Blog Review

Today I pressed all of the demented/tormented strips and began slicing them. I also cut 2.5 yard strips for the speedy chicken sashing rows. Molly and Buddy tried to help me cut the long sashing strips if help means "annoyed me to exasperation." Now Molly is giving you her review of my blog post and more generally, my life.

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Chickens again! And demented.

I finally got all the chickens sewn into rows. And at this point I'm wondering if I should abandon the plan to put sashing between the rows. However, if I don't, I will forever feel silly that I sewed small sashing bits between each chicken. In any case, I feel a quilt top may be in my future.

And as I was sewing together the chickens, I also finished sewing all the strips for the demented/tormented quilt.

Last week I showed this picture to show my process for making this quilt. So far, I have finished sewing all the strips piled on the left side. Then I will finish pressing them and then cut them into two inch rectangles.

Molly is so sorry that you had to see those chickens again and pictures of strip sets. As a reward she would like you to see something interesting...

This is the fascinating squirrel that climbs up on the feeder...

And then enjoys a little snack. Molly says, "You're welcome!"

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Green Postage and Coins

Here is my green postage panel. Finishing this block always feels wonderful. Making it is a bit like getting old though. You start off making two patches and that process feels like it takes for ever. Then come the four patches that come quicker and are nice cause they nestle together. Then by the time I'm to the sixteen patches, my errors are compounding and things don't fit as well as I'd like. But progress speeds up. Then at that point everything goes at lightening speed, except for needing to use the seam ripper a couple of times. And then its done.

And here are the green and white rectangles. These are a lot of fun too, and I look forward to putting these all together. So far I have made six panels each month so hopefully I won't have to play catch-up at the end of the year.

For other lovely green scrappy wonders, please venture over to the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

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Bits and pieces

During a moment of peace and quiet, I quickly layered the eagle. For the backing and binding, I'm using some star fabric that I used in the eagle's wing.

And I have the top three rows of chickens assembled.

Along the way, I am making spools. A lot of these spools are made from chicken feathers, that is, from the same fabric as chicken wings and bodies.

To see more piece-making progress, visit Sew Stitch Snap SHARE at kokaquilts.

And here is an illustration of the phrase "thick as thieves."

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Eagle and clean up

Our local guild has a quilt show coming up in May and they have a booth for selling small work. For my contribution, I thought I would finish up this eagle I made (how many years ago?). I thought it would be easy until I tried to find the fabric that I used as the background. It was a bit heavier than typical quilting cotton and is a bit boring, so I suspect it didn't make the move across the country. So I had to search for a substitute. This made a bigger mess than I wanted it to. But the outer border helped a lot.

I also want to layer a couple of quilts and just need to get all of the ongoing projects sorted and out of the way. The photo shows the pile for the Tormented quilt (or Demented or Garden Mosaic). As you can see it starts with 2 inch and 3 inch strips in both light and dark. Then there are strip sets. Then there are trimmed strip sets. And then there are triangles. And then there are four patch blocks and then there are 16 patches. For now this is all jammed in a box. The next layer is chicken feathers, butterfly bits, spools, and I-spy blocks.

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Beginnings of Partially Tormented

Last week I was visiting participants of Oh Scrap! and followed Gayle's (Mangofeet) link to her new inspiration of Garden Mosaic or Totally Demented. I too was inspired but I have used up my life time limit of HSTs (half square triangles) and am not allowed to make any more. Then I realized that the blocks could be made with mountain shapes or squares with bat wings.  I explain this in more detail here.

The four patches are 3 inches finished and are combined into 16 patch units that are 6 inches square.

In any case, I am calling my version Partially Tormented because this is much easier to make than I first thought. Also, I'm taking a column and row out of each of the sixteen sections so I will have a quilt that is roughly 84 inches square instead of 96 inches square.

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Green Squirrel

I was so busy congratulating myself on piecing a flawless squirrel that I missed seeing that this squirrel is suffering from square jaw.

He is already getting taunted by his peers. So while green squirrel goes back under the knife, I mean, seam ripper, I suggest you visit the green piece supporters over at the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

Meanwhile, I have changed my mind about what to use for the backing of the owl quilt. I think the backing on the right captures more of the craziness of the quilt top.

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