One of our stops yesterday was our favourite art shop. Mr. Q.O. picked up some things for the ‘toons and I found this fabulous 18″ x 24″ self-healing rotary cutting mat for $17. No, it doesn’t have all the lines for angles and things like that. As I don’t use my rotary mat for that kind of cutting anyway, I won’t miss them at all. And the best part? It doesn’t have that odour that the mats sometimes seem to have. I’ve bought mats from the art store before and they last a very long time.

I remember being at a fat quarter display in a quilt shop and wondering what the awful smell was. Finally realized that the cutting mats were stacked just beside that display. That wasn’t the first time I had noticed the smell associated with the mats. A few years ago I bought a small pink rotary cutting mat and had to throw it out unused because of the odour. So I’m thrilled with my new, odour-free mat.

We’re working on a solution to the distortion in photos that I’ve noticed in my past few posts. The blocks I posted yesterday all looked as though they weren’t square. When I was uploading the photos to my blog and looking at how they appeared, I kept going back to the actual blocks and measuring them. They’re square, but they sure didn’t photograph properly. Mr. Q.O. thinks it’s the lens on the camera. We’re going to try taking photos with a couple of different cameras and see if we can sort this out. And I think I have an idea for a small, portable design wall. That idea may involve a repeat trip to the art store. Not that that’s a hardship. We’re like kids in a candy store there – Mr. Q.O. would buy one of everything in the store, I think. I’m not much better, although I see quilt-related uses for things while he sees the art-related uses.

Another sunflower is finished and will be photographed for tomorrow’s blog. We’re still perfecting the solution to the distortion factor. But to give this post some fabric-related content, this is a sneak peek of some of the batiks that just might turn into sunflowers over the next little while. Although there is one batik in there that I think is moving to the Monet group.

While some others are getting added to the group for the Monet New York Beauty blocks or perhaps another in the NYB series. Those blocks are going to make a reappearance soon.

Today’s Baxtertoon features Superkat. Who knows what adventures Supercat may get up to in the future!

We put  some of Baxter’s toys up on the top tier of the kitty tree with him. He plays with them, and usually tosses them down to the lower level. Then he reaches, like this, and looks at us pitifully. Mr. Q.O. captioned this one, “Somebody come and get this for me, please.”