Green Gardens

Here are my green diamond blocks. And the stars must be aligned today because I may have finished in time to post my contribution to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge for 2021.

 And since the microspools (finished size is 1.5 inches) is a never-ending project, another handful came along for the ride.

Meanwhile, spring is fast approaching here in Portland and I should already have my snow peas planted. Instead, I have been working in the backyard. As you can see, it had a very old timey look and desperately needed an updated look that reflects the times.

So this is what my backyard looks like now. My neighbor's oak was obviously jealous of the dogwood and got a bit carried away.

And now the oak has been literally carried away. A woodworker stopped by and asked if he could have the oak...so now it has gone to live its life as furniture where it can be jealous of a bowl of fruit instead.

Some Progress

I do remember how to use a sewing machine. And unfortunately, Molly remembers how to break the thread between the spool and the machine. I made some of these blocks in pink last month and now here are the yellow ones.

And for those of you into a snow dyeing fail...here it is. I set it up with the fabric laying in a tub below a a slotted tub packed with snow and unmixed dye. In theory, as the snow melts, the dye drips on the fabric creating interesting effects. In my case, once the power was off, I was not interested in having a tub of snow in the house. I dumped everything out except for the fabric which I jammed into a plastic bag (a very hurried version of low emersion dyeing). The fabric sat in the bag in a part of the house that was roughly 40 degrees F (where as I recall 78 degrees F is recommended). When we got power back I did put it through many soakings of hot water until it ran clear. 

I would not recommend this technique.

Meanwhile, there is still a lot of activity around the neighborhood, although everyone around here now has power. But this branch was one of the reasons my neighbors had to wait a day longer for power. This is a view from my neighbor's yard, looking back towards my house. One day there was a crew to take down this limb.

Then the next day, the crew took down the entire tree. Unfortunately, Molly is taking photobombing to a whole new level.

Here you can see more tree work and less cat.

Adapting

When we moved into the Portland house, I never expected to use its gas fireplace. And I constructed the design wall to expand across the mantle area attached to two shelving units. After our recent ice storm and several days in an increasingly cold house with grumpy cats, I took down the design wall and moved the shelves and everything they held. Then finally I got the fireplace working. 

So meet Molly's new best friend. She was so pleased to meet her new friend that she expunged all the demerits from my permanent record. 

Of course, all good things must come to an end, so after nine days without electricity, we returned to power. And now poor Molly and Buddy must make do with their boring, worn-in heated beds.

 

Changing Priorities

 I confess that I haven't been sewing much and haven't had much to share. However, with a promised snowfall of 12 inches, I planned and prepared for several days of snow dyeing. Knowing how fickle Portland snow forecasts can be, I grabbed the first bit of snice (snow/ice), packed up the fabric and dye and hid the trays in a closet away from devious cats. But not all goes to plan...

We live in an area that got mostly ice instead of snow. Molly appreciated the ice storm because it brought the birds very close for viewing.

My neighbor is happy because he will now have enough sunshine to have a successful vegetable garden.

Buddy, of course, is not happy and thinks an ice storm is too much of a high wire balancing act. He hears the break of a branch before I do and he runs to hide...foreshadowing the crack and thud of a falling branch.

But spring will be here soon enough, and so it's time to prepare the early crop planting.

Past and Future

First, my sister mentioned that she was getting tired of seeing the bunnies, and I thought, what bunnies? Then my brother called and mentioned that I hadn't posted in a while. Then a short note from Gayle of Mangofeet and I thought, egad, the boss noticed. Molly, on the other hand, had noticed my complete lack of productivity lately and started to delete random blog posts to compensate. And finally, here is Buddy with his performance art piece called "Sally."

I am trying to get my sewing room straightened up...calling it organized would be a stretch. At one point, Gayle mentioned using her "design floor" and I adopted that practice until it became my "storage floor." In any case, I had plaids that were spilling out of their drawer and I noticed that it included seven shirts that had not been broken down. So I did that. Plaids are now contained.

And, of course, I am continuing to make microspools. 

Some time during the past month, we had a bit of a breeze that left us without power for 12 hours. This time I was better prepared and brought out the hexie project...a fabric catalog of animals from my stash. I had been stacking up the novelty prints and now they are put away too. 

Meanwhile, I fear that Molly may be moving into a "post-kitten" phase. Buddy and I would never use the three letter "c" word.

Given prophesies and conspiracy theories are all the rage, let me provide my own...this spring, large insects will erupt from dirt in and around Wash DC (near and under trees). They will leave their exoskeletons behind and climb and climb upward. Most will attempt flight where it is up to any objects to move out of their way. Rumor has it that after mating and laying eggs, they die, often clogging rain gutters and smelling of rotting shellfish. Dogs will gain weight.

I don't know how much information passes from parent cicada to their young...but if they do pass on information, the offspring will know nothing of the recent presidential election. They will ask Obama who? But they may ask who won the election between Bush and Kerry (their last emergence was 2004, the year I moved from the DC area.)

Bunnies Revisited

It is quite nice to have an empty design wall again. Even if it immediately gets over run with bunnies. These were the original bunnies I made when I designed the pattern. Then I switched to plaid bunnies. Now its time to pull these bunnies together...well, after I move a few around. 

And, I would like to say sorry, not sorry to those of you who recently received demerits from Molly for thinking that I was the granny dress type of person in high school and not a bare-footed hippie. My honor is a reflection on hers, after all. 

Answers!

 

Apparently, for me, 2021 is the year of running late. This is what I had hoped to post for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 2021 last Saturday. Super spreader Cathy of Sane, Crazy, Crumby quilting is ground zero for this most recent pattern pandemic using the Alison Glass Sun Print pattern. While Gayle of Mangofeet is involved, I'm certain that I got my infection directly from Cathy at Crazy by Design.

And what is a pandemic without a few mutations? So I am going with 3 inch squares and 1.75 inch flip triangles and 1.5 inch border strips. (These are cut, not finished sizes). 

Yesterday was full of surprises. First, USPS delivered the package to Cynthia Brunz a day early. Cynthia was the winner of some low volume fabric, so Molly padded the missing volume in her package with the ugliest fabric on the planet. The second surprise was learning that Cynthia is part cat because she seemed to like the padding more than the actual package. 

In any case, this means I can identify the fabrics from the last post. The top patch is the reproduction fabric followed by the Nancy Crow millennial fabric. Next, are the two prints that were dresses in high school. (And no, I didn't keep my clothes from high school...these dresses have been keep as fabric in my flat folds since the late 70s.)  At the bottom of this batch is a fabric called Ghastlie and while this is the only submerged cat, the other fish in this fabric are also adorably sinister.

At the top of this group is the Kaffe fabric known as Freckles. It came in other colors, as well, but this has been a favorite because it is so deliciously dark and most of the Kaffe fabrics live in the middle value range. Followed by the Kaffe fabric is Tula Pink. After that is Mary Ellen Hopkin's favorite. Following that is, yes, the ugliest fabric on the planet. And what is hard to appreciate in this five inch patch, is that the floral design inadvertently has a linear line up of small flowers that makes streaks across the yardage.

And please note that Molly is assigning two lifetime demerits to anyone who guessed that the last fabric was from a dress I wore in high school.