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...

Someone liberated my pumpkins!

Pumpkins are continuing to pile up on my work table.  It all started when I saw a really cute table runner on Bonnie Hunter's blog.   "Ooooo!" I thought, "Pumpkins!  What fun!"   The next thing I knew, I'd grabbed some of the orange scraps heaped on my table and made a pumpkin.   And then another.
Only my pumpkins ended up not looking like Bonnie's at all.  A little voice in the back of my brain had started whispering things like 'Why should they all be the same size?' and 'Matching corners are no fun at all!' and other bits of get-me-in-trouble ideas.
Next thing I knew, I had all kinds of wobbly squishes...

Now I'm adding bordery-bits around them and fitting them together like puzzle pieces.

I think I'm making a table runner.  So far, anyway...