I haven't been abducted by aliens...

I'm just on vacation, visiting my daughter, SIL, and the grands.  I've brought knitting, so I'm surviving away from my stash.  (Though daughter has a sewing machine if I get too desperate...)  (Which would involve a trip to the fabric store, since said stash is hundreds of miles away.)  (Which is not a bad thing.)  (The trip to the fabric store, I mean.)  (Having the stash too far away to paw through is not now, nor has ever been, a good thing.)

So anyway.

If I remember to take a photo or two, and I can figure out how to post it here, I'll share some of my shenanigans.

In the meanwhile, having a wonderful time; wish you were here!

(Oh, and it looks like I get to start a couple more quilts as soon as I get home.  Huzzah!)

(And also?  It looks like more of this post has been parenthesitized than not.  It may be a new personal record.)

Sassy pig, orange stars, and a teeny tiny turtle

I got the pig squared up, but I can't proceed any further until I can find a cushion form to cover.  I can't get to town to get a cushion cover because my car has a flat tire.

So, once I get my tire attended to, I'll be able to try to chase down a cushion.  So far, I've been doing some investigating on line, and the size I need either doesn't exist, or is sold out, or maybe there might possibly almost be a size that's in the ballpark that I can adapt.  If it's in stock.
I'm discouraged.
So naturally I made a star.  Purely to make me feel better.  Because I got to use some of my new oranges, and how could orange fail to cheer a person up?

This isn't as wonky as it looks.  I took the photo with the block draped over the arm of a sofa, because I didn't want to bend down to the floor to take a picture of one block.  Then I realized that being lazy was making the block look awful and that I really was going to have to go for the flat surface.
I grabbed a couple of the orange RSC stars that I'd made the other day so I wasn't bending over for just one block.

.

Um.  Try to pretend you don't notice that the new block is considerably bigger than the others.  I'm totally not making 6" orange Ohio star blocks for a new quilt, because I'm not gonna start another quilt. 
If I keep chanting that, it'll be true, right? 
(Not gonna start another quilt.  Not gonna start another quilt.  I think it's working.) (Maybe.)

And in rural life, we had a little visitor on the porch steps this evening.  I think he might have fallen down the steps sometime late in the afternoon, and was unable to climb back up.  I rescued him (after admiring him for a bit - so tiny!) and then released him in the grass.
Then I had one of those 'duh' moments and ran for my camera.
I didn't want to scare him by picking him up again, so I just parted the grass where he'd nestled himself in.

And here's my fingers pushing the grass aside, so you can get an idea about how tiny he really is...

 And look at this tail!

 I left him to his fate at that point.  Good luck, little turtle!

Because oranges are good for my health, right?

Oops.
Batiks were on sale.  Then things started to get a little fuzzy.  A couple of light background oranges.  Then, oh, that's a pretty orange...
So.
I've got way more orange now, so I'm very happy.
And remember when I joked last time about doing an orange Ohio star quilt?  (And my sweet friend Chantal flat out egged me on?  Well, that idea is now stuck in my head.  Stuck so hard that I can practically see the quilt.  Orange Ohio stars, set on point, with alternating blue blocks.  A pieced border with hourglass blocks, with a darker blue outer border. 
Can you see it now, too?
(Not gonna start another quilt...  Not gonna start another quilt...  Not gonna start another quilt...)
So, in order not to start another quilt, and because my new oranges hadn't arrived yet, I pieced a 6" Ohio star block with not-orange fabric.  No, no reason.  I just like Ohio stars, that's all.  Really.

There's been other sewing going on, too, but it's not time to reveal yet.  But I do like throwing out teasers.

And I finally decided that I'll hand quilt Katie's Star Patch.  My hand quilting is light years better than my machine quilting, and I want to give this quilt my best.

And away we go!





Linking to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework, because that's where the fun never ends.

I think I'm becoming an orange magnet.

Which is totally not a bad thing.
While I was lamenting my lack of orange, I remembered something.  (Well, admittedly, first I remembered that there were online fabric stores that might possibly have oranges and might possibly be persuaded to sell me some and send them to me, but since the mailcarrier hasn't shown up with a box yet, I had to remember something else...)
Ahem.
I remembered that half-roll of strips I bought myself for my birthday.

I think I see some orange in there.

So, I opened it up to check.

And once again, the colors my camera shows are not the colors that exist in reality.  Several of those pinks on the left are actually way more orange than they look.  My camera tends to hallucinate sometimes.  (I swear I'm going to start calling it 'Moonblossom' and reminding it that the 60's are over.)  (And, holy crap, I just realized that the 60's have been over for damn near half a century.  I think I need to go lay down.)
I netted the center squares for the blocks I had already cut out, and got them assembled.

And I cut a few more pieces for use with the oranges that might possibly show up in the mail.  Oh, and the orange scraps that my SIL called to tell me she had for me, which I'll go get this weekend.  Like I said, an orange magnet.
And I'm trying really hard to remind myself that I was only going to make a couple of orange blocks to blend between my red blocks and my yellows for my rainbow stars quilt.  Because I have to really remind myself of that since I already have five and this is only the second Saturday in September and there's more orange heading my way.

Maybe I could make an orange Ohio stars quilt...



I'll be linking with So Scrappy for Scrap Happy Saturday, while I wish that there were at least eight Saturdays in September, so I could look at even more orange!

Piggy Progress

I've gotten a little further on the Great Pig Project.
One pig,

plus two ears of corn (and btw, that's actually the same blue background in all three blocks.  Sometimes my camera just likes to mess with me...),

plus this absolutely fabulous pig fabric that I found at a quilt shop my sister-in-law introduced me to  (my sister-in-law is pretty fabulous herself),

is all going to combine to be a pretty darn nice cushion cover for my dad the pigherd.

Of course, I've got to decide on a layout.  You didn't think I was going to make it easy, did you?

Option one:

and Option two:

The cushion will be 18x36, and the blocks at this point are 10x10 (pig) and 5x10 (corn).  Option two is less fiddly and shows off the pig background fabric to better advantage, so at this point I'm leaning toward that one.  (Sometimes easier is better.  This is a strange concept for me to grasp - I'm generally guilty of complicating things as much as possible.)

With all this experimental patchwork going on, not to mention RSC Ohio stars and Silly Monkeys, the leader/ender fourpatches have really started to pile up.

Remember when I said I wasn't going to count them? 
I lied. 
I couldn't stand it anymore.  I had to know.  So here they are, in stacks of 25

And a new stack has started.  I feel so much better now.

Oh, and there was a monkey. 

Because there's always a monkey.


Linking with Scraptastic Tuesday!  Come see all the lovely projects!

Still teasing with that pig block

I have it in mind to make something for my dad for his birthday, and naturally my first thought is that it needs a pig.

And those postage stamp yellows on the right are going to be an ear of corn, because pigs and corn just go together like, well, pigs and corn.

The plan is for a seat cushion for the bench he sits on when he changes shoes.  I even found some pig fabric to work in.  Updates will follow.
And there are other projects in motion, that will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Chain quilting is a thing, right?

Bindings applied and being hand stitched in the evenings.

And check out this great monkey fabric I found while going on a quilt shop jaunt with my sister-in-law on Friday.  I'm turning into a real sucker for monkeys, as my Silly Monkey blocks continue to pile up. 

A yard here, a fat quarter there....  I'm sure I won't end up with too much, right?
After all, how many monkey fabrics could there be?




Linking to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework because scraps!

Psst: Real Pigs Aren't Pink

The other day I posted a picture of a test block I made

and mentioned that I wasn't spending as much time sewing as planned.
Here's a reason for both -

 

This little guy is the sole survivor of a litter from a Very Bad Mama. 

Most mama pigs settle right down to the family thing.  "Look at my babies!  My babies are the best babies!  Time for breakfast, babies!  And then naptime and then second breakfast."  This particular mama pig was more "What are these THINGS and why do they keep bothering me?"
So we finally had to give up on her,and step in and try to rescue them, but for most it was already too late. 
This little guy managed to make it and is now thriving.  He's a week old and we've stopped holding our breath.
He's even gotten big and strong enough to leave his tub in the woodroom for an outing on the porch.
The first thing he did was climb up a step, much to my surprise.  The last little piglet we'd raised like this didn't figure out steps until he was a month old.

After a glance back down, he proceeded to go up all the steps and was headed for the driveway.  This is a pretty bold move for someone who's only half the size of a sack of sugar.
I scrambled and grabbed him before he could get himself headed for town (I'm sure that was his plan) and blocked the steps so he couldn't pull that again.
Here's a photo taken just before he untied my shoe.  (An ever-popular pastime for piglets.)

The day before, I'd tried to get him interested in tussling  since he's now old enough to start that pastime as well.  (There's a discussion of tussling here)  But, nope, I'd guessed wrong.   His reaction had been "What are you doooooinnnng?!?  Stop thaaaaat..."  So I figured we'd try again at a later date.  Since he has no playmates, and pigs don't do well alone, I try to keep him engaged and socialized.
So I sat in the rocking chair with my Kindle while he explored the porch.  Pretty soon I felt a nudging at my foot.

I gently nudged back.

And he figured out tussling.  What fun!  He wore himself out sumo wrestling my foot and was ready for a good long nap when it was back to the tub.

So pigs.  Big interest in pigs around here.

But pigs aren't pink.

Angela beat me to it...

( I'd titled this post 'Orange you glad it's September?', but I when I went to Scraphappy Saturday to get the link I saw that Angela had already used that for her post title.  Oh, well... )


I'd been looking forward to the RSC color being orange, because, you know, orange!!!  But I discovered a problem.
Garden Party ate all my oranges.

 I didn't have a lot of depth in that color, since I'd never really been attracted to orange.  But buying some for Katie's Star Patch (her favorite color, so had to be in the quilt) and using it for what was mostly the first time really turned me around on orange.  Then my Garden Party demanded orange and I became a total fan.
But I thought that since I'd bought lots of orange, I must have plenty on hand.
Wrong.
Fat quarters don't last long when used with Wild Abandon.

I did get a few Ohio stars done.

And there are more in progress.

But I've also got a couple of other irons in the fire

and that organizing project going on.  Which is further confusing the issue of  Where's My Orange?  Because I know I've got some orange lights around here someplace, but can't currently find them in the chaos which is the midpoint of any attempt at organization. 
Well, for me anyway...


Linking to ScrapHappy Saturday - I'm on my way over now to see what everyone else is up to with orange.  Because orange!!!