Clown Gathering

The clown quilt is slowly coming together. Today it shared the sewing machine with shard blocks. 

Meanwhile, Molly has decided that one seahorse looks more tasty than the other, so I'm going to go with the tasty version. 

Searching

While the rest of the country was preparing and dealing with real winter, I spent the day here in Oregon waiting for a promised 4 hour bit of sunshine. I wanted to make cyanotype sun prints for the Project Quilting silhouette challenge, but the sun went up against fog and lost. There are rumors that the sun may have some time available later this week, but I'm a bit doubtful. 

So I have nothing to show for my day...so how about a stack of fabric from Moda's Darling Little Dickens line...

Seahorses revisited

Waiting for the next assignment from Project Quilting, I worked on the seahorse redesign. I can make a simple change to the piecing of the background that will be easy to sew and I can keep the new nose. But I also discovered that I could take the belly out a bit and I would not have to do partial seams and it would not add any new steps. At first I didn't like the bigger belly, but it has been growing on me (no jokes intended). 

To check this version out, I just cut out a scrap and stuck it on top. 

Then the Silhouette challenge was announced on Project Quilting and I got super excited. I came up with four absolutely fantastic ideas. I did have to run out and get some supplies...on the west side of the Willamette...so you know I was beyond enthused. Next I worked out the steps to work on all four ideas with the plan that I would finalize the one I liked best.

This evening I reread the assignment and realized three of my ideas didn't really fit. And the remaining idea doesn't seem so thrilling. Then I thought of a way to simplify and just make a kooky potholder. But that's so sad.

And this mental roller coaster is what is so much fun with Project Quilting. Plus it's free.

Micro Seahorses

My plan for today's Rainbow Scrappy Challenge featuring red was to make eight micro-seahorses. These will finish 4 by 9 inches/ I made the orange seahorse awhile ago and decided to make a quilt with small seahorses, With the start of the new year, I  could make them month to month. 

Before I started though, I thought I should make a few changes...in particular fix the nose of the orange seahorse. I was so pleased with the change that I went ahead and cut pieces for eight seahorses in red, planning on four right-facing and four left-facing. I made one. 

It turns out that regardless how well you might like partial seams, building a partial seam around a one inch square is not a good idea.

Also not a good idea...sharing your sewing table.

If you would like to see successful red patchwork, I would suggest a visit to Angela's SoScrappy blog.

I will leave the redesign of the redesigned seahorse for another day. The sky made a rather elaborate end to the day. And so I am putting the seahorses and seahorse bits and pieces away, because tomorrow begins the second week of Project Quilting.

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.