One Rubber Duckie

Yesterday I started on a baby quilt for some friends from high school who are expecting their first grandchild. Don't quote me on this, but I think the baby is due in May. They requested the colors yellow and green and a duck theme. I got on the internet and found a few quilts that might work. It was sheer luck that this particular pattern was done in yellows and greens, and this is the pattern they chose, called "Turn Around Baby" from Queen Bee Quilt Designs. It also has applique templates for bunnies and flowers.

That was all fine and dandy, but try to find some duck fabric in green and yellow. Go ahead...I dare you. 

When I couldn't find anything online, I messaged my friend with some images to see if she liked any I'd selected. She decided to go shopping where she lives in Southern California and see if she could find something locally. She wasn't able to find anything in green either, but she selected the fabric on the bottom of the stack in the image below. She also found a stripe (4th one up from the bottom) that would work well for the binding. I built my fabrics around the colors in the binding fabric to come up with these. We'll get those greens and yellows in if it kills us.

Yesterday I got it all cut out and sewed the strip sets and four patches together to the point where I was ready to do the applique. You can see the binding fabric off on the right in the image below.

About that time my drug-sniffing cat showed up.

Sure enough, Mom. This here's catnip. Let me help you dispose of that safely and propurrly.

So what's doing here? Are you trying to stay organized? Let a cat help out.

About that time, I accidentally bumped the doors behind me, leading him to speculate what might be making that noise. After all, this is his favorite room to lose track of live mice he brings into the house.

Uh-Oh. I think you have bats in your belfry

I should purrobably investigate, don't you think?

This gave me an easy way to solve my problem of too much help. I opened the doors and let him have at it. That kept him occupied for a good long time. Sadly for him, no mice found.

I have one duck applique made. There are 12 of these.

When you arrange the sashings, this is how a single block looks.

I started studying the pattern and realized this was quite a little puzzle to put together setting wise. Since I'm doing applique (and you wouldn't have to), I needed to cut my background blocks 1/2-inch larger to give room for a little bit of shrinkage. I'll trim them to size before sewing them together. That just means I can't really sew anything together until all of the applique is done. Nevertheless, I decided to lay things out so that I can stay on track when I do start sewing everything together.

That's where I'll pick up this afternoon when I'm ready to sew.

Today I'm either walking or swimming. Still arguing with myself over which one. Right now, walking is winning because it is beautiful outside. Then I need to go to the grocery store. The first Tuesday of the month is always senior discount day, and I grab up all the senior benefits I can get, let me tell you. There's gotta be some benefit to getting older, right? They say youth is wasted on the young, but the young don't get senior discounts, so how good can it be? Seriously. Been there. Done that.

Aside from my senior discount, I have a coupon to get triple bonus points on my rewards card today. Holy sh*t. Can a day get any better than that?

My mom is really old. She gets excited about the dumbest things.

Before I go, I wanted to share these stain removal cheat sheets with you. You can thank Jill at Create, Craft, Love for these. Scroll down and click on the image to see them. There are nine in all. 

So off I go. It's a bonus points kind of day. Not a minute to waste.