Where's Crazy Horse?

A couple of days ago I had to take Tansy to the vet. (Just her usual chronic allergy/skin problems. She's fine, thanks. [smile]) My furkids' vet is Greg H., and his wife, Alison, works with him as his receptionist and assistant. It was the first time I'd been in the office for a couple of months, which is a Good Thing, as it means my dogs and kitty have been doing pretty well lately. When I walked in, I noticed right away that Alison wasn't wearing her usual scrubs. She was, in fact, wearing something that looked suspiciously like maternity wear with a baby-bump under it. I wondered if she was as pregnant as she looked, but as a rule I subscribe to Dave Barry's wisdom that you should never, ever, EVER say anything that implies you have the slightest wisp of a thought that a woman looks pregnant unless a) she says to you, "hey, I'm pregnant", or b) she waves something that looks like a grainy ink blot print in front of your face and says "look at the baby's ultrasound pic", or c) you see an actual baby coming out of her body at that moment. The thing is, I don't always listen to myself. So after spending the entire office visit mentally chanting "I'm not going to ask, I'm not going to ask, I'm NOT going to ask", well...I asked. Quietly. At the end of the visit. Ready to prostrate myself to the ground in abject apology claiming temporary insanity and/or severe head trauma before scurrying away, never to be seen again, if it turned out the answer to "Are you having a baby?" was "No, bitch, I've just gained weight, thanks for noticing". But luckily for me the answer was "Yes, I am.", so Yay! No prostrating, no begging forgiveness or faking an injury, no moving to New Zealand. (Not that that last one would necessarily be a bad thing!) Before I'd even left the building I decided that I had to make a baby quilt as a "welcome to the world" gift. (And I really hope that neither Greg nor Alison read this blog, since this is supposed to be a surprise! I don't think they do.) I was rather excited about this idea by the time I got home. I kind of like making baby quilts. They're fun. They're small, so that means they're fast to finish. And they don't have to be especially original, or innovative, or any sort of artistically great design. They just have to be cute, and cheery, and warm, and made with love. I can do that! Even during an annoying time of creative block I can do that! Yay! So I've spent the last couple of days pulling fabrics, cutting, and starting to stitch. I decided to make simple star blocks with assorted novelty animal prints in the centers and various brightly-colored star points. Vet's kid...animal prints....get it? Not original, but appropriate, yes? Here's a sample of one block: The plan is to sash the blocks in bright stripes or plaids or something. I'll share a pic when it's finished. Anyway, here are some things I've discovered over the past couple of days while working on this quilt: ---I have a strange and heretofore subconscious obsession with cat fabrics. I mean, I knew I bought cat fabrics now and then. But I didn't realize until a couple of days ago how often I bought cat fabrics. Especially brightly colored, moderately bizarre cat fabrics. I have no idea why. I don't really do much with them. But I have a LOT of psychedelic cotton cats in this house. ---On the other hand, despite living right in the middle of horse country, my stash is sadly lacking in horse prints. I have a couple of "realistic" horse prints, if "realistic" means drab colors, and horse anatomy that's about as accurate as a drawing by a horse-crazed 12-year old girl. But I don't have a single wild and crazy neon-colored horse in my stash. Cats? Dozens. Also several dogs, frogs, fish, lizards, birds, cows, chickens, pigs, elephants, hippos, dolphins, bugs, and more. In fact, for someone who doesn't have children, I have a LOT of novelty prints. And I'm not quite sure how that happened. But no horses. I now feel the NEED to find and buy fabric with hot pink or lime green or lemon yellow horses. Is that wrong? ---I remember now that I find this sort of piecing rather mind-numbingly boring. I'm very glad that this is a quilt for a tiny little person so it can be a relatively tiny quilt. ---Despite the boredom of the repetitive piecing, I also remember that I find the idea of making something that will be (hopefully) snuggled, and cuddled, and washed, and used until it's faded and in shreds very satisfying. ---Trimming the "dog ears" off the flying geese units for these brightly-colored stars makes very pretty trash in my teal-green trash can: