Fox!

My fox stole. Made from this pattern a few months ago- maybe October? September? I have forgotten. Right now he lives on the bottom shelf of my credenza, but some day I will have the courage to wear him in public. After I move his eyes back, because they're kind of awkwardly close together now. I made him in a couple of evenings from stash yarn- I think it was super cheapo Vanna's Choice, left over from my early knitting days. I had a tough Monday, and nothing makes a bad day better like allowing yourself to knit whatever the heck you want. Hence, a fox stole.

Speaking of stash yarn, I find myself with a large amount of acrylic that I don't think I will do much, if anything, with. What do you do with it? Donate it? Go on a toy-knitting spree? It's taking up a large amount of storage space in my craft room. 

I love foxes.

Recently, I've had a moderate obsession with foxes. I enjoy forest creatures in general, but there's just something about foxes that is extra good. I even knitted this fox stole, which I'm unsure I'll be brave enough to actually wear in public, but that's another post entirely. So when I saw the Ed Emberley "Happy Drawing" forest friends fabric on Etsy a while back, I knew that I had to own some of it. Then we got invited to a baby shower, so now there is a forest friends baby quilt. 

I did wonky log cabin squares (which I wish were either wonkier or more perfect, because they are just wonky enough to look unintentional. oops.) with the forest fabric, that orange squiggly fabric that is also from the Happy Drawing line, and some Kona solids- light gray, charcoal, bright green, dark green, and a macaroni and cheese color. I think this is the most piecing I've done for a quilt so far- getting all those squares to fit together in a manner I found pleasing required SO MANY little white rectangles and squares. After making this quilt, I understand the need for a design wall. I had the blocks taped to my closet doors as I was arranging, which is just not a good solution, because then I couldn't open the closet.

I did a nature-inspired quilting pattern that is something I frequently doodle when I'm in meetings and such. Unfortunately, it got totally obscured when I washed the quilt. That made me upset, because it took FOREVER, and I was working on it literally up to the minute we left for the shower. It's sort of visible on the back:

But sort of not really.

It was a good lesson to learn. Won't do such a complicated quilting pattern on this type of quilt again. As my mom says, my 478th quilt is just practice for my 479th. Although with me it's more like my 6th is just practice for my 7th. I started making some more of the log cabin blocks to make another of these quilts (to be put in my Etsy store), and I think I will do something way simpler with the quilting, like concentric squares, or even straight lines. Overall, I like.