Day Late Progress

Here are the teal coins for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge, one day late. On Saturday, I pulled out blue scraps and green scraps to pick out the blue/green and green/blue bits. I also thought I should make a teal chameleon, so I pulled out lots and lots of batiks...but the chameleon was too well hidden in the fabric so that was that. On Saturday, I made a mess and this morning Molly and Buddy dived in and out of the piles chasing after the laser dot. Such fun!

I also made a third panel for the "garden mosaic," AKA demented, AKA dementor quilt. And now I am going to change its name to the fake-out quilt. Because this looks so much harder than it is.

I agree that this quilt has a lot of seams, but it does not require handling tiny pieces.

A chameleon's eye is the smallest part of that block at 1.25 inches. Because that's usually as small as I'm willing to go, the chameleon block is quite large.

Meanwhile, I use strips to make those weird rectangle units that are cut into triangles---and they are an astounding 4 inches across. And that is the smallest size unit that I have to handle when putting together the squares and triangles. Plus, as an added benefit, the triangles nestle into each other, and then the square units' seams nestle. So yes, lots of seams, but no tiny pieces. And lots of seam cuddling.

And if you're into scrap cuddling, I recommend a visit to Oh Scrap!

I-spy Quarter Finals

It's the quarter final for the I-spy quilt top front--that is, I have assembled the blocks to the point that I have four hunks for the front of the quilt.  I still need to assemble the back using 99 more blocks.

For the next step, I will layer this top to batting. Then I will machine quilt on the outside of each block forming a grid on the batting. After that, I can layer the back to the batting following the grid.

Here's a close-up look at six of the blocks.

I-spy Block Party

I have lots of 4-patch i-spy blocks and singles to finally layout on the design wall. The first one I made did not benefit from Molly's help because she was not even a twinkle in her father's eye. This one, however, has her full attention from cutting table, to sewing machine, and to ironing board. She does not approve of my using the design wall so I am using lots of pins and toys to distract her. And now I see that I have made it too wide...I only need nine blocks across and eleven down.

Here, let me distract you with a rose in the backyard. This rose is confused because it was planted in among the azaleas in the back yard.

So let me distract you instead with a rose from the front yard.

Questions, questions, questions

Back in 2011, I designed and made a 8.5 by 11 inch quilt each week...almost all of them using fused batiks. I still use those 52 designs as a resource for my patchwork designs. The chameleons that I made yesterday, were my first attempt at that design. It takes a while to work out the kinks to each pattern,

The block I showed yesterday is 22 by 14 inches unfinished. It's quite large, but its built on a .75 inch grid. That means that the smallest piece...such as the eye...is made from a 1.25 inch square.

And now the seahorses are in rebellion. I only have five more to make to finish the blocks for that quilt...but I stopped because the tail is a bit fussy. After the chameleons, these will be easy! (The pattern for the seahorse is under the tutorial page on this blog).

There were also some questions on the pattern for the tilted i-spy blocks. The link to the instructions for this can also be found on the tutorial page.

Meanwhile, for those of you with blogs, you may be aware that the Blogger program is being redesigned. In addition to changing requirements for signing in to make comments, we are no longer getting comments in email. I'm not keen on corresponding through blogger, so I am using this post to clear up some of the questions I've had over the last few days. Once the email link is resolved, I'll go back to individual replies (unless you are a no reply comment, of course).

And to end on a cheery note, I'm sure many of you saw a video of Buddy and Molly that went viral over the weekend...well, although the resemblance is uncanny, that's not Buddy and Molly. Believe it or not! If you haven't enjoyed the video yet, here's the link: https://www.globalanimal.org/2016/08/09/ammo-the-dalmatian-invades-cats-space/

Chameleons 1.0

We are approaching the end of our first year in Portland, Oregon. And while I have heard quite a bit about banana slugs, for some reason, no one has mentioned chameleon invasions of sewing rooms. I may have to consider some predator patchwork, but don't really know who finds a chameleon delicious. I have much to learn.

Demented Spies

I now have two sections completed to the Dementor quilt. I was visiting this blog, minding my own business when, Oh Scrap!, Gayle of Mangofoot presented a new quilt she was working on that was quite fabulous. She introduces it here. I'm making it in a different fashion that I explain here.

Meanwhile, I'm pulling the I-spy quilt together. There are 99 blocks for each side of this reversible quilt. I'm putting four I-spy blocks together at a time before I try and figure out the final layout.

Pink Pinwheels and Roses

A few years ago I began the Hidden Gems quilt popularized by Chantal here on the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. Unfortunately, I only had enough blocks for half a quilt, so I am adding to it as we go along. Here are four pink pinwheel blocks. For more pink piecework, please visit the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

And I have discovered that gardens are a big deal here in Portland, and given how many front yards feature roses, it may be required by law. Strangely, this house has a rose garden planted under a couple of pine trees. Here are a couple I brought in the house to share with Molly. She wanted hummingbirds. In any case, this is my offering for yesterday's launch of the Portland Rose Festival.