BAMQ BOM Begins & Home Chaos Reigns

It was down to the wire, but I got my first block done for the BAMQ BOM, this month was...HSTs. 

Yes, it's a bit odd, but the idea I had was to turn around one of the two-HST sections each time and it'll be a whole different looking block. Yes, these are two of my newly purchased Portland Trip fabrics, good noticing. They're going to be part of the BAMQ BOM quilt top I'll be making month by month in blacks and grays.

 I didn't get to go the meeting on Saturday where the new month's BOM was presented because of these two jokers. Oh yeah, someone (me, it was me) made the yearly vet visit with the double trouble crew. A two-cat appointment for a change. Sorry, Korben.

Sorry, LeeLoo. We had to dismantle her carrier to get her out so that the vet could check her out. Both of them yelled about not liking being in the car on the way there and on the way back. Thankfully it's only a once a year thing. But I do believe they were easier to handle together, especially with DH along as helper.

Then I got to go home and empty out the refrigerator (and freezer) to get this--DEFROSt IT! Yes, that's the warranty company's solution before investigating whether or not it needs repair (same symptoms as last year's debacle). I honestly thought this defrosting business was a thing of the distant past...I remember my mom doing this close to 60 years ago. Hope it works! I'm not happy with having to entirely discard the contents of my freezer once a year because it stops being freez-y enough. Boo, don't ever buy a GE if you can avoid it. They're on my Never Again list.

 

Rain & Hide

 

All of a sudden it rained today! It got so dark I had to turn the lights on. Then it was over 5 minutes later. We're keeping our fingers crossed for no dry lightning started fires 🤞🤞🤞

Korben has found a new place to hide out in the studio. Part of his duties as Studio Assistant is keeping me on my toes like Cato does for Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther movies:

He was napping in one of my of the fabric cubby boxes that isn't completely full. He's been "helping" me today as I'm rearranging stuff in my workroom. That's all I worked on today, phew.

All Packed

 

Well, I'm finally all packed up for the retreat, phew! That's pretty much all I did today. So, I have a range of things to work on, a small quilt to quilt, and many things to piece and maybe some paper piecing. I'm really looking forward to this time away with BAMQ.

The studio assistants were trying their best to blend in and ignore the hubbub. Korben will let me spin him on my work chair more than ten times. It's very funny. I think he'd make a good space-cat.

When Leeloo is asleep with her eyes closed you really can't see her.

No picture of Meg because she's figured out I'm going somewhere and her face is too sad 😢

Naps to Destruction

 

Yesterday morning snuggle pile.

Thursday afternoon snuggle pile with all three characters. Are you sensing a theme?

This one surprised me, usually it takes a lot of encouraging for all three of them to be settled down so near to each other. But they did this all on their own. Their settled alliances are still changing I guess.

The remains of the scratching ramp. Note all the catnip all over the floor. It was rough hour or so before Korben calmed down. We may have given him a tad too much this time.

LeeLoo in her magnificent repose on the Orange Bullseye.

Holidazed

The Holiday Celebrations are continuing apace and I've been feeling a bit like our tree-topper.

Green chopstick to the rescue. Stiffen up that spine and carry on.

Korben decided that the only decoration that needed to be fought with were the Santa hats.

The usual Cioppino for Christmas Eve.

The cats were having fun under the tree so we didn’t put any presents out until the last second.

DS Alex gave us a lovely ceramic skull, almost life-sized.

Korben enjoyed the furry tops of the empty stockings.

Honey baked spiral ham is the traditional Christmas Day feast at my parent’s house.

The other hit present was a new spaghetti strainer (FSM approved), combined here with the skull that probably needs a name.

I made “modern” almond spritz cookies because I ran out of time to cool the dough enough to use in the cookie press.

And now we’re enjoying spending time with my brother and his son at my parent’s house.

Pshew! a lot of fun stuff but not enough time for sewing. Tomorrow hopefully 🤞 

Corrected Orange

 

After fooling around with choosing the Temperature Quilt fabric choices for the hotter temperatures, I realized I had two pieces in the already pieced April column that were now incorrect. They should be actual orange not yellow-orange nearly orange.

I could have just un-sewed a few seams, and replaced the pieces with orange fabric but I wanted to see if I could change the almost orange not quite yellow-orange in situ. Laziness or curiosity or some combination of both I suppose.

Time to pull out the ink, as in the Tsukineko ink and give it a try.

On the left are the cut out dyed orange fabric shapes and on the right are some of the dyed yellow-orange  fabric over-inked with the orange Tsukineko ink.

One of my studio assistants, LeeLoo thought I was being quite silly and should have just replaced the pieces. 

I over-inked the two pieces right there up on the design wall and I think it turned out great. 

Closer up, you can see them in the pieced column on the left. On the right in the un-pieced column is the orange dyed fabric I'm using from here on out for the year.

Twenty-two Twists

I trimmed up the Metro Twist blocks I sewed at Sew Day using the now broken Quick Curve ruler. That blue painter's tape on the edge is holding it steady, but I still intend to glue it. 

Memo to me: Remember to pack better for the next Sew Day.

Using the Quilter's Select ruler to make the final trim to 3"x6".

The process slowed down considerably when my new studio assistant intervened.

I got to use one free arm and two free hands to cut the rest.

There they go rolling downhill.

I pieced and trimmed the rest of the blocks and added them in. 12 of one type and 10(?) of the other.

I laid out all the blocks together and discovered I need 6 more blocks to fill out the square. I am unsure about those 6 really light prints, they really stand out to me. So I may need 12 total. But that would be an odd size for a useable quilt as I'm not intending this one to be a wall piece. More calculations will follow

Quilting Break Time

Well, I was trying to get some more quilting done today.

But my new studio assistant insisted that I take a break to pet him. Immediately.

He wasn't taking no for an answer.

I took off my quilting gloves and did enough scratching and scritching to make Korben happy.

He thoroughly inspected the Stitch Happens quilt.

There may be a few teeny tiny holes besides where the threads are going in and out, but I think that'll be okay.
 

A Finisher Ribbon And A Kitten

 

I meant to post this yesterday, but things got a little busy. This is the original Trinket finisher bonus block that's included in the 2019 pattern. It's a finisher ribbon and is very cute. The center bit is also able to filled up with small pieced blocks. I think I'll try one and see if I like how it looks before committing to doing a whole set of them.

Here's why we got a little busy, we adopted a kitten boy yesterday. Meet Korben Dallas, he's three months old and is a purr-machine. 

And very very good at hiding. 

So far Leeloo is not a big fan,, but Meg is welcoming and cautious.

Korben Dallas is the corresponding male character in the movie, The Fifth Element that Leeloo got her name from.