Millions of cats - work in process

I started this little project back in 2009 and then laid it aside.  It is a tessellation exercise, really very simple blocks, but the trick is in the arranging.  Originally I was going to phase it from purest white in the upper left corner to deepest black in the lower right, but there just wasn't enough VALUES CONTRAST! (thanks for all the lessons in this Sophie). So during our recent quilt retreat, I got to play with these on a design board, so now I'm in the process of sewing the little ears to the rectangle above, and then I'll just have 7 columns and 7 rows to join to gether.  I'm calling this "Millions of Cats" based on the Wanda Ga'g children's book from the 1920's (which Captain Kangaroo read aloud frequently on his old tv show (I'm dating myself  -- now my husband and I may be the little old man and little old woman in the book!) So the book's cover is yellow, so the border will probably be the brighter yellow on the left (but wider). To give a sense of scale, I think the rectangles are 4x5, with 1inch squares "flipped" to become the ears.  I haven't decided whether the whiskers will be added before quilting or as part of the quilting, to give depth.  (I would wecome suggestions). It's been interesting to work just in black, white and greys, as I am normally a color gal.

On other cat fronts, we've been thinking of getting another cat, as we have been just a single cat family since a year ago when our dear Jennifer died of kidney failure, and a quilt friend just texted me that kittens are available from a rescue group, so we may be investigating that this weekend.

On a separate front, I just downloaded about 15 or so quilt apps onto my I phone, so I may start reviewing them on this blog. stay tuned.

Eclipses into the sunshine

all

At a quilt retreat 2 weeks ago I got the assistance of my friendship group to assemble this on the design wall of the retreat center.  These are now sewed together in 4 block squares, and ready to be sewn together. I need to trim them to a uniform size and then it should be a quick task to sew them all together into a finished top.  These were the blocks I won from the Block Lotto in January nst2012, so I'm very grateful to all the other participants who made the blocks. the backing will be cool color chevron stripes against white, so a nice contrast of shape, I think. 

 

Gardening observations - flowers in the sidewalk cracks?

This weekend I put in about 3 hours planting caladiums and annuals in our front flowerbed.  I had my IPhone tuned to Pandora in my shirt pocket, and my mix is a lot of piano jazz, so it was a lovely breezy morning, not too hot yet.  I had to do a lot of bed cleanout, pruning, and leaf raking too (filling almost a whole trash bag).  One thing I noticed was how easily weeds grow in those little grooves between the sidewalk and the curb.  Just little bits of soil and moisture get in there, but those weeds just really root down and get well-established (and hard to pull out).  Which leads me to a hypothesis that if I wanted to start some flowers or vegetables from seed in the spring, I should skip all those special seed-starter pots and systems, and just dribble those little seeds in those cracks by the road side, and just see what happens!