If I could think of a title, it would go right here

This isn't much of a year-end post, I admit.  I'm not one for setting goals, and I never make resolutions.  (My last New Year's Resolution was years ago - it was to never make another New Year's Resolution, and it's been the only one I've ever managed to keep.)
That being said, I'm trying to get a little bit more organized by investing in some bins.  And some labels.  (I'm told that labels are very important for organizing.  I'm testing it out and will report back later.)

The monkeys said that bright light hurts their eyes, so they prefer to live in the shoebox.  Privately, I suspect they just like to plot their shenanigans out of sight.  I'm willing to play along, but if they get too rowdy, I'm getting the duct tape.
Most of the blocks I made for RSC2016 will continue into RSC2017 - the Jacks & Sixes, the Buckeye Beauties, the Whatchacallit Star, the Rainbow Regatta wee ships, and Chantal's Pinwheels.  I'm also making Centennial stars, which caught my fancy in October and clamored to be included.  Since I'd planned to stop making piglets after Higgledy Piggledy was done, I figured I could add another block to my rainbow tsunami.  But, I'm probably going to just keep on making piggies, since I have almost enough left over to make another quilt anyway, and besides, I'd miss making the little rascals every month.
And my beloved Kaleidoscopes...

Angela says purple is the color for January, so since I have all those purples out for En Provence anyway, I decided to go ahead and make a purple kaleidoscope.
So, this is either the first block of RSC2017, or the last block of RSC2016.  Tough call.

Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the fun!
And that kaleidoscope means I can link to Kaleidoscopes of Butterflies over at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting.  Come see!

With holiday hugs for all

I'm guessing I won't get much sewing done in the next few days, so here's a look at the triangles I got put together for clue 5 of En Provence.

And I played with a few of the bits we've done so far.  I'm sure it won't be anything this simple (we've still got two colors we haven't even touched yet!), but I like the look of this. 

Now back to our regularly scheduled holiday program - I've still got cookies to bake!  And eat! And company's coming!  Happy happy!



Linking with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Come join the party!

Also linking with the Mystery Clue 5 linky party at Quiltville.   Go see what the non-slackers (ie: everyone other than me) are doing with En Provence!

This can only mean one thing...

I checked my camera's memory card and found these -

Huh.  The monkeys are now taking selfies...

En Provence clue 4 - still slacking...

I've continued to putter along with En Provence. 
A few of the first three clues

were joined by a few of the clue 4 patches...

I've mostly been using them for leader/enders for the other projects I've got going on.  There'll be plenty of time in January for catching up with the fun.

In the meantime, I've got presents to finish!

Linking with the En Provence weekly linkup party over at Bonnie's house.  Come see what everyone's doing!

Higgledy Piggledy - all bound up!

Done, done, and done!

I kept the quilting simple - wavy organic lines.  (I love 'organic' lines.  I meant to wobble.  Really.)

And as higgledy piggledy colorful as this quilt is, the binding just had to be colorful, too.

I'll try to get a better final picture after the holidays.  For now, it's done done done!

My Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 main event is complete!  But since I still have a couple dozen piglets left over, I think I might just carry on making them for RSC2017, too.
One can never have too many piglets.

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see what everyone else is doing to finish up RSC2016, too!

I'm also adding a link to the first RSC finished rainbow quilt party.   Come see what rainbows grow up to be!

Only six!

Yep, I'm a slacker.

That's all I got done for clue 3 of Bonnie Hunter's En Provence mystery.  I've got some strips cut, though, so should be able to make a few more after I finish quilting those piggies.
Pigs before purples, after all.  Priorities...


Linking with the Mystery Monday at Bonnie's house.  Come see all the fun!

That's a heap of piglets

I've been working on the quilting for my Higgledy Piggledy quilt.  Yesterday I managed to get about to the 3/4 point with it, but the third time I'd been happily "air quilting" across because I'd run out of bobbin thread again, I dumped the quilt on the floor and took a break.

I'd been grumbling away for a while a couple of days ago, trying to keep the presser foot from snowplowing across the quilt, when it suddenly dawned on me that I now own a walking foot.  Out came the manual to check how to attach it, and off I went.
I really really like the walking foot.  Really.  I love to hand-quilt, but machine quilting is something that I've always regarded as a necessary evil.  Something that has to be gotten over with so I can say "yay, done" and get on to the binding (which is a fun part, though not quite in the same league as the piecing).   So anything that makes machine quilting easier is a big plus in my book.

In hopes of continuing the feeling of motion, I'm quilting horizontal organic (ie:  wobbly) lines across the piglets.  I'm thinking of it as the 'whoosh' lines that you see in cartoons, where a character is suddenly moving fast.  "Beep beep" and gone.

It's probably all in my head, but it's making me happy and it's keeping these little piggies headed for the big finish line.

Beep beep!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the RSC2016 projects coming together!

Piggyback!

 My top has a bottom!  Or my front has a back!  Or something!

When I first thought of making this quilt, way back at the beginning of the year when I decided to make piglet blocks for the RSC2016, I figured I'd make a dozen or so blocks and turn them into a lap quilt.  Maybe a small throw, tops.  So I only bought a yard of that fabulous bacon fabric, figuring I could supplement it with some scraps and it would be plenty.  (I know!  What could I have been thinking?!?)
But I hadn't reckoned on how much charm those little piggies have.   I made tons and tons of piglets.  I ended up with a bigger quilt than I'd planned, and I still have blocks left over.

So I had to stretch that bacon.

Once again, it's tough to get a picture of the whole thing when it's on the design floor.

I had a nice leafy print in a bright limey green, and I used that fall leafy print, too, since the black background helps balance the bacon background, and the reds and yellows echo those colors in the bacon print, too.

 A couple of those leftover piglets are bracketing the label up near the top of the quilt.

And I used some bits of farm print to finish off that pig/label panel.

At 64"x84", this quilt came out a mite bigger than I'd planned, but I know my dad will put it to good use!
By late afternoon, I got it sandwiched and ready to start quilting.  Yay!

And I got some more starpoints done for the En Provence mystery, too, while I sewed together all those piggyback bits.

(As you can see, I'm using orange instead of magenta.  Not that I have anything against magenta, but orange!)  I'll keep plugging away at them over the course of the week.  Can't wait to see what the next clue is - still hoping for purple, though I gotta admit that orange always makes me grin!


Linking with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see the fun!
And also linking with Bonnie herself at the Monday linky party.  Another fun place to visit!

I can practically hear the giggling...

My piglets are all rounded up, and  assembled into a top.

If only I could get them to hold still long enough to get a good photo...

There are a few going the wrong way, which is just how the average piglet round-up goes.  (In real life, we spent an hour the other day trying to recapture fourteen of the little rascals.   I started to wish I had a horse, as I trudged back and forth from one end of the farm to the other, but then I realized that that meant we just would have ended up having to chase horses at some point.  Sigh.)

In order to get the maximum jumblyness, I offset their little hills when I was setting out the rows.

Now onward to the back!

I've got this lovely bacon fabric that I got especially for this quilt.   (Please don't tell the piggies what it means...)

In En Provence news, my four patches continue to pile up, as I use the mystery bits for leader/enders.

I even got some starpoints cut and assembled for this week's clue, though apparently I forgot to take a photo. 
The trickiest part of making those starpoints was finding what I'd done with my tri-recs rulers.  I knew I'd taken them with me when I went visiting (because I took all my rulers this time), but I hadn't come across them yet in the home-again unpacking.  I finally found them in my bin of random bits and strips leftover from my Gwennie Medallion.  The second time I looked through it, mind you...


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, because this piglet quilt wouldn't have been made if it wasn't for the RSC.  Thanks so much, Angela!

En Provence - In progress (slowly)

The first clue is starting us off easy. 

Neutral four patches.  We can all do those in our sleep, right?  (And probably have, at some point...)

I've only got a small stack done so far, out of the gazillion that I'll need if I decide to do a full-sized version of the quilt.  (Still haven't made up my mind if I'm in for half or whole.  Plenty of time to decide!)  Mostly I've done them as leader/enders as I work on assembling my piglet blocks, and I'll continue with that process.  (I have a lot of pig-assemblage underway!)

And I'm looking forward to the next clue - hopefully some purple!

Linking with Bonnie's Monday Party - come see what other folks are up to with En Provence.

I blame the C(K)athies

Because I made these,

after being tempted by Cathy's spools and Kathy's spools.

I'm not made of stone...

Linking with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Because I think a lot of my scraps are going to end up as spools before it's over.

Now with more Higgledy Piggledy

When last we met, I was dithering whether my sashing for my piglets should be darker or lighter.
The answer is neither.

Turns out brighter is the way to go!

I haven't started cutting out the sashing strips yet, but I did get the rest of the piglets framed in their uphill/downhill jollity.

The next step is sewing all those little rascals together.

And it turns out that I have 31 piglet blocks left over.  As in, I knew I seemed to be making a lot of piggies, but my goodness that's a lot of pigs.  So, since I almost have enough for another quilt, I might as well keep making piglets for a while.
Yeah, I knew I would have a hard time stopping...


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday - come see how we're wrapping up our rainbows!

Higgledy Piggledy!

Well, November seems to be slipping through my fingers...

I finally decided what I wanted to do for a setting for my piglets, after seeing Deb's wonky little houses at Happy to be Scrappy.  I'd wanted to make the piglets look like they're chasing each other back and forth across the quilt, but a straight setting seemed too tame for these little rascals.  I've already fixed on naming the quilt 'Higgledy Piggledy', and that implies some action and movement.

So I made an uphill piggy

and a downhill piggy

and sewed them together to see how they'd look.  Because I've found that not everything looks as good in real life as it looks in my head.

Very promising...

So I cut some more pieces and started laying them out.

I like it!

I've got quite a few blocks stitched into their frames so far, with tons more to go before I start a final layout.  But I think it's going to be great!

And as long as I was auditioning piglets, I started auditioning sashing, too.  I want to put a plain strip of 'ground' in between the blocks, so it will look like they're actually running on something and not just levitating.
At first I was going to use random strips and squares, but as busy as the blocks are, I think the eye is going to need a place to rest.  So my second idea is to use one print for all the ground strips, in order to tie it all together.

But dark?

Or light?

Green or brown?  Blue?  Purple?  I'm going to have to make a decision soon, because these blocks are going together fast!

And now that I'm home again, I got a chance to root through my stash to pull fabrics for En Provence.  I was thinking I might have to buy some fabric.

Silly me -  looks like I have plenty.

Not that that'll stop me...



Linking with ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy and Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Come see what scrappy beauties are being made!

It's not all pumpkins around here

I have managed to get a little non-pumpkin sewing done, too, this week.

A few more Centennial blocks -

joined the first one that I made last week.

I'm definitely putting these at the top of my list for RSC2017.  They're really supposed to be made with only two colors, but I'm using three.  Because why would I stop at just two?

And I finally found the pieces that I'd cut out for two Chantal's Pinwheels blocks - they'd gotten pushed aside and buried during the height of the pumpkin frenzy - so I got those put together.

That's a block that will get carried over into 2017, as well as several others.  I enjoy making them, they look lovely in rainbow colors, and I don't have enough to do anything with satisfy my heart.

One block that I'm NOT planning to carry over is my piglets, since I have more than enough to make the quilt I had in mind.  But, honestly?  These little cuties are such fun that I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop. 

Sally T might have to rescue me by inventing another block that's as irresistible as her piglets.  (She's got some bunnies...)

I've also been continuing with my Sea of Tranquility blocks.

Only about a gabillion of those to go!  Woohoo!

And look who came inside now that the weather has started to cool off -

I'd been hearing them playing out in the yard, and the neighborhood squirrels were starting to develop nervous tics, so I knew they were around.

Take a good close look at this little fellow, because he's kind of special.

A couple of days ago, Bonnie Hunter announced the name and colors of this year's Mystery Quilt.  I've been on the fence about doing another one - I loved playing along last year for the first time, but it's a big commitment, and I wasn't sure I'd be up for it again.
So, yeah, dither dither.
The color palette she's picked is lovely - purple, lavender, grassy green, bright yellow, and magenta for an accent - but it's a little on the perky side for me.
But PURPLE.  I love purple.  And orange, of course.
So.
That little monkey up there is what I've decided to do with Bonnie's En Provence.   I'm substituting blues for the greens, toning down the bright yellows to gold, and using a nice tangerine as the accent color.
Apparently I'm in.
Though only for making a half-size quilt.
Truly.
Probably. 
Yep.  Definitely just a small one.
Yep.



Linking with Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, and Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh, Scrap!  Best places ever to spend the weekend!

And now that it's Tuesday, I'll also link with Mrs Sew and Sow for Scraptastic Tuesday!  Come join the fun!

Well, dither my pumpkins!

(That may be my newest exclamation of dismay...)

I've hit a speedbump with the pumpkins.

I got all the puzzle pieces assembled, using my just-chop-off-the-extra technology(learned from my Gwennie medallion adventure) -

 

and got all the blocks to fit into one big pumpkin patch.

(Pardon my toes in that last picture.  I'm using my daughter's laptop and it has hidden from me all the pictures I just cropped and edited oh-so-tediously for this post.  Rather than going off on an extended period of searching and cursing, I'm just pulling them in raw off the smart card and calling it a day...)

My original plan was to use this print for a border,

but it's much too busy and just overwhelms my poor pumpkins.
So I tried laying out some intervening borders,

which I like, but still think that print's gotta go.
I went ahead with the dotty border, but that's when I hit the speedbump.

I've got two ideas, and am having a hard time choosing between them.

Green?

Or black?

I'll just be over here in the corner, dithering...