NW Quilt Expo

Here is the owl quilt "Parliament" on display at the NW Quilt Expo. I was quite pleased with how well behaved they are...especially given what a menace they were when I was making them. The machine quilting must have knocked out all of their knock knock jokes.

And this was the big fancy ribbon sitting next to Smitty's quilt (with some credit to Barbara Stanbro as staff). I assume she will fill you in on all the details at her blog Cat Patches.

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Loonie Court House Doll House

Here's my Loonie Courthouse step, quilted and bound. The Loonies over at JulieKQuilts post on Tuesday, so I'm a day late and a dollar short. (The Loonies are making log cabin blocks/quilts using one inch strips...finishing at a half inch).

Molly tried to help me sew the binding on this doll quilt but became exasperated because its not big enough for a darling kitten to hide under.

And speaking of Luna, I just looked out the window and wondered what weird light was glaring into the room...and its a full moon peaking through the trees. Awesome.

Tomorrow is the Northwest Quilting Expo, so Molly will get the day off.

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Macro Spools

I worked through the huge storage bin of 1.5 inch strips. A lot of those strips are quite old, so this batch of large spools have a lot of blues with a gray cast. Very 80s. And while I thought this would finally be enough spools for 70 by 90 inch quilt...it turns out I'm still shy of about 120 spools.

Molly suggests I need more gold spools.

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Micro Spools

Here is the latest batch of micro-spools. They are well behaved so they only need one adult spool to supervise. Over the long haul, I think I may need a better method for keeping these in line. I may borrow the approach that Gayle at Mangofeet is taking with her demented quilt and combine the spools into groups of sixteen. That would make a 6 inch block (finished).

Sometimes the spool block is called a bobbin. And while I was finishing up the micro-spools, I ran out of bobbin thread. And by that I mean I had to replenish my supply. To pretend like I'm an organized seamstress, I also changed out the needle.

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Slow Progress

I have not had much to show in the last few days. I did layer up the Loonie Court House steps to machine quilt.

And here are all the 2.25 inch spools I have cut but not yet sewn. I started with three inch spools, but then thought it would be fun to go smaller, so I used strips that were one quarter inch thinner. That makes a finished spool that is 2.25 inches. Of course, since then I contracted the Loonies Disease over at JulieKQuilts, and began making spools using one inch strips. Those spools have a finished size of 1.5 inches and make these spools look like teenagers.

I'm also adding hand quilting to the plaid bunnies quilt before its trip to the Pacific International Quilt Show in Santa Clara, CA. However, whenever I settle into quilt on it, Molly joins me for a snuggle. Of course, she wants to be front stage and center which precludes quilting. After she stomps off, Buddy comes for a snuggle, which for him means being held. He wants to be up by my shoulders cheek-to-cheek. And I probably don't have to mention that one cannot quilt while holding a pony.

I also have hunks of fabric from my quilt guild to make backs for their donation quilts. The plan is to cut each hunk into 17 inch squares and then sew them together in a 3 by 3 nine-patch. Unfortunately, some of the hunks don't measure up to 17 inches in any direction, so this takes some fiddly. I should probably sew them together in a crazy quilt fashion...but my father's civil engineer DNA rebels.

I have also been out chasing squirrels and caught this one. To its credit, it resembles a squirrel more than a lot of projects that are claimed as squirrels. And to be fair, Molly's squirrel project is a real squirrel and given she is an indoor cat, her squirrel project has many elaborate plans but no execution.

Sometimes when I don't have a lot of progress to show, I can snap some entertaining photos of Molly. However, she has not been cooperating. I had to go outside to take this picture. She finds it fascinating when I am outside and is still trying to figure out how to teach staff to open the door for her.

I have also been quite worried about Molly because I have heard her retching in the early morning. This has recurred over the last few days so I have been carefully monitoring her. This morning, however, I was much quicker and found out that it has been Buddy all along. By the time I arrive to clean it up, Molly is at the site for a thorough inspection...hence by theory of proximity, I thought it was Molly. Needless to say, I was much relieved to discover it was Buddy, because, well, boys will be boys. In fact, I have been thinking of changing his name to Roomba.

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Just Spooling

Yes, I'm still making some of the humongous spools that finish at 3 inches. My plan for this quilt was to use softer patterns and colors than I typically would.

However, now that I plan to make it larger, I can probably add in a few interesting spools with fun patterns and a bit brighter colors.

And yes, I am known to put hot sauce on just about everything.

And if you see a cat in this pose, I can guarantee it is up to no good.

And if you see a cat in this pose, it is less than two minutes away from up to no good.

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Bitcoin Portfolio Assembled

My bitcoin portfolio is assembled. This is made from the block that Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilts is making. She calls them Whatchamacallits. I definitely want to play with this block again. I'm thinking of making it square next time. The rectangles are one inch by two inch finished. So this quilt top is 62 inches by 80 inches.

If you would like to continue looking for treasure at the end of the rainbow, please visit the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.

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