Here I Go Again

I'm not sure if the title refers to the fact that I'm starting another challenge quilt, or that I've been heavily into procrastination!

On a bright note, today is the first time we've made it to 75*F this year! It's been something like 270 days since we made that mark. Whew! What a looooong spring. It's wonderful to have some sunshine and warm temps! Yay! And I think most of my seeds I planted haven't drowned and are starting to sprout! I may yet have some flowers this year.

I'm supposed to be starting the color challenge for my local quilt guild, but I was definitely in stall mode. I went into the quilt studio and was supposed to be clearing the decks for the next quilt. Instead, I got distracted with the scraps from Snuggle. They were just too pretty to be tossed, and really too small to put away. So I just starting sewing scraps together, and came up with the above quilt top. It's 19" wide by 21" high. And all scraps. The batik border is what I used for the back of Snuggle. I feel better now. . . .got this out of my system!

I really like how the dark pieces kind of fade into the background, which was an unexpected effect. And yes, the border is kind of crooked, and I like that too. I've used up all the scraps, except for some teeny-tiny pieces. Which I'm saving. I just love that Cherrywood fabric!

I finally got the quilt studio all cleaned up. I even dusted! The cleaning was necessary, as I had piles of books and magazines and stacks of fabric all at critical mass. And it was really hard to tell what color the carpet was, what with all the threads and stuff. It was becoming dangerous in there! So, it's all put away and vacuumed and spiffed up now. It must be time to make a mess again!

So, I got in the studio last night and started making more letters for my color challenge. I made good progress! This is not what the quilt will be saying. . . I was just playing! The background is a dark red-purple, which you can't tell from the photo. I have more to go.

In the midst of my procrastinating last week, I decided to try a lasagne-style quilt with some of my 2 1/2" strips. My drawer of them was over-flowing, and I've been wanting to do this. I also need to make more charity quilts.

I managed to come up with just about the ugliest thing I've ever made. I wouldn't even show it to you, except my DD pressured me to! I'm really embarrassed at how ugly this is. In fact, it's so ugly, it's going in the trash. I don't think anyone, except maybe a really visually-impaired person, would enjoy this. And I can't bear to work on it! Ugh. I also decided to cull my strips drawer of all the ugly fabric. Ugly fabrics = ugly quilt. So, I have a large pile of strips to give to the charity quilts committee, and more space in my drawer. I'll try another lasagne quilt another time.

After I took the photo of the ugly quilt-ish thing, I left it on the floor. As expected, it attracted the local wildlife. Above, you see what I found after a little while. What you can't hear is the awful growling coming from the cat burrito. Dunkel was way too close!

Yes, it's Shade in there. He really didn't want to be seen.

I finally got him to look at me. Sorry for the blurry photo!

Dunkel is begging for Shade to please, play with him. Isn't he silly? If you look closely, you can see that Shade's tail tip is sticking out of the burrito. It was too much for Dunkel to resist, in spite of the growling.

It wasn't too many minutes after I took this photo that Shade got up and walked away, trailing the quilt-ish top behind him. After that, neither cat wanted it any more. It's still in the floor, but someone has wadded it up into a ball that will be convenient to pick up and put in the trash!

Oh, by the way, Cats on Quilts website is looking for photos of cats (or any pets) on/with quilts or even quilt pieces. Both Dunkel and Shade have had their internets Moment of Glory. Just click on the icon on my right-hand side bar. You can see my babies, and learn how to have your pet have their internets Moment of Glory!

Time to go work on that challenge quilt!