Stars and Snails and Monkey Tails

I've been puttering with fabric for the last couple of days, as I do.
Katie's Star Patch is laid out, ready to start the basting. 

By the time I got this far, my knees were done, so I creaked to my feet and figured I'll continue another day.  I have a gardening kneeler that I haven't used, so I think I'll hunt that up when I'm ready to baste.  (I've never used it because I didn't want to get it dirty.  Yeah, I know.  On the other hand, I've never kneeled in the garden, either, since I don't like getting my knees dirty.  Squatting works just fine for gardening.  Not so much for basting.)  (Obviously I was saving the kneeler for this basting job.  That's it.  Perfectly reasonable.  See?)

It's been long enough since I did any machine quilting that I don't have a lot of confidence in my abilities.  A little practice is called for, so I pieced a doll quilt top from some nine patch blocks that were left out of the Star Patch (too bright red!), and that'll be my first victim warm-up.

I've also got a Bear's Paw crib quilt that I pieced back in the late 70's and never finished.  (It's mostly brown.  Some orange, but mostly brown.  I don't know what I was thinking either.)   It'll be experiment #2.  If it continues to be hideous   ugly   sad unfortunate, I'll just quietly bury it out in the cornfield and no one will be the wiser.

And since I have all this free time since I'm done piecing blocks for Garden Party, I've been playing with scraps.

Recently I saw a Snail's Trail that I admired, and I remembered that it's one of the quilts I've always wanted to make.  So I put a couple of blocks together.
Yeah, they're fun.  Not Hot Cross Bun fun, but still fun.
I did these yesterday.

Pay no attention to that monkey that's photobombing.  I've found it's best to just ignore them.

Today I made a couple more

including this scrappy one, just to see what it would look like.

I'm in process of writing a tutorial, since I'm making them out of 1.5" strips and 2.5" strips.

And then.
Then.
The other night, I saw a stunning quilt made of Ohio Star blocks.  Only, unlike my blocks, the darks and lights were reversed.
I had to make a couple.  You know how it is.

 Ignore the monkey.  It's just trying to show off.

 And since I made two, I had to make a couple more, right?

I like them.  A lot.  Especially mixed in with my other Ohios.
Good thing I like making these stars.  I don't think I'm going to be able to stop any time soon.

By this time, all the monkeys were just screaming for attention.
So I gathered up all I could find and laid them out.

Twenty-three of them have managed to sneak in.
Which leaves a gap in the bottom row.  Can't have that.
I 'located' another one.

There.  That's better.

I still haven't figured out how they're getting in...


Linking to Mrs Sew and Sow's Scraptastic Tuesday.  Come see all the pretties!