Surrounded by Green

We're finally moving out of the muddy grey spring season and into many shades of green.  Ahhh....  Spring arrives a week or two later up here on the hill than it does in the center of town.  Our trees are seriously thinking about leafing out in the near future while a mile or two away trees have real leaves.  Alas, the weeds are growing as fast as the grass and my perennials.  I still love the lushness of it all.

Local Happenings

I never have enough time to do all the things.  So I currently have a handful of photos I wanted to share but never got around to posting.  I'll try to squeeze them in now!

Our local porcupine greeted us on our walk a few weeks ago.  He was a little camera shy - when I approached to get a better photo he ducked for cover.  
 

Scrap Stars

This is the first finish of three scrap quilts I'm working on.  Not one of my favorite pieces but it uses up a series of diamond rejects (too small or badly pieced) as well as a bunch of grey triangles and some crumbs.  Good practice for free motion quilting as well. 

It's a small piece - a little over two feet wide.  I thought I'd give it away but it ended up in our master bathroom.  It turns out that replacing the shower curtain with a glass door makes for a very echoey room.  Normally I would not hang a quilt in the bathroom.  In this case I have a home for the quilt and it makes the room seem less cavernous.  Win-win.

Sharing with:
Quilt Schmilt - To Do Tuesday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday
Alycia Quilts - Finished or Not Friday
Nina-Marie - Off the Wall Friday

In the Blink of an Eye

Brownie and Moses, our foster guinea pigs from Dakin, were gone before we knew it.  

We had been requested to foster them because they started fighting due to the stress of being in the shelter.  When we brought them home they continued to spat.  However, every single day they calmed down a bit more and they'd curl up next to each other to nap.  Clearly they liked each other.  Within a few days Moses stopped ninja-jumping.  Brownie stopped chattering his teeth so loudly and even let himself be picked up.

Progress! 

By Request

I had not intended to look for foster guinea pigs until after NEFFA weekend, but when Dakin Humane called and asked if I could foster a pair of young boars, how could I say no?

Meet Moses and Brownie.   

They're certainly cute.  However... the reason I was asked to take them was that shelter life was stressing them out.  Moses and Brownie were chasing and spatting.  We had a calm ride home and the two boys settled right in, explored the cage, then took a nap.

That was the quiet before the storm. 

The in-your-face chattering and ninja leap attacks started after dinner.  My first impression is that Moses is getting a little too full of himself.  He was right in Brownie's face.  Brownie doesn't look eager to engage, but is not backing down to this pipsqueak punk.

The shelter may have triggered the stress fighting, but these two are acting like teenagers.  Ugh.  Teenage boys - I think that's worse.  

Bobbin Tension Bliss

I have been quilting away.  I cannot believe how correctly setting my bobbin tension has solved ALL my quilting issues (well, except for user error...).  Even stitches.  No weird looped or breaking threads.  The bobbin doesn't rattle so much.  I only need to stop stitching when I've finished the area I'm quilting, I've run out of bobbin thread, or I've messed up the pattern.  

It's bliss.

It also means I'm nearly done quilting the Lone Star quilt.  Red should be wrapped up today; only the white and pink on the edge is left.  

Inkblots and Green

All sorts of projects in the works.  Two quilts pinned and ready to quilt.  I just need to figure out what pattern I want to do.  

Spent way too much time surfing Pinterest for scrappy, crumb and string ideas.  Ooh, what do I want to do next??

I also got around to cutting the fabric I originally bought for the kaleidoscope blocks.  Look how they turned out!  (Design floor in use because I used all the batting that was on my design wall.  Need to replace that soon!)

Project Quilting 17.6 - A Handful of Guinea Pig

One last challenge for Project Quilting this season - something that could be held in my hand.  I've done my share of post cards and mug rugs for small projects, so I wanted to do something different.  Hmmm... might be the perfect time to make a guinea pig?  Years ago a blog reader brought this Gertrude Guinea Pig pattern to my attention; I bought a copy.  It's been sitting on the shelf ever since.   

The pattern shows the guinea pig in colorful prints but I wanted more realistic colors.  I pulled a bunch of browns, blacks, white, greys and tans from my stash and Rob and I picked the ones we liked best.  I've been hording that brown fabric for ages - I loved it but never quite found the right project for it.  The black fabric and the funky white fabric were both excellent finds at Swanson's (the amazing "no-kill shelter for your fabric stash").  I didn't have any ¾-inch buttons for the eyes, but a trip back to Swanson's yielded a pair of shiny black shank buttons.  How perfect are those?!?  What a score.