Clowning Around

The clown blocks have been waiting patiently in a pile next to the sewing machine. And speaking of clowns, Molly has been so well behaved that I am worried something is wrong with her and needs a trip to the vet.

Buddy is more than willing to step into her clown shoes. Last night, right after I had settled into bed with lights out, Buddy dragged his mouse toy on a wand onto the bed. Molly came running so we added crazy jumps and pounces to bedtime prep. Buddy didn't enjoy Molly joining in, so he grabbed the mouse and dragging the wand behind him, took his toy back out to the sewing room. Of course, because I am the cat toy battery, he had to drag the toy back to bed to make it bounce around again.

Shard!

I still have the Shards blocks (a Kaffe quilt) on the design wall. I discovered my blocks did not have enough contrast. However, I have eleven more blocks to make so I am hoping to introduce enough contrast with these pairings.

Meanwhile, my day has been spent sunk in regret over how I could say anything disapproving of such a sweet, innocent kitten. 

 And here is my scrap bin loaded up again, while the bins by color are full. Yes, my scraps are backed up or more technically speaking, I have scrap constipation. As a remedy, I am going to bring back the monthly fabric giveaways. (And yes, this is the only fun part I remember of 2020). For the giveaway, you leave a comment on the giveaway blog post explaining what type of scraps/fabric you would like (batik, 30s, by color, motif etc.) and if you are one of the two winners, I will send you a small packet of that choice. (A UPS priority envelope holds about 3 yards.)

My plan is to launch the first giveaway on January 20 (collecting comments until January 24).

Bats or Butterflies?

I continued working on the current Bonnie Hunter mystery. I fixed blocks and put together the butterfly blocks only to find out that they look like bats. Frankly I am really liking the jagged scary look that the "butterflies" give. Appropriately spooky.

Meanwhile, I don't want to sound preachy, but I do think I should respond to the variety of lifestyles described in the comments to the last post. Regardless of our preferences, to maximize longevity, it is quite important to synchronize sleep patterns with biodynamic mechanisms in our environment. By biodynamic mechanisms, I am specifically referring to Buddy and Molly. And it's Molly's longevity that is at risk with her asynchronous middle of the night nonsense.

Mystery Modified

 Last week I was showing my progress with the Bonnie Hunter mystery and I presented these blocks. Now let's play the brain game...how are they different? Answer: The humungous purple triangles in the top block do not have the black flip corner. 

Here is the additional step that I am adding to Bonnie Hunter's mystery. We will call it the "How the Zombies Escaped" step. Happily, I only have to do this on three blocks because I had only managed to finish four of them. 

Also, I have a few new habits that I am working on this year.  One is to have a set bed time of 10pm. I blew through that last night because the battery in my sewing room clock died. So I have replaced that. The second habit I am working on is having a blog post everyday. So today I am going to go looking for the blogging battery and replace it. It's probably somewhere under all the 2021 widgets.

Broken Fiestaware: Project Quilting, Season 13, Week 1

I indulged my recent obsession with hourglass blocks but gave up the usual two color scheme to not only indulge "all the colors" but also "all the color combinations." Instead of "Broken Dishes," let's call this one "Broken Fiestaware". The quilt is 34 inches square and is quilted along the diagonals. 

To see the work of the other contestants for this week of Project Quilting: https://kimlapacek.com/2022/01/13-1-all-the-colors-challenge-1-of-project-quilting-season-13.html

Tied Up In Red

Yes, more bow-ties. This time they are a bit larger and floppier. The bow-tie shown at the bottom center is one from last week. If you would like to see less formal and more fun uses of red, hurry over to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Backstage

 I spent some time today trying to catch up on Bonnie Hunter's mystery challenge. I am using an "opposite" color way, and I must say it is a bit strange. Also, I started with a darker purple with the plan to use a very light purple as the garnet center. However, there wasn't enough contrast with the darker purple and the black. So now I don't have as much distance between the center and the rest of the flower. Oh well.

Meanwhile, Molly decided to spend the day hanging out.