinwheel blocks, my last pink contribution to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. I thought I would jump ahead and lay out all the pinwheel blocks I've made so far...usually an activity for November.

Molly intervened and said no. There are no more blocks on the design wall, but Molly has a nice new nest.

Disappearing Stars

I originally fell in love with this pattern after seeing it on Cathy's blog Crazy by Design. She calls it Friendship Star Variation, but I am renaming it Disappearing Star. I cut 36 sets of star blocks to make a 36 inch square quilt using 6X6 star blocks. I have finished sewing them all and I am missing nine blocks!

Okay, we know that three went astray into a different pattern, but this means 6 must have exploded and disappeared into the night.

Here are the star parts to finally finish those last nine exploded stars.

Meanwhile, if you are following the traveling adventures of Barbara of Cat Patches, you may have seen her deny that cats are an invasive species. Despite her denial, I can assure you they are. This afternoon, Molly got up on the kitchen counter to invade the kitchen cupboard. She got into the cupboard and knocked her cat treats to the floor, where her dog Buddy promptly ripped open the bag and chowed down. (I caught Buddy the dog in action, but the invasive cat was nonchalantly sitting on a window ledge in the sewing room.)