Fox, flamingo and spiderweb

This is a patchwork fox I made at the beginning of last year. I thought I would bring it out in honor of Ms. Fox who was quite noisy this morning. She was also busy because I only got a quick glimpse of her jaunting across the yard.

And here is the flamingo I made last year as part of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. I made a bird for each color but haven't yet figured out how to put them all together.

I also made twenty more spiderweb triangles.

And last but not least, here's Molly who was distracted from taking down the curtains again. She is thinking about adding to the pile of blocks on the floor in front of the design wall.

Spiderwebs and Fox

I spent most of the day gorging on my favorite type of sewing...the spiderweb. I have bins of strips and hunks that I use and it is so much fun to see so many bright fabric patterns. And I get such a satisfied feeling as the triangles stack up. Then I make the dreaded calculation of how many I need to make a full sized quilt and I realize that I made no progress at all. Eventually I will learn to skip the calculation part.

And I'm sure many of you expect Molly to help me remove the foundation papers after I've sewn the triangles. But Molly is an efficiency expert when it comes to destruction, and she prefers to shred the foundation papers BEFORE I sew the strips to them.

This morning I went outside at the crack of dawn and scared Ms. Fox who ran back into the woods. I also startled a deer who snorted and stamped at me. Later, Ms. Fox returned and I was able to take this photo of her from an upstairs window.

Peacocks and Stars

Here's the finished peacock quilt fresh from the dryer. It had an extended soak in the tub, a quick rinse in the wash and then a trip in the dryer. I had planned to take it into town to my quilt chapter this morning, but the morning went faster than expected. This seems to happen a lot.

And seriously, with this much help in the sewing room, I am fresh out of excuses. And yes, that's Molly who is climbing the design wall under the peacock quilt as I'm trying to take the photograph. I don't have the heart to tell her I don't actually find her help helpful.

I'm also making twinkler stars to make into another donation quilt for our quilt chapter. These didn't stay on the design wall long and are now heaped in a pile on the floor. Thanks again Molly!

Kittens in a Basket

I couldn't resist joining the Gwennie Medallion QAL after reading Gayle's (of Mangofoot) blog post about her sunflower border. The QAL is about to start (or maybe finish) the second border out from the center basket medallion. So to catch up, I quickly grabbed a couple of kittens and threw them in a basket. So that will be the center of the medallion.

I also did a bit of hand quilting on the plaid bunny quilt. Molly is following my lead on progressing on projects bit by bit. Yesterday she took down one side of a curtain, and today she took down the other side. She also sprinted off with my practice quilting piece with wool batting in it. Molly is impressed with my endurance, but thinks I really need to work on my speed.

Plaid bunny update

I have made very little progress with the hand quilting for the plaid bunny quilt. I don't seem to have the attention span needed for long periods of hand work. So my new strategy will be to do a little bit everyday.

I've already machine quilted the blocks, so the hand quilting is only adding details.

But the quilting is not continuous so there is a lot of opportunity to stop.

And of course, I can't complain about not getting enough help. If you want to see better progress with scrappy quilts, I suggest you visit Oh Scrap!

Watermelon Seahorse

When the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge called for watermelon, I may have taken it too literally.

I made another seahorse in a similar "watermelon" hue. To see what others are making for watermelon July, glide on over to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Dear Jane M9 and Buddy's Promotion

Here is Dear Jane block M9 or Fan Dance. When I saw this block in Fabadashery's latest Dear Jane block draw, I couldn't resist making it. I first began making quilts right before the Olfa rotary cutter revolutionized the process. It was such a big deal that a lot of quilts were made simply from sliced and diced strips. So that's exactly how I made this block.

Each strip set has a 9/8 inch strip in the middle surrounded by 1.5 inch strips. The 1.5 inch strip was the size that gives the correct dimension for the interior triangle. The exterior will be too large but it gets cut to the correct size at the end.

Two squares are cut from each strip set and then each square is cut along the diagonal (being mindful of the direction of the cut). Next, the triangles are sewn together along the diagonal. Because each strip set is ironed toward the dark, the segments nestle together nicely. Finally the four patches are sewn together. This block is trimmed and then the border strips are added.

Meanwhile, I would like to announce that Buddy was promoted to Director of IT. Yesterday, I was trying to upgrade my laptop to Windows 10. I set up the installation and went off to do something else...until I heard a very strange beeping alarm sound. I found Molly settled on top of the laptop which was now flashing on a page unrelated to Windows 10 or anything else for that matter. The window (with very large font) was asking if I wanted to CANCEL or SAVE CHANGES.

Using Emergency Technical Protocol 2.4 (ETP2.4), I turned the laptop off. I also removed Molly from the laptop, and immediately promoted Buddy. Because of his crossed eyes, Buddy is not attracted to anything on a computer screen. However, today as the new Director of IT, he did spend the morning working on customer service, that is, chasing Molly and wrestling with her. This has allowed the Windows 10 installation to proceed without interruption.