Goings On

A trip to the Cape for Family Weekend had me return with a trunk full of fabric.  Literally - the whole trunk stuffed.  Unfortunately it smelled of moth balls and smoke.  Ugh.  It took days to get the smell out of the car.  I brought the majority of it to Swanson's fabric (they couldn't sell it because of the scent, but they could give it away).  I kept a tiny bag of it - maybe a 10th of the overall haul.  It took me a whole evening to iron the stash.  I will likely keep 13 yards of it, the other eight I may not keep - which will go to Swanson's, of course!

Jitterbug

 

We picked up a solo guinea pig from Dakin Humane to foster last week.  Say hello to Jitterbug.  He's a beautiful Abyssinian with serious bed-head and dark ruby eyes.  He came in with a bunch of piggies from another shelter, and then got beat up by his cage mate (and got his butt shaved to check for wounds - he looks a little lopsided).  They were separated.  I wanted both of them - but did not have the bandwidth to try introductions and tackling two cages if they couldn't get along.

Green and Black

I'm working my way through the last bit of black and grey scraps as well as some clean-up projects as I figure out what the next project is.  Picking a background color for the inkblots was a lot more difficult than I anticipated.  I didn't want a bold background color, because I wanted the focus on the black blocks.  I browsed through so many bolts of fabrics of blue and purple and pink and cream.  I don't know if it was because of the colors in Hundred Acre Wood, but I kept coming back to a set of three greens.  I liked the medium green the best, but I also liked the idea of an ombre effect - so I bought a bit of all three.  I wasn't trying to add to my stash, honest!

Hundred Acre Wood

Another finished baby quilt.  Added bonus - I had a calm, sunny day to photograph it without having to watch the forecast for a week hoping for a break in the weather.

When I showed the finished quilt to my sister she thought maybe I should name it Beanstalk.  I liked it - and it got me thinking about fairy tales and children stories.  One of the fabrics has bears and rabbits on it - which made me think of Winnie the Pooh.  So I named it Hundred Acre Wood.  It has kind of a forest-y feel.  It fits.

Flora and Fauna

Rob was in the kitchen the other day and he said "bear!"  I ran out to see this gal right outside the house.  I've been told the blue tags and collar indicate a female.  She'd already knocked down and smashed the hummingbird feeder - I guess that's the end of that for the season.  

When I banged on the window the bear seemed only vaguely concerned and moved off a several feet, still very curious about something she smelled (probably the sugar water).  I had been out in the yard not long before and had left only the screen door shut on the sunroom.  Eek!  Once she moved off I ran out and closed the door.  Need to remember to keep that closed, too!

Walk This Way

 

Where did June go?

Well, it wasn't spent quilting.  This quilt hated the ideas I came up with it.  I actually started stitching two different free-motion designs and ripped them out.  I didn't make any progress until I switched to my walking foot.  Now I remember why I hate stitching in the ditch (loved the walking foot, though).  But it was progress!  It was enough to get the ball rolling.

Bye Bye Spice Girls

Dangnabbit.  The problem with fostering really cute young guinea pigs is that they get adopted fast.  Alas, these gals were returned to Dakin Humane on Wednesday before I had a chance to do any fun photo shoots.

<sigh>

At least they lasted a whole week longer than the last pair we hosted.  

Celery Salt and Peppercorn were really starting to settle in.  Peppercorn would popcorn in the morning when swept out the cage.  She'd do zoomies in the evening when we covered the cage.  She'd wheek like crazy when I pulled out the hay box.  I've never seen a piggy who liked hay more than veggies.  Peppercorn would nibble on the lettuce, carrots and cucumber but her true love was hay.

Green Sandwich and Inkblots

I finished the top of the sage quilt.  I love the little dark green squares.  

I had picked a taupe color for the backing that I thought would work.  Once I put it near the front of the quilt I hated it.  I found a few more fabrics in my stash that I liked better but none had enough yardage.  Okay - new plan.