I'm afraid my Word of the Year might be 'Chaos'...

So many people are sharing their Word of the Year -I've seen 'Momentum' and 'Release', 'Patience' and 'Mindful'.  Wonderful words, all of them.
But I'm thinking if I had to pick one (or if one picked me), it might be 'Chaos'.  Or possibly 'Oops..'
I've got a lot of irons in the fire at the moment.  And some of those irons are downright shiny.

There's the Twinkle Stars quilt, Allietare, the Piglets, and Chantal's Pinwheels, all of which would be fun to work on full-time.
Kaleidoscopes, Whatchacallit Stars, and the four other blocks I want to do for RSC.  I even remembered the other day that I'd wanted to do Snail's Trails as well.
And I've got a Storm at Sea I want to launch, and that triangle star quilt.
Oh, and the Silly Monkeys - can't forget the Silly Monkeys.

Hmmm...  I think I'm going to need a plan.

One of the things I'm trying to do is to pay attention when I'm cutting, and combine steps, or at least plan ahead.

These stars (I'm calling them Whatchacallit stars until I figure out their names) use 2.5" strips, and I'm keeping a list of how long a strip is necessary for cutting all the parts out for each one.

And since I'm using just one fabric for all the backgrounds in these stars, I cut multiple strips of it and subcut lots of little triangles to have at hand  when I want to make blocks.

And since I'm cutting 2.5" strips anyway, I use some for a piglet (if I haven't already!), and I'll usually cut some HSTs for a monkey, and then I make a block that I hadn't planned on making, because you know, the ruler was right there in my hand and this block practically makes itself.

Every time I see one of these blocks, I like it more and more.  And seriously, six HSTs and 3 squares?  How easy is that?

Anyway.

Time now to reach for the kaleidoscope ruler.  I'm using 2" strips for these. (Since Allietare calls for 2" neutral strips, I've got lots to choose from - I cut a bunch of them!)

I measured for the kaleidoscope block and realized I can get a whole block from one 18" strip, and since I typically cut my strips from a fat quarter parallel to the selvage, this works perfectly.

Chantal's Pinwheel blocks also use 2" strips for the pinwheels, and 3.5" strips for the HSTs.  And as long as I'm cutting 3.5" strips, I cut a couple of squares for Quilty 365 while I'm at it.  (I have a traveling kit that goes everywhere with me, with all the goodies I need to stitch my fat little orange peels.)

Once the block is cut out, I stack the parts neatly, then keep them next to the sewing machine.  Using them for leader/enders lets me work on my main project (the Twinkles) (or, you know, the piglets...) and still get a block or two done for RSC.  Or I can just let the block distract me and sew it right up.  Whichever.  Oh, look, shiny!

 One thing I did with all this madness in mind was to invest in lots and lots of little plastic bins.

I think it's one of the smarter moves I've made.  8)



So, let's see.  I've got all those blocks going, plus I'm handquilting Katie's Star Patch, plus I want to get borders on Garden Party and machine quilt that, plus I'm doing Quilty 365 every day.
That ought to be enough to keep me busy.



Well, except for one more thing...

Did anyone else fall down this particular rabbithole?

There's a lovely Australian designer who's doing this 365 Challenge .  One block a day for the whole year.

How could this possibly go wrong?




Linking with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework, because everything I do involves scraps!  And oh, look!  She says nice things about me!