Every time Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting posts a vintage spin block, I want to make them too. Cathy must have a special technique because she posts FOUR of them at a time, and as you can see, I only managed to complete one. The wedges come together quickly and are a lot of fun. And if I weren't so old fashioned, I would leave the gaping hole in the center. Instead I follow the directions in Kathy Doughty's book Adding Layers and applique the circle in the middle.

P.S. We got globs of rain but no accumulating snow.

Fresh off the loom...a plaid chenille scarf. As you can see, the warp consists of stripes of blue, red and green. Unfortunately, the weft also consists of stripes of blue, red and green. And starting and stopping new colors got a tad tiresome. So I think the next scarf will use a single color for the weft.

I am still in the process of finishing. I am twisting and knotting the fringe...a technique that prevents the chenille from fraying in the wash. After I finish the fringe, I will clip off the numerous ends on the back and then give the scarf and quick wash and dry.

Meanwhile, in preparation for a possible snow, I brought in wood from the woodpile. This required serving an eviction notice on a mouse who built a nest there. I left everything in tact but assume the noise and disruption may inspire relocation. And the sewing room mice have passed bylaws that refuse admission to "real mice with teeth and the tendency to use fabric to build nests."

If you think the mice are arguing too much and the staff meeting is running long, bring out a blender. Okay, I'm kidding! But it did cross my mind. Instead I made some more legos blocks. This time with a bit more contrast.

Today I found two more mice had set up home in the sewing room.

And wouldn't you know it. Now that there are twelve of them, they decided to call a staff meeting. I think it may be a long one, so you might prefer to go check out how other participants are wrapping up the final color(s) for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Today I played around with a spiral log cabin. I'm not too sure how I will lay this out. I may need to add some reverse spirals.

 

Meanwhile, I consolidated all of the kitten preserves. Next, I need to build a bookcase to hold them. And then I will have to add a border because there is nothing modern about preserving kittens.

Here's my first adventure with paper piecing. As part of my quilt guild's chapter, we are teaching each other various techniques. We are given color and size specifications and then have the assignment to make a block using the technique and specifications. The teacher of the technique gets the block.

I do appreciate the precision that paper piecing provides. And I did eventually get into the rhythm of this process. I suspect I will like it more when I make more than a single block at a time and can chain piece the blocks. I have been wanting to make a spider web quilt and think I should begin it while the process is stored under current events.

Keeping track of animal patchwork is quite difficult. I try to minimize the carnage by enclosing each species within their own box. So I was quite surprised when I inventoried the fish and found that to finish the quilt I still needed to make 50 fish. I was especially low on pink and purple fish.

Now there are 49 more fish...only one more to go!