Catch-up

These are the larger spools built off of 1.5 inch strips. I decided to make this quilt larger...or rather rectangular. This meant another hundred or so spools, which I don't mind. Since I am making this a charm quilt with no duplicates of the same fabric, I get to wallow in fabric. That makes for a lot of happy.

Yesterday was less productive because Molly chose the hot seat (that is, my sewing chair) for her sleeping nook.

I did get the courthouse step blocks sewn together and a border sewn on. And yes, I couldn't resist using the Concord Multi from the 80s. It was everywhere. Hopefully, if you recognized this fabric, you had a good laugh.

Here is Molly counting her plunder at the base of the design wall.

Courthouse steps and baby spools

It's time for log cabin loonies with Julie K. This time I went with court house steps...again with the one inch strips. So the interior step is a half inch finished.

I also gathered up the new litter of baby spools.

Here's Buddy down below trying to make the baby spools flutter to the ground like butterflies.

Buddy is enjoying going back to his criminal ways. His most recent game is "Nibbling On My Sibling."

Spiderweb 2.0

Yes, there are recurrent infections in patchwork. I think the spiderweb lies dormant among a lot of us. And frankly, I'm not too unhappy that I caught this one. Plus, I have been preparing for this project/infection. As I've been cutting the fabric for the large and small spools, the remaining sections of the strips are saved for this.

More spools

Yup. Another litter of baby spools.

And here is another interesting aspect of patchwork biology...sometimes the parents and babies come into this world at the same time. A bit of efficiency from mother nature.

Doll Quilt

Here it is, a four block by four block doll quilt top...roughly 20 inches square. Happily, my quilt guild collects doll quilts for their donations...so this will have a home. Molly doesn't like it. She thinks log cabins are too old-timey and wants me to get with the times and make something relevant like court house steps.

Infection

A few days ago in our first lesson for Patchwork Biology, some of you were surprised to learn that large patchwork blocks produce miniature blocks. This can occur when blocks are left unsupervised to mingle before being sewn into a quilt top. Now you may better understand some quilters' obsession with UFOs (unfinished projects).

Today's lesson addresses Patchwork infection, where innocent quilters are infected by another quilter's disease or patchwork obsession. The first step of the infection is to justify it in some way (for example, using scraps or liking miniatures) and then to present it to other quilters' so they will perpetuate the virus/patchwork. For today's example, take for example Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Contagious Quilts where she presents miniature log cabin blocks made from one inch strips.

In this case, we can follow the infection backwards to the source: Julie K and her petri dish called Log Cabin Loonies.  If you happen across such infections, please practice appropriate safeguards and do not join the infection party, post about it, or engage in any infection related activities.

Please note that in the specimen pictured above, the block is 5 inches finished.    

More baby spools

Needless to say, baby spools can hide just about anywhere. Unfinished, these spools are 2.5 inch square and are built from 1.25 inch strips. Here are the handful of spools I caught today.

And for those of you who would rather see pictures of Molly instead of spools, Molly was just not in the mood to cooperate.