Wonky Stars and Strips

I am making wonky stars as part of Alycia Quilts' 2015 QOV block drive. And you can too. This is my first time making wonky stars although its pretty much just free form flip triangles.  Alycia gives a tutorial on her blog. For my first stars I was not cutting away the base fabric, but I think on the next round I will. She says we can make them either way.

And just like most people on a Sunday afternoon, I was sorting through my collection of 1.5 inch strips. I was pulling out orange strips for a Rainbow Scrappy Challenge owl and fish...and also some dark and light strips for more nine patches.

But at Kitten U, this sparked a serious debate about whether strips attack kittens or kittens attack strips. I am obviously not taking this photo with a kitten in the room because that would be much too dangerous. Right now the strips are resting and not on the attack while Daytona is back at the shelter getting his eye checked and more serum made. I assume Daytona will be coming home tonight unless he reports Kitten U to authorities as unsafe for foster kittens.

Orange bounding bunnies

This month the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge celebrates orange. And today the rabbits are celebrating with a meet and greet.

But don't worry because all activity in the sewing room (and everywhere else for that matter) is carefully monitored. And needless to say, there can be no tomfoolery under a kitten's watch.

Double Nine Patch Revisited

Hopefully this double nine patch makes a bit more sense. I did use my seam ripper...and this doesn't bother me because whenever I use my sewing machine, I'm guaranteed to use my seam ripper. For me, quilting is a bit like driving a car...sometimes I use the gas pedal and sometimes I use the brakes. And let's not forget using reverse and even turning around and going back the other way.

And with respect to the comment that I switch the dark blocks for the light to make a lighter quilt, I suggest you contact your sister immediately and ask her to make you that quilt.

Meanwhile, at Kitten U we worked on knocking items off a desk and having staff retrieve the items. There was also a study period dedicated to chasing the arrow on the computer screen and executing previously unknown keyboard commands. We also reached new heights in scaling the stash. And finally, I would like to mention that Kitten U provides a runway (made of leftover binding) that runs through the sewing room. Reno first demonstrated its use by running up and down it and attacking it. For reasons unknown to the staff at Kitten U, pulling on this to straighten it is quite exciting.

Date with the Seam Ripper

One of the benefits of a blog is that sometimes you see things after you take the photo and edit and then wonder to yourself what the... And in this case, I realized that I constructed all of the new dark patch blocks wrong.  They should have four nine patches, not five like the light blocks. Sigh.

And here's Daytona enjoying a new toy from the cat toy store...I mean, craft store. Another favorite toy is a shoe with a couple of water bottle caps inside. Fun! But really, at this age, everything is a favorite toy. For a few seconds, anyway.

Even Tommy's Bored

Hi, it's Daytona your guest blogger today. My personal assistant is all sad and annoying because she lost Tommy a year ago...and excuse me, but that's ancient times...get over it...I wasn't even born yet it was so long ago. Anyway, I'm supposed to write about what I learned from Tommy's manual on poli      look that arrow on the screen looks just like a bug a;gklj a;owieharabjnb

Double nine

Today I went back to working on the double nine patch. I'm using more contrast with fewer brights. Which is fitting because Daytona spent the day at the vet making more serum for his eye treatments. He may never see well out of his right eye, but the vet is quite optimistic that it can be saved.

And Daytona chose a very subtle personal design. His brother Reno was a tabby and I have always thought of Daytona as a black cat with weird fur and almost bald patches. Well, no. He's actually a black and dark brown tabby...obviously a cat with ironic design sensibilities.

Pieced woodpecker

As part of the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge blocks, I am making a bird of the month in the color of the month. The woodpecker says that August is his month.

The pukeko objected saying that he looks more like Angela's indigo sky than a stupid woodpecker although he was already the bird for May. Eventually there will be twelve owls, and they can be the jury.