Collecting Postage Stamp Blocks

Here are the latest postage stamp blocks. I need to collect together enough postage stamps for another free table giveaway. Signups will be tomorrow...I thought I would have it on the first day of the month. It's one of the days that is a bit harder to lose track of. And I don't think I'll run the signup as long. But that's for tomorrow's post.

And if anyone remembers my failed "Put a Bird On It" Challenge...the bird for July is the Blue Jay.

And Molly is preparing for the free table giveaway too...but this time she is going to make sure that none of her toys slip into a package like last time. Well...maybe the flopping fish...

Zippers and Australian Squirrels

Here is the recent batch of zipper blocks...but wait...I think something is wrong with one of them.

Yes, something is wrong indeed. This appears to be an Australian Squirrel. Luckily, it's on the small side...it's about 7 inches wide. And yes, that means that for some of it I used .75 inch strips. Those microspools have disrupted my sense of scale.

And speaking of scales...the scales of justice have convicted Buddy of his crimes. As part of his sentence, he received a new banana catnip toy, a new mouse toy, and an extended session of laser mouse. He also received two spa treatments, although he would have gotten those anyway. He was hoping for a stiffer sentence, including exclusive rights to the warden's lap and Molly's bed, but Molly objected.

As you can tell, feline justice is a bit different...but if you know Jackson Galaxy or any of the other cat whisperer types, they all assure us that if a cat is acting out it is because they aren't getting enough play, attention or stimulation.

And I'm sure that there are no cats that have learned to work the system.

Zippers and spools and crime

Here are the recent additions to the zipper blocks and a bunch of microspools came along for the ride. Remember, orange is the new neutral.

And crime solved! Two days ago I found a mangled skein of white yarn in the bedroom. It was obviously the fault of Buddy, the career criminal in the family. And he wouldn't tell me where he got it, which proved his guilt. Then this morning, there were three bright skeins of yarn in the bedroom, all mangled. I still had no clue where the scoundrel was getting the yarn.

(Aside: I realize I am unlike most quilters and have yarn stashed away for knitting projects or in case I somehow learn to crochet.)

Then later today, I found Molly in the living room beating up a skein of purple yarn. I explained to her that she should be punishing Buddy the criminal...not the victim, in this case the skein of yarn.

I did take time to try and figure out where these skeins were coming from...but there was nothing obvious...that was until I saw Molly's backside sticking out of a bag that was tucked inside a basket. She was showing me where the skeins were coming from so Buddy could finally be brought to justice.

Micro spools return

Here are some micro spools (finished size 1.5 inches square). I have lots and lots already cut ready to be sewn. They live near the sewing machine. I am always sewing a few along with the other projects. I'm not organized enough about it to call it a leader and ender project.

Molly is not very happy about my watching Kitten Academy live when I have a Live Kitten Academic in the here and now. She was sitting in her cupboard above the refrigerator calling to me to pay attention to her. She was showing her full diva self until I pulled out the camera and she started posing. Right now she is in the office closet yelling at me to open up the door to the crawlspace...that I never open for her.

And here is Buddy protecting all the blocks that Molly has knocked to the floor at the base of the design wall. He has begun playing with his turbo roller again...I think its because he can hear the sound from the Kitten Academy live stream.

Postage Due

Here are four more postage stamp blocks. Thankfully Molly had cleared the design wall of all of those nasty zipper blocks so I could put these up and take a photo. She is also nice enough to allow me to take the picture because these too become another Molly experiment with gravity.

Meanwhile, I may have been too dismissive of the plot development over at Kitten Academy, because  around midnight (eastern time), the mother cat took the smallest kitten and dropped it behind the beanbag chair. This meant a late night intervention by the caretaker and the removal of the bean bag chair from the room. What a delightful counterplay of suspense and humor!

However, later when another kitten was carried off, the slap stick of having that kitten poop on the caretaker when he picked it up seemed unnecessary and overwritten. Apparently, the mother agreed and early this morning she moved that kitten to behind a wicker basket and left it while she returned to the others. Unfortunately with most reality TV, it is hard to know what events are staged versus those that truly reflect cast conflict.

More Zippers

Here is a new set of zipper blocks. I went through my stash and identified fabrics that I wanted to use for zipper blocks...and then I matched these to the "solid" fabric I thought worked best. These matched fabrics are piled on the design floor waiting to be cut. Right now I'm working on the fabrics that share the same "solid," where solid is actually a Zen Chic Spotted.

This may seem like meager output but I just don't have as much time now that I am an essential worker...and yes, monitoring the Kitten Academy live stream is essential. Admittedly, it has no influence on the care of the kittens or any aspect of reality, but it does mean I fight a lot with Molly who prefers to watch birds on youtube. She is quite critical of Kitten Academy except she does like the toy demonstrations. And she did like the plot twist where the caretaker tried unsuccessfully to prevent the mother from moving her seven kittens. However, Molly thinks the "Kittens' eyes open at ten days" is too predictable and merely a ploy for ratings.

From the Kitten Academy twitter stream:



You can get to the Kitten Academy livestream through: https://kitten.academy/live-stream

Growth

Here is my set of zippers so far. Today I calculated that I needed about 100 more blocks. What? I have been making these blocks forever. How come I am still always surprised about how many blocks make a quilt?

Meanwhile I have been so obsessed with new pandemics like COVID19 and PSP20 (Postage Stamp Pandemic 2020) that I forgot about one of the oldest contagions known to man or cat. Cooties. And yes, Molly Kitten's heated bed has a mammoth cooties outbreak. And, I know, in a certain light that pile of brown fungus takes on the appearance of a cat, but that is just an optical illusion.