Saturday 16 April 2016

Bluebird parking 2

Following on from the bad news in my last post, I've also been having trouble with Colin and Kate.  Kate is the new rabbit we adopted after we lost Ellis.  I can't get a photo of her as she hides in dark corners.  She's half-wild and is terrified of me.  They were living together for a few weeks when they started to fight.  Fur everywhere.  I've separated them and the plan was to bond them back together.  Poor Colin has been temporarily exiled to the old hutch:


(that's only part of the hutch and when Tiff and Harry lived in it, it had a run permanently attached.  Colin is only going to be in there for a week or so, so it's not so bad.  I would never lodge a rabbit in a hutch with a run for long periods)

We put them in the bath (small space, neutral territory) for a few hours to try to bond them.



After that, whilst giving Colin a quick health check before returning him to his hutch, I found strange patches on his back.  There are bold patches with what look like black scabs.  There are red raw spots around this and strange black tube with hair growing out of them sticking an inch or so out of his skin.  I have no idea if this is injuries from his tussle with Kate or something worse...  Colin is living apart and I'm keeping them separate until his vets appointment so I can find out what's going on.  Wish him luck.

On to the quilting.  I just went back to find the last post on this quilt and it was July of last year!  You can see it here.  I've since made some more of the medium star blocks.



I've arranged and rearranged them on the floor.



I've added solids to the mix to try to find an arrangement I like.  It became clear I needed more stars.



I tried out a few more layouts.



Not liking any of these much.



So I made the stars to help see how it would look.

So I cut out the pieces.



I chain pieced and I chain trimmed.



I chain pressed.

And I chain pieced some more.  I started with 9 stars, I finished with 7...



Because I am just such an idiot!!



See how much of an idiot I am??



These new small stars, the old stars and the solid fabrics came with me to the East Midlands Quilt Guild April meeting for some help from my quilt buddies.  I'm pretty much out of fabric, though I do have some FQs and a half metre piece - all grey prints though.  There was much disagreeing with my choice of yellow, much bossiness from certain (lovely) friends but I still haven't completely decided.  I sewed up the top left corner, but then I was stumped so packed it away.  Apparently I didn't bother taking a photo of that.  You'll have to wait for the next gripping installment in, oh, around 10 months time probably!

8 comments:

Celtic Thistle said...

Oh dear Wendy you are certainly having a bad time of it with your bunnies. Hope Colin's problems are easily resolved.
Will be sure not to hold my breath for the next instalment of the star quilt saga :)

Anonymous said...

I don't know much about rabbits, so can't help you there.
For the patchwork, I love your choice of background colours and really like the layout in third photo. What have ladies got against your yellow? I think your colours look fabulous together!

Kerryp77 said...

Sorry to hear things with the bunnies isn't good. Loving the colour choices for the quilt

margaret said...

oh dear do hope the rabbits will end up able to live in harmony and the visit to the vet goes well.

Certainly lots of blocks they are coming together well

Sandra :) said...

I hope things go well with Colin and Kate - you don't need more bunny problems to deal with!

BTW - I'm a firm believer that it's fine for certain sewing projects to age gracefully in a cupboard, for as long as it takes for us to be able to look at them and fix the problems or to finish them ... or to give them a happy ending elsewhere, if that's what floats our boat :D

Rachel said...

Good luck with your bunnies. I hope worrying about them doesn't undermine your working out your layout...

Jane said...

You will eventually find the setting you are happy with, some things just need a little time to gel. Hope all is well with Colin

Sarah in Stitches said...

I hope Colin is okay! The quilt looks gorgeous so far, can't wait to see it grow! :D