If you were invited to a New Year's Eve Party by the Scrappy Rainbow Mouse Club, please do not come. I am going to let the kittens out of their preserving jars and hopefully they will be able to take back my sewing room by midnight.

You may be wondering what was inside the second present under the Christmas tree. And here he is. A patchwork bear that clearly has more war stories to tell than I'm willing to listen to.

Despite everything this bear has lived through, he appears to be very nervous to live here. Maybe its all the bear parts and guts strewn around the sewing room. Maybe its the presence of Nurse Vulture. Or maybe its that every time I pass him I compliment him on his bone structure.

The spiral log cabin came together to make a quilt top...roughly 65 inches square. Along the way I made mirror spirals that turned out to be identical to the originals. Oops. Back to the drawing board. So the middle two columns are the mirror blocks and the rest are the original spirals. And that's what is giving this quilt top its shifty nature.

Here we are at the last week of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge for 2014. This will be the layout for the mice once I cut them down to a uniform size. I also have to make some decisions about sashing.

The cranes were assembled into a quilt top that measures 58 X 70 inches. I am open to suggestions about borders as long as the suggestions do not include any mentions of cats or kittens.

And in case you missed it, the cat I added to the fish quilt last week did its damage and I was left with a single fish that I made into a mug rug.

Although this Rainbow Scrappy Challenge added quite a bit of chaos to my sewing room this year, I really can't thank Angela enough for opening me up to a freewheeling approach to patchwork...that flourished oddly enough within the constraints and deadlines of her challenge.

And no, I have not forgotten about all those darn kittens. Luckily they are safely stuffed away as preserves so I feel in no rush to get them sewn together.

So guess what was in one of the packages under the Christmas tree yesterday? A kitten? No, that's just a gratuitous kitten photo I threw in to get your attention.

How do you imagine a Singer 301A with cabinet could fit into that teeny tiny package? Another one of life's mysteries, I guess. I have not taken her for a spin yet...but am just getting ready to look under the hood (with oil in hand).

Here's my decked out Christmas tree! You may remember seeing Vicki W. making these wonderful Christmas cards back in early December where she posted a tutorial on how to make them.  Those were cute, but the one I received in person is ADORABLE. It even converted me to liking plaids...a lot.

And yes, I am not delusional. I know that that is not a real cat under the tree. (It hasn't once asked for food or a staff meeting.) However, I can hardly wait to open those presents! I hope that whatever is inside didn't get too jostled going through the post.

Merry Christmas!

I'm continuing to play around with a spiral log cabin block. I made some that spiral clockwise and now have added some that spiral counterclockwise. But I'm still not thrilled with the layout. Time for a bit more experimentation.